Righteousness According to a 4th Century Monk

A sweet quote from a 4th century Monk by the name of Macarius. This quotation is from his Spiritual Homilies no. 20. 

"If anyone takes his stand upon a righteousness and redemption of his own, not looking for the righteousness of God who is the Lord, as the apostle says, 'who is made unto us righteousness and redemption', he labors in vain and to no purpose. For all the dreams of a righteousness of his own is at the last day manifested as nothings but filthy rags, as the prophet Isaiah says, 'All our righteousness is as filthy rags.' Let us then beg and implore God to 'clothe us with the garments of salvation', Jesus Christ our Lord, the unspeakable light. Souls that have once worn it shall never put it off again, but in the resurrection also their bodies shall be glorified by the glory of that light, with which faithful and noble souls are even now clad, as the apostle says, 'He that raised Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit which dwells within you.'"

All Sin Punished

"No one anywhere at any time gets away with anything. Every sin, every crime will be punished--either in hell or on the cross."


John Piper


These may come across as hard words from John Piper, but they get at what primarily happened at the Cross. The words are hard because they condemn every single person who has ever lived. Everyone has lied in their life. Everyone has sinned either in thought or deed. And because God is holy, He must judge this sin. The just or righteous judgement is death. All have sinned, and all sin is punished. 


But this is what makes the gospel good news. Jesus took the punishment for sin at the cross. For all who would believe in Him, Jesus died a substitutionary death on our behalf, taking upon himself the punishment we rightly deserve. Now, that's what I call love. 


We are all guilty and in our selves, deserve death. But God offers life to everyone who would turn from trusting in themselves, and turn to trusting His Son. 

From Son to Curse

Another excerpt from Donald MaCleod's, 'The Person of Christ'. 

"He felt forsaken and he was forsaken….In the moment of dereliction, there is no sense of his own sonship. Even in Gethsemane, Jesus had been able to say, ‘Abba!’ (meaning Father). But now the cry is, ‘Eloi, Eloi’ (God). He is aware only of the god-ness and power and holiness and otherness of God. In his self image, he is no longer Son, but Sin; no longer the beloved with whom God is well pleased, but the cursed one: vile, foul and repulsive….

…But now, in the hour of his greatest need, God is not there. When he most needs encouragement, there is no voice to cry, ‘This is my beloved Son.’ When he most needs reassurance, there is no-one to say, ‘I am well pleased.’ No grace was extended to him, no favor shown, no comfort administered, no concession made. God was present only as displeased, expressing that displeasure with overwhelming force in all the circumstances of Calvary. Every detail in a drama which walked a fine line between chaos and liturgy declared, ‘This is what God thinks of you and of the sin you bear!’ He was cursed, because he became the greatest thief, murderer, adulterer, robber, desecrateor, blasphemer, etc., there has ever been anywhere in the world."

A somber reminder of the reality of calvary. At the cross, Jesus Christ, the 2nd person of the trinity, very God of very God, became a curse, and experienced absolute abandonment, taking upon himself the shame and consequence of sin; the consequence that we deserved. This is love. The Son of God stood condemned in our place. The cross wasn't some abstract event were the Son merely suffered theoretically, or only appeared to take on our sins. It is a concrete reality. The Son was really forsaken. He actually became a curse. He actually suffered the physical, spiritual and emotional effects of being under God's wrath. This is amazing love!

Jesus, The Ransom For Many

"Truly no man can ransom another 

or give to God the price of his life,

for the ransom of their life is costly and can never suffice,

that he should live on forever

and never see the pit."

Psalm 49: 7-9

"even as the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, 

and to give his life as a ransom for many."

Matthew 20:28

Our ransom is a price so costly that no man, nor we ourselves are able to pay it. This psalm tells us that no man is able account for ransom price of ones life, in order that they should live forever. Yet, most of us spend our entire lives trying to justify our existence and in some sense 'ransom' our lives. The previous verses in this psalm reminds us that regardless of physical wealth, we are still not able to pay the price. We need the same reminder. The comfort of having physical 'things' and possessing earthly wealth  will not solve this problem. In the same way, many of us try to pay our own ransom, that we should live forever, with the wealth of our good works. We figure if we do enough good things, or are good, upstanding citizens, then surely this is enough that we should live forever. But the truth remains, no man can suffice for his own, or another's ransom. We cannot pay the price.

