⬇️ He Died: In Our Place, For Our Sins
In the previous post, we saw that Jesus lived a sinless life in full obedience to God. We were told this would set the stage for the great exchange we’ll learn about in this post. But first, the problem.
1. The problem
When we looked at the bad news of the Bible, we were reminded of the problems of suffering, sins and unrighteousness.
❌ Unrighteousness
Basically, without God, humanity is stuck with the label of being “unrighteous”. We are morally stuffed. We are under the power of “sin”. This is like a disease.
😷 Sins
The disease of “unrighteousness” and “sin” manifests itself in the symptoms, what we might call “sins,” the bad stuff we do.
😢 Suffering
The “sins” inevitably lead to human suffering. Any suffering we experience comes as a consequence of our sin and our sins.
⬇️ Death
Our suffering ultimately leads to our death.
😡 Wrath
And God is furiously angry about our sin and unrighteousness, which ultimately leads to our suffering and death (see Exodus 32:9-10, Deuteronomy 9:7-8, Psalm 7:11, Isaiah 13:11, Nahum 1:2-3, Romans 1:18, Ephesians 5:6, Colossians 3:5-6, Hebrews 10:26-27, Revelation 19:15). Yes, he is a God of love. But his loving response to our rejection of him—especially as he watches the consequences we face—is to feel angry. Unlike us, however, he does not sin in his anger—his anger is a perfect, righteous anger rooted in justice and holiness.
When it comes to unrighteousness, sins and suffering, we have a big problem on our hands.
Furthermore, the existence of suffering raises a few questions. Does God actually care about us? If so, why hasn’t he done something about it?
2. God’s solution
While the problem is great, God has an even greater solution. In 1 Peter 3:18a, we read:
For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God.
Let’s unpack this.
😢 Christ suffered for sins
Jesus cares so much for our suffering that he suffered for us. Our sins cause our suffering. To reverse this problem, Christ suffered for our sins when he was crucified on the cross.
And he really did suffer.
Jesus suffered physically. He was flogged (John 19:1), crowned with thorns (Matthew 27:29; John 19:2), forced to carry His cross (John 19:17; Luke 23:26), experienced extreme thirst (John 19:28), and was crucified (Luke 23:33; Mark 15:24; John 20:25).
Jesus suffered publicly. In Jesus' day, the cross was considered a symbol of extreme shame and humiliation, used by the Romans as a method of execution reserved primarily for slaves, criminals, and those deemed enemies of the state. This form of public execution not only served as a brutal means of capital punishment but also as a powerful deterrent, displaying the condemned in an obvious and degrading manner to maximise dishonour and disgrace.
Jesus suffered personally. He was abandoned by his best friend (Matthew 26:75), his second and third best friends (Matthew 26:35-56), Judas, who betrayed him (Matthew 26:47–49), the rest of his disciples (Matthew 26:56), his own people (John 1:11), his nation’s political leaders (Luke 22:66-71), foreign political leaders (Luke 23:13-25), and, by his Heavenly Father (Matthew 27:46).
Jesus suffered penally. But, worst of all, Jesus suffered by having to bear the penalty of our sins. Our “sin” (or “unrighteousness) resulted in our “sins”. The penalty for our sins was suffering, death and judgment. Jesus took on our penalty by suffering, dying, and absorbing the judgment that we deserved.
⓵ Once for all
And Jesus suffered for sins once for all. He did this once (see also Romans 6:10, Hebrews 7:27, Hebrews 9:12, Hebrews 9:26-28).
In Old Testament Israel, sacrifices had to be made all the time.
🐑 Passover Sacrifice. Each household sacrificed a year-old little lamb or goat annually during Passover to commemorate the Israelites’ deliverance from Egypt (Exodus 12:3-6).
🔥 Burnt Offerings. Detailed first among the Levitical offerings, these were complete burnt offerings made daily, using animals without blemish (Leviticus 1:3-17).
🌾 Grain Offerings. These accompanied every burnt offering daily, using fine flour mixed with oil and frankincense (Leviticus 2:1-16).
✌️ Peace Offerings. These were voluntary or during special vows involving the sacrifice of animals from the herd or flock to celebrate fellowship and peace with God (Leviticus 3:1-17).
❌ Sin Offerings. These were required for specific unintentional sins, involving the sacrifice of a female goat or lamb to atone and cleanse from sin, restoring the sinner’s relationship with God (Leviticus 4:1-35).
