For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood. This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when he held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past.

Romans 3:25 (NLT)

 

According to the Apostle Paul, God sent Jesus to be our sin sacrifice, bearing the consequences for our sin. In doing so, He completely satisfied and fulfilled all of the Law's demands and conditions. If we respond in faith to what Jesus accomplished for us by His death and resurrection, we can be confident that God will not punish us for our sins. God will not and cannot condemn us after He condemned Jesus in our place and imputed His righteousness to us.

God is indeed a God of grace and justice.

The Old Covenant makes it clear that God must punish sin, because God is just and holy, but Jesus took the punishment we deserved and brought us into the New Covenant with His blood (Luke 22:20). Jesus died not to save us from an angry God filled with wrath, but to free us from the punishment for our sinful disobedience, which is eternal separation from God.

God's wrath is eternal separation from God.

When Jesus cried out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?", He was experiencing this eternal separation on our behalf (See Matthew 27:46). God's anger is not cruel or vindictive, but rather the expression of His holy love and justice towards sin. God was not punishing Jesus because the Prophet Isaiah was explicitly clear: "He suffered the things we should have suffered. He took on himself the pain that should have been ours. But we thought God was punishing him. We thought God was wounding him and making him suffer." Isaiah 53:4 (NIRV).

Christ's death triumphantly satisfied God's rightful judgement against sin and reconciled us with Him. Consider these words of Paul: "For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ." 1 Thessalonians 5:9 (NIV).

Praise God for settling our sins through the provision of His Son.