250722 – Jesus Sacrifice – The Payment for Sin

by Thomas Abshier | Jul 22, 2025 | Apologetics/Theology/Christianity

Why Jesus Died for Our Sins: A Logical Explanation

The Problem of Sin and Ownership

God created a world where both good and evil exist. God’s nature is the standard by which good is defined. All other possibilities of action are evil. God created a world where men’s free will exists. Men can choose either one. It was necessary to create such a world where all actions are possible, thus allowing men to have free will. Free will was necessary because God created the world so that men had the choice to love Him or not. Man’s love of God and way of expressing/showing love is through obedience to God’s way. God’s nature is the standard by which man’s righteousness is judged. God, through the Son, created both good and evil. He allowed for the possibility of evil and its consequences, so that life would be interesting. Interest is a very important part of life. He couldn’t just create a world where everything was good; it would be just a nature walk, and there would be no contrast. He hid himself, creating a mystery that made one want to know and yet be unable to find out.  There is a consequence to action, whether it is punishment versus reward, or pleasure and pain associated with choices. There is a weaning of souls. The mystery, the consequence, the pain, and the struggle are important elements of drama.  The revelation is incomplete regarding what is true, why God created the universe, the purpose of life, and the way back to Him. The Bible, with its incomplete arguments and multiple contexts, makes it impossible to use as a manual of exact behavior; however, the generalities and principles in the Bible define a very clear swath of behaviors that are Godly and of His character. The indefiniteness of the specificity of behavior leaves open the possibility of debate, or free will, or uniqueness in judgment, for grace and tolerance for men of sincere intent about compliance with Godliness.

The Bible is the only authentic account we have of His nature, purpose, and plan. The Bible is a story of God’s chosen people wandering through various temptations and spiritual tests of character and commitment. We see the cost of bad/rebellious behavior in the actions of the kings who authorized/required/worshipped idols, and the destruction visited upon the land as a result of their idolatry/rebellion. He defined and created the world and populated it with both good and bad characters; everyone chose their roles willingly, and everyone reaps the rewards of their choices, nature, and behaviors. He created the possibility of drama. He created the possibility of a relationship.  He speaks to men’s hearts and urges men to goodness. He created Satan by divine fiat to be evil. The common Christian mythology is that Satan was a good angel who rebelled because he wanted power, or didn’t like the way God was doing it, or he was jealous of being a servant. The verses that justify this theology were stitched together out of context, and without specific reference to Satan. The story was popularized by Milton in Paradise Lost and iconized in art. This story has become an integral part of the story of the origin of evil and is accepted almost universally in Christendom. However, this story is not necessarily factual. It was not necessary, and may not be true, that God created a lord of evil by Lucifer’s rebellion. Even if Lucifer was a good angel who rebelled, God was still the origin of the possibility of angels rebelling. Either way, God created the Lord of Rebellion, the Lord of Evil. He certainly didn’t stop it. God being omnipotent, being the source of all, only that which He has authorized to happen in His world will actually happen. Thus, we have a world in which God’s will and way is the definition of good, and Satan being the Lord of Evil, there is a tension created. God, having a character that excludes some behaviors, creates the possibility of evil, the realm of the “Not God.” Creating evil as a player, as a force that seduces men by presenting itself as beautiful, creates the possibility of man loving another god besides the God of creation. By creating consequences, establishing a temptation-payoff and a cost for choosing evil over good, the setting for the drama, need, and efficacy of Christ’s redemption has been established.

While not spoken of directly, there is an implication that Satan loves blood, death, and pain. The implication is valid because Satan tempts men toward evil. Why would Satan tempt men unless he is motivated? There must be a payoff. Does he do it because of jealousy of men loving God instead of him? Does he vicariously experience the thrill of life energy being taken from men when they rebel against God and choose the momentary pleasures of evil?  Does Satan enjoy people choosing his ways over God’s way? Scripture indicates that men are lost, unable to be in the presence of God if they sin, that they cannot pay the debt permanently by the sacrifices of the blood of animals, that God gets no pleasure from the sacrifices, but desires obedience instead. The sacrifice of Jesus is presented as permanent, as one that is satisfying for all time. How? By being the lamb slain before the foundation of the earth, by integrating this sacrifice into the prototypical commandments of God from the law given to the Children of Israel.

Thus, the question is, why did God require sacrifice in the 613 laws of Deuteronomy? The reason is to establish the meaning of sacrifice as atonement for sin/violation of His way. The law was established by God. There is a need for a sacrifice because there is a contracted price given by God to Satan as the rightful owner of a man’s soul, as a contract established by men between themselves and Satan. The contract was between competent parties, with payment made for the benefits received, the pleasure of sin is the payoff, and the price paid is submission to Satan as lord and owner of my soul. It is this contract/legal agreement that establishes the need for payment of the debt owed by the sinner. The debt is eternal ownership by Satan. Blood sacrifice pays the debt, because that is the currency that Satan considers valuable. The snake was lifted up in the wilderness to allow healing and freedom. transaction that occurred when we sin. This conversation reveals a coherent framework for understanding why Jesus’s death was necessary for human redemption.

