On The Cross As Our Substitute

For most of the Western world today is known as Good Friday, a seemingly odd qualifier for a day when Jesus was crucified. What is so good about a tortuous death? It wasn't good for Jesus but for those who have faith in His substitutionary death it is the best of all days. It was at the cross where Jesus took my sins in His own body and paid the penalty for my sins on my behalf. He made Himself sin for me....

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:21)

And on that cross as He cried out to His Father....

And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46)

Something happened. He paid what I owed, He forgave my trespasses, He canceled my debt. My Lord and my sins, both were hung on a cross.

And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. (Colossians 2:13-14)

God made those who were dead alive with Him as He had purposed to do before time began. His wrath was turned away and satisfied by the propitiation of His Son.

...for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. (Romans 3:23-25)

The day after He ate the Passover with His disciples, He then showed that the Passover was a mere shadow of the greater passing over that was to come, the Lamb of God without blemish sacrificed for His own people. That is why we celebrate the Lord's Supper and declare His death and resurrection rather than celebrating the obsolete Passover. 

By this we know that God loves us, by sending His own Son to die for us to atone for our sins.

In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. (1 John 4:10)

The central truth of the cross is that God Himself in the body of His Son bore our sins in our place, a doctrine we call penal substitutionary atonement.

Check out this brief video on penal substitutionary atonement. A lot of people don't like PSA, mostly because they don't understand it or just misrepresent it, but I think it is one of the clearest doctrines in Scripture.



It is the great truth of the great Savior that He died in our place. This was foretold long before He took on flesh in the writings of Isaiah the prophet...

Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people? And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors. (Isaiah 53:1-12)

Good Friday is not about the Jewish Passover. It is not about social justice or capital punishment. It is not about Mary. It is all about Jesus and what He did on the cross.

If you know and are known by Jesus through grace by faith today, it is a good day to remember and give thanks for what He did on the cross to save His sheep. Praise Him!

The Curse Of The Cross

Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, "Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?" that is, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" -Matthew 27:45-46

Is there a more heart-wrenching passage in Scripture than the Son of God crying out to His Father: My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? The cry of the Son to His Father, Father why have you forsaken me? If you know Christ and realize your own sin and the perfection of Christ, the words of Christ are like a punch in the stomach. I can't read them or hear them aloud without getting torn up. I also know that the Father forsaken the Son at that moment means that I will never be forsaken in turn.

This passage came up today and I remembered a talk that R.C. Sproul gave at Together for The Gospel in 2008 on the curse motif of Scripture, specifically the cross. Here is a good summary of the talk:


I was privileged to be in attendance when Sproul gave this talk. It is dead silent in the room, you could have heard the proverbial pin drop. You can listen to the whole talk, it is about an hour long, here. This is the sort of deep, rich thinking that we need more of in the church. Give it a listen, it will enrich your understanding of what Christ did for His sheep on the cross.

And can it be...

And can it be that I should gain
An interest in the Savior’s blood?
Died He for me, who caused His pain—
For me, who Him to death pursued?
Amazing love! How can it be,
That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?

Charles Wesley, 1738

I am not a big music guy. I hate signing because I am self-conscious about how bad I sound. I would generally be happy to skip singing entirely and just go right to the preaching. But I really love the hymn And Can It Be That I Should Gain? not just for the song itself but because of the deep theological themes that it brings up. That Jesus Christ would die for others, and not just others but that He would die for the very people who hated Him and caused Him such grief, that He died for those who wouldn't lift a finger to help Him. That I gain all for something done for me centuries before I was born. Jesus Christ left the side of His Father, the perfect comfort and glory and communion with the Father, to intentionally come to earth specifically to die to redeem a people to Himself. Not because it made Him more than He was but strictly as an act of mercy and grace, looking upon fallen humanity with pity and saving some in spite of themselves. That is indeed a God who is worthy of all praise and honor and glory, a God who demands nothing from us but instead provides us everything.

How can it be that I should gain from the Savior's blood? Because He was moved by pity and love and died for me, He did it all for His sheep.

What happened on the cross?

At the moment that God poured out His wrath and Christ bore the penalty for our sins in His flesh, something happened, something changed. We will never understand more than a sliver of what the cross means in this life, but what has been revealed to us in the Bible is enough for man to ponder for a lifetime.

On the cross the godly died for the ungodly. The Good Shepherd laid down His life for His sheep. He who knew no sin became sin for us so that through Him we might become the righteousness of God. What Luther called the Great Exchange occurred, our sin imputed to Him and His righteousness imputed to the elect through the God-given gift of faith (Eph 2:8 ). But what does that mean?

