Jesus: The Lamb of God and Son of God (John 1:29-34)

The Old Testament sacrificial system served as an illustration of substitutionary atonement. An innocent, spotless, unblemished lamb would be sacrificed as a substitute in the place of sinning Israelites. This served only as an illustration because it was impossible that the execution of an innocent animal could legally and actually be a substitute for guilty capital offenders.  The Bible says, “For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins” (Hebrews 10:4). We all understand this. We know that it would be wrong to set free a death-row-convict by executing an animal in his place.

No one was ever saved simply because he participated in the Old Testament sacrificial system. Only those that understood and believed that the lamb being sacrificed was an illustration of an innocent, sinless, perfect man who would come and die for their sins were saved. These were saved by grace through faith in the coming Christ. By faith Abel offered a better sacrifice (Hebrews 11:4). What was Abel’s offering? Abel, on his part also brought of the firstlings of his flock . . . . (Genesis 4:4). Abel understood and believed that the lamb he offered was an illustration of an innocent, sinless, perfect man who would come and crush the devil’s head and whom God had promised to send (Genesis 3:15).

“By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac . . . He considered that God is able to raise people even from the dead, from which he also received him back as a type” (Hebrews 11:17-19). Abraham understood and believed that the Lamb of God would be an innocent, sinless, perfect man. As Abraham and Isaac were walking to Mount Moriah where Abraham was going to offer Isaac as a burnt offering by God’s command, Isaac asked his father, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering” (Genesis 22:7)? “Abraham said, ‘God will provide for Himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son’” (Genesis 22:8). Abraham was not speaking of the ram caught in the thicket that day (Genesis 22:13) but of the Lamb who some 2000 years later would be an innocent, sinless, perfect man walking up the same spot carrying the wood for the offering on His back (Genesis 22:6; John 19:17). And instead of a ram caught in a thicket by his horns that would be offered up in His place, this Man’s head was caught in a thicket with a cruel crown of thorns pressed around his brows because He was the offering (Genesis 22:13; John 19:2-5).

It was this Man, the innocent, sinless, perfect man, with a crown of thorns on His head and carrying His own cross that Abraham believed in. Jesus said, “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad” (John 8:56). Isaac asked, “Where it the lamb?” Abraham said, “God will provide for Himself the Lamb.” Then some 2000 years later, John the Baptist was confronted by a committee from the religious leaders wanting to know if he was the Christ, Elijah, or the Prophet (John 1:19-28). He confessed that he was not but that the Christ indeed was among them (John 1:26). And, “The next day he saw Jesus coming to him and said, ‘Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world’” (John 1:29). This Man, Jesus, the innocent, sinless, perfect man – the Son of God (John 1:34), would be the sacrificial Lamb not for believing Israelites alone but also for any non-Israelite who would believe (John 3:16).

How did John the Baptist know that Jesus was the Lamb of God and Son of God? Remember, Jesus and John the Baptist were physical cousins. There was nothing so extraordinary about Jesus at first-glance that would cause anyone to know and understand that He was the Christ. Twice, John the Baptist said that he did not recognize Him (John 1:31, 33). He did not mean that he did not know that Jesus was his cousin and that he did not know him in that manner. What John the Baptist meant was that he did not recognize Jesus as the Christ, the Lamb of God and Son of God, until God revealed it to him (John 1:31-33).

The Man who would be the Lamb of God would have to be innocent, sinless, and perfect. In order for this to be true of Him, He would have to have a sinless nature and be born into the human race without the agency of a human father. The Son of God would have to take on flesh in order to be the Lamb of God (John 1:1-14). Jesus is the Lamb of God and the Son of God (John 1:29, 34).

Isaac asked, “Where is the Lamb?” Abraham answered, “God will provide for Himself the Lamb.” John the Baptist said, “Behold the Lamb.” Then in Revelation 5:1-14, the apostle John said, “Worthy is the Lamb.” We could summarize the progressive revelation concerning the Lamb of God like this: Where is the Lamb? Wait for the Lamb! Watch the Lamb! Worship the Lamb!

Of Empty Calories and Empty Gospels (John 1:12-13)

January 3, 1960, three years and forty-two days before I was born, A. W. Tozer preached a sermon entitled, “What does it mean to accept Christ?” You understand if your mind is capable of doing math that Tozer’s message was preached some fifty-two years ago and that I am only one year away from being fifty years old. I mention this not to show you my age but to show you that for more than half a century there have been men of God standing against the modern false gospel of easy-believism or passive “acceptance” of Christ. Tozer lamented that in his day the majority of evangelism in America was of the sort that perverted the gospel by minimizing what it means to receive Christ and believe in Christ.

In other words, even before 1960, a large portion of American evangelism had already degenerated into a wide-gate false gospel of easy-believism. This is the false notion that one can be saved by just “inviting Jesus” into his or her life without entering into Jesus’ death. The wide-gate is one of easy access and easy entry. The wide-gate has no denying of self, death to sin, or any difficult sayings. It’s easy; it’s acceptable; it’s appealing; but it’s deadly. Jesus said, “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it” (Matthew 7:13-14).

So receiving Christ is not just “inviting Jesus into my life” or just “adding Jesus to my life”; receiving Jesus is far more than responding to a minimized, inoffensive, appealing gospel of “just accept Jesus.” Of utmost importance then is the right and biblical answer to the question, “What is it to receive Christ?”

The Gospel of John answers the question, “What is it to receive Christ.” Remember that John 1:1-18 is the prologue to the book. Here John is telling us what the rest of the book is going to be about. In John 1:12 we are introduced to the wonderful truth that among blind and bad humanity there are those who see the beauty of the Lord Jesus Christ and receive Him. “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name.” John 1:13 shows us why these believed and received – “who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.”

Now we could stop right here in John 1:12-13 and say, “There you have it! All you have to do to be saved is receive Jesus and God will cause you to be born again.” And we would be dead wrong! Let me explain. This is the mistake of a minimized Gospel with no content. It’s like what is known in the health and nutrition world as “empty calories.” An empty calorie is a calorie without any content. An empty calorie is a calorie with absolutely no nutritional value. The sad part about empty calories is their deceptive nature. They cause the body to pack on dangerous and deadly fat while at the same time starving it of needed nutrition. This is why highly processed food (such as is common in the American diet) is so dangerous and deadly. It has been stripped of its nutritional value and substituted in the place of wholesome, healthy food.

To stop right here and ask people to receive Jesus would be to offer a highly processed Gospel empty of all its saving content with dangerous and deadly consequences. This deceitful mistake is made over and over in the evangelism of today. For instance, the peddlers of the wide-gate empty gospel will quote Acts 16:30-31 out of context to remove the Gospel’s content. “And after he brought them out, he said, ‘Sirs, what must I do to be saved?’ They said, ‘Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” Here is the problem. What Paul and Silas told the Philippian jailer about how to be saved was true – he was to believe in the Lord Jesus to be saved – but Acts 16:32 supplies some important information that preachers of easy-believism overlook – “And they spoke the word of the Lord to him together with all who were in his house.” Without understanding the content of the Gospel there is no saving belief in Christ.

Notice our text. John is not asking for a response to Christ in John 1:12-13. John has not yet explained the ministry of Jesus proving Him to be the fulfillment of the sacrificial system as the Lamb of God (John 1:29) who would die as a substitute and sacrifice for sinners (John 19:16-30), whose blood would be on the mercy seat (John 20:11-12), and who would be raised from the dead (John 20:15-20) so that a holy God could pardon sinners and remain just in the process.

It is only after John has fully explained the ministry of Jesus that he expects anyone can properly respond to Jesus and receive Him. Notice that it isn’t until John 20:31 that John calls for belief in Jesus – “But these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.”

People are not saved through a gospel emptied of its content. God uses His Word to teach us about the ministry of Christ and our need for Him and everyone who has heard and learned from the Father, comes to Jesus (John 6:45). No one can come to Jesus unless he is drawn to Jesus by the Father through the word about Christ (John 6:44). Those who receive and believe are born of God by the Word of God (John 1:12-13; 1 Peter 1:3, 23).

To receive Christ is to receive the testimony of His sinless life. To receive Christ is to receive His death as a substitute and sacrifice for your crimes against God – it is to receive His death as your death. To receive Christ is to receive Him in His resurrection as your life; as your Lord, because of the demonstration of His great love for you. You love Him because He first loved you.