Examination of Satan’s origin and purpose, the significance of Jesus’ sacrifice, and the purpose of Life

On the Nature of Satan and Evil

1. Thomas believes Satan serves a narrative purpose in God’s plan – without a “bad guy,” there’s no meaningful story
2. Thomas proposes that Satan was created with a nature that derives pleasure from human sin, suffering, and death
3. They discuss whether Satan is a personal entity (as the Bible portrays) or an impersonal force/negative energy.
4. Thomas suggests Satan was either created “bad to the bone” from the beginning, or was a good angel gone bad
5. Thomas questions the common Christian narrative about Satan’s rebellion with one-third of angels, noting that this interpretation requires combining disconnected biblical passages

On Sin and Its Consequences

1. Thomas argues that when humans sin, they enter a contract with Satan, giving him ownership over them
2. Sin is portrayed as trading eternal well-being for momentary pleasure (“trading eternity for a bowl of soup”)
3. The Old Testament sacrificial system provided temporary relief from this ownership, but didn’t break the contract
4. Animal sacrifices are compared to “paying a bail bond” on spiritual captivity. They provide a time of temporary freedom without changing the fact of conviction, culpability, and mandatory sentence.

On Jesus’s Sacrifice

1. Jesus’s blood sacrifice was fundamentally different than the blood of bulls. He lived a sinless life as a man. Applying His blood as payment for the debt of blood owed to Satan conferred the same “out of jurisdiction” status to the sinner as to Jesus. His blood completely satisfied the debt because Satan spilled His blood unjustly, and the sinner who applies the blood to his debt is likewise removed from the status of the guilty.
2. Jesus’s death paid a debt that humans couldn’t pay themselves. The death of the sinner only fed Satan’s hunger for the blood that he was owed by contract. A man’s death and spilled blood did not buy freedom. The captivity remained. Captivity is an independent clause in the contract with Satan. The contract established with Satan cannot be paid; it can only be voided.
3. The sacrifice of Jesus makes logical sense when seen in the framework of a debt and contract system. God established the system as a way of freeing and rewarding those who give their lives, hearts, minds, and love to Him in obedience to His way. The primitive blood religions are idolatrous offerings to Satan, who gives them power for serving him. The blood of Jesus was shed by God Himself. He established the system of bondage for those who opposed His will and way, and He established the right and way to be free by accepting Him as Lord, and the giver of life.
4. Jesus’s perfect sacrifice breaks Satan’s claim of blood and death on those who accept His conditions of loyalty and implanting in me a new heart.

On God’s Motivation

1. God created this system to experience the joy of a relationship with beings who freely choose, worship, and love Him. He created the universe. He is totally and inherently alone.
2. The greatest joy comes from recovering something lost, which explains why God allows the possibility of sin.
3. God’s desire is for a full relationship with each and every person. He created the creation to establish a context, a stage upon which He could play out the drama of life. The challenge of survival, satisfaction, and free will gives the possibility of satisfaction on many levels. God allows the vagaries of chance to provide the variety of interest, the fullness of relationship, and the challenge of character development. Free will, the same as God has, man being of the nature of Him, opens the possibility of rejecting Him. When a man comes to accept God and love His way, He feels the joy of the returning prodigal.
4. The ability to freely choose God and His way, rather than being programmed to obey Him, makes the love and obedience meaningful.

