The Moment He Became Sin

Our future in Christ was sealed from before the foundation of the world.  This was a part of that work.

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John 19:28 – After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst.

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Take a moment to re-read our Text for Today again.  The phrase, “After this” is a key to understanding Jesus’ thinking.  Having seen to the well-being of His mother, His earthly responsibilities were ended.  He was fulfilling the commandment to “honor one’s father and mother.”  Obedience to the Word is always a preface to stepping into the deeper plans of God.  Having done that, He then said, “I thirst.”

Upon hearing this, the Romans soldiers filled a sponge with vinegar, a bitter taste, and offered it to Jesus, and He drank it.  Earlier that day, before the crucifixion, He was offered the same drink – vinegar, or soured wine, but refused it.  So, why would He drink it when it was offered the second time?  What had changed?  The answer is found in the words He prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane.  There He prayed three times for the cup of sin and death to pass from Him, but each time He re-affirmed His obedience to Father’s will.  He would NOT, therefore, drink of the bitter dregs of sin’s cup BEFORE He was crucified.  But after He was nailed to the Cross, having completed ALL Father’s will, having lived sinlessly, and having perfectly kept the law, He yielded to Father’s will.  His drinking of the vinegar sponge symbolized that that transition in which the “only begotten Son” would become sin, and thereby shows us the moment that He became sin on the Cross.

Jesus used symbolism throughout His life and ministry, and it was seen even in His birth and childhood.  Everything we read about Jesus in the Scriptures holds great significance; the three different gifts brought by the wise men, His baptism by John Baptist, His miracles, and His sufferings.  Each element of His life, not just His Words, offer deep revelation of the heart of Father God.  And the elements surrounding His arrest, trial, crucifixion, death, burial, and resurrection are not less magnificent deposits of revelation gold for us to miner from our reading, study, search, and meditation of the Word of God.  Father is NOT seeking to hide His will and knowledge FROM us through some mystery in His Word, but has rather hidden the eternal riches of revelation knowledge FOR us in the pages of our Bible.  Join me in mining as deeply and as often as you can from the life of God we find in the Scriptures. 

Manna for Today – John 19:28-30; John 4:1-26; Matthew 5:6; 2 Corinthians 5:17-21

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