The Weight of Sin
Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us--for it is written, "Cursed be every one who hangs on a tree." Gal. 3:13, RSV.
Cursed be every one who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law, and do them" (Gal. 3:10, RSV, citing Deut. 27:26). One function of the law was to set forth God's ideal. A second of its purposes was to identify sin: "through the law comes knowledge of sin" (Rom. 3:20, RSV). The bad news is that "the wages of sin is death" (Rom. 6:23). And because "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Rom. 3:23), every human being since Adan has been under the curse of the law.
That's the bad news. The good news (literally "gospel") is that Jesus on the cross absorbed the curse for all of us and each of us.
It was not the physical punishment of the cross or the public indignation that made Jesus dread it so much, but the mental anguish accompanying His bearing of the sins of the world. The Desire of Ages helps us peer into that anguish: "The guilt of every descendant of Adam was pressing upon His heart. The wrath of God against sin, the terrible manifestation of His displeasure because of iniquity, filled the soul of His Son with consternation. All His life Christ had been publishing to a fallen world the good news of the Father's mercy and pardoning love. Salvation for the chief of sinners was His theme. But now with the terrible weight of guilt He bears, He cannot see the Father's reconciling face. The withdrawal of the divine countenance from the Saviour in this hour of supreme anguish pierced His heart with a sorrow that can never be fully understood by man. So great was this agony that His physical pain was hardly felt.
"Satan with his fierce temptations wrung the heart of Jesus. The Saviour could not see through the portals of the tomb. Hope did not present to Him His coming forth from the grave a conqueror, or tell Him of the Father's acceptance of the sacrifice. He feared that sin was so offensive to God that Their separation was to be eternal. Christ felt the anguish which the sinner will feel when mercy shall no longer plead for the guilty race. It was the sense of sin, bringing the Father's wrath upon Him as man's substitute, that made the cup He drank so bitter, and broke the heart of the Son of God" (The Desire of Ages, p. 753).
We have but the faintest of ideas of what the cross involved for Jesus. The tragedy of earth's history is that it means nothing to most people.
Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us--for it is written, "Cursed be every one who hangs on a tree." Gal. 3:13, RSV.
Cursed be every one who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law, and do them" (Gal. 3:10, RSV, citing Deut. 27:26). One function of the law was to set forth God's ideal. A second of its purposes was to identify sin: "through the law comes knowledge of sin" (Rom. 3:20, RSV). The bad news is that "the wages of sin is death" (Rom. 6:23). And because "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Rom. 3:23), every human being since Adan has been under the curse of the law.
That's the bad news. The good news (literally "gospel") is that Jesus on the cross absorbed the curse for all of us and each of us.
It was not the physical punishment of the cross or the public indignation that made Jesus dread it so much, but the mental anguish accompanying His bearing of the sins of the world. The Desire of Ages helps us peer into that anguish: "The guilt of every descendant of Adam was pressing upon His heart. The wrath of God against sin, the terrible manifestation of His displeasure because of iniquity, filled the soul of His Son with consternation. All His life Christ had been publishing to a fallen world the good news of the Father's mercy and pardoning love. Salvation for the chief of sinners was His theme. But now with the terrible weight of guilt He bears, He cannot see the Father's reconciling face. The withdrawal of the divine countenance from the Saviour in this hour of supreme anguish pierced His heart with a sorrow that can never be fully understood by man. So great was this agony that His physical pain was hardly felt.
"Satan with his fierce temptations wrung the heart of Jesus. The Saviour could not see through the portals of the tomb. Hope did not present to Him His coming forth from the grave a conqueror, or tell Him of the Father's acceptance of the sacrifice. He feared that sin was so offensive to God that Their separation was to be eternal. Christ felt the anguish which the sinner will feel when mercy shall no longer plead for the guilty race. It was the sense of sin, bringing the Father's wrath upon Him as man's substitute, that made the cup He drank so bitter, and broke the heart of the Son of God" (The Desire of Ages, p. 753).
We have but the faintest of ideas of what the cross involved for Jesus. The tragedy of earth's history is that it means nothing to most people.
RSS Feed