However, the gospel tells us that this is exactly why Jesus came. Our sin has created a debt that we could never repay, whether with physical wealth, or spiritual. Jesus is the only one qualified to pay this ransom. No man can pay for another mans ransom, because each man himself is sinful, and is in need of being ransomed himself. Yet, Jesus was fully man and fully God. He himself was sinless. Therefore, he is qualified to pay this ransom price. And how did Jesus pay the ransom? He ransomed us from the price of our sin by dying on the cross. He payed the debt for our sins by taking upon himself, the iniquity of us all. 

So, this morning, let us be reminded that in ourselves, we are helpless and hopeless. We are sinful, and could never ransom ourselves that we may live forever. We are sentenced to the pit. But, in the gospel, we have hope. Jesus lived the life we should have lived, and died the death we should have died, in order to ransom us from the reign of sin. Jesus tasted death, so that we could live forever, and not see the pit. Let us look away from ourselves this morning, let us look away from our self-justifying attitudes and ego-centric hearts, and let us look to the cross, where Jesus so lovingly paid our ransom. This is our hope, joy and peace. 

Observation # 5: Justification is Based on the Substitutionary Work of Christ For Us

At the heart of justification is the substitutionary work of Christ. This involves Christ's exchanging places with us. Given that our sin demands God's just wrath, Christ substitutionary work on our behalf involves Christ standing in our place and bearing the wrath that we rightfully deserve. 

This is taught even in the Old Testament, as the prophet Isaiah foretold of the coming Messiah, 

"But he was wounded for our transgressions;

   he was crushed for our iniquities;

upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,

    and with his stripes 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."

Isaiah 53:5-6

This passage is clear that the Savior would take upon himself the iniquity of His people. This is exactly what Jesus did at the Cross. The Apostle Paul puts it this way in his letter to the Galatians, 

"Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us." 

Galatians 3:13

Because we have failed to follow God's law, we deserve the curse of not following it. What makes the Gospel good news is that Christ has bore the weight of sin that we deserve. He suffered the debt we owed. The just for the unjust, once and for all. We are able to be justified because Jesus substituted himself in our place. 

We will see in the next observation that justification involves not only the substitutionary work of Christ in terms of him taking our sins, but it also involves the positive aspect of Christ imputing to His children His perfect righteousness. 

Grace More Abundant

"My sins are more than the wide sea's sand, but where sin abounds, there is grace more abundant. Look to the cross of thy beloved Son, and view the preciousness of his atoning blood; Listen to his never-failing intercession, and whisper to my heart, 'Thy sins are forgiven, be of good cheer, lie down in peace'."

- Valley of Vision, The Prayer of Love

Certain Victory

From Valley of Vision,

"O LORD,

I bless thee that the issue of the battle between thyself and Satan

has never been uncertain,

and will end in victory.

Calvary broke the dragon's head, 

and I contend with a vanquished foe,

who with all his subtlety and strength

has already overcome.

When I feel the serpent at my heel

may I remember him whose heel was bruised,

but who, when bruised, broke the devil's head. 

My soul with inward joy extols the mighty conqueror."

This morning I praise God for decisively defeating Sin at calvary. My mind cannot understand the kind of faithfulness God has demonstrated. Though I cannot comprehend, my heart rejoices that God was faithful to His promise in Genesis 3:15. In this life, I will never fully understand the depth of grace that was displayed in fulfilling Genesis 3:15. I do not realize how truly undeserving I am, and what it meant for the infinitely holy, good, perfect, creator God, to die for hateful sinners who consistently choose to malign His name rather than rejoice in their Creator. Yet, in what my finite mind can comprehend, I rejoice and glory in the grace of God. My mind cannot comprehend the intricacy of God's providential sovereignty. From the beginning of time, God has been bringing His plans to pass. I rejoice that God has sovereignly chosen to reveal His glory by granting salvation to a People. I rejoice that before the foundations of the earth, God predestined me to be a vessel of mercy, to be adopted into His family, and not to be a rightful vessel of His wrath. Lastly, I cannot comprehend a love of this kind. In this life I will never truly understand the profundity of the Son becoming man and suffering on the Cross. I am amazed how a God infinite in wealth, put aside His fame and limited himself to a human body, experiencing life in a broken world. The One who deserves ultimate praise, the One who is the highest, emptied himself of everything, and became the lowest. All of this to fulfill His promise in Genesis 3:15. The only way for God to crush the head of Sin was for himself to be bruised. This is love, that God became man, took upon the himself the shame, burden and punishment for Sin that His people rightfully deserve, and finished it once and for all at the Cross. I pray that I will be 'strengthened with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.' (Ephesians 4:18-19)

Through the Abundance of God's Steadfast Love

"For you are not a God who delights in wickedness;

   evil may not dwell with you.

