◄ What Does 1 Peter 2:24 Mean? ►

The Lord Jesus not only died to pay the price FOR our sins, but He also died AS us and in the place of us. They were OUR sins, but He bore the punishment for us so that we would never need to be punished for them. As the sinless Son of Man, He paid the full burden-weight of the accumulated sins of the whole world, past, present, and future, and He also identified with all who would believe on Him so that we might reckon ourselves dead TO those sins as we live our Christian life.

Everyone who trusts in Jesus as Saviour is considered by God to be His spiritual seed. While the Lord Jesus walked this earth, we were reckoned to be IN Christ so that when He died, we died IN Him: "So that we might die to those sins and live righteously."

The Lord Jesus not only died FOR the sin of the whole world, but also on behalf of all believers, by His death on the Cross and separation from the Father on our behalf. The eternal separation we all deserve was paid for by Christ in His body on the tree so that we might be eternally united with the Father, clothed in Christ's righteousness, living spiritually, walking in spirit and truth as we abide in Christ.

The Lord Jesus condescended to not only die for our sins but take the cruel punishment in His body. He suffered scourging, and lashings, and beatings, and humiliation for us, for He was pierced for our rebellion and crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole: spiritually whole. He was whipped so we could be healed from the curse of sin and death and eternal separation from the Father.

May we never become so familiar with the story of the Cross, that we minimise in our minds just what the Lord Jesus did for us: "Who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness; by whose stripes you were healed."

Heavenly Father, thank You that Jesus died to pay the price for my sins so that I too may live a life that is dead to sin and alive to Christ. Thank You that Jesus took the full force of the wrath of God in His body on the tree so that I might die to those sins and live righteously in Christ Jesus. I pray in Jesus' precious name, AMEN.