"What did Jesus Accomplish on the Cross" pt 2
preached April 7, 2019
Last week we began with the story of the world. Today, I would like to tell you another story. It is a story about a rebellious wife and a loving husband.
When the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, “Go, take to yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom, for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the Lord.” So he went and took Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.
And the Lord said to him, “Call his name Jezreel, for in just a little while I will punish the house of Jehu for the blood of Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel. And on that day I will break the bow of Israel in the Valley of Jezreel.”
She conceived again and bore a daughter. And the Lord said to him, “Call her name No Mercy, for I will no more have mercy on the house of Israel, to forgive them at all. But I will have mercy on the house of Judah, and I will save them by the Lord their God. I will not save them by bow or by sword or by war or by horses or by horsemen.”
When she had weaned No Mercy, she conceived and bore a son. And the Lord said, “Call his name Not My People, for you are not my people, and I am not your God.”
Hosea 1:2-9
The Lord tells Hosea to use his marriage as an object lesson for Israel. Israel has strayed far from God by worshipping idols and abandoning the covenant with God. They have done so to the point that God tells Israel they are no longer His people. The names of Hosea's children illustrate:
First child - Jezreel, a reminder of Israel's sin at Jezreel where King Jehu slaughtered King Ahab and his descendants as the means to take the throne. It also means 'scattered' which harkens to Israel about to be scattered in the Exile.
Second child - Lo-ruhama, which means 'No Mercy', "for God will not show mercy to Israel's sin"
Third child - Lo-ammi, 'Not my People', "Israel is not God's people"
Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be like the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or numbered. And in the place where it was said to them, “You are not my people,” it shall be said to them, “Children of the living God.”
Hosea 1:10
But there is still hope. With God's pronouncement of judgement, He offers hope: Israel will not be wiped away completely. There will still remain a people of Israelites and one day, they will be God's people again...more so they will be called 'children of God'. Turn to Chapter 3:
And the Lord said to me, “Go again, love a woman who is loved by another man and is an adulteress, even as the Lord loves the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love cakes of raisins.” So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and a homer and a lethech of barley. And I said to her, “You must dwell as mine for many days. You shall not play the whore, or belong to another man; so will I also be to you.” For the children of Israel shall dwell many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or pillar, without ephod or household gods. Afterward the children of Israel shall return and seek the Lord their God, and David their king, and they shall come in fear to the Lord and to his goodness in the latter days.
Hosea 3:1-5
Hosea returns to his wife and finds her at the slave auction. There he buys her back from her masters. She has been brought back into the family after her own sin has driven her away. The Lord explains to the Israelites that in the same way, their sin will drive them out of their lands, and they will have no prince or king to their name.
But one day...
One day, they will return to their home and their God. They will seek after their King David and Yahweh their God. They will fear the Lord for His goodness.
That is the picture God gives of his people as they approach the Exile. They are an adulterous nation that deserve no mercy or pity. But because God continues to love them, He will redeem them from the Exile, just as Hosea redeems his wayward wife.
This prophecy was fulfilled many years later. After the Northern Kingdom falls, the Southern Kingdom falls later, and the Israelites experience 70 years of exile. Afterwards, they begin the return to their homeland.
But this prophecy has a greater fulfillment that happened 2000 years ago. The Lord came to us and gave up His Son, Jesus so that God's people can be redeemed from the slavery of their sin and the devil. It was our own sin that put us into slavery...our adulterous idolatry following our own gods...but in His mercy, our Father paid the price of our redemption so that we can be free. Today we will continue examining the Atonement and what it means for us today.
Last week…
Looking again at our Atonement Diamond, we can remember that ultimately the Atonement is Christ's victory over Satan and sin. Last week, we looked at Jesus' death as the propitiation for our sin--Christ takes away God's wrath against our rebellious sin. We then saw how Jesus exchanges our sin for His righteousness, thereby allowing us to be seen as righteous before God. These two actions then make the goal of the cross possible--for us to be reconciled to God. Through the cross we are no longer held guilty of our sin--we are justified by God's grace and Christ's righteousness is counted as ours.
We receive this gift through faith. We trust in the Atonement to make us right before God.
But this is half the diamond. Today we will look at the remaining three facets of the Atonement.
Redemption : Christ's death is the payment offered to God to free the captives of sin
The first today we have already seen alluded to in the story of Hosea. Christ's death redeems us from the captivity of sin.
"For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
Mark 10:45
Christ's death is the price for our redemption from the slavery of sin.
Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”
And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one's deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.
1 Peter 1:13-19
Peter calls his readers to be holy as God is holy as they wait for the time when Jesus returns. 'As obedient children' we must be drawn to our former way of life and desires. We should 'conduct [ourselves] with fear throughout the time of exile' because we have been ransomed from the futility of sin by the blood of Christ.
The call to obedience for Christians is not a call to be bound by another slave yolk. It is a call to remember we have been freed from sin and death. Hosea prophesied God's children would fear Him for his goodness. Christians fear and honor God because He is so good to us. God sent His own Son to die for our sins so that we can be redeemed from the shackles of sin and death.
What else can we do but praise Him?
Obedience to Christ is the proper response to our freedom.
