We've looked at the fall of our first parents and the resulting devastation. We've looked at some of the promises that God made in the Old Testament era of a coming Savior. Now let’s look at how the Lord worked His plan out perfectly in His time, in His way, through His Son.
As we have seen, each one of us has a divine directive to live our lives in obedience to the laws that God has given us for our own good and happiness. We, as descendants of fallen Adam, are not willing or even able to do this. Ephesians 2:1 refers to us in our inherited spiritual state as being "dead in trespasses and sins." We are all born rebels with a propensity to sin. Our sinful thoughts, actions, and words find their origin in our corrupt hearts. The Lord's holiness and perfect justice demands that all sin be punished. He owes us nothing but the righteous judgement that awaits. Further, even the fact that He is wholly loving in no way obligates Him to do anything to save us from the consequences of our foolish and wicked refusal to submit to Him.
Even so, the Lord, acting out of a love and compassion far greater than we can comprehend this side of eternity, sovereignly chose to intervene on behalf of helpless sinners. At the time appointed and according to the previously mentioned decree of the Triune (three-in-one) God in eternity, God the Father sent God the Son into the world as a man. Though still fully God, He had a real, human body and nature that grew, developed, and learned from conception into adulthood like anyone else.
Although He was fully human, Jesus was conceived within His human mother by the power of God the Holy Spirit, with no human fathering involved (Matthew 1:23, Luke 1:35). Thus, He did not inherit a corrupted, sinful nature. He had no predisposition to sin. Although even Satan himself tempted Him, Christ never sinned. His was a life of perfect obedience to God, fulfilling the requirements of the law from birth to death (Luke 2:51, John 6:38, Philippians 2:8).
As a young man Jesus began traveling throughout Israel, preaching that every person was in need of God's forgiveness, which could never be earned by giving an outward show of righteousness. Instead, He commanded people to confess their sin to God in a spirit of humble repentance (see Jesus's parable illustrating this truth in Luke 18:9-14). The miracles that He often performed were manifestations of His divine authority and the power He had over nature, evil spirits, diseases, and even death. They served as proofs that He was who He claimed to be - the Son of God.
He showed compassion on those who were eager to hear His teaching, but He condemned the Jewish religious rulers, "For they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God" (John 12:43). As He exposed their hypocrisy and willful unbelief, their hatred towards Him grew until they were discussing among themselves how they could put Him to death. Finally, their opportunity came; Jesus was arrested, put through a mock trial, and handed over to the Roman government for execution. Despite the civil authorities' understanding of His innocence, Jesus was mocked, beaten, scourged, and finally crucified. He died after about six hours on the cross and was buried in a nearby tomb.
One could hardly imagine a more frustrating case of injustice, or a more discouraging example of evil seemingly triumphing over good. Immanuel (meaning "God with us") lived among men as a man, taught men how to live in a way pleasing to God and gave the perfect example of the same. Instead of gratefully receiving His instruction, His enemies thanked Him by having Him tortured and killed.
While men were carrying out their wicked intentions, however, God was accomplishing His own purpose through them. Jesus knew from the beginning what was going to happen to Him. As we saw earlier in the excerpt from Isaiah 53, the Messiah's specific purpose in stepping into our world was to be "wounded," "bruised," and chastised for the sins of others ("the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all," v. 6). This is exactly what took place during the suffering and death of Jesus Christ. Writing to Christians years later, Jesus' disciple Peter describes this spiritual transaction when he speaks of Christ in II Peter 2:22 & 24, "Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth...who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed." In other words, God took every sin that ever had been or would be committed by all those who would ever repent and trust Him for their salvation, and credited them to Jesus, looking upon Him as if He had committed those sins Himself. Jesus then took on Himself the punishment due those sins – the wrath of God. Romans 6:23 tells us that "the wages of sin is death," and that is the payment Jesus made on the believer's behalf. His sacrifice for sin is what makes God's forgiveness possible for guilty sinners. Being aware of our sin and even feeling remorseful over it simply isn't sufficient by itself. Hebrews 9:22 says, "without shedding of blood is no remission." "Remission" refers to "sending away"; the shedding of Jesus' blood in our behalf is the only ground upon which our sins can be sent or taken away from us.
In addition to the believer's sins already having been credited (or imputed) to Christ, when a sinner like you or me comes to an understanding of these truths, and the Holy Spirit graciously grants him repentance and faith in Christ, something is credited to the new believer as well. We saw earlier that on the day we stand before the Lord, He will require of us not only a record free of sin, but a record of absolute adherence to His law. We also saw that Jesus, and only Jesus, perfectly achieved that record during His earthly life. When a sinner places his faith in the substitutionary death of Christ to save him, Christ's own record of obedience to God is credited to the new believer, as if the believer had lived the life of flawless obedience himself. Although the person who trusts Christ will stand before God one day knowing himself to be a sinner, God will not see him as such. God will see the Christian as covered or "clothed" with the righteousness of Christ Himself. Paul writes of "the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe" (Romans 3:22).
We know that Christ's sacrifice on the cross was accepted by God and divine justice was perfectly satisfied when we read John 19:28 & 30: "After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst. ...When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost." The phrase "it is finished" was an expression also used in that day to signify that a dept had been "paid in full." The punishment due to the sins laid on Christ has been fully meted out. Those who ask God to forgive their sins and trust Christ completely for their salvation need not dread the day they finally stand before God, because they know that Christ has already paid their dept. God is not unjust, that He would punish the same offences twice!
Without a doubt, the greatest proof of Jesus Christ's victory over sin and death was this: He actually, physically, rose again from the dead. Jesus told His listeners before His arrest, "No man taketh it [my life] from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again" (John 10:18).
The fact of His resurrection is vital to the believer's hope of eternal life. Paul says in I Corinthians 15:17 & 20, "And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. ...But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept [died]." "Firstfruits" isn't a term we use anymore, but in this passage it refers to Christ being the first of many who will be raised to life. Verses 23 and 24 of the same chapter read, "But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming. Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power."
After showing Himself many times to His disciples and commanding them teach others what they had learned from Him, the resurrected Lord was taken up into heaven before their eyes. Immediately two angels appeared by the disciples and reminded them of what Jesus Himself had said several times before: that He would return one day (see Matthew 24:29-51, Luke 12:40, John 14:3).
The Lord's promise to return to earth one day as King and Savior is a source of joy and expectation for the Christian; for on that day the bodies of every true believer in Christ will be raised to life, whole and immortal, by the Lord Jesus Himself. "For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord" (I Thessalonians 4:16-7; see also John 6:39-44 and I Corinthians 15:51-55). Heaven, a place free from sin and its destructive curse, where there is unbroken fellowship with Almighty God, will be the eternal home of the believer.
As you can see, Christ's return will not bear any resemblance to His quiet and lowly first arrival, but will be with power and glory at the end of the world when He will be acknowledged by all as King of kings and Lord of lords (Revelation 17:14). Philippians 2:9-10 says, "Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."
Those who have never acknowledged their guilt before God, repented of sin, and trusted Christ for salvation will also bow the knee to Jesus, but they will not be bowing in a spirit of thanksgiving before their Redeemer; rather, they will be bowing in terror before their Judge. Near the beginning of this look at eternity, we looked at a depiction of God's judgement taken from Revelation 20. That passage continues with these words: "And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire."
We’ll conclude this short series next time with a look at the life Jesus gives to believers, both now and (especially) after we’ve left this world behind.
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