Cost of Sin

We have heard about the cost or price of sin when it comes to breaking God’s Law and of the sacrifice that Jesus made at the cross. Even Mel Gibson made a movie about the sacrifice that Christ had gone through up to the Cross and then his resurrection, which was a decent movie portraying that event.

We have many scriptures from the Old Testament that speak of Christ through prophecy. Some are more informative such as where he would be born and from where he would be called (Micah 5:2; Hosea 11:1 and Isaiah 11:1). There are some that speak of how he would speak and how he would appear when entering Jerusalem for the last time before his crucifixion (Psalm 78:2; Isaiah 6:9-10 and Isaiah 62:11).

What I want to talk about is the total cost of our sin. We know that Jesus paid the price as the sacrificial lamb to redeem us from sin. Through scriptures of the Old Testament we see prophetic signs that pointed to things that Jesus would endure (Isaiah 53:4, 12; Psalm 118:22-23; Zechariah 13:7; 11:12-13 and Psalm 22:18). These and much more did he go through while fulfilling his Father’s will.

We know that Jesus was rejected by God’s people for the most part, betrayed for thirty pieces of silver, endure a shady trial at night where he would be falsely charged and found guilty on those charges, mocked, beaten and whipped, made to carry his own cross and then being crucified on that cross. For the most part these are the things we think about when it comes to the cost of our sin, but that is not all of it.

For Jesus to come down and to go through the above list and finally pay for our sins there is far more than just what Jesus would go through to get to the point of our salvation. I would like to cover the time period from after the initial fall of man through the act of eating from the tree Knowledge of Good and Evil by Adam and Eve. We all equate that event to the sacrifice that Jesus paid upon the cross, but I want to look at more of the forgotten or less paid attention to stuff.

We know from Genesis that at the time of the fall of Adam there was a prophetic word, given to point to a future savior (Genesis 3:15). Things had gotten so bad that this prophecy would be put in jeopardy if something wasn’t done, so God issues a flood to take place, do to the fact of the abundance of wickedness upon the face of the earth. The first cost of sin for Jesus to come down here was the total annihilation of all living things upon the face of the earth except for Noah and his family along with the animals on the ark.

Next would be the struggle that Abraham would have to face in offering up his son as a sacrifice along with the struggle that his future offspring would face because of the lineage of Jesus’ ancestors. We could look back and wonder how much did God’s people suffer because the savior of the world would eventually come down through this line? Satan knew that Jesus would be coming through Abraham’s seed and eventually the nation of Israel and with this information without a doubt Satan would try to do things to prevent the coming of the Messiah.

Ok, so now we will skip up to the time when Jesus is about to be born into the world and begin his growth through childhood then into adulthood. Another event takes place that is horrific and yet it is tied to the cost of our sins. When Jesus about to be born, a decree was sent out to have all the male children from two years old and under to be murdered, how many died we do not know it could be hundreds of children. This was an act influenced by Satan, again to try and stop Jesus from showing up onto the scene. For us to gain salvation the cost of Jesus’ birth would be the price of possibly hundreds of male children and this is but one instance that we know of through history that Satan had people murdered to stop Jesus from showing up.

At this point we read of a small portion of Jesus’ life in the New Testament when it comes to his ministry. His childhood is briefly mentioned along with most of his adult life. We get to jump right into his ministry and up to his crucifixion. The depth of his sacrifice cannot truly be appreciated if we view Jesus’s relationship with God through the glasses of the Trinity. Even just writing it out in the form of notes does it injustice when we look at the cost that both God Almighty and His son paid. If we look at it as God (the son portion of the Godhead) supposedly dying for us then it’s a simple matter of a sacrifice paid on behalf of us, but if we look at it not as a Trinity (three in one concept) but as it truly is, then we will see the full cost of our sin that was paid.

Here we have a very close relationship between a True Father and His son, who had never been separated, and enjoyed such love between each other that we can only imagine. We may try to view it in a father son relationship down here (at its best) and we would get a glimpse of it. As a father I can say that it would be easier for me to offer myself up as a sacrifice then it would be for me to allow my son to be sacrificed and not just sacrificed but to watch him go through all that he would have to go through and then at the very end having to bear the whole weight of the world’s sins upon him. That’s why the concept of the Trinity belittles the whole act that took place.

The pain in which not only Jesus had to suffer but also his Father had to suffer in watching this happen to His son is unbelievable. I believe that it was so painful for God to watch as His son carried the weight of the world’s sins was so great that He had to look away at that time and the darkening of the sun was God covering the sun with His own hand blocking out the light from shining upon the earth, for to Him the world had just lost its light (Matthew 27:45). This would also be the time when Jesus would cry out, My God, my God why hast thou forsaken me (Matthew 27:46)? Just thinking about this brings tears to my eyes. The costs of our sins were so much more than can be expressed. Yet they were willing to pay the price for us.

I do this sermon to help people see the true depths that were taken for us to avoid the penalty of sin and the unimaginable cost that was paid by Jesus and his Father. Let us not forget what it took for us to gain the salvation that so many take advantage of.

*Side note Matthew 24:36 - If God is omnipotent, omnipresent and omniscient then why doesn’t Jesus know when he will return if he is God? Maybe the standards of being God have changed and I didn’t get the memo.