The crucifixion of Jesus Christ was a tremendous act of divine intervention to save lots of sinners. Within the cross, God imported all of the wrath of the judgment day right into a second of time, dying within the place of those that consider, bearing their punishment, settling the rating, and crediting them with a righteousness they didn’t earn in order that they will stay with Him endlessly.
The Gospel, in different phrases, is a message of alienation answered by reconciliation and ensuing within the promise that there might be no condemnation—a message that the apostle Peter summed up in a couple of phrases in his first letter: “Christ additionally suffered as soon as for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he would possibly convey us to God” (1 Peter 3:18). If we grasp the importance of those phrases, we could have grasped the message of the Gospel.
The Drawback: Alienation
Why did Christ must “convey us to God”? As a result of we’re separated from God. The issue that faces each lady and man is the issue of alienation.
It’s not tough to search out materials on alienation in sociological textbooks and psychological literature. Many are the commentators who point out the issue of loneliness in our tradition. But behind and beneath peoples’ alienation from each other is one thing extra elementary: their alienation from their good Creator and His design for his or her life.
We’re separated from God due to sin. With our ideas and our actions, by way of passive indifference and lively disobedience, we’ve got turned our backs on God. We have now rejected our created goal, and we frequently spoil God’s good world. And the result’s that we’re rightly topic to God’s wrath, which He’ll in the future convey in opposition to all who stay in revolt in opposition to Him.
Behind and beneath peoples’ alienation from each other is one thing extra elementary: their alienation from their good Creator and His design for his or her life.
The Answer: Reconciliation
However the excellent news—the Gospel message—is that Christ died to convey us out of our state of alienation, to “convey us to God.” Via the cross, Jesus Christ has supplied us with reconciliation.
How does the cross do that? It provides us reconciliation by way of one other -ion phrase: propitiation. What which means is that on the cross, Jesus sacrificially died to pay the wages for our sin, taking over Himself the wrath of God that sin deserves. Because the apostle John put it, “In that is love, not that we’ve got cherished God”—as a result of we didn’t love Him—“however that he cherished us and despatched his Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10). Though we had been alienated from God, He reached out to us and made a manner, at nice price to Himself, to fulfill the simply penalty in opposition to sin.
Some object that this can be a horrendous course of—a Father sacrificing His Son. And in some regards, they’re completely proper to notice the weightiness of such a sacrifice. However we have to do not forget that God in Trinity just isn’t three events in a battle, making an attempt to work issues out, however one God in three individuals, agreeing fully from eternity. The Father despatched the Son, and the Son went willingly. Within the individual of the embodied Son, it was God Himself who skilled dying on the cross in His human nature.
Though we had been alienated from God, He reached out to us and made a manner, at nice price to Himself, to fulfill the simply penalty in opposition to sin.
And, in fact, Jesus Christ didn’t keep lifeless, as a result of it was inconceivable for dying to carry the Writer of life (Acts 2:24; 3:15). And now alive once more, it’s Christ who actively reconciles us with the Father. It’s as if He takes us by the arm and says, “There may be somebody I need you to satisfy.” He leads us right into a room marked “Non-public,” the place we had no proper to go on our personal. He brings us to God.
We are able to settle for this reward of reconciliation by way of religion. Christ is extending His hand to steer us to the Father; religion is the means by which we attain out and take His hand. We are able to say to Him, “Lord Jesus, I do know that my sin has separated me from God. I consider that You possibly can reconcile me by way of the blood of Your cross. Please forgive me and convey me into Your loved ones.”
The Impact: No Condemnation
Lastly, the result’s that that there’s “now no condemnation for individuals who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:1). In different phrases, Jesus brings us there, and He retains us there.
“Christ … suffered as soon as for sins”; He did it “as soon as for all” (Heb. 10:10). That is vitally necessary to grasp. Some who come to know Christ by way of religion know that it’s God who reconciled us however assume that it’s all as much as us to remain in God’s good graces.
However on what foundation did God reconcile us to Himself? Not primarily based on our goodness! “Christ … suffered as soon as for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous.” We had been unrighteous; even so, God has accepted us for Jesus’ sake. He knew what we had been earlier than He ever started the method, and there’s no discovery of our sin that may out of the blue change His thoughts.
The decision God has handed is ultimate, and the case isn’t going to be retried. What’s true about us just isn’t our emotions and moods, our ebbs and flows, our ups and downs. What’s true of us is what Jesus says is true. He holds no cost in opposition to these whom He has accepted on the premise of the cross.
Many Christians are depressing. “Ah!” they are saying. “I’ve sinned. So how can I say that I’m God’s baby? How can I declare that He has forgiven me?” Once more, we could do it by way of religion. We are able to hearken to what God has mentioned about us, and we are able to take Him at His phrase, even when our emotions level us in a special path.
God holds no cost in opposition to these whom He has accepted on the premise of the cross.
What’s the issue? Alienation. What’s the answer? Reconciliation. What’s the impact? No condemnation. If we belief in something apart from the truth that “Christ … suffered as soon as for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he would possibly convey us to God,” then we belief in a false hope—and we stay hopeless! However by leaning on Christ, we could know that the file is settled.
This text was tailored from the sermon “Alienation, Reconciliation” by Alistair Begg.
