Christ was not just a man or just a prophet. He is God the Son. The sacrifice of His own body on the cross for our sins was a divine sacrifice, not a human sacrifice. In that sacrifice, Christ took upon Himself the sins of all people. Only a perfect God could handle the sins of so many people. When He died on the cross, He put to death all of our sins so that sin would not reign in us nor would it separate us from Him. In fact, with the stain of sin removed from our souls we have eternal life with Him. The apostle Paul declared that “God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood – to be received by faith” (Romans 3:25; italics mine). Having a relationship with Jesus Christ and ensuring that we have a gateway to heaven means that we must receive Christ’s forgiveness for our sins by faith. It is something He provided, but we must each individually receive it ourselves. We cannot earn it or pay for it; we must only accept it by faith. Paul clarified this to the Ephesians: “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9).