Why Couldn't God Forgive Without Sacrifice?

[jazzytakara]

Recently I have come across debates as why Jesus's sacrifice was neccessary. More so, why couldn't God simply forgive us without the 'bloody sacrifice' of His Son. Many were using this as ammuntion to disprove religion via statements such as "If God is all loving, He would have forgiven you" and "if God was good, he wouldn't ask for such a sacrifice" and "if God is all powerful and actually a God/God than he had the power to forgive sin without the sacrifice".

Although I am in the process of converting to Catholicism and these statements aren't enough to turn me away from my faith, I do wish I was better able to answer these questions. It does try to work in doubt, but thats just a method of the devil trying to turn me away from God, but I heard about this site and how those 'theologically well versed' answer such questions, and I thought it would be better to go here than google and find incorrect answers. If someone could please help me out, it would be great to have a more solid understanding of Christ's sacrifice and help when I have to explain to my agnostic family members...

[CatherineM]

These are pretty deep questions. I used to drive my philosophy professors nuts. I once told one that the one thing an omnipotent God can't know is what it is like to not be omnipotent. One of our biggest fears is the fear of the unknown or fear of losing our lived ones or of death itself. If you know everything that is going to happen, and you are immortal, it's hard to imagine what those types of fear feel like.

God gave us everything, and we repeatedly turned our backs on him, starting with Adam and Eve, and going through the centuries to this second. I believe that God, through Jesus, needed to be human to feel fatigue and fear and pain in order to understand why we keep taking his gifts and stomping on them with sin. We are spoiled children, and we would love to be instantly forgiven for everything. Good parents know that children only learn through consequences. God is a good parent and knows exactly what we need. We needed Jesus.