Saviour And Lord Series

Saviour

Reading Is 52:13-53:12

Heb 1:3 He by Himself purged our sins

Why has this wonderful and glorious Being, in whom all things are summed up, and who is before all things, the Father’s delight and the Father’s glory; why has this infinite light, this infinite power, this infinite majesty come down to our poor earth? For what purpose? To shine? To show forth the splendour of His majesty? To teach heavenly wisdom? To rule with just and holy right? No. He came to purge our sins. What height of glory! What depths of abasement! Infinite in His majesty, yet infinite in His self humiliation, and in the depths of His love. What a glorious Lord! And what an awful sacrifice of unspeakable love, to purge our sins by Himself! (Saphir)

The reason God became a man was not to communicate with us in some abstract way. Our fundamental need is not for a teacher - an educated sinner is still a sinner, condemned to eternal judgement. What we need above everything else is a Saviour to take away our sin and grant us forgiveness. So He who made and sustains the universe came down from heaven to become a sacrifice for our sin. He, by Himself, paid the price for my sin, satisfying God’s just demands.

Christ came to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity Dan. 9:24.

Mt 1:21 “she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins.”

1Ti 1:15 This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.

Heb. 9:26 He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself

The shadow of the cross lies across the manger at Bethlehem and cuts through all the slushy sentiment about the baby Jesus that we hear at Christmas.

Pink - The cross was the great stumbling-block unto the Jews; but so far was the apostle from apologizing for the death of the “Son,” he here includes it as among His highest glories. And such indeed it was. The putting away of the sins of His people was an even greater and grander work than was the making of the worlds or the upholding of all things by His mighty power. His sacrifice for sins has brought greater glory to the Godhead and greater blessing to the redeemed than have His works of creation or providence.

Great God of wonders! all Thy ways are matchless, God-like and divine;

But the bright glories of Thy grace, above Thine other wonders shine. (Samuel Davies)

Spurgeon - Listen to those wondrous words. There was never such a task as that since time began. The old fable speaks of the Aegean stable, foul enough to have poisoned a nation, which Hercules cleansed; but our sins were fouler than that. Dunghills are sweet compared with these abominations; what a degrading task it seems for Christ to undertake the purging of our sins! …Yet the holy Christ, incapable of sin, stooped to purge our sins I want you to meditate upon that wondrous work; and to remember that he did it before he went back to heaven. Is it not a wonderful thing that Christ purged our sins even before we had committed them? There they stood, before the sight of God, as already existent in all their hideousness; but Christ came, and purged them.

He by Himself purged our sins

Christ purged our sins by offering Himself as our Substitute. Our sin could not have been purged unless Christ bore its burden. Neither our repentance, nor mending our ways could ever have repaid our debt. It is only through His shed blood that we can enjoy redemption. He bore all that was due us because of our violation of God’s law, and God accepted his sacrifice in full payment; so He purged our sins. 1Pet 1:8 knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.

There was no other good enough to pay the price of sin;

He only could unlock the gate of heaven and let us in.

No one else was good enough, nor does anyone else have the key to that gate, but the Son of God. Jesus by Himself purged our sins. We had, and can have, no part in the purging, only in the sinning! The priests took the blood of animals into the tabernacle to make atonement; Christ was both the priest and the sacrifice.

Finally, on this point, Jesus purged our sins by Himself, i.e. on His own. There are always some jobs that we have to do on our own. These are often the hardest and most unpleasant jobs! Jesus had to tackle the problem of our sin alone. No one else was qualified to help as we have seen. Worse, when He took on our sin His fellowship with the Father was interrupted, for God can not have fellowship with anyone that is full of sin. It was a new and terrible experience for our spotless Lord of glory to be made sin.