The Horror of the Cross — Seeing the Cross Through the Eyes of Jesusናሙና

God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:21)

As Jesus looked to the final 24 hours of His life here on earth, I believe one of the things that horrified Him was the thought that He would actually become sin. The original language of 2 Corinthians 5:21 literally says “He was made sin.”

Think about this for a moment.

The very thing that caused the chasm between God and man, was what Jesus would now become. The perfectly holy, righteous, and pure Son of God would be made sin. The light would become darkness.

You see, sin is not just a trespass against God, it is a force that entered the world when Adam violated God’s law.

That’s why Paul tells us in Romans 5:12 that sin itself entered the world through Adam. And it’s why in Romans 6:14 he says, For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.

As you think about sin and the fact that it is this power that must be defeated, it’s instructive to read Genesis 4:7, where the Lord is admonishing Cain just before he kills his brother Abel.

“If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.”

Sin is a power that must be vanquished. And to be vanquished, Jesus would need to be made sin, with the iniquities of all mankind laid on Him. As Isaiah 53:6 states, We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

The holy, pure Son of God would be made sin, the very thing He abhorred. No wonder Jesus was horrified. No wonder He plead with the Father to have the cup pass from Him. No thought could be more repulsive.

But bowing to the Father’s will and stepping into this moment shows the depth of the love Jesus has for you. Willing to become everything He hated so that you might be redeemed. As Paul puts it in Romans 5:6-8:

You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

That’s how much you are loved.

Reflection:Take time to quietly meditate on the reality of what Jesus became so you could become righteous before God. Then thank Him for His obedience to the Father and His unbounding love for you.