On Religious Understanding

1. Thomas left Christianity initially because he couldn’t connect Jesus’s death with any causal mechanism in the universe. The story of Jesus seemed mythological rather than connected to reality.
2. He explored many other religions (Eastern, New Age, and Kabbalah) before returning to Christianity. It was the experience of understanding the oneness of God and the creation that provided the context for comprehending why the system of Christianity was necessary to fully manifest God as a real participant on this earth.
3. Thomas finds value in studying other religions as a way to ask new, unconsidered questions about the foundations of reality. There is truth in other religions, but the fulfillment of God’s intended way of being and revealing Himself is incomplete in the other world religions. Other religions may emphasize and worship various aspects of God’s nature, and they may emphasize other ways to please Him, but only Christianity (Judaism, which has acknowledged the promised Messiah and His new covenant) offers the promise of redemption from the bondage of sin by asking in the Father and Son to live in our hearts.
4. The coherent narrative included a problem (God’s aloneness and love nature, which demanded companionship). He solved the problem of His aloneness by creating peers who could choose to be companions. He established a context for relationship with man by creating a world of essentially infinite complexity. The experience of life is ever-new, with the problems of survival. His nature required man to discern His will and way perfectly. The cost of sin was required to be ultimate and total removal from His presence, because His nature and existence are dependent upon perfect purity in goodness. He cannot compromise without threatening His very being. Thus, God created Satan to quarantine man from His creation. But such a final solution, the permanent banishment of man, by turning him over for eternal possession by Satan, is necessary to preserve the purity of His Kingdom. However, enforcing His purity prevents God from satisfying His need for a relationship and reciprocated/freely given love. It was for this reason that He threaded the needle of requirements, giving Satan the ownership of every man who sins, but redeeming the captive by voiding the contract with blood that was pure. Thus, Satan serves a dual role: as a tempter, for his own purposes of satisfying his taste for blood and death, and as a jailer for restraining unregenerate man from damaging His Kingdom. The Kingdom of Heaven is the location of true riches. Man’s spirit, being a peer to God – having been created in His image – can potentially access and do harm. Thus, Satan was created to quarantine the souls of men who violate the laws of God. Such was a necessary safeguard established to protect against the damage an unregenerate god-man could wreck on the structure of Heaven. But this violation of His way and the resultant captivity of man is universal. This leaves God unsatisfied in His primary purpose, which is to satisfy His inherent condition – His aloneness. It was for this reason that God established a method by which He could free men from the eternal captivity their character deserved and the structure of the spiritual worlds required. He thus established a method by which the legal basis of Satan’s possession could be satisfied and the soul freed from his captivity. Thus, the work of Jesus living a sinless life, His life being taken unjustly, and His blood being spilled without legal warrant. This resulted in His blood being available for use by all who confess and repent of their sin, commit to His Lordship, and acknowledge His power over death. In this gesture of faith and commitment, a new contract is established, and the new person is freed from captivity and is free to fully inhabit God’s kingdom, having committed to following God’s ways. The new man is now capable of satisfying God with his willingly obedient compliance with God’s ways. In this framework, the redemption of Christ, His sacrifice, and the requirements of right action and a changed heart provide a logically required set of conditions for condemnation by Satan, and commutation of sentence and freedom, which makes Christianity an intellectually satisfying paradigm for framing meaning and causal efficacy in God’s revelation of His will, way, and justification for His requirements.

On Theological Methodology

1. Thomas argues that his interpretation doesn’t contradict the Bible, but rather fills in narrative gaps and provides logical consistency to the empirical experience of life and the causal requirements that justify God’s structuring of the universe, as well as its behavioral and character requirements for redemption.
2. It is essential that a genuine spiritual technology provide a coherent story that explains, in a logical manner, why things are the way they are, and prescribes an effective method of optimizing the experience of life in this world and the next.
3. Every verse, command, parable, and historical story in the Bible must be interpreted in the context of the entire Bible, rather than proof-texting a concept by a single verse.
4. Because the Bible is a collection of historical fragments and prophetic pronouncements, it is inherently incomplete and without an explicit logical connection in terms of meaning or context. Thus, we must interpret, extrapolate, and interpolate from this minimal dataset a stance on almost every moral, ethical, theological, and behavioral question. To do so requires interpretation that extends beyond explicit biblical statements, but all such interpretations should be consistent with the entirety of the literal words and spirit of the biblical text.

On Christian Living

1. The transformation of character that occurs after accepting the substitutionary sacrifice of Jesus as effective and declaring allegiance to His Lordship can be instantaneous or gradual, but it is usually incomplete, and the work of sanctification and testing through trials continues for a lifetime.
2. Sins of the past affect a person’s life, maybe for a lifetime. Still, we are forgiven, even though we may continue to live with the scars of past transgressions.
3. Temptation will usually persist after conversion, although some besetting temptations may be instantly removed. Often, old habits and character may remain, but we can resist any temptation with various strategies and thus develop new habits and character.
4. People who’ve experienced more sin may develop wisdom more easily, due to having experienced the harsh reality of life. But participating in sin is not necessary to attain wisdom. Reading the Bible, listening to the soft voice of the Holy Spirit and conscience, reading literature, watching movies and plays, listening to the stories of others, all dramatize/virtualize the experience of sin, from which we may acquire wisdom. Sin should be avoided with all diligence. There may be wisdom in its cost, but it will produce damage.

On Communication of the Gospel

1. The redemption narrative outlined above can be effectively presented to non-believers, providing a rational story that offers a reason to those who require a cause-and-effect rationale to justify their faith.
2. This narrative addresses intellectual objections to Christianity’s sacrificial system, which is a stumbling block for many, given that it has the markings of being just another primitive blood ritual religion.
3. This gospel, presented as a coherent story, makes it more acceptable to modern man, who expects all beliefs to be based on empirical facts and logically connected propositions.
4. This method of framing the gospel could be developed into educational materials and media that will make its adoption as a belief system easily consumable.

