The Atonement of the Gospel

Transcript

GR 1363
10-21-07
The Atonement in the Gospel
1 Corinthians 15:3
Gil Rugh

We are in 1 Corinthians 15, so turn there in your Bibles. 1 Corinthians 15 is one of those chapters that you do become familiar with because it is the chapter about the resurrection of the body. Certain chapters in the Bible have a content that makes them easier to identify, and I Corinthians 15 is one of those. You want to talk about the resurrection of the body, you have to go to 1 Corinthians 15. Really the entire chapter is about that, and the last part of the chapter will carry us to the transformation of the body, which is not the change that will occur after death, but the change that will occur bodily for those who do not experience death. But the entire chapter is around that theme, the resurrection of the body, concluding with what about those who don't experience death at the coming of the Lord. He'll deal with that as well.

This issue was precipitated as many of the subjects in the letters of the New Testament are, by a conflict or problem in the church. False teaching had gotten a hold in the church in Corinth. In chapter 15 verse 12 Paul says, now if Christ is preached that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? Paul is very direct. Some in the church at Corinth were saying there would be no bodily resurrection. Now as we noted in the previous study, that doesn't mean that they were denying that we will live for eternity. They just didn't believe that these physical bodies were part of what God's plan would be for us. Paul sees this as a crucial doctrine and so he starts out by talking about the matter of the gospel and then he will proceed to show, if you deny bodily resurrection, you have really denied the gospel, because you've denied that Jesus Christ was raised. And that means that you are not saved. Strong language that he uses.

In the first two verses he established a basic foundation by reminding them of his ministry with them. Therefore I make known to you, brethren, the gospel. I want to remind you, you are acting like you don't know it, or you've forgotten it. It's a rebuke to them, he's telling them what they should not only know, but be practicing or living in light of. And he makes four statements about the gospel. 1. It's the gospel which I preached to you. So this is not new to you, I preached it to you. 2. Secondly, it's the gospel which you received. You welcomed it. You believed it. So again, it's not new to them. 3. Thirdly, it's the gospel in which you stand. They took their stand in the gospel and that's where they stand presently, committed to the truth concerning Jesus Christ. And the impact of that truth in other areas as well. 4. And fourthly, it is the gospel by which you are saved. This becomes an important statement. You can't be saved apart from the gospel. We are born again by the living and abiding word of God. Salvation comes by faith in the gospel.

So Paul qualifies the gospel by two statements, conditions. By which you are being saved, if you hold fast the Word which I preached to you, which was the gospel. You're being saved by this if you continue to hold it fast. Now this is a word of warning that will be foundational to what he says about the resurrection of the dead. Those who are denying the resurrection of the body are not holding fast to the gospel. So the second possibility is, unless you believed in vain. If you don't continue to hold fast to the gospel, it means your faith was not saving faith, it was to no purpose, it accomplished nothing. People always say, “I have my faith.” But maybe you have a vain faith, a faith that accomplishes nothing. We referred to the fact that James in James 2 says, the demons believe and tremble. The demons have faith and tremble, but the demons are not saved. They have an assent to the truth, but they haven't really placed their trust in the facts of the gospel. And they are not able, because Jesus Christ did not die for angelic beings. He died for human beings. The point is, we need to be careful. We think, I made a decision, I've believed. But if you really did, you will continue in that faith and continue holding on to it. So there is a warning here.

Now what Paul is going to do in verses 3-5 is set forth four basic facts about the gospel that he preached. I want to remind you again; there is a danger. We get to thinking we want to reduce, what do you have to know and believe? There is emphasis, I listened to a sermon this week and the preacher was saying we need to quit focusing on the doctrines that divide us and focus on our unity. They don't understand what they're talking about. They say, let's reduce it down, aren't there just four basic things you have to know and believe? No, because Paul is going to present these four things and then tell them a fifth thing. These are the four facts of the gospel I've presented. But if you deny the bodily resurrection of other people, you have also denied this gospel. They are inseparably linked together. So it's not, I believe in the bodily resurrection of Christ, I just don't believe in the bodily resurrection of other people. Paul says not possible. Now we want to be careful about these moves of, let's narrow down what the scripture says to what we think is important in the scripture. And we'll say more about that as we move through the passage.

