Holy Week Thoughts, Part 5: Sin Always Requires Death
This is the script that I wrote for the Holy Week devotions at Eastridge for Good Friday:
If there’s one thing we know about God, it’s that He hates sin. From the first sin in the Garden of Eden, God mandated that sin requires death. Because Adam and Eve disobeyed Him, they would deal with the physical and emotional pain of death, just as their descendants throughout history have dealt with death.
Sin drives such a wedge between people and God that He designed a sacrificial system for His chosen people to atone for their sins. The Old Testament details the elaborate list of sacrifices and offerings that the Israelites had to perform in order to absolve the guilt of their sins – including accidental ones.
The sacrifices that covered the sins of God’s people involved an animal that was spotless, without blemish of any kind. This seemingly perfect animal would have to shed its blood and die to become an atoning sacrifice.
Sin always requires death.
If you put your wildest imagination to work to devise the most gruesome and humiliating form of punishment known to man, you probably wouldn’t come up with something worse than crucifixion. Ancient cultures developed a surefire way to execute criminals and deter crime when they invented crucifixion.
Crucifixion was a torturous spectacle of death taking place in slow motion and in public, over several hours in the heat of the day. The condemned would endure a severe beating at the hands of soldiers. He would then carry his own execution device from the place of judgment to the spot where the crucifixion would take place. Soldiers and citizens would mock the condemned, hurling insults and spitting at him along the way.
At the place of crucifixion, soldiers would nail the condemned to the cross, where he would hang, naked, in front of everyone, until his lungs or heart gave out and he died. Death would take hours of abject pain and humiliation. A plaque above the cross would list the name and crime of the condemned for the mocking public to see.
Crucifixion was a form of execution reserved for the worst of the worst – slaves, thieves, or enemies of the state. Yet Jesus endured this hideous and inhumane form of torture, even though He had committed no crime. He did it to serve as an atonement for the sins of those who would call on His name, including yours and mine, even though He had committed no sin.
Sin always requires death.
Think about what Jesus went through for our sake.
One of His closest friends betrayed Him, which led to His arrest. The authorities subjected Him to show trials that made a mockery of justice at the hands of both the High Priest and the Roman leaders. He endured severe beatings and teasing from Roman soldiers. His disciples scattered, abandoning Him. His most outspoken disciple even denied having anything to do with his Rabbi.
The crowds who had honored Jesus as King and called upon Him to save them just days before turned on Him. They cried, “Crucify Him” and allowed an insurrectionist to go free in His place in order to fulfill the custom of setting a prisoner free at Passover.
Then, Jesus hung for hours on a device meant for torture and execution. The Romans hung a plaque above the cross that listed not a crime, but the assertion that he was King. Soldiers gambled for His clothing, and one criminal crucified beside Him hurled words of contempt at Him. Covered in blood, unable to breathe, facing unbearable pain, He willingly took on the humiliation and dishonor of the cross to bear the sins of His people.
Because God the Father refuses to have anything to do with sin, He turned His back upon His Son for that instant as Jesus carried the weight of our sins with Him upon the cross. Jesus even had to deal with that ultimate loneliness and abandonment because He loved us enough to die for our sins.
Sin always requires death.
It’s easy to wonder why the sovereign God didn’t stop this horrendous act of injustice. It’s easy to question why Jesus didn’t show them all the truth that He was King. It’s easy to question why His followers didn’t take up arms and try to save their beloved Rabbi from dying at the hands of the Romans.
But Jesus’ death was all part of God’s perfect and holy plan to redeem humanity. From the Passover to the days of Hebrew sacrifices to the exile from and return to the Promised Land, God had a plan to enact a perfect, unstained sacrifice for atonement. That plan was to send His Son to earth to die to sin in the place of His people.
Because sin always requires death.
The Gospel of John tells us that Jesus’ last words on the cross were, “It is finished.” He put an end to the elaborate system of sacrifices that allowed God’s people to have a relationship with Him. He became the spotless, perfect sacrifice that ended all sacrifices.
Thanks to Jesus, sin no longer requires death for those who put their trust in Him.
As believers in Jesus, we often speak or sing songs about the beauty of Jesus’ blood or the glory of His sacrifice. These kinds of sentiments must sound strange to the ears of people who don’t grasp what the cross means, but for us, the crucifixion should lead us to somber reflection and awe, to sorrow combined with gratitude.
Today, as the world commemorates Jesus’ time on the cross, reflect on what His sacrifice means to you.
Do you take for granted what Jesus endured for your sake?
Does the idea that Jesus took on the death that sin requires so that you don’t have to cause you to tremble?
Does the weight of what Jesus went through lead you to repentance?
Spend some time today reflecting on the sacrifice of Jesus and what it means for your life.
Jesus, thank You for paying the debt of sin that none of us could pay. Your death on the cross was the sacrifice to end all sacrifices. May we never take for granted what You did for us on that day, and may we live our lives in light of what the cross means to us.
In Your name we pray, Amen.
Photo by Nadia Supertino on Unsplash