Christ Bearing the Punishment for Our Sin

Transcript

GR 1684
03/31/2013
Christ Bearing the Punishment for our Sin
Hebrews 5:7-10; 1 Peter 2:24, 3:18
Gil Rugh

Every day is a good day to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The events of this Easter weekend are really the climax and culmination of God revealing Himself, His purpose and plans for thousands of years, beginning back with the account of God creating the world and man, man as male and female created to have fellowship with Him, to enjoy His presence in the beauty of the environment of the Garden of Eden. And then man rebelled and sin entered the creation. And the relationship between God and man was shattered. Man became guilty, the object of God's judgment, expressing his disobedience. God intervened graciously. The man and the woman in that Garden tried to cover themselves, making garments of leaves. God intervened to sacrifice animals and cover them with the skins, the beginning of the unfolding of God's grace and mercy in dealing with sinful human beings. The sin that was created by Adam has been passed down. Thousands of years later every descendant of Adam and Eve is infected by sin. We express that sin by our rebellion against God, our unwillingness to hear what He has to say. When we hear it, our determination not to obey it. But God continues unfolding His mercy and grace and providing a way for us not to have to pay the penalty for our sin.

As you move through the revelation that God has given in the Bible, God moved on to explain how animals could be offered as a sacrifice for sin. The penalty for sin is death. God made it possible for a person to offer sacrifices of animals to provide access to Him. And in the unfolding revelation of God it was made clear, God is here, man is here. Man has no ability to go directly to God. There has to be someone in between God and man to represent man before God. And in the Mosaic Law the details of a priesthood are unfolded. God made provision in the nation Israel for an order of priests represented by a high priest. The purpose of that priest ministry was to represent sinful people before a holy God. And what He would do was take the sacrifices that God had instructed and offer them on behalf of the people. So he would go as the people's representative before God and offer a sacrifice. And in that the people were acknowledging, we are sinners as you say we are. We are guilty before you, a holy God. The penalty for our sin is death but you in mercy have said you will accept this animal in our place and we are acknowledging we should die. But we believe that you are a God who is merciful and will accept this sacrifice in our place.

Now all of that was part of the plan of God to prepare for what we are talking about at Easter. Through the passing of time God revealed more and more of His plan. Sort of a picture, an inverted funnel that begins at this end at a point and God progressively reveals more and more of His purposes and plans. All of that in preparation and anticipation for when He would give the final full revelation of how He will provide for Himself someone to be a sacrifice for sin.

And so the book of Hebrews begins in Hebrews 1 by telling us that “God after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions, in many ways has in these last days spoken to us in One who is a Son, His very Son.” So all the revelation that had been progressively added to was anticipating that final full, complete revelation, the coming of the Son of God to earth to reveal fully and completely and finally God's plan for dealing with man's sin. And so the book of Hebrews unfolds through the opening chapters that Jesus Christ was and is God's very Son. Jesus did not begin His existence with His birth at Bethlehem, which we celebrate at Christmas time. He existed before that. In fact the book of Hebrews opened up in Hebrews 1:2 and tells us that God the Father created all things through God the Son. All the ages of time and everything in them were brought into existence through the work of the Son of God.

So when we talk about revelation culminating in the coming of Christ, we are talking about the Son of God being born into the human race. So now God has become man. He doesn't cease to be God, but He has become fully human as well. He is the God/Man, unique. The Son of God is present on earth, living as a human man. And the book of Hebrews unfolds this is God's plan for accomplishing our redemption.

When you come to Hebrews 5, if you want to follow along in your Bible, God preparing for the full development of what He is doing, what this revelation is about. He says in Hebrews 5:5, gives a quote from the Old Testament, the book of Psalms, Psalm 2, a thousand years before Christ was born. God said, “You are My Son, today I have begotten You.” That's not the beginning of Christ, because Christ is God He has no beginning. But He was unfolded and revealed as God's Son. You are My Son. That's first in importance. The first four chapters of Hebrews, if you would read those, would tell you that Christ is God's Son and give the evidence for that.

