For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us… 2 Corinthians 5:21
Who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree… 1 Peter 2:24
Having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. Colossians 2:14
God hates sin.
He judges, condemns, and destroys sin. In fact, the only thing God hates and condemns is sin. So in order for Christ to take our place and our punishment, for Him to receive our judgment, condemnation, and destruction, He must become our sin.
Understand, He cannot simply be an innocent bystander, an unfortunate casualty in God’s war against sin. Nor can He simply take our place and be punished as an innocent victim. God only punishes sinners, and so for Christ to receive punishment, He must become guilty.
Yet even being guilty of committing sins is insufficient grounds for the extent of wrath and punishment that must fall from the Righteous Judge, nor is accepting the punishment for merely being guilty of our sinful acts a sufficient expression of His infinite love for us.
There must be more, infinitely more.
And there was.
He became sin.
Through some divine alchemy which only God understands, the Lord Jesus Christ was turned into sin. His righteousness became unrighteousness. His holiness became unholiness. His purity became defilement, and His light became darkness.
He had eternally hated, loathed, and fought against sin, but now on the cross He must embrace it, accept it, and become it. If ever He was to become our Cure, our Forgiveness, then He must first become our sickness and sin.
What sins can He forgive? Can He forgive lying, cheating, and stealing? Then on the cross He must become not just a liar, cheat, and thief, but He must become lying, cheating, and stealing.
What else can He forgive? What about arrogance, drug abuse, and blasphemy? What about rape, incest, and murder? Is there a human being in the history of mankind that God has forgiven such evils? Yes? Then Jesus Christ must become the very essence of those evils. He must become incest, murder, rape, lust, cruelty, blasphemy, idolatry, adultery, witchcraft, devil worship, heresy, drunkenness, greed, prejudice, perversion, selfishness, genocide, treason, rebellion– the list is as long as the exploits of fallen humanity, from Adam to the last person on earth.
Now there was another who was the very essence of sin. Satan, father of lies, ruler of darkness, the original murderer, adversary and accuser, was beyond guilty of every sin imaginable. So God calls him the Serpent of old, and his eternal fate is sealed. All mankind has suffered the snakebite of sin, and taken the nature of the old serpent. And so for our redemption, Christ must become the essence of the enemy of God. He must become the serpent of sin.
And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: John 3:14
No wonder His soul shrank from the Cup that the Father gave Him in the Garden. Could there be anything worse for the holy Lamb of God than to become the essence and substance of sin? Only one thing– “alone”.
Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. ~John 12:24
Notes:
2 Corinthians 5:21
1 Peter 2:24
Colossians 2:14
John 3:14
John 12:24
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