What Is Redemption Cost To Jesus?

Many people think that redemption is when Jesus was tortured, hung on the cross, and died for our sins. But why was Jesus afraid in the night of His arrest? He prayed 3 times and asked God for the "cup to pass from me." (Matt 26:36-46). What is in the cup that He doesn't want to face? 

Many people were also crucified on the cross during the Roman era - it is not uncommon. So we know he is not afraid of the crucifixion process. He is not afraid of hundreds of scourging with the Roman flagellum, that tears his flesh out. He is not afraid the carry the cross bar and keep falling down after loosing His blood. He is not afraid of the long nails that went through his hands and legs into the wood. He is not afraid of the pain when he had to push himself up with his nailed legs and hands in order to breath. He is not afraid that he will die of Asphyxiation, that feels like drowning. He is definitely not afraid of death itself, for He knows he will resurrect. 

So what was He afraid of? The cup is not physical torture and death. The cup is God's wrath and judgement of sin. Jesus has no sin in himself. But God poured the sin of the world (past, present, and future) on Jesus. "For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin." (2 Cor 5:21)  

The judgement of sin is spiritual death - meaning separation from God. That's why Jesus said on the cross: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Matt 27:46, quoting Psalms 22:1). He is only afraid of one thing - the separation from God. He has been with God since eternity past, but now, for the first time, he is separated from His father.  He was only separated during the 3 dark hours (Matt 27:45). But for Him, it is like eternity. This spiritual torture is much more painful than all the physical sufferings that He had gone through sum up together.

The Father and the Son willingly endured the agony of the cross, including the experience of forsakenness and judgment for sin, because they loved us so much and want us to reconcile with them. 

And you know what? When we die and resurrect, we will get a perfect body - all our body defects and disabilities and scars will be removed (1 Cor 15:42-44; Isa 35:5-6). But Jesus will still carry the holes in his hand, in his legs and in His side, so that for all of eternity, you can look at Him and see the evidence of His grace (John 20:27; Rev 5:6). 

This is what Redemption Cost to Jesus.

 

References

Matt 27:45 - “Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour.”

1 Cor 15:42-44 - "So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body."

Isaiah 35:5-6 - "Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy."

 

John 20:27 - Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.”

Revelation 5:6 - "And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain..."