There are all sorts of thoughts about what Christ’s crucifixion meant and the purpose of such for not only humankind, but also to God. So too, when we study the Bible we see that animals, such as doves, goats, and sheep were commonly used as a sacrificial offering to God, which to modern-day ears, appears to be something that only the ignorant and simple-minded would have been a part of, because it makes no sense that our omniscient God would ever desire the sacrifice of any animal such as done in a temple, to God. This thus begs the question as to whether we should see Christ’s ultimate sacrifice, supposedly for our collective sin, as somehow being a tribute to God, so done for our salvation.
It is probably fair to state, that God does not and never has needed any sacrifice so made via an animal, as some sort of guilt or sin offering to God; or beyond that, to have the ultimate sacrifice made, which would be the martyrdom of a human being, in order then to expiate sin or similar. None of these sacrifices seem to make much logical sense if specifically done as a tribute to God, especially when we believe that our God is a God of love, forgiveness, justice, and fairness. On the other hand, if we feel that our God is a vengeful God, that wants those that should be punished to be punished, and of which, we further believe that in order to appease that God, we need to show our humility by sacrificing animals or even our own self to do so, then a sacrifice such as that makes eminent sense.
While there isn’t any doubt that Christ did so suffer through the ignoble death via crucifixion, it is vital to understand that His sacrifice was not a human sacrifice to a God that demanded such as the fair retribution for the sins of humankind, but rather this was the reflection that through the crucifixion of Christ, that the disciples of Christ, would be themselves liberated from the sins and errors of their past mistakes, so that they could through this liberation, freely take on their sacred mission to preach the word, throughout the world with a message that would resonate with those open to receiving such.
Indeed, our God does not desire that human sacrifice from any of us, and never has. Rather, God desires that we recognize that we have the inherent obligation in our incarnation upon this earth, to do the right thing, one person to the other, and to thus bring light to those that are in darkness. Because, of humankind’s errors in judgment, and the character flaws of those humans, good people are going to be invariably hurt and even killed by those that do not truly know what they are doing, but such suffering of those that are victims of this unjustness, is only temporary, for our bodies house our eternal spirit, of which this spirit cannot ever be vanquished, so that human death, is never the end, but merely removes our temporal housing, to reveal the unconquerable soul, instead.