Look at the Lamb of God. Gaze at the Lifted One. What do you see there? God condemning sin – our sin placed on His Son! The Lamb taking our guilt and our punishment!
All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. … like a lamb that is led to the slaughter … (Isaiah 53:6-7).
Look again. Do you see how ugly and damaging our sins are? We have all played our part: we envy and hate, boast and betray, lie and deny, fear and fail. We who accuse deserve to be accused. We who judge deserve God’s judgement. Human hypocrisy and revolt is most clear at the cross. For God came to bring us back to His side, and we hated Him for it.
…the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness… (John 3:19).
If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have been guilty of sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. Whoever hates me hates my Father also (John 15:22-23).
Even today some are, in a spiritual sense, “crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt” (Hebrews 6:6). Those who have “profaned [disrespected] the blood of the covenant,” and who have “outraged the Spirit of grace,” continue today to “trample the Son of God underfoot” (Hebrews 10:29). How sin twists the human heart. How it turns us against the very One who gives us life, the Creator to whom we owe all love. How our selfishness hurts our own lives, and leaves our families in ruins. How much suffering has spread through the world because we left the peaceful ways of God. How our rebellion breaks God’s heart with sorrow. Dear friend, look at the cross. See the horror of your own sins. See how dearly He loves you. His arms are stretched out on the cross. They are stretched out to reach you. They are stretched out to welcome you home. See the price He pays for you: suffering so you can live, dying so you can be born again.