IS GOD JUST? (John June 12, 2005)

IS GOD JUST? (John 18-20 June 12, 2005) In the aftermath of the Schapelle Corby conviction there was a flurry of news stories. One that caught my eye concerned a 43-year-old Sydney man, Trevor Johnson. He is so convinced that Schapelle is innocent that he wrote a five-page letter to the chief judge, Linton Sirait, in which he offered to take the place of Miss Corby. He wrote this I am fully willing to pay that fine to secure her release. Even though the prosecution has not asked for the death penalty in this case, I offer my life to you in front of your firing squad, in exchange for Schapelle Corby s freedom. His offer was simple. Put me in prison or shoot me if that is what it will take. I offer my life so that Schapelle can go free. My question for you is this. If you were the judge in that case and Mr. Johnson s letter arrived on your desk what would you do? Would it be just to agree to punish Trevor Johnson for the crime Miss Corby was found guilty of? The law has decreed that Schapelle Corby is guilty of illegally smuggling marijuana. Her penalty was 20 years in prison. The question is this. Does justice simply demand that someone anyone serve the 20 years? or does justice say the one who did the crime must do the time? Would it be fair for a man unconnected to the crime to pay the penalty for the one who committed the crime? What do you think? Judge Sirait, said that under Indonesian law it was not possible for another person to swap places with an accused or convicted person. It is not just Indonesian law! As far as I find, every major legal system forbids someone from serving the penalty in the place of a guilty person. It isn t just. The guilty must pay not those who have nothing to do with the crime. And yet everyone of us sitting here this morning has staked our eternal destiny on our faith that God s view of justice does allow an innocent man Jesus to pay the penalty for our crimes. We just sang Hallelujah, What a Saviour! Listen again to the words: 1

Bearing shame and scoffing rude, In my place condemned He stood. Sealed my pardon with His blood: Hallelujah, what a Saviour! Do you believe this? Do you believe that Jesus the innocent Son of God died in your place so that you could escape punishment? And if you believe this is it just? This is not an academic question. It lies at the very heart of the gospel. It lies at the heart of our relationship with Christ. In our study of John we have reached the point where Jesus is about to appear before Pilate the governor of Judea the man entrusted with deciding His guilt and innocence His life and death. And we will see a number of truths emphasised in these verses. We will see that Jesus is innocent. Three times Pilate declares I find no guilt in Him. The account makes it manifestly clear that Jesus is innocent. He has done nothing deserving of censure let alone death. Yet, Jesus is sentenced to death and dies anyway. And not only is He innocent but He is God. When Thomas declares My Lord and my God we are confronted with the reality that the One who dies is God. And these accounts make it very clear that the innocent One who is God dies in our place. Interlaced throughout this account we find references that make it clear that Jesus the innocent One must die to save those who are guilty and lost. He dies so that none of those given to Him are lost. He dies to become the true Passover the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world the One who fulfils the Law And then to make it crystal clear what is going on we have the account of Barabbas a scurrilous man who is freed and Jesus the innocent man dies in his place. The story of Barabbas is a metaphor for why Jesus dies. God, the innocent dies so that you and I might go free. That our sins might be forgiven. Jesus took the place of Barabbas. As you read through this section of Scripture it is a powerful account of the death of Jesus. 2

You reach the end and you are overwhelmed by the fact that God would die for you. It is a truth that poets and painters and pastors have tried to express for 2,000 years. Charles Wesley encapsulated the thought in his immortal hymn: And can it be that I should gain An interest in the Saviour s blood! Died He for me, who caused His pain! For me, who Him to death pursued? Amazing love! How can it be That thou, my God, shouldst die for me? Amazing love! How can it be That thou, my God, shouldst die for me? Graham Kendrick in his song Amazing love puts it this way: My Lord, what love is this, That pays so dearly, That I, the guilty one, May go free! Amazing love, O what sacrifice, The Son of God, given for me. My debt He pays, And my death He dies, That I might live, That I might live. Do you hear the wonder there? My Lord, what love is this, That pays so dearly, That I, the guilty one, May go free! And this is a stunning question? How can God love sinners enough to die in our place? But this morning I want to clear up another thought. A thought that might distract us from the wonder and glory of the cross. As you read through this account many have asked the question if Jesus the innocent dies in place of the guilty Is God just in allowing this? This morning my message is simple. Jesus dying in our place is not only just it is the greatest act of love possible and it shows us how we must live. 3

