What Jesus accomplished on the cross
If you can grasp the significance of what Christ accomplished for you in His Death on the Cross, your life will never be the same. That single revelation will open you up to a whole new world of limitless possibilities. You will have a new energy and life driving to make a difference in this world.
My prayer is that as you read this, you would see for yourself how Jesus' death means a whole new life on a whole new level for you.
SO WHAT DID CHRIST'S DEATH ACCOMPLISH?
No1. To absorb the wrath of God
God’s law demanded, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might” (Deuteronomy 6:5). But we have all loved other things more. This is what sin is—dishonoring God by preferring other things over him, and acting on those preferences.
The seriousness of an insult rises with the dignity of the one insulted. Since our sin is against the Ruler of the Universe, “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). Not to punish it would be unjust. So God sent his own Son, Jesus, to divert sin’s punishment from us to himself. God “loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation”—the wrath-absorbing substitute—“for our sins” (1 John 4:10).
Then God publicly endorsed Christ’s accomplishment by raising him from the dead, proving the success of his suffering and death.
No2. So that we would be free from the curse of the law
There was no escape from the curse of God’s law. It was just; we were guilty. There was only one way to be free: someone must pay the penalty. “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us” (Galatians 3:13).
The law’s demands have been fulfilled by Christ’s perfect law-keeping, its penalty fully paid by his death. This is why the Bible teaches that getting right with God is not based on law-keeping: “A person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ” (Galatians 2:16). Our only hope is having the blood and righteousness of Christ credited to our account.
No 3. To reconcile us to God
The reconciliation that needs to happen between man and God goes both ways. God’s first act in reconciling us to himself was to remove the obstacle that separated him from us— sin and the guilt of our sin. He took the steps we could not take to remove his own judgment by sending Jesus to suffer in our place: “While we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son” (Romans 5:10). Reconciliation from our side is simply to receive what God has already done, the way we receive an infinitely valuable gift.
When we accept Jesus as our Savior, we receive salvation and forgiveness. But that’s not all. The Bible says we also receive justification, redemption, reconciliation, atonement, propitiation, and regeneration. Each of these theological terms expresses wonderful truths about the blessing we receive when Jesus becomes our Savior.
Salvation and forgiveness, while related, are not exactly the same.
The term salvation means “to be delivered, rescued.” Salvation is deliverance from the penalty of sin, that is, eternal separation from God - Acts 13:38-39, Heb:9:28.
Salvation is God’s rescuing us from our deserved fate. Salvation also includes a more immediate deliverance from the power of sin in this life. Sin has lost its dominion over the saved ones (Romans 6:14). Faith in Jesus Christ rescues us from the empty and meaningless life described in Ecclesiastes and provides us with a life that is abundant and fruitful (John 10:10; Galatians 5:22–23).
The term forgiveness means “to let go, to give up, to keep no longer.” When Jesus forgives us, our sins, trespasses, iniquities, and transgressions are erased, wiped off the record. Forgiveness of sin is analogous to financial debt being erased. When God forgives us of our sins, we are free. Our sins are wiped out. God will never hold them against us (Psalm 103:12).
Salvation and forgiveness are closely related. There is no salvation without forgiveness. Salvation is God’s delivering us from the consequences of sin. Forgiveness is God’s erasing our sin debt. To use a financial illustration, forgiveness is God’s shredding the documents that list our debt, and salvation is God’s letting us out of debtors’ prison.
No.4 We are justified before God.
In the Old Testament, the priests would sacrifice lambs, goats, etc. to cover the people's sins. These sacrifices did not remove sin but was only a covering for sin. Also this sacrifice was not significant to remove the stain of sin.
But since Christ shed His blood, our sin are removed from our account. Hebrews 10 : 1-22 paints us this picture very clearly.
Simply put, to justify is to declare righteous, to make one right with God. Justification is God’s declaring those who receive Christ to be righteous - without sin - based on Christ’s righteousness being imputed to the accounts of those who receive Christ (2 Corinthians 5:21). Though justification as a principle is found throughout Scripture, the main passage describing justification in relation to believers is Romans 3:21-26.
We are justified, declared righteous, at the moment of our salvation. Justification does not make us righteous, but rather pronounces us righteous. Our righteousness comes from placing our faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ. His sacrifice wipes away our sin, allowing God to see us as perfect and unblemished. Because as believers we are in Christ, God sees Christ's own righteousness when He looks at us. This meets God's demands for perfection; thus, He declares us righteous—He justifies us.
