“And Jesus, crying out with a loud voice, said, ‘Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit.’ And having said this, He breathed his last” (Luke 23:46 RSV).
So why would Jesus permit Himself to be executed in such a horrifying manner? The answer is that Jesus sacrificed himself to provide for our atonement. “Atonement” is the term used to describe the act by which God restores a relationship of unity between Himself and human beings.
In the Old Testament, this restorative act was accomplished through a system of animal sacrifices. In that system, the death of an animal was accepted by God in place of the person who brought it. While that allowed people to get right with God, it was a temporary measure. Since human beings consistently miss the mark of God’s perfect standard (sometimes without realizing it), there was a continual cycle of sin/sacrifice.
Another problem is found in the fact that this type of sacrifice had no inherent ability to take away our sins. It could only serve to cover those sins, for as we’re told in Hebrews 10:4, “it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins” (NIV).
This is why Jesus bore the penalty that sinful human beings deserve. Just as it was in the days of the Old Testament, there is no one among us who hasn’t made a mistake, knowingly done something wrong, or said something in error at some point in life. Everyone, everywhere, has fallen short of what they could and should be, and we all have failed to live up to God’s standard of perfection. As James 2:10 tells us, “…the person who keeps every law of God but makes one little slip is just as guilty as the person who has broken every law there is” (TLB).
Remember that God has seen every secret thought, every hidden motive, and every shameful thing that we’ve ever done- and “…God will judge us for everything we do, including every hidden thing, good or bad” (Ecclesiastes 12:14 TLB). This is why Jesus Christ -who was perfect- took the death penalty we deserved. Jesus’ sacrificial death on the cross “paid the penalty” and satisfied God’s righteous requirement for us.
Jesus’ death means salvation (or deliverance) from an eternity of separation from the Creator for anyone who accepts it. This is the true meaning of the cross.