Empty calories are having their harmful and deadly effects on the physical health and physical lives of millions of Americans. Empty gospels are having a more harmful and more deadly effect on billions of people in the world. What kind of Gospel have you consumed? What kind of Gospel will you share?

Atheism's Real Problem with the God of Christianity

In the previous post where I reviewed Challenging the Verdict by Earl Doherty, I promised that I would address the deep rooted and real problem that atheists have with the God of Christianity. Allow me to catch you back up to speed. In his book, Doherty unknowingly revealed the inability of evidential apologetics to answer his deep rooted and real problem with Christianity, namely, that the God of Christianity is unjust and His method of atonement is both illogical and immoral. Doherty said, “Should we not expect a just Deity to fashion a punishment fitting the crime? . . . What, after all, was Adam and Eve’s purported ‘sin’? Eating fruit, even a forbidden one, hardly sinks to the depth of depravity” (124). A few pages later Doherty said, “But why did he require such an ultimate sacrifice in order to forgive humanity its sins? Is there not, indeed, some logical if not moral contradiction in ‘redeeming’ men of sins like murder through an act of murder on their part? Why did he not embody the act of redemption in something more exemplary, perhaps by having Jesus perform a few thousand hours of community service? What a moral example that would have set” (126). No amount of external evidence (empirical facts) can give an answer to these objections. God’s revelation of the meaning of these facts is needed to answer Doherty’s deep rooted and real problem with Christianity.

Since God is being accused of injustice, immorality, and ignorance for both His stance toward sin and His method of atonement, we must allow Him to speak and justify His actions (Romans 3:4). So to understand and see the justice, morality, and wisdom of God in both His stance toward sin and His method of atonement, we will have to consider God’s revealed meaning of redemptive history as it specifically pertains to the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.

First, the resurrection of Jesus means that God is Creator and transcendent Lord. This means that naturalistic evolution is false, because the resurrection of Jesus is only possible in an open system in which God intervenes and miracles are possible. The resurrection of Jesus, since it means that God is Creator and transcendent Lord, also means that there are no “brute facts.” The facts do not speak for themselves but must be interpreted only by God’s revealed meaning for them. As Dan Phillips says of God as Creator and transcendent Lord, “He created all things in heaven and on earth, including heaven and earth themselves. In doing so, God created all facts. And thus God assigned meaning, value, and significance to everything. That means, then, that there are no “brute facts,” only created facts, with their meaning designed and assigned by God” (Dan Phillips, The World-Tilting Gospel: Embracing a Biblical Worldview and Hanging on Tight, Kindle Edition, 91).

Second, the resurrection of Jesus means that Adam was the first man created by God as both the progenitor of and representative for all people born through his seed. This means that theistic evolution is false because of the solidarity of all people with one man. To believe in the resurrection of Jesus as revealed by God as the means by which He saves sinners from among humanity is to believe in solidarity with an original, historical, first man. There could be no solidarity on the basis of theistic evolution because there would be no definite, definable place where the head of the human race, as its sole representative, plunged the race into sin. Therefore no one would be born with a sin nature traceable to an original ancestor.

There would be no solidarity under the system of either naturalistic or theistic evolution. Without solidarity, Jesus could represent no more than one person. The ratio, without solidarity, becomes a one for one ratio. Each individual sinner would have to have a different individual Savior or else Jesus would have to continually come and offer Himself over and over again for each individual sinner.

Third, the resurrection of Jesus means that God is covenant maker who promises life for obedience to and death for disobedience of His covenant. One of God’s assigned meanings of the resurrection of Jesus is that He keeps His promises. He is a covenant keeping God. He is truth and in Him there is no darkness at all. It is impossible for God to lie since to get anything out of something, it has to be in it. There is a reason one cannot get “blood out of a turnip.” Since God is truth there is no lie in Him. Therefore it is impossible for God to lie (Hebrews 6:18). God keeps His promises. He gives death for disobedience (Romans 6:23).

Adam, as the progenitor and representative of all men earned death for breaking God’s covenant and in order for God to remain true, death reigned from Adam on (Romans 5:12). On the other hand, Jesus, the progenitor and representative of all who have faith in Him earned life for keeping God’s covenant and in order for God to remain true, He raised Jesus from the dead (Acts 2:24) and will raise all who are in Christ (1 Corinthians 15:21-23). God keeps His promises. He gives life for obedience (Leviticus 18:5).

Fourth, the resurrection of Jesus means that Adam was a covenant breaker who earned death for himself and all his offspring through their solidarity with him. Adam transgressed and disobeyed God’s command and became a covenant breaker. Adam became a capital offender. One may question why disobedience to God’s covenant is a capital crime. The human mind, even among atheists, can determine that murder is a capital offense that deserves capital punishment. However, “lesser sins” that the laws of the land do not consider capital offenses are considered capital offenses in God’s kingdom. From this truth the unregenerate human mind recoils and objects.

Why is murder a capital offense? Is it because there is something so unloving about the act of murder that it is hideous? Is it because the murderer is so unloving that he is dangerous to society? Is murder a capital offense because there is no greater display of hatred toward humanity? Murder is the greatest crime that can be committed against humanity because it violates the greatest commandment to “love your neighbor as yourself” in the grossest manner and is therefore a capital offense deserving capital punishment.

What is the greatest crime one can commit? Logically, the greatest crime a man can commit is the violation of the greatest commandment. Is there a commandment greater than “love your neighbor as yourself”? Surely, and logically, the greatest crime that a man can commit is a violation of the greatest commandment against the greatest Being. What is the greatest commandment? Jesus said, “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 foremost commandment (Matthew 22:37-38).

Should the crime of murder, of not loving a fellow man, an equal being, be greater than any crime of not loving God, the greatest Being? Logic demands that there is no greater crime than not loving God and therefore any crime that violates love for God is a capital offense that deserves capital punishment. When Adam disobeyed God and ate of the forbidden fruit he committed a capital offense because of the nature of his crime. Adam failed to keep God’s commandment, violated God’s covenant, and earned death because not loving and obeying God is a capital offense that is greater than not loving and killing a fellow human being. All men who are born naturally into Adam’s race naturally have the same hatred for God and His commandments.

Fifth, the resurrection means that Jesus is the second Adam, born without the agency of a human father in order to bypass imputation of Adam’s sin nature. In order to accomplish obedience to God’s covenant and thereby confirm the covenant promises of God, Jesus would have to live in perfect obedience to the Law of God. However, if Jesus were a natural born descendant of Adam, He would also inherit Adam’s sin nature. Here the purpose of the virginal conception of Jesus is made clear by the redemptive- historical context of the resurrection.

The virginal conception of Jesus also implies the divinity of Jesus. Here the mystery of the hypostatic union or the two natures of Jesus is revealed as one of God’s meanings of the resurrection of Jesus. He is the Son of man and the Son of God in one person. He is fully God and fully man in the one person of Jesus Christ. In order to accomplish God’s covenant with man, the Son of God, with supreme love for God, would have to become the son of man, without a sin nature.

Sixth, the resurrection of Jesus means Jesus is the covenant keeper and redeemer who earned life for Himself and all his offspring by their solidarity with Him through faith. “In the fullness of time, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that he might redeem those who were under the Law” (Galatians 4:4-5). Jesus lived perfectly under the Law of God, kept His covenant, and earned life. Jesus lived in perfect obedience to God because of His perfect love for God doing what Adam did not do and what no natural born descendent of Adam could ever do. As Phillips says, “So we must recognize in Jesus the quality that every other human being since Adam has lacked: utter, comprehensive, all-consuming love for God that flowed from a sinless heart and issued in a flawlessly, perfectly holy life” (The World-Tilting Gospel, 117).

Adam failed to love God with all his heart and as a result he violated God’s command, became a capital offender, and earned death for himself and all his offspring. God’s covenant with Adam was that if he disobeyed he would die. The wages of sin is death. By implication, God’s covenant with Adam meant that if he obeyed he would live. The wages of obedience is life. This truth is expressed in God’s Law given to Israel before the time of Christ. “So you shall keep My statutes and My judgments, by which a man may live if he does them” (Leviticus 18:5).