Paul makes four statements about what he preached, four basic facts.
1. Christ died for our sins.
2. He was buried.
3. He was raised on the third day.
4. He appeared.
Christ died, verse 3; verse 4, He was buried and He was raised; verse 5, He appeared. Those are the four basic statements he made to give the content of what he preached to them. This is the heart of his message.

Let's look at these verses, and we'll probably not get through them all, we're going to go rather slowly. I hope it won't be too tedious. But if we're not clear on this, we're in trouble. Paul starts out, for I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received. Paul begins by emphasizing what I told you was what I had received. Back in verse 1 he had said, I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you. So what he delivered to them was the gospel. And the gospel that he delivered to them was the gospel that he had received. In effect, Paul becomes a broker of the gospel. The gospel was given to him and he gave that gospel to them, just a simple transaction. And Paul strongly emphasizes it in his writings, that he received this gospel, not from men, but from Christ directly.

Turn over to Galatians. And he talks about this gospel. As we noted in a previous study, there can be no alterations, no changes, no additions, no subtractions. And if you add anything, you take anything away, you make any changes, you're cursed to hell, anathema. Galatians 1:8, but even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed. As we've said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed, anathema, condemned to hell. Keep this in mind as we move through this and I read you some comments. There is no wiggle room in this, not even for an angel who would come from heaven. If they would make any variations to the gospel that Paul preached, that's a demon, condemned to hell.

Verse 11, where did Paul get this? For I would have you know, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me, and that would be the gospel that Paul preached to the Corinthians, is not according to man. “For I neither received it from man nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.” Paul uses this same word here as he uses in 1 Corinthians 15:3, I delivered to you what I also received. Same verb, same form. He received the gospel, but he didn't receive it from men. He wasn't taught it by a man. But I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ. Paul is passionate about this. He didn't learn the gospel from Peter or John or one of the other apostles. In fact, he goes on to say, it was years after my conversion before I even had any contact with any of the apostles. Look down in verse 18, gives something of the history. And in verse 17, he went away to Arabia and returned to Damascus where he had been. Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem, became acquainted with Cephas. Cephas is Peter. Paul wasn't acquainted with Peter before this. Years have gone by since his conversion, now he goes up to Jerusalem which is where the apostles are centered in their ministry. And he met Peter. He didn't meet any of the other apostles while he was there, but he did meet James, the brother of the Lord, according to verse 19. Cephas and James will come up in a little bit in the verses in 1 Corinthians 15.

Then look at chapter 2 verse 1, then after an interval of fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along. So you see Paul, it was years before he went up to Jerusalem to meet Peter and James, but it was fourteen years before he went up and met the rest of the apostles and interacted with them. And he was already firmly planted in preaching the gospel that had been revealed to him. The point is not that Paul's gospel differs in any way from that of Peter or John or any of the other apostles. That's not the point, because it doesn't. The point is that you can't say Paul is preaching this because Peter taught it to him, Paul preached that gospel because that's what he learned from other apostles. No. Paul says I got it directly from the Lord. Now it was the same gospel that Peter and the other apostles were preaching.

Look down in Galatians 2:7. In verse 6 he says, I wasn't impressed by the reputation of other men. And you can understand why. He received revelation directly from the Lord. He's not going to be overwhelmed by meeting other men who are of reputation. He doesn't put them down. But verse 7, he says that on the contrary, seeing that I had been entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised, the Gentiles, just as Peter did to the circumcised, the Jews. Verse 9, in recognizing the grace that had been given to me, James and Cephas and John who were reported to be pillars, gave to Barnabas and me the right hand of fellowship and supported him in his ministry to the Gentiles. So you see there is no difference or conflict between the gospel being preached by Peter and the other apostles, and by Paul. But Paul's point is, I didn't get it from them, I got it directly from Christ. That helps establish why there can be no variation in this message. This is the word of Christ. It's not a man's word that is to be updated as we move along.

