"Jesus the Sin Bearer"

  Isaiah spoke: "...My Servant, will justify the many, as He will bear their iniquities." (53:11) "Yet He Himself bore the sin of many, and interceded for the transgressor." (53:12) What does it mean that He "bore our sin"? Peter speaks: "And He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you are healed." (I Pet. 2:24) In what way did Jesus "bear our sins"?

  Simply put, Jesus put Himself in harm's way to deal with our sins! Over and over in the OT, the holy God Almighty spoke that a nation (or a person) would bear their own iniquity. Ezekiel 18 is a good illustration. In other words, the nation or individual took personal responsibility and would face the consequences. They would pay their price for their own disobedience. Jesus was made sin on our behalf and He made our sins His personal responsibility and faced the consequences of them along with us and on our behalf. Jesus identified with you (me), the sinful and took us personal.

  Jesus not only identified with us and faced our consequences for us, He carried our sins to the place of judgment before God in order to deal with our sins. His death in our place was a death of obedience and holy before the Father. Jesus was holy and His death was holy where God was appeased in a perfect and holy sacrifice. The sacrifice of Jesus in our place was a pure, holy and sinless sacrifice taking on the sinful to please God.

  Paul never stated in II Cor. 5:21 that Jesus was a sinner! He wasn't turned into sin. When we listen carefully it says: "He made Him who knew to sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." The idea of "to be sin" is the OT statement of "sin offering". Our sins weren't transferred to Jesus. Our sins were atoned by Jesus. If man's sins were transferred, that would imply the whole world is without sin! No, Jesus is our sin bearer in that one must come to Him, confessing, repenting and being united with Him in baptism because He alone is the only One that can bear the sins of many and the bear the many sins before a holy, righteous and just God! Praise be to God.