Why Does God Require Torture and Blood Sacrifice from Christ while He Commands us to Forgive Others?

Why Does God Require Torture and Blood Sacrifice from Christ while He Commands us to Forgi.

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Christian A. Meister (April 17, 2025)

This sort of question typically piques curiosity from Christians. After all, both parts to the question seem to follow a basic reading of Scripture: (1) God required His Son to be crucified for the sins of mankind; and (2) God has commanded us in Scripture over and over to forgive.

“Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, ‘My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will’” (Matt 26:39).

“For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.” (Matt 6:14-15).

“'And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins’” (Mark 11:25).

“'Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven’” (Luke 6:37).

“Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you” (Eph 4:32).

How can this be? One wonders if God’s actions are inconsistent with what He requires from us.

If God requires us to forgive without blood sacrifice, then why does He require such from His Son? What is in God that compels Him to invoke wrath while at the same time compelling us to forgive without invoking wrath?

It seems intuitive enough that, since God is just, He requires some sort of punishment for wrongdoing; and since God calls us to be like Him, and therefore to be just, then we ought to require some sort of punishment for wrongdoing against us as well.

One may mention in response that Jesus took the wrath once and for all, covering all sin for all time for those who are in Christ (Heb 9-10), and thus enabling us to forgive others.

Well, I am not convinced that this response is sufficient. Christ’s commands to forgive in Matthew, Mark, and Luke give no indication that His soon-to-be atoning death had any relevance to the command itself. Christ is not saying, “forgive others since I have enabled you to do so because of my incumbent death.” Neither do I think Christ means to say that if you fail to forgive others, you cannot be saved. Instead, Christ is calling us to the same sort of love that He demonstrated to us on earth.

So how do we sufficiently respond to the question? I contend that we do so by distinguishing two different types of forgiveness: relational and judicial.

Relational forgiveness involves an outpouring of love from one person to another. It is to say that, no matter what, I will forgive my brother or sister in Christ out of my unconditional love for them in the unity of the body of Christ. Towards unbelievers, it means showing them the same mercy and forgiveness that Christ showed us while we were still sinners. We refuse to hold their wrongdoing against them. We forgive (though not necessarily forget) in our hearts.

Judicial forgiveness is the kind of forgiveness that requires punishment. It means that because of some wrongdoing, there is a debt to be paid. We hear this language in our courts of law: “your fines have been paid” or “your debt has been forgiven” (e.g., one has served their prison sentence). This is how it is with sin. Because of our sin against God, there is a legal debt that must be paid—also known as a punishment. Because God is just, He cannot bat an eye at our debt; our debt must be paid. Christ served as our proxy or substitute in the punishment for sin, and He satisfied this debt.

Back to the original question: Why does God require torture and blood sacrifice from Christ while He commands us to forgive others?...

The question wrongly assumes that the forgiveness of the cross and the forgiveness that we display to others is the same type of forgiveness.

Christ’s atoning death primarily involves judicial forgiveness (while certainly involving relational forgiveness as well). However, the command for us to forgive others is not judicial. That is why the first response of Christ’s atoning death covering all wrongdoing is not quite relevant. Likewise, it makes little difference in answering the question to point out that God's nature is fully just while our nature is sinful, and thus we oftentimes fail to be just. When Christ commands us to forgive, it is a command to forgive others relationally, not judicially. God's command for justice is a different command. Here we are required to forgive others in love, not justice.

God is therefore not inconsistent between what He requires from Christ and what He requires from us. Distinguishing the two types of forgiveness is the key.