Expiation : Christ's sacrifice removed the liability to punishment and condemnation
Redemption from Sin also entails the removal of sin. The next facet on our gem speaks directly to the removal of sin. Where 'redemption' is the removal from sin, 'expiation' speaks to the cleansing of sin.
On the Cross Jesus provided the cure for our sinful corruption.
These preparations having thus been made, the priests go regularly into the first section, performing their ritual duties, but into the second only the high priest goes, and he but once a year, and not without taking blood, which he offers for himself and for the unintentional sins of the people. By this the Holy Spirit indicates that the way into the holy places is not yet opened as long as the first section is still standing (which is symbolic for the present age).
According to this arrangement, gifts and sacrifices are offered that cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper, but deal only with food and drink and various washings, regulations for the body imposed until the time of reformation. But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.
Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.
Heb 9:6-15
As we saw last week, Hebrews demonstrates the supremacy of Christ over the sacrificial system, because Christ was the final, once for all, sacrifice for humanity. Likewise, part of the sacrificial system was for the purification of people from their sin. These might be ceremonial cleansing or moral cleansing. In either case, the sacrifice made was for appeasement of God's wrath and for purifying the soul of the sacrificer.
Look closer at verse 13. The ashes referred to here are from Numbers 19. The Priest's Law gave the requirements for what to do with the ashes from the sacrificed heifer. The ashes were mixed with water and other plant oils to produce a purifying agent. The liquid was used to clean those who had contact with the dead and for other medical uses.
The writer of Hebrews asks, 'If the ashes of an animal could purify the flesh, how much more can the blood of the Son of God cleanse our conscience?'
Sin is a disease of the soul. Christ is the cure.
Thus, we see in Christ's death, He provides the means for us to be made righteous before God and to be cleansed from the sin that gives us the rebellious nature.
Example : Christ's death demonstrates God's love and is a model of obedience
This brings us to the final facet of the Atonement. Christ's death demonstrates God's love and is our model for obedience. This facet has found popularity among more liberal denominations because it places less focus on our sin and more on God's love. I do not dismiss this facet though, because it is in the New Testament. However, as we have seen, if we simply acknowledge Jesus as a great example and fail to see the fullness of the Atonement, we will miss out on our need to be forgiven. If we take 'Example' as the only meaning for the Atonement, then we will find ourselves in some works-based religion that says we just need to try harder to please God. That is where many have gone wrong in speaking of Christ as our example. However, their faults do not discredit that Jesus is our example for right living.
For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.
For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
Romans 5:6-11
Paul summarizes the facets of the Atonement here, but notice he does not leave out verse 8. God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. I cannot fathom the love of God that would die for us...for me. We are like Gomer and Israel, an adulterous people who constantly seem to find other things more important than our Creator. And yet, He still died for us so that we can be saved. And He still calls us to repentance time and time again so that we can experience the unsurpassed love He gives so freely.
The Atonement is the ultimate act of love.
For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps.
1 Peter 2:20-21
Returning to 1 Peter, Peter again calls his readers to live godly lives in light of God's mercy. Even if we suffer for doing good, we should suffer graciously because this is the life Christ calls us to. He came and suffered for doing the good we needed to be saved. We can follow in His footsteps.
Because we are redeemed from sin and cleansed of sin, we can follow Jesus' example of godliness.
Putting our Faith in the Atonement
Taking a look at the diamond again, we see that Jesus accomplished a lot on the cross. We have been reconciled to God and freed from sin--both its judgments and its corruption.
But the cross is only effective for those who trust in faith. You see salvation is a free gift of God, but it must be received in faith. How? It's like two sides of a coin. On one side is 'believe'. We must believe that Jesus is who He said He is, and that through His death and resurrection we can be saved. The other side is 'repent'. We must repent--turn away--from our sin and surrender to the Lordship of Christ. That is what the diamond is all about.
Salvation involves both belief and repentance.
We believe in Christ as propitiation, Christ as Exchange, and Christ as Reconciler.
We repent knowing Christ is our Redeemer, Christ is our Cure, and we follow Him knowing Christ is our Example.
Putting those together we receive Christ's Victory over Satan in faith and thus we have victory. We have Victory in Jesus, because He died on a cross for our sin, He arose again on the third day, and He is returning to make Heaven and Earth perfectly good once again. At that time, there will be no more mourning, no more dying, and every tear will be wiped away. Because at that time, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess what every Christian here already knows--Jesus is Lord. He is our Creator, Sustainer, and Redeemer. By Him we are saved, and no other name.
Remember Matthew 16:24, "Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me."
To follow Jesus is to follow Him to the cross. It is a call to put to death the old self, and follow as a new creation.
Today, I urge you to believe and repent. Believe in the work of Jesus who died for your sins. No amount of work will ever get you into heaven. Jesus has accomplished what no other person can. Salvation is in His Name. Believe! And, repent! Repent from your sins. Turn away from the very things that are killing you. Be cleansed by the blood of Jesus who shed His blood so that you can be saved and purified.
As we close, spend some time praying at your seat. Pray for forgiveness, pray for the strength to repent, and pray for the boldness to share the beautiful story of Jesus, God's Son and our Redeemer.
‘Take up thy cross and follow Me,’
I heard my Master say;
‘I gave My life to ransom thee,
Surrender your all today.’
- B. B. McKinney (1936)