PART TWO: The Long-Term Plan of God

13    Planned before the world began

14    God's Preplanned Salvation

15    God's Sovereign Foreknowledge

16    The Son - comes at the right time

17    The Son - working to a Schedule

PART THREE: The Prophetic Work of the Son seen in Isaiah

18    The Son - exalted but disfigured

19    The Son - a man of sorrows

20    The Son - a carrier of our infirmities?

21    The Son - pierced and crushed

22    Us - wandering sheep?

23    The Son - oppressed and afflicted

PART FIVE : Jesus' Seven Words on the Cross

41    Sinful Ignorance

42    Death-Bed Confessions

43    Caring - Part 3!

44    The Sin Bearer Crushed

45    The Sin Bearer Exhausted

46    The Task Completed

Yesterday we began to see Jesus as God's sacrificial lamb. Today we follow that path some more and open out more generally the work of the Son.

Jn 1:29 The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!

Rev 5:5,6 Then one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals.” Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing in the centre of the throne

Consider:

Isaiah referred to the Messiah as one who was like a lamb being led to the slaughter. John the Baptist, seeing Jesus approach, identified Jesus as God's lamb who takes away the sin of the world. In the revelation that John received on Patmos , John was made aware of a scroll that recorded the last times and became aware that there was no one worthy of taking charge of those times. As he anguished over this state of affairs, he was told to look and observe one who was royalty from the tribe of Judah , descended from king David, and when he looked he saw a lamb with marks on it of having been slain. It stood at the centre of the throne, in the central place of authority, and there can be no mistake, this refers to Jesus, the saviour of the world.

Here he is portrayed, as a lamb, THE lamb that was sacrificed for the sin of the world. In Rev 5:9 a song is sung to the lamb and about him, “ And they sang a new song: “You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.” Here it is; he was worthy to be given the job of rolling out and overseeing the end-time judgments because he had come and given his life to ransom back people from every part of the globe.

This concept of Christ purchasing or ransoming us, come up many times in Scripture. For example: Mk 10:45 For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. Heb 9:15 For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance–now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.

A ransom is a common term in history. Prisoners of war might be released on payment of money, called a ransom. Slaves similarly might be freed by the payment of a ransom. Jesus had taught (Jn 8:34) “I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin.” Thus we will see later, By coming and paying the price of punishment for our sins, Jesus took away the punishment for us and broke the power that Sin had previously had over us. The Cross thus purchased freedom!

Prayer:

Lord, thank you that through the Cross, justice has been achieved and the penalty paid for my sin. Thank you so much.

We follow the idea of Jesus being our sacrificial lamb through to see him being our ransom, our redeemer.

1 Pet 1:18,19 For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.

Consider:

We have been considering Jesus as the Lamb of God, who was sacrificed to take away our sins. That is the picture conveyed by Scripture. At the beginning of these meditations we considered the need for the Cross – our helpless, sinful situation, prisoners to Sin. Then yesterday, we considered the concept of a ransom and now that other word, ‘redeemed'.

Redeemed is the language of the pawn shop. Something has been given up to raise funds. It is now the property of the pawnbroker until it is ‘redeemed' by its proper owner coming and paying the price to reclaim it. Ah, there is an interesting picture – to reclaim it, to bring it back out of the shop into the place where it should be. So, here is humanity, created perfect by God in Adam and Eve. They sin, they fall, and their relationship with God is broken, they are exiled from His presence and they are held in the enemies ‘shop' until someone comes to redeem them somehow.

What can bring them back into the place of relationship with God, with their past sins dealt with and the power of Sin over them broken so they no longer have to sin? The Israelites were brought out of Egypt through the Exodus, established as God's people at Sinai, and then given a land in which to live whereby they could become a light to the rest of the world (the Gentiles), revealing God's presence and glory in and through them. Yet their sinfulness kept on coming through and the so-called ‘relationship' with God deteriorated into an outward form with no inner reality. They simply performed religious acts which has little or no effect on them and was a very poor representation of the relationship that was intended. It was indeed “an empty way of life”.

As for Gentiles, the absence of any real relationship was countered by myriads of false religions, false beliefs, all struggling and striving – and failing – at creating a form of religion that was meaningful. We trust in a material world, but will silver or gold, the very symbols of wealth, help achieve holiness? Never in a month of Sundays! The sacrificial system instigated at God's instruction by Moses, pointed towards a reality – only by God's way can Sin be dealt with, only by God's Son himself taking it, would the punishment taken be big enough to cover every person in the world that came in humility seeking forgiveness, only He was big enough for this task!