On the Relationship Between God, Physics, and Metaphysics

1. All of creation, every subatomic particle and all space, is composed of and is inside of God’s mind. God created the creation using a single method. He declared into existence innumerable Conscious Points from His mind. He created Conscious Points of six types and used them to build the appearance, character, and substance of the creation. The creation includes both the physical and spiritual worlds, along with their respective inhabitants.
2. According to John 1, these worlds and inhabitants were created by the Word, the Son of God, and He is the light of men. Man is special, created in the perfection of Him. All the components of the universe are composed of Conscious Points declared into existence from His mind. The Conscious Points follow a few rules of relationship to produce the physical laws we see at the subatomic, atomic, molecular, macroscopic, and astronomical levels. The creation is dependent on God’s existence, is a manifestation of God’s nature and intention, but is not identical with God.
3. God either arose from nothing or has existed from eternity past. Neither concept is comprehensible from the human perspective. Thus, God’s existence must remain an axiomatic assumption. God’s existence may be directly experienced, but His existence cannot be proven or disproven. In the Conscious Point Physics model, the physical universe is postulated to have no independent existence apart from God’s existence. Likewise, in the CPP model, there is no other God, and there is no cause other than God.
4. The CPP model postulates that God exists and is conscious of His own existence. God’s existence and consciousness of self are the fundamental axioms upon which the creation rests – they make the creation of “other” consciousnesses possible. God’s fundamental creative action is viewing Himself as other – in essence, being conscious of Himself from outside Himself, as an external observer. By choosing to maintain that point of view as permanent and then allowing that POV independent volition, a new entity/existence is formed. This was the method by which the Father created the Son. The Son retains the totality of the Father, and is thus the Father. But He was and is independent of and subservient to the Father. The Son was given the duty, the role of creating the Conscious Points, each created in the same manner as the Father created the Son, but without the totality of ability, perspective, and character of the Father. The Conscious Points have a narrow perspective, limited capability for action, and a character that defines their type. Each CP, while distinct, can collaborate with other CPs and form a Group Entity, which, in the case of the quantum, serves as the medium for the conservation of energy.  At larger scales (atomic, molecular, geographical, astronomical, individual, and societal), the Group Entity has a more or less defined structure, function, and recognition by others as an existing entity. The soul of an animal, the Group Entity of all CPs that constitute the physical body’s structure, interacts with the structure to produce the consciousness that is so obviously displayed in our pets and in nature. The human frame also has a soul and a mind, with its consciousness likewise emerging from the structures of the body and brain. However, the human frame was endowed, by divine fiat, with a Spirit Point, a CP that is the duplicate of the spirit of the Son, the spark of divinity that distinguishes man from beast, and makes him a peer, a suitable companion to satisfy the need of God to give and receive love.
5. The scientific community’s objection to considering the spiritual/metaphysical aspects as part of scientific inquiry is hypocritical. No scientific entity is defined with objective existence at its foundation. Science cannot say what mass, time, space, or energy “is”. The surface appearance of such objects and concepts being objective is an illusion. The fundamental essence underlying the appearance of every objective reality is, at its base, undefined, conceptual, an idea, and in essence, metaphysical. Thus, the metaphysical objects postulated by the CPP model may be the metaphysical entities Conventional Physics. The entities postulated in the CPP model cannot be observed, they can only be inferred, in the same way as the entities in Conventional Physics. Granted, the CPP model entities cannot be subjected to the scrutiny of direct obeservation, but just like Conventional Physics, the rules governing these postulated entities can be proven by inductive reasoning, because of their*** non-contradictory and produce results consistent with empirical  observation. This is a minimum standard which the CPP model must meet. These metaphysical entities which I postulate must be consistent with the rules of interaction must be consistent with the empirical observations of the physical world, their rules of interaction must be few and broadly applicable across the entire spectrum of physical phenomena. If the entities and postulates of their behavior are wrong, then at the very least, the CPP model is a very useful tool of pedagogy to visualize the physical interactions of tangible object for the purpose of giving substance, objects, and reality to the entire branch of physics which is represents behaviors of physical objects with mathematical relationship. If the CCP model is false, if there is no reality to the CPP entities, then at the very least it is close. The coincidence that the  that the entities and smal, as it gives substance, names, entities, and rules to the myriad of abstract mathematical relationships that currently describe and predict action, but provide no tangible grasp on the substance of reality. In this way, the bridge between the theological concepts of the Bible and the physical realities of experiment and sensory experience is grounded in reality and connects with the utterly and eternally intangible.
6. The establishment of all physics as a set of observations which can all be understood as a provide additional credibility to biblical narratives
7. The Conscious Point Physics model provides a conceptual bridge between materialistic and spiritual worldviews.

Thomas: How did the story of Satan being a good angel gone bad come about in Christian theology? Was it Milton, in Paradise Lost? The justification from Ezekiel and Isaiah, which discusses Lucifer, could have been referring to humanity as the light bearer, and it was through our sin that all of mankind suffered. We walked with God, we walked among the fiery stones before we fell from grace by disobeying God. There is no direct statement in the Bible about Lucifer being Satan, only a very disjointed connection of revelation (1/3 of the stars thrown down after the millennium, and that was supposedly the origin of all the demons). And it was clearly stated that Satan was a murderer and a liar from the beginning, which sounds like there was an intent as to the nature of Satan. God the Father did not create anything, and hence was untainted by evil or evil imagination; everything was created by the Son, so God’s imperfection is not implicated by the creation of the epitome/the lord of evil. Isaiah or Ezekiel says that He created evil, so there is no question as to God’s intent to allow evil in this world. What is the history of thought that brought this current dogma about Satan being the best/brightest angel before he fell into the group mind of Christianity?

