Was Christ's Death Necessary for God to Forgive Sins?

I recently heard an mp3 file of sermon delivered in a church in the town that I live in. Within the sermon (not the key point), the preacher said that

the death of Jesus was not neccessary for the forgiveness of sins. God was able to forgive sins in the Old Testament times if the offerings were done the right way. This means that God could forgive sins without the death of Jesus. (NB: This is a summary, not an exact quote)

I was shocked to hear this come from the pulpit of an apparently Christian, protestant church. You may not have even come across the notion that the death of Christ was not necessary for God to forgive us our sins - I hadn't. Here are some verses to read that demonstrate that the Old Testament offerings didn't take away sin (but only pointed towards Christ), and that Jesus' death was the only way that God could reconcile sinners to himself:

• Hebrews 9:23-26
• Hebrews 10:1-4
• Romans 3:21-26
• Matthew 26:39
• Luke 24:25-27

Jesus & Jehovah

Please read: Exodus 20:14 and Matthew 5:27

I had a very good conversation with someone today. I'd describe him as a straying, semi-secular Jehovah's Witness. His parents are Jehovah's Witnesses, and though he's wondered from that faith, it still makes up much of his core belief system.

JW's maintain that Jesus is not God (or Jehovah).

I shared the Matthew 5 scripture above and explained that when He gave the ten commandments, Jehovah-God said, "You shall not commit adultery". Then Jesus came and said, "You heard that it was said, 'You shall not commit adultery.' But I say to you..." That's a big call: to quote Jehovah, and then say, "But I say to you."

My friend hadn't realised that Jesus made claims like this; making himself equal to Jehovah.

The cycle of prayer and reasoning continues.

The Deity of Christ

Read: John 1:1-3

Believing that Jesus Christ is, always was, and always will be fully God is a fundamental teaching of the Christian faith. It's very important. The first few verses of John is one of the most significant passages in the Bible that establishes this doctrine: the "Deity of Christ".

Verse one is very plan; however, Arian heretics pose an argument based on the absence of an indefinite article in the Greek. Because there's no "the" in Greek, the verse could be saying - they say - "...and the Word was a God."

This is really a smoke-screen, and not worth arguing with, because verse three leaves no doubt. Verse three implies there are two categories of existence: things that were made, and things that weren't made. Jesus wasn't made, because without him was not any thing made that was made. He couldn't have made himself - he wasn't made - he's in the "things that weren't made" category. There was never a time when Christ was not. There was never a time when the Father did not have The Son.

We worship God who became man.