If Jesus died for our sins, explain how that works!

Once, when discussing the possibility of eternal life, someone asked me, “If Jesus died for our sins, how does that work? It’s illogical; it doesn’t make any sense. Everyone dies sooner or later, so how do you explain the mechanics; how can one man’s death save billions of others that have already died or will die?” I can understand their frustration, because churches don’t do a very good job of answering that question. Could it be that many pastors don’t really understand the concept themselves?

I published a study back in 2017 on this subject,¹ and later, also addressed related issues in a few other articles over several years. I thought a newer discourse combining all those ideas, might be of benefit for others to understand God’s method of thinking. He uses reason, rules, laws, and love in all he does.

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The journey for this treatise starts all the way back in the garden in Eden, when our Lord first created humans. This newest life-form was the only animal he crafted with God’s own spirit installed; it not only gave humankind the ability to reason, but included the attribute of free will to make choices. But the human, having no previous life experiences, had to be guided and taught how to use those gifts. God started our education with one simple restriction — only one uncomplicated rule. His decree was a legal and binding command which indicated that if the human obeyed, they would live forever; if they broke the rule, they would lose their everlasting life as a penalty.

“The LORD God commanded the man, ‘You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die’,” (Genesis 2:16-17, NRSV).²

This rule was given to Adam before God fabricated Eve,³ which was probably done through Godly genetic engineering. During her physical and spiritual assembly, some of Adam’s traits were transferred over to Eve. This man and woman were equals, but suitable for one another. The Hebrew usage for the term suitable “suggests something that completes a polarity,” such as the north pole is ‘suitable’ for the south pole. “One without the other is incomplete.”⁴ So Adam, as the elder human, was responsible for educating his new partner about the basic rule concerning that special garden tree.

Well, we all know what happened. A reptile-type creature entered the garden and enticed Eve into eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. He deceived Eve by telling her that God lied. “The serpent said to the woman, ‘You will not die; for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil’,” (Genesis 3:4-5). Believing the evil serpent, Eve ate the fruit and also gave some to her husband. As suggested above, Adam must take responsibility for both their actions, because Eve was once part of Adam. And God’s arrangement is that a husband and his wife are to be regarded as a single organism.⁵

When God said “in the day that you eat of it you shall die,” (Genesis 2:17b), he didn’t mean within the next twenty-four hours, but spoke of a ‘day’ as a period of time, just as we may occasionally refer to something as “back in our grandparents day.”

Besides, there is evidence in the Bible that a day to God is like a thousand years to us. The biblical book of Second Peter states, “do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day,” (2 Peter 3:8). And indeed, they died within that day of one thousand years. Remember that the individual life span of our ancient ancestors was very long; the longest life span, that of the patriarch Methuselah, was 969 years.

That event in the garden of Eden established a war between good and evil – between God’s way and Satan’s way – which takes studying the entire bible to fully understand. So God didn’t create the human species on an impulse; he knew what would happen to his innocent new humans and preplaned a way to resolve the dilemma they created.

They had to learn that following righteousness (or God’ way) would produce good results, but following evil (or Satan’s way) would produce bad results. It is easy to see in the world around us today, that this is true and the more we follow God’s rules, the smoother we sail through life. Sometimes the good we do will affect others, just as the evil we do also spills over into the lives of those around us.

This is the premise of God’s lesson for us: there are consequences for all our actions. And he doesn’t force us to be good, just as Satan doesn’t force us to do evil; we always have a choice and we decide which way to go. Much later, after Jesus came to earth and died, humanity’s ‘Age of Grace’ began. The idea of grace involves forgiveness, salvation, regeneration, repentance, and love of God.⁶

Similar to the one basic rule given in the garden of Eden, there is one primary rule during this current period of grace, and that is believing in Jesus Christ, and that he sacrificed his life for all believers. “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever disobeys the Son will not see life, but must endure God’s wrath,” (John 3:36). We’ll get to the details of this fact, shortly.

 

So, tell me how did the whole world
became sinful from Adam and Eve.

Many Christians wonder if the Eden event was real or just a parable. And many philosophers, and even some prominent religious leaders, teach that this event was only a metaphor, but I feel that although it may be allegorical in some regard, the event and its implications were very real.

So if real, how did billions of people become sinful from one person? Well, it is all a matter of genetics. Sin is a rebellious or evil nature, or infection, which entered the world by transgressing God’s only law at the time of humankind’s creation. Adam and Eve were then no longer without sin. They carried that malicious trait in their makeup and had no way of reversing their error, and in time they died just as God foretold.

But while alive, they genetically passed on this sinfulness and death sentence to their children, and then from their children it went to others. All humans have inherited sin from this one deed committed so very long ago. As time passed, man’s sinfulness continued to escalate and its evidence is now everywhere. As the bible says, “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death came through sin, and so death spread to all because all have sinned,” (Romans 5:12). So, the earth has always been inhabited by a population of sinful and dying people.

