I saw this photo of a T-shirt on the web today that posed a good, deep question. I like when things cross my path that make me go “what is my answer to that?”.
The T-shirt in question said “How did Jesus die for my sins if I’m still sinning? Also, that was 2000 years ago.” It’s a good question as I have sins in my future I don’t even know about yet so how could Jesus die for them? I haven’t even committed them yet! How do you deal with an honest question like this?
The question seems to be based on a presupposition – Jesus could only die for sins that people had already committed and that he knew of at the time of his crucifixion. They all had to be “in the past” at the time 2,000 years ago. That’s a faulty presupposition that doesn’t take into account the nature of Jesus Christ. He was and is both a man with a full human nature but also eternal God with a fully divine nature. A follow-up question to someone with this presupposition would be “Even if we grant your presupposition, how could the man Jesus even know of all the private sins committed by all believers through the many thousands of years of human history from Adam up to 33 A.D.?” That question takes the time element off the table and helps put the focus right where it needs to be – on the nature of who Jesus is.
15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” 16 Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Matthew 16:15-16 ESV
Who do you say Jesus is – that’s always the question. If he was just someone limited by knowledge of only what has already occurred – the past – then this T-shirt makes sense and it is a faith-crumbling question. But if He is, as Peter stated, the Son of the Living God, the second person of the triune God, then He is also the eternal one. He has two distinct natures, one human and limited by time but one divine and eternal and timeless. I go back to the first three verses of John’s gospel about who this man Jesus really is:
1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.
John 1:1-3 ESV
Which hearkens right back to Genesis 1:1:
1In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
Genesis 1:1 ESV
“In the beginning”…the beginning of what? Time. And at that beginning, God (Father, Son, and Spirit as one being in 3 persons) already eternally existed. He created matter and time began. God is spirit (as declared by Jesus in John 4:24) and is not material. We as physical beings have to experience reality in a series of moments we call time. God as immaterial spirit is not like us. These verses from John tell us that Jesus, as His divine being – the Son of the Living God – is the being, the person, doing the creating. He is timeless, eternal. Time is something us physical, material beings experience. We can’t be omnipresent (present everywhere at once) and omniscient (knowing ALL things), but God can and is. We as physical beings have to experience reality sequentially, in a series of sequential moments that we all experience and call “time”. God as spirit doesn’t. Don’t put him in our particular box but instead recognize as The Lord says in the last part of Psalm 50:21:
you thought that I was one like yourself. But now I rebuke you and lay the charge before you.
Psalm 50:21b ESV (emphasis added)
So how could Jesus die for your sins 2000 years ago if you’re still sinning today and will into the future? Because as God he is timeless and omnipresent and omniscient. He knows all. He never “learns” something “new”.
Jesus, as God is not like you. As man, He is like you and sympathizes with your weakness (Hebrews 4:15). Jesus is unique and glorious in this way. He is the full God-Man. There is no other. As a man, He can represent you as man and die in your place for your sins. His perfectly righteous life as a man can be imputed to your account. The fact that he is both fully God and fully man is the only reason He can fulfill the role he does in our salvation. It was all the plan of the Father, Son, and Spirit before the foundation of the world.
Besides, back in 33 AD – how many of your sins were committed by that time? None. It would be nearly 2000 years in the future before you were even born. But thanks be to the nature of Jesus Christ and God the Father, ALL of your future sins were known … and fully paid for if you repent and are one of His. All of them were future and ALL were paid in full. So this is the answer to “how did Jesus pay for my sins if I’m still sinning?”. EVERY one of your sins were future (according to time), but not unknown to God who is eternal and timeless.
So if this T-shirt represents what you think, then think more deeply about the nature of God. Get a bigger view of the majesty of God. Don’t put Him in your box. Wonder at His glory of who He is. Worship him for how he is so much bigger than us. Worship him for his majesty and glory and timelessness and the fact that the Son of God took on flesh, entered the material world and time, limited himself, emptied himself – all in order to save you from all your future sins. That He who knew no sin, became sin, so that you could have the perfect righteousness of God and be fully pardoned. Marvel at this!
What a gospel!!!