Prayer:

Lord, our lives without you are empty and all our attempts at spirituality are self-centred sinful acts. Thank you that you have done what we could not, that you have bought us back to be where you designed us to be – with You!

We continue to pursue this concept of God redeeming, or buying us back by the blood of Jesus on the Cross.

Gal 3:13,14 13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.” 14 He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.

Consider:

Let's go straight in on these verses, there is much here. There are two Biblical concepts we need to understand straight away: blessings and curses. A blessing is simply God's decree of goodness. Before the Law came, Isaac understood this (read Gen 27) when he imparted a prophetic blessing, God's decree of goodness, to Jacob. After he found he had been deceived, he realised that once uttered this decree could not be either withdrawn or repeated, because its origin was in heaven. A curse is simply God's decree of bad. Balaam (Num 22:38) understood he could only bless or curse as God decreed it. The full force of blessings and curses are seen in Deuteronomy (11:26-28) as blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience. The details of those are in Deut 28. Obedience would be rewarded by God's decree of good and disobedience would receive His curse, or decree of bad. This was the Law in its simplicity.

The only trouble was that the people of Israel found it impossible to keep the Law and so they were constantly under a curse, they were constantly doomed to failure and its consequences. Israel prove to us (if we haven't noticed it in ourselves) that it is impossible to keep the rules!

Also in Deuteronomy was a law that anyone who was guilty was to be killed and their body to be hung on a tree as a public display and reminder of the awfulness of their guilt (Deut 21:22,23). If that was awful, how much more, is what Paul is implying, must actually dying hung up, be. On the Cross Jesus was hung to die in full public display. By this, Paul continues, he was paying our price and bringing us back into a place before the Law where we can inherit the blessings that were promised to Abraham, that come by simple faith and not by self-striving.

God's blessing of goodness promised to Abraham was promised to all people of faith and so the end product of God's plan is that we be reunited with Him to such an extent that we actually receive Him Himself into us, His Holy Spirit. What a staggering change – from being estranged from God, trying to keep the laws and failing, to becoming a child of God, indwelt by God's very presence! Isn't that incredible! And the thing that made that change possible? Jesus' death on the Cross!

Prayer:

We will be pursuing further the concept of redemption but for today we're going to take a side step to consider just what has happened by this redeeming work of Jesus, as seen in another of Paul's letters.

Col 1:13,14    For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, 14 in whom we have redemption, (through his blood) the forgiveness of sins .

Consider:

  The concept of redemption is here in these verses, but we want to focus more on verse 13 to see what has happened to us. Paul starts with a significant phrase: “ he has rescued us ”. When you ‘rescue' someone they are in a place of desperate helplessness. That is what these mediations have been telling us, for this is the message of the Bible: we were helpless and desperately needing help.

Then Paul tells us what we were rescued from: the dominion of darkness. Now a dominion is a place under the control of someone in power. Now the apostle John in his first letter (1 Jn 5:19) makes the terrible assertion that “the whole world is under the control of the evil one”, meaning under Satan's control. What does he mean by this? Very simply he means that Satan is able to dominate every person in the world who has never come to a place of crying out to God for help and forgiveness, and who are still motivated by godless self-centredness. Such people will be deceived in their godless thinking and will be prey to temptation and will therefore live unrighteous lives. The sin in their lives (godless, selfish, unrighteousness) is the thing that Satan can play on to ‘control' them.

This indeed is a “dominion (or rule) of darkness.” Paul spoke about this same domination in Eph 2:2,3 when he spoke about the lives we Christians used to live before Christ rescued us. That was our state – disobedient, responding only to our sensual cravings and futile thoughts, and under God's judgement. That was bad news, and whatever we tried to do to escape it, was doomed to failure. However hard we tried, we still failed, and we still felt guilty.

And then we heard the good news about Jesus, that he had died to pay the punishment for our sins and to bring us forgiveness and a new power by which to live. We reached out in faith to receive it – we believed and said, yes please! And suddenly life was different, suddenly we were new people, suddenly the spiritual air was different – we had been taken out of the darkness and were now under the glorious reign of Jesus. It was a new world, a different world and we were free. Suddenly focusing on rules was no longer the issue, guilt was not an issue. Suddenly it was love, peace, joy and so much more! We who were helpless simply cried for it and He who has the power did it for us!

Prayer:

Lord, thank you so much for the wonder of these truths. I was helpless and hopeless, dominated by darkness, but you came and called and when in anguish I cried out, you responded and drew me out of the darkness and brought me into this place of light, this place of freedom and joy and goodness. Thank you that you did what I could not do – you set me free!

Yes, it is a different day but it is the same two verses. Today we must look at the second verse.

