Topic : Death, of Christ

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• One animal sacrifice per man, Genesis 3
• One sacrifice per family, Exodus 12:3-14
• One sacrifice per nation, Tabernacle in wilderness, Day of atonement
• One sacrifice per world, John 1:29, Heb 10:1-14

Charts of Christian Theology and Doctrine, H. Wayne House, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publ. House, 1992), p. 108

1A. In relation to God the Father.

1B. To do God’s will: Hebrews 10:7,9.

2B. To demonstrate God’s love: John 3:16; Romans 5:8; I John 3:16; 4:10.

3B. To reconcile us to God: Romans 5:9-11; II Corinthians 5:18-19; Ephesians 2:16; Colossians 1:20-22.

4B. To bring us to God: I Peter 3:18; Hebrews 2:9-13.

5B. To demonstrate God’s righteousness: Romans 3:24-26; II Corinthians 5:21.

2A. In relation to the devil.

— To destroy the power and works of the devil: Colossians 1:13; 2:15; Hebrews 2:14-15; I John 3:8.

3A. In relation to the law: Galatians 3:13-14; 4:5; Romans 7:1-6; 10:4.

4A. In relation to sin.

1B. To bear our sins: I Peter 2:24.

2B. To take away sin: John 1:29; Hebrews 9:26-28; 10:4, 11; I John 3:5.

3B. To be a final sacrifice for sin: Hebrews 7:26-27.

4B. To be the propitiation for our sins: I John 2:2; 4:20.

5B. To cleanse us from all sin: I John 1:7; Revelation 1:5.

6B. To forgive us of our sins: Ephesians 1:7; Colossians 1:14; 2:13-14.

7B. To redeem us: Galatians 3:13-14; 4:5; I Peter 1:18-19; Titus 2:14; Revelation 5:9-10.

8B. To save sinners: I Timothy 1:15; Hebrews 7:25.

5A. In relation to the believer’s future.

1B. To perfect us forever: Hebrews 10:14.

2B. To give us eternal life: John 3:14-16; Romans 6:22-23; I John 5:6-13.

3B. To save us from wrath: Romans 5:9.

The Biola Hour Guidelines, What We Believe, by David L. Hocking, (La Mirada, CA: Biola Univ., 1982), pp. 21-22

“Where is God?” inquired the mind:
“To His presence I am blind. . . .
I have scanned each star and sun,
Traced the certain course they run;

I have weighed them in my scale,
And can tell when each will fail;
From the caverns of the night
I have brought new worlds to light;

I have measured earth and sky
Read each zone with steady eye;
But no sight of God appears
In the glory of the spheres.”

But the heart spoke wistfully,
“Have you looked at Calvary?”

Thomas C. Clark

Quoted by John Gilmore in Probing Heaven, Key Questions on the Hereafter, (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1989, p. 97

Jesus! whose blood so freely stream’d
To satisfy the law’s demand;
By Thee from guilt and wrath redeem’d,
Before the Father’s face I stand.

To reconcile offending man,
Make Justice drop her angry rod;
What creature could have form’d the plan,
Or who fulfil it but a God'

No drop remains of all the curse,
For wretches who deserved the whole;
No arrows dipt in wrath to pierce
The guilty, but returning soul.

Peace by such means so dearly bought,
What rebel could have hoped to see'
Peace, by his injured Sovereign wrought,
His Sovereign fasten’d to a tree.

Now, Lord, Thy feeble worm prepare!
For strife with earth, and hell begins;
Confirm and gird me for the war;
They hate the soul that hates his sins.

Let them in horrid league agree!
They may assault, they may distress;
But cannot quench Thy love to me,
Nor rob me of the Lord my peace.

Olney Hymns, William Cowper, from Cowper’s Poems, Sheldon & Company, New York

There is a fountain fill’d with blood
Drawn from Emmanuel’s veins;
And sinners, plunged beneath that flood,
Lose all their guilty stains.

The dying thief rejoiced to see
That fountain in his day;
And there have I, as vile as he,
Wash’d all my sins away.

Dear dying Lamb, Thy precious blood
Shall never lose its power,
Till all the ransom’d church of God
Be saved, to sin no more.

E’er since, by faith, I saw the stream
Thy flowing wounds supply,
Redeeming love has been my theme,
And shall be till I die.

Then in a nobler, sweeter song,
I’ll sing Thy power to save;
When this poor lisping, stammering tongue
Lies silent in the grave.

Lord I believe Thou hast prepared
(Unworthy though I be)
For me a blood-bought free reward,
A golden harp for me!

‘Tis strung and tuned for endless years,
And form’d by power divine,
To sound in God the Father’s ears
No other name but Thine.

Olney Hymns, by William Cowper, from Cowper’s Poems, Sheldon & Company, New York

When Jesus said, “If you are going to follow me, you have to take up a cross,” it was the same as saying, “Come and bring your electric chair with you. Take up the gas chamber and follow me.” He did not have a beautiful gold cross in mind - the cross on a church steeple or on the front of your Bible. Jesus had in mind a place of execution.

Billy Graham in “The Offense of the Cross” (from Great Sermons on Christ, Wilbur M. Smith, ed.)

An Englishman by the name of Ebenezer Wooten had just concluded a preaching service in the village square. The crowd had dispersed, and he was busily engaged in loading the equipment. A young man approached him and asked, “Mr. Wooten, what must I do to be saved?” Sensing that the fellow was trusting his own righteousness, Wooten answered in a rather unconcerned way, “It’s too late!” The inquirer was startled. “Oh don’t say that, sir!” But the evangelist insisted, “It’s too late!” Then, looking the young man in the eye, he continued, “You want to know what you must DO to be saved. I tell you it’s too late now or any other time. The work of salvation is done, completed, finished! It was finished on the cross.” Then he explained that our part is simply to acknowledge our sin and receive by faith the gift of forgiveness.