The second thing we need to know about that is also taken back from the Psalms, a quote from Psalm 110. In verse 6 it says, “You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.” Now remember God had revealed that He would accept an animal in place of the death of a human, that human acknowledging his sin and guilt and trusting God to bring forgiveness because he was believing Him and what He said He would do. But God is clear. He said, “the blood of bulls and goats could never take away sin. The penalty for the sin of mankind is death.” It takes the death of another human to pay that penalty, but more than just another human. One perfect sinless human being might be able to die for one sinful human being. But that doesn't help the human race. That's why the culmination and fullness of God's revelation comes in Jesus Christ. He is the Son of God, He is Himself deity, He has become a man. So now being fully God and fully man He is in a position to represent man. And He is declared to be “a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek,” a priest that appears in Genesis 14 in the Old Testament.

So now we have God's Son being God's priest. So here you have God and here you have man, man separated from God in rebellion against God, condemned and under the judgment of God to an eternal hell because of his sin. And now in between God and man you have the God/Man, the Son of God acting as the high priest on behalf of man to offer a sacrifice to God that will be accepted as payment in full for the sin of man.

So the book of Hebrews comes to verse 7 and talks about the culmination of Jesus' earthly life in the events of what we have celebrated this weekend, picking up with Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane, shortly before His betrayal in that Garden and is being carried away to the mock trials that will result in His crucifixion, a crucifixion that followed His being declared innocent, not guilty by the Roman governor in charge. Hebrews 5:7 says this, “in the days of His flesh.” Talking about the fact, reminding us that the Son of God who had created all things was now living in human flesh. “In the days of His flesh He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death. And He was heard because of His piety.”

Come back to Mark 14 if you have your Bible. This culminating section of the Gospel of Mark records that night when Jesus was in Gethsemane with a few of His disciples. In Mark 14:32 we read, “they came to a place called Gethsemane. And He said to His disciples, sit here until I have prayed. He took with Him Peter, James and John and began to be very distressed and troubled. He said to them, My soul is deeply grieved to the point of death. Remain here and keep watch.” Earlier in Hebrews we were told that we need to have a high priest representing us before God who Himself is human and can understand human weaknesses. And Jesus Christ is such a high priest. He knew what it was to suffer as a human being. He never sinned but He knew suffering, He knew pain, He knew the fear of what was before Him.

Verse 35, “He went beyond with them a little bit, fell to the ground and began to pray that if it were possible the hour might pass Him by. He was saying, Abba Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from Me. Yet not what I will but what you will. Here is Jesus Christ at the brink of His betrayal and crucifixion on the cross, praying to the Father, recognizing the agony and horror of what is before Him, expressing His desire—if it were possible is there another way. But I want Your will to be done.” There is no other way and He will do the will of the Father.

Now Jesus' distress here is not primarily caused by the fear or horror of the physical death that was before Him. Crucifixion was a terrible way to die. They lay you down on the ground, nailed you to a cross, lifted the cross up and stood it in the ground. And you hung there, nailed to the cross. And the intention of this was to be a slow, agonizing death, not a quick execution. You could last for days on the cross. You progressively suffocated to death because you have to lift yourself up, pushing on the nails that are holding your feet to get your next breath. As you got progressively weaker, it became harder to lift yourself up. And so people could endure on here for days. Its intention was to demonstrate the awfulness of this death and cause people to fear it. It was a death so terrible that Roman citizens couldn't be crucified. But Jesus is facing that.

But many people have faced terrible physical death. There are going to be other men crucified with Christ on this occasion. Many believers in Christ have suffered awful deaths down through history because of their testimony for Christ. There is something more in view here. Jesus knew He came to earth to die, that was the plan. Hundreds of years before His birth Isaiah the prophet wrote this in Isaiah 53, describing the crucifixion of Christ. But “He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities. The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him. By His scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way. And God has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him.” Jesus Himself said in Mark 10:45, “I came to give My life as a ransom for many.” John the Baptist introduced Jesus Christ to the nation Israel at the beginning of Jesus' public ministry and said, “behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” Jesus came to die.

The reality of the awfulness of crucifixion, terrible as it was, was not the worst thing about the death of Christ. There is something deeper, more horrifying going to go on here. His death meant paying the penalty in full for sin. The penalty for sin is death. The Bible says because of our sin and guilt, we are spiritually dead, separated from God, cut off from a relationship with Him. That is spiritual death. Because of our sin we will die physically, which the Bible says occurs when our spirit leaves our body. That is physical death. Physical death is not the end of everything, physical death is simply a transition when a person leaves his body, but they as a person are alive and conscious, able to enjoy things or suffer pain.

