On the cross, and only there, God settled this question. Sin had been triumphing in the world for about 4000 years; but now the fitting moment has arrived – God’s “due time” has come when He must vindicate Himself in His own creation. Sin must be settled; man, the sinner saved or judged; Satan bruised and God glorified. All turns upon this: Will God settle His account with the sinner? Will He punish sin in the person of the sinner, or How?
Thus, then, we have God loving and God giving. He loved the world, and He gave His Son. The Lord Jesus goes to the cross and the “Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all”; “who Himself bare our sins in His own body on the tree.” God takes up this long-delayed question and deals with His Son, the sinner’s willing substitute about it – root and branch, sin and sins. It is thoroughly gone into, nothing is slurred over, but all is dealt with according to the nature of God. Righteousness is the basis of the whole settlement. Darkness overspreads the scene; man cannot stand there. God and His Son are alone in those terrible hours. We have had the holy privilege of hearing the cry which told out the severity of God’s judgment. “My God! My God! why hast Thou forsaken Me?” The sins were borne and the root of them all condemned. O, He has been in the river of death! “He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.” Now all turns upon this: Is sin a settled question? Has He really borne it away? Has He really met the mind of God about it? HE HAS!
The question of sin is now closed. God will never re-open it with any poor sinner who simply believes on Jesus.