Pastor Lovedale's words stayed with me long after our conversation ended.
"The same God who declared the penalty is the same God who provided the solution."
For years, I had viewed the cross as the place where Jesus suffered for sinners. I believed that was true, but I had never fully understood what it meant.
If God's justice demanded death, how had God provided a solution without compromising His righteousness?
The next time we met, Pastor Lovedale opened his Bible and handed it to me.
"Read this passage."
I looked down and read:
"All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all."
He looked at me.
"Who is Isaiah speaking about?"
"Jesus," I replied.
"And what did God lay upon Him?"
I read the verse again.
"Our iniquity."
"Exactly."
For a moment, I sat silently. The verse was familiar, but I had never stopped to consider its full meaning.
Then Pastor Lovedale turned to another passage.
"For He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him."
Again he asked, "Who knew no sin?"
"Jesus."
"And what did God do to Him?"
I studied the words carefully.
"He made Him to be sin for us."
The statement was astonishing.
Jesus was completely sinless. Yet God treated Him as the bearer of our sin.
Suddenly, the cross began to look different.
God had not ignored my sins.
He had not overlooked them.
He had not pretended they did not exist.
He had dealt with them.
My guilt had been placed upon Christ, and the punishment that justice demanded had fallen upon Him.
A question immediately came to mind.
"All my sins?"
Pastor Lovedale nodded.
"All of them."
"The sins of my childhood?"
"Yes."
"The sins of my youth?"
"Yes."
"The sins of my adult life?"
"Yes."
The answer seemed almost too wonderful to believe.
For years I had carried a burden of guilt and condemnation. Now I was being shown that Christ had carried that burden to the cross.
The debt had not disappeared.
It had been paid.
Justice had not been ignored.
It had been satisfied.
For the first time, I understood how a sinless Savior could die.
He died because He willingly stood in the place of sinners.
As I reflected on that truth, another question arose in my mind:
"If Christ took my sin, then what did He give to me?"