Think for just a moment about your own sin. Not a very pleasant subject. Think of that moment in your life that you are most ashamed of and wish that you could go back and change if given the opportunity.
Now add up every moment of your life that you are ashamed of. Those things that you have said and done that you would give anything if you could go back and change. Combine all the ugliness and filthy things that you may have said or done or thought in your life so far. place them all in a holding place.
Hold that thought for just a moment…
Now take all of the filthy and vile things that everyone in your town have done over the course of their lifetime. The murders, hatred, lusts and violence committed. Place those into that holding place where you previously located your own sins.
Now venture out into the state where you live and take all the sins of all the people in the entire state you live in. The things done by all those citizens committed throughout their lifetime, combine them all together into your container of sin.
Bear with me a few more moments…
Now take the sins of everyone in the United States over the course of their lifetime and place them into that former holding container and mix them together. Pretty ugly and vile aren’t they?
Combine now all those sins, with the filthy and vile things that have been done by all the people in all of the earth for all of human existence and mix these together into your holding place for sins.
Imagine the horrors of that container. All the pain, suffering, death and destructions. The broken promises, the betrayal, the lust, greed and anger. The dissapointments, sicknesses, tribulations and trials of all mankind for all time. What a horrible and unimaginably terrible container of suffering this would be.
Now as the container of sin is full to overflowing, take the full measure of that horror and pour it all into Jesus. A being who has existed forever, without beginning or end. One who has never committed sin Himself, nor has experienced the horror of sin personally.
Imagine what it would be like to have the filhiness and vileness of all human sin emptied into your being at once. That is what happened to Jesus as the Bible describes Him being “Made Sin For Us”.
2 Corinthians 5:21 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
On the night that Jesus was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane, He asked His disciples to stay awake and pray with Him. Jesus was in anguish, He was terrified of the events that were to take place in less than 24 hours. Jesus knew that He was going to drink from the cup that contained the sins of every person, ever born on the earth for all of time, and it terrified Him.
It was not as much the Cross that was before Him as it was the knowledge that “He who had never known sin” Himself, was about to be made the sin of all men from all time.
Paul wrote to the Hebrew Christians that they should always be looking to Jesus as the example of how to endure those moments of suffering throughout our life. Although Jesus knew the suffering He would endure by having all the sins of all men poured into Himself, it was what was ahead that compelled Him to go on and endure the horrors of being made our sin.
Hebrews 12:2 looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
It was your beautiful face that Jesus saw as he looked down from the Cross 2,000 years ago. It was your sin that He was dying for and paying the price owed, so that you would never have to experience judgment for those things yourself.
Jesus was saying to you from His Cross: “I am doing this for you, because I love you so much. I was not willing that you would die, so I took your place and became all your sins, so that you could be made righteous”
In the Garden of Gethsemane, as Jesus began to pray, He asked the Father if there was any other way that He could redeem all of us from our sins, other than by becomeing sin for us and going to the Cross to die.
Luke 22:42 saying, “Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done.”
There was no answer from the Father, because there was no other way to save mankind. There was no other way for all of us to have our sins forgiven, and obtain eternal life, other than Jesus to become sin for us and die in our place. Because living in the Body of Jesus was the eternal spirit of the living God and Creator of all things, Jesus life was valuable enough to pay the price for the sins of all men throughout time. When Jesus spoke of “A Cup” that He would drink from, that cup was the container full of all the sins of all people throughout all time that we imagined at the beginning of this article.
Never forget how greatly you are loved by God. That He would give the most valuable and precious gift the universe has ever known, His own dear Son. This is how much He loves you. This is how much He hates sin. That it should require such a great and eternal sacrifice to pay for all the sins of all men. Only Jesus was capable of making an offering for all of us, because only Jesus is the eternal God valuable and precious enough to satisfy the righteous requiements of God’s law. That is why we do not look to any other man or woman to save us. That is why we do not trust in a government, a church or any organization to save us. Only Jesus life was valuable and precious enough to make the offering for all the sins of the world at once. No religion, nor any other person throughout history has the ability and power that Jesus has to forgive sin and grant eternal life, because only Jesus is the Creator of all things.
Oh yes, one more thing before we finish here. That time in your life that you thought of when you committed your most aweful act of sin, that moment you are most ashamed of and would do almost anything to change? That is when Jesus loved you the most and was dying for you. So never think that you have committed any sin that Jesus cannot forgive, nor that you are ever unreachable by God’s Love. God loved you so much that He gave you His only Son, so that if you would hang your entire life upon the promise of Jesus sacrifice for your sins, you would be forgiven of everything and have eternal life. How Amazing!
Rob Robinson