There is a one major problem though. Adam has already failed to love God and committed a capital offense. All of Adam’s offspring have inherited his sin nature to the point that none are able to obey God and therefore none can earn life (Romans 3:20, 28). All are doomed, unless God has a solution for the dilemma of how He can pardon capital offenders and give them life instead of death, while He remains true in the process.

Here is where the Gospel really becomes offensive and is viewed by those who are perishing as foolishness. God’s solution for the dilemma of how He can pardon capital offenders, giving them life instead of death, is through Penal Substitution. Someone would have to live a perfect life of loving loyalty to God and then suffer the penalty of capital punishment as a sacrifice for and a substitute of capital offenders.

Earl Doherty objects, “But why did he require such an ultimate sacrifice in order to forgive humanity its sins? Is there not, indeed, some logical if not moral contradiction in ‘redeeming’ men of sins like murder through an act of murder on their part? Why did he not embody the act of redemption in something more exemplary, perhaps by having Jesus perform a few thousand hours of community service? What a moral example that would have set” (126).

Others object and say that it is illogical and immoral to execute and innocent man and to set free a capital offender. How can God do this without committing two injustices? After all, God’s Word says, “He who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the righteous, both of them alike are an abomination to the Lord” (Proverbs 17:15). The answer is the resurrection! The resurrection not only makes Penal Substitution logical and moral, it is an absolute necessity for God who is truth. God promised life for the one who obeyed His Law. Jesus did obey God’s Law perfectly. The death of Christ was at the hands of sinful men. Men in violation of God’s Law were responsible for the execution of Jesus so that it was not the Law that promised life executing Jesus but godless men (Acts 2:23). Since Jesus was innocent and was dying by God’s plan as a substitute for sinners, His resurrection from the dead was an absolute necessity and certainty (Acts 2:24). The Law of God based on the Word of God owed Jesus life and since it is impossible for God to lie, it was impossible for death to hold its prey.

Penal Substitution is a logical and moral impossibility for any court system in this world. No human court can accomplish justice through Penal Substitution. In its attempt, any human court would become guilty of two injustices. Executing an innocent man is unjust even if the innocent man is willing. Setting free a guilty man on the basis that an innocent man has died in the place of the guilty man is unjust. Without the power to raise men from the dead, Penal Substitution cannot be a justice serving means of pardon. However, with the ability to raise men from the dead, Penal Substitution becomes the only means by which a righteous God can pardon sinners while He maintains justice in the process (Romans 3:23-26).

Doherty’s solution for maintaining justice while pardoning a capital offender is “having Jesus perform a few thousand hours of community service” (126). However, even atheists know that justice has not been served when the punishment does not equal the crime. Doherty’s question, “Should we not expect a just Deity to fashion a punishment fitting the crime?” now needs to be asked to Doherty instead of being asked by Doherty. Under Doherty’s scheme of atonement, God would allow capital offenders to go free without the penalty matching the crime as Doherty claims God should do.

Jesus lived a perfect life under God’s Law to fulfill its precepts, died a sacrificial death to pay the penalty of breaking God’s Law for sinners, and experienced a supernatural resurrection to fulfill the Law’s promise of life for the one who obeyed it. Jesus earned life for Himself and all who have solidarity with Him through faith.

Seventh, the resurrection of Jesus means that He is both Lord and Judge. No explanation needed! God is just, moral, wise, and loving!

The Truth of Lordship Salvation (Romans 10:5-13)

Nothing is more important in Bible study and Bible preaching than proper interpretation. If we do not arrive at God’s intended message – what He was actually communicating – then we cannot arrive at proper application. This would prove disastrous in any biblical doctrine but especially in the doctrine of salvation. The dangers associated with an improper interpretation of the Gospel are either legalism or libertinism.

Legalism can be either an attempt to merit God’s favor through works of the Law or a more subtle but just as deadly adding to the finished work of Christ. In the case of adding to the finished work of Christ one would profess faith in Christ plus some other stipulation. One might say that you have to believe in Christ but you also must do this or that.

The Judaizers that hounded the apostle Paul taught that you had to believe in Christ plus be circumcised and observe the Law of Moses in order to be saved. There are those in our day who say that you must believe in Christ plus a myriad of other do’s and don’ts in order to be saved. This is legalism and it is an attempt to make Jesus Lord.

Libertinism is just the opposite of legalism and instead of attempting to merit God’s favor through works of the Law or adding to the finished work of Christ it actually is against the Law and would even dare remove Christ’s obedience to the Law as necessary for our salvation. Libertinism actually takes away from the work of Christ and in essence says that a person can be saved by believing in Jesus as Savior but not as Lord. Libertinism subtracts from the Person and work of Christ. There are many in our day that say you must believe in Jesus as Savior minus His Lordship and His perpetual obedience to the Law from the cradle to the cross. They emphasize His death and resurrection to the exclusion of His Law-keeping obedience. Libertines want to have Jesus as Savior but not as Lord – or at least His Lordship to them is optional and not necessary for salvation.

However, both legalism and libertinism are deadly counterfeits of the true Gospel. Lordship salvation is the true Gospel and it isn’t making Jesus Lord or rejecting His Lordship but receiving Him as Lord. Since both legalism and libertinism tamper with the finished and sufficient work of Christ, neither one believes the testimony God has given concerning His Son. Therefore neither one can confess or “say the same thing” about Jesus that God says about Him. Why? Their belief in His resurrection is deficient – it isn’t from understanding with the heart.

The resurrection of Christ from the dead implies His Lordship! Follow the reasoning carefully. If a man lived a perfect life in perpetual obedience to God’s Law from his birth and then died then of necessity it means that His death was substitutionary and not a result of sin or violation of God’s Law. If His death was substitutionary then He was dying on behalf of others who had sinned and violated God’s Law. Since this was the case then the Law had absolutely no reason to hold this sinless Man in the grips of death because He had never violated the Law but was only upholding it. Therefore, it was impossible that He could be held by death (Acts 2:24) and God raised Him from the dead making Him both Lord and Christ (Acts 2:36) declaring Him the Son of God with power (Romans 1:4).

Now how is a sinner who is saved by the works of this sinless Man going to respond to Him? Is he not going to love Him? Is he not going to adore Him? Is he not going to worship Him? Is he not going to obey Him? Didn’t Jesus say, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments”? Didn’t Jesus say, “Why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord’ and do not do what I say”? Isn’t our obedience to Christ as Lord the result of His work on our behalf (Romans 1:5)? Isn’t the goal of the Gospel loving, loyal obedience to Christ because He saved us?

Notice in our text that salvation is a Lordship issue – “That if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9). And then Paul gave us the divine and logical order in which this happens – “For with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation” (Romans 10:10). First the heart understands the necessity and the actuality of the resurrection of Christ. Then the mouth confesses Jesus as Lord. So first there is the understanding of the work Jesus did to save us and immediately afterwards – because of His work on our behalf – we confess His Lordship submitting to Him as such. What we believe brings about our obedience and the Bible calls it, “The obedience of the faith” (Romans 1:5).

The Bible gives us a wonderful illustration of the truth of Lordship salvation years before Romans was ever written. In Luke 23:32-43 we read of Jesus’ crucifixion between two criminals. One of those criminals received salvation and the other did not. It’s very interesting to see how this played out. The criminal that did not receive salvation actually spoke to Jesus and wanted Him to be his Savior – “Are You not the Christ? Save Yourself and us” (Luke 23:39)! The other criminal owned his crimes and confessed Jesus’ innocence (Luke 23:40-41). He had been brought to the place of understanding that Jesus wasn’t dying for any crimes He had committed because He hadn’t committed any and that Jesus’ death was of necessity, substitutionary.

Notice what this criminal says to the Lord after realizing this: “And he was saying, ‘Jesus, remember me when you come in Your kingdom’” (Luke 23:42). He believed in his heart that God would raise Jesus from the dead – “When you come!” The apostle Paul said, “That if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9).

Notice also that this criminal confessed with his mouth Jesus as Lord – “And he was saying, ‘Jesus, remember me when you come in Your kingdom’” (Luke 23:42). That is a confession of the Lordship of Christ – only Kings have kingdoms.