Reading a quote again this week that I believe I shared with you previously about a man having great influence in the church in these days. And he was saying we have to become more honest than we have been. We keep saying we're changing the methods but not the message. But we need to stop saying that, because the reality of it is when we're changing the methods, we are changing the message. Now he's not saying that is bad, he says that is what we need to be doing. It's just the opposite of Paul's message. Paul says there can be no change in this message, because this is not my message, it's not a man's message. It's the message from Christ Himself.

All right come back to 1 Corinthians 15. I delivered to you, verse 3, as of first importance what I also received. And that is of first importance, means this is foundational, this is primary. Everything else is built out of this. It doesn't imply that other things aren't important. I keep mentioning the bodily resurrection of the dead is very important. You can't be a believer in Jesus Christ and in the gospel and deny that. But these are the foundational matters. The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is at the heart of everything, and the rest of scripture flows out of that great foundational truth.

I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received. And now he moves into these four points, the first one being that Christ died for our sins. The fact of His death and the purpose of His death stated here clearly. This is the most basic statement, I mean the resurrection is an important statement. But if there is no death, there is no resurrection, obviously. If you're going to say, what is the basic statement, it's Christ died for our sins. And it goes together because He died. But many people died. Let's [face it], how many millions and millions of people have died down through history? In fact in the days of the Romans as well as in prior days, many, many had been crucified, died by crucifixion. When Christ died on the cross, He wasn't the only one who died on the cross. He was crucified between two other men who died on the cross. What is significant about the death of Christ is that He died for our sins. This stress on the death of Christ as our substitute is the heart of the gospel.

Back up to 1 Corinthians 1. You'll remember Paul began this letter by an extended discussion and emphasis on the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The Corinthians, among some of their other problems, were getting all tied up in knots over baptism and who baptized them and the importance of baptism. Paul said, that's not an issue with me. Verse 17, Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel. Not in cleverness of speech, so that the cross of Christ would not be made void. See Paul says, when I preach the gospel, it's always about the cross of Christ, it's all about the cross of Christ. I want to talk about the gospel, what is the gospel about? It's about the cross of Christ, His death on the cross to pay for our sins. You can summarize it, the cross of Christ.

Look at verse 18, for the word of the cross. What does this say about the gospel? It's the word of the cross, the message about the cross. It's foolishness to those who are perishing, keep that statement in mind in light of what I will be reading you in a little bit. The word of the cross is foolishness, moronic, stupidity to those who are perishing. But to those of us who are being saved, it is the power of God. For the gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, Paul wrote to the Romans in Romans 1. The world looks at it and says, this is foolishness. Such an idea is stupid, silly, makes no sense. But if you truly believed in the cross of Christ and the death of Christ to pay the penalty for your sins, you know the power of God has impacted your heart and life and transformed you and made you new. That power continues to work in your life as God prepared you for eternal glory. So the message of the cross, the word of the cross. Down in verse 23 Paul says, we preach Christ crucified. Did he believe in the resurrection? Of course he did. But at the heart of it, the wages of sin is death. We preach Christ crucified to pay the penalty for our sin. Look down in chapter 2 verse 2, I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. That's what it's about. Christ died for our sins. Looking to that past event, His death on the cross.

Come back to I Corinthians 15. Christ died for our sins, preposition translated for here, huper. You should be familiar with it, huper, sometimes referred to as the preposition of the atonement because it is the preposition used most often when talking about the death of Christ on our behalf, in our place, substitutionary atonement to pay the penalty for sin. I spent some time reading various writings on these prepositions, and one Greek grammar said concerning huper. This is the normal preposition used in texts that deal with Christ's substitutionary atonement. It is our conviction that huper is naturally suited to the meaning of substitution and is in fact used in several passages dealing with Christ's atonement. He took our place. He was our substitute. That's why we talk about substitutionary atonement, the vicarious sacrifice of Christ, His dying on our behalf, in our place to pay our penalty. This is the foundational issue in the gospel—Christ died for our sins.

