He Died for My Sins
by Allen Dvorak
via Biblical Insights, Vol. 15 No. 2, February 2015
What would you be willing to do for your enemy? To the Romans, Paul wrote that God demonstrated His love for us “in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). We (men in general) were enemies of God because of our sins (Romans 5:10). Whatever other significance the death of Jesus might have for us, it is certainly evidence of the divine love for His human creation. And that love ought to motivate us to obedience.
As impressive as this demonstration of love is, we should not overlook the emphasis that the apostle placed on the fact that Jesus' death was for our benefit. He “died for the ungodly” (Romans 5:6). He “died for us” (Romans 5:8). We have been “justified by his blood” (Romans 5:9). We are “saved by him from the wrath of God” (Romans 5:9). We were “reconciled to God by the death of his Son” (Romans 5:10). Clearly, the death of Jesus is connected in some way to our justification and reconciliation.
If the concept of Jesus dying on our behalf seems patently obvious to the reader, it is worth noting that not everyone shares the same understanding of what that entails. Some affirm that Jesus did not die “for us” in the sense of enduring the punishment that the sinner should receive. God may have allowed Jesus to suffer, i.e., experience what mankind faces, but He was not “punishing” Jesus in any sense of the word. Noted author Jim McGuiggan wrote, “The trouble with believing that God punished Jesus with the punishment that sinners were due to get for their sins is that if God punished Jesus he was punishing a man he knew to be utterly innocent and utterly righteous—that’s immoral and God himself forbids it (Deuteronomy 24:16)” [“Did God PUNISH Jesus?” www.jimmcguiggan.com].
It seems to me that there is a difference between punishing an unwilling innocent victim for the sin of another (an injustice) and a person willingly taking the punishment that belongs to another. But, setting aside for the moment this issue, the expressions “saved by him from the wrath of God” and “reconciled to God by the death of his Son” are both related to judicial concerns.
God’s wrath is not born of selfishness, but is judicial. Paul wrote, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men...” (Romans 1:18). In Romans 3:25, Paul affirmed that God had “put forward [Jesus] as a propitiation by his blood.” The word translated as "propitiation" (ίλαστηριον) conveys the idea of appeasing wrath through an offering that satisfies justice.
God’s wrath against sin is appeased by the sacrifice of Jesus, His blood representing His life given on the cross.
In another article on his website, McGuiggan argues, “What atoned for sin was not Christ’s suffering as suffering (much less ‘punishment’) but Christ’s holy obedience that took the form of suffering ... On stylistic grounds, Macleod Campbell is a very hard read, but in The Nature of Atonement, he has taught us well in showing us that Jesus’ suffering was the form a Son’s loving obedience took in doing the will of his Holy Father. That’s what gave it its moral value and its reconciling power—it was the expression of a heart entirely aligned with the heart of the Holy Father. His aim was to reconcile humanity to God, to realign their hearts to the Holy Father, and the nature of his goal is expressed in the nature of his life and death. What he was and did is what he meant to bring about in and for others.” (“What atoned for sin? www.jimmcguiggan.com”).
While it is certainly true that our hearts need to be “aligned with the heart of the Holy Father,” McGuiggan says nothing about what must be done to atone for sins already committed. According to him, my reconciliation to God is accomplished by Christ’s obedience, the cross being the final expression of that obedience, apparently by its persuasive power. However, reconciliation necessitates the removal of that which has separated the two parties. Man is separated from God by his sins (Isaiah 59:2). Does God “justify” men, i.e., declare them free from sin, without any “cost”? The author of Hebrews wrote, “Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins” (Hebrews 9:22 ESV). For sin to be forgiven, a life must be given (“the shedding of blood”). Interestingly, Paul did not write that we are reconciled to God by the obedience of His Son, but “by the death of his Son” (Romans 5:10; see also Colossians 1:22).
The giving of a life was the price of redemption. Speaking of Christ, Paul wrote, “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace” (Ephesians 1:7 ESV). The word "redemption" refers to the payment of a ransom to obtain liberty. Both Paul and Peter indicated that the price paid for our freedom from sin was the blood of Jesus, i.e., His life given on the cross (Ephesians 1:7; I Peter 1:19). He died to pay the price for our sins!