Lastly notice that this criminal called upon the name of the Lord – “Jesus, remember me when you come in Your kingdom” (Luke 23:42). Romans 10:13 – “For whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

Christ: The End of Trying (Romans 10:4)

Since man cannot meet the righteous requirement of a holy God through works of the Law and cannot by the labor of his hands fulfill the Law’s demands, his only hope is found in Jesus Christ who did perfectly fulfill the Law in order to redeem him. People that believe they can serve God and please God in the flesh are ignorant about the righteous requirements of an absolutely righteous God and their own sinfulness (Romans 10:3).

The most difficult people on the face of the earth to reach with the gospel of salvation by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ are those who have been taught that they are pretty good people and therefore God owes them salvation. The absolute need for any person to be saved is that he or she sees his or her inability to please God in the power of the flesh through works of the Law. The self-righteous are excluded from salvation because salvation is by mercy and not by merit. So the first duty of the faithful witness is to exalt the absolute righteousness of God and thereby show man his absolute inability to measure up. Men must be convinced of their sin if they are going to be convinced of their need for a Savior. As long as we allow men to remain in their self-righteousness by not exposing their sinfulness then we play right into the hands of the enemy of souls and join him in excluding them from salvation.

Many redefine sin in order to remove its offensiveness. Redefining sin as something other than what God has defined it in the Bible and telling men that they are not really as bad as God says they are is a hindrance to men coming to saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Sad to say, but this is much of what characterizes today’s evangelism. Sin and repentance are either overlooked or toned down so that men aren’t offended or hurt by the stinging truth of their real condition before a holy and righteous God. The end result is men are offered grace without guilt, healing without hurting, and response without repentance. So these poor souls end up with a false assurance of salvation and will either be legalistic or licentious – not knowing about God’s righteousness!

Since man cannot achieve the righteousness of God – it must be achieved for him through a Substitute and received as a gift on the basis of faith. That being true, then all effort by man to please God in the flesh is an exercise in futility and ends in destruction. However, since the Lord Jesus Christ did achieve the righteousness of God as a Substitute for men who would believe, for them He is the end of attempting to please God in the flesh (Romans 10:4).

For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes (Romans 10:4). Those who come to believe are those who come to see and know God’s righteousness and their inability to achieve it. They come to know themselves as sinners in the need of mercy! These are the ones that can see that they need a Savior and are no longer blinded by their self-righteousness or their zeal without knowledge. They come to know and understand – not the labors of my hands, can fulfill they law’s demands; could my zeal no respite know, could my tears forever flow, all for sin could not atone; Thou must save, and thou alone (Baptist Hymnal, Rock of Ages, Cleft for Me, second stanza, Hymn 163). For everyone who believes, Christ is the end of the law for righteousness! Christ is the end of trying!

Salvation isn’t achieved by our trying to live a good life – we can’t; salvation is achieved by our trusting in the finished work of Christ. We become the recipients of the righteousness of God through faith not through the flesh. This is why it written, “The righteous man shall live by faith” (Romans 1:17). Believers experience the great transaction – “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21). Therefore, “[we] no longer live for [ourselves], but for Him who died and rose again on [our] behalf” (2 Corinthians 5:15). We no longer live by the flesh and for the flesh but we live by faith in the Son of God who loved us and gave Himself up for us (Galatians 2:20).

I want you to notice three aspects about this verse:

“For Christ” - Salvation is exclusive - it is in Christ alone – He is the exclusive Savior and Liberator for there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved (Acts 4:12).

“Is the end of the law for righteousness” – Salvation is liberative – it sets men free from trying and gives them rest through trusting.

“To everyone who believes” – Salvation is inclusive – it is for everyone, Jew or Gentile, who comes to know God’s righteousness; his inability to achieve it; and that God has provided it through the finished work of Christ.

God's Promise to Protect Christians (Romans 8:28)

We know that the book of Romans is the Holy Spirit inspired explanation of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. In it we find God’s solution to the dilemma of how a holy God can pardon sinners and remain just in the process. It is here that we discover that there is one and only one way that God can extend His mercy without violating His Law and being unjust in the process. It is the high and holy doctrine of penal-substitution or you could say penalty-substitution. For God to pardon sinners and remain just in the process there would have to be a mutual agreement between Him and a willing sinless substitute who would live a sinless life; die a sacrificial death; and experience a supernatural resurrection on behalf of God and sinners. We know that this is exactly what God has accomplished through Jesus Christ His Son and that on this basis there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved other than Jesus Christ.

The implications of this truth are enormous and are explicitly taught in the Bible – unless people trust Christ based on His sinless life, sacrificial death, and supernatural resurrection, they cannot be saved because there is no other way for God to forgive and remain just in the process.

This is the Gospel; this is the message of truth that the church must know and guard because “he who does not enter by the door into the fold of the sheep, but climbs up some other way, he is a thief and a robber” (John 10:1). Jesus is the door of the sheep (John 10:7). No one comes to the Father except by faith in Christ and Christ alone (John 14:6).

So unless men hear the message about Christ and respond to Christ by trusting Him as Lord and Savior, they cannot and will not be saved. By this we know who the thieves and robbers are: the ones who say that there is another way or who tamper with the message about Christ in any form or fashion by adding to it or taking away from it. Those who would offer Christ as Savior only are libertine liars. Those who would say that you have to make Christ Lord are legalistic liars. Those who would say that God saves through Jesus and also has other ways to save are lunatic liars.

Only those who have trusted Christ for penal-substitionary atonement are saved and all others are climbing up some other way. Anyone who trusts Christ for penal-substitutionary atonement will love and obey Jesus as Savior and Lord and the two cannot be separated. Just as love and obedience cannot be separated neither can Savior and Lord be separated.

Those who have been justified on the basis of their faith in Christ will live in loving, loyal obedience to Christ and will be hated by the world because of it. It is this faith that is always tested by the enemies of Christ. Christians will be persecuted for desiring to live godly in Christ Jesus (2 Timothy 3:12). This brings us to our text, Romans 8:28, where we see that God promises to protect Christians in and through their suffering for the sake of their faith in Christ.

For we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God – how do we know? We know by the testimony of two witnesses.

First we know because of the testimony of Scripture. We can look at the Biblical record and see how God has always protected His people by protecting their faith. This means that the suffering that comes to the child of God only strengthens his faith rather than diminishing it. Remember Joseph! Remember Daniel! Remember the three Hebrews! Remember Job! Remember Jeremiah! Remember Jesus! Remember the apostles!

Second we know because of the testimony of the saints. We can speak with anyone whose faith is genuine and 100% will testify of the unfailing faithfulness of God. The resounding chorus that will come from the lips and heart of every genuine child of God is “Great is His faithfulness!”

To those who love God – the promise of God’s protection is only to the redeemed. God doesn’t cause all things to work together for good to everyone because not everyone has saving faith. God will never prove a false faith to be true for then He would be a liar. I’ll remind you of what Adrian Rogers used to say, “The faith that fizzles before the finish was faulty at the first.”

So who are those who love God? Those who love God are the saved. Anyone who does not love the Lord Jesus does not love God and anyone who does not love God does not love the Lord Jesus. That is why we read, “If anyone does not love the Lord, he is to be accursed” (1 Corinthians 16:22).

Those who love God do not do so in their own power and of their own accord. Those who love God love Him because He first loved us (1 John 4:19). No person who does not have saving faith loves God no matter how loudly he or she proclaims it. A person must come to know and believe (trust) the love which God has for us (1 John 4:16) and that love can only be known and believed by God’s demonstration of His love for us, in that while we were sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8).

Those who love God are those who obey. Jesus said, “If you love Me you will keep My commandments” (John 14:15). There is no love for the Lord when there is no obedience to His Word. The implication of this is that there is no love for the Lord when we will not trust and obey His Word. When we will not trust and obey His Word there is no faith and it is written that the righteous man shall live by faith (Romans 1:17).

Those who love God are those who obey His Word and because we obey His Word the world hates us. This is why the true believer experiences suffering and persecution for the sake of righteousness – but it is in and through this that God has promised to work all things together for God to those who love God. True Christians will be kept from stumbling (John 15:18-21; 16:1).

Great is His faithfulness!

Penal-Substitution: Fact or Fiction?

Penal-substitution is the word that theologians use to succinctly define how God accomplished atonement for guilty sinners so that He could issue what is known as a principled pardon – one that upholds justice. The Bible clearly teaches penal-substitution as the only remedy for the dilemma of how a holy God can pardon sinners and remain just in the process. However, the opponents of penal-substitution declare that it is unjust and that the Gospel of penal-substitution is immoral and illogical.