In light of this statement I want to read you what is currently taking place and this comes from Roger Oakland's book, Faith Undone that I have recommended to you and I encourage you again that if you don't have it and haven't read it to do so. It will help acquaint you with what is taking place in the church in these days. He has a chapter entitled “A Slaughterhouse Religion.” That gives you some idea of what the chapter is about. I want to read you some quotes from various men just so you understand that things haven't changed. The devil is still intent on destroying the work of God, and just as there were false prophets among the people of God, Israel, in the Old Testament, so also there will be false teachers among you, Peter wrote in 2 Peter 2. So we want to be alert and aware. One of the areas I want to focus on is this whole area of the atonement, the death of Christ, His substitutionary atonement. Did Jesus Christ die for our sins? Did He pay your penalty so that you might be forgiven? Some of you are familiar with the name, Harry Emerson Fosdick. Some of you are as old as I am and so you may be familiar with him. He died in 1969, but for 20 years or so he was pastor of Riverside Church in New York City, very influential church, very liberal man. He wrote this, now I want you to see because he was an old-time liberal, but there are those today in the church who want to teach and preach the same thing he did. Here is what he said about the atonement of Christ. Too many theories of the atonement assume that by one single high priestly act of self-sacrifice, Christ saved the world. No. These legalistic theories of the atonement are in my judgment a theological disgrace. To say that Jesus Christ by His one high priestly sacrifice, the sacrifice of Himself, paid the penalty for sin, he said that's a theological disgrace to teach such a thing.

Now carry that up to today. Harry Emerson Fosdick died in 1969, the year I came to pastor at this church. But the church there holds a convocation every year with special speakers to come in and honor his memory and his ministry. And two of the speakers last year, October of 2006, were two of the major leaders in the emerging church movement. Now why would they be there, Brian McLaren and Tony Compollo, speaking at a convocation honoring Harry Emerson Fosdick who thought the teaching that Christ died to pay the penalty for our sin was a theological disgrace? It's because they hold the same view.

Here is what one of the emerging church men say, the traditional understanding says that God asks of us something that God is incapable of Himself. God asks us to forgive people, but God is incapable of forgiving. God can't forgive unless he punishes someone in place of the person He was going to forgive. God doesn't say things to you, forgive your wife and then go kick the dog to vent your anger, God asks you to actually forgive. And there is a certain sense that a common understanding of the atonement presents a God who is incapable of forgiving, unless He kicks someone else. What he's saying is if you believe that Christ had to die to pay the penalty for your sin, then God is not really a forgiving God, because He is requiring that a penalty be paid. If He requires that somebody pay your penalty, then He really isn't forgiving, because true forgiveness means that you don't require a payment. You see what he is saying is substitutionary atonement, the death of Christ to pay the penalty for our sin, that doesn't make any sense.

Here's what another man involved in the modern church movement, the emerging church, says. The church's fixation on the death of Jesus as the universal saving act must end. And the place of the cross must be reimagined in Christian faith. Why? Because of the call to suffering and the vindictive God behind it. The other threat of just criticism addresses the suggestion implicit in the cross that Jesus' sacrifice was to appease an angry God, penal substitution (Christ taking our penalty, coming under the judgment of God for our sin) was the name of this vile doctrine.

Now what did Paul say? I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received. Christ died for our sins. This man says this fixation on the death of Jesus as the universal saving act must end. Who is right? Who do you believe? If this man is having great influence, we're going to be having one of these men come to a conference in our city in a couple of weeks as the paper yesterday made clear. This is the man we go to, to learn how to do church, what the church is to be.

Harry Emerson Fosdick did not have good words to say about fundamentalists, neither do those in what is called the emerging church today. Here is what Harry Emerson Fosdick, the old liberal, said. Were you to talk to that fundamentalist preacher, he doubtless would insist that you must believe in the substitutionary theory of atonement, namely that Christ suffered as a substitute for us, the punishment due us for our sins. But can you imagine a modern courtroom in a civilized country where an innocent man would be deliberately punished for another man's crime? Substitutionary atonement is a pre-civilized barbarity. And yet we have men in the church today who claim to be Christians, who are going to the conference to honor this man and his theology, and they are accepted as leaders in the church, and they believe substitutionary atonement is a pre-civilized barbarity?

