Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction and Review

Review

1 - To Absorb the Wrath of God

1 john 4:10

Key Points:

The Law required death for sin

Christ - the sinless substitute (Qualified for Substitutionary Atonement) :7-8

Could only be divine and not born under the curse (Spotless Sacrifice)

God’s righteousness displayed (Romans 3:25b)

2- To Please His Heavenly Father

Key Points:

Jesus Submission to the Fathers Will (, , )

john 17:4,8,26

Christ’s suffering is a beautiful act of submission and obedience to the will of the Father.

So Christ cried from the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46).

And yet the Bible says that the suffering of Christ was a fragrance to God. “Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God”(Ephesians 5:2).

As one who has taken upon Himself a complete human nature, it is natural for Jesus to shrink from the horror of the cross, a horror magnified by His knowledge that in dying He will be forsaken by God and experience the weight of divine anger on sin, though He is Himself utterly innocent and righteous.

Nevertheless, Jesus is determined to follow the will of His Father for the redemption of His people (John 6:38, 39; Heb.

10:5–10).

John 6:3

Question: Was Jesus death for us or for the Father?

We said reason #2 why Jesus came to suffer and die was “To Please His Heavenly Father”

Hebrew Word: חפץ hapes

To take pleasure or delight in, desire, or willing

Translations:

NASB 10 But the LORD was pleased To crush Him, putting Him to grief;

KJV 10 Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief:

ESV 10 Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him; he has put him to grief;

The will of God is directly connected to that which pleases or delights Him.

God’s will is His pleasure.

3- To Learn Obedience and Be Perfected

3- To Learn Obedience and Be Perfected

The very book in the Bible that says Christ “learned obedience” through suffering, and that he was “made perfect” through suffering, also says that he was “without sin.” “In every respect [Christ] has been tempted as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15).

This is the consistent teaching of the Bible.

Christ was sinless.

Although he was the divine Son of God, he was really human, with all our temptations and appetites and physical weaknesses.

There was hunger (Matthew 21:18) and anger and grief (Mark 3:5) and pain (Matthew 17:12).

But his heart was perfectly in love with God, and he acted consistently with that love: “He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth” (1 Peter 2:22).

Therefore, when the Bible says that Jesus “learned obedience through what he suffered,” it doesn’t mean that he learned to stop disobeying.

It means that with each new trial he learned in practice—and in pain—what it means to obey.

When it says that he was “made perfect through suffering,” it doesn’t mean that he was gradually getting rid of defects.

It means that he was gradually fulfilling the perfect righteousness that he had to have in order to save us.

That’s what he said at his baptism.

He didn’t need to be baptized because he was a sinner.

Rather, he explained to John the Baptist, “Thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness” (Matthew 3:15).

The point is this: If the Son of God had gone from incarnation to the cross without a life of temptation and pain to test his righteousness and his love, he would not be a suitable Savior for fallen man.

His suffering not only absorbed the wrath of God.

It also fulfilled his true humanity and made him able to call us brothers and sisters (Hebrews 2:17).

Though entirely free from sin (4:15), Jesus’ struggle against temptation was real (2:18).

As One who came into the world to do the Father’s will (10:7), Christ successfully met each increasingly difficult challenge to His integrity, climaxing in the shameful and painful death on the cross (Phil.

2:8).

This life of learned obedience offsets the disobedience of Adam (Rom.

5:19) and qualifies Christ to serve as the eternal High Priest (2:17, 18; 4:15).

Adam, the first man, was the divinely appointed head of the whole of humanity (Christ excepted), and his sin forfeited righteousness for all those he represented (“all men,” vv. 12, 18; the “many,” vv.

15, 19).

In the same way, God made Christ the representative head of a new humanity so that His obedience unto death might gain their justification

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This is why Christ couldn’t just came straight down from heaven, land on the cross, die in our place, and immediately return to heaven.

Christ’s ministry was more than just absorbing the wrath of God.

He had to live as a man and fulfill all righteousness.

Christ had to live as a man (perfectly and without sin) in order to die for man.

Last week we talked more about what God’s holy law requires, perfection and to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.

Jesus life as a man and His earthly ministry displayed that.

He not only died in our place, He lived in our placed and fulfilled all righteousness.

The Gospel not only transfers our sins to Christ but also transfers or credits His righteousness to us.

To be justified is to be declared righteous.

4- To Achieve His Own Resurrection from the Dead

The death of Christ did not merely precede his resurrection—it was the price that obtained it.

That’s why Hebrews 13:20 says that God brought him from the dead “by the blood of the eternal covenant.”

Now what is the relationship between this shedding of Jesus’ blood and the resurrection?

The Bible says he was raised not just after the blood-shedding, but by it.

This means that what the death of Christ accomplished was so full and so perfect that the resurrection was the reward and vindication of Christ’s achievement in death.

The resurrection proves that Jesus death was sufficient.

If Jesus remained in the grave then His death would be considered a failure.

It would mean that God the Father didn’t accept the sacrifice.

But Jesus did rise from the dead vindicating His death and if we put our trust in Him we are not still in our trespasses and sins but we are saved, forgiven and given newness of life.

We are brought into union with Christ and eternal life.

Eternal life is knowing God.

Eternal life is less about a place in heaven but a beautiful relationship with our Creator and Redeemer.

If you’re trusting in Christ you have eternal life now.