We have arrived in our study of John at the place where we come to the trials and suffering and death of Jesus. But for any thinking person these chapters raise questions. Why does Jesus have to die? Why is this innocent man allowed to die in our place? How can God declare this just? Let me begin by saying this. What happened on the cross is complex. To help us understand what happened theologians have often isolated one aspect of what happened on the cross. I have many rather thick books that deal with just one part of what Jesus did on the cross. But looking so carefully at one aspect can at times distort the overall picture. What do I mean by this? Perhaps the aspect of the cross that theologians deal most commonly with is Jesus dying in our place. Isaiah 53:6 tells us that Jesus bore our sins: 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. Jesus, the innocent Lamb of God bore our sins by dying in our place. Theologians have a name for what Jesus did in bearing our sins. It is called the penalsubstitution theory or vicarious substitution theory of the Atonement. Penal-substitution. Penal Jesus paid the penalty. Substitution He substituted for us He died in our place. Or vicarious substitution. Vicarious comes from the Latin word vicar one who stands in the place of another. Jesus stands in our place as a substitute. Jesus died on the cross in our place. He paid our penalty. This is why we sing Hallelujah, What a Saviour!: 4

Bearing shame and scoffing rude, In my place condemned He stood. Sealed my pardon with His blood: Hallelujah, what a Saviour! In my place condemned He stood that is the doctrine of penal-substitution. While theologians may come up with fancy terms preachers have to make those concepts live. So, because this doctrine is hard to visualise preachers have used a number of illustrations to get this concept across. Let me share some of them. The Book Illustration. Our lives are like a book in which is recorded all of our sins. Even one sin would condemn us to hell. We can t erase them. We can t deal with them. In dying on the cross, Jesus tears the pages from our book. He nails them to the cross. God punishes Him for our sins and we are left without sin. The Judge Illustration. Imagine standing in a courtroom before a judge. We are found guilty and fined an enormous sum of money. Then the judge takes pity on us. He must not revoke the penalty. But he steps down from the bench, removes his robe, pulls out his chequebook and pays our fine himself. The Russian King Illustration. The story of the great King and in his tribe thefts are taking place. Finally, the thief is caught it is his mother. His justice decrees the guilty must be punished. His mother is tied to the stake. But before the lash falls, he steps down and covers her body with his. He bears her punishment. These are the types of illustrations I am sure you have heard that explain the penalsubstitution the vicarious substitution Jesus dying for us on the cross. But, what can happen is that by focusing on the fact that Jesus bore our sin Jesus paid our punishment these legal illustrations can distort the overall picture. By using illustrations like this to explain Jesus dying in our place it can seem to make God appear unjust. 5

Let me paint a picture. Martin Bryant the Port Arthur murderer escapes from prison and rapes, tortures and murders my dear wife. It is brutal, horrible. He is totally unrepentant. Finally, he is caught and public outrage is so high the government agrees to allow him to be hanged. His crimes are so heinous. But then I stand up in court and say, yes, he deserves to die for his crimes. But I petition the court to allow my son Peter to be tortured and killed in Martin s place. Dena was my wife, the offence is against me. I agree there has to be punishment so I offer my son. I urge you to accept my offer. What would you think of me? What would you think of any court that accepted my offer? For some the idea of Jesus bearing our sin is just as horrible. But the analogy doesn t hold true. Jesus death on the cross is nothing like me offering my son in the place of Martin Bryant. The problem arises if we just focus on the fact Jesus bore our sin without talking about how He bore our sin. When theologians talk about Jesus dying in our place often the picture we end up with in our minds is this a courtroom. We stand before God the judge of the universe. But just as we step forward to be judged Jesus says wait I have paid His penalty He must be freed. And while that is true questions about God s justice can rise up. So to help you understand these chapters. So you realise that Jesus dying in your place is not only loving it is just, I want us to think about how Jesus bears our sin. We need to look a little deeper at what Scripture says about what happened on the cross. One of the most important verses in understanding the cross is Galatians 2:19-20: For through the Law I died to the Law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; and 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. Look at those words in verse 20 I have been crucified with Christ. What does this mean? Let me read you a few comments from various commentaries: 6

