How does Jesus’s death cover my sin?
“He was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.” – Isaiah 53:5
Over half of the uses of the word atonement in the Bible are in a single book—Leviticus—where it describes the role of a sacrifice to cover the sins of the people. Atonement basically means that you owed a debt and somebody else paid it for you.
People need a savior. It was as clear in the Old Testament as it is today. What wasn’t clear until Jesus was that such a Savior would suffer on behalf of his people rather than cause suffering for his enemies. The expectation was that the Messiah would conquer Israel’s enemies, not lay down his own life.
Isaiah 53 is one of four poetic portions of the book of Isaiah that have been labeled as “suffering servant” songs (42:1-9; 49:1-13; 50:4-11; 52:13-53:12).
In Acts 8, an Ethiopian eunuch, reading Isaiah 53, asked Philip to explain the passage. Philip went on to proclaim Jesus as the suffering servant.
Jesus saw himself as the suffering servant of Isaiah 53 (Mark 10:45; Luke 22:37) and in each of the gospels spoke of his death as beneficial for others (Matthew 20:28; Mark 10:45; Luke 22:19-20; John 12:24, 32).
Every New Testament author except James and Jude describes the substitutionary effect of Jesus’s death (Matthew 20:28; John 11:49-52; Acts 20:28; Romans 3:23-25; 2 Corinthians 5:14-15; Galatians 3:13-14; 1 Timothy 2:5-6; Titus 2:14; Hebrews 9:22, 28; 1 Peter 1:18-19; 1 John 2:2; Revelation 5:9).
There’s a clear and unified voice in the New Testament: through Jesus’s suffering and death, the penalty of our sin was paid. We can therefore live in freedom from sin.