Romans 5:18-19 sums it up well: “Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men. For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.” It is because of justification that the peace of God can rule in our lives. It is because of justification that believers can have assurance of salvation. It is the fact of justification that enables God to begin the process of sanctification—the process by which God makes us in reality what we already are positionally. “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1).
No.5 The victory it gives.
Sin did not have its origin in the Garden of Eden. Sin had its origin when Lucifer/Satan rebelled against God , was defeated and was thrown down from heaved - Isaiah 14:12-16; Ezekiel 28:12-19. Sin had its origin in that rebellion. When Adam and Eve were created and placed in the Garden of Eden Satan came into this Garden to destroy the creation God had made. From that day to this day Satan has been the enemy of the human race, bent on turning man against his Creator.
By His sacrifice Jesus destroyed the power of Satan - Col. 2:15. This victory is given to us through His blood - Rev. 12:11. We have mighty weapons now to overcome Satan -
(a) the blood of the lamb and (b) the word of our testimony.
No.6 To bring us to God
“Gospel” means “good news,” and it all ends in one thing: God himself. The gospel is the good news that at the cost of his Son’s life, God has done everything necessary to captivate us with what will make us eternally and ever-increasingly happy—namely, himself. “Christ…suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God” (1 Peter 3:18).
No.7 To give eternal life to all who believe on Him
Jesus made it plain that rejecting the eternal life he offered would result in the misery of eternity in hell: “Whoever does not believe is condemned already....the wrath of God remains on him” (John 3:18, 36).
But for those who trust Christ, the best is yet to come. “No eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined what God has prepared for those who love him”
(1 Corinthians 2:9). We will see the all-satisfying glory of God. “This is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” (John 17:3).
No. 8 The character it builds.
The most important aspect in life is not building a career but developing a character. Today's society seems less and less concerned about character and more and more concerned about productivity. Most products survive only for a short time, some only for a few months, but character lives on. Real character is developed in co-operation with Christ and the Holy Spirit - Phil. 3:1-11. First Christ's righteousness is imputer to you - put down to your account. And secondly the desire to life a righteous life was imparted in you. With the help of the Holy Spirit that righteousness should be developed in you till Christ's character can be observed in you.
No. 9. The dignity He gives us through the cross.
John in Rev. 1:1-8 tells us that (a) He loves us, (b) freed us from our sin and (c) lifts us. Christ has made us a kingdom. The thing has been done. We are kings now. The crown is on our brows: God wants us to reign over self and sin now. John also tells us that " He has made us to be .... priests." The mitre and the crown are on our heads. We are lifted up to the splendor of royalty as well as lifted to the dignity of the priesthood. Christ has lifted us from our sin and putting upon us a robe of righteousness, placing upon our heads a golden crown and giving us the privilege of priestly access before His throne. Remember that if you are in Christ you are both a priest and a king.
10. The heaven it provides.
The interesting picture that John paints about the New Jerusalem is that the way in is through twelve gates, each made of a pearl Rev. 21: 9-27. Most people know that a pearl is a product of pain. The oyster sitting on the ocean bed is invaded by a grain of sand or some other irritation. At this time the oyster exudes a secretion and surrounds the irritation in order to heal the wound and save its life. The result is a pearl. So a pearl is the result of a wound that has been healed. If there had been no wound there would have been no pearl.
John reminds us that the only way into the New Jerusalem is through the sufferings of our Lord Jesus Christ. Christ on the cross endured the crushing cruelty of sin and turned that pain into a pearl. In Matt. 13:46 Jesus spoke of "finding the pearl of great price". He is that pearl.
The Atonement is what gives a christian the basis for assurance of forgiveness of sin. This assurance is based on God's Word, in what Christ has done for us by dying on the cross. From the cross just before He died, Jesus said, "It is finished," - John 19:30 So we speak of the "finished work of Christ,"
We are continually reminded , You are not your own....you are bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's." 1Cor 6:19-20.
Many christians make the mistake of supposing that when they have listened to a sermon ,read a book, or followed a series of studies and given mental assent to what had been said, their religious duty has been discharged and they can then dismiss the subject from their minds. For the doctrine of the atonement to be of any use to us we must put it into practice. Only the Holy Spirit can help us to apply what we have learnt about the cross into our daily lives. The message of the cross must now be manifested in our lives and actions.
