Every sin demands a punishment of either death or a blood sacrifice. That is easy to see in the Old Testament with all the burnt offerings and bull or goat sacrifices. It would be unjust if the same rules didn’t apply in the New Testament. That would be similar to a well-respected, tenured judge of the court who has ruled fairly for 40 years. Then, one day his son is brought before him with armed robbery charges because he single-handedly stole thousands of dollars and shot 8 people in the process. All of a sudden the judge pardons his son based on a self-defense plea. That judge is not a just judge.
So, God’s children were in a bind and this is what he did. He looked ahead into eternity and calculated how many sins you would commit throughout your life. Then he computed exactly how much punishment would be required to pardon you. We’ll call that figure your sin-debt. After doing this, God did the same thing billions more times to represent every person who would ever live on the earth. When the total sin-debt for mankind was tabulated, God said, “I love my children so much and I want to be near them. But this sin-debt is standing between us, separating us.” So what did he do? He sent Jesus to pay it for us.
“But Christ has rescued us from the curse pronounced by the law. When he was hung on the cross, he took upon himself the curse for our wrongdoing. For it is written in the Scriptures, “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.” Through Christ Jesus, God has blessed the Gentiles with the same blessing he promised to Abraham, so that we who are believers might receive the promised Holy Spirit through faith.” (Galatians 3:14-15, NLT)
Jesus paid our sin-debt and freed us from the curse that comes from disobeying the law. Our punishment was carried out upon his head as if he were the guilty party. In exchange, we get credit for his holy life which, according to the law, we are now qualified to be blessed. God planned it this way! (Ephesians 1:5) What must that say about his love for you? Isaiah 53:10 says that God was pleased when Jesus was bruised. That’s because he knew that through the suffering of Jesus, all of mankind would be restored into his family (like Adam and Eve before the fall).
“Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.” (Matthew 5:17)
The only person to ever meet all of the law’s demands was Jesus. Why did he do this? So, you wouldn’t have to. He did it so you could be free of the curse that comes to everyone who disobeys the God in any way. (Romans 8:2) Because of the sacrifice of Jesus, your heavenly report card looks something like this:
Name: John Sample
Teacher: Holy Spirit, Comforter MD
Obedience ....................... A+
Law-Keeping ................... A+
Righteousness ................. A+
Holiness .......................... A+
Performance ................... A+
Comments: This person is spotless, unaccuseable, and blameless (Ephesians 1:4). There is no record whatsoever of any sin in this person’s account. They are now deemed righteous and worthy of fellowship and favor of God Almighty. Because they have fulfilled the entire law by being in Christ, they may freely partake of the blessings of obedience. They may enter his presence boldly because there are no impurities that would block fellowship with the Master.
So, it used to be you-sin-you-die. Now it’s you-sinned-Jesus-died-in-your-place. Guilt was passed to him while righteousness was passed to you. Now, your past, present, and even future sins have already been dealt with and paid for. Now you have a clean slate! (Hebrews 9:25-28; 10:10-12) And not just you, but every human being has this gift whether they take advantage of it or not. Wow! Now that’s good news!
In the next entry, we’ll discuss how intimacy with God and blessings are free gifts, not wages. Comments are always welcome.
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