Monthly Archives: December 2011

We set out with the simple aim of looking in detail at the Gospel statement of I Corinthians 15:3. As we reach the end of this work, we’ll return to that opening text, and I invite you to take a few minutes to read through the passage again and think deeply about its meaning and implications for you personally, in the light of the scripture we have studied together. This is the Gospel of Christ, and as Paul writes in Romans 1:16, it is the power of salvation to all who believe:

¹ Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, ² and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.

³ For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, ⁴ that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,⁵ and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. ⁶ Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. ⁷ Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. ⁸ Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.

I Corinthians 15:1-8

Whether you have been a Christian for many years, or have come to the Gospel more recently, please do join my prayers and the prayers by giving thanks to God, who gave his son, Jesus Christ, that despite our many sins we could not only be forgiven, but reconciled to him, saved from the coming wrath and granted eternal life by faith in his name.

Whilst we were once alienated and hostile to God, doing evil deeds; we are now forgiven and reconciled to God by Christ’s offering of himself made once for all time upon the cross. May God strengthen you to hold fast to the one Gospel, both in your own life, and as you bring this message of Christ’s saving work to your neighbours throughout the world, that they too might receive salvation.

Amen

I’ve made the case that this bearing of sin and the reconciliation it allows is the central issue – the main thing that Christ came to achieve. But is it really? Is this really the theme that connects the account of Christ, from birth, in life, by death, and in resurrection?

To answer this concern, here we’ll connect the stages of Christ’s life with his role and work, dying in man’s place for the forgiveness of sins. Although various parties seem blind to the purpose of Christ at different times, this bearing of sin is indeed a clear theme running through the life, death and resurrection. We’ll pick out a few example to help fill in this picture:

The first time we meet Christ in his sin-bearing role is before he is born, as the angel announces the forthcoming birth to Joseph:

She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins

Matthew 1:21

Although it seems from later developments in the gospels that many expected Christ to take on a military or leadership role in Israel and free them from foreign oppression – his true work was already plain before he was even born: to save his people from their sins. Once he is born, the same message is picked up again in a different form by the angels who appeared to the shepherds, saying:

“Glory to God in the highest,

and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”

Luke 2:14

You will recall that the end of Christ’s work is to make peace between God and man. Here the angels are already publicly proclaiming this forthcoming mighty work – the coming of peace according to the favour of God. Again, at the beginning of his ministry, at the time of his baptism by John Baptist, the prophet proclaims Christ with words directly pointing to this sin-bearing role, as we read:

The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!

John 1:29

This same sin-bearing work was also taught in the ministry of Christ, with one of the most memorable events being that of the healing of the paralytic which we discussed earlier for what it teaches us about Christ. The punchline itself is to prove to the religious leaders he has it in his power to forgive sins:

⁵ For which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk’? ⁶ But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins” —he then said to the paralytic— “Rise, pick up your bed and go home.” ⁷ And he rose and went home.

Matthew 9:5-7

The implication that Christ had this divine power surely infuriated the religious leaders – but Christ’s explanation points forward to his work in saving us from sin, saying it was done “that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”!

Likewise, he we saw earlier, he taught his disciples that he did not come to be served by others, but rather to serve; and that his work of service would be nothing less than to give his life as a ransom (a payment for release) for many:

even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many

Matthew 20:28

This same message that Christ’s life was given for the forgiveness of sins was then proclaimed by his disciples after Christ’s death, as we read in the Acts of the Apostles. Here we see the defence made before Jewish council that by his death and ascension he achieved forgiveness of sins for his people:

³⁰ The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you killed by hanging him on a tree. ³¹ God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins.

Acts 5:30-31

In fact, the Gospel presentation around which this work has been structured, “that Christ died for our sin” (I Corinthians 15:3) continues with an account of his resurrection. It is of this resurrection that Paul boldly states “if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain” (I Corinthians 15:14); pointing out that the fact Christ was raised from the dead shows that the dead shall be raised, of whom he is the first fruit (I Corinthians 15:15-20). In the letter to the Romans, we see this same theme extended yet again to the resurrection, whereby it is said that Christ died for our sins, and was raised for our justification – our being declared or accounted righteous before God.

It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, ²⁵ who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.

Romans 4:24-25

Thus, through his life, death, and resurrection, we see Christ preparing for, taking on, and perfecting the work of salvation. This in itself should be a source of great strength to a believer – because we ourselves are united with Christ in his life, death and resurrection. We were united with him in his death, by which he took onto himself our sinful flesh and its burden of sin, dying for us. In a similar way, we are united with him in his resurrection, knowing that all that subjected us to the wrath and separated us from God has been put to death – and we now live in Christ by the Spirit which raised him to life (Romans 6:5-11).

