Many assume that bearing our sins means He must have
transferred them to Himself (imputation). However, to bear does not mean, by
necessity, that He transferred them ontologically. Consider the following example:
If someone “bears your burden” through a tragedy, this does not mean it was ontologically
transferred to them nor imputed to them. Bearing, in this sense, means that
someone came alongside you, supported you, and carried you through something. Jesus
bore our sins because He suffered the cost of sin (though not having sin).
After all, Romans says, “the wages of sin is death.” He carried the burden of
our sins and offered Himself up as a perfect sacrifice—hence, “by His stripes
we are healed”. This verse does not mean God transferred mankind’s sins
and poured His wrath out on His Son. It means Jesus carried the burden of our
sins by coming alongside us, bore the malice of man’s sins in His wounds, and
suffered sins’s curse—death. After all, “bore” in Greek is anapheró (αναφερω), meaning “to lift up” or “offer up.”
He offered Himself with HIs own body. Does this verse mean that our sins were
transferred? Not necessarily. Polycarp, the disciple of John, said this:
“Let us then continually persevere in our hope, and the
earnest of our righteousness, which is Jesus Christ, who bore our sins in His
own body on the tree, who did no sin, neither was guile found in HIs mouth, but
endured all things for us, that we might live in Him. Let us then be imitators
of His patience; and if we suffer for His name’s sake, let us glorify Him. For He
has set us this example in Himself, and we have believed that such is the case.
(Epistle to the Philippians, Chapter 8)
So according to Polycarp, bearing all things meant that
He endured all things. What did Christ endure on the cross? He endured
pain, suffering, and death—all the things that came with sin by the hands of
evil men. Jesus bore mankind’s sins on HIs body in the sense that, with every
cut, strike, and bruise, mankind sinfully inflicted animosity and malevolence
into His flesh. He bore mankind’s sinful acts done upon His body that He might experience
death at their hands, so that He could save them from the darkness to which they
were damned. Christ’s story is that of one who suffered at the hands of evil
men so that HE might redeem them and love them despite their sins. (William L.
Hess, Crushing the Great Serpent: Did God Punish Jesus? [2024], 180-82)
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