Another man, he wouldn't be part of the emerging church, but the emerging church leaders acknowledge their appreciation of him. One of the leaders, Brian McLaren has done conferences with this man. Another, Rob Bell, recommends him. Here's what he says. I let go of the notion that the Bible is a divine product. I learned that it is a human cultural product. As such it contains their understandings and affirmations, not statements coming directly or somewhat directly from God. In other words, Paul lied. I realize that whatever divine revelation and the inspiration of the Bible meant, if they meant anything, they did not mean that the Bible was a divine product with divine authority. What are you left with? The thinking of men. So he goes on to say, Jesus was certainly not born of a virgin, didn't think of Himself as the Son of God, didn't see His purpose as dying for the sins of the world. And this is a man that they are comfortable to go and share a conference with? Whose books they say you should read? He also said, to think the central meaning of Easter and the resurrection depends upon something spectacular happening to Jesus' corpse misses the point of the Easter message and risks trivializing the story. To link Easter primarily to our hope for an afterlife, as if our post death existence depends upon God having transformed the corpse of Jesus is to reduce the story to a politically domesticated yearning for our survival beyond death. And on it goes.

I take the time to read that because we sometimes get the idea, we read these things in the Bible and say we all believe this. You understand where the church is going. I'll take a moment this evening to share some material I received this week inviting me to a conference here. This is all around us. We need to know the truth of the Word of God is being attacked from within, from those who claim to be part of the church. They are attacking the very foundation of the foundation, not just the resurrection of Christ, but they are denying His death as a payment for sin. Death was simply to show us how suffering and through suffering we can come to know God better. That has nothing to do with the payment for sin. I mean, where are we?

Come back to 1 Corinthians 15, I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins. I want to take a few moments and read with you several passages. Start with 2 Corinthians 5. And there are so many passages, I started to make a list, went through every passage that just used that preposition huper, He died for our sins. There are 149 uses of that one preposition and so many passages on the atonement use it. But then there are all the other passages that don't use that particular preposition that talk about Christ's suffering to pay the penalty for sin. Let me look at just a few passages, and I think I have taken all these from those that use that same preposition, just as a guide or limitation, if you will. And these are just a few of them. 2 Corinthians 5:14, for the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, now note, that one died for all. Therefore, all died. Does that not talk about a substitutionary death? Christ's death was in my place. He died for me. And God accepted the death of Christ on my behalf. One died for all. Therefore, all died. And He died for all so that they who live may no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf.

Down to verse 21, He, referring to God, made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. The wages of sin is death. Jesus Christ came to pay the penalty for our sin. Until you come to grips with the fact that you are a sinner, separated from God and under His condemnation, because all have sinned and there is none righteous, no not one. And the penalty for our sin is not church membership, baptism or anything else. It is death. And the Son of God left glory and came to this earth, born into the human race, so that He could be our representative and act on our behalf and take our place and bear our penalty so that we through faith in Him might experience forgiveness. He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

Turn over to Galatians 1:3, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ is the One who gave Himself for our sins so that He might rescue us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father. He gave Himself for our sins, paid the penalty for our sin. Peter wrote, He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. He took my place.

Look at Galatians 2:20. What happens when you believe in Jesus Christ? Paul says, I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself up for me. As you are aware, Romans 6 develops this. When you place your faith in Christ you are identified with Christ in His death, burial and resurrection to newness of life. That's why God can declare a person who believes in Christ forgiven, because the penalty for sin is death and God views me when I place my faith in Christ as having died with Christ. Why? Because He was acting on my behalf, He was taking my place. So His death is credited to my account, my sin is accounted to Him, His righteousness is accounted to me now. What a transformation, what a change. He took my sins; I was given His righteousness. Remarkable. That's the work of redemption, that's substitutionary atonement.

Look in Galatians 3:13. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law. How did He do it? Having become a curse for us, because it is written, cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree. He came under the condemnation of sin. Remember what we read in 2 Corinthians 5, that God made Him who knew no sin to become sin on our behalf that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. He became a curse, He took the judgment that was due us, penal substitution, by paying our penalty. And we could spend a whole morning doing nothing but reading the passages that emphasize this and the death of Christ, and we wouldn't be done.