This means that those who oppose and reject penal-substitution do so on the basis of its supposed foolishness. This is precisely the biblical record for those who oppose the Gospel – “For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God….For indeed Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and wisdom of God” (1 Corinthians 1:18, 22-24).

However, as is evident from the biblical record and from sound reasoning, the Gospel of penal-substitution is both the power of God and the wisdom of God. It is the supposed superior morality and intelligence of the opponents of the Gospel that causes them to view the Gospel as foolishness. They do this to their own destruction and shame. All throughout their arguments, the opponents of penal-substitution violate the principles of sound logic (they are not so wise after all), confuse categories, and exalt their sense of morality as higher than that of God Himself.

So, is penal-substitution fact or fiction? Is it immoral and illogical or is it the highest expression of both morality and logic? In order to establish the morality and logic of penal-substitution we will look at both sides of the argument and see who is in violation of sound logic and who is exalting a superior sense of morality.

First, we need to deal with penal-substitution as the only law-upholding basis for the justification of capital offenders (sinners). When a person has committed a capital offense the law-upholding penalty is capital punishment. Any court that fails to uphold capital punishment for criminals that are capital offenders is unjust. Justice has not been served if a capital offender goes free without the law-upholding penalty of capital punishment being carried out. The court would be unjust and the law against capital crimes would be useless.

So we must ask and answer the question of how can a court justify capital offenders and remain just in the process. If the court declares the guilty, “innocent”, then that is fiction. If the court pardons the guilty without the penalty of the law being upheld then that is injustice and an unprincipled pardon. If the court executes an innocent man in the place of the guilty man then the court is guilty of the highest form of injustice (this is precisely what Pilate did when he released Barabbas and had Jesus crucified – Matthew 27:26).

Now it would have been something altogether different if Pilate and Jesus had entered into a mutual agreement where Jesus was willing to take the place of Barabbas and die in his place and Pilate had the power to raise men from the dead. If that were the case then Pilate could have executed Jesus in the place of Barabbas and then he could have raised Jesus from the dead which would have justified Barabbas, provided proof of the justness of Jesus, and maintained the justness of Pilate. But Pilate did not have and no court on earth has the power to raise men from the dead so the possibility of penal-substitution as a means of justifying capital offenders while maintaining the justness of the court does not exist among men.

So with men, justifying capital offenders is an impossibility; but with God all things are possible (Matthew 19:25-26). There was a mutual agreement between Jesus Christ and God the Father where Jesus would live a sinless life under the Law; die a sacrificial death in fulfillment of the Law; and experience a supernatural resurrection so that God could be both just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus (Romans 3:26).

The common objections by the opponents of penal-substitution always fail to take into account the absolute necessity of the power to raise men from the dead in order for penal-substitution to be a moral and logical means of justifying capital offenders. When this happens then immediately categories have been confused and all sorts of unfounded objections arise which have no correlation to the subject at hand.

For instance, penal-substitution is declared to be a legal fiction by its opponents because they fail to take into account God’s legal transaction of transferring debt and payment of debt from one account to another. If a debt is actually paid by another who didn’t owe the debt then there is no fiction whatsoever as to the declaration of paid in full where the payment for the debt is credited to the account of the one who didn’t pay it. So if there has been a legal transaction by which an innocent party pays in full the debt owed on behalf of the guilty party, the declaration of justified isn’t legal fiction but is indeed legal fact!

This means that the certificate of debt that consisted of decrees of punishment against the capital offender has been cancelled and taken out of the way by a willing and able substitute that paid the debt (Colossians 2:13-14). There is now therefore no condemnation for the capital offender whose debt has been paid by another (Romans 8:1).

Does this mean that the capital offender can now commit as many crimes as he wishes? Absolutely not! His love for the One who paid his debt by dying in his place and being raised from the dead will move him to no longer live for himself but for the one who died for him (2 Corinthians 5:14-15). So God’s declaration of justification on the basis of faith in Christ is not only a legal fact of righteousness; it is also the beginning of the process by which the guilty sinner’s righteousness is becoming a literal fact. This is known as sanctification where the forgiven man’s actions are transformed into righteous acts by his love for and obedience to the One who died and rose again on his behalf. The life that the forgiven man now lives, he lives by trusting and obeying the One who loved him and gave Himself up for him (Galatians 2:20).

Also, penal-substitution is declared to be immoral because its opponents say that the innocent cannot die for the guilty. Says who? Again this would be immoral only if the innocent man wasn’t raised from the dead and thereby righteously and justly vindicated. Again this view falls short because it fails to take into consideration that God can do this without it being immoral precisely because He has the ability to raise men from the dead. The opponents of penal-substitution exalt their own morality above that of God.

From there the argument goes to penal-substitution being contrary to every known system of justice in the world. Duh! I guess so! No court on earth has the power to raise men from the dead and so even if an innocent man were willing to die in the place of a guilty capital offender, the court still couldn’t carry out the transaction in such a manner as to be just. And not only that, finding an innocent man willing to die for capital offenders isn’t going to happen in this world because this world doesn’t have that kind of love. The love that God bestows on undeserving sinners is an out of this world kind of love. Penal-substitution is the highest expression of love that can or ever will be demonstrated (Romans 5:6-8).

Penal-substitution is the only law-upholding, mercy-giving, and principled-pardon that a holy God can offer and still maintain His righteousness and His justice.

No Condemnation - Exempted Living (Romans 8:1-4) Part 2

The Law cannot claim you (Romans 8:3-4)

Since the Law cannot condemn you it also cannot claim you. Why is this so? Because Christ has already set you free from the Law’s condemnation by suffering and paying for the Law’s just claim over you on the cross. The “law of double jeopardy” states that a man cannot be tried twice for the same crime. God would not be just to condemn you when He has already condemned Jesus Christ in your place as though He was you. Since Jesus Christ paid the penalty for your sins and since you are in Christ, God will not condemn you.

The only safe place from the just wrath of God is in Christ Jesus. This is true because the Lord Jesus Christ is the only one who could and did suffer the wrath of God in our place so that we wouldn’t have to.

The Law cannot save a sinner from the wrath of God – it can only condemn the sinner and guarantee that he will indeed be the recipient of God’s wrath. Through the Law comes the knowledge of sin (Romans 3:20) and because of this the Law brings about wrath (Romans 4:15).

In Romans 8:1-2 we saw the twin truths of justification and sanctification and their relationship to one another. Romans 8:1 is a declaration of justification through no condemnation. Romans 8:2 is a declaration of sanctification because of no condemnation. We saw that justification is the cause of sanctification and that sanctification is not and cannot be the cause of justification. So this means that God’s legally declaring us righteous in Christ is the foundation and cause of our actually becoming righteous by loving Jesus and living for Jesus.

Romans 8:3-4 declares these twin truths of justification and sanctification once again. The Holy Spirit of God wants us to understand the God ordained order of our salvation. Justification always precedes and causes sanctification. Where there is no sanctification, justification has not taken place – not because sanctification causes justification but because justification always causes sanctification. These twin truths are devastating to the heresy of easy-believism and firmly establish the Biblical truth of Lordship salvation.

But not only are these twin truths devastating to libertinism they are also devastating to legalism. Paul has been laboring to show both the intent and the inability of the Law so that men would see their need to be justified and sanctified by faith and not by the Law. In other words the apostle has been laboring to show that the Law cannot justify and that it cannot sanctify. This is the perfect antidote against legalism.

So in Romans 8:3 we read about what the Law could not do but what God could and did do. “For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh.” Here we see four statements in this verse: (1) The Law cannot condemn sin in the flesh and therefore it cannot justify or sanctify, (2) the Law cannot justify or sanctify because of the weakness of our flesh, (3) what the Law could not do God did, and (4) God condemned sin in the flesh by sending His own Son and therefore we can be justified and sanctified by faith in Christ.

The Law cannot condemn sin in the flesh and therefore it cannot justify or sanctify. This doesn’t mean that the Law cannot criticize sin or show it to be worthy of death – this is precisely what the Law does. In the sense of passing the sentence of death on the sinner and guaranteeing that it must take place, the Law is perfectly capable. But this is not what our text is speaking of. Our text is speaking of having the ability to set us free from the law of sin and death not by condemning sin in the flesh by criticizing it but by actually condemning sin in the flesh by carrying out sin’s penalty through capitol punishment on a willing and able Substitute. This the Law cannot do! The Law cannot justify the sinner; it cannot exempt him but can only demand his execution. The Law cannot sanctify the sinner; it cannot change him but can only charge him with his crimes.

