Here’s a question that came to me from a young Ethiopian seeking to make Canada his new home. He has been casually dropping in to see me over the last two years.

Pastor, what exactly do we mean when we say, “Christ died for our sins?”

This is a fundamental question, and it needs to be answered very precisely, because this statement is one component of the most basic definition of the Gospel (1 Cor 15). And Paul taught us that the gospel is the power of God unto salvation to all those who believe (Rom 1:16).

First of all, we need to realize that our sinful condition is the only reason that we are not in a right relationship to God, our Creator. Because Adam and Eve sinned by disobeying God, all of mankind has inherited not only the sin nature, and are totally depraved of any goodness, but we have also inherited this broken relationship with God which the Bible refers to as a state of condemnation. This is not a trivial thing. When we sin, even though sin is ultimately self-destructive, God is holy, and He is the most offended party. The entire Bible deals with the question, “How does a holy God restore mankind to a place of righteousness in order to fellowship with Him, as Adam and Eve once did on a daily basis?” This ongoing and unresolved state of condemnation will lead to eternal condemnation which the Bible speaks of in no uncertain terms. There is a place called Hell, and the lake of fire from which there is no escape, and it is the final destiny of all who have rejected God’s offer of his Son.

And that is the answer: Jesus Christ, his only-begotten Son.

God is merciful and loving, but because He is also holy, His justice is uncompromising. Most people who assume that because God is merciful, he can forgive sin with the necessary sacrifice of Jesus. But justice would not be justice if forgiveness is based on thin air. Someone has to pay the price that justice demands in order for forgiveness to have any real power. And so, God determined that Jesus Christ, his Son, would become a human, live a sinless life, and then die as a sin-offering for mankind.

When John the Baptist first introduced Jesus in the gospel of John, he did so with the proclamation, “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”

When John referred to Jesus as the Lamb of God, people’s minds no doubt went immediately to the significance of the Passover Lamb, that is, the lamb that was killed, and whose blood was taken and applied to the doorposts of every house that wanted protection from the angel of death, that was passing over all the land of Egypt. Whenever God saw the blood on the doorposts, judgment (condemnation) did not come to that house. The lamb died in order that man would live and not be punished. People who believed the message that judgment was coming, acted upon their belief. But, the New Testament teaches us that the blood of animals cannot redeem us from sins. It was only a temporary measure until the real sacrifice would be made. The real sacrifice for sin for all of mankind is |Jesus Christ, dying for our sins.

In the same way that people back then had to believe the message, we must believe that Jesus died and literally shed his life’s blood in our place, to satisfy God’s justice. And at the same time, it satisfies the quality of God’s mercy and love. The way has been opened now, for any one who believes, to have a right relationship with God, because Jesus died for our sins.

And the good news, the clincher in all of this, is that He rose from the dead, thus proving that He is the Son of God after all. And that is what transformed his followers back then,

Can you imagine what happened in those days, where, in a climate of fear and persecution, the church of Jesus Christ grew by thousands of converts on a daily basis for awhile? It could only be that the eyewitnesses of the resurrected Christ were so convinced of the resurrection that their message was more compelling than all the fear that a Roman empire could instil with their many sweeping persecutions. What else can explain the martyrdom of every apostle but one?

Indeed, Christ died for our sins, not just to provide us an example of the greatest act of unselfishness a man could enact, but to open a way for absolute justice and infinite love to coexist given the sinful condition of the fallen and broken people that we are.