Who his own self bare our sins

'Who his own self bare our sins'

— I Peter 2:24

Because he was made to be sin, the Lord Jesus Christ bore the consequence of our sin. Christ answered for our sins at the bar of God’s justice. He paid the full penalty of the law for our sins. When justice came to punish sin and found it, upon Christ, it arrested him and bruised him so sorely that he sweat blood through the pores of his body. Justice took Immanuel, like a malefactor, off to the hall of judgment. There was none to declare his innocence, or plead for his release. He was brutally beaten and given over to the Roman soldiers. He was publicly stripped, abused, mocked, derided and spat upon. They took him out to the hill of doom and nailed him to the cross. They lifted him up, hanging between heaven and earth, and watched him die. Thus, Christ ‘his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree’. Because he bore our sins, the sword of God’s justice was drawn against him and the cup of wrath was poured out upon him. He took the place of the guilty, became the guilty, guilty and bore the penalty of guilt that we deserve. The Son of God was crushed to death beneath the wheel of divine justice!

Now since the Lord Jesus Christ has borne our sins and satisfied the claims of justice against sin for us, we do not bear them. God laid our sins upon his Son and exacted sin’s penalty from him. God charged his Son with our sins. Justice will not allow God to charge sin to his people. God transferred our sins to his Son. He will not transfer them back to us again. God punished his Son for our sins. He will never punish us for sin. Justice will not allow the same crime to be punished twice. Righteousness will not allow the same debt to be paid twice. The law, the justice and the righteousness of God punished all my sin in Christ my Surety and will never punish me. ‘Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin’ (Rom. 4:8). God will never impute sin to those for whom Christ died. He will never charge a believing soul with sin; because Christ bore our sins away!