Poe Assistant: The story of Satan as a once-good angel who fell from grace is a complex theological development. While John Milton’s Paradise Lost (1667) popularized and dramatized this narrative in Western culture, the idea predates Milton by centuries and emerges from a combination of interpretations of scripture, early Christian theology, and mythological influences. Here’s a historical overview of how this dogma developed:

1. Biblical Foundations and Ambiguities

The Bible itself does not present a single, cohesive narrative about Satan’s origins. Instead, the traditional story of Satan as a fallen angel is pieced together from various passages, often interpreted allegorically or metaphorically:

Isaiah 14:12-15 (“Lucifer, Son of the Morning”)

• Context: This passage describes the downfall of the “King of Babylon” in poetic language, using imagery of a once-bright star falling from heaven.
• Interpretation: Early Christian interpreters (e.g., St. Jerome) associated “Lucifer” (Latin for “light-bearer”) with Satan, though the text originally referred to a human king. Over time, “Lucifer” came to be understood as a proper name for Satan.

Ezekiel 28:12-17 (“The King of Tyre”)

• Context: This passage uses rich symbolism to describe the King of Tyre, portraying him as a being in Eden, “the anointed cherub,” who became corrupted by pride and greed.
• Interpretation: Early theologians applied this imagery to Satan, seeing it as an allegory for the fall of a celestial being. However, the text itself is likely addressing a human ruler.

Revelation 12:7-9 (“War in Heaven”)

• Context: This apocalyptic vision describes a war between Michael and his angels and a dragon (Satan) who is cast down from heaven with his followers.
• Interpretation: This passage became linked to earlier texts (Isaiah, Ezekiel) to form a narrative of Satan’s rebellion and fall.

John 8:44 (“A Murderer from the Beginning”)

• Jesus describes Satan as a liar and murderer “from the beginning,” suggesting that Satan’s evil nature was inherent.
• Key Tension: On one hand, Satan is portrayed as a “fallen” being, implying he was once good; on the other, some passages suggest Satan was evil from the start.

2. Early Christian and Jewish Thought

The idea of Satan as a fallen angel developed gradually in Jewish and early Christian thought, influenced by both scriptural interpretation and external traditions:

Second Temple Judaism (500 BCE–70 CE)

• Jewish texts from this period, such as the Book of Enoch, expand on the idea of rebellious angels:
  • 1 Enoch describes a group of angels (“Watchers”) who fall by mating with human women and producing giants (Nephilim). This story introduces the concept of angelic rebellion, though it is not directly linked to Satan.
  • The association of Satan with rebellious angels is tentative in Jewish thought during this time.
• Satan in Job and Zechariah: In earlier Jewish texts, Satan is more of a “prosecutor” or adversary in God’s court rather than an independent evil being.

Early Christian Theology

• Origen of Alexandria (185–254 CE): Origen was one of the first theologians to develop the idea that Satan was a good angel who fell due to pride. He connected passages from Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Revelation to construct this narrative.
• Tertullian (160–225 CE): He also contributed to the idea of Satan as a fallen angel who rebelled against God.
• Augustine of Hippo (354–430 CE): Augustine solidified the doctrine of Satan as a created being who fell due to his pride, emphasizing that God did not create evil but allowed free will, which made rebellion possible.

3. Medieval Theology and Mythology

The medieval period saw the codification and expansion of the Satan-as-fallen-angel narrative, influenced by both Christian tradition and popular mythology.

• Pseudepigrapha and Apocrypha: Texts like the Life of Adam and Eve and 2 Enoch elaborate on Satan’s envy of humanity as a reason for his rebellion. These ideas are extra-biblical but became influential in Christian imagination.
• Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274 CE): Aquinas formalized the theological understanding of angels, their free will, and the fall. He argued that Satan’s fall was due to his pride and desire to be equal to God.
• Medieval Art and Literature: Popular culture during this time reinforced the idea of Satan as a once-brilliant angel who fell from grace. Imagery of Satan as a dragon or serpent gained traction.

4. John Milton and the Role of Paradise Lost

John Milton’s epic poem Paradise Lost (1667) is perhaps the most influential work in shaping the modern Western understanding of Satan as a tragic, rebellious figure.

• Milton’s Narrative: Paradise Lost vividly portrays Satan as a once-glorious archangel who rebels against God out of pride, envy, and a desire for autonomy. Milton draws heavily on Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Revelation but also infuses the story with dramatic, human-like motivations for Satan.
• Impact: Although Milton was working within existing theological traditions, his poetic and imaginative retelling immortalized the story of Satan’s fall in the cultural consciousness.

