KCC April 2012 How Does Jesus Death Save Us? Turn to Isaiah 53. According to the Bible, the three most important events of human history so far are these: 1. God created people good and in close relationship with him. 2. Very near the beginning of human history, people sinned. Humans chose to leave God s ways, so we became twisted and enemies of God. 3. Through Jesus death God made a path back to him. Jesus died so we could go back to God. In that way God made a way through all the darkness that our sin brought on us, and made a rescue available. That s what we know. What we re not so clear about is exactly how Jesus death did that. What did Jesus death accomplish? How did Jesus dying solve the sin problem? The Bible gives us a few different pictures to help us understand, and I want to show them to you. We do not pick between these pictures. They are all true. The sin problem has many sides to it, and so the saving that Christ brought to us also has many sides to it. The early church had different meetings and councils to sort out different doctrines, and to sort out different heresies that were in the church. But they never tried to sort out what we call atonement. The Church has always been clear that the death of Jesus saves his people from their sins. The Church has never tried to say exactly how that works. Christ as Champion - In the early centuries of the church they did not try very hard to figure out how Jesus death works, but when they did speak about it, their favourite view went something like this: Because we had sinned, we all belonged to Satan. We were his slaves. But God offered his Son to Satan as a ransom price, to buy God s people back. The evil one liked this bargain, so he gave all believers to God and took Jesus the ransom in their place. But when Satan got Jesus into hell, Satan found out that he could not hold him. On the third day Jesus burst out of there back to life, and at the end Satan did not have his original prisoners and did not have the Son either. The thought that God actually deceived Satan when he made the deal, because God knew that Satan would not be able to hold the Son; this thought did not trouble the early fathers. It all just meant God is both stronger and wiser than Satan they loved it. This view was popular for about a thousand years, but in the 11 th century Anselm criticized it, and it faded away.
How does Jesus death save us? 2 BUT this view teaches some important things that are true: Christ s work does mean victory, and the devil and evil hosts were defeated by Christ, and sin has been conquered. If there is a traditional view of atonement coming from the early church, that would be it. This is how they answered the question, how does Jesus death save us? The NT has three basic answers to the question, how does Jesus death save us? Let s go through them. But we must also remember that we are talking about what might be the most important thing that has happened in human history. Jesus died to save people from their sins, and so they could belong to God again. We are not just explaining something that happened 2000 years ago. We re talking about the best news ever spoken on this planet. Jesus died and saved us from our sins, so that we could belong to God again. This offer is open to every single human. There is no person God does not want in this. God wishes every single human would take advantage of this, would be forgiven and be restored to God again. The Bible talks about how that actually happens from Jesus death, and that s what we re looking at today. SIN AS GUILT The view of atonement that evangelicals usually talk about sees sin as guilt, and sinners deserve punishment. God s justice is at stake here. Since people are guilty, they deserve death and eternal separation from God. If God ignored their sin and guilt, he would be unjust. So God sent his Son to stand in our place. Jesus became our substitute, and took our punishment for us. Isaiah 53:5-6 He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. 6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. Romans 3 also talks about God s justice, and that it was important for God to be just in what he did about our sin problem. This view is called penal substitution. We deserved the penalty for sin, but Christ was our substitute and took the penalty for us. This view includes that Jesus appeased God s anger with sin. That means Jesus death calmed God s anger, soothed it, turned it away. He carried our punishment, and he turned away God s anger. This does not mean God punished Jesus, or got angry at Jesus. In all of these pictures we must not go farther than the way the Bible presents it. Preachers sometimes go too far in explaining this view. He carried our punishment, and God s anger at our sin went away. Leave it at that.
How does Jesus death save us? 3 This view did not appear until the Reformation, but the Reformers liked this, and it has been strong since then. One of the reasons this view is popular is because people feel guilty about their sin, and this view takes guilt seriously. So this is true: Jesus was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him. 6... the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. This is true; but every one of the Bible s pictures of atonement get in trouble if we press the Bible s picture farther than the Bible takes. He carried our punishment, he turned away God s anger at our sin. SIN AS IMPURITY, STAIN - The first picture sees sin as guilt, and God is just, so he needs to do something about guilt before he can receive us. In this picture sin is not guilt, but dirt. We are contaminated, defiled, filthy, unclean. We cannot clean ourselves. And God is holy, so he cannot receive us. But the sacrifice, especially blood is a part of this picture, purifies people, it cleanses us, makes us holy. In the Leviticus sacrifices, this is the main emphasis. When we sin, we contaminate ourselves, we are defiled, and cannot clean ourselves. When the animal was sacrificed, the sense was not that the animal was punished in place of the sinning human. No, the sense is that the blood of the sacrifice cleans the people who offered the sacrifice, so they are no longer defiled. God wants to welcome people, but cannot because he is holy and people are contaminated by their sin. But the sacrifice of Jesus (and the Bible often speaks about his blood in these places), his sacrifice and his blood clean us and make us holy. Because of the blood of Jesus, we sinners have been made holy. This is what has happened to us, because we trust in Jesus. 1 John 1:7 If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. Hebrew 9:13-14 - The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. 14 How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God! Heb 10:4, 10, 14 - It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. 10 We have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. 14 For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.
