Atone: Sin and God

We have seen that God Holiness and man’s sinfulness are incompoatible.

God’s Holiness requires that He must punish sin.

However, as Holy as God is, God is equally loving.

God’s love requires reconciliation.

The Solution is that in His love Jesus Christ will take our place of punishment as a substitute and that God’s justice will be satisfied as punishment is handed out, not to us but to Jesus in our place.

Isaiah 53:10 NKJV

10 Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, And the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand.

In what way was it “pleasing” to the Father to bruise the Son?

It was pleasing in that it fully satisfied God’s justice.

For the rest of our study we are going to look at this in more detail.

We will begin by looking at the relationship between our sin and God.

1: Sin is a Debt

When describing our sins the bible uses various concepts to help us understand why sin is an offence to God.

One of these concepts is that Sin is a Debt.

Matthew 6:12 BSB

12 And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.

Jesus clearly tells us that our sin has placed us in spiritual debt.

That is, our sin has uncured a cost, a price that must be paid.

In this concept we are the debtors.

What is the nature of this debt that we owe?

The Debt that we owe to God is of such a nature than it is impossible for us to work/pay it off ourselves.

How do we know this?

Romans 4:1–4 NKJV

1 What then shall we say that Abraham our father has found according to the flesh? 2 For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. 3 For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” 4 Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt.

So the bible say clearly says that works are counted as a debt payment.

So can we not just work off our debt then?

No.

Romans 3:20 BSB

20 Therefore no one will be justified in His sight by works of the law. For the law merely brings awareness of sin.

Who then is the Creditor?

To whom is this debt owed?

The Creditor is God Himself.

God is the Creditor

Romans 8:12 ESV

12 So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh.

Our sin has put us in a sate of spiritual debt to God.

A debt so deep that it is impossible for us to work it off.

God’s Justice means that this debt CANNOT be written off. It must be payed.

Our sinfulness makes it impossible for us to make payment.

The Atonement: Jesus is our Surety.

God’s solution is that: In His love He would send Jesus to make payment on our behalf and settle our debt.

Hebrews 7:22 NKJV

22 by so much more Jesus has become a surety of a better covenant.

Jesus is the surety of the better New Covenant.

Galatians 3:13 BSB

13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. For it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.”

Remember that redemption is the paying off of debts to grant a slave freedom.

Jesus paid off our sin debt.

On the cross, as he was dying Jesus said: IT IS FINISHED.

In the Greek this is a financial statement that signified the paying off of debts.

Conclusion:

Because sin is a debt that has now been payed, all should be well...

Right?

Unfortunatly not.

The bible also teaches that sin is not just a debt, but also that sin is Emnity or hostility towards God.

Romans 8:7 BSB

7 because the mind of the flesh is hostile to God: It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so.

Next week.