By choosing not to perform a particular sin, can we reduce the amount of pain that Jesus suffered on the cross?


Email Received:

I would like to share with you a revelation that I feel the Lord showed me yesterday while I was talking to Him. I told the Lord that I wished that I could take back every sin that I had ever committed. His (Jesus') response was "I walked through it with you." Immediately, the Lord showed me something. Bear in mind, while reading this, that there are many more dimensions to time and space than we can comprehend.

By not committing our own FUTURE sin, we lessen the torment that Jesus had to bear for us. In other words, by NOT committing sin, be it large or small, we lessen the anguish He went through for us. We have the ability NOW to change the amount of pain He suffered on Calvary THEN.

I believe this to be from the Lord. I have asked Him today for scriptural confirmation. I would love to hear your thoughts and if you know any scriptural basis for this.


Ted's Response:

I do not know of any specific scriptural confirmation for what you have said. However, I have considered something similar to that, although I do not necessarily consider it to be a revelation from God. I will relay this to you, and then I will address your particular issue.

I feel that we can pray for something that already has happened, but about which we are unaware of the outcome. For instance, let's say that a good friend of mine flew to another city for a conference, which was scheduled to take place at a certain hotel. Then I heard on the news, early this morning, that a tornado swept rhough that city last night.

One of the structures severely damaged was that hotel where the conference was being held. Furthermore, there were several fatalities and many who were injured, but none of their names had been released yet. I very well might pray, after the fact, that my friend was not injured or killed and that those who were injured might have swift recoveries. Essentially, I think that God would have heard, last night, the prayer that I said today.

You are right that there are many more dimensions to time and space that we cannot comprehend. I absolutely believe that God is outside of time and space, since He created both and cannot be contained inside of either. He exists in eternity past, in the present, and in eternity future, simultaneously. Psalm 90:2 indicates that God is "from everlasting to everlasting." God does not just "look down the corridor of time" to see what is going to happen, as some will claim; He already exists in the future, present, and past, all at once.

In any case, because God inhabits all of time and eternity (Isaiah 57:15), I agree that if we decide not to commit a sin that we had planned to commit, in a sense it does lessen the amount of pain and anguish that Jesus otherwise would have endured on crucifixion day. Of course, since He already has endured that torment and affliction, then it is predestined for us to choose not to commit the sin in the first place. And by our free will choice, we indirectly will have caused His pain and anguish to be less on that crucifixion day in the past.

More about my perspective of how there is a one-to-one correspondence between predestination and free will can be found in my email responses here:


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