Col 1:13,14 13 For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, 14 in whom we have redemption, (through his blood) the forgiveness of sins .

Consider:

In verse 14 Paul links redemption and forgiveness of sins. In Ex 21:29 ,30 in the law for personal injuries, where a bull that was known to be dangerous killed someone, the bull and its owner would have their lives forfeited. However if the other family wants to be lenient they can allow him to keep his life and he will have to ‘redeem' it by paying whatever is demanded. Hold onto that for a moment.

Now the name ‘Satan' means accuser and in Zech 3:1 we find a picture of Satan standing by Joshua the high priest accusing him of his sin (v.4). In Rev 12:10 we find reference to Satan who accuses the people of God “before our God day and night”. Now the Bible is quite clear that “the wages of sin is death” (Rom 6:23) so Satan has every right to accuse us sinners and claim that justice demands that the logical fruit of sin – death – be applied.

Now there a several things to be attended to in this ‘court case', Satan being the main prosecuting counsel. As our defence counsel (see 1 Jn 2:1) Jesus has to deal with the question of our need of forgiveness. We have offended God and we have offended justice, and Satan can reasonably demand that punishment is due, not forgiveness. The only way to remove the demand for justice is to remove the sin and the only way to remove the sin and its claim against us, is by the punishment being meted out. God cannot, and does not, say, “It's all right, I forgive you, let's pretend it didn't happen,” because we all know (and Satan and the rest of Creation knows) it DID happen and we ARE guilty and we DO deserve the punishment.

But then Jesus stepped down onto the earth – the Son of God in human flesh – and allowed himself to be put to death, and then to go to hell, instead of us. That was what was happening at Easter; that was what the Cross was all about – Jesus paying the price to redeem us. The punishment for our sin was taken by him. The Law was satisfied, justice is satisfied, God is satisfied – and Satan has to be satisfied! The innocent has taken the guilt, and the guilty have been released and forgiven, and all the demands of the Law have been met! The moment we come in repentance and ask God to forgive us, He, the Judge (see Jas 4:12), turns to Jesus who speaks out (1 Jn 2:1,2), “Father, I have died for them, I paid the price for them, I took their punishment” and on the basis of that , the Father grants forgiveness, and we are freed.

Prayer:

Lord, thank you that Jesus paid the price and redeemed me, he took my punishment on the Cross and on the basis of that alone , I ask for and receive your forgiveness. Thank you for the wonder of that, that Jesus has done everything necessary for my freedom to be granted.

Today, as we move on our understanding about redemption, we link repentance and forgiveness.

Mk 1:4 And so John came, baptizing in the desert region and preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

Mk 1:14,15 After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee , proclaiming the good news of God. 15 “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!”

1 Jn 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

Consider:

Our problem, so often, is that when we read bits of Scripture that is what it is, only a bit, and we need to see the whole teaching to get the whole picture. Yesterday we saw the wonder of Jesus stepping in and taking our punishment on the Cross, providing the ‘redemption money' for our release. Now the temptation of some who have not sought for the bigger picture, is to assume that Jesus' death on the Cross automatically operates for every single human being and so everybody IS saved. Now that approach (“universalism”) misses one key truth that comes up in Scripture again and again and again: God only grants forgiveness when there is repentance! (Check it out if you're not sure about that, e.g. Deut 29:20, 2 Chron 7:14, Jer 5:7, Lev 4:20, Acts 2:38 – in each case the rule is ‘no repentance, no forgiveness. When there is repentance, then there can be forgiveness).

John came baptising as an outward sign of inner repentance that would release forgiveness from heaven. Jesus came saying repent and believe the wonderful news – God's rule is here, believe it, receive it – and then went on to bring the blessing of God on all who would respond to him – but they had to come. John the apostle declared the principle: confess (repent) and then receive forgiveness and cleansing (1 Jn 1:9). We need to understand this: we have to come in repentance, acknowledging our sin, acknowledging our need, before God will forgive.

But understand this also, that our act of repentance does not earn our salvation, it merely opens the door for us to receive it. Jesus death on the Cross, and that alone, is the thing that earns our freedom. That act of providing the payment for our redemption, that act alone, is the thing God looks to as the basis for our salvation. Our coming in repentance is simply us coming into the court room after the case has been decided and say, “Yes, that was all about me, that was my sin he way paying for. Please will you forgive me on the basis of that.” – and He does.

Prayer:

Lord, I acknowledge that NOTHING that I have done earns my salvation. It is all what Jesus has done on the Cross. Thank you for the wonder of that.

In many ways the things we have looked at so far, skirt around the central issue of Easter, and that we are now beginning to home in on.

