Why Did God Allow Jesus To Be Punished For Our Sins?

Pastor Jim French

St. Luke's Cambridge

The Bible teaches us that when Jesus was nailed to the cross at Calvary, God placed the sins of the world upon him. Every sin that was ever committed; every lie, every murder, every rape that every occurred, God placed the penalty for that sin upon Jesus. In God's eyes, it was as if Jesus had committed each of those sins personally.

How could God do such a thing? How could he place the sins of the entire world on one single man? Is God some kind of sadist that he would torture Jesus for things he didn't even do? If God is a God of love how could he do that?

On the surface God's punishment of Jesus for our sins looks grossly unfair. There seems to be an apparent contradiction between God's love and his punishment. However we need only dig a bit deeper to resolve this apparent conflict.

To fully grasp Jesus' work on the cross we must first understand that Jesus is God. Although we cannot understand it, God has existed from all eternity as 1 God in 3 persons. God the Father is God, Jesus is God and Holy Spirit is God. Each person of the Trinity, although an individual is completely and totally God.

Jesus, as God, willingly, even joyfully accepted his mission on the cross. He chose to come into his creation and die on the cross to free us from our sins. God the Father did not punish Jesus for something he did not do, but rather Jesus chose to take our sins upon himself. God, in the person of Jesus Christ, chose to become sin for us and die to pay for our sins. His act upon the cross was an act of great mercy and love as he allowed sinful man (us) to crucify him.

Pastor Dick Brookes

Coila Church: Cambridge, New York

Most of us have a fundamental understanding of justice which usually works like this:

If you break a law, you need to:

1. Be found guilty for breaking the law.
2. Receive punishment for breaking the law.

We first learned this as children. When we disobeyed our parents, we were confronted by one or both parents, told what we did; then we were usually given a chance to either defend ourselves or apologize; then we received some sort of punishment.

When we are children, we spend a lot of time being “disciplined” because it seems that we are “good” at breaking the rules. The goal, of course, is to teach us the fact that breaking the rules has consequences, and when we grow up; those consequences are bigger than a spanking, not having dessert, or going to our rooms. Consequences for adults who face legal system can involve a lot more including large fines, community service, or even time in jail or prison.

The same is true in our relationship to God. God has established a standard by which we are to live. This standard is based upon his own character. The nature of God’s character is called “Holiness.” Or to put it in human terms – “God has no moral imperfections at all.” That is the basis upon which God established the “Law.” The reason God says, “Thou shalt not steal.” is nor because “not stealing” is a good idea and benefits society; but because God is not a thief.” When we disobey the law, we offend the character of God.

The problem we have, is that we are incapable of being HOLY - living our lives without any moral imperfections. In fact, quite often when we fail to keep the law, or find ourselves to have a moral failure, we often respond by saying: “Well, nobody’s perfect!!” That is certainly true, but the reality is, that is what God expects! When people come to realize that God’s expectation for us is “moral perfection,” the natural response ranges from frustration to desperation – “What HOPE do I have of ever being acceptable to God, if He requires me to be morally perfect? I can’t do it!!”

If we were in a room with a 20 foot ceiling, and I told you that you would receive 1 million dollars if you could jump and touch the ceiling, what would you do? You might jump in the air for fun, but basically you would say, “That’s not possible. Why should I even try.”

Meeting God’s standard of HOLY LIVING is impossible. In fact, not only is it impossible to live a Holy life on our own, it is impossible to “think” as a Holy man or woman. The reason is the reality of sin in our lives.

The good news is that before God even created the universe, He knew that this problem would exist. He decided to provide a solution to it. He would send his Son to be found guilty for all or our sin, and then receive the punishment for our sin (death) so that anyone who would put their faith in what Jesus Christ did for them, would be found NOT GUILTY, and their sentence to DEATH would be removed. This is the heart of the Christian Gospel. What we could not do for ourselves, God did for us. Jesus Christ was found guilty on our behalf and took our punishment so that we might no longer be condemned by God.

The first eight chapters of the book of Romans give a detailed account of this truth. I commend it to your reading.

All of us struggle at one time or another with the questions of life. Who am I? Why am I here? Where is God when it hurts? In the monthly series “Pastor's Forum” your local Cambridge pastors answer some of life's most challenging questions from a Christian perspective.