Some people speak of ‘generational curses’ or the ‘sins of the father’. This idea is scriptural. The prophet Jeremiah wrote: “Our ancestors sinned; they are no more, and we bear their iniquities,” (Lamentations 5:7). And also from the Ten Commandments, God says in the second one that he would not tolerate affections for any other gods. But the complete 2^nd Commandment, below, states much more, including the generational curses (underlining added for emphasis).⁷

“You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me, but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments,” (Exodus 20:4-6).

For millennia people accepted, on faith, this idea of inherited sin, but we now have proof that this is possible. Today, there is real science behind the fact that everyday things we do can influence or reset switches within our DNA,⁸ and therefore get passed down to offspring through inheritance.

An article on the website Natural News indicates this fact. According to the science of epigenetics,⁹ human DNA and even stem cells, can be altered by magnetic fields, heart coherence, various mental or emotional states, and even through our intentions or motives.¹⁰ And sinful repetition reinforces these evil traits and makes them harder to shed.

But, this new science has discovered some good news for us too. If epigenetic modifications are passed on to your offspring, they are reversible. In other words, it is possible to break the curse. “You can go either way,” states one researcher. We can pass along either positive or negative traits, depending upon the choices we make in life.¹¹

 

Ok! Now, tell me how one person can remove all that accumulated sin.

The answer to ridding humankind of accumulated sin lies within God’s legal system. For citizens of the United States, it should be easy to understand God’s rules of law, because America’s founders believed in the Genesis account of the origin of people. Our country and its legal system were founded upon Judeo-Christian biblical principals of morality and ethics. This nation’s founders believed in God-given rights and law, not man-made invented ones. Their devotion to liberty rested upon their faith in the Creator, the God of the Old and New Testaments.¹²

This study concerns two types of God’s laws: covenant law and the law of balanced exchange (or balanced reciprocity). Let’s first start with covenant law, also known as a type of contract law. That first rule given to Adam and Eve was of God making a covenant with them.

A covenant is an agreement between contracting parties who are unequal in standing, so we don’t approach God and say, “Hey, God. I want to make a deal with you.” God is the superior and always takes the initiative, even though it is a mutual agreement. The idea of covenants can be seen throughout the Bible, starting with the creation story in Eden, but humans continually rebelled against God, breaking the contracts all through history.¹³ Thankfully, God renegotiated after his sinful people repented, but even after being forgiven, the humans found they still had to suffer the consequences of their previous actions.

“According to biblical context, covenants establish a framework for the relationship between God and his people. They provide guidance and direction for their interaction, setting forth the terms and conditions of the partnership.” Covenants reflect the commitment, faithfulness, and love of God toward his people, as well as a call for obedience and devotion from humanity.¹⁴

So, God makes certain promises to a person or group with the understanding that the promises are conditioned on human obedience. Basically, a covenant between God and humankind is a Divine ordinance; it includes directions and pledges to humans as God’s part — and promises for obedience, and penalties for disobedience, as humankind’s part.¹⁵

Now, let’s address the law we call ‘balanced exchange’. Some people refer to this exchange as the ‘ransom price’, because ransom means a payment for buying back.¹⁶ This ransom was paid with Jesus’ death by crucifixion. Any way you look at it, only a perfect life could be exchanged for the perfect life that was lost. This law concerns a mutual exchange or a give-and-take situation. It is a mutual or cooperative interchange of favors or privileges, especially the exchange of rights — a shared relationship of mutual action.¹⁷

Here is a hint of what happened when Jesus saved humanity from the death penalty. This ‘balanced exchange’ is a type of substitution, where there is an expectation that some gift, or favor, of equal value will be returned within a specific time frame.¹⁸

When Jesus came to earth he was born genetically perfect, since the embryo inside his mother was not created by Mary and her husband, but implanted there by God. This child had no inherited sin, like that of the rest of humanity; he was born as perfect as Adam was before sin entered the world.

Mary was a surrogate mother used by God, so Jesus was physically and morally perfect at birth and he stayed sinless for his entire human life. But he still had to taste life experiences and suffer its lessons while maintaining his perfection. Growing into a mature adult, he experienced all the uniqueness of being human. He knew hunger and thirst, joys and sorrow, desires and disappointments. He had been filled with elation and driven by anger; he became fully human. He saw sin in the world and was even tempted by Satan (see Matthew 4:1-11), but he never yielded to unrighteousness.

He was the only perfect human born since Adam. “He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth,” (1 Peter 2:22). Being perfect without sin meant that Jesus would have lived forever. But God’s plan all along was to have our Lord die without sin — his death would have to come through sacrifice.

 

Let’s bring all the points of this sermon together.

In the garden of Eden, some thing (a sinning Adam) caused eternal life to be lost. To correct this problem, the ‘law of balanced exchange’ demands some thing of equal value (a perfect Jesus) would be exchanged within a specific time frame (by the end of the current Age of Grace).

Jesus purchased back Adam’s perfect life by giving his own perfect life in exchange. If Adam is then deemed to have his everlasting life returned, it would be a retroactive correction, hence any imperfection in DNA could be remedied. Therefore, if our ancient human parents are once again found perfect, this should forgive all the sin and imperfection handed down by heredity throughout history. At the end of this Age of Grace, this retroactive act will eliminate all responsibility from the sin that we and our ancestors have inherited since Adam and Eve. All we have to do, for our part, is believe that Jesus is our Savior, repent of our past sins, and choose to live a righteous life.