😳 Guilt Offerings. These were needed for unintentional sins involving sacred property or deceit, requiring a ram from the flock and restitution to cover the offender's guilt (Leviticus 5:14-19).
🏛️ Special Offerings for the Day of Atonement. Annually, on Yom Kippur, the high priest sacrificed a bull for his sins and a goat for the sins of the people to purify and cleanse the whole community (Leviticus 16:1-34).
🍇 First fruits Offerings. These guys were offered annually at the Feast of Weeks, involving the sacrifice of the first produce of the harvest as a symbol of God’s provision and the dedication of the crop to Him (Leviticus 23:10-14).
Unlike the Old Testament sacrifices, which had to be repeated continually, Jesus' sacrifice was a single, conclusive act that permanently dealt with the penalty of sin. Nothing else needed to be done to atone for sin.
He suffered once for all.
✅ The righteous for the unrighteous ❌
In the article about the “bad news of the Bible”, we discovered just how “unrighteous” we are. We’ve rejected God, resulting in our “sins”, which leads to our suffering, death and judgment.
In the previous post, we were reminded of Jesus’ righteousness. Resisting temptation, he was perfectly obedient to God, sinlessly obeying his laws and fulfilling the requirements of the law. Jesus is the very definition of “righteous.”
In Romans 1:22-25, we discover that humanity has exchanged the Creator for created things (see here). Now let me tell you of another exchange.
Jesus, the “righteous” one, exchanged himself for us, the “unrighteous” ones. Jesus, the Creator (see John 1:3), swapped himself for his creation, that is, us.
Source: Unsplash
Imagine you have a phone with a lot of storage capacity.
🗒️ In the notes app, you’ve recorded everything you’ve ever thought.
🎥 In the video app, you’ve recorded everything you’ve ever done.
🎤 In the voice memo app, you’ve recorded everything you’ve ever said. In other words, this phone has recorded all of your unrighteousness. Ever.
Now imagine Jesus’ high-storage-capacity phone.
🗒️ In the notes app, he has recorded everything he’s ever thought.
🎥 In the video app, he’s recorded everything he’s done.
🎤 In the voice memo app, he’s recorded everything he’s ever said.
In other words, this phone has recorded all of Jesus’ righteousness.
Now imagine you’re standing before God the Father. God asks you for your phone.
According to 1 Peter 3:18, in this scenario, Jesus is standing there next to you. He hands his phone to the Father on your behalf. He takes your phone and nails it to his cross.
And so, when the Father sees you, he sees Jesus’ righteousness. When he sees Jesus’ cross, he sees your unrighteousness.
And then God declares you “righteous-ified”, or, “justified”.
Just as a wedding celebrant says, “I now pronounce you husband and wife”, God now pronounces us “righteous” and “justified” because of what Jesus has done. We get a new status before God.
3. Why this matters
Why does this matter so much? Well, 1 Peter 3:18 says, “For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God.”
🎁 To bring you to God 𝚯
Jesus brings us to God. He enables us to enter a relationship with the Father Almighty. Because of our sins and unrighteousness, we had no chance of being reconciled with God.
But because Christ suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, we can now come before God. Reconciled. Forgiven. Friends. Anger removed.
✌️Atonement☝️
Another word that captures this idea is the word “atonement”. When he was translating the Bible into English in 1525, William Tyndale got a bit stumped on how to translate the Greek word καταλλαγή (katallagē) in passages like 2 Corinthians 5:18-19 and Romans 5:10-11, and the Hebrew word כִּפֻּרִים (kippurim) in passages like Leviticus 16.
So Tyndale came up with the word “atonement”. It’s a portmanteau, a word created by blending parts of two other words. In this case, “at-one-ment” combines "at” and “one” (with the suffix "-ment," thereby noun-ifying). He went with this because it picks up on the idea of the two parties being distant, “at two” if you like. But atonement—especially what Jesus does in dying for our sins”—makes us “at one” with God.”
😡 Propitiation 🧽
But how are we able to be “at one” and “brought to” God if he is angry with us? That’s where the idea of “propitiation” comes in. To propitiate basically means to “absorb wrath”, hence the sponge emoji (🧽). In his atoning death on the cross, Jesus absorbs God’s wrath, taking it upon himself. This idea comes up most specifically in Romans 3:25, Hebrews 2:17, 1 John 2:2 and 1 John 4:10.
