The Bible prophesies that the Messiah would come to save all of mankind from the problem of sin, but it wouldn’t be easy. One such prophecy, Isaiah 53:4–6, explains the price of our redemption: He would be pierced, crushed, and wounded. Somehow, though, the cost of our salvation has been softened and romanticized. We have forgotten the true price Jesus paid. We need to revisit one of the greatest reminders of God’s love—something that would draw more people back to God than anything else since the dawn of man.

You see, in their desperation, the leaders of Israel did not think through what they were planning. Only one thing mattered to them: that Jesus would be stopped. Jesus had become a threat to their influence. After Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, which caused many more to believe in Him, they realized that their only option to truly removing Jesus’ influence was to remove Jesus—even if it meant torturing and killing Him.

They waited patiently for their opportunity and when it came, they pounced. Using one of Jesus’ own disciples, they learned where Jesus would be (the Garden of Gethsemane), and sent soldiers to arrest Him. But Jesus didn’t resist. He allowed Himself to be taken and brought before the Sanhedrin (the Jewish judicial system).

Sadly, Jesus had no chance of a fair trial. There were many things the Sanhedrin did against their own rules, but one in particular took away any chance Jesus might have had. A conviction could only occur if they had two or three witnesses that saw the exact same thing. However, according the Bible, they couldn’t get two people to even agree on what Jesus was being accused of! The best they could do was gather three people who all mentioned Jesus saying the same thing (which was taken out of context). Yet, the witnesses accusations were not enough for a death sentence (which they desired—John 18:31), so they were forced to move Him from the church’s courts and bring Him to the Roman courts with a made-up charge of treason.

Pilate wanted nothing to do with the trial and tried passing Jesus off on Herod. Herod only wanted to see magic tricks, and when Jesus wouldn’t comply, he had Jesus humiliated and sent Him back to Pilate. While Pilate tried several times to set Jesus free, the leaders wouldn’t allow it. His punishment was even their suggestion: crucify Him. During His time in the public judicial system, He was mocked, spit on, punched, had His beard pulled out, had a crown made of thorns jammed on His head, and was brutally flogged—“He was oppressed and afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth” (Isaiah 53:7).

The severity of the flogging would have left Jesus incredibly weak. It was in this state of pain and weakness that Jesus was forced to carry the heavy beams of the cross through the streets of Jerusalem, out through the gates, and up to the hill where the crucifixion would take place—while the people of the city watched, threw things at Him, and mocked Him. The pain became too great for Him to bear, though, and He collapsed under the weight of the cross before getting to the hill. Not wanting Jesus to die early, a man was grabbed from the crowd to carry it the rest of the way (what a life-changing even that must have been).

At the hill, they prepared Jesus for the cross. While one soldier held Him down, another soldier began to pound the nails into His hands and feet. Each time the hammer hit, it would send even more agonizing pain through His body. Once His hands and feet were securely nailed, they raised the cross in the air and dropped it into a hole that would hold it in place—the nails tearing at His hands and feet. The way that crucifixion was designed, He would have gone through more pain than you or I can even imagine. Yet, even in this pain He would say, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they’re doing” (Luke 23:34).

Sadly, His suffering didn’t end there. Of all the pain that had come before, nothing would compare to the feeling He experienced that would cause Him to cry out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken [forgotten] me?” (Mark 15:34). At this moment of great misery, He couldn’t feel the Father’s presence. Why? We learned already that our sins separate us from God—I believe it was at this moment that our sins were placed on Christ. As it says in 1 Peter 2:24, “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.” Yet, according to Paul, Jesus didn’t just carry our sins, He became sin (2 Corinthians 5:21). The result of Him becoming sin for us was this separation from His Father—worse than all the torture man could give Him.

Not long after, Jesus said, “It is finished. Father, into your hands I commit my spirit” (Luke 23:46; John 19:30), and breathed His last breath. He died hated and tortured by man, and separated from God—“But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).

You see, the nails did not hold Jesus on the cross, His love for us did. Galatians 1:4 says that Jesus gave Himself to us in order to rescue us from sin. He willingly went to the cross. He willing became sin for us. Because when He died on the cross, sin died on the cross—the penalty that our sins had required was fully paid (Romans 8:3, 4; 1 Peter 1:18–20)! Praise the Lord!

How can we forget the cost of our salvation? We forget anytime we refuse to accept His offer of salvation and attempt to create our own. Here’s the thing to remember: “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness” (Hebrews 9:22), and “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). So death is required for the payment of sin. One way or another, your sins will be paid for—either through Christ’s sacrifice on your behalf, or by you.

If you have never accepted Christ’s sacrifice on your behalf, why wait? Accept it right now.