The Law cannot justify or sanctify because of the weakness of the flesh. “For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh….” This portion of verse 3 tells us why the Law cannot justify or sanctify – the weakness or wickedness of our flesh. The problem with the Law is not that its commandments are evil (Romans 7:12) but that we are evil and sold into bondage to sin (Romans 7:14). The word flesh means our old fallen nature – what we are by nature because of our connection to Adam. We are by nature sinners! Therefore it is our nature to rebel against God and His Law and therefore we are rightfully under condemnation. This means that we need to be delivered from the just condemnation that belongs to us and we need a new nature. We need justification and sanctification.

How will we be delivered from condemnation? Not by keeping the Law – we can’t! How will we get a new nature? Not by keeping the Law – we can’t! How then? By trusting not trying! The sooner we see our sickness the sooner we can seek the Savior! Our flesh cannot be empowered by the Law for the Law does not arrest sin in us but arouses it!

What the Law could not do, God did! The Law could not exempt us it could only guarantee our execution; the Law could not justify us. The Law could not change us it could only charge us with our crimes; the Law could not sanctify us! What the Law could not do, God did! God exempted us and justified us and He changed us and sanctified us. How did God do this?

God condemned sin in the flesh by sending His own Son. Here is the high and holy doctrine of Penal-Substitution. God executed the just penalty for sin in the flesh of His sinless Son as an offering or substitute for my sin and your sin. There was no sin in Christ to condemn so the condemnation that He received was not His own but as a substitute for others. This is clearly seen in 2 Corinthians 5:21 – “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

My sin was punished fully and in its finality in the body of Christ. And if my sin was punished there finally and fully, then I will not be punished for it again – “My sin O the bliss of this glorious thought; my sin not in part but the whole; is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more, praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!” (Horatio G. Spafford, It Is Well With My Soul, 1873).

But what was the purpose of God justifying us by condemning our sin in the flesh of His sinless Son? Was it just so that we would be justified and have a fire insurance policy guaranteeing that we wouldn’t go to hell? Did God intend to justify us and not change us? What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the condemnation of the Law but under grace? May it never be!

God justified us so that we would love Him and serve Him and thereby be sanctified. This is what verse 4 declares – “So that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”

The love of God rescued us from the wrath of God so that we would love God and serve Him in newness of life. Our justification causes our sanctification. We love Him because He first loved us. Another way of saying this wonderful truth is that we are sanctified because He first loved us and justified us. Our obedience is a result of love not Law.

The believer lives a righteous life, not in the power of the Law, but in the power of the Holy Spirit. The believer lives a righteous life, not by trying, but by trusting. This is what Paul meant when he said all the way back in Romans 1:17 that the righteous man shall live by faith.

The righteousness that God demands in His Law is fulfilled in us through the Holy Spirit’s power. Our sanctification – fulfilling the requirement of the Law – is based on our justification – Christ’s fulfilling the requirement of the Law on our behalf.

The Law cannot condemn us and it cannot claim us because of what God has done for us in Christ Jesus our Lord. We now have no condemnation and experience exempted living.

United with Christ in Death and Life

The apostle Paul was constantly misunderstood and falsely accused for preaching justification by faith by preaching the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Many speculations and lofty imaginations were raised up against the knowledge of God and His gospel. Paul's ministry was one of persuasion where he used the Word of God to destroy speculations and persuade men of the truth.

The constant attack against the gospel and against Paul's preaching was that he was giving a license to sin and was preaching against the Law if the gospel was true. However, nothing could be farther from the truth! So the speculation was reared by the legalistic Jews and it was rejected by the apostle Paul and then refuted by Paul.

The speculation reared against the Gospel of God (Romans 6:1) – Justification is so free and easy that it appears as that which will give a license to sin – it especially looks that way to the legalist. So the legalist rears up the speculation against the Gospel of God and accuses the Gospel of that which gives a license to sin.

The speculation rejected by the apostle Paul (Romans 6:2) – “May it never be!” Justification is not that which gives a license to sin and therefore there is no way that justification is against the Law – justification, the legal and actual declaration of righteousness in Christ, never fails to issue in sanctification – “How shall we who died to sin still live in it?”

The speculation refuted by the explanation of the Gospel pictured in baptism (Romans 6:2-11).

First, baptism pictures that we died to sin (Romans 6:2-7). In what sense have we died to sin? We have become united to Him. By God’s doing we are in Christ Jesus – God establishes a union between us and Christ so that His death is our death. This is in direct correlation to how we were united to Adam so that his disobedience is our disobedience and his condemnation is our condemnation. Those who are in Christ Jesus through faith in Him died with Him on the cross – His death was our death and God sees it as such and so do we (Romans 6:3); those who are in Christ Jesus were buried with Him – His burial was our burial (Romans 6:4); those who are in Christ Jesus have become united with Him in the likeness of His death (Romans 6:5); and those who are in Christ have been crucified with Him and are no longer to be slaves to sin (Romans 6:6-7).

So the outcome of being united to Christ through faith is that we have a new relationship to sin. You can’t go on living in sin because you have died to sin because Christ died to sin and when He died we died with Him. This is based on union through imputation. Anyone who claims to have a new relationship to God through Jesus should ask himself this question: does my professed relationship with Jesus give me a new relationship to sin? Have I died to sin?

It is an impossibility to be united to Christ without becoming a brand new person (2 Corinthians 5:17) because of now having a different relationship to sin – instead of living in it we have died to it. Justification never fails to issue in a person’s death to sin. Before we were saved we all formerly lived in and walked in the lusts of our flesh and indulged in the desires of the flesh and of the mind (Ephesians 2:3). But that is past tense! We were dead [to God] in our trespasses and sins, in which we formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived…(Ephesians 2:1-3).

Since justification never fails to issue in a person’s death to sin it also never fails to issue in sanctification which is a person’s life to God - “But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption” (1 Corinthians 1:30). So not only does our union with Christ provide the foundation for our justification; it also provides the foundation for our sanctification. This brings us to our second picture in baptism.

Second, baptism pictures that we are alive to God (Romans 6:8-11). A dead man needs more than anything else a new life principle. This is precisely the purpose of God in the Gospel as He puts us to death to sin in Christ and then raises us up with a new life principle under the Lordship of Christ (Romans 6:4). Here is where our journey of sanctification begins and it contradicts the fallacy that justification through faith gives a license to sin. So perfection is not yet and will not be arrived at in this life.

However, perfection is guaranteed in the future when we see Jesus (Romans 6:5; 1 Corinthians 15:49; Philippians 3:20-21; 1 John 3:2). But that is called glorification and here we are dealing with sanctification.

Baptism not only pictures justification – dying to sin – it also pictures sanctification – living to God – so that we see clearly that baptism contradicts the false notion of easy-believism.

Since baptism pictures that we have died to sin and are alive to God (Romans 6:8-11) then anyone who has been baptized but doesn’t have a new relationship to sin (no longer obeying it and its lusts) also doesn’t have a new relationship to God (obeying Him because we love Him) and his baptism is a sham, he doesn’t know what baptism means, and he doesn’t understand the Gospel.

Do you have a new relationship to God that is proven by your new relationship to sin? Have you died to sin and are you alive to God?

The Purpose of the Incarnation...The Real Purpose of Christmas

This is a repost of The Purpose of the Incarnation which I first posted on July 10, 2008. I felt the necessity to repost this at this time being we are in the Christmas season and particulary because of the trivialization, misinterpretation, and misrepresentation by many in our day concerning the true purpose of Christmas. Many in our day are reducing the love of God as found in His sending of His only Son to some form of "warm fuzzies" and are minimizing the purpose of our Lord taking on flesh and blood in order to live a perfect life by faith and then to die in the place of sinners in order for God to justly save sinners. So here it is:

Biblically speaking, what was the purpose of the incarnation? This question is of utmost importance and is not to be trivialized. To misunderstand the purpose of the incarnation is to misunderstand the righteousness of God and the necessity of penal substitution through a pure and sinless sacrifice for the purpose of God legally declaring the unjust, just, while God remains just. In simple terms (not trivial), God is just (right) and always will be and He will not violate who He is. Therefore God cannot and will not arbitrarily declare an unjust creature, just, without there being an actual legal transaction securing both the justness of God and the justness of the unjust. There has to be an imputation of the justness of a just substitute to the unjust or else God will not declare him or her to be so.