Our Daily Bread

Why did the Father will the death of his only beloved Son, and in so painful and shameful a form? Because the Father had “laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isa. 53:6). Jesus’ death was vicarious (undergone in our place) and atoning (securing remission of sins for us and reconciliation to God). It was a sacrificial death, fulfilling the principle of atonement taught in connection with the Old Testament sacrifices: “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins” (Heb. 9:22; Lev. 17:11).

As the “last Adam,” the second man in history to act on mankind’s behalf, Jesus died a representative death. As a sacrificial victim who put away our sins by undergoing the death penalty that was our due, Jesus died as our substitute. By removing God’s wrath against us for sin, his death was an act of propitiation (Rom. 3:25; 1 John 2:2,; 4:10 —“expiation,” signifying that which puts away sin, is only half the meaning). By saving us from slavery to ungodliness and divine retribution for sin, Jesus’ death was an act of redemption (Gal. 3:13; Eph. 1:7; 1 Pet. 1:18-19). By mediating and making peace between us and God, it was an act of reconciliation (Rom. 5:10-11). It opened the door to our justification (pardon and acceptance) and our adoption (becoming God’s sons and heirs—Rom. 5:1,9; Gal. 4:4-5).

This happy relationship with our Maker, based on and sealed by blood atonement, is the “New Covenant” of which Jesus spoke in the Upper Room (1 Cor. 11:25; Matt. 26:28).

Your Father Loves You by James Packer, (Harold Shaw Publishers, 1986), page for December 27.

As we look at the cross and interpret it, with the help of the Holy Spirit, and in the light of what the Bible says about it, we see many truths that are basic to personal religion:

• God condones nothing but judges all sin as it deserves, which Scripture affirms and my conscience confirms to be right.
• My sins merit ultimate penal suffering and rejection from God’s presence (conscience also confirms this), and nothing I do can blot them out.
• The penalty due me for my sins was paid for me by Jesus Christ, the Son of God, in his death on the cross.
• Because this is so, through faith in him I am made the righteousness of God (2 Cor. 5:21): i.e., I am justified. Pardon, acceptance, and sonship become mine.
• Christ’s death for me is my sole ground of hope before God.
• My faith in Christ is God’s own gift to me, given in virtue of Christ’s own death for me: i.e., the cross procured it.
• Christ’s death for me guarantees my preservation to glory.
• Christ’s death for me is the measure and pledge of the Father and Son’s love for me.
• Christ’s death for me calls and constrains me to trust, worship, love and serve.

Your Father Loves You by James Packer, (Harold Shaw Publishers, 1986), page for April 5

During the Middle Ages there was a popular story which circulated about Martin of Tours, the saint for whom Martin Luther was named. It was said that Satan once appeared to St Martin in the guise of the Savior himself. St. Martin was ready to fall to his feet and worship this resplendent being of glory and light. Then, suddenly, he looked up into the palms of his hands and asked, “Where are the nail prints?” Whereupon the apparition vanished.

Source unknown

When Lincoln’s body was brought from Washington to Illinois, it passed through Albany and it was carried through the street. They say a black woman stood upon the curb and lifted her little son as far as she could reach above the heads of the crowd and was heard to say to him, “Take a long look, honey. He died for you.”

So, if I could, I would lift up your spirit to see Calvary. Take a long look, He died for you.

Source unknown

• Knowing Christ, Craig Glickman, p. 89, 7 words from the cross

I read about a small boy who was consistently late coming home from school. His parents warned him one day that he must be home on time that afternoon, but nevertheless he arrived later than ever. His mother met him at the door and said nothing.

At dinner that night, the boy looked at his plate. There was a slice of bread and a glass of water. He looked at his father’s full plate and then at his father, but his father remained silent. The boy was crushed.

The father waited for the full impact to sink in, then quietly took the boy’s plate and placed it in front of himself. He took his own plate of meat and potatoes, put it in front of the boy, and smiled at his son. When that boy grew to be a man, he said, “All my life I’ve known what God is like by what my father did that night.”

J. Allan Peterson

Source unknown

In his book Written in Blood, Robert Coleman tells the story of a little boy whose sister needed a blood transfusion. The doctor explained that she had the same disease the boy had recovered from two years earlier. Her only chance for recovery was a transfusion from someone who had previously conquered the disease. Since the two children had the same rare blood type, the boy was the ideal donor.

“Would you give your blood to Mary?” the doctor asked.

Johnny hesitated. His lower lip started to tremble. Then he smiled and said, “Sure, for my sister.”

Soon the two children were wheeled into the hospital room—Mary, pale and thin; Johnny, robust and healthy. Neither spoke, but when their eyes met, Johnny grinned.

As the nurse inserted the needle into his arm, Johnny’s smile faded. He watched the blood flow through the tube.

With the ordeal almost over, his voice, slightly shaky, broke the silence. “Doctor, when do I die?’

Only then did the doctor realize why Johnny had hesitated, why his lip had trembled when he’d agreed to donate his blood. He’s thought giving his blood to his sister meant giving up his life. In that brief moment, he’d made his great decision.

Johnny, fortunately, didn’t have to die to save his sister. Each of us, however, has a condition more serious than Mary’s, and it required Jesus to give not just His blood but His life.

Thomas Lindberg

Written in Blood, by Robert Coleman