Christ Died for God

Christ Died for God

By Akash Sant Singh

Associate Pastor of Community Bible Church (Reno, NV)

www.cbcreno.net

What were we saved from?

Our sins?

Yes.

Hell?

Yes.

The sting of death?

Yes.

But those pale in comparison with this profound reality: on the cross, God through Christ saved us from Himself. That’s right – God through Christ saved us from Himself. From His wrath, His holiness, His justice. And Because Jesus Christ fully satisfied God (propitiation) on the cross as our Divine Substitute, we need to never fear of eternal judgment, condemnation, wrath or punishment for our sins. The penalty of our sins have been fully quenched in the once for all vicarious penal substitutionary sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is the Good News of the gospel beloved.

God treated Christ on the cross as if He lived our life, so that we by grace through faith in Him, can be treated as if we lived His life (2 Cor. 5:21). He was clothed with our sin (thought sinless and holy); so that we might be clothed with His righteousness (though are sinners and sinful). That is the great doctrine of imputation.

When the fullness of that wrath was embraced by Jesus on the cross He cried out, "My God, My God, why has thou forsaken Me?" Some commentators think that at this point on the cross that God simply turned His back on His Son in shame for He could not look on sin. That that was the forsaking. That represents a very shallow, sentimental view of what our Lord endured on the cross - but I submit to you, is thoroughly unbiblical.

Where does this view come from? This belief stems from inaccurate rendering of a verse in Habakkuk 1:13 where the prophet says,

“Thine eyes are too pure to approve evil, And Thou canst not look on wickedness with favor. Why dost Thou look with favor On those who deal treacherously? Why art Thou silent when the wicked swallow up Those more righteous than they?” (NASB).

Notice, it isn’t that God cannot look on sin; but He cannot look on sin with favor. Consider these verses:

Jeremiah 16:17 "For My eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from My face, nor is their iniquity concealed from My eyes."

Proverbs 15:3 "The eyes of the LORD are in every place, Watching the evil and the good."

The Lord “sees” all things continually – including our sin. Nothing is hidden from His sight (Heb. 4:12-16). So the forsaking of Jesus on the cross by the Father couldn’t have been a simple turning away of the eyes of God from His Son because He cannot look on sin.

His holiness demanded a sacrifice; His justice demanded satisfaction; His righteousness required perfection. God had to be satisfied before we as sinners could be justified!

Therefore, Jesus was, as Hebrews 2:17 says,

"that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people" (emphasis mine).

That phrase "in things pertaining to God" in the Greek is: pros ton theon. It means "face to face with God"; and this occured on the cross. Don't miss this amazing picture of redemption: the Son faced the Father from the cross; and the Father faced His Son on the cross; and He poured out upon Him the eternal wrath that we deserve in hell forever. "Amazing love how can it be..."

Christ was absolutely forsaken; He bore our sin, its guilt, penalty, and shame. And He bore the wrath of God that burns against us. He drank the cup of wrath; He became the curse for us; he endured the shame of the cross for the joy set before Him; He was bruised, crushed, chastined for our iniquities. Once again beloved... hear this today: the Father faced the Son on the cross; and the Son faced the Father from the cross; and He “bore God’s wrath—all of it” as our divine Substitute in His once for all propitiatory sacrifice on the cross for His own.

The death of Christ was both a propitiation AND an expiation of sin. Propitiation refers to the turning away of wrath by an offering. God's wrath was satisfied and His justice meted out by Jesus’ once for all sacrifice on the cross. Expiation refers to covering sins and in specific, the guilt of sin. By the vicarious penal substitutionary atonement of Christ Jesus on the cross, our sins and their penalty are removed from us. The atonement satisfies both the demands of the Father and the needs of Christ's people (1 Pet. 1:2).

As C.H. Spurgeon can only say:

"When Jesus gave himself for us, he gave us all the rights and privileges which went with himself; so that now, although as eternal God, he has essential rights to which no creature may venture to pretend, yet as Jesus, the Mediator, the federal head of the covenant of grace, he has no heritage apart from us. All the glorious consequences of his obedience unto death are the joint riches of all who are in him, and on whose behalf he accomplished the divine will. See, he enters into glory, but not for himself alone, for it is written, "Whither the Forerunner is for us entered." Heb. 6:20. Does he stand in the presence of God?-"He appears in the presence of God for us." Heb. 9:24.

