The Death of Christ

Opening

Its not enough for Christ only to be with us in his incarnation. He must also act for us in his life , death and resurrection.

If Jesus were to just be with us , he would only be a good teacher and nothing else. Nothing confirmed , nothing fulfilled , nothing supernatural.

Knowing the the scriptures talk about Jesus death alot , its very important that we understand it and are able to explain it properly.

Christs death secures the forgiveness of our sins, resulting in reconciliation with God.

The death of Christ is not as simple as we think it is, its founded on scripture , humans, forgiveness and the identity of Christ.

To understand the Cross we must understand who our God is.

If our view of God is incorrect then we will never understand the ‘why’ of the cross.

From the opening verses of the bible we see that God is eternal , holy , righteous and good. He is complete in himself , he needs nothing from us.

Genesis 1:1-6

Isaiah 6:1-3

One thing that we can see here is that God is the moral standard because he is Holy , Mighty and Righteous.

This is why Gods will and Nature always determines whats right and what is wrong.

If he is the God that brings justice but also the God that brings Grace how will he demonstrate this?

God is the only one that is perfect and therefore he sets the standard if no one can meet it then he has to satisfy the standard on his own.

The answer is found in the Fathers gift of his son Jesus’ obedient life, substitutionary death that results in us being justified before God in Christ.

Secondly

To understand the cross we must grasp who humans are as Gods image people created to be in relationship with God.

We must know who Adam is, hes not only a historic person but we must understand that he is the representative of the human race.

1 Corinthians 15:21-22

Why does this matter so much?

Because when God created humans, God sets the demands for us through Adam.

Genesis 2:15-17

Trust. Love. Obedience.

Now that God had demanded this from the first human and if he disobeys God then there will be his judgment that results in spiritual death.

Thirdly

To understand the cross we must be able to see the serious problem of our sin before God. Adam didnt love God with full devotion to what he said. He disobeyed God and from that it brought sin and death into the world.

In Genesis 3 onwards all are now guilty , corrupt and under the sentence of death because of this.

If God is going to redeem us like he promised , then how is he going to do it?

If God is all perfect how will God make all sinners justified before him according to his high standard?

God has to punish sin and bring justice to the sinner becaudse he is holy, just and good. He cannot overlook our sin and relax the demands of his justice!

But to justify us , our sin must be fully paid for.

How then can God punish our sin , satisfy his righteous demand and justify us sinners?

To undo , reverse and pay for Adams sin, we need someone who will come from the human race and identify with us. Live the obedience we were required to live and pay the penalty of our sin.

We need someone to represent and substitute us and by his obedient life and death secure our justification before God.

Scripture tells us there is one man, and only one who can do this for us, our Lord Jesus Christ.

Hebrews 2:5-18

Fourth

To understand the cross we must also grasp who Jesus is.

In scripture Jesus not just some random human , he is God the Son, incarnate , the second person of the trinity. Hes not some third party individual that stands apart from God.

He is the eternal Son , He is eternally loved by the Father and the Spirit , in Gods plan he volunteered to take on the role of becoming our Redeemer.

In his incarnation he identfied with us - that he is with us so that he could represent us before God.

In his obedient human life as the last Adam and the mediator of the new covenant, Jesus obeyed God for us.

In his obedient death, he satisfied Gods righteous demand against us as a sacrifice for our sin.

romans 5:18-19

Understanding all of this is very important because we must know the power of the cross.

The description of the cross is diverse (many ways to explain it) but it is not divergent (going in different directions).

Scripture gives us 7 ways of thinking about the cross:

Obedience

Sacrifice

Propitiation

Reconciliation

Justice

Conquest

Moral Example

Together they all explain the meaning and significance of Christs saving death for us.

Obedience

He has come to do the Fathers will. John 5:30

Christ comes to represent us and be a substitute for us in his death.

Sacrifice

Jesus is also the the sacrifice for our sins 1 Peter 1:9

Propitiation