If you are a sinner, and you know that Christ has died for sins – then it is important to know which sins Christ died for, and when. Did Christ die for the sins which we had committed before we believed in him, leaving us to deal with later sins ourselves? Did Christ die for the whole of our sins, or just for part of them? Does Christ need to die again to deal with the sins which have occurred since he was crucified the first time?

These questions – along with many more – are often near the top of the list for those who realise that their only hope is Christ. They boil down to seeking assurance that Christ really has dealt with the problem of sin in a complete and effective way.

They seem to have been on the mind of those to whom Hebrews was written. We read there a comparison of the sacrifices offered by the Jewish priests in the Temple (which allowed them to temporarily approach God), and the sacrifice Christ offered of himself (which allows us to be reconciled to God for all time). We’ve had a look at some of these Temple sacrifices in our discussion of Leviticus chapter 16 in the chapter entitled for, and here we see their final fulfilment in Christ:

First, we look at Christ as the offerer or priest, and the way in which he performs his offering once for all time rather than repeatedly:

¹⁰ And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. ¹¹ And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. ¹² But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, ¹³ waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. ¹⁴ For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.

Hebrews 10:10-14

Thus, we see that the offering (or oblation) made by Christ was a full oblation – in one offering the work was achieved – and achieved for all time. There is then no need for Christ to be re-offered or to be sacrificed again, because the first offering has perfected (or completed) those who are to be saved for all time.

The writer to the Hebrews goes on to explain more about the sacrifices themselves, how they were offered, what they achieved and where or how they differ from Christ as the sacrifice:

²⁴ For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. ²⁵ Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own, ²⁶ for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.

Hebrews 10:24-26

These former sacrifices were according to a system of law, and dealt in gracious symbolism with the problem caused by breaching that law; whereas Christ died and took upon himself all sin – recognised or unknown – and so is able to obtain for us full holiness not only according to outward compliance but as righteousness before God. Further, we see that the temple in which the sacrifices were offered was but a man-made copy of the reality. Christ, however, was not offered up to a temple made by human hands, but unto heaven itself – to the presence of eternal God where he remains as an offering on our behalf.

From this, we see plainly that Christ’s sacrifice was a perfect sacrifice – a perfect and sinless sacrifice, offered up by our great high priest, Christ himself, and brought before God himself to stand on our behalf even until the day of judgement. Peter describes it as salvation by the “precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot” (I Peter 1:19).

The letter next reminds us of the return of Christ and the day of judgement:

²⁷ And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, ²⁸ so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.

Hebrews 10:27-28

So, here we see not merely the work of the sacrifice of Christ, but what it has achieved. We see plainly that Christ has provided full satisfaction; the full payment has been offered in Christ’s death made once upon the cross, such that nothing prevents the salvation of those who believe in him. This means that by faith alone our sins are fully paid – there is no requirement for us to repay or provide restitution to God for our own sins, whether before or after we come to faith.

If Christ has really provided a full oblation, a perfect sacrifice, and sufficient satisfaction for sin once for all upon the cross, then it follows also that he died for all manner and kind of sin. If he did not die for all types of sin, then by no means can his sacrifice be perfect or his satisfaction sufficient. Christ cannot promise eternal life if he has not dealt with the big problem which prohibits sinful man from eternal life and subjects him to wrath!

Likewise, it is clear also that all our sins are forgiven according only to faith in Christ; for if only those sins we commit before we come to faith are forgiven us, then Christ has not provided in himself a full oblation, he did not ascend into heaven, and is not seated with the Father on our behalf. To this we could also append the multitude of scripture by which the God promises the forgiveness of sins based upon faith – not in letters to non-Christians, but to Christians. It would be a futile and vain promise if it were only applicable to those who had not yet come to faith!

Let’s conclude this question by reading at the statement of John in this regard, noting that it is in faith that we have the forgiveness of sin – and so, as faith endures, so does forgiveness:

But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin

1 John 1:7

Since sin is such a serious problem, we need to know if it affects us. Are we sinners? Are you a sinner, am I a sinner? There is a general assumption which is very widely held today that most people are mostly good. Even many convicted criminals are of the opinion that they are good people who made mistakes, were the victim of unfair circumstances, or who are just really misunderstood.