The boastful shall not stand before your eyes;

   you hate all evildoers.

You destroy those who speak lies;

   the LORD abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man.

 But I, through the abundance of your steadfast love,

   will enter your house."

Psalm 5:4-7

Only through the steadfast love of God is man able to enter His house. Not by works or good conscious. If evil may not dwell with God, and He destroys those who lie, that leaves every man completely dependent upon an act of God's grace. Because we have all rebelled, we deserve to be outsiders. But this is where it gets interesting. Jesus Christ, the 2nd person of the trinity came to earth, became an outsider, took upon himself the just punishment for all of God's people, for their evil and rebellious hearts, and for every lie spoke. Now, those who trust in Christ may enter His house. Only through the abundance of God's steadfast love can we enter His house. The Apostle John captures how the Cross is the manifestation of this steadfast love. God has ultimately made a way for wrath deserving sinners to come to Him and dwell in His house. 

"In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. ¹⁰In 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 4:9-10

Don't Add On

Gospel + Nothing = Everything

Dirty. Nuff said.

Jeremiah 31:31-34 Fulfilled in Jesus

 “The days are coming,” declares the LORD, 

   “when I will make a new covenant  with the people of Israel 

   and with the people of Judah. 

It will not be like the covenant  I made with their ancestors 

when I took them by the hand  to lead them out of Egypt, 

because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them declares the LORD. 

 “This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel 

   after that time,” declares the LORD. 

“I will put my law in their minds  and write it on their hearts. 

I will be their God,  and they will be my people. 

No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘Know the LORD,’ 

because they will all know me, 

   from the least of them to the greatest,” 

            declares the LORD. 

“For I will forgive their wickedness 

   and will remember their sins no more.”

God spoke through the prophet Jeremiah of a New Covenant that He would make with His people. It would be a new and better covenant. Whereas with the Old Covenant, God gave His people the law. Yet, they were never able to obey. They're hearts were sinful. They needed a heart transplant. With the Old Covenant, sin caused a separation of intimacy between God and His people. Though God was their husband, though He brought them out of Egypt, and gave them a King (David), and the prophets, Israel repeatedly turned from knowing God in an intimate way, as we were all created to know him. With the Old Covenant, God's people had to constantly atone for their sins through repeated sacrifices. They needed animal sacrifices and the work of the high priests for forgiveness.

However, the in the New Covenant, God fulfilled these things in Jesus. Through the New Covenant, we have a new experience of obedience, a new experience of intimacy with God, and a new experience of forgiveness. The Son came from heaven to earth, taking on human flesh, died on the cross, and resurrected in order to give us this new experience; in order that He would be our God, and we would be His people. 

In the New Covenant, we are united to Christ, and are therefore indwelled with the Holy Spirit. The Spirit gives us a new heart and new life. In our old life, we loved sin. We lived according to the flesh, according to the world. Our taste buds were for sin. Our delight was in sin. Yet, through Jesus, the Spirit dwells in us. The Spirit gives us new hearts; hearts that desire and long to obey God. The Spirit gives us new taste buds. Whereas in the past, sin tasted so good to our souls, it now is disgusting. Our taste buds long to feast on the things of God. We live according to the Spirit. God's law is no longer a burden, but it is a delight. It has been written on our hearts. (Romans 8)

In the New Covenant, we are united to Christ and therefore have an deep intimacy with God. Whereas before, sin and death inhibited us from having fellowship with God. Now, Jesus is our covenant representative. We have access to God through Christ. We were once enemies, but have been made friends. We were once fatherless, but are now called Sons/Daughters! The natural intimacy that Adam and Eve had with God before they rebelled can now be experienced. Jesus said, "I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me" (John 10:14), and "If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him." (John 14:7)

Lastly, in the New Covenant, we have a new experience of forgiveness. This forgiveness is different from the Old Covenant in that it is COMPLETE. It is complete in that this sacrifice was once for all. It was for ALL the sins of His people. No longer would God's people have to look to repeated sacrifices of atonement for forgiveness. Rather, with the New Covenant, they would look to their New Covenant representative for forgiveness. The Son came to earth, and died as the all time sacrifice for sins. Our sin greatly angers God. Our sin deserves wrath. It deserves punishment. That is why in the Old Testament, people had to constantly atone for their sins. Something had to pay the price. God is just. Sin can't go unnoticed. But the gospel tells us that God has made a new Covenant, where He would do the most radical thing. His Son would come to earth, and take the once for all punishment for our sins. Even though we have been unfaithful from the beginning. God so loved the world that He (the Son) sacrificed himself on the Cross for His people's sins, once and for all. Let's look at a few verses from Hebrews and Romans...

