Jesus, Our Sin Bearer

When Jesus was crucified, his enemies intended the positioning of his cross to be his final disgrace. There were two criminals crucified with Jesus, one to his right and one to his left. However, instead of this being a disgrace, it was a fulfillment of prophecy: “Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors” (Isaiah 53:12).

I have always been intrigued by how Isaiah wrote that Jesus was crucified on the cross as if we were all there. The truth is we were there—at least our guilt and sin were there, and Jesus bore it all. We are all as guilty as the people who crucified our Lord.

In Rembrandt’s painting “The Raising of the Cross,” the artist paints himself in the picture as one of those crucifying the Lord.” Isaiah does that with all of us, and no one is excluded. “Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God,

smitten by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds, we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way, and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:4-6).

Jesus took the blame for our sins. He accepted the responsibility. What is the primary question when there is an accident on the highway? Who is at fault? Why does everyone want to know the answer to that question? Because whoever is at fault will have to foot the bill. Jesus accepted the blame and paid the bill. Paul wrote to the Corinthians in these eloquent words describing what God did for us through Jesus’ death: “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor 5:21).