4. Jesus’ Death for Salvation

4. Jesus’ Death for Salvation

Furthermore, of the major world religious founders, only Jesus taught that his death would provide the means by which salvation would be available for the world. For instance, Jesus taught that his death would serve as a ransom for human sin, achieving what humans could not (Mk. 10:26-27; 10:45). Then at the Last Supper, Jesus specified that his blood would be shed for many (14:22-25, especially v. 24; cf. Matt. 26:8).

This message is definitely a central and favorite theme in early pre-Pauline creeds and other early traditions. For example, in 1 Corinthians 11:23-26, which came “from the Lord,” both Jesus’ body as well as his blood were singled out as his sacrifice. Two other early creedal texts are Romans 5:8, indicating that Christ died for sinners, and Romans 4:24-25, basing a believer’s delivery from sin on the death of the Lord, and their justification on his resurrection.

Many other traditional statements follow closely these same ideas, both in Paul’s works that critical scholars view as the minimal number of “authentic” Pauline epistles,73 as well as in other epistles.74 The sermon summaries in Acts also contain texts that highlight the prominent theme of Jesus Christ’s death.75 But it needs to be remembered that most of these texts predate the epistles in which they appear, as well as Acts, and were composed originally by others.

Thus, the message that Jesus Christ died and that he did so specifically for human sin was a central, indispensable part of the early Christian’s Gospel teaching and preaching. It was taught by Jesus and mentioned in literally dozens of early creedal passages located throughout the New Testament epistles, as well as many of the sermon summaries in Acts. Many of these are typically dated in the 30s AD.Neither a single Old Testament prophet nor Muhammad taught anything like their own death paying for sins! Anderson, a Muslim authority, states that the idea of sacrifice “holds no central position in the religion of Islam.” Of course, the Jewish sacrificial system was clearly central in the Old Testament.76 However, the Old Testament concept teaches animal sacrifice and the Book of Hebrews capitalizes on Jesus’ Christ’s death being efficacious and far more valuable and distinctive than the prior practices. The Christian notion of Christ’s death as an atonement for sins remains unique.77




Endnotes

74 See Eph. 2:5; 5:2; 5:25; 1 Tim. 2:5-6; 2 Tim. 2:11-13; Heb. 2:9; 10:12; 12:2; 13:20; 1 Pet. 2:21, 2:24; 3:18; 4:1.

75 See Acts 2:23; 3:13-16; 4:10; 10:39, 43; 13:28-29; 17:3.

76 Anderson, Christianity and Comparative Religion, 68-69.

77 Anderson works through a number of religions and their beliefs to agree firmly on this conclusion (Christianity and Comparative Religion, see particularly 31-33, 42-43, 46, 50-51, 52, 69-70, 72).







3. Jesus Performed Miracles in the Early Sources
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