One for many?

[Gerr]

How can the death of ONE (Christ's} be sufficient to atone for many? Is that fair?

[Windsor]

How can the sin of one (Adam) be sufficient to condemn every descendent of his to death?

[rudywoofs (Pam)]

How can the death of ONE (Christ's} be sufficient to atone for many? Is that fair?

my answer would be pretty simplistic:

God's family tree only has 2 steps:

Parent line: God/Christ/HolySpirit --> Child's line: mankind

so, the death of One in the Parent line covers everyone in the children's line :)

[debbym]

sin impacted adam's dna, and we inherited that dna.

[Windsor]

sin impacted adam's dna, and we inherited that dna.

You're giving me a scientific answer. I want to know why it's fair that we all have to die on account of Adam. If it is fair then it should be fair that we all live on account of One who didn't sin, ie Christ.

[Ron Amnsn]

You're giving me a scientific answer. I want to know why it's fair that we all have to die on account of Adam. If it is fair then it should be fair that we all live on account of One who didn't sin, ie Christ.

Inheritance is one of the major themes of the Bible, but we tend to downplay or ignore the importance of inheritance ever since we threw off our hereditary overlords a couple centuries ago. But whether we like it or not, inheritance is still a major theme in the Bible and in the resulting historical record. Adam rebelled and became subject to death, and we have inherited that condition from Adam through our forefathers. An example of Biblical inheritance is Abraham. God chose Abraham and gave him valuable promises, blessings, and covenants that are passed on to his descendants. That's how inheritance works. What seems "fair" to a person depends on the culture he was raised in. The way we see things isn't necessarily the way God sees them. The Bible teaches us the way God sees things.

Through Jesus, we're offered a different inheritance -- one that we don't really deserve. So it isn't strictly "fair", but it's way better than "fair". Jesus is a natural heir of all the best promises, blessings, and covenants in the Bible. So those are part of the inheritance that Jesus offers to us. But we have to be willing to give up our natural inheritance --the inheritance we got from Adam and our ancestors-- the rebellion, the sin, the curses, the death, and all the rest.

The original question above is asking about the "fairness" of the one death of Jesus atoning for the sins of many people. If Jesus was just a man (even a sinless man) I don't understand how his willing and undeserved death could atone for everyone's sins. But if Jesus is the God who instituted the law that stipulates that sin results in death, as well as the laws of inheritance, and the laws of life, and the law about not eating from the Tree of Knowledge, and the Laws of Moses, and all the other requirements that we and our ancestors have all broken; if Jesus took on Himself the penalty that He originally instituted for sinners (even though he lived in such a way that he never deserved that penalty himself), then it may then be "fair" in the divine scheme of things for Jesus to give all of us an inheritance that we don't deserve. One of the lessons demonstrated by the Feasts of YHWH and the Sanctuary services is that a sacrificial death of the innocent brings atonement for the guilty. That gives us a glimpse of the way God looks at things.

However, lots of Christians think they can hang on to stuff from their old inheritance while benefiting from the new inheritance. Rebelliousness and disobedience are especially popular today. Many want to hang on to their British or German, American or African, or whatever inheritance they got from their parents instead of becoming "heirs of Abraham" through Jesus.

[GreginHollywood]

I would say so, check out Heb 10:12-13 and 1 Peter 3:18, and 1 Peter 1:19-21