The third kind of death and what faces Jesus as He anticipates His physical death is what is called in the Bible the second death, described in Revelation 20. Let me read for you. “Then those who had died and those who were in Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And if anyone's name was not found written in the Book of Life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.” That's the second death, separation from God for eternity in hell. Listen how God describes this, lest we not understand the seriousness of it. These people will “drink of the wine of the wrath of God which is mixed in full strength in the cup of His anger.” They will be “tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest day and night.” That's from Revelation 14:10-11. The second death.

That's the horror of what Jesus knew was before Him. Not just dying a terrible death on the cross, but He was going to bear the fullness of the wrath of God in judging the sin of man to be the Savior. And so we have Him crying on the cross as He is crucified in Mark 15:34, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” Cut off from the Father, bearing the full brunt of the wrath of God in paying the penalty for our sin.

The Apostle Peter wrote about that in 1 Peter 2:24. Listen carefully, and “He Himself,” Christ, “bore our sins in His body on the cross so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. For by His wounds we are healed.” You see what Christ is doing hanging on the cross, He is not just dying the terrible, agonizing death of crucifixion. He is bearing the full weight of the penalty for all of our sin and the judgment and wrath of God. An awful penalty to be paid.

Peter goes on in 1 Peter 3:18, “for Christ died for sins once for all.” Who should understand this? This culminating revelation of God centers in His final, full, complete provision for paying the penalty for our sin. There are no other alternatives, there are no other options. He died for sin once for all, the just for the unjust. He is the just, the righteous One. We are the unjust, the unrighteous ones. In order that He might bring us to God. Remember God is here, man is here. We need that high priest in between to mediate between us, to offer the sacrifice that will enable us to be acceptable in the sight and presence of a holy and righteous God. “He died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh but made alive in the Spirit.”

2 Corinthians 5:21, “God made Him who knew no sin to become sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.” This is God's plan, this is what is so significant and important about what we are celebrating. God's Son has come to earth, taken to Himself humanity so that the Bible can tell us all the fullness of deity dwelt in Him in bodily form. He is the God/Man. For the express purpose of being crucified on the cross so that as the God/Man He could take the full brunt of God's wrath so that we could be brought to God, the unrighteous could become righteous in Him, we could become the righteousness of God in Him. God's righteousness is credited to us. Nothing less will ever bring you into the presence of God but God's own righteousness. That's credited to the account of the one who believes in Christ and enables us to come into a relationship with God.

This is why believers are promised they will not face the second death. That second death, eternal suffering in the fires of hell into the ages of the ages, no rest day and night. Yet for those who have placed their face in Jesus Christ listen to what God says in Revelation 20:6. “Over these the second death has no power, but they will reign with Christ.” What a difference. I've been taken from one under the wrath of God, destined to an eternal hell, now I've been cleansed, forgiven, declared righteous in Christ. And now instead of looking forward to the second death and an eternity in hell, I'm looking forward to ruling and reigning with Him. What a change. What power there is in the salvation God has provided in Christ.

Back to Hebrews 5, if you are following along in your Bible. “In the days of His flesh He offered up prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One who was able to save Him from death. And He was heard because of His piety.” You say, I don't know that He was heard, He went to the cross. They arrested and crucified Him. It says He was heard while He was praying to the One who was able to save Him from death.

Turn over to Hebrews 13:20, “now the God of peace who brought up from the dead the Great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the eternal covenant, even Jesus our Lord.” He is praying to the One who could save Him out of death, and God answered that prayer. His human weakness as Christ willingly was determined to do the will of the Father. His only concern that it would culminate in the victory that only God could bring about, His resurrection out of the dead. And He was heard because of His piety. That word translated piety, a word that carries the idea of a concern to please God by doing His will, doing that which is pleasing to Him. Remember Jesus prayed, if possible let this cup pass from Me. But nevertheless not My will, but Your will. That's the point. He was heard because of His commitment to do the will of God and to be obedient and carry out what was necessary for our salvation.

This is the same hope that believers in Jesus Christ have. That's the difference, death is ugly even for believers in Jesus Christ. None of us look forward to those final days or weeks or years, perhaps wracked with pain, suffering, disease. And then death comes. I hate it when people die. It's painful. People you care about, people you love and they're gone. And you get up in the morning and they are not there. But you know there is a hope. Paul referred to this. Let me just read you how he faced death. He was in a situation in Asia and the ruling was going against him and he anticipated this may not turn out well, I may have to die here. And here is what he said. “We do not want you to be unaware, brethren, of our affliction which came to us in Asia, that while we were burdened excessively beyond our strength, so we despaired even of life. Indeed we had the sentence of death within ourselves so that we would not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead.” The hope that a believer in Jesus Christ has is the God who raised Christ from the dead promises He'll raise all those who have placed their faith in Christ also. That's why the Scripture says those who are believers in Christ, even when you lose a loved one in death, you “don't grieve as those who have no hope because we know we'll see them again in the presence of Christ who will raise us with glorified bodies.”

