# Did Jesus Die for Our Sins? A Biblical Response to a Viral Clip Adam Mesa and a co-host watch a viral clip that denies Jesus died for our sins, then test each claim against 1 Corinthians 15, Leviticus and Galatians. Source: Pray.com — https://www.pray.com/articles/did-jesus-die-for-our-sins-a-biblical-response-to-a-viral-clip Author: Adam Mesa Category: Faith & Wisdom Published: 2026-10-22 Last revised: 2026-10-22 --- ## Key takeaways - **Check the Bible first:** Adam Mesa's frustration is with messages that sound right and quote no Scripture, so his answer is to open the text and see what it says. - **Follow the logic:** His co-host traced how redefining sin changes the cross, and how changing the cross changes salvation. - **Sacrifice began with God:** Mesa points to Leviticus, where God gave Moses the sacrifices, and says Jesus became the sufficient sacrifice that fulfills the law. - **Judgment falls on sin:** Mesa uses a courtroom picture to show that a righteous judge rules on the crime, not out of a grudge against the person. - **Watch what you feed on:** The conversation ends with a question for every listener about which voices fill their days. ## A clip that sent them to the text On this episode of Beyond the Letter, Pastor Adam Mesa returns from a family trip to Tokyo and, after a short tangent about Dodgers hats, turns to a video clip he asked his co-host to react to. In it, a pastor says he does not believe Christ died for our sin. The speaker in the clip calls the sacrificial system a human invention, says Jesus did not come to save us from God, and describes the traditional teaching as something American evangelicals invented. Mesa says he does not know the man and has nothing against him personally. What bothers him is how the message is received. When he reads the comments, he sees people calling it truth, yet he finds no verse quoted and nothing explained from the Bible, only “just a bunch of things that sound right, things that feel right.” That shapes the whole conversation. Mesa and his co-host say they want to read the text before deciding what is true, and they invite listeners to do the same. Both hosts also say that everyone is wrong in some areas of belief because we are human, but that much of this can be settled by reading Scripture. ## Follow the logic from sin to salvation Mesa's co-host takes the clip's claim and traces where it leads. If Jesus did not die for our sins, then sin has to be redefined, and it becomes more like a mistake or a stage of growing in maturity. From there, he says, the cross is redefined as well. As he reasons, if “sin isn't the problem, then the cross is not necessary,” and if the cross is not necessary, salvation turns into self-discovery and moral effort. The Bible does not speak of sin that lightly. Paul writes that the wages of sin is death, so sin carries consequences. > For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. > > ([Romans 6:23](/bible/web/romans-6/#v23), WEB) The co-host then reads what he calls probably the clearest presentation of the gospel. Paul delivered it as of first importance. > For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, > > ([1 Corinthians 15:3](/bible/web/1-corinthians-15/#v3), WEB) In his view, a message that denies this has become a different gospel from the one Paul and Jesus preached. ## Where sacrifice came from The clip says people built the sacrificial system out of guilt and anxiety. Mesa answers from Leviticus (Leviticus 1). The burnt offerings, the animal sacrifices and the atonement offerings were commanded to Moses by God, he says, and were not something Moses brought to Israel. They served as symbols of a contrite heart, repentance and worship. Mesa says the law was never meant to be easy to keep. An ordinary reader of Leviticus should see that it is impossible to offer enough sacrifices to cover this much sin or to live this moral a life. That is why the law is there, and why Jesus comes as the sufficient sacrifice who fulfills it. Mesa also reads Galatians 3, where Paul writes that Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law. > Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us. For it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree,” > > ([Galatians 3:13](/bible/web/galatians-3/#v13), WEB) He gives a second example of how God uses earthly pictures. Marriage, he says, was given as a symbol that helps us understand Christ's love for the church. Mesa also questions the clip's reasoning that a practice no longer matters because we rarely think about it. A modern reader does not wake up thinking about blood sacrifice, but the Bible was written across many cultures, from Babylon in Daniel to Rome in Romans. In Mesa's words, “That's like saying communion isn't relevant.” He adds that when someone offers an argument that thin, you can set it aside and look for teaching with more substance. ## Did Jesus save us from God? The line that bothered both hosts most was the claim that Jesus did not save us from God. Mesa's co-host says he can half agree with it, but finds it incomplete. He puts it this way: “God is just and he's a justifier, so he did save us from God's judgment.” God is love, he says, and God also judges sin. Mesa builds on this with a courtroom picture, which he calls the common illustration preachers use. A righteous judge, he says, pronounces judgment on the crime and has no personal grudge against the person. Picture a man who knows he committed a murder, and there is video of it. He would not tell his lawyer the judge just does not like him, because the judge is only ruling on what was done. Mesa applies this to God. He says that God sees everything and that “It's his desire to condemn the sin, to judge the sin, to have wrath on the crime.” On the cross, Jesus bore the wrath due to our sin, and Mesa notes that our own justice systems, when they work well, try to separate the person from the crime in a similar way. He reasons that if a judge truly held a personal grudge, God would be unrighteous, which is not what Christians teach. ## Which voice are you feeding? The hosts also talk about why a message like this attracts people. Mesa's co-host says that for some who have been through trauma, being told nothing is wrong with them sounds like relief, while the gospel offends because it says we have sin. Mesa agrees that these claims can sound good, and says they carry some truth but leave out the means by which we are made free, which is the cross. They turn to John 10, where Jesus speaks of the thief. Mesa says the passage is often read as being only about Satan. In context, he says, Jesus is speaking of Pharisees who bind people to false teaching, and Satan works through such people. The co-host applies it to young adults who ask how to stop listening to voices that pull them from God. If a teaching leaves you far from God, angrier or more judgmental, he says, that is a sign worth noticing. Jesus offers something else. > The thief only comes to steal, kill, and destroy. I came that they may have life, and may have it abundantly. > > ([John 10:10](/bible/web/john-10/#v10), WEB) The co-host says the foundation must be the Bible, and then asks the question that closes this section of the conversation: “What voice are you listening to the most? Is it the word of God, or is it just YouTube, podcasts, stuff like this that you hear all the time?” ## What this means for you You will probably meet clips like this one, confident and warm, with plenty of passion and little Scripture. This episode suggests a plain habit: when you hear a claim about God, find out which passage it rests on and read that passage yourself. If no verse is offered, you have good reason to slow down. It also invites you to take stock of your own routine. Ask how much of your week goes to hearing the Bible and how much goes to commentary about it. The two hosts see this as a practical way to build a foundation that holds when a persuasive voice says something that sounds right.