5. Challenges and Alternatives

• Lucifer as Humanity? Some scholars argue that the passages in Isaiah and Ezekiel refer to humanity (or specific kings) rather than Satan. For example:
  • Humanity, created “in God’s image” and with dominion over the earth, could be the “light-bearer” that fell from grace due to sin (Genesis 3).
  • The interpretation of “Lucifer” as Satan is not universally accepted and is often viewed as a later theological development.
• God’s Role in Creating Evil: Passages like Isaiah 45:7 (“I form the light and create darkness; I make peace and create evil”) acknowledge God’s sovereignty over both good and evil. This raises theological questions about whether Satan’s rebellion was part of God’s plan.
• Satan’s Nature as Evil from the Beginning: Some traditions emphasize that Satan was never good, avoiding the tension of a “fall” and placing the origin of evil in Satan’s inherent nature rather than a moral lapse.

Conclusion

The narrative of Satan as a good angel who fell from grace developed over centuries through the interplay of biblical interpretation, Jewish apocalyptic literature, early Christian theology, and cultural imagination. While John Milton’s Paradise Lost brought this story to life in Western culture, its roots lie in much earlier traditions that attempt to reconcile biblical texts with philosophical and theological questions about the origins of evil, free will, and God’s sovereignty. However, the biblical evidence remains ambiguous, leaving room for alternative interpretations that challenge the traditional dogma.

When God created the universe, He established a spiritual law that gave Satan a legitimate claim over anyone who violated God’s perfect standard. This wasn’t arbitrary, but served a divine purpose in creating a meaningful drama of redemption. As Dr. Abshier explains:

“Satan gets anyone with a one-strike-and-out rule. It’s not three and out, it’s one and out. You do the deed, you do the time, which in this case is for eternity. He owns us because we took the pleasure. When we sin and violate God’s law, we are owned by Satan. We will pay with our lives, with our blood, with our bondage.”

This ownership isn’t merely theoretical—it has tangible consequences. Satan derives pleasure from human suffering, sin, and death. When we sin, we enter into a contract, trading our eternal well-being for momentary gratification:

“We contracted with Satan to be his slave, to be his blood donor, to be his pleasure giver by our pain, and our price was a bowl of soup. That was all we got, and we gave him everything.”

The Inadequacy of the Old Covenant

Under the Old Covenant, animal sacrifices provided temporary relief but not true freedom. These sacrifices functioned as payments that secured our temporary freedom from an ongoing spiritual captivity:

“The sacrifice of bulls and goats didn’t change the contract. Satan still owns us even though we got some temporary freedom. It was like paying for parole, a temporary respite from captivity. We were allowed to get out and be free for a while. But it wasn’t a true, enduring freedom. We paid for a period of freedom inside an enduring captivity. We were able to take leave for a little while, but we had to come back and pay again for another period of freedom.”

Recognizing the state of our contract and captivity clearly illuminates that we are caught inside a system of slavery to Satan because of our sin. Seeing our state clearly reveals humanity’s need for a permanent solution. The Bible cryptically reveals this system, the forces acting in life, the history, the pattern of bondage established by sin, and the freedom offered by Christ paying for the debt. However, the specificity of the contract, our required payment of blood and life for sin, the cost of our redemption, and the justification for the efficacy of Jesus’ sacrifice are unclear. It is for this reason that we must consider the broader context of the Bible, which enables us to understand why Jesus’ sacrifice was effective and why it surpassed the efficacy of animal sacrifices.

Why Jesus’s Sacrifice Was Different

Jesus’s sacrifice was fundamentally different from animal sacrifices for several crucial reasons:

