What does ‘Jesus died for our sins’ mean?

The result of the death of Jesus isn’t simply: “Well, I was very sinful, but fortunately, somebody has taken my punishment so I get to go to heaven now.” That is actually to moralize our vision of what it means to be human. Don’t misunderstand me – morals matter, sin is important, but sin is more than simply the breaking of rules. It’s the failure to be genuinely human.

We need to widen our vision of how Jesus dealt with sin on the cross. 

The Greek word for sin is hamartiaand it means ‘missing the mark’; shooting an arrow at the target and missing. What is the target? The target is genuine humanness. What is genuine humanness? It’s reflecting God’s image. 

Whenever we are tempted to sin, there is something we are supposed to be doing and being – to honor God in the world, in our family, in our own lives – and sin draws us away from that. It presents us with a cheap alternative, so that we collude with the forces of destruction, chaos and darkness. The result of that is sin, which means we are bound in a tight grip. Jesus dying for our sin releases the grip of the powers.

When Paul talks about Jesus dying for our sins, he adds the phrase: “according to the Scriptures” (see 1 Corinthians 15:3). There is an entire scriptural narrative about how the creator God is rescuing the world.

The clearest passage on Jesus dying for our sins is in Romans 8:1–4, which explains there is no condemnation for us because God passed the sentence of condemnation on sin. Interestingly Paul doesn’t say: God condemned Jesus. He says: God condemned sin in the flesh of Jesus.

Here’s one way of looking at it from Romans chapters 7 and 8: God gave the law in order to lure sin to the place where it could be condemned – namely, onto Jesus, who died as the representative substitute, taking the condemnation on himself. Sin is now itself condemned, and new creation can begin.

The central thing to remember is that the death of Jesus reveals the love of God. So, with Jesus’ death, sin has been condemned; the dark power has been defeated – so that we, sinners, can be released and live God’s new life.

Reflect: How has this widened your vision of how Jesus dealt with sin on the cross?