Do you believe that you are generally good? Would God be generally OK with the way you have lived your life were he to meet you? Sure, you may have done a few things you shouldn’t, but is that enough to have to see yourself as a sinner – given all the other things you’ve done which are good or at least neutral?

The scripture gives an answer which should leave us with no doubt as to the answer of all these questions. One of the clearer places is the explanation of our standing before God contained in Romans 3. By quoting mostly passages from the Old Testament, the apostle explains that really none can trust in their own righteousness – for it transpires that none is righteous (no, not one):

⁹ … For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, 10 as it is written:
¹¹ “None is righteous, no, not one;
no one understands;
no one seeks for God.
¹² All have turned aside;
together they have become worthless;
no one does good, not even one.¹”
¹³ “Their throat is an open grave;
they use their tongues to deceive.”
“The venom of asps is under their lips.”
¹⁴ “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”
¹⁵ “Their feet are swift to shed blood;
¹⁶ in their paths are ruin and misery,
¹⁷ and the way of peace they have not known.”
¹⁸ “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
¹⁹ Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. ²⁰ For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.

Romans 3:9-20

How then can we claim that there is any good in us, given the judgement of God upon us? If God has said that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23), then if we claim to be without sin then we are saying that God is a liar. Not only that – but we are only deceiving ourselves – for God knows all our deeds, even the secret and hidden sins. As John writes:

⁸ If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us … ¹⁰ If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

1 John 1:8,10

Often, the reason that God’s assessment does not seem to match our own opinion is because we have failed to take proper account of the holiness of God. There is a tendency for us all to underestimate what God demands of us – such that we think we can meet them through our own hard work. Christ himself however lays out commands which are far beyond what man can attain whilst yet weakened in his sinful and corrupt flesh. One example is how he ends the Sermon on the Mount – with the beautifully simple command that:

You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Matthew 5:48

If you know you’ve lived a life as perfect as God himself, then I guess you can put down this book – however I suspect it is clear that this is far beyond the grasp of fallen man. This same truth that we are all sinners, all without exception, forms the starting point of many other passages of scripture, such as the passage we discussed earlier from Ephesians, which opens with “and you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked”, talking those who still live in such a way as those “among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind” (Ephesians 2:1-3).

We are all sinners, and in particular – I am a sinner, and you too are a sinner. All we have discussed previously regarding sin, slavery to sin, death and judgement then applies to us – and leaves us with the same problem as the rest of mankind – the problem which only Christ solves.

However, if you are a sinner, then take heart – for the same passage from I John which declared that if we claim to be sinless we likewise imply God is a liar also goes on to give us a promise of forgiveness by Christ himself:

⁹ If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

1 John 1:9

Likewise, as a sinner, take comfort, for it is for sinners that Christ died.

Sin in itself is an agent of enslavement, as Christ explains, saying “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin” (John 8:34). This is set the opposite of being a slave of righteousness – it is to be subjected to the power of evil and the corruption.

It is in overruling right living and fear of God that sin ensnares – we read in II Peter that “whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved” (II Peter 2:19) and it is a very fitting description of the hold that sin has over man. We see this in society at large, where one sin leads to another greater trespass – one wickedness leads to yet greater evil. Our courts are only too familiar with the seeing the same offenders before them on ever-more-serious charges, as one bad deed leads to another.

Indeed, the more we sin, the more comfortable we become in sin. Whether in private matters, or those of public order – our hesitation to commit sin becomes ever lessened as we become deadened to its growing influence and habitual hold over us. Thus, we see mature adults unflinchingly undertaking acts of depravity which they would have bemoaned as too evil to mention as children. We see persons who seek to publicly justify their sins, having become so comfortable with them that if others frown upon such deeds they are not shamed but rather angered that anyone should dare to call sin that which through enslavement and habitual action has become their “lifestyle”.

I have placed quotation marks around “lifestyle” for good reason – it is a very poor name to give to the way of a man enslaved to sin. Not so much because it is not a “style”, but because it is not “life”. For, whoever commits sin becomes a slave of sin; and the end of this slavery is death. When Paul seeks to exhort his readers in Rome to flee from sin, he starts by reminding them of this. He sets out clearly that if they sin, they are slaves of sin, and that will lead to death:

¹⁶ Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?

Romans 6:16

The association of sin and death arises early in the Biblical history and is first seen in the garden of Eden where Adam sins by disobeying God. The word of God on the matter was already very clear: “you shall surely die” (Genesis 2:17). By this act of disobedience in Adam, sin entered the world and through that sin came death as its consequence. As we read in Romans 5:

¹² Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned— ¹³ for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. ¹⁴ Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.

