A Payment Was Made at the Cross

“For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh,” Romans 8:3

A Critically Important Question

Romans 8:3 answers a critically important question. It’s a question you might ask after your mommy or daddy catches you in a lie. It’s a question you might ask when you feel like there is no victory over sin in your life. When, in your own mind, you are the chief of sinners. It’s a question you might ask when in the middle of the day, out of nowhere, the thought of that old failure fills your mind. The angry tirade you used to have every other day in front of your kids. The way you treated that woman, What you did to that former friend. The lie you told to your boss to protect yourself. Those words you said that cannot be taken back. It’s a question you ask when you wake up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat after being granted a vision of standing before God in judgment with nothing to offer.

Here’s the Question that Romans 8:3 answers:

Will my sin condemn me before God?

No Condemnation!

In Romans 8:1, Paul declares:

“There is therefore now NO CONDEMNATION for those who are IN Christ Jesus.” (Romans 8:1)

So, One should ask: “Why? Why am I not condemned by God because of my sin? I know it says I am not condemned by God if I am in Christ. But, there must be a reason why, in Jesus Christ, I am not and will not be condemned.”

The Answer

Romans 8:3 provides the answer.

There will be no condemnation for you (if you are in Christ), because God sent his own Son...FOR SIN. Jesus Christ was sent FOR SIN.

Now, what does that mean? Does it merely mean that Jesus was sent because of sin? Was Jesus sent because we have a sin problem? Was sin like the fire that begins to consume the house? Was sin like the fire which alerts firefighter God to send Firefighter Jesus to the house? Certainly, we do have a sin problem. And certainly you could say that Jesus came because of our sin.

But, the Scripture means something much more. Jesus Christ was sent FOR SIN in that He was sent as a payment FOR SIN.

“...he condemned sin in the flesh”

Here’s how we know that Jesus, by being sent FOR SIN, was sent as a payment FOR SIN. The Scripture says that God, in sending Jesus “in the likeness of sinful flesh” (Jesus was sent in human form. Jesus clothed himself in humanity.), and God, in sending Jesus “for sin,” God condemned sin in the flesh.

Whose Sin?

Whose sin was condemned when God sent His own Son for sin? Was it Jesus’s sin that was condemned? Did God send a sinful Son to be condemned for His own sin?

No. He was the perfect spotless lamb. Jesus knew no sin (2 Cor 5:21).

Whose sin was condemned when Jesus hung on the cross? Your sin. If your life belongs to Jesus Christ, your sin was condemned.

Whose Flesh?

But, whose flesh received the condemned sin? Was it your flesh that hung upon the tree? Was your flesh beaten and scarred? Were you forsaken by God?

No. It was the perfect spotless lamb’s body that hung upon the tree. It was the Son God sent In the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin. Jesus came in the likeness of sinful flesh. He clothed himself in humanity. So that His flesh might receive your sin.

God condemned YOUR sin in Jesus’s Flesh. It was your sin. It was his flesh. His body took the brunt of your sin.