We are very familiar with the truths of the death and resurrection of Jesus. Being used to the story can take the wonder and horror out of it. Here are some thoughts on what it cost Jesus to redeem us.

“God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” 2 Corinthians 5:21

The death of Jesus on the cross was an event he shrank back from, so horrendous was the prospect. In Gethsemane, “horror and dismay overcame him, and he said…‘My heart is ready to break with grief’” (Mark 14:4 NEB).

Four things brought on this horror.

First was the physical suffering: the cruel whipping, the pain of spikes being nailed into his flesh and bone, the agony of hanging there for hours, each breath a struggle as he slowly lost strength.

Second, he was to become sin for us. The ugliness, the stench, the putridness, the repulsiveness of sin--these he would become. Think of being lowered into a pit of liquid cow manure, its surface roiling with maggots, the stench overwhelming; and as you go down into it, it gets into your eyes, nose, mouth, and then lungs, engulfing you in its terribleness. This is nothing compared to Christ’s becoming sin for us, the evil of it entering His very being as a human.

Third, He was under the righteous wrath of God, which had been stored up from the beginning of time against all the sin ever committed and all that will be committed. This unimaginably immense weight of wrath came down upon Jesus with full force, crushing him.

And fourth, Jesus was torn out of the relationship of the Trinity--the perfect place of peace, the unflawed unity, the beautiful balance, the wonderful warmth that had existed from eternity. As He became sin and had wrath poured upon Him, He could not stay in that intimate relationship. His Father turned away and the fabric was ripped, the essence smashed, the unity destroyed. This brought the greatest suffering of all in His sacrifice, not only to Jesus, but to the Father and the Spirit as well.