On the cross, Jesus took on your sins and mine—he became sin for us. It was our sin, the sins of the whole world, that he bore on the tree, and it was that sin at which God’s righteous anger was directed. The Apostle Paul wrote in II Corinthians 5:21, “For God made Jesus who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” Simply, yet marvelously, Christ’s death on the cross was the only means to our reconciliation with God. Jesus paid the ultimate price to satisfy God’s righteous wrath and bring us peace with God. We who were enemies were brought near to God, now as friends. How wonderful, how marvelous, is God’s saving love for us. By Christ’s death, we were once sinners, but now God’s friends.
