The Nature of Sin, Pt 12: His Sacrifice

John 3:16-17  “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

Colossians 1:21-22                And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight—

1John 4:10                             In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

Isaiah 53:4-5                          Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows;
Yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.
But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.

1John 2:2                                He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.

Romans 5:8                             But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Matthew 27:46                      And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” that is, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”

Fifty-six men signed the Declaration of Independence.   Of the 56 men, five were captured by the British and tortured before they died.  Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned.  Two lost their sons in the Revolutionary Army.  Another had two sons captured.  Nine of the fifty-six fought and died from wounds or hardships of the war.  Carter Braxton of Virginia, a wealthy planter and trader, saw his ships sunk by the British navy.  We hear stories such as these occasionally about individuals who sacrifice much, maybe everything, for an idea, or for other people in trouble.  Many stories are on the Web about heroes of the Holocaust or 911.  None of them rise to the level of sacrifice given by Jesus.

Prior to the 1st Century sacrifice, that is, animal sacrifice, was a regular part of the Jewish culture.  Depending on the wealth of the person various animals were brought to the priests and were killed so that their spilled blood might atone for the sins of the person.  After the Law was given to Moses on Sinai the sacrificial system was instituted by God to burn into the heart of humans an awareness of their sin.  Blood had to be spilled.

Leviticus 17:11                      For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life.

But the animal sacrifices only partially atoned for sin and only lasted for a short while, so they had to be repeated.  We should not think God was surprised by this, nor that He made a mistake.  The whole idea about the sacrificial system was to point people forward to the coming and complete Sacrifice.  God knew sin would enter the world; after all he had seen the rebellion of Lucifer and knew the granting of free will to people would give them the opportunity to choose poorly.

So let’s get to the main questions:  Why did Jesus have to go to the Cross, and how is it that defeats sin?  Remember God is completely holy and completely righteous and so he can have no association with sin.  Also remember God made people in the first place so he could have fellowship with them.  There is a clear contradiction here:  avoidance of sin and fellowship with those who sin.  Since the Sacrificial System only cleansed outwardly and thus was incomplete, it was only efficacious in that it pointed to the more complete Sacrifice which cleansed inwardly.

Hebrews 9:12-15                   He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption. The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!  For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance—now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.

Jesus was fully man and also fully God.  This is one of the basic tenets of the Christian faith.  In being fully human, he was fully tempted; in being fully God he was fully pure.  He wasn’t a fallible human bringing an innocent animal to take on his own sins so he could beseech God for forgiveness.  As fully pure, Jesus was the innocent one himself and offered not the life on an innocent other but offered his own life for the sins of others.  2Corinthians 5:21 says that ‘Jesus became sin for us’.  If taken literally, this would mean Jesus had ceased to be God so it cannot be true.  Equally it cannot mean Jesus became a sinner, but only that he bore the punishment for the sins of others.  It does mean that he became our substitute and received the punishment our sins deserved even to the point of having God the Father turning his back on the Son thus eliciting the anguish of Matthew 27:46. 

How does this defeat sin? Since Jesus is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and since Jesus bore the sins of the world, and since Jesus represented sin on the cross, this ultimately means that when Jesus died, sin died, and when Jesus was buried, sin was buried. And the eternal punishment that comes from sin died along with him. Accepting Jesus as one’s savior means all of this is imputed to that new believer and from that point forward, forevermore, that new believer is seen by God as sin free. So in God’s eyes when you believe in Jesus' death, burial, and bodily resurrection, your sins have been nailed to the cross of Christ with Christ himself (Galatians 5:24), and your sins have died and been buried along with Christ himself. This means your sins and the eternal punishment for them have been buried with the death of Jesus. Thus, you’re free from punishment and condemnation not because there is none, but because Jesus your substitute and Savior has already paid your punishment for sin in full. Now God remembers your sins no more.