Jesus is God. He is the one we have sinned against. And he willingly came to lay down his life for us. In John’s Gospel he said, “No one takes [my life] from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father” (John 10:18). Jesus is not God’s whipping boy. Jesus is God in human flesh, and he loved the world so much that he voluntarily came to take the punishment for our sins upon himself.