Can we now say with confidence this day with Paul himself: "If God be for us... who can be against us?"

Aren't we grateful to the Lord this day that He has not "rewarded us according to our sin, nor dealt with us according to our iniquity?" (Psalm 103:10). In Christ all our "sins are forgiven for His name's sake" (1 John 2:12); He has "forgiven us all our transgressions" (Col. 2:13). And if all our sins are forgiven by Him, can we not forgive the purposed wrongs that others do against us?

Christian, God for Christ's sake forgave us; we for Christ's sake must forgive each other. Remember, the measure of our love is the extent of our ability to forgive! (1 Jn. 2:12; Col. 2:12ff)

Divine Appointment - Part 1

I want to share an astounding story about what happened to me the other night, but I want to take some time first to build up the frame work around a biblical concept. I’ll tell my story in the next post – Divine Appointment Part 2. There are a couple of common phrases that we Christians often say which can become meaningless when we over use them. These phrases, however, have roots in some seriously important theology. I understand that I may be a bit of a theology nerd and a doctrine junky, but I think these things really matter. I believe it is important to know what we believe and why we believe it. I believe that we need to be able to express our beliefs to others with clarity and confidence. Back to our sayings…

Have you ever heard a Christian friend say any of these (or said these yourself – we all say them)? “Oh, you should have been there…it was a God thing.” “I’m sure it had to be a God thing.” “I guess God put that one together.” “Now that was a divine appointment!” I hear it all the time. What do these sayings or phrases mean to you? To most, I suspect, these sayings would mean that God has just done something miraculous, something big and obvious in their life…blessed them in some way. Maybe money showed up in the mailbox unexpectedly or maybe there was a conversation revolving around God that really touch the person or had one of ‘those’ spiritual conversations. Maybe you randomly bumped into that long lost friend that has been in your prayers. So, what does this saying really mean beneath the words? What message is our heart actually delivering? I think it reveals a belief that some things come from God and other things are random events that occur every day within our chaotic world. When we say “it was a God thing” we are also saying that there are things that are NOT a God thing. I believe that this question really dives to the core of how we see the structure of the universe. Does God work to fit His will, purposes, and events into a chaotic and random universe? Or are even the universe’s random events set in motion by God? My barometer is the Word of God, so let’s take a snapshot of a few verses:

Hebrews 1:3: “…he upholds the universe by the word of his power.” – Everything, all the time, is held up by Christ’s word.

Job 1:21 “And he said, “Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” – Earlier in Job we see that the Father actually commands Satan to test Job and after Satan takes everything away from Job and this was his response.

Genesis 50:15-21 “15 When Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “It may be that Joseph will hate us and pay us back for all the evil that we did to him.” 16 So they sent a message to Joseph, saying, “Your father gave this command before he died, 17 ‘Say to Joseph, Please forgive the transgression of your brothers and their sin, because they did evil to you.’ And now, please forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father.” Joseph wept when they spoke to him. 18 His brothers also came and fell down before him and said, “Behold, we are your servants.” 19 But Joseph said to them, “Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? 20 As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. 21 So do not fear; I will provide for you and your little ones.” Thus he comforted them and spoke kindly to them.” – This topic is too deep and powerful to discuss quickly here, however, look at verse 20. It is clear that God purposely caused and worked out everything we read of Joseph’s life in the Book of Genesis.

Ephesians 1:11 “In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will…” – God works out everything according to the purpose of his will. He does all things for his pleasure and his plan.

What is the point of these verses? Simply this: Everything is a God thing. The fact that you awoke this morning and your heart was beating was a God thing. The fact that you are reading this blog post right now is a God thing. These things have been ordained and predestined by God for his purposes – all things all the time. The fact that you were not run over by a bus on your way to work was a God thing; however, had you been hit by a bus on your way to work that would have been a God thing too! God orchestrates everything and there is no such thing as random events! As R.C Sproul wisely states, “There isn’t a maverick molecule in the universe.” Everything and every event are under God’s divine control and purpose down to the way the leaves turn colors and the way that the stars sit in the sky. Everything from how the spiders make their webs to who we bump into in the grocery store…and it is all meant for good. God executed a divine appointment in my life the other night. Long ago God the Father set in motion a plan for that night’s events, he worked it out exactly as he had planned, and it was a great blessing.

Continued in Part 2…