Some of the terminology used about the cross causes confusion. The Bible and theologians use language and terms that are pretty uncommon in normal conversation. Here are a few of them using dictionary definitions that don’t always capture the nuance of the term…

Propitiation

2: something that propitiates ; specifically : an atoning sacrifice

Propitiates

: to gain or regain the favor or goodwill of : appease

Atone

2: to supply satisfaction for : expiate

Expiate

2 a: to extinguish the guilt incurred by b: to make amends for

Justified

2 archaic : to administer justice to archaic : absolve c: to judge, regard, or treat as righteous and worthy of salvation

So when we are speaking of the cross, we need to recognize that there are a number of things going on. When we read in Romans 3:25; Hebrews 2:17; 1 John 2:2 and 1 John 4:10 of Christ being made the propitiation for our sins, we see an atoning sacrifice, a sacrifice that appeases and satisfies the judgment of God. Sinners who were enemies of God regained his favor through the imputed righteousness of Christ. We are justified by faith, but the reason for our justification by faith alone in Christ alone is because of what He did on the cross. By His cross He made peace between man and God, reconciling us to our Creator by fulfilling the demands of the Law.

And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. (Col 2: 13-14)

For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. (Eph 2: 14-16)

The cross changed the dividing lines among humanity. Before the cross, humanity was divided by nationality. The Jews were God’s chosen people, a nation chosen among all of the nations by God’s sovereign will (Deu 7:6). It was through the Jews that the types and shadows of the cross were revealed in the sacrificial system, it was through the Jews that the Law was given and it was through the Jews that the Messiah came. Within the nation we found believers who were faithful and many who were not believers and continually violated the laws. After the cross, the dividing line is the cross. The world contains two kinds of people today, the redeemed and the lost. We have created all sorts of subdivisions within both groups (Baptist/Methodist/Presbyterian on the one hand and agnostic/atheist/”seeker”/Muslim/Buddhist on the other) but when you get through all of the labels and subgroups there are really only two types of people: Christians and everyone else. You were either redeemed at the cross or you are eternally lost. There is no second place prize.

We also see the very root of eternal security on the cross, the action that makes sinners secure in their salvation. The sins of the elect are placed on Christ and He made propitiation for them. If the Christian is able to “lose their salvation” that would indicate that Jesus died for their sins and the Christian is still punished for them. That flies in the face of God as a just judge, sort of the theological equivalent of double jeopardy.

What else can you think of that was accomplished on that day almost two thousand years ago on the cross of Christ at Calvary?

The cross of Christ and John 10

There is a lot of chatter this week leading up to Easter Sunday. When conversation turns to the cross of Christ, confusion often ensues. I want to work out some of the surrounding issues of the cross, what it did (or did not) accomplish, what it means for the believer. So over the course of this week, I plan on posting a number of thoughts about the cross and what that cross means to the believer.

The first place I want to look is at the Good Shepherd discourse of John 10. In John 10 Jesus speaks in some depth of Himself as the Good Shepherd, about those who are His sheep and those who are not (and why some are His sheep and some are not), and what He would be doing for His sheep at the cross.

What is the key theme from John 10? Jesus knows His sheep and His sheep know Him and He lays down His life for the sheep. What makes someone one of His sheep? Is it that we chose to be one of His sheep? Or is it that we were His sheep because He chose us? That really gets to the question of why some believe and some do not when they hear the Gospel. That question is one that is confounding to those who reject sovereign grace. Read what Jesus says in John 10: 24-27:

24 So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” 25 Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father's name bear witness about me, 26 but you do not believe because you are not part of my flock. 27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.

In other words, because we are His sheep we hear His voice, not the converse that we are His sheep because we hear His voice. Those who hear the Gospel and reject it, who do not believe, do not believe not because of how clever the presentation is or because someone didn’t lead them in a prayer. Those who reject the Word reject it because they are not part of Christ’s flock. I would say that you could (and should) preach the Gospel to someone who is not one of His sheep until you are blue in the face and they will never believe because they are not of His flock. Conversely, His sheep hear His voice and follow Him. Christian, the only difference between you and that guy over there bound for hell is that the Father gave you to the Son as part of His flock and because of the working of the Holy Spirit in your rebellious, God-hating heart you heard His voice and followed Him. You and I are nothing but sheep, prone to wander, kind of dumb, and we have no basis for bragging about being saved because we had nothing to do with being saved. If I had chosen to follow Christ without the intervention of God, then I have something to brag about: I was smarter or more righteous or whatever than that guy and I chose Jesus. But that is not what it is about, you were chosen as one of His flock not because of who you were but in spite of who you are.