1. He lived a sinless life: “Jesus lived a perfect life. The sacrifice of lambs was established as a precedent, as a meaningful and effective metaphor. Lambs were slain and their blood was effective for a while, but Jesus’ blood was a permanent payment because it was the blood of a man, it was sinless/perfect, and it paid the full price required by the contract. And as part of the requirement to be able to offer Jesus’ death as a substitute offering, we were required to pledge and live as obedient servants of God. We placed ourselves in the same place of freedom from culpability as Jesus. We, as the redeemed, have basically become Him in our commitment to righteousness and spurning of sin. He was the Lamb that was slain before the foundation of the world, knowing that His sacrifice would be required. And it was for this purpose that He suffered, so that we could have the opportunity to be free from the penalty/pain/death/flood required by our sin. The blood and life that Satan took when he killed Jesus were Satan’s contracted right to take. Thus, we have the right, as bonded/committed/children of God, to ask God to miraculously dedicate that blood to paying the debt we rightfully owe to Satan.”
2. He voluntarily offered himself: Unlike animals, who had no choice, Jesus willingly gave himself as a sacrifice. This is an important distinction that requires further qualification. The voluntary aspect of this sacrifice is important only to the extent that Jesus was willing to allow us to apply the credit of His unjustified death to our account. The blood of bulls was not given voluntarily by the bulls, but this did not constitute an extreme distinction, because it was merely a partial payment of blood for an unlimited eternal debt of blood. The blood dedicated from the bull covered only a portion of the debt, and the debt remained outstanding after the payment. The purpose of Jesus’ life was to die. He established a new covenant, a better covenant with man, a covenant of eternal Sonship/adoption, fellowship, if we gave our hearts/minds/bodies to the service and dedication to Him. His willingness to die is intimately connected with His willingness to offer Himself as the payment that we can use to pay the debt we owe. The gift was free in the sense that we could not earn it through righteous works, as we can never be good enough to deserve the redemption He offers. The gift is free; no good works can justify our receipt of the benefit, still, we must give everything. We must pay for that free gift with the price of our total commitment to Him as our Lord.
3. His sacrifice had infinite value: Being both fully human and fully divine, Jesus’s sacrifice had sufficient worth to cover all human sin. This point is true, but it does not capture the actual axis of the economic exchange. Our value as souls is infinite to God. Our acceptance of Him as Lord and Savior cannot be compared to wealth, price, or cost and value to Him. Each of us is irreplaceably valuable to Him. He lives through us, He experiences pleasure in our living a life of Godly righteousness. To us, the value of being extracted/freed from the unGodly pain of possession cannot be quantified by a price. The ultimate measure of value in the universe is the experience of pleasure. The relief of pain accentuates the experience of pleasure. The inevitability of pain creates the polarity of its relief provided by His redemption. His sacrifice was not necessary, but the fact is that He desires our fellowship, our dedicated/given experience of life that He lives through us. The payment, the cost, the relief, and the benefit of fellowship/relationship with God are immeasurable in their value.
4. It was a once-for-all payment: Rather than temporary relief, Jesus’s sacrifice completely settled the debt: “We all want to pay off the debt, and we don’t want to keep paying on that debt for eternity.” That level of freedom from ongoing payment was not available in the old covenant. We could only make installments because there was no unit of cash or currency of sufficient value that could be applied to the debt to pay it in full. We don’t want to have to keep paying on the old debt we’ve contracted, when we discovered the actual terms and inequitable requirements for continued subjugation, forever.  We want to break free from the bondage of the mortgage, pay it off, and own our lives. When Jesus died, that unit of currency was available. We could appropriate it as a draft note, as a large bill of high denominational value, that we could use to pay the debt in full.”

The New Covenant’s Superiority

The New Covenant established through Jesus’s blood fundamentally changed humanity’s relationship with God:

1. From law to grace: We cannot pay the bill for our debt with good works, but we can transform our hearts so that we are dedicated to giving Him our best possible performance in this world. His grace covers our errors, forgives our transgressions, and expects that we will learn and do our best to do better next time.
2. From temporary covering to permanent forgiveness: Animal sacrifices needed constant repetition; Christ’s sacrifice is effective for all time. But that forgiveness is not a license to sin, to play in the fleshpots and drink the wine of lust and debauchery. The price for our permanent forgiveness is a permanently changed heart. Our best effort in performance is both a required and intended outcome of receiving His gift of Salvation, and a natural result of our transformation of heart that comes when we dedicate our hearts to Him and His way.
3. From limited access to direct relationship: We no longer need human intermediaries to approach God. The priest, the prophet, and the national sovereign leader are human, and all need to come before God to plead for mercy and bow down in worship. God desires a complete relationship with man.
4. From external law to internal desire: God’s law is written on believers’ hearts rather than on stone tablets. When we accept Him as Lord, we are given the gift of the Holy Spirit, the voice, guidance, the inner knowing and feeling of His presence. When we commit to His Lordship, the animal nature, the desire to sin remains, but we have an alternative, a possibility of always choosing His way. When the law is only intellectual, our knowledge of its consequence is abstract, and we feel the draw of the flesh. When we have committed our hearts, minds, souls, and lives to Him and His way, there is another voice we can listen to that is felt and can overcome the temptations of the flesh simply by saying “No” to sin.

God’s Motivation: The Joy of Relationship

Why would God create a system requiring such a sacrifice? The answer lies in God’s desire for a genuine relationship:

“The motivation for God creating life and the universe was to experience the joy of relationship. God created everything, and in essence, “is” everything. God separated Himself from the Son and created a duplicate of Himself. He is both the same and separate. God is One, meaning that all is within God. And in this is the profound aloneness of God. This is the understanding of His motivation for creating life, and creating it in such a way that He experiences love as other, and love freely given. This is God’s challenge, His burden, His immovable stone that must be moved. It is this profound aloneness that God strives to overcome by His effort to create the world and populate it with souls with whose fellowship He can share His profound love. God can do anything, but He cannot be other than what He is. He is profoundly and necessarily alone. Thus, it is aloneness that drives/motivates God to desire our fellowship, our worship, our co-living life with Him as a partner. God can do, make, create anything, but the only thing of value is God wanting to fill His heart with our relationship. It was because of this primary motivation that He planned from the very beginning that Jesus/the Son/the Word would incarnate and live as a man, live perfectly, die unjustly, and dedicate His death, blood, and pain to our account, to satisfy the debt which had separated us from His fellowship. He planned this out from the beginning. He created wily opponents that were motivated to prevent such a takeover and the nullification of their rulership. For this reason, He spoke in riddles, in parables, in revelations hidden in symbolic mystery that could be divined by those who were attuned to His word/spirit and heart.”

