Did Jesus Redeem Mankind? — Page 150
? 143 It is evident that he cannot suffer death a second time, for death came upon him the first time for purposes of atonement. Once atonement has been offered, there is no room any more for death which means that either Christians must concede the position that Jesus will eternally remain imprisoned in his physical body, without the hope of release from it, or, that they should agree that the theory about the assumption by him of physical body was ill-founded; for, if it were a tenable proposition, he should have been free of the bodily encumbrance after the incident of the Cross. On the contrary, instead of being free of it, according to the New Testament, he rose again with the same body and ascended into the heavens with it. DID MESSIAH OFFER ATONEMENT WILLINGLY? Apropos the Christian claim that the Messiah offered atonement, it is necessary to ascertain whether the Messiah (peace be on him) was a willing party to the act. The whole crux of the matter is that God would not remit the sins of men, and since He could not, He accepted the atonement of their sins through inflicting punishment on Jesus. Their argument is that if Zaid is in debt and Bakr comes forward to meet the former's liability, the debit account of Zaid is written off; that men have become