My Sins, Your Abuse

Summary

Students will learn the severity of sin and the extremity of God’s love for us by taking our place for the punishment due.

Scripture

Romans 5:8

Preparation

• Make a rule that you know the students cannot keep from breaking, and make up a punishment for it (make it tough, but make sure you yourself can do it). Some ideas:
  • 50 pushups
  • 20 burpees
  • 10 pullups
  • 5 pushups with a kid on your shoulders
  • Writing a sentence with your non-writing hand
  • Taking a dodgeball-ball to the face
  • “butts up” (person stands up against wall with butt sticking out, other person tries to hit them in the butt by kicking a soccer ball at it.)
  • etc. (but you must do it, not one of your helpers, for such would be like an angel dying on the cross so Jesus wouldn’t have to, ya know?)
• A good time to do this would be before the lesson actually starts, while everybody’s coming in and doing whatever, as they normally do.

Activity

1. When one of the kids breaks this (new) rule, inform him/her and demand that they carry out the punishment.
   • No justification, just “I made the rule, I’m the final say.”
   • No second chances.
2. If/when one of the other students tries to step in, ask:  “Are you willing to take the punishment for him/her?”
   1. He/she knew the rule and its punishment before breaking it.
   2. Do you deny that he/she deserves the punishment for it?
   3. Anybody who did this would get the same punishment. So I ask again, will anybody take his/her punishment for him/her…is anybody willing to take his/her place in the punishment?

If somebody offers to, let them.  If not, then explain:

“You know what? The punishment for ___________________________  is _______________________________.

• You knew the punishment before committing the offense.
• I know it’s too hard for you to do, but somebody does have to fulfill the punishment.
• (Let the squirm a bit first, then say, “You know what? I’ll do it.
  • I made the rule and decided on the punishment.
    
  • I know I’m not going to like this, but I’ll do it in your place because I love you.

———–(Perform the punishment)————

Ask:

• What just happened here?
• Does this sound familiar to you?
• Who in the Bible can you think of who did this same thing for all of us? (God did this for us!)

Romans 6:23 tells us that the punishment for sin is death.

• We knew this before we committed it, but we did it anyway, right?
  • I mean, in this case, I made the rule in front of all you when you walked in. But you did it anyway, right? Just as with sin, we already know that sin leads to death, right?
  • But the punishment was too much for us to handle, wasn’t it?
    • I mean, you don’t want to die, but you also don’t know how to right the wrong when that punishment is the only way to make it right, right?

Read: Romans 5:8

• His rules
• We broke them
• We should die for breaking them, not Him, who didn’t break them.
• We even broke them while knowing the cost for doing so, didn’t we?
  • So we deserve the punishment, not Jesus!
• But instead, God came down from Heaven, became human, and stepped in to take the punishment for us.
  • Why do you think God did that?
  • Why did Jesus take on the punishment for our sins?

“This need is real, in my soul I feel, the love you shared, that’s why I can’t say no again. My thoughts are confused for my sins you’re abuse. My heart, it screams, to open up and let you in!”  —Kutless “Let You In”