I have been telling people that, though I fully accept that Jesus sacrificed Himself for our sake and that He also died because of our sins.\u00a0 People tell me that He only died for<\/em> our sins, and I find this confusing because in my mind mentally, verbally, and physically tormenting someone\u00a0is<\/em> sin.\u00a0 I also believe that God intended for Jesus to live His life in such a way as to set an example of how to live a righteous life.\u00a0 Am I missing something here?\u00a0 It bothers me that so many fellow Christians only want to talk about how Jesus died for our sins, for whatever reason dismissing that we should strive to be Christ-like.\u00a0 It’s as if it’s just easier to say “It’s okay for me to sin because Jesus died for my sins” instead of saying “I will no longer do the sins I was doing before”.\u00a0 Please help me to understand this better.\u00a0 I’m having a hard time wrapping my head around this.<\/p>\n\t I am not sure what subtle distinction is being made. That Christ died for our sins is a given. “For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures<\/em>” (I Corinthians 15:3). But warning bells should go off when people add the word “only” where the Bible does not have it.<\/p>\n That Christians are to strive to live Christ-like is also a given. “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them<\/em>” (Ephesians 2:10). The purpose of those in the church is “for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head — Christ<\/em>” (Ephesians 4:12-15).<\/p>\n What Peter teaches us is that because Christ dies for our sins, we must give up those sins. “Therefore, since Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same mind, for he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh for the lusts of men, but for the will of God<\/em>” (I Peter 4:1-2).<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Question: I have been telling people that, though I fully accept that Jesus sacrificed Himself for our sake and that He also died because of our sins.\u00a0 People tell me that He only died for our sins, and I find this confusing because in my mind mentally, verbally, and physically tormenting someone\u00a0is sin.\u00a0 I also…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[179],"class_list":["post-29737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-sin"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":27227,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-can-we-be-guilty-of-sin-if-christs-sacrifice-is-eternal\/","url_meta":{"origin":29737,"position":0},"title":"How can we be guilty of sin if Christ’s sacrifice is eternal?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 14, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Jesus died for our sins on the cross. Jesus, being God and part of the Trinity, doesn't look at time as us humans. Jesus is infinite and we are finite. So if Jesus died for our sins, he died for all our sins from the time we were born\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":46544,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/gods-amazing-love\/","url_meta":{"origin":29737,"position":1},"title":"God’s Amazing Love","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 21, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"by Dennis Stackhouse God's love for mankind; what does that mean to you?\u00a0 How has God's love for you affected the choices you have made and the way you have chosen to live your life?\u00a0 Many will respond in obedient faithfulness as they seek to please God in all they\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":57521,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-is-meant-by-christ-died-for-our-sins\/","url_meta":{"origin":29737,"position":2},"title":"What is meant by “Christ died for our sins?”","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 2, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: The Bible says that Christ died for our sins. Does this mean that he died for the forgiveness of our sins? Answer: \"For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures\" (I Corinthians 15:3). The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":89981,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/did-paul-start-the-teaching-that-jesus-died-for-our-sins\/","url_meta":{"origin":29737,"position":3},"title":"Did Paul start the teaching that Jesus died for our sins?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 1, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: It's taught in Mid-Acts Dispensationalism that the gospel before Paul was simply that Jesus is the Son of God, not that He died for our sins, until Paul preached this. The Ethiopian in Acs 8 said he believed Jesus is the Son of God, not that he died for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":49560,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-continue-to-ask-for-forgiveness-if-jesus-died-for-all-our-sins\/","url_meta":{"origin":29737,"position":4},"title":"Why continue to ask for forgiveness if Jesus died for all our sins?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 5, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: A friend and I found a small church to attend, but their pastor prays at the beginning of their service asking for forgiveness of their sins. This made me wonder: Jesus died on the cross for us and he put the past, present, and future sins on that cross\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":48927,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/didnt-jesus-die-for-our-sins\/","url_meta":{"origin":29737,"position":5},"title":"Didn’t Jesus die for our sins?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 23, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: This is hard to wrap my mind around for some reason, but didn't Jesus \"die for our sins?\" I thought that Jesus dying on the cross meant that all our sins were forgiven if we believe in him. Answer: It isn't a hard concept, but I can see the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29737\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Answer:<\/h2>\n