Today, we share in Christ’s victory over sin and death. We enjoy the enormous blessing of being called the children of God, and we get to rest knowing that all the work necessary for our salvation was done by Jesus Christ on the cross. Yet in order to make us innocent before God, Christ had to die among the guilty.
Christ in the Old Testament
Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great,
And He will divide the plunder with the strong,
Because He poured out His life unto death,
And was counted with wrongdoers;
Yet He Himself bore the sin of many,
And interceded for the wrongdoers. (Isaiah 53:12)
The Messiah was coming to set His people free. Only He would be worthy to inherent the world, and Israel would get to share in everything that would belong to their coming King. Yet in order for this incredible victory to take place, the Messiah would have to suffer and die. He would have to take on the guilt of all His people, paying the price they never could. In order to set criminals free, the Messiah would have to be treated as a criminal.
Fulfilled in the New Testament
They crucified two robbers with Him, one on His right and one on His left. (Mark 15:27)
We realize it’s unfair that Christ was crucified with criminals. We know it’s wrong that He was killed instead of Barabas, someone who had likely killed people during a rebellion. We are heartbroken to think about God turning away from Christ, creating a rift in their perfect fellowship that we may never fully be able to understand. And we’re amazed that the perfect, sinless God of the universe was willing to take the punishment for our sin.
Yet what is most incredible about all of this is why Christ did it. He was considered a criminal so that God wouldn’t see us that way. Christ took our place under God’s wrath so that we could be set free. Christ was forsaken by God so that we could be accepted. Christ took the punishment for every lie, filthy thought, and angry word we’ve ever spoken so that God would have no punishment left for us.
We are criminals who deserve eternal punishment for our crimes. Christ didn’t have to come to Earth and die in our place, and He would have been justified to let us receive the reward for all the ways we’ve violated the law of God. The payment for sin is death, and we all deserve what’s owed to us.
Yet Christ died amongst sinners, and was treated as a sinner, to set sinners free. Although we may never understand the full weight of sin that Christ carried in our place, we understand that every sin we’ve committed before and after our salvation had to be paid for. The sin we think will bring us satisfaction is what Christ had to suffer for. When we think following our own desires will bring us happiness and life, we remember that it brought suffering and death to our Savior.
How shall we who died to sin still live in it? … knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin. (Romans 6:2b)
How do we answer this question? If Christ set us free from sin, will we willingly become slaves to it again? Will we embrace the very thing God died to rescue us from?
Consider the price paid by Jesus Christ. Remember that He died as a criminal to set us free. Whatever promises sin makes, let the reality of what Christ did remind us that He alone deserves our absolute desire and pursuit.
