Salvation Plain and Simple by Dr. Curtis Hutson

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How Can an Infinitely Holy God Forgive Sin?

The answer is God does not forgive sin. He forgives the sinner. Sin must be paid for. Somebody must bear the burden. I have been told that the word "forgive" literally means "to bear the burden". If I owed someone a thousand dollars and he forgave the debt, that means he bore the burden. He paid the thousand dollars.

In order for an infinitely holy God to forgive the sinner someone had to pay the debt. Someone had to bear the burden. That is where Jesus comes in The Bible teaches that God took every sin we ever have committed and ever will commit, and laid those sins on Christ two thousand years ago at Calvary. Isaiah 53:6 says, "The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all." Every sin we have ever committed or ever will commit if we live to be a thousand years old, God placed on Christ. The Bible says in I Peter 2:24, "Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree..." First Peter 3:18 says, "For Christ also hath Once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God..."

The greatest truth that ever coursed through my brain is the truth of the substitutionary death of Jesus, that Jesus actually took all my sins, past, present, and future, and bore them in His own body. I told a lady that once. And she said " I can understand how He died for my past sins, but I cannot understand how He died for my future sins that I have not committed yet."

I smiled and said, "Lady, when Jesus Christ died all your sins were future. You were not even born."

She thought a moment and said, "I guess you are right."

I said, "I know I am right, unless you are an awfully old lady."

She laughed and said, "I am not that old."

Friend, God looked down through the telescope of time and saw every sin you would ever commit. Then He put those sins in one big package and laid them on Christ. "The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all." While Jesus was bearing our sins in His own body, God punished Him in our place to pay a debt that we owe, so that when we die we won't have to pay it.

Somebody said, "The Jews killed Christ." Someone else said, "It was the Roman soldiers" But the Bible says, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." According to the Bible, God let Jesus die in our place. He actually punished Jesus in our place so we could escape the punishment. Romans 8:32 says, "He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all..."

Jesus uttered seven things while hanging on the cross. The sixth utterance was, "It is finished." Among other things the statement meant that our sins were completely paid for.

Now,