God Laid Our Sins Upon
His Son
Isaiah 53:6
It was the Lord God
himself who made Christ to be sin for us. "The LORD hath laid on him the
iniquity of us all. It pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to
grief." It was Jehovah himself who made his soul an offering for sin. The
triune God agreed in the covenant of grace to lay all our sin upon the Son.
Sin, the greatest burden in the world, the most obnoxious thing in the
universe, the load that must have crushed a world into hell, has been laid upon
the God-Man by God's own hand! This great, mighty transfer of sin from the
sinner to the sinner's Surety was conceived by infinite wisdom, brought forth
by infinite love, ordained by infinite grace and executed by infinite justice.
None but Jehovah could
do this. Who, but God, could lay sin upon God? Who, but God, could punish God
for sin? Who, but God, could dispose of sin for the salvation of his people?
Some think we lay our sins upon Christ. Man cannot even lay his hand upon the
Son of God, much less his sin! If you imagine that your prayers, tears,
fastings, mournings, confessions, repentance, and Bible reading can lay your
sin off yourself and on Christ, you imagine vanity. You are beating the air! To
lay iniquity upon Christ is the work of Jehovah alone.
GOD THE FATHER laid the
sins of his elect upon Christ for the satisfaction of his own justice, so that
he might be just and the Justifier of all who believe (II Cor.
Faith has nothing to do
with the accomplishment of redemption and the putting away of sin. Faith
receives what God, in Christ, has done.
Don Fortner