With His death on the cross, the Lord Jesus solved the aspect of our problem associated with our sinful behavior. Our sins, wrongdoings, and transgressions expose the problematic aspect of our behavior. As violations of God’s righteousness, these sins make it impossible for us to escape His condemnation. When a person violates the law of a country, he can be convicted as a criminal according to law. Our numerous sins have violated God’s righteousness, and they prevent us from being accepted by God or receiving His blessing. Although God desires to give us grace, the charges against us before God prevent Him from drawing near to us.
A proper government cares for its citizens and is willing to provide for their security and enjoyment, but once a citizen violates the law and is convicted of a crime, he no longer has the right to enjoy these provisions. This is our situation before God. God is gracious and wants to bless us, but our sins have become a hindrance. The Lord Jesus solved the problem related to our sins on the cross. When He was put to death on the cross, not only was He killed by men, but He was also judged by God on our behalf.
First Peter 2:24 says, “Who Himself bore up our sins in His body on the tree.” When the Lord Jesus was nailed on the cross, God caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him. God saw Him as the redeeming Lamb (Isa. 53:5-6, 10). His death on the cross involved more than a death at the hands of evil men. For a period of time on the cross, He was judged and punished by God for our sins. He bore our sins on the cross. As sinners, we deserved to die, but He died for us on the cross. We should have received God’s righteous punishment, but He received this punishment on our behalf. As the Scripture says, “Christ also has suffered once for sins, the Righteous on behalf of the unrighteous, that He might bring you to God” (1 Pet. 3:18).
Because of the charges against us before God, there was a distance, a barrier, between God and us. In order to rescue us and bring us to God, the Lord Jesus removed the distance between us by clearing away the charges that were against us. He bore our sins on the cross and received God’s judgment on our behalf to satisfy God’s righteous requirement. He removed the barrier between God and us. He brought us before God so that we could receive God’s forgiveness, God’s acceptance, and God’s grace and blessings.
The Lord Jesus cleared away our sins by His death on the cross. No other way could take away our sins, including any achievement or merit on our part. Without a Substitute to receive God’s righteous judgment, the charges against us before God would have remained. However, the Lord Jesus bore our sins on the cross. Although we had been led astray like sheep with all kinds of sins, God put all our sins and iniquities upon the Lord Jesus so that He could bear them on our behalf. God looked upon the Lord Jesus as our Substitute and judged Him on the cross. The Lord Jesus shed His precious blood to cleanse us from our sins. The shedding of His precious blood was a declaration that He had received God’s righteous punishment. Through His vicarious death on the cross, the aspect of our sinful behavior was solved
When the Lord Jesus died on the cross as a man, the human nature that He put on in His incarnation was also crucified. The Lord Jesus, the Word who became flesh, put humanity on Himself. He not only bore our sins when He was crucified but also our person. Thus, He not only dealt with our sins on the cross, He also dealt with us as sinners, that is, our nature of sin. Romans 6:6 says, “Our old man has been crucified with Him.” Our old man is our old nature. When the Lord was crucified, our old nature of sin was crucified with Him.
Here is a certain fact: Whoever believes in the crucified Lord, calls on Him, and draws near to Him, has been delivered from his sinful nature because of the effectiveness of His death. First Peter 2:24 says, “Who Himself bore up our sins in His body on the tree, in order that we, having died to sins, might live to righteousness.” Christ’s bearing up of our sins not only issued in the forgiveness of our sins; it also enabled us to die to sin. When we die to sin, we are delivered from the bondage of sin. It is not easy for people who smoke opium to quit even though they suffer from their addiction. However, when an opium smoker dies, he is freed from the desire to smoke opium. Only a dead person is freed from the bondage of opium.
All our addictions come from our nature. The best way to give up our addictions is to put our nature to death. Some people care for nothing other than playing mah-jongg. Even though they hate themselves for their addiction, they are unable to quit. Even if a person cut off one of his hands to keep from playing mah-jongg, he would not be able to refrain from playing. His inward impulse to play would eventually overpower him. Even with the loss of a hand, he would continue to play mah-jongg. Only with his death would he be free from what comes out of his nature of sin.
Some people may say, “This is terrible. Does believing in Jesus mean that we must die? If this is so, what is the benefit of believing in Jesus?” The termination that we are speaking of, however, is not something dreadful but glorious, because this termination delivers us from our sinful nature and bad habits. Deliverance from our sinful nature is not possible through resolutions, through struggle and striving, or even through the help of others. Even if a man tries to quit drinking and asks his wife to help him, he will eventually beg her for a drink despite her earnest efforts to help. Such a situation proves how difficult it is to deal with man’s nature.
In contrast, many people who believe in the Lord Jesus can testify that many bad habits simply dropped away when they received the Lord Jesus as their Savior and then trusted in Him, prayed to Him, and drew near to Him. Although this is difficult for them to explain, they can testify of the power of His salvation. The more we pray to Jesus, the more our corrupt nature is put to death. The more we draw near to Jesus, the more our addictions fall away. We do not need to cut off our hands or physically die; we only need to pray to Jesus and draw near to Him. This will activate an indescribable power within us that causes us to have no desire to play mah-jongg. This is marvelous; it is a power that kills the “germs” of our sinful nature, just as penicillin kills germs within us.
When we believe in the Lord Jesus and call on Him, He is like an injection of penicillin. The “germs” of sin and the “germs” of our addictions are completely killed. Tens of thousands of Christians can testify that Jesus Christ bore their sins on the cross. When we receive him, the result is that we are dead to sin. He has the power to put our sinful nature to death. He not only deals with our outward sins; He also deals with our inward nature of sin.