Ezekiel 18:20 "The person who sins will die. The son will not bear the punishment for the father's iniquity, nor will the father bear the punishment for the son's iniquity; the righteousness of the righteous will be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked will be upon himself.”
Psalm 49:7 “No man can by any means redeem his brother or give to God a ransom for him.”
Deuteronomy 24:16 “Parents are not to be put to death for their children, nor children put to death for their parents; each will die for their own sin”.
The Old Testament clearly preached no man can die for another man’s sins.
Yet, Christians believe Jesus literally died for the sin of mankind - a belief which is clearly at odds with the preaching of the OT. But then, we know God is not a ‘flip-flop’ God of confusion. He would not have said “each will die for their own sin” and then, decided to send His chosen servant, or the son of God, if you like, Jesus, the son of man, to die for the sin of all mankind.
Did the New Testament contradict the Old Testament on this matter ? If the NT did not contradict the OT in this matter, then, the seemingly contradictions must be the result of the Christians’ misinterpretation of the phrase “die for” in the NT verses. Soldiers, regardless of whether they survived or were killed in battles, can be said to ‘die for their country’ because their life as a soldier was fully committed and dedicated to protecting and defending the sovereignty of their country at all costs. In the same way, Jesus too can be said to ‘die for the sins of man as his life on earth was truly dedicated and committed to save man from their sinning ways and show them the way to eternal life.
‘Died for’ or ‘to die for’ is an idiom, which is similar to someone saying, ‘her ice cream cake is something to die for’ which would mean the cake is so delicious and highly sought after, and not that you have to literally ‘die for’ the ice cream cake, or a ‘workaholic’ man who doesn’t seem to have a break, even on weekends and public holidays, could be said as a man who ‘die for his company’.
To be saved does not mean one must believe Jesus literally must die for your sin and rose from the dead, but to be saved would mean man need to believe in the One and Only God AND to listen and believe in the preaching of His prophets/messengers in their respective lifetimes, in this case, Jesus, who was sent by God so that man can understand righteousness thru his preaching, so said Jesus himself – “whoever hears my word and believes Him who sent me has eternal life” – John 5:24.
So, if we understand Jesus’ words, then, we should also understand that all the passages in the NT which implied Jesus ‘died for the sin’ of man was actually to mean Jesus had lived his whole life on earth to bring righteousness to mankind and had shown man THE WAY out of eternal death and into THE (eternal) LIFE. So, Jesus was what he said he was in his lifetime – “I am THE WAY, THE TRUTH and THE LIFE. No one comes to the Father except through me” – John 14:6. In Moses’ lifetime, Moses was the WAY, THE TRUTH and THE LIFE, and no one comes to (know) the Father (that is, the Supreme Being, God) except through Moses – if not through Moses, from who else can the people in Moses’ time come to know God? In the same way, most, if not all, prophets endured sufferings in their lifetimes, and, some were even killed for bringing the message of God and preaching righteousness to the people and they too could be said to have died ‘for the sin of mankind’, as they too, are committed to show mankind the way to the eternal life. In other words, these prophets are the way, the truth, and the life in their respective lifetimes just as Jesus was the way, the truth, and the life in his lifetime on earth.
Fact is, like all prophets and messengers of God, Jesus has lived for man’s sin just as he was said to have ‘died’ for man’s sin – both ‘lived for’ and ‘died for’ here carry the same meaning. If both statements carry the same meaning, then, the New Testament did not really contradict the Old Testament, it’s only the Christians who had taken the idiom ‘to die for’ LITERALLY as to them, Jesus had literally died on the cross for their sins when it was only made to appear so unto them.
The only reason why Jesus himself NEVER preached to his disciples his ‘death’ will redeem the sins of man, was because Jesus, as a prophet of God, knew only God have the power to forgive sin, and thus, he taught his disciples to pray to God for the forgiveness of sin (Matthew 6:12) and NOT that his ‘death’ will save all mankind from their sins – nothing and no one can forgive sin, ONLY the One True God can.