He was heard because of His commitment to do the will of God. Look at Hebrews 5:8, and “although He was a Son He learned obedience from the things He suffered.” He learned obedience. In His early years we're told that Christ grew in knowledge and stature in the eyes of men. He developed as a normal human being. Here something unique is happening. He has always been the Son of God, He has dwelt for eternity in the presence of God. In fact when Micah the prophet prophesied that Christ would be born at Bethlehem, do you know who he said would be born at Bethlehem? The One who has dwelt in eternity. But something new and different happened, something that had never been true of God—He had never been a man. And now when Christ was born into the human race, for the first time God is not only God but He is also Man. In that mysterious and wondrous way we have the God/Man, one person and two natures, both God and man combined into one person, Jesus Christ.

“He learned obedience.” Here He is at the culmination after a life of being faithful to the Father. He said, “I always do the will of My Father who is in heaven.” And now He faces that final stretching time, being willing to take that final step in obedience to the plan of the Father, go to the cross and bear the fullness of the wrath of God upon Himself to pay the penalty for sin. It's a reminder to these believers that he's writing to for thinking that maybe the price is too high, it's too difficult, the persecution is too great. Maybe we'll go back to Judaism. There is no going back. We must continue to learn and grow. And He learned obedience from the things He suffered.

Philippians 2, let me read it to you. Verse 8 tells us, “being found in appearance as a man He humbled Himself and became obedient, obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.” That willingness to be obedient to the will of the Father, He went to the cross. Romans 5, Paul says in verse 19, “for as through the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners.” Adam rebelled against God and brought sin upon the human race. “Even so through the obedience of the One, Christ, the many will be made righteous.” Christ has stepped in between God and man to provide the sacrifice, Himself, to make possible forgiveness and cleansing for all who will believe in Him.

Hebrews 5:9, “and having been made perfect He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation.” That ought to be riveted in your mind. This is what it is all about. He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation, having been made perfect. There were no moral failures in Christ. We've already seen, if you have been here in our study of Hebrews, He was declared without sin. Even Pilate said, I find no guilt in Him. He is the sinless, spotless Lamb of God. But He was made perfect. In what way? Complete by fulfilling all that was necessary to provide for our salvation, going through the horrors of the cross so the penalty for sin could be paid so that God could say, I give that payment to you as a free gift if you will place your faith in Him. I mark your account paid in full. I credit you with My righteousness. Now you are My child.

Come back to John 19 if you are following in your Bible. Familiar account, you'll recognize it even if you don't turn to it. It's Jesus on the cross and the events have taken place then in verse 28, Jesus said after this, “knowing that all things had already been accomplished to fulfill the Scripture, He said, I thirst.” They brought that sour wine, vinegar wine to wet His lips. And He gives a cry in verse 30. He said, “it is finished. He bowed His head and gave up the Spirit.” That word it is finished is back to the same basic word we have translated He was made perfect in Hebrews. When someone is made perfect, he is made complete, he is finished in that sense. Everything is there and done that needs to be done. In fact in John 19 if we read verse 28, “after this Jesus knowing all things had been accomplished.” That's the same word, the same tense, the perfect tense of the verb teleo. Same thing as He said, it is finished in verse 30. It had been accomplished, it had been finished so He declared, it has been accomplished, it is finished, if you will. The work of redemption is accomplished. The wages of sin is death and the Son of God, the Lamb of God has offered Himself as the acceptable sacrifice. That's His ministry as our high priest, to present the sacrifice that God will accept—His death in our place.

So you come back to Hebrews 5. Having been made perfect, having accomplished all that was necessary to complete God's plan of providing salvation for sinners, that which all previous revelation anticipated, All the sacrifices that had been offered in Judaism were anticipating the coming of the One who could take away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation. This is an important statement here for everyone listening, all of us. We are talking about where you will spend eternity—in the hell that has no end, that provides no rest day or night, or in the presence of God's glory, enjoying the fullness of His joy and blessing for all eternity. Those are the only two options, and it all hinges on your relationship to Jesus Christ.

