MEASURE UPON MEASURE – DEATH – THE RESTORATION OF GOD - Part 11 (Section 3)
The firth consequence of sin is death. We were looking at how Christ made that His own so He could redeem through His blood. We continue with this theme of Christ becoming sin for us in this section 3.
When we think about the Saviour’s Road in this consequence of sin; the great things He did for us in love, and His identification with us; when we consider what He became for us, there are TWO MORE PASSAGES that need to be examined.
(a). In Romans 5:6-10 Paul wrote the first one to explain this further:.
6. {{“For while we were STILL HELPLESS, at the right time CHRIST DIED FOR THE UNGODLY.
7. For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for a good man someone would dare even to die.
8. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, CHRIST DIED FOR US.
9. Much more then, having now been JUSTIFIED BY HIS BLOOD, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him.
10. For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through THE DEATH OF HIS SON, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.”}}
Verses 6 and 8 state the timing of Christ’s death. He did not wait for us to improve ourselves for that was impossible, but His death is totally applicable for us while we were there in the thick of sin, down there in the gutter, unable to rise any higher. It was then He identified with us; it was then He died in our stead. He made our deserved death His own. We were guilty, vile and helpless, but Christ reached out to us because the love and grace and mercy and compassion of God are just so beyond our limited human understanding. Christ died for sinners, that is, HE DIED FOR ME! He took ALL my sin as my perfect Substitute on the cross.
Glory, glory everlasting
Be to Him who bore the cross,
Who redeemed our souls by tasting
Death, the death deserved by us.
Spread His glory, spread his glory,
Who redeemed His people thus. (Thomas Kelly)
Verse 10 in the Romans passage informs us too that our sin had made us the enemies of God, but while we were enemies, our Mediator died for us, in our place. Greater love has no man if he is prepared to lay down his life for his friends, but what a contrast this is, for He laid down His life for His enemies! That He did for us. That verse also says, “we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son.” Jesus Christ died, the Son’s sacrifice before the Father, for our reconciliation. Everlasting salvation is built on reconciliation.
Sin necessitated the death of the sinner. It was the automatic consequence that we would die for our sins. The Lord Jesus Christ went before us, taking our place so now no requirement of death remains for us. The demands of sin’s penalty have been wholly satisfied. He died to sin once and the sacrifice continues forever efficacious. Death has no more claim over us. He smashed the bondage and worked a mighty deliverance.
Paul in Hebrews clearly states this for his readers: {{Hebrews 2:14-15 “Since then the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is the devil; and MIGHT DELIVER THOSE who through fear of death were subject to SLAVERY all their lives.”}} Yes, Jesus was into the redemption of slaves long before Wilberforce. He has smashed the power of the slavery of death. We rise up in freedom, the chains having been broken into dust, and we go forth in the liberty of the new life in Christ.
It was not merely the death of Christ which saved us. In fact His death in isolation would never have saved us. What occurred BEFORE His death has saved us. The whole righteous demands of God were satisfied when He bore our sins and became the guilty One along with the other consequences examined in previous chapters, and was therefore punished.
Before He dismissed His spirit He cried, “It is finished.” (John 19:30). All the work at that point had been completed; the wrath of God was expended; the victory had been claimed. His physical death, not from man, but of Himself, followed naturally because the sacrifice always died, but the great salvation work was done prior to His own dismissal of His life/spirit. This truth is further confirmed by a verse in the gospel of {{John 19:28, “After this, Jesus knowing that all things had already been accomplished, in order that the scripture might be fulfilled, said, “I am thirsty.”}}
Only after the eternal transaction between Jesus and His Father had been accomplished, and only then, did Jesus accept anything from the hand of man and that was a sop of vinegar. But before He died, the enormous work had been done. There is no problem in the use of the words, “saved by the death of Christ” because that term connotes the whole endurance of the cross and not just the specific point of death.
(b). And now for the second selection. There is a passage of scripture set so solidly in the Old Testament that it scales the heights in sublime revelation. We have already glimpsed at the chapter when we examined “Sorrow”. Now we shall continue on in Isaiah 53:4-8.
