“If Sin could kill God, it would be greater than God.” – Brook Potter
A most disturbing teaching has surfaced amongst the Law Preachers, in their efforts to glorify darkness. It’s a teaching that says, that somehow, sin killed Jesus. Now, I cannot speak for all of you, but this is a frightful proposition. We don’t ever read about sin causing the fall of man, that responsibility, deceived as he was, was credited to Adam (Romans 5:17), yet this idea that sin killed Jesus, not only elevates sin to unprecedented levels, but more so, it implies that Jesus submitted to sin to accomplish his death somehow.
Now, there is a big difference between Jesus dying for our sins, versus Jesus being killed by our sins. The gap is as large as the difference between a husband dying for his wife, versus a husband being killed by his wife. To attribute the death of Jesus Christ to sin, is akin to taking the work of Jesus Christ and giving credit to sin for accomplishing the task. To attribute the death of Jesus to sin, rather than what the Scriptures say, is probably skirting the blaspheme line.
Nowhere in Scripture does it teach that sin killed Jesus. Contrary to this, we see Jesus himself explaining how his death is to be accomplished.
John 10:18 No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.
Are we going to credit the death of Jesus to the fact that he laid down his life, or are we going to give credit to sin for taking his life? Some may argue, well Jesus laid down his life, but sin was responsible for his death. But, even the early Apostles would not make such a mistake, as they clearly identified whom was responsible for the killing of Jesus Christ.
The Apostle Peter, Acts 3:14 – 15 But ye [Ye men of Israel Acts 3:12] denied the Holy One and the Just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you; And killed the Prince of life, whom God hath raised from the dead; whereof we are witnesses.
The Apostle Paul, 1 Thessalonians 2:14 – 16 For ye, brethren, became followers of the churches of God which in Judaea are in Christ Jesus: for ye also have suffered like things of your own countrymen, even as they have of the Jews: Who both killed the Lord Jesus, and their own prophets, and have persecuted us; and they please not God, and are contrary to all men: Forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved, to fill up their sins alway: for the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost.
The Apostles understood that the Jews of Jesus’ day put Jesus Christ to death by way of the Roman Empire (1 Corinthians 2:8), but it was a death that Jesus submitted to. I fully agree that Jesus became sin on the Cross (2 Corinthians 5:21), but it was the work of Jesus, and Jesus alone, to take sin into the grave by laying down his life. To give credit to sin, in some capacity, in the work Jesus accomplished by his death, is not a scriptural statement.
Many in their religious zeal, see the devil and sin as synonymous. While the devil is definitely associated with sin, sin and the devil are not the same thing. Iniquity entered the Lucifer and caused him to fall (Isaiah 14:12-14), it is a great mystery that no one fully understands, but it remains that they are two distinct entities. As we know, the Scriptures record that Jesus became sin on the cross (Romans 6:18), it does not say he became the devil on the cross. If Scripture makes that distinction, so should we.
In the Book of Isaiah, there is a very interesting messianic prophecy about a conversation between God the Father and Jesus Christ. We are not sure when this conversation happened, but it was sometime after the crucifixion, and before the Gospel went out to the Gentiles (Acts 10). But see how God the Father describes the burden of all of the nation of Israel’s sin upon Jesus Christ.
Isaiah 49:5 And now, saith the LORD that formed me [Jesus] from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob again to him, Though Israel be not gathered, yet shall I be glorious in the eyes of the LORD, and my God shall be my strength. And he [God] said [to Jesus], It is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth.
Is sin a serious issue? Yes, but when compared to the magnitude of the work Jesus accomplished on the cross, it does not even compare. Further, one thing is certainly clear, sin does not have the power to kill God.