So what does that have to do with the cross? Well, elsewhere in John 10: 14-17 we see who Christ laid down His life for:

14 I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. 16 And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. 17 For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again.

Notice the urgency. I must bring them, they will listen to my voice. Why is Christ the Good Shepherd? Because unlike the hireling He lays down His life for His sheep. He dies for His sheep, the sheep given Him by the Father:

27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. 30 I and the Father are one.”

Not only does He lay down His life for His sheep, He secures them. They were given to Him by the Father, He died for them and none of them will ever be snatched from Him. You give the Enemy far too much credit to think that He is able to snatch a ransomed sheep from the hand of the Good Shepherd.

When you examine it in this way, the power of the cross becomes clearer. It is not a sacrifice made in the hopes that some would make a “decision” to follow Christ. It was a conscious decision, a specific and purposeful act that accomplished redemption for a people, not because of anything inherently good in them or because of a future decision that was foreseen. With the nails in His hands and feet, Jesus paid for the sins of His sheep and they are paid in full. Nothing else is left to do and nothing can undo that redemption. We have bought into this fuzzy notion of the cross and fail to give His cross the proper power and efficacy. Someone asked me the other day when I was saved and I told them I was saved in the first century A.D., on Calvary at the cross of Christ. I was born again around the year 2000 but the saving work on my behalf was finished and complete at the cross.

Next, I want to look at some of the deeper theological terms and concepts that surround the cross.

At peace with God

Hark! the herald angels sing,
"Glory to the new born King,
peace on earth, and mercy mild,
God and sinners reconciled!"

How often have you sung this Christmas hymn? In church it is a Christmas staple, and when I was younger we used to sing it in Christmas programs at school (when we were still allowed to sing Christmas songs and still call it Christmas instead of "the holidays"). But one line in that hymn really stands out to me, God and sinners reconciled. Christmas has become, culturally, all about the giving and receiving. We think about the babe in the manger as God's gift to the world. But I am afraid that we have lost sight of the cross because of the manger. Jesus coming in a miraculous birth to a virgin, in and of itself, accomplished very little other than fulfilling one part of the prophecy. It was at the cross where the Christ child was destined to ascend that the full reality of the gift of God to His people was realized. It was there, on the cross, where He brought peace between God and sinners.

For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. (Colossians 1:19-20)

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. (Romans 5:1)

For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. (Col 1:19-20)

(Emphasis added)

What all of this tells me is the depths to which we once were His enemies. Our separation was so severe, the gulf so unbridgeable that peace between God and His people could only come at a terrible cost, the cost of the life of His Son. We have no peace in this life because we have no peace with God. It was an enmity that our sin has caused and it was a separation that outside of the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit we are unaware of. Sure we know something is wrong in the world, but we don't realize that what is wrong with the world is not global warming, or capitalism, or war, or those people over there. What is wrong with the world is us. We were unable and unwilling to make peace with God, so God had to send His beloved Son to make peace with us. Don't buy that Total Depravity stuff? Think we are just generally good people who needed a little nudge in the right direction? Think again...

Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. (Romans 5:9-11)

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience-- among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. (Ephesians 2:1-3)

So we are all depraved, wicked sinners. But didn't Jesus come to bring peace? Certainly, but not the peace we usually think of.

The peace that Christ brings is not an earthly peace, a time of peace and goodwill. 2000 years of human history have proven that. There are wars, famine, hatred. The world is certainly not a peaceful place by any stretch of the imagination. So what is all of this peace talk about anyway? We read in Isaiah 9:

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. (Isaiah 9:6)

We see on the glorious night that Christ was born:

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!" (Luke 2:13-14)

But yet we don't see peace in the world nor should we expect to. The peace that Christ brought is peace with His Father, a peace treaty signed in His blood.

We are cynically called to remember "The reason for the season", but the reason for the season is not the manger, it is the cross. It is not the three wise men, it is the centurion who said: "Truly this was the Son of God!". It is not the adoring shepherds, it is the crowd screaming "Crucify Him!". The reason for the season is this:

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (Joh 1:14)

The Word became flesh and dwelt among us and by His stripes we are healed. That is reason to celebrate. Not for iPods or gift cards, but because the eternal Word condescended to dwell among sinners who hated and rejected Him. But we also read that while we were yet sinners, He came and died for us. Celebrate that on Christmas day, celebrate that God and sinners are reconciled by the cross and because of that we have peace with God for all eternity.

Now that is deserving of a...

Merry Christmas!