So, people living during our current Age of Grace are given the chance — if they so choose — to “be born again” by believing that Jesus is the Christ, the savior that God promised all through history. This is a glorious time; if we have the faith to rededicate our lives by way of his teachings, he will gift us with everlasting life at the end of this age. Everyone now has the choice to accept this gift, or reject it.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. ‘Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already’,” (John 3:16-18a).

At the end of this age, Jesus will deliver all righteous humans from the influence of Satan and return their ability to live forever. And for those who died before the end of this age, they will be resurrected.¹⁹ In a different way, our Lord will also deal with those humans that have chosen evil ways. Making the correct choice is, indeed, a matter of life and death.

The music selection to highlight Jesus’ purpose on this earth is ‘The Savior of the World has Come’. It is performed by the gospel group, ‘The Isaacs’, and was recorded in South Africa. Selected lyrics are below and a link to their music video is listed in References & Notes.²⁰

Rejoice, rejoice for Christ the Son,
The Savior of the world has come.
Bringing peace to everyone,
The Savior of the world has come.

Sing the carols, sound the horn,
Ring the bells, the child is born.
Little drummer play your drum.
The Savior of the world has come.

 

Copyright © 2025, Dr. Ray Hermann
OutlawBibleStudent.org

 

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References & Notes

1. Hermann, Ray, “What do you mean, Christ died for our sins?” (The Outlaw Bible Student, OBS, 31 December 2017), https://outlawbiblestudent.org/what-do-you-mean-christ-died-for-our-sins/
2. Unless otherwise indicated, scripture is quoted from The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version, (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1989). Used with permission.
3. Hamilton, Victor P., “Genesis” in Evangelical Commentary on the Bible, (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1989), vol. 3, p. 13.
4. Ibid.
5. Lewis, C. S., Mere Christianity, (New York: Harper-Collins Publishers, 1952), chap. 6, p. 95.
6. Williams, Derek, (Ed.), New Concise Bible Dictionary, (England: Inter-Varsity Press, 1989), p. 203.
7. Hermann, Ray, “The Science of Sin — is Evil Inherited?” (The Outlaw Bible Student, OBS, 8 June 2020), https://outlawbiblestudent.org/the-science-of-sin-is-evil-inherited/
8. DNA: Deoxyribonucleic acid; The genetic information carried in the molecule called DNA determines every inherited physical characteristic of every living thing.
   “DNA” (Encyclopædia Britannica, retrieved 23 March 2021), https://www.britannica.com/science/DNA
9. Epigenetics (ep•i•ge•net•ics): is the study of how outside factors can influence changes in gene expression. Such changes can be passed from parents to offspring through multiple generations.
   Fridovich-Keil, Judith, & Rogers, Kara, “Epigenetics”, (Encyclopædia Britannica, 21 August 2008), https://www.britannica.com/science/epigenetics
10. Wright, Carolanne, “Confirmed by Science: You really can change your DNA,” (Natural News, (September 21, 2013, retrieved on May 30, 2017), https://www.naturalnews.com/042157_DNA_transformation_science_epigenetics.html
11. Hermann, Ray, “The Science of Sin — is Evil Inherited?” (See above).
12. Titus, Herbert W., “Biblical Principles of Law”, (Lonang Institute, 2006), https://lonang.com/commentaries/curriculum/biblical-principles-of-law/vow-and-contract/
13. Gaines, Greg, “Understanding the Bible Definition of Covenant: A Deep Dive”, (Bible Definitions, 6 December 2023), https://biblicaldefinitions.com/bible-definition-of-covenant/
14. Ibid.
15. Orr, James, et al., (Eds.), The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, “Between God and Men,” by H. E. Jacobs, (Chicago: The Howard-Severance Company, 1915), vol. 2, p. 728.
16. Chisholm, Hugh, (Ed.), “Ransom” in Encyclopædia Britannica, 11th edition, (New York: Horace Everett Hooper, 1910-1911), vol. 22, p. 895.
17. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th edition, (Boston, MA: Houghton-Mifflin-Harcourt Co., 2011).
18. Barone, Francine, “Reciprocity & Exchange: The Kula Ring”, (Yale University, retrieved 19 December 2024), https://hraf.yale.edu/teach-ehraf/reciprocity-exchange-the-kula-ring/
19. Resurrection: the rising again to life of all humans dead before the final judgement.
    Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 11th ed., (Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster, Inc., 2003).
20. “The Savior of the World has Come”, Artists: The Isaacs; DVD/CD: Christmas in South Africa; (Gaither Music, uploaded to YouTube, 6 September 2012), no licenses noted online. Used under ‘fair use of copyright’ for comment, teaching, scholarship, and research under Section 107 of the United States Copyright Act of 1976 — MUSIC VIDEO:
    https://youtu.be/3pT9tCEmYBc