We have come a long way in trying to explain the violence of God in the Old Testament (See the list of posts at the bottom.) I am nearly ready to offer my proposal… But there is one more piece of the puzzle to lay on the table before we start putting all the pieces together.
Jesus Became Sin for Us
The final piece of the puzzle about how to understand the violence of God in the Old Testament in light of life, ministry, and death of Jesus Christ is found in 2 Corinthians 5:21.
In this text we read that Jesus became sin for us. Paul writes that God made Jesus “who knew no sin to be sin for us.” We must not try to soften the implications or significance of what Paul writes.
It is not just that Jesus took our sin upon Himself on the cross. No, He became sin.
He took His righteousness and swapped it with our sinfulness. Every sin we have ever committed was not just “credited” to the account of Jesus, but He was actually made to be that sin!
The horror of this must not be missed. But neither should the love.
The horror and the love of what Jesus did on the cross helps us understand what God was doing in the Old Testament. I will explain in future posts.
But this post will simply relate a dream I had as a boy which I think shows both the horror and the love of the cross.
A Dream About the Love and Horror of the Cross
When I was about ten years old, I had a nightmare about Jesus dying the cross. I vividly remember seeing His broken and bleeding body hanging upon the cross. As I watched, I noticed a few black ants coming up out of the ground and climbing up the cross toward Jesus. As they climbed, more and more ants swarmed up out of the ground so that by the time the first few ants had reached the bloody feet of Jesus, all the ground around the cross and the lower portion of the beam was a roiling mass of blackness. This swarm of ants scurried up the cross and over the body of Jesus.
I could tell by the way Jesus twitched and squirmed that the ants were not just climbing over His body, but were biting Him as well. I was surprised that Jesus did not cry out in pain, but I knew that if He did, they would enter His mouth and eat Him alive from the inside out. As soon as I had this horrifying thought, Jesus looked me in the eyes and then opened His mouth wide. As expected, the mass of ants swarmed in and they ate Jesus alive. Soon, there was nothing left of Jesus, only a black mass of ants.
I woke trembling, with tears in my eyes.
I knew, of course, what the ants were. They were my sins. Each tiny ant represented one of my sins. And there were millions upon millions of them. At first I thought that there was no way all those sins were mine; they had to have been the sins of the whole world. But that look from Jesus told the whole story. They were my sins, and mine alone. There were so many, they were beyond counting, but He took them all on, every single one.
And I knew that this is what He had done for the entire world, for each and every person.
Most surprisingly, however, I felt no accusation from Jesus. No anger. No condemnation.
Just love.
Strangely, and most vividly of all, there was not even a sense that He wanted me to try to sin less. When He looked me in the eyes, it was as if He said, “Look at me. I am already covered with millions upon millions of biting black ants. What difference will ten more or ten less really make? If you want to stop sinning, it is for your benefit, not mine. No matter how much you sin, I will take it all on. And whether you sin or don’t sin, I will continue to love you just the same.”
I have often thought about that dream. But recently, as I have sought to view God in light of what Jesus tells us about Him, I have begun to see that the dream not only reflects what Jesus did for all people on the cross, but also reflects what God has always been doing for the sins of the whole world.
How can a God who says "Love your enemies" (Matthew 5:44) be the same God who instructs His people in the Old Testament to kill their enemies?
These are the sorts of questions we discuss and (try to) answer in my online discipleship group. Members of the group can also take ALL of my online courses (Valued at over $1000) at no charge. Learn more here: Join the RedeemingGod.com Discipleship Group I can't wait to hear what you have to say, and how we can help you better understand God and learn to live like Him in this world!
why Jesus screamed in agony why have you forsaken me. So God does forsaken you at times. He forsaken Jesus. Even to me this sounds very bad. What happened to the promise I will never leave you? I will always be by your side? I have heard that when He took the sin of the world that’s the moment when God forsaken Him. So did sin over power and made God forsaken Him? That is impossible so what happened?
I kind of answer this here: https://redeeminggod.com/why-have-you-forsaken-me/ Let me know what you think.
It makes me think a lot. It makes sense that as a man He would have feelings like a man. And at that moment of pain He would feel forsaken as a man. So even though He knew exactly what would happen that He would be back in heaven he still felt forsaken? I’m feeling this a lot of the time when things are rough. And it scares me that I may lose faith, if it gets any rougher. When we pray Jesus said ask and you shall receive but we do not receive all what we ask for. Of course we should not get everything we ask for but then why say we will?
Great questions. I think that the key to Jesus promises in prayer is what he says about “praying in his name.” This doesn’t mean that we tack on “in Jesus’ name, Amen” to the end of every prayer, but rather, that we pray for the things Jesus would pray for, as if He were the one praying. Maybe I will write a post about this….
Enjoyed the reading but I disagree with a bit of your ending. In your dream, Christ looks at you and gives you the sense that a few more sins don’t matter, what’s 10 or more? That makes it too easy for a Christian to go out and do just that thinking it won’t matter, Christ already paid for it etc.. Christ told the woman caught in adultery to sin no more, he told the blind man that he healed to sin no more lest something worse happen to him, etc…What if the next couple of sins that one commits makes all the difference in gaining or losing rewards in heaven? Just my opinion for what it’s worth.
Christianity is not a reward driven enterprise. And we struggle with sin until our physical death. I think Jeremy meant that even after conversion there will be sin occurrences that jesus has covered for us. He did not mean we could commit willingly 10 more sins just willy nilly and get away with it. There is always a price for sin. As believers though we are at least aware of sin and its consequences and the immeasurable price that was paid for it. And so very grateful for jesus.
Jesus became sin on the cross. If the origins of sin and its creator were Satan then did jesus in effect become Satan? This sort of has echoes in physcology. The shadowy figure of man. Its all pretty confusing ehh! I,m just gonna try to keep my head down and maybe stay out of it. “As if I could!!! When a person becomes a new believer God help him. Because he/she goes forth into the minefield of ” biblical interpretation, false teaching, and institutional Christianity!! “. A veritable mine field. I can only thank God that he is with us in that journey. Even when we loose sight of him.
i wrote my comment
Sir Jeremy,
can i ask one more biblical question ? 🤔
Sir J. D.
Remembering you in the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
Last time I asked ,, whether I should ask a question ,,
but found no reply , so i am asking 😛
just explain ,, the term,, Jesus Bride’,,
this should be your own answer , not printed big one , which deviates the attention from the given point,
Thank you, your email blew me away! I had never thought of Jesus becoming our sin. Can’t wait to read the one where you explain about God and our sin in the Old Testament. I have many, many questions about all the killing in the Old Testament and I am hoping your follow-up emails wit help answer some of them.