(4.) “Surely our griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried, yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. (5.) But He was pierced through for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The chastening for our wellbeing fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are HEALED. (6.) 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 (or encounter Him). (7.) He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth. Like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, so He did not open His mouth. (8.) By oppression and judgment He was taken away. And as for His generation, who considered that He was cut off out of the land of the living, for the transgression of my people to whom the stroke was due?”}}
No better description of THE GOSPEL OF SUBSTITUTION has been written. I want to list again from those verses the wonderful things that the Lord did for you and for me.
4. He bore OUR griefs. He carried OUR sorrows.
5. He was pierced for OUR transgressions.
He was crushed for OUR iniquities.
He was chastened for OUR wellbeing.
He was scourged for OUR healing.
6. He was encountered by OUR iniquity.
8. He was cut off out of the land of the living for the PEOPLE’S transgressions.
All of the above had their part to play in the death of Christ on the cross. They are all points of true identification with us in our sin. At any time the Lord could have walked away from all that, or with one word could have justly burnt away all His enemies. He did not choose to. Who could ever fathom the love of God?
I heard the blessed story told,
Of Jesus crucified,
How once He took a bondman’s form,
And there at Calvary died.
I saw by faith the judgment fall,
By faith I heard His cry,
And knew for me He suffered shame,
For me He stooped to die. (Fanny Crosby)
Isaiah 53 Verse 6 sums it all up. It is the total gospel, complete in three exact statements. Verse 7 portrays the Lamb of God betrayed into the hands of His enemies. Little did the enemy know that it was furthering the will and purpose of God; and that was to redeem each of us by the blood of the Lamb. And through death, Jesus defeated him who had the power of death. Satan overplayed his hand.
We’ll sing of the Shepherd that died,
That died for the sake of the flock;
His love to the utmost was tried,
But firmly endured as a rock.
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What love from this Shepherd did flow,
When in care for the sheep He was led
To stand between them and the foe,
And lay down His life in their stead!
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Our song then for ever shall be
Of the Shepherd who gave Himself thus;
No subject’s more glorious than He,
No theme so affecting to us.
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Of Him and His love we will sing,
His praises our tongues shall employ,
Till heavenly anthems we’ll bring
In yonder bright regions of joy. (Frances Ridley Havergal)
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He who did not cause death, endured death, that we might forever be delivered from the second death in a Christless eternity.
In the great Romans 5 chapter Paul sets out death and grace and righteousness in contrast. Sin reigned in death and death spread to all. As Paul said, {{Romans 5:12 “Therefore, just as THROUGH ONE MAN sin entered into the world, and DEATH THROUGH SIN, so death spread to all men, because ALL SINNED”}}
What the death of Christ accomplished was entire salvation, reconciliation, redemption, righteousness, and justification. We owe everything to Christ and very soon we will look at what the Lord restored in the place of death. We close this section with one verse – {{Romans 5:21 that, as sin reigned in DEATH, even so grace might reign through RIGHTEOUSNESS TO ETERNAL LIFE through Jesus Christ our Lord.”}}
We have now considered some aspects of the Saviour’s Road. Christ died for all that all might be saved. But not all are saved because salvation is not automatic. PROVISION DOES NOT MEAN ACCEPTANCE. Paul states the matter very clearly – {{Acts 17:30-31 “Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that ALL EVERYWHERE SHOULD REPENT, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.”}}
Christ's death was not one for limited atonement for He died for all – {{Hebrews 2:9 “We do see Him who has been made for a little while lower than the angels, namely, Jesus, BECAUSE OF THE SUFFERING OF DEATH, crowned with glory and honour, that by the grace of God He MIGHT TASTE DEATH FOR EVERYONE.”}} [“for every man” – AV]. But not all men have faith and that subject it too large to examine within this study.
Human minds can’t comprehend it;
They don’t know the reason why.
They don’t want to understand it.
They don’t even want to try.
Why do people shun His pleading;
Why do they ignore His call;
Why do they refuse to follow?
Hence, they stumble on and fall. (Ron Ferguson)
