God sent Him (Jesus) to die in our place to take away our sins. We receive forgiveness through faith in the blood of Jesus’ death. This showed that God always does what is right and fair, as in the past when he was patient and did not punish people for their sins. (Romans 3:25)
The good news is that God sent Jesus to take away our sins because, as we will learn in Romans 6:23: the payment for sin is death. Adam and Eve were to live happily ever after with God in the Garden of Eden, but they ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. They screwed up their only commandment. That was the only thing that God told them not to do. Part of their punishment (and ours) is that the human body dies because of sin. But that is not the end. God sent Jesus to take away our sins and to die in our place. Our bodies die, but our spirits do not. God created us with the inability to keep even one rule, and He created Satan, the enemy, to tempt us so we have the choice to obey God or not obey Him. We praise God because He gave us Jesus, His only son, who died for sin in our place. Our bodies will still die, but our spirits won’t if we have faith that Jesus’ blood is the ultimate sacrifice. Thank you, God, for your plan to save us from the enemy and from ourselves!!! Whatever bad happens in life, soon we will be with you and your never-ending love in heaven. Yes!!! That’s the best encouragement we can receive.
The second part of this verse is confusing. “This showed that God always does what is right and fair, as in the past when he was patient and did not punish people for their sins.” Wait a minute, God did punish people for their sins. I read several commentaries on this verse, but all the commentators skipped over that statement as if it weren’t even there. The verse says that before Jesus, God didn’t punish people for their sins. But God did. David’s first baby with Bathsheba died, taken by God, because David took Bathsheba from her husband, Uriah, and tried to cover up his sin (See 2 Samuel 11-12). Moses was also punished because he disobeyed God’s commandment to talk to a rock so it would gush out water for the Israelites when they had no water. Instead of talking to the rock, Moses hit it twice with his staff. Because he did that, Moses wasn’t allowed to lead the Israelites into the Promised Land. (See Numbers 20.) It was not just leaders who were punished, everyone except Noah’s family was killed during the Great Flood. (See Genesis 6-7) Everyone who lived in Sodom and Gomorrah died except Lot and his two daughters. (See Genesis 19:23-30) Many were also killed during the Ten Plagues of Egypt. (See Exodus 7-11.) God did punish people for their sins. It doesn’t say it here, but I think that Paul must be talking about the ultimate punishment of our spirits being separated from God (going to hell). Jesus had not come to earth yet, so how were people to believe in Him except through Old Testament prophecy. God did what was right – since Jesus hadn’t come to earth yet, when people died, God did not send any of their spirits to hell. I’m not saying that my conclusion is correct. If you disagree with me, I certainly respect your opinion. It is one of those things that cannot be proven either way. God is vague in the writing of the Bible. He doesn’t want us to understand everything now, (see 1 Corinthians 13:12) but he does want us to think about and pray about what He has to say. As we discussed earlier, he does not want us to be divided over what the Bible says; we are to be one body. The only thing that really matters is that God sent Jesus to die in our place to take away our sins and that Jesus was resurrected on the third day to go to heaven and sit on the throne on the right side of God.