How does Jesus death save us? 4 The trouble with this view is that it does not make any sense to us. How can a sacrifice take away the contamination of sin? How can shed blood do that? How can a death take away sin? We don t know. In the ancient world this made sense, not only to Israel but very widely. To some now it seems barbarian, and since the Bible teaches that Jesus died as a sacrifice, it makes Christianity a religion that hangs on to ancient nonsense. Even Christians sometimes push aside this way of looking at the death of Jesus, because it is not logical. It is hard to picture how a sacrifice can clean someone and make them holy. How does that work? But there is much about sacrifice in our OT, and quite a bit also in the NT. Regardless of how hard or easy it might be to get our minds around it, Jesus death has deep similarities to those OT sacrifices. His death purifies us from all sin. We ve looked at sin as guilt, and seen how Jesus died in our place and took our penalty. And we ve looked at sin as dirt, uncleanness, and seen how the sacrifice of Jesus and the blood of Jesus cleans us and makes us holy. The third important teaching of the NT about how Jesus death works pictures sin as bondage, or slavery. SIN AS BONDAGE OR SLAVERY This pictures builds on the exodus, where Israelites were slaves to the Egyptians, and God brought them out of there. God freed them from their slave masters so that they could be his people and serve him instead. In this picture, Jesus death is a price. We need to be bought out of slavery, and God purchased us, and the payment was the death of Jesus. In some of these pictures we are slaves to Satan, but usually we are slaves to sin itself. Matthew 20:28 (Mark 10:45) - The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many. Jesus pictured his death as a ransom price. So did Paul: 1 Timothy 2:5-6 There is one God, and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all people. In Revelation 5 Jesus blood is not what cleans us, but rather it is a price that was paid so that we could belong to God: Revelation 5:9 (this is a song they sing in heaven to Jesus the Lamb) - You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain (slaughtered), and with your blood you purchased for God those from every tribe and language and people and nation. Who did God pay to get us? The early fathers answered that question with Satan. God paid Satan. But this is another example of taking the logic farther than the Bible takes it.
How does Jesus death save us? 5 Back in Exodus, God redeemed his people from slavery in Egypt. That s the picture. But God did not pay a price to the Egyptians. He just took them out. So Jesus blood is the price God paid so we could be free from sin and belong to God, but the Bible never speaks about him making that payment to someone. So, we leave that alone. 1 Peter 1:18-19 You know that it was not with perishable things like silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the priceless blood of Christ,, a lamb without blemish or defect. These are the three main ways the Bible answer the question: how does the death of Jesus save us? They build on different ways of picturing sin: sin as guilt, sin as dirt, and sin as bondage. Sin is guilt, and Jesus carried our penalty for us. Sin is dirt, uncleanness, contamination. The blood of Jesus cleans us and makes us holy. Sin is a master that owns us. The death of Jesus, the blood of Jesus, was a purchase price to buy us out of that slavery; and now we belong to God, because he paid for us. Understand that when we come to Christ, when we put our trust in him, these are over. The guilt is over, the uncleanness is over, and the slavery is over. We still sin, and feel guilty and dirty, and struggle to be free. Most of us have some parts of our lives where we don t feel free from sin at all. This is all true, and the Scripture assumes that these things will happen. Every day, faithful disciples ask the Father to forgive them their sins, every day we need to forgive each other. BUT, my brothers and sisters, when we come to Christ, the real guilt is over and done with for good. The real stain of sin and contamination of sin is gone forever. The bondage to sin, being owned by it, is gone forever. Christ died so this could happen, and when we put our trust in him, it happened! We can no longer be condemned, we are holy, and we belong to God and no one else. We do not have an easy time living this out, but that was assumed from the start. There are several other pictures in the NT besides these, and I want to talk about just one of the others, because Jesus used it to describe his death. JESUS DEATH AS COVENANT SACRIFICE In the ancient world, a sacrifice was part of a solemn covenant. Two people or two groups would promise to be loyal to each other in some way, and this agreement was not official until there had been a sacrifice. They worked out the details of the agreement, and then together they killed an animal. The logic was something like: If I break this covenant, may I become like that animal we just killed. If I break my part in this, may I be slaughtered just like that animal.
How does Jesus death save us? 6 In Exodus 24, when Moses set up the covenant between God and Israel he did this. The Israelites sacrificed young bulls, and Moses took some of the blood and poured it on the altar. The altar was as close as they could get to pouring it on God himself. And the other blood he sprinkled on the people. These are the two parties in this agreement, this covenant: God and Israel. The blood goes on both God (the altar) and on the people. God and Israel has already made promises to each other. Once the blood had been poured on the altar, and sprinkled on the people, the covenant was official. And then Moses said, This is the blood of the covenant that the LORD has made with you. Exodus 24:8 At the Last Supper, Jesus quoted that line: This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many. Every time we drink the cup at the Lord s Supper, we are drinking the blood of the covenant. We are doing the same thing as Moses did when he sprinkled the blood of the bulls on the people and said, this is the blood of the covenant that the LORD has made with you. At the Last Supper, Jesus explained his coming death as like those bulls, not a sin offering, nothing to do with guilt or uncleanness or purchase price. Covenant blood was shed so that God and people would be bound to each other forever. Is that not great? That is one more way in which Jesus death saves us. These are the main ones, but this list is not complete. Jesus death saves us in a lot of different ways. SAVED BY JESUS LIFE - Romans 5:10 - For if, while we were God s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! Saved through his life? How can that be? Hebrews gives the answer. Hebrews 7:24-25 - Because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. 25 Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them. 1 John 2:1 My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. Jesus is our Priest with the Father, our Advocate with the Father. When we sin, he goes to work. Both Romans 5 and Hebrews 7 connect our being saved to this. We are saved by his life. Since he lives forever he can save those who come to God through him. So, besides all that Jesus death did, another reason we re saved to the End is that Jesus lives to intercede for us, pray for us and speak to the Father for us. Our salvation hangs on this as well. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. And he really is. It is a great salvation. Thank you Father, thank you Lord. Amen.