Ridderbos The Epistle of Paul to the Churches of Galatia says this: The believers, by virtue of their corporate belonging to Him, were included in that dying. (p. 105) Many struggle to understand how we could be crucified with Jesus who died 2,000 years ago. And as Ridderbos says the answer is that we are united to Jesus in a corporate sense. What he is saying is that when we became Christians our faith united us with Christ forever. In Colossians 3:3 we read that: For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. So Paul says that we are so united with Christ that when He hung on the cross we were there with Him. We were crucified with Christ. F.F. Bruce The Epistle to the Galatians puts it this way: Those who place their faith in Christ are united with Him by that faith united so closely that His experience now becomes theirs; they share His death to the old order. (p. 144) We are united so closely with Him we share His death. So what is this corporate union with Jesus that lets us share in His death? In our world, we tend to think in very individual categories. But the Bible thinks of us not just as individuals but also as groups. We see this in relation to sin. Sin affects those we are joined to. Remember Achan in Joshua 7? He stole the articles under the ban articles that God said not to touch. Because he was a part of the nation of Israel, all of Israel suffered until he was caught. And when he was caught it wasn t just him who was punished it was his whole family who were put to death. Because he was head of that family they were joined to him. Remember David when he sinned his sin affected his family. When he sinned in numbering the people he sinned as King as head of Israel all Israel suffered 70,000 died. 7

We see the same thing in the New Testament. When one Christian sins, the whole church is affected by that sin. Since we are all part of the same body the body of Christ sin in part of the body affects all the body and that is why Paul commands us to remove the wicked man from among ourselves. I know this isn t easy for us to grasp but we are connected to others. The way God created us is not just as individuals but as members connected to each other. So where am I heading with this? The primary corporate relationship we are in is all of mankind. We are human beings. And the head of mankind is Adam. That is why when Adam sinned all of us suffered. We are corporately related to Adam. His sin meant we became sinners. Listen to the words of Paul in Romans 5:12: Through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned. Do you hear that? One man Adam sinned. Sin came into the world. And because we are in Adam Adam is the head of our race sin spread to us we became sinful. Because we are united with Adam we became sinful. The whole human race became sinful and rebellious and alienated from God. But this is where Jesus comes in when we are linked by faith to the head of another race the race of the redeemed Jesus we share His righteousness. 1 Corinthians 15:22 says this: For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. Adam is head of one race. His sin led to the death of that whole race. Jesus is head of another race. His righteousness led to life for that race. I know this is hard for us to grasp. But the Bible teaches that by faith we are linked joined to Jesus. And since we are joined to Him, we join Him in His death. James Dunn Unity says: Union with Christ is nothing if it is not union with Christ in His death. (p. 195) So when you think of the cross don t just think of the courtroom. Think also about Jesus hanging on the cross. 8

Because we are united with Him in a sense we were hanging there with Him. As the wrath of God fell on Him as He cried My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me because we were joined with Jesus, we were there suffering the punishment with Him. 2 Corinthians 5:21 puts it this way: He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. While no illustrations are perfect. Perhaps this one will help you to understand what happened on the cross. Imagine these two books. The Book of Craig Lloyd and The Book of Jesus Christ. In The Book of Craig Lloyd there is written every sin, every vile thought, every wrong action everything that separates me from God everything that divine justice says must be punished. But there is another book. The Book of Jesus Christ. In this book there is only righteousness. He never sinned. He always obeyed God. He always did what was pleasing. The Bible teaches that when we placed our faith in Jesus we were joined to Him. Colossians 3:3: For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. So what happened on the cross was this. My sins, my evil, everything I did that opposed God is hidden in Christ. So inside The Book of Jesus Christ you have The Sin of Craig Lloyd. So when the wrath of God falls on Jesus on the cross I am crucified with Christ my sins are dealt with. And conversely, inside The Book of Craig Lloyd you have The Righteousness of Jesus Christ. So when God determines who is acceptable when He comes to me what He sees is the perfect, sinless, righteousness of Jesus. He can bear our sin and we can gain His righteousness only because we are joined with Him. 9

We have to realise that this idea of us being united with Christ in His crucifixion His death is found again and again in Scripture. Look with me at a few passages. Perhaps the most famous is Romans 6. Let me read you a few verses: Romans 6:3-5: Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death. We are united with Christ in His death. 2 Corinthians 5:14: For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died. All of those in Christ died with Him. 2 Timothy 2:11: It is a trustworthy statement: For if we died with Him, we will also live with Him; When Jesus died we died. We were there with Jesus on the cross. Our sin was there. The wrath of God fell on a man bearing the sin of the world our sin. Now I know this is a hard concept. But we need to understand this if we are going to understand the cross. Let me go back to Schapelle Corby and Trevor Johnson. It would be unjust for Trevor Johnson to serve Schapelle Corby s sentence because her crime can t be in him. If he serves time in prison or dies it has nothing to do with the crimes Schapelle Corby has been convicted of. But it is entirely just for Jesus Christ to pay for my sins because when I trusted in Him, I was linked to Him by faith, I am hid in Him, my sins are in Him so He bore them on the cross. I am so linked with Jesus that His death is my death I have been crucified with Christ. I am so linked with Jesus that His death pays for my sin. 10