Come back to 1 Corinthians 15. Let me say something about these men that are promoting what I read to you, just some brief excerpts. It is startling and sad to me how many of these men were raised in a Christian context, in a Christian environment. And men who evidently learned many of the facts about the Bible and about the gospel, but never truly were saved by grace through faith in the gospel. So as they reach adulthood and some of them even had ministries, there is an emptiness and frustration. And so they began to look to making changes in the gospel and put an emphasis on developing experiences that would fill the void. And that becomes identified by them with salvation. Paul says if you're not holding fast to the gospel, you believed in vain. Remember chapter 15 verse 2? But they know much about the gospel and can talk about it because they have had many years' exposure to the gospel. But that doesn't save you. You are saved when you really come under the conviction of the Spirit of God. Remember when the Spirit comes into the world Jesus said He will convict the world of sin, that I am a sinner, guilty before a holy God. I need the righteousness of God, I really understand and believe that Christ died on the cross to pay the penalty for my sin, I am trusting Him alone, and the power of God does a work of regeneration in that life and makes that person new. And that work of God continues on. Remember that's why Paul said you are being saved. But without that true salvation you can know much about the Bible, much about Christ, but not truly be a saved person.

In 1 Corinthians 15:3 Paul says Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures. What he is saying here, he's not referring to any one particular scripture, but all the Old Testament scriptures are saturated with an emphasis on the fact that God would provide a Savior, one to die and pay the penalty for sins. Paul has already alluded to this back in 1 Corinthians 5 and just the end of verse 7. For Christ our Passover has been sacrificed. And here Paul says the death of Christ was our Passover lamb being sacrificed. Remember the Passover lamb goes back to the Exodus when Israel, the nation, was in bondage in Egypt and God was going to slay the firstborn of every family in Egypt. And He told the Jews to slay a lamb, go in their house and put the blood of that lamb over the doorposts, the lintel of the house. And when He saw the blood He would pass over them, He would accept that sacrifice and an indication that a death had occurred to protect them, to take their place, to take the place of their firstborn. Now Paul says that all was in anticipation of the time when God would provide His Son. Remember how John the Baptist introduced Jesus to the nation Israel? Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Here is that ultimate sacrificial lamb, the One who indeed can pay the penalty for sin.

And so all the sacrifices of the Old Testament look forward to the coming of Christ. Turn over to Hebrews 10. The book of Hebrews is about the superiority of Christ in replacing all the Old Testament systems and sacrifices and ceremonies and so on. And those Old Testament sacrifices under the law, verse 3, in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sin year by year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. So on all those sacrifices, all the people were being reminded of was that they are sinners and the penalty for sin is death. When they would bring that animal to sacrifice it, they would place their hand upon the head of the animal, indicating I deserve to die, the penalty for my sin is death. But this animal is acting as my substitute, for without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins. For the wages of sin is death. But those animals couldn't take away sin.

Therefore, verse 5, when He comes into the world He says, sacrifice and offering you have not desired, but a body you have prepared for me. He goes on to explain that Jesus Christ was born into the human race so that He could bear the sins that the animals could not. All the animals could do was remind them. God saved the Israelites, not because of the animal sacrifices but by their faith in the God who said He would forgive them if they believed in Him. Romans 4 and Abraham is a great example of that. Abraham believed God, God credited it to Abraham as righteousness.

Verse 10, by this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Verse 12, in contrast to Old Testament priests, He having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time sat down at the right hand of God. Verse 14, for by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified. How does that stand in contrast to the statements I read you of heretics who say substitutionary atonement, that God would require a penalty to be paid by His Son before He forgives us. That's a terrible doctrine, that's a vile doctrine, that's a pre-civilized barbarity, and on it goes. Any wonder then, they have to begin to reject the scripture and the authority of scripture and replace it with their own thinking. We have to reimagine the death of Christ. God never told us to use our imagination to come up with an alternative. His Word stands true. Heaven and earth will pass away, Jesus said, My Word will not pass away. Harry Emerson Fosdick has died, it is appointed unto man once to die, after this comes the judgment. The truth of God stands true. The men who continue now to carry on his anti-biblical teaching cannot change the reality, God has spoken. Let God be true and every man a liar. Scripture is clear, Jesus Christ paid the penalty for sin.

