Hi, this is Joni Eareckson Tada and welcome to Joni and Friends.
Not long ago, Ken and I were in New York City to do the Mike Huckabee program (I hope you had a chance to catch our interview over Thanksgiving weekend). Anyway, we left Fox Studios, my husband and I walked up the block to see Rockefeller Plaza. Near the entrance, there is a modern-looking statue from Greek mythology. It’s a statue of a Greek god named Atlas and he’s standing there bearing the earth and the heavens on his shoulders. Well, I stopped in front of that statue and took a long hard look at it with its shoulders sagging and the guy’s knees buckling under the heavy weight of the world. In a way it reminded me of 1 Peter 2:24 where it says that Jesus “himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sin and live for righteousness.”
I thought of that verse standing there in front of the sculpture because sometimes, just sometimes, when people talk about Jesus bearing the sins of the world, we imagine him carrying those sins much like Atlas carrying the world on his shoulders. But is that a true picture of what Jesus was doing when he went to Calvary? First Peter chapter 2 explains that the Lord was doing something far, far more deep and profound. It says that Jesus himself bore our sins in his body on the tree. So that means when the Lord went to the cross carrying our sins it wasn’t as though he bore a big invisible load on his shoulders. No! Rather, he bore our sins in his body, not on top of his shoulders. He became soaked through and through with our rebellion. Second Corinthians chapter 5, verse 21 puts it this way, it says, “He made him who knew no sin to become sin on our behalf.”
Jesus Christ was the apple of God’s eye. But think about rotten apples that turn brown. Well, our disobedience is a lot like that because our sin turned the apple of God’s eye brown with the rot of our transgressions. No wonder Jesus was so heartbroken with grief as he went to the cross. The awful load he was bearing wasn’t something he could shrug off his shoulders like Atlas might if the weight of the world became unbearable. Jesus knew that when his Father would look at him on that cross, his Father would see our sin. But here’s the amazing part of the Gospel story: all of God’s anger against us is gone if we believe in Jesus. And all God’s got left for us is mercy, grace, forgiveness, and love. What an astonishing gift!
Jesus takes our sin and we receive his righteousness. I tell you, a gift like that makes you want to live in a way that pleases and honors Him. And that’s why 1 Peter 2 concludes by telling us to “in every day die to sins and live for righteousness.” That means working for justice in the world, reaching out to your neighbor who is hurt, not listening to your fears, speaking words of hope and encouragement to faint hearts, getting rid of sins that you’ve tried to housebreak, tamed or domesticate trying to shield them from the Spirit’s scrutiny. Friend there’s no way we could ever pay Jesus back for all he has done, but we can honor His sacrifice as we make it our ambition to be pleasing to Him. And that’s not Greek mythology, that’s the truth.
Hey, friend, if you'd like to see a photo of that statue, I snapped on and have posted it on my radio page today at Joniandfriends.org. Again, just click on my radio page at Joniandfriends.org. And drop me a comment on my blog or on Facebook if my message today has encouraged you today.
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