Romans 5:12-14

This steady progression of corruption is described by James as the result of desire, which “when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death” (James 1:15). However, physical death is not the only consequence of sin, for after physical death comes judgement – either to eternal life, or to eternal fire (Matthew 25:41). As the writer to the Hebrews puts it:

… it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment

Hebrews 9:27

Thus, when Paul explains that “the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23) we see that physical death is not all that is given as a reward for sin – but also a perpetual death, separation from God, and hell.

These very serious consequences of sin are a major problem for man, not only consigning him to death, but keeping him in bondage to that path even until the end. The corruption and wickedness of man leaves him not only unwilling but also unable to turn back to God – no more able than a slave is able to turn away from servitude and declare himself free.

Although this is very bad news, yet we can be greatly comforted by knowing that Christ has set us free from slavery to sin. When he died, bearing our sins, he put to death our sinful and corrupt flesh along with himself ¹ – so that we might live not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit:

¹⁰ But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. ¹¹ If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.

Romans 8:10-11

Although the consequences of sin that we’ve seen are very serious and powerful indeed, yet so too is the saving work of Christ. Not only have we seen how Christ dealt with sin such that we might escape the wrath of God, but also that he grants freedom from slavery to sin even before death that we might start to live our lives according to his perfect commandments.

When Paul talks about the origin of sin, he goes right back to the beginning of Genesis, to the account of the events which took place in the Garden of Eden (Romans 5:12). God had told Adam that he was not permitted to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2:17), a rule Adam broke (3:6). It was in this first sin that man fell from a perfect relationship with God into a state of separation. Indeed, no sooner had he eaten but he started to feel shame and fear of God – covering himself with fig leaves, and hiding from God as he approached (3:8). For his part, God ejected them both from the garden, sending them out into lives of hardship, and fixing a cherubim with a flaming sword to prevent their return:

He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.

Genesis 3:24

So, at heart, sin is this state of separation from God – that which prevents us from approaching God without shame and fear; that which means we have no peace with God. When seen in this way, sin is not primarily a question of individual acts of disobedience, but is a state of mankind with its origin in our fall away from God in Adam.

From this corrupt foundation comes forth corrupt thoughts, words and actions. Whilst many of these specific sins are listed in the Bible, they all boil down to the breaking of one of the two great commandments:

[And he said to him,] “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

Matthew 22:37-40

So, whilst the essence of sin is our state of separation from God, the essence of individual sins is found in our rejection of the God we should love fully, and a failure in that mutual love for our neighbours which is the pure outworking of the love of God.

It is against this background that we read the judgement of mankind in John’s Gospel:

And this is the judgement: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil.

John 3:19

Do you notice how closely our rejection of God is bound up in our evil deeds? It is because of our evil deeds that we reject the light of God; but yet it is because of the darkness of sin that we persist in the evil deeds. Paul describes this sorry states as living ‘in the flesh’, because our lives are governed according to that human flesh which fell in Adam. This life ‘in the flesh’ means to “carry out the desires of the body and the mind” (Ephesians 2:3), and graphically describes the way in which sins originate within us, according to our nature:

For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death.

Romans 7:5

Christ also discusses sin using this concept, pointing out that the evil that defiles a person actually originates from within his heart, rather than from some external influence (Mark 7:20-23). So, although we often like to think of sin being caused by society, yet the way Bible describes it, although sin may be a part of fallen society, it springs from each corrupt individual:

And [Christ] said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”

Mark 7:20-23

If the Gospel relates to our deliverance from sin, then an understanding of what sin is, and how it affects us, is prerequisite to our understanding of the Gospel. In this section we’ll answer a few basic questions about sin, starting off with the basic nature of sin, and then discussing the way in which it is related to Christ’s work on the cross.

• “What is sin?” reviews some of the basic concepts surrounding sin itself
• “What is the consequence of sin?” examines what the Bible says the effect or end of sin is on those who are guilty of such an offence
• “Which people are sinners?” asks who is guilty of sin, how we can be sure, and to what extent
• “How did Christ’s death address the problem of sin?” draws a link between Christ’s death and our sin
• “For which sins did Christ’s die?” discusses Christ’s death as a full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction for sin made once
• “Was Christ really about the bearing of sin?” reviews the way in which Christ demonstrated his ability to forgive our sins, his intention to die for our sins, and the complete payment for our sins