“But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed.” Isaiah 53:5
There is the very real tendency to look at the matter of sin from man’s perspective, rather than that of God. Man, in his evaluation of “sin,” as he defines it, is that wrong action or deed, thought, or inclination or motive of the heart, that wrongly, and adversely affects others to their detriment. Of course, for sinful man, whose main concern is his own well-being, sin’s consequence upon his own life determines the gravity and level of wickedness. He judges sin by the effect it has upon himself, and secondly, upon others. Also, man puts the “worst” sins in a box by which he judges other sinners, seeking to avoid the most grievous of them. However, is this how God sees sin? And what really is sin? And why is there a term in Hebrew which expresses transgression against God, the guilt, and the punishment?
If we would just begin to get a sense of the meaning of what sin is to God, we must look at the sinless Lamb, there being no spot, blemish, or fault. The entire time of Christ’s sojourn on this earth was spent without one cloud coming between Him and the Father. Christ’s life was the expression of the perfect, powerful, and victorious love of God. So, we see a life that is right and good, self-less and in no way, at any time, a contradiction to the nature and person of the Father, nor to HIs ways, thoughts, and actions. There is perfect conformity of the Son with the Father, and thus, the revelation of the full effect of communion…the inexpressible love of God, and fulness of joy. It is with this reality as the backdrop to grasping something of the nature, acts, and effects, of sin, that it is revealed in all of its hideous darkness, with self and Satan at its core.
When sin came into this world, by the deliberate act of Adam and Eve, defying God by their explicit disobedience of His commands to them, death also entered. Why? To God, sin is of such a repulsive nature, and a categorical defiance of all that is good in God, that there can be absolutely no communion with it, no acceptance, no co-habitation with it. Thus, the sinner who sins, as did Adam, deprives himself of a covenant of life that God made with man. His avoidance of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and his embrace of the tree of life, would ensure him of a blessed communion of Life, eternal Life, with God His Maker, and Blessed Sustainer in life. Thus, it begins to be apparent that the nature of sin can be understood in part by the effect it had, and has, on the human race. It was Mrs. Cousin who wrote in one of her hymns: “Death and the curse were in our cup, O Christ, ’twas full for Thee. But Thou has drained the last dark drop, ‘Tis empty now for me. That bitter cup, love drank it up; Now blessings’ draught for me.” Death came with sin, and comes still. Sin is the cause of death, and the consequent curse of God upon it. Sin is dark, and “light-less.” It is bitter in its unavoidable consequence, and every man will drink that bitter cup, unless Someone else drinks it for him.
There is another way to grasp something of the awfulness, the wretchedness of sin, and it is in the cost to God, to Christ and the Father, by the Spirit. Since God is holy and perfect, there is no other way but to deal with sin totally. The judgement upon it must be full. The depth of its darkness and wretchedness can only be dealt with by an overcoming demonstration of the sovereign love of God, the overwhelming compassion that He has for lost men, and His willingness to give His beloved Son as the solitary, sufficient sacrifice, to deal with it completely.
Dear Father, Show us afresh the bleeding, spotless Lamb. In Jesus’ name, Amen.