What Does The Bible Mean When It Says Jesus "Bore" Our Sins?
I Peter 2:24 says about Jesus “Who … bare our sins in his own body on the tree”Hebrews 9:28 reads “Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many”Isaiah 53 identifies for us the meaning of Jesus “bearing” our sins. Verse 12b (“he bare the sin of many”) and 11b (“he shall bear their iniquities”) is defined just 5 verses previous in 6c as “the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.”So Jesus bore our sins in the sense our sins were laid on him. Just like when a heavy load is “laid” on a pack mule, the mule “bears” or carries the pack. Except as regarding sin, we mean spiritually not physically.The scapegoat of Leviticus 16 affords the same definition for “bearing sin”:v.22 the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquitiesv.21all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goatSo the scapegoat "bore" the people's sins in that they were put on the goat, he carried them away - in a type of course.In our case, “bearing sin” means Jesus took responsibility for our sin - Lev 24:15-16:… Whosoever curseth his God shall bear his sin. And he that blasphemeth the name of the Lord, he shall surely be put to death, and all the congregation shall certainly stone him: as well the stranger, as he that is born in the land, when he blasphemeth the name of the Lord, shall be put to death.Jesus took responsibility for our sins by taking our curse (Gal 3:13), our penalty (II Cor 5:21), our consequences (Matt 27:46), our punishment (Isa 53:5). Many are hesitant to give Him the glory for doing that!