Because the “righteous” one suffered for the “unrighteous”, God’s wrath or anger is propitiated. We are, therefore, able to be “at one” with and “brought to” God.
This enables God to be both just and merciful at the same time (Romans 3:25-27).
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Does this mean that God is angrily punishing his Son on the cross? Is this a demented case of cosmic child abuse?
There is one passage in the Bible that could potentially be taken to indicate that God is ”punishing” his Son. In Isaiah 53, an Old Testament passage that vividly points to Jesus and his passion, we read:
4 Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. 5 But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.
10 Yet it was the LORD’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the LORD makes his life an offering for sin, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.
At first, this might sound like God angrily punishing his Son. But it’s worth a few pointers.
First, in verse 4, it is the “we” considering the servant as “punished by God”, not necessarily God.
Second, even though “the punishment that brought us peace was on him”, this doesn’t necessarily mean that it was God punishing him. When you read the Gospel narratives, humans are the ones punishing him. And they punish him out of anger.
Third, it is difficult to argue against verse 10 pointing to God, in some way or another, punishing the servant. It was “the LORD’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer”. However, he does not do so angrily or vindictively. He does so for redemptive purposes. Moreover, as we read over and over again in the New Testament, he gives up his Son for redemptive purposes out of love (e.g., John 3:16, Romans 5:8–9, 1 John 4:10).
Fourth, while we have just one verse in the Bible (and in the Old Testament) that (potentially) depicts the Father punishing the Son, we have loads of passages in the New Testament that depict Christ willing going to the cross (e.g., John 10:17-18, Matthew 26:53-54, John 18:4-6, Hebrews 12:2, Philippians 2:6-8, Galatians 2:20, Mark 10:45, Matthew 26:39, Ephesians 5:2, Titus 2:14, just to get started). He’s not forced there by an angry Father against his will.
Because of Isaiah 53:10, I’m hesitant to say that we cannot speak of the Father punishing the Son. But when speaking of the cross, the Father’s love and the Son’s willingness should be emphasised, proportionate to the emphasis of the Scriptures. xt goes here
❤️ Love
And, in bringing us to God, Jesus’ death reveals the depths of God’s love for us. This is perhaps most famously known through the words of John 3:14-16:
14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.” 16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
God gave his Son to us out of love, to be “lifted up” onto the cross, that he might bring us eternal life.
Similarly, in Romans 5:8-9, we read:
8 God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him!
God demonstrates his love to us in sending Jesus to die for our sins and save us from his wrath.
Similarly, in 1 John 4:10 (ESV) we read:
In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
God sending his Son to be the propitiation for our sins is almost the very definition of love itself.
4. How we should respond
And how should we respond to this?
Three things:
🫴 Receive what Christ brings
First, we should receive what Christ brings. The Bible often talks about how we receive what Christ brings through “faith”, that is, by trusting Jesus alone to save us. Trusting that Jesus suffered for our sins. Once for all. The righteous for the unrighteous. There’s nothing we can do to make ourselves righteous. It’s all about what Jesus has done. More on this in an upcoming post.
🪞 Imitate Christ’s sacrificial mindset
Second, we should imitate Christ’s sacrificial mindset. We’re saved through faith alone. But the faith that saves is not alone—it leads to change. One of the things that changes is our mindset.
When we follow Jesus, we follow his example.
In fact, this is exactly what Peter is telling us to do in 1 Peter 3:18. He is using Jesus as an example for us to follow. In 1 Peter 3:13-17, we read:
13 Who is going to harm you if you are eager to do good? 14 But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. “Do not fear their threats; do not be frightened.” 15 But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, 16 keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behaviour in Christ may be ashamed of their slander. 17 For it is better, if it is God’s will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.
Here we are given Jesus as a model to follow.
We should be willing to suffer as Jesus willingly suffered, for this is better than doing evil.
📢 Prepare to share
A major reason I’m writing these articles is to help people prepare to share the gospel with others. As Peter just told us, we need to be prepared to give an answer for the hope that we have. This means that we need to understand what we believe, so that when someone asks, we can answer them. Central to what we believe is the gospel, and central to the gospel is the simple but revolutionary fact that Christ died.
❤️ Love
In 1 John 4:10-11 (ESV), we read:
10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
Since, God has loved us like this, we should imitate his love and so love others, seeking their good. As well as demonstrating God’s love and propitiating our sins, the cross is also a model for us to follow in our relationships with one another.
