Jesus didn't just come to heal you of an internal disease. He didn't just come to salve your soul. He didn't just come to mend your mental search for meaning. If you miss this, you miss the crux of the gospel.
Scripture Focus: Romans 8:3; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Isaiah 53:10
"For what the law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did, sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh as an offering for sin. God condemned sin in the flesh."
"He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him."
"It was the will of the LORD to crush Him, to put Him to grief."
He came to save you from the wrath of God.
And what was troubling Jesus's soul moments before He died was knowing what He was going to bear on your behalf.
Galatians 3 says, "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us. For it is written, 'Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.'"
Romans 8:3: "God condemned sin in the flesh." Meaning that when God looks at Jesus on the cross, He condemned Him.
God hates sin. Yes, God loves the world. But ten times in the first fifty Psalms, it says God hates not just sin, but sinners. Psalm 7:11—He has righteous indignation towards the wicked every single day.
God's wrath is not a core attribute. God's wrath is a product, an expression of His justice. Before there was sin, there was no wrath because there was nothing to be wrathful about. But in a world where sin abounds, God doesn't just hate sin. He punishes sinners.
And Jesus bore that hatred of God towards sin in His body on the cross.
First Peter 2:24: "He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross." It wasn't just that the nails were going through His hands. It was that upon His head, in His heart, in His soul—every adulterous affair, every gossiping conversation, every pornographic look, every seething mad rile of anger, all even the minor sin that we think is respectable—God hates sin. And the guilt and shame of all of that was troubling His soul.
First John 2:2: "He is the propitiation for our sins." What's propitiation? It means the satisfaction of the wrath of God.
Why was He troubled? Isaiah 53:10 says, "It was the will of the LORD to crush Him, to put Him to grief."
Why was He troubled? Second Corinthians 5:21: "He became sin, who knew no sin, to be sin on our behalf."
He became sin who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf. What does that mean? It means in our place.
Every sin will be punished. Every sin ever committed. God is a shrewd accountant who takes record of every sin ever committed. And you will either pay for your sin or Jesus will pay it for you.
That's the gospel.
1. Have you reduced the gospel to Jesus healing your brokenness without understanding He saved you from God's wrath?
2. Do you understand that every sin will be punished—either you pay or Jesus pays?
3. What does it mean to you that Jesus became sin on your behalf—in your place?
Stay dialed in