Why I Don’t Want to Say, “Jesus Died for Your Sins”
When most evangelical (and many mainline) Christians are asked what the purpose of Jesus’s life is, they respond without hesitation with a scripted and practiced line somewhere in the realm of, “Jesus died for our sins”.

As a Christian, I accept that this is a true and important part of Jesus’s role in history. However, I often struggle with this aspect being the defining part of not only our faith, but also of Jesus’s life. Yes, Jesus died to pay the price for our sins. However, that is just one moment in the life of a man who LIVED for decades prior to his crusifiction.
During His life, Jesus taught us by example to heal the sick, feed the hungry, and improve the quality of life for all of God’s children. He spoke earnestly and endlessly on the values of service, compassion, forgivness, and grace. Jesus lived as an example to the world on how to live a life based off of love. His strength in the face of temptation, pain, and betrayal has served as an example to billions of people in the thousands of years since his death.

In addition, a sin-based narrative doesn’t challenge us enough in our faith. We can tell people till we are blue in the face that, “Y’all need Jesus” and about the importance of finding salvation. To be clear, I’m not trying to dismiss the importance of evanglizing; but can’t we make a bigger difference as followers of Christ than just telling people about Jesus forgiving their sins? After all, that part was done already (thanks again JC). The hard work of carrying out the rest of His mission still needs to get done, and as Christians it is our job to do it.
So with so much talk in the Bible about Jesus’s character and His devotion to the world, I can’t help but think that we are missing the point when we put the emphasis on his death. Yes, Jesus died for our sins. But isn’t the greater story here that He lived?