Why Was Jesus Crucified (Theology)
I am not a theist, so none of these make a lot of sense to me, but I wanted to go through them so I have some familiarity. As far as I am concerned, Jesus was crucified because he was hailed as the king of the Jews, and as such was a threat to Roman law. Penal Substitution I guess this is easiest to understand. You are a horrible sinner who deserves to suffer in hell for eternity, but Jesus takes you punishment on your behalf. Apparently Jesus on the cross for a few hours is the equivalent of billions of people suffering for eternity. And it is okay to punish one person for what another person did. In fairness, even some Christians have realised this makes no sense, and hence the other theories. The idea is that God is perfectly just, and he cannot simply forgive your sins without justice being satisfied. Jesus' death gives God a loophole to show mercy... as long as you love and worship him of course. Exodus 32 has the Israelites build a golden calf, making God angry, and Moses off