In Gethsemane, the Son of Man offered Himself to God. The endpoint of His offering was not in Himself. It was in the hand of the Father, who made Him an offering for sin. Through His eternal priesthood, the Son then offered Himself as the Lamb of God. He was both a sin offering and a burnt offering. His offering as the Son of Man revealed a new and unique death. It was different from the death of Adam’s mortality. Paul called Christ’s death, ‘the death that He died’. Rom 6:8-10.

The death that Christ died was the provision for the fulfilment of Yahweh’s covenant desire. As the Son offered Himself for this purpose, the Father made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us. 2Co 5:21. As a sin offering, Christ was made in the likeness of sinful flesh. Rom 8:3. Isa 53:10. By this means, He joined us in our death and separation from God. However, He did not join us by sinning. Rather, by the grace of God, and in obedience to the Father, He made our suffering and death to be part of the offering that He was making in His mortality. Heb 2:9.

The love revealed by His offering extended to the furthest reaches of mankind’s death and estrangement from God. Christ gathered our mortality, with all of its suffering, sin, and other law, into Himself. By the grace of God, He made it His death. Heb 2:9. Then, by the shedding of His blood, He suffered the fire of judgement that proceeded from God to destroy us and to, thereby, rid His creation of our sin and rebellion. Through His offering on the cross, Christ was able to focus the destructive work of God’s judgement upon our other law and sin, and to destroy them within us, releasing us from their corrosive effect upon our life!