Tuesday
Tuesday
The Necessity of the Cross
He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness.
1 Peter 2:24
When Jesus first told his disciples that the Son of Man must suffer many things and die, it was Peter who immediately and vehemently contradicted him. He could not come to terms with the concept of a suffering Messiah. Yet here is Peter now, some three decades later, in his first letter, contradicting his own contradiction! Each of his letter’s five chapters contains a major passage on the Messiah’s sufferings.
Peter makes two statements about the purpose of the cross. The first is that Christ left us an example (which we have already considered), and the second that he “bore our sins in his body on the tree” (v. 24). To “bear sin” is an Old Testament expression for “to bear the penalty of sin.” Normally it is the offender who bears the penalty of his own sin. Sometimes, however, in God’s great mercy, he provides a substitute to bear the penalty instead, such as the sin offering and especially the scapegoat on the Day of Atonement.
Godly Israelites knew, however, that this was only symbolical, for the blood of bulls and goats could not take away sins (Heb. 10:4). So they looked forward to the day when the suffering servant of Isaiah 53 would bear their sin, and Jesus applied this prophecy to himself.
There is a problem, however. If Christ took our place, bore our sin, paid our penalty, and died our death, and in consequence we have been forgiven, does this not mean (as some people ask) that we can now behave as we like and go on sinning? Paul’s critics certainly developed this slander, and Peter’s may have done too. But both apostles vigorously denied the charge. See how Peter continued: he bore our sins in order that we might die to sin and live for righteousness. So the purpose of the death of Christ is not just to secure our forgiveness but to secure our holiness as well.
There is no Christianity without the cross. A Christianity without the cross is a fraud.
For further reading: 1 Peter 2:18–25