Therefore the incarnation was a necessity for penal substitution, for atonement! This was the primary purpose of the incarnation – to make propitiation for the sins of the people. I will establish this biblically but first I want to look at a few examples of misinterpreting and trivializing the incarnation.

Probably the most famous (should be infamous) for his misinterpretation of the incarnation and atonement would be Charles Finney. Concerning Christ and the atonement Finney said, “He can not plead as our Advocate that He has paid our debt, in such a sense that He can demand our discharge on the ground of justice. He has not paid our debt in such a sense that we do not still owe it. He has not atoned for our sins in such a sense that we might not still be justly punished for them. Indeed, such a thing is impossible and absurd. One being can not suffer for another in such a sense as to remove the guilt of that other. He may suffer for another's guilt in such a sense that it will be safe to forgive the sinner, for whom the suffering has been endured; but the suffering of the substitute can never, in the least degree, diminish the intrinsic guilt of the criminal. Our Advocate may urge that He has borne such suffering for us to honor the law that we had dishonored, that now it is safe to extend mercy to us; but He never can demand our discharge on the ground that we do not deserve to be punished. The fact of our intrinsic guilt remains, and must forever remain; and our forgiveness is just as much an act of sovereign mercy, as if Christ had never died for us” (Charles Finney, Christ Our Advocate, VI. What His plea in behalf of sinners is, Number 7).

So according to Finney man could have been forgiven based on the mercy of God alone and apart from the incarnation – “Our forgiveness is just as much an act of sovereign mercy, as if Christ had never died for us.”

Since Anselm (1033-1109) most of the Church has understood Christ's death in forensic, i.e., legal categories. In Cur Deus Homo, Anselm argued that God having willed to redeem us, he could so in no other way than by the incarnation.

Not so, however, for the Pelagians. In their scheme, it has been considered unjust for Christ to have suffered vicariously for sinners. How can one righteous person suffer for others, especially the unrighteous? This was Pelagius' argument and has been followed in more Modern times by Hugo Grotius (1583-1645) and Charles Grandison Finney (1792-1875).

Hugo Grotius was the major proponent of the governmental theory of the atonement. He trained as a lawyer rather than a clergyman. Following closely in his footsteps in the nineteenth century was another lawyer and proponent of the governmental theory of atonement, Charles Finney. According to the governmental theory of atonement, the purpose of Christ’s death was not to satisfy the demands of God’s just nature so that He might be able to do what He otherwise could not have done, namely, forgive sins. The governmental theory of atonement separates the person of God from the government of God so that sin is not a violation of God’s person but of His laws. However the two cannot be separated and to violate God’s laws is to violate God’s nature, His person.

Another example of misinterpreting and trivializing the incarnation is seen in writings of many in the postmodern movements of our day. Such as Ron Martoia in his book Morph. Seeking to justify being like the world to win the world (cultural relevance), the incarnation is grossly misinterpreted by Martoia as God’s desire to be culturally relevant. He says, “The quintessential example of genius intersection is, of course, the incarnation: God’s presence, voice, and message piercing and penetrating 1C culture. As we simply observe the potency of the incarnation, several things come to mind. God sent Jesus as a person. God could have sent the message packaged any number of ways. He didn’t choose a CD player to herald the good news, a Web page that automatically pops up every time someone logs on, or an MP3 download into our ear canal. The fact that he sent a person bespeaks God’s desire to be relevant, understandable, approachable, and relational (Ron Martoia, Morph, Group Publishing, 2003, pg. 17).

Could God have redeemed any other way? According to Martoia, “God could have sent the message packaged any number of ways.”

Did God send Jesus for the purpose of cultural relevance? According to Martoia, “The fact that he sent a person bespeaks God’s desire to be relevant, understandable, approachable, and relational.”

But according to God’s Word God could not have redeemed any other way, “Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives. For assuredly He does not give help to angels, but He gives help to the descendents of Abraham. Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For since He Himself was tempted in that which He suffered, He is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted” (Hebrews 2:14-18).

Penal substitution is the only way God can forgive and remain just. “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21). Therefore the incarnation was necessary for the realization of penal substitution and that is the primary biblical interpretation for the incarnation. If God could have redeemed any other way, surely He would have done it! But because there was no other way – what a demonstration of the love of God in penal substitution – “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).

Ex-plaining the Gospel and ex-tending an invitation?

You should excogitate your execrable nature that brought about the execution and exequy of the sinless Son of God whom God set forth as an exposition of the exclusive way that He can expiate your exigible debt. Not only that, Jesus Christ was exonerated through His resurrection from the dead so that God is exonerated and the exonerator of the one who exercises faith in Christ.



Therefore to this exigent matter I exhort you to excoriate your excuses and exercise faith in Christ, exulting in His exoneration and extolling Jesus as ex-officio head!

Christ: The Mercy Seat

In our study of the good news so far in Romans 3:21-25 we have seen some very wonderful aspects of this good news. First we saw in Romans 3:21 that God’s righteousness does not come by works of the Law. This is good news because if God’s righteousness does come by works of the Law then no man can be saved because no man can keep God’s Law. If the righteousness of God comes by works of the Law then it is way too far out of every man’s reach. But verse 21 says, “But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested….” To which every hopeless and helpless sinner should proclaim, “Hallelujah – this is indeed good news!”

Second we saw in Romans 3:22 that God’s righteousness does come by faith in Jesus Christ. This is good news because now that which was impossible for us to attain and was totally out of our reach has now been brought near and within our grasp by the work of Another on our behalf. Since the righteousness of God comes by faith in Jesus Christ it is very near as Romans 10:8-13 says, “But what does it say? The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart – that is the word of faith which we are preaching, that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. For the Scripture says, ‘Whoever believes in Him will not be disappointed.’ For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him; for ‘Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.’”

Third we saw in Romans 3:23 that God’s righteousness is provided for any sinner who will believe. This is good news because all have sinned, whether Jew or Greek, and whoever believes in Him will not be disappointed. There is no partiality with God and nothing makes one man more or less savable than another.

Fourth we saw in Romans 3:24 that God’s righteousness is provided as a gift to believing sinners without any cause in them to earn or merit the gift. This is extremely good news or only those who were smart enough or rich enough or famous enough or powerful enough or whatever enough could be saved. As believers we would do well to remember that God has declared us righteous without any cause in us, based solely on His grace, through the redemption from sin’s penalty that is in Christ Jesus.

Fifth we saw in Romans 3:25 that God’s righteousness which is provided to us as a gift of His grace was purchased at a great price and high cost to God. This is good news because the only way that a holy God could justify sinners and remain just Himself in the process was through the sinless life and sacrificial death of a willing Substitute on behalf of guilty sinners. This was none other than the sinless Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. God did not have to give His Son and could have justly sent us all to hell. But even at such a great price and high cost to Himself, God did not spare His own Son but delivered Him over for us all (Romans 8:32). What a loving God we serve!

Now let’s look a little deeper into this matter of the great price and high cost that God paid for the gift of our salvation. We will do this by considering Christ as the mercy seat.

Our text says, “Whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith” (Romans 3:25). If you have the NIV it says, “God presented Him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in His blood” (Romans 3:25 NIV). The word used here for “propitiation” or “sacrifice of atonement” means a sacrifice that turns away, satisfies, or appeases God’s holy wrath against sinners who have violated and not upheld His holy Law. So in propitiation the just wrath of God as the just penalty of God’s Law against ungodly, law-breaking sinners is turned away, appeased, or satisfied because His Law has been actually upheld through His wrath having been actually poured out on a sinless substitute.

So to speak of the cross of Christ as a propitiation or sacrifice of atonement is to speak of the sinless life of Christ and the sacrificial death of Christ as the only means of satisfying the justice of God and the only grounds by which He may extend mercy to any sinner. The Hebrew equivalent to the Greek word used for propitiation is used in the Old Testament in reference to the Mercy Seat in the Holy of Holies, where the high priest went once a year, on the Day of Atonement, to make sacrifice on behalf of the people. Therefore we could translate this verse as “whom God displayed publicly as a mercy seat in His blood through faith."