One more passage, well one or two. Back in Isaiah 53. We can't talk about the death of Christ and not go to Isaiah 53. Again this is just an example. The whole sacrificial system of the Old Testament, numerous individual passages, Isaiah 53 states clearly that God's servant, His Messiah ultimately would pay the penalty for our sin, be our substitute. It starts in chapter 52 verse 13 and carries through chapter 53. His suffering and His death there, chapter 52 verse 14, his appearance was marred more than any man, his form more than the sons of men. Verse 3, He was despised and forsaken of men. Verse 4, now note this, surely our griefs he himself bore, our sorrows he carried. Yet we ourselves esteemed him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. He was taking our place, paying our penalty. Verse 5, we thought God was dealing with Him for His own sin. No. He was pierced through for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. Now this is substitutionary atonement; He died in our place. The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him. By His scourging we are healed. He took my place. All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way. But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him. Could it be any clearer? Hundreds of years before Christ came to earth Isaiah the prophet, the Old Testament scriptures told of the Savior that God would provide.

Look down in verse 11. ”By his knowledge the righteous one, my servant, will justify the many. . . .” He provided righteousness for us. As he will bear their iniquities. Middle of verse 12, “He poured out himself to death, was numbered with the transgressors; yet He himself bore the sin of many . . .” I mean it couldn't be any clearer, whether you are in the Old Testament or New Testament. We need someone to take our place. To say that the death of Christ was simply an example for us to learn from of suffering and endurance. We're not saved by the example of Christ, we're saved by His death, taking our place.

You know at the heart of this, why does it get a hold in the church? Because of sin and because we're fallen beings. There is an attraction to anything that replaces God with man. And as man is successful and people respond and crowds grow and people hear what they like to hear and it's presented in such a winsome way. And it tells about your potential and it encourages you to do good things and do good things to other people. And pretty soon we are like Israel was. The prophets prophesy falsely and the priests teach of their own understanding. And my people love to have it so. Paul warned Timothy there would come a day when people would no longer be willing to put up with sound healthy teaching of the Word of God. But rather they will heap to themselves teachers having itching ears. They'll tell me what I love to hear. What a tragedy.

Christ died for our sins and He was buried because He had paid the penalty, His death was real. And that will lead the way to the resurrection and the evidences of His resurrection in His appearances to many witnesses.

Go to Romans 5:6, for while we were still helpless, we could do nothing to save ourselves, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man, though perhaps for a good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. That's the amazing message of the gospel. While we were yet sinners. God doesn't say clean up your life and maybe I'll find you acceptable. If you try harder, do better, make something of your life, do good to other people. No, He says there is nothing you can do. All your righteous deeds are like filthy, polluted rags in my sight. You're not righteous, there is none righteous, not even one. But My Son in an act of overwhelming love went to the cross to take your place, to pay the penalty for your sin. And you can have life through faith in Him. No other way, no compromises, no adjustments, no negotiations. This is the way it is. You are a sinner under condemnation. My son went to the cross to do what He alone could do—pay the penalty for your sin. You can believe in Him and experience forgiveness and receive righteousness from Me, or you can choose not to believe in Him and then you will pay the penalty yourself, which will involve eternal separation from God in hell. You would think everybody would be saying, I'll take the free gift, I'll turn from my sin, I'll place my faith in the one who loved me and died for me. But somehow in sin we are determined we will have it our way, we will do it our way, and that's the way of destruction.

Let's pray together. Thank you, Lord, for your grace. Thank you for the simple beauty of the gospel of Jesus Christ in this first simple statement of unchangeable fact, Christ died for our sins according to the scripture. You prophesied it long before it happened because it was by your predetermined plan and foreknowledge that Jesus Christ was crucified by the hands of wicked men. What a marvelous plan, what a demonstration of infinite love that you would have your Son die for our sin. Lord, I pray for any who are in this auditorium this morning, perhaps they've been raised in this church, perhaps they've attended a long time, but have never truly believed in Jesus Christ and His death as the only payment for their sin. Lord, I pray the Spirit might open their blinded eyes to see and believe the glorious truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We pray in His name, amen.