And, this truth explains how Jesus can pay for my sins. In fact it explains how Jesus can pay for my sins after my salvation. It is not as if being in Jesus is a one time deal. We saw that Galatians 2:20 says: I have been crucified with Christ. Listen to some more comments on what this means. Ben Witherington III Grace in Galatia It is important to note the tense of the verb crucified with It is in the perfect, suggesting an action which began in the past and has continuing and ongoing effects in the present. (p. 190) Leon Morris Galatians The verb is in the perfect tense, which means not simply that at some time in the past Paul was crucified with Christ, but that he continues in the capacity of one crucified with Christ. To understand intellectually that Jesus died on the cross to save sinful people is not enough. Paul identified himself with the crucified Christ. (p. 89) James Dunn The Epistle To the Galatians I have been nailed to the cross with Christ, and am still hanging there with Him. (p. 144) I have been nailed to the cross with Christ, and am still hanging there with Him! I was saved twenty-one years ago. On that day I was hid in Christ and my sins were forgiven. My slate was wiped clean. Since that moment I have sinned every single day. But as Dunn says I have been nailed to the cross with Christ, and I am still hanging there with Him. If I lose my temper with the kids this afternoon then because I am still with Christ on that cross then my slate is immediately wiped clean. He paid for all my sins past, present and future because all of those sins past, present and future are in Him on the cross. And this explains how Old Testament saints could be saved. 11

By faith, they too were united with Jesus. By faith, Abraham and David hung there on the cross with Jesus and He paid for their sins. Jesus had to be a man to die for us. Jesus had to be innocent to pay for our sins. Jesus had to be God so that we could be united with Him. This is what we will find in the next few chapters of John. So I ask you again was God unjust in punishing Jesus for our sins? Absolutely not! The justice of God was satisfied in Jesus because we were crucified with Him. In this way He bore our sins. And finally, as we work our way through these chapters Yes I want you to be amazed at the love of God that He could die for you. But, I want you to walk in the footsteps of the Apostle Paul. Listen again to the words of James Dunn The Epistle To the Galatians. This is how Paul viewed himself. I [Paul] have been nailed to the cross with Christ, and am still hanging there with Him. Paul viewed his whole life through the lens of the cross. Because we are united with Jesus and His death it means that our old self died and that means we are new creatures who are dead to sin. Galatians 2:20: I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live. 2 Corinthians 5:15-17: He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. Because we are dead crucified with Christ, because our old self is gone Romans 6:11-12: Consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts. Paul says that Jesus hung on that cross to make us holy. Therefore since we are holy, since we have been crucified with Christ we should live as holy men and women. 12

The idea that Jesus continually paying for our sins gives us a license to sin is sick. Peter puts it very bluntly. 1 Peter 2:24: He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. Over the next few weeks as we see the cross in all its horror and glory know Jesus died to make you holy. To make you holy before God and to encourage you to live holy. You died to sin so you could live holy. And finally in Philippians 3:10, Paul asks that he: Might know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death. That just as Jesus suffered on the cross, so the pain we experience in this fallen world reminds us of what Jesus did for us. So there you have it. A condensed theology lesson on the cross. So over the next few weeks as we see the cross remember these truths. When we see Jesus pronounced innocent know that His righteousness His holiness becomes yours on the cross. You are forgiven. You are clean. He died for you. When you hear Thomas cry My Lord and My God know that it is only because He is God that we can be linked to His death. God loved us enough to die for us. The cross means we never again doubt His love. When Barabbas is set free and Jesus takes His place know that like Barabbas you deserved death but like Barabbas you are set free. And when Jesus cries It is finished know that your salvation is assured. Your sins were born by Jesus. Know that when you stand before God Jesus has paid it all. Trevor Johnson can t pay the penalty for Schapelle Corby. But Jesus Christ can and has paid the penalty for you. The cross is the glory of our life in Christ. It is there that justice, love and holiness meet to reconcile man to God. 13