This brings us to one of the most wonderful illustrations of the work of Christ that is to be found in the whole Bible – Christ: the Mercy Seat! In order to understand this illustration and what Christ accomplished we must go back to the Old Testament and explain the symbolism of the work of Christ as found in Ark of the Covenant.

First though, we will start with Moses’ going up on Mount Sinai and receiving the two tablets of stone on which God wrote His Ten Commandments. While Moses was meeting with God on Mount Sinai and receiving Ten Commandments he was also receiving instructions from God on the construction of the Tabernacle and its furnishings. In Exodus 25:10-22 we read about the instructions for constructing the Ark of the Covenant. In Exodus 25:16 we read that the two tablets which contained the Law of God was to be put into the ark. In Exodus 25:17-21 we read about the instructions for constructing the mercy seat, the lid for the Ark of the Covenant. “You shall make a mercy seat…” literally a propitiatory (Exodus 25:17).

While Moses was on Mount Sinai receiving not only the Ten Commandments on the two tablets of stone, he was also receiving all the necessary instructions for the construction of the Tabernacle and the proper regulations of divine worship (see Hebrews 9:1-5). But because Moses was gone for so long the people got out of control (Exodus 32:25), made a golden calf, and offered it burnt offerings and peace offerings; and the people entered into immorality (Exodus 32:1-6).

So when Moses came down with the Law in his hands which he was supposed to put into the Ark of the Covenant after its construction, he became angry and threw the tablets from his hands and shattered them at the foot of the mountain (Exodus 32:19). But God commanded Moses to bring two new tablets and He once again wrote the Ten Commandments on the new tablets (Exodus 34:1, 28). These unbroken tablets of God’s Law were placed in the Ark of the Covenant when the tabernacle was erected and the Ark was placed in the Holy of Holies (Exodus 40:17-21).

The broken tablets speak of man’s inability to keep God’s Law. However, the unbroken tablets speak of the Lord Jesus Christ, who in the fullness of time, was born of a woman, born under the Law, and kept the Law perfectly. Just as the unbroken Law was kept in the Ark of the Covenant so the Lord Jesus Christ kept the Law totally and therefore He was without sin, without spot, and without blemish.

But the Ark of the Covenant had on it a lid called the mercy seat. Inside the Ark was the unbroken Law which demands justice through the execution of any sinner. There is no mercy in the Law – only justice – but God in His love has provided a way to maintain the justice of His Law and to extend mercy. This is the purpose of the mercy seat. At each end of the mercy seat were two cherubim (Exodus 25:18). It was on the mercy seat in between the two cherubim that once a year the high priest came in and sprinkled the blood of the lamb on the mercy seat showing that the payment for sin against the Law had been made by an innocent substitute – one that had not violated or broken the Law. The reason that flawless animals were required by God in the sacrificial system is because they were to illustrate the flawless life of the Lord Jesus Christ who would then die to uphold the justice of God’s Law in order that God could legally extend mercy to those who would receive it.

So in essence, the Mercy Seat was an illustration of the death bed of the innocent substitute who would never break God’s Law but who would die for those who had. “But Mary was standing outside the tomb weeping; and so, as she wept, she stooped and looked into the tomb; and she saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head and one at the feet, where the body of Jesus had been lying” (John 20:11-12).

Justified Without a Cause

As we have moved into the good news, the heart of the gospel in Romans 3:21 and following, we have already seen three wonderful aspects of the good news.

First we saw that the righteousness of God does not come by the Law (Romans 3:21). This is indeed good news because if the righteousness of God does come by the Law then it is completely out of our reach because there is not a single one of us that can even come close to keeping the Law of God because we are all sinners and we are all incapable of meeting the standard of righteousness that God requires.

Second we saw that the righteousness of God does come by faith (Romans 3:22). Again this is indeed good news because now we see that through faith in Jesus Christ the righteousness that God requires is very near to us having been achieved for us by the perfect obedience of Christ to the precepts of the Law in His sinless life and by the perfect obedience of Christ to the penalty for violating the Law in His sinless and yet sacrificial death. We need both aspects of Christ’s obedience to the Law if we are to be saved because we need His perfect obedience to the precepts of the Law credited to our account because we are incapable of perfect obedience to the precepts of the Law and we need His perfect obedience to the penalty of the Law credited to our account because we have already broken the Law and owe its penalty. This was the whole purpose of the incarnation and the reason that God sent His only Son into the world – so that Jesus Christ, the Son of God in flesh, could live a perfect life under the Law, die for crimes against the Law, and thereby become the Savior of all who believe in Him. “But when the fullness of time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons” (Galatians 4:4-5).

Before we move on to the third wonderful aspect of the good news let me say a word about the necessity of the incarnation through a virgin. Adam was created first, given the responsibility of headship, and was therefore viewed by God in a legal capacity as the federal head of the human race. Therefore when Adam sinned God imputed the sin of Adam to the rest of his descendants who would ever be born through the agency or the seed of a man. Mary, the mother of Jesus had a sin nature just like the rest of humanity because Mary was born through the agency or seed of a man. However, when God brought His Son into the world He did it without the agency or seed of a man – “Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel” (Matthew 1:23). Since God brought His Son into the world this way then He did not have to impute to Him the sin of Adam and his sin nature. Jesus was born under the Law but without a sin nature and was therefore able to do what Adam did not do although Adam also did not have a sin nature to begin with.

Third we saw that the righteousness of God is provided for all who believe and only those who believe because all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:22-23). This is indeed good news because God didn’t have to provide His righteousness to any sinner. Since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God then all who attempt to attain the righteousness of God some other way and who do not recognize the work of Christ on their behalf will be horrified on the day of judgment. Necessary to receiving the gift of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ is the recognition of one’s sinfulness and inability to attain the righteousness of God by works of the Law. We must recognize that we can’t and He never said we could; He can and He always said He would. We must recognize that the only way we can ever attain the righteousness of God is as a gift without any cause whatsoever in us.

And that brings us to our text where we see that we are justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus (Romans 3:24).

Justified – means to declare the rightness of something or someone. Justification is God’s legal and right declaration that all the demands of His Law are fulfilled on behalf of the believing law-breaker through the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

Justification is a legal transaction that changes the judicial standing of the sinner before God. Our justification must be a legal transaction or else the transaction itself would be illegal. If God is illegal in justifying the ungodly then God Himself would be unjust. The apostle Paul will deal with this matter thoroughly in Romans 3:25-26.

In a matter of strict justice the only pardon that can be given is a principled pardon whereby first and foremost the one giving the pardon does so in a legal manner which upholds the law. So in a matter of strict justice you cannot pardon someone without dealing out the punishment. So under strict justice the only pardon that can legally be offered is one of Penal Substitution.

So our justification is a legal and principled pardon based on all the demands of the Law being fulfilled on our behalf by the work of Christ that is given to us as a gift by God’s grace – Oh what a Savior!

Gift/Freely – since we cannot attain the righteousness of God through the Law because of our wickedness then the only way that we can be justified is as a gift. And if it is as a gift then we do not deserve it nor can we earn it. A gift is something given freely, unearned, and undeserved by the recipient.

The KJV says, “Being justified freely by His grace….” The NASB says, “Being justified as a gift by His grace….” The Greek word translated “freely” or “gift” means gratuitously or without a cause. The same Greek word is translated in John 15:25 as “without a cause” – “But they have done this to fulfill the word that is written in their Law, ‘They hated Me without a cause.’”

We are justified without a cause! In other words we are justified as a gift, freely, or without a cause because there is no cause in us that would merit the salvation of God or cause Him to show us favor. It is all of grace!

Grace – is giving what one does not deserve. We do not deserve the gift of salvation through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus but God gives it because He is rich in mercy and full of grace. We deserve to die and go to hell being separated from God for all eternity but in His grace He offers us a full and free pardon and eternal life with Him for all eternity through Jesus Christ.

Redemption – carries the idea of delivering, especially by means of paying a price. Salvation is free but it is not cheap!

“Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20).

“Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us – for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree…” (Galatians 3:13).

“But when the fullness of time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons” (Galatians 4:4-5).

“For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly and righteously and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds” (Titus 2:11-14).

“Knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ” (1 Peter 1:18-19).