GRACE FOR TODAY Radio Message #428
“WHEN THOU SHALT
MAKE HIS SOUL AN OFFERING FOR SIN”
Pastor
Don Fortner
Grace Baptist Church of Danville
2734 Old Stanford Road
Danville,
Kentucky 40422-9438
Why did the Lord of glory
endure such a horrible, shameful, ignominious
death for us upon the cross? The Lord God bruised his Son and put him to
grief upon the cursed tree because he made “his
soul an offering for sin.” Christ died as he did, he had to die as he did,
so that he might be a suitable Substitute and Sin Offering to God for his
people. Here are four reasons for the crucifixion, four reasons why the Lord
Jesus Christ died the painful, shameful, ignominious death of the cross.
1.
Christ died the death of the cross because he
must bear the curse of the law in his death if he would save us (Gal. 3:13; Deut. 21:22-23).
2.
The Lord Jesus died the horrid death of the
cross to fulfill the Old Testament types as a sin offering.
Those sacrifices were always
lifted up upon an altar before God. The brazen serpent was lifted up on a pole.
Even so, God’s great sin offering, the true sin offering had to be lifted up
(Num. 19:9; John 3:14; 12:32).
3.
Our Savior died as he did upon the cursed
tree to fulfill the Old Testament prophecies concerning his death (Ps. 22:16-17; Zech. 12:10).
4.
The Lord Jesus endured the death of the cross
for us, as our Substitute, that God might be both just and the Justifier of all
who trust him (Rom.
3:24-26; Psalm 85:10-11; Pro. 16:7; Isa. 45:20).
I
repeat myself on this point deliberately and frequently because this is the
crucial issue of the gospel. Christ did not die merely as a moral example to
display the love of God. The Son of God died because that is the only way God
could save chosen sinners. It would not be a display of divine wisdom, but of
utter barbarism, if God sacrificed his Son without a necessity!
The fact that our redemption
by the blood of Christ is a matter of justice satisfied also assures us that
all for whom justice has been satisfied are forever freed from the claims of
justice! The law required two goats on the day of atonement. The name of the
Lord’s goat was Truth. The name of
the scapegoat was Mercy. In the
redemption of our souls by the blood of Christ, “Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed
each other.”
Today
we are told that the sacrificial blood of the Lord Jesus Christ does not, in
itself, secure the salvation of anyone, but that it only makes salvation
possible for everyone. We are told that the blood of Christ becomes effectually
operative by man’s faith, by man deciding to believe on Jesus, by the act of
man’s great, imaginary free will.
Nonsense! Such doctrine is utter heresy! That is not the teaching of Holy
Scripture!
Redemption upon the grounds of justice satisfied is of necessity a
particular and effectual redemption. Those for whom justice is satisfied cannot be
condemned (Gal. 3:13; Rom. 8:1, 33, 34). The Lord Christ is not our helper. He
is our Savior! He is not an accomplice in salvation, but the Accomplisher of
salvation! All for whom he died are redeemed, effectually, eternally redeemed!
He who entered into heaven with his own blood and sat down because his work was
finished obtained eternal redemption for his people (Heb. 9:12).
AMEN.