"he (Jesus) entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats or calves, but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption."  Hebrews 9:12

"But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself." Hebrews 9:27

"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" Romans 3:23-25

"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

Completely Defeated

"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. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in the cross"

Colossians 2:13-15

         In writing about the record of debt that stood against us, and the powers and authorities that we battle against, Paul is acknowledging their reality. Paul is acknowledging the existence of sin and evil in the world, and their power. His encouragement isn't that they don't exist, but rather that they have been dealt with. They have been COMPLETELY defeated. The record of debt stood against us in that it brought condemnation. It is the record of debt that calls us 'sinner', 'law breaker', 'criminal'. The record of debt that rightly says we deserve death. This debt was true. Also, the rulers and authorities of evil are real. They once had dominion over our lives. We once belonged to them. We were once their slaves. 

        But thanks be to God, that through the cross, there is no more condemnation. Christ took the record of debt that stood against us and nailed it to the cross. The righteous punishment that we deserved for our law breaking, for our sin, for our wickedness, Jesus took. He absorbed the legal debt that stood against us. Jesus took the punishment of condemnation so that we could be free from its grip. More so, through the cross, the power of sin has been completely defeated as well. The word that Paul uses for 'disarm' renders a meaning of 'completely stripping something' or a 'complete disarm'. In other words, every power that sin had over us in our former life, has now been COMPLETELY STRIPPED. In his death and and resurrection, Christ's victory was so decisive, so complete, that Sin, that once powerfully ruled us and had tyrannical dominion over our lives, is now put to open shame, stripped naked of its power, and displayed publicly as defeated. This victory was decisive. It was complete. 

        Also, when we ponder the way in which God accomplished this victory (the cross), we can see how great His love is for us. The Son, though being infinitely powerful, became man, subjected himself to life on earth, and emptied himself of power, being hung on a cross. He became powerless, in order that through faith in him, he could empty sin over its power in our lives. On the cross, Christ became a curse, taking the punishment of a condemned criminal. He did this, so that we, being condemned criminals, could be free. Lastly, Christ died the most shameful death, being put on public display on the cross, in order to defeat the power of sin in our lives, and put sin to open shame by publicly displaying it as defeated. 

What God Has Done For Us in Colossians

"May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might" Colossians 1:11

"who has qualified you to share in the inheritance" Colossians 1:12

"He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son" Colossians 1:13

"in whom we have redemption" Colossians 1:14

"But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death" Colossians 1:22

"in order to present you holy and blameless" Colossians 1:22

"the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints" Colossians 1:26

"God chose to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery" Colossians 1:27

"and you have been filled in him" Colossians 2:10

"in him you were also circumcised, in the putting off of the sinful nature" Colossians 2:11

"having been buried with him in baptism" Colossians 2:12

"you were raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God" Colossians 2:12

"And you who were dead in your trespasses....God made alive together with him" Colossians  2:13

"having forgiven us all our trespasses" Colossians 2:13

"By canceling the record of debt that stood against us" Colossians 2:13

"He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame" Colossians 2:13


He has strengthened us, qualified us, delivered us from darkness and transferred us to light, redeemed us,  reconciled us, he presents us holy and blameless, he has revealed the mystery of the gospel to us, he has chosen to make himself known to us, he has circumcised us with a true circumcision, we've been buried with him in baptism and raised with him in faith, he has made us alive, he has forgiven us our sins, he has cancelled our debt through the cross, and he has disarmed the rulers and authorities of this world.

All this good news in just two chapters of one book.

The Interceding King

"The LORD says to my Lord:
   "Sit at my right hand,until I make your enemies your footstool."

 ²The LORD sends forth from Zion your mighty scepter.

    Rule in the midst of your enemies!³ Your people will offer themselves freely

   on the day of your power, in holy garments;

from the womb of the morning,

   the dew of your youth will be yours.

⁴ The LORD has sworn

   and will not change his mind, "You are a priest forever

   after the order of Melchizedek."