Ultimately, since there is nothing but God in the creation, since God created every spiritual and physical entity from the substance of His being/mind/consciousness, Satan is part of God. Likewise, all of the evil acts, all of that which is appalling to God, are all internal to and substance of His substance. It is only by the separation of Himself from the evil (giving the Son the charge to create all that is created), and by allowing Him/the Son to be separate from His almighty, omniscient, omnipresent, that He can hold the universe, and be the basis/foundation/substance of the universe.

God established Satan as the personification and lord of everything opposed to His nature. He gave Satan the rulership of this world. He gave Satan the right to own men’s souls and kill them, and make them suffer, and to enjoy the experience of their suffering.  He subjected the creation and humans to the oppression of sin and the bondage of Satanic rule. By establishing the polarity, He gave humans the freedom to choose the ascetic purity and fruits of God, or Satan and his momentary pleasures. God created a meaningful drama, a hidden plot, a disguised villain, and a poison apple that appeared pleasant and inviting. We were placed inside a drama that has unfolded for millennia, training each generation in the distinction between godliness and sin, giving each person the choice to love God and His purity or the temporary pleasures of sin. In so doing, the heart of God is satisfied. We are the sheep of His pasture. In finding the pearl of great price, the eternal treasure that moth and rust cannot corrupt, we find lasting joy. By loving Him, we are placing our trust that this joy, the experience of life as He unfolds it for eternity, will be greater than the pleasure of sin. It was Jesus’s sacrifice that allowed us to change our destiny. It was through this mechanism, the payment of our debt by His death and substitutionary sacrifice, dedicated to our account, which made this return to a life in His Kingdom possible.

Conclusion: The Transaction of Redemption

Jesus’s death for our sins was necessary because:

1. Our sin gave Satan a legitimate claim over us. We accepted the pleasure of sin and paid for it by giving him our lives and an eternity of obligation to him. The cost of that moment of pleasure was giving him the extraction of our blood, death, and pain for his pleasure.
2. The death of Christ was without warrant, without justification; there was no claim against His soul that could justify Satan executing His death. Thus, His death was a price paid without a corresponding purchase. Jesus’ death is thus an open payment for a debt to all who seek to be free of the contract of blood and death owed to Satan. The cost of receiving this loan/this ‘get out of hell free’ card is a life of obedience to God’s laws. By our obedience to His way, by loving His law, we express our love for Him. He lives His life through us, and as a result, we are adopted as His children. Thus, it is through obedience to Him, accepting His death and resurrection as true (acknowledging the sacrificial system and His sacrifice in particular as effective), that we can appropriate His death as the sacrifice which pays the debt of our sin and terminates our obligation and contract with Satan.
3. The sinlessness of Jesus was required because His death had to be without any justification by any claim of just penalty. God established the pattern of sin producing death after the very first sin. If you eat of the tree, you will die. He established the crime (don’t eat of the fruit of that one tree). He established the penalty (you will die).  He established the executioner/enforcer, Satan, as the beneficiary of our sin. If Jesus had sinned, then His death would have been justified by the Law.  If He had sinned, His death would have gone to Satan as the debt holder as rightful payment for the contract. Jesus’ death had to be unjustified. His shed blood had to be done with the intent and purpose of creating a currency of payment for debt that could be transferred. As the owner of the credit for the debt, He was the holder of the debt. Being sinless, could offer a sacrifice Satan had no claim to
4. This sacrifice satisfied both divine justice and love. Satan’s original charter, his realm of authority, was given to him to own the souls of men and receive the pleasure of that rulership, and possibly the experience of pleasure in that torture. The cost of sin, the establishment of players/cast with protagonist and antagonist, was necessary to establish meaning, to give the game stakes, to put flesh/pleasure/treasure as the stakes of the game of life. In this, men are given free will, which establishes a meaning to God for the violation. In this life, men have the free will ability to choose God (obedience to His law, and loving His ways) or choose Satan (partake in the acts which displease God, and cause Him to look away and not be in fellowship with Him). The contract with Satan is a legally binding agreement between Satan, God, and man. Its contract promises blood and death as payment in return for man’s sinful pleasure. As such, the contract can be fulfilled by any payment that satisfies the terms of the contract. Jesus’ blood and death were unclaimed. He authorized us to use that blood to pay our debt. We are authorized to attribute that blood to our debt if we recognize His resurrection (the power He has over death because of His sinless righteousness).

This explanation offers a coherent framework that respects biblical teachings while addressing the logical question: What kind of universe do we inhabit? How can the death of a sinless person be attributed to the debt due for another’s sin?

As Dr. Abshier concludes: “The question is, how do we get out of this fine mess we’ve gotten ourselves into? And it’s a real mess. And everybody’s gotten in the same mess… The purpose of the drama of Jesus’ life and sacrificial death was to free us from the bondage and cost of sin so we could establish a relationship with God. God has given us a way out of our miserable fate if we are willing to forsake sin, and take Jesus as our Lord, and obediently follow Him as the director of the way to righteous life.”