The Price of Sin
“And they came to the place which God had told him of; and Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood. And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son.” -Genesis 22:9-10
Perhaps most are already familiar with the Biblical account of Abraham and Isaac, and how God tested Abraham by asking him to sacrifice his only son.
“And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.” -Genesis 22:2
At the very climax of the story, when Abraham has his knife in hand, and is ready to sacrifice his son, God intervenes. “And the angel of the LORD called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here am I. And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me” (Genesis 22:11-12).
For most of us—if it’s our first time reading through the story—we are somewhat relieved when we see that Isaac is in fact spared. We think of how horrible it would’ve been for Abraham to have lost his dear son, Isaac.
Part two
Yet what we don’t realize is that this story was only a foreshadowing of what was going to take place hundreds of years in the future: only this time, it was God’s Son, and He would not be spared…
“And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? which is, being interpreted, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? . . . And Jesus cried with a loud voice, and gave up the ghost.” -Mark 15:34, 37
And why did Jesus have to die? Why was He not spared, as Abraham was able to spare his son Isaac? Why did Jesus cry “my God, why have you forsaken me?” and get no answer back from God?
Sin has a price
Jesus had to die because our sin has a price. God laid upon Him the sin of all mankind, and poured out His wrath upon Him: upon His very own Son!
God is a forgiving God, yes; and He forgives freely: this is also true. But just because He forgives us freely does not mean that that forgiveness comes with no price or cost. The punishment for our sins is death, and in order to forgive us, God had to give up His only begotten Son.
“But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.” -Isaiah 53:5-6
He arose
Yet it would not be the complete story to simply say that Jesus died, and stayed dead. But, as we celebrate on Easter Sunday, on the third day after Jesus’ crucifixion, God raised Him from the dead, and He lives forevermore.
“Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain: Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it.” -Acts 2:23-24
And now today, He stands at the door of every man’s heart, and knocks. Jesus Christ is knocking and waiting to see if you will accept His work on the cross, and make Him your Lord and your Savior. He is waiting and looking to see if you will apply the payment of His blood to take away the debt of your sins. He is watching to see if you will believe on Him, or if you will let all the blood-stained work that He has done for you go to waste.
“How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?” -Hebrews 2:3a
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