 ⁵The Lord is at your right hand;

   he will shatter kings on the day of his wrath.⁶He will execute judgment among the nations, filling them with corpses; he will shatter chiefs

   over the wide earth.⁷ He will drink from the brook by the way;

   therefore he will lift up his head. Psalm 110

A few things to notice about this Psalm written by David. This Psalm is used several times in the New Testament (Matthew 22, Hebrews 1, Hebrews 5, Hebrews 10) to identify Jesus as Israel's Messiah, the one who would rule on David's throne forever. Twice it is used (once by Jesus, and once in Hebrews) portraying Jesus as the one who is the King, who will sit at God's right hand. The other reference is used to portray Jesus as the priest (Hebrews 5). Given the way in which the New Testament interprets these passages, it is clear that an audience that was contextually Jewish, would have understood this Psalm as one about the Messiah. 

So, what kind of Messiah did the Old Testament foretell? 

1. The Messiah was to be King (vs. 1-2). He was to take the throne of David for eternity. Not only was he to be Israel's king, but he was to be king over all of creation. Just as Israel was elected for the purpose of being God's vehicle of blessing to all the nations (Genesis 12), the Messiah would be king over all the nations. He comes bringing salvation to all the nations. He is the one true God, above the other gods of the nations. His reign is universal. Yet, with His reign comes judgement. As Messiah, he will execute justice.
2. The Messiah was to be a priest (vs. 4). This is quite a marvelous statement. Not only is the Messiah to come as King, ruler of all the earth, bringing justice and establishing righteousness. He is also coming as Priest. But, what does a priest do? In a general sense, a priests role is to mediate between God and man. They are to intercede. In the Old Testament, the priests offered sacrifices to atone for the sins of the people. They entered the holy of holies in order to intercede for the people. So, from the Bible, we know that Jesus as the Messiah was King, but he was also Priest. And how did Jesus fulfill this role as Priest? 

God the Son, came to earth in the flesh, the person Jesus Christ, and did for sinful man what they could have never done themselves. Jesus made the ultimate intercession for His people at the cross. Jesus sits at the ultimate Holy of Holies, being exalted at God's right hand, making intercession for His people. His blood speaks a better word than any of the sacrifices the Old Testament (levitical) priests were able to make.To see the role Jesus played as Priest, I would high encourage you to read the letter to the Hebrews, (chapters 5-10 especially). I'll end with a passage from Hebrews. This stuff pretty much speaks for itself. But, this is truly amazing, that the Ruler of all, the true King, not only rules with perfect justice and righteousness, He descended from his throne in heaven, became man, lived among us, was willingly handed over into the hands of sinners, and allowed himself to be crucified in order to atone for the sins of the His people. We have a true Savior King. That is awesome!

"But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) ¹²he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. ¹³For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, ¹⁴how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God."

Hebrews 9:11-14

"And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. ¹²But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God,¹³waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. ¹⁴For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified."

Hebrews 10:11-14

In My Behalf

"So when the devil throws your sin in your face, and says you deserve death, say, 'I admit I deserve death and hell. What of it? For I know one who suffered and made satisfaction in my behalf. His name is Jesus Christ, Son of God. Where He is, there I shall be also."

Martin Luther

Shai Linne - Alone

Please listen to the third verse. It is one of the best things I've ever heard.

There is a Fountain Filled with Blood

There is a fountain filled with blood
drawn from Emmanuel's veins;
and sinners plunged beneath that flood
lose all their guilty stains.
Lose all their guilty stains,
lose all their guilty stains;
and sinners plunged beneath that flood
lose all their guilty stains. 

- William Cowper, 1731-1800

...

This is probably one of my favorite musical melodies. Better yet, the
words to this hymn are incredibly encouraging as I struggle with guilt
of past and present sin every day. Praise God, It was atoned for and
Finished on the Cross! I know what I further appreciate about the lyrics
in a weird nerdy way is the anatomical illustration of a vein. Mike,
if you care to know,the vein you normally have blood drawn from is
the median cubital vein, haha, was just tested on it this past week.
It thrills me when medicine and theology coincide!

Unconditional

I've recently thought about how much of life is about conditions. Our daily decisions are often based on conditions of that day, which always vary. Certain biological properties of cells are different based on the conditions of their surrounding environment. The most evident manifestation of this in my life is with earning or achievement. The way our world runs is that...You reap what you sow. You get what you worked for. If you do this, then you will receive this. As a new graduate student, I feel the pressures of this daily. We are so trained to think of things as conditional, rather than absolute, and many times rightly so.

