The Holiness of God...

...compared with the sinfulness of humanity: —         There is something in God’s being that can have nothing to do with sin. Paul tells us that “God does not lie.” Titus 1:2.  Dare we say that if God sinned, the Godhead would be destroyed? This means that He must separate Himself from and punish sin wherever He finds it. The question then arises, “How much punishment is enough?”

        Suppose God were to say, “I’ll give them the worst there is for a year.” Would that be enough? Would ten years be enough? Would a thousand years be enough? If any of these were enough, then we suggest that Christ would never have died because each person could pay their own penalty. But He did die! This means that our debt of sin was infinite and only an infinite Saviour could pay that debt. It also means that if we don’t accept the Saviour, our debt remains infinite, and our punishment must be eternal.

        We can write two “equations” that might help. If sin is applied against us and we have no help, the result can only be infinite punishment:

(1) Us × Sin(infinite) = Us (infinite punishment)

 

If we let Christ bear our sin, He cancels it out and we can be free and forgiven:

(2) Us  ×  Sin (infinite)   =  Us (now forgiven)

                Christ (infinite)

        So there are two sides to the death of Christ. One shows the greatness of our debt—infinite; and the other shows the greatness of His love—also infinite.  Ì