Sin comes with a high price.  The price that had to be paid for sin was so high that it was too high for man to pay.  This is why we needed a Savior.

Jesus came to this world to do what we could not do—pay the penalty for sin.  What was that penalty?  I will first tell you what it was not.  It was not spiritual death.  I know this because Jesus never died spiritually.  What passage tells us that He did?  2 Corinthians 5:21 is usually the passage given.

2 Corinthians 5:21 (ESV)
²¹ For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Most interpret this passage to mean that Jesus was made to be a sinner but that is not what it says.  It says He was made sin.  What does that mean?  Paul employs the figure of speech called synecdoche in which a part is put for the whole.  By sin, Paul meant a sin-offering.  The NIV has a footnote next to the word sin in this verse, and it simply says, “sin-offering.”  The Hebrew equivalent to this word is translated sin-offering over 50 times in the Old Testament.  So, God made Jesus to be a sin offering for us so that we might be made righteous.

The idea that Jesus died spiritually by becoming a sinner, the result of literally taking our sins upon Himself, possesses all kinds of problems, not the least of which is figuring out how He recovered them.  If Jesus became a sinner, who became His savior?  Did God just ignore His sins after He took them upon Himself?

If God would not have been justified in passing over man’s sins (Romans 3:25-26), why would He be so if He passed over the same sins once they were placed on our Lord’s account?

Did Jesus die a sinner?  If so, that would mean He was eternally lost.  And, while we are thinking about Jesus being lost, is it really fathomable to think that He was lost, that is, spiritually dead or separated from God, even for a moment?  But what else could have been the result of Jesus taking our sins upon Himself?

The truth is none of these questions need to be contemplated because Jesus never took our sins upon Himself, He never died spiritually, and He was never separated from His Father.  There is not a passage in all of the Bible that says such was ever the case, nor was it even necessary since spiritual death was never the penalty for sin.  If it were, we would not need a savior because we paid that price ourselves.

The penalty for sin was death.  That was the price that Jesus said He would have to pay.

Matthew 16:21 (ESV)
²¹ From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.

This was all that God required of His Son—to die in our place.  The redemptive price for sin was always said to be blood.

Ephesians 1:7 (ESV)
⁷ In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace,

We were justified by the blood of Christ, not by Him becoming a sinner (Romans 5:9).  We were brought near to God by the blood of Christ, not by Him being separated from the Father.  We were ransomed with the precious blood of Christ, not by Him literally being made sin for us.  The Bible never says that Jesus became a sinner, but it does say that He became a propitiation or sin-offering (Romans 3:25; 1 John 2:2; 4:10 ).  Why? Because that was the penalty for sin.

As you wind down for the night, think about these things.