The Bible tells us “there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” Only one. There is one God, one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. That's it. But that's all we need. We only need one because the sacrifice He made is sufficient and able, adequate, it is done. But God says you have to be willing to accept it by faith. What's the catch? Do you know the catch? We're sinners, we are rebellious against God, we're proud. We like to think, I bow the knee to no one. We like the song, I Did it My Way, which is the way to hell. There is a way which seems right unto man and the end thereof, the way of destruction.

This is God's way. How gracious! “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son in order that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” That's John 3:16, the most familiar verse in all the Bible. Let me read you John 3:36, twenty verses later. “He who believes in the Son has eternal life but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on Him.” We like to talk about God's love but we don't like to talk about God's wrath. But do you know what God says is true of every person who has not placed his faith in Christ? They are called children of wrath, they are those who are by nature deserving of wrath.

We say, that's . . . That's the way it is. The only opinion that counts is the opinion given, given by the judge of all men, given by the God who rules over all. He has declared us guilty. Sometimes I talk to people, they say, well, I think I'll take my chances. Chances on what? Are you going to bet on last year's Super Bowl? Yes, I'm going to bet all my fortune, $10 million on this team. They lost last year. Oh, no, I'm betting on them. But they lost. You say, that's foolish, nobody would do that. God has declared the outcome. Those who do not obey Christ by placing their faith in Him and now obeying Him will bear the brunt of the wrath of God. Let me tell you, this is serious business, tell you how God will say later in Hebrews, for “those who do not place their faith in Christ, He says He views it as though you are trampling on the death of His Son and treating it as worthless.” We see the seriousness of this. It is Christ agonizing, knowing what was before Him in bearing our sins and the full brunt of God's wrath to pay the penalty for our sin, and now we tell God the Father, that's nothing to me. It's like dirt under my feet. You can be sure the consequences of that will be the eternal wrath of God.

So the message we have is a message of hope, a message of celebration, a message of eternal hope. Hebrews 5:10 tell us, “He was designated by God as a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek.” He functions as that today. I'm not a priest, I'm simply a preacher telling you what God has said. There is only one person who is a priest who stands between men and God, that is the Man Christ Jesus. Your only hope of salvation is my only hope of salvation. And it's humbling. That's the hard mountain to get over, we are a proud people in our sinful condition. We are disobedient to God and we are determined we will not bow the knee before Him. I must come to recognize, God, what you say about me is true. I am a sinner, I am in rebellion against you. My life is a life of rebellion. I may be religious, I may attend Indian Hills Community Church, I may have been baptized there, I may take communion there, I may be respected by people there. But God is the One who says He searches the hearts, tries what's in our minds. He knows whether we have truly recognized our sinful condition, recognized that Jesus Christ the Son of God gave His life to be the sacrifice for our sins and placed our faith in Him.

How do I know this is all true? What are we celebrating today? The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. That is God's great declaration that the sacrifice My Son offered has been accepted. Any who will believe in Him, “whosoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved. The wages of sin is death but the free gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ.” You would think people would be falling over themselves. Of course, I will believe, I want to trust Him, I want Him as my Savior. It's a free gift. If I said I'm going to give away vouchers today, each one is worth $10 million and I have hundreds of billions of dollars so don't be afraid I'll run out. Whoever wants it, come up and get one. I'm in a hurry to get to lunch, I don't think I'll bother today. I don't think so, you'd be fighting over each other to get in those aisles and get up here. Isn't it amazing? God says, here is a free gift, I've had My Son pay the price in full, bear the full brunt of the wrath for sin. Now I'd like to give you a free gift. I'll have His death credited to your account, I'll credit My righteousness to your account, I'll cleanse you from all the defilement and all the guilt of sin. I'll make you new from the inside out. It costs you nothing because I paid everything. But you have to accept it, you have to place your faith in Him.

People say, no thanks. People aren't interested. You know what God says, they deserve? Hell. We all deserve it. I don't want what I deserve, I want to take the free gift that I did not deserve but someone died to give me.

Let's pray together. Thank You, Lord, for the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He is alive, He is seated at Your right hand in glory. You pour out the gift of Your salvation on anyone and everyone who will bow before You, humbling themselves, recognizing they are sinners guilty, without hope. But You are a God of mercy and love and have provided Your Son to be their Savior. Lord, because He lives we, too, some day will live in the glory of Your presence. And we give you worship and praise. In His name, amen.