# Did our sin 'keep' Jesus on the cross?



## Need 4 Creed (May 18, 2013)

One of my favourite modern hymns is 'How Deep the Father's Love'. 

I was listening to it tonight, when the following lines struck me. 

'It was my sin that kept Him there; Until it was accomplished,'

The wider context is:

Behold the Man upon the cross

My sin upon His shoulders

Ashamed to hear my mocking voice

Call out among the scoffers

It was my sin that kept Him there

Until it was accomplished

His dying breath has brought me life

I know that it is finished

Obviously, it is because of our sins that Jesus was suffering one the cross. But can we say that was our sins that 'kept him there, until it was accomplished?'

Was it not the good, and merciful purpose of God? 

I understand that the hymn writer wants us to see that it is our sin that held Jesus there, and kept him there for as long as he had to suffer. So maybe in that sense it is true. 

What do others think about it?


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## The Calvinist Cop (May 18, 2013)

That it was MY Sins that kept there!


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## Need 4 Creed (May 18, 2013)

The Calvinist Cop said:


> That it was MY Sins that kept there!



Sorry, don't understand.


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## Semper Fidelis (May 18, 2013)

Need 4 Creed said:


> It was my sin that kept Him there
> 
> Until it was accomplished
> 
> ...



I think what the composer is trying to express is not the idea that "My sin" kept Jesus there in terms of that which caused Him to spend more time on the Cross but the idea that Christ remained on the Cross and bore the judgment for sin until the penalty for sin was fully paid (accomplished). It was not merely sin, however, but a believer can confess that "my" sin was fully atoned for there.

Christ was not forced to bear that penalty but He offered Himself freely. I think what the composer may also be getting at was that it was Christ's concern that He bear sin for His elect that "held" Him on the Cross. That is to say, in spite of the travail, He was willing that He should endure in order that sin (and not just any sin but my sin) be paid.


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## KMK (May 18, 2013)

According to CCLI, the official lyrics of the Stuart Townend version go, "It was my sin that *held* Him there."


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