However, I have come to understand my standing before God is completely unconditional. I am learning that my relationship with Jesus Christ is entirely dependent on Him, and what He has done. He only asks me to believe. Anyone can believe. As scripture says, we are to believe like little children. It does not require a certain intellectual capacity, moral resume or work ethic. Believing is not something we stir up within ourselves. I've tried to believe harder, and it only shows me how I am a failure at something else. Believing requires trust, which is simply relying on another. That other is Jesus Christ.

The beauty of the grace of Jesus Christ is that it was already paid for. It required no 'if, then' statement. The rest is history. It miraculously transformed my heart to see Jesus on the cross and to believe in Him; to realize I couldn't get it done myself; to be forever grateful for rescuing me from the hell I deserve. The unconditional aspect of God's grace towards me now is what I know will sustain me. This is an absolute that cannot be touched.

What Did the Cross Achieve?

The following excerpt is from J.I. Packer's tremendous essay What Did the Cross Achieve: The Logic of Penal Substitution.

Packer highlights the ingredients in the evangelical model of penal substitution to be...

"1. God, in Denney's phrase, 'condones nothing,' but judges all sin as it deserves: which Scripture affirms, and my conscience confirms, to be right.

2. My sins merit ultimate penal suffering and rejection from God's presence (conscience also confirms this), and nothing I do can blot them out.

3. The penalty due to me for my sins, whatever it was, was paid for me by Jesus Christ, the Son of God, in his death on the cross.

4. Because this is so, I through faith in him am made "the righteousness of God in him", i.e., I am justified; pardon, acceptance, and sonship become mine.

5. Christ's death for me is my sole ground of hope before God. 'If he fulfilled not justice, I must; if he underwent not wrath, I must to eternity.' (John Owen)

6. My faith is Christ is God's own gift to me, given in virtue of Christ's death for me; i.e., the cross procured it.

7. Christ's death for me guarantees my preservation to glory.

8. Christ's death for me is the measure and pledge of the love of the Father and the Son to me.

9. Christ's death for me calls and constrains me to trust, to worship, to love, and to serve."

He Became the Curse For Us

In an introduction to Martin Luther's Freedom of a Christian, Mark D. Tranvik writes...

"Luther's view of the cross began to change when he realized that Christ’s cry or scream was the result of bearing human sin. Christ himself had not committed sin; he voluntarily took upon himself the entire sin of the world. This was not done only in a conceptual or theoretical way. Christ really and truly took sin upon himself, as if he had committed them in the first place."

....

May we continue to see Jesus' life, death and resurrection as an eternal reality in which all things revolve. May God grant us faith to believe in what happened 2000 years ago, and may we further taste its sweetness. May we realize the miracle that Christ's righteousness is fully ours, and it is the root of our good standing before our Heavenly Father. Now, may we rejoice and be thankful in Him.

The First Sacrifice

"So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. But the LORD God called to the man and said to him, "Where are you?" And he said, "I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself." He said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?" Genesis 3: 6-11

^21"And the LORD God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them." Genesis 3:21

As is known, Genesis 3 tells of the fall of man. Adam and Eve eat of the forbidden fruit, and in doing so, their eyes are opened to their nakedness. Their sin brought a deep sense of guilt and shame. As a result they attempt to hide themselves and cover their nakedness. More so, Adam's sin is imputed to all those who are in him. As all humans are by nature in Adam, that is why we faced with the same guilt and shame that go along with our rebellious hearts.

However, reading this passage the other day, the thing that struck me was God's actions that followed. Following the fall, God clothes Adam and Eve's nakedness. He covers their guilt and shame. How does he do this? He uses animal skins. This means that something had to die in order for their guilt and shame to be covered. Something had to pay the price. The clothing is a free gift of God's grace and provision, but it was not without a cost.

In the Old Testament, God institutes animal sacrifices in order to atone for sin. However, these were not permanent. They, along with the first sacrifice in Genesis 3, were just a foretaste of the ultimate sacrifice to come; the ultimate sacrifice that came in the person of Jesus Christ. Unlike the previous sacrifices, the Cross was once and for all. Jesus took the full sting of death, in order to clothe those who trust in Him. This sacrifice is sufficient to completely remove all the guilt and shame from those who are in Adam's helpless race. More so, not only is our guilt and shame completely removed, but we are clothes in much more than animal skins. We are clothed in the perfect righteousness of the Son of God. This is good news.