1 Jn 2:1,2    Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. 2 He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for [*] the sins of the whole world.

(* or He is the one who turns aside God's wrath, taking away our sins, and not only ours but also.. )

Consider:

We need to reiterate what we said yesterday: our act of repentance does not earn our salvation; it merely opens the door for us to receive it. Jesus death on the Cross, and that alone, is the thing that earns our freedom. That act of providing the payment for our redemption, that act alone, is the thing God looks to as the basis for our salvation.

Let's say it again: we are saved not by our own acts, but because of what Christ has done. When we appeal to God for mercy, we appeal on the basis of what Christ has already achieved for us on the Cross. Look at the language of today's verse. This version speaks of “the atoning sacrifice for our sins ” with an alternative note “ He is the one who turns aside God's wrath.”

The word that is used there is the same as in the parable that Jesus told involving two men who came to pray in the temple, the latter being a sinner who prayed, “God have mercy on me, a sinner” (Lk 18:13). A better rendering of that might be, “O God, turn your wrath from me, a sinner.” The same idea is seen in Heb 2:17 , “that he might make atonement for the sins of the people”, with an alternative note rendering, “ that he might turn aside God's wrath.”

Here we come to the crux of Easter; it was God's way of dealing with God's anger against man's sin. Now we're going to have to unpack that somewhat in the next few days to get a right understanding of it,

Older versions used the word ‘propitiation' in some of these verses, which means “a means of appeasing, or getting right with the offended God.” In other words it is God's means of bringing a proper solution to the problem of the sin of mankind that really warrants their death because it is so offensive to the perfect Being that is God. The reaction that we might have to vomit, when someone has been sick, is to clear it away as quickly as possible to remove the awful stench. There are things that we find loathsome and we might cry, “Get rid of it quick, it's too horrible!” That is how sin appears to the perfect God. An artist who has been working for months on a staggeringly beautiful masterpiece, comes in one day to find someone has daubed graffiti over it. It has desecrated the masterpiece. The only thing left is to destroy the whole work as quickly as possible. This is what we are considering here with God and our sin.

Prayer:

Lord, I am shocked at these pictures of revulsion, to consider that that is how you feel about my sin. Yet as I consider further and see that Jesus came to remove that anger and revulsion, I marvel. Thank you so much.

We must stay on this same ground and examine again these ideas being conveyed in God's word.

1 Jn 2:1,2 Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. 2 He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for [*] the sins of the whole world.

(* or He is the one who turns aside God's wrath, taking away our sins, and not only ours but also.. )

Consider:

We said yesterday that the purpose of Christ's death was to deal with God's anger or revulsion at our sin. We twice mentioned that God is a perfect Being. That is at the heart of Easter, and we need to think about this aspect: God is perfect and the world He made is perfect. Yesterday we suggested the picture of an artist rejecting a vandalised picture. The Bible shows that God has strong emotions, e.g. hate. Deut 12:31 - in worshiping their gods, they do all kinds of detestable things the LORD hates. They even burn their sons and daughters in the fire as sacrifices to their gods . Psa 11:5 those who love violence his soul hates. Isa 1:14 Your New Moon festivals and your appointed feasts my soul hates.

So why does God ‘hate' these things? Well the first one was fairly obvious – He hates ‘detestable' things such as sacrificing their children. Well, surely we would hate or detest such practices! Those who love violence He hates. Isn't that a bit strong, we might say? Not when you consider that God IS love (1 Jn 4:8,16) and He has designed us to love (hence all the New Testament exhortations to Christians to love) and everything in Him is love. To ‘hate' violence simply means to be utterly revolted by it because it is so alien to love. Hating religious festivals? Well the point there is that all of God's Law given to Israel was simply a means for them to express the love they should have felt towards God, but instead that love went cold and they were left with pretence. They pretended to be righteous and to love God by their religious activities but all the while their lives were full of violence (Isa 1:15), evil (v.16) and injustice (v.17), and everything in God revolted against that. If we cannot see this it is simply because in our society we have grown used to these things and take them for granted. Perhaps we've lost sight of the awfulness of this sort of thing.

The point we have been seeking to make, is that if you are utterly perfect and are love, and the world you have made reflects this, then aberrations from it, are just that, aberrations, departures from what is normal and right and when we see them against the standard of perfection they will appear even more grotesque. It is right to hate such things and to be revolted by them and to want to reject them, so it is no surprise that God's emotions have somehow to be met, to be satisfied in some right way. But how? That is what the Cross is all about.

Prayer:

Lord, open my eyes to see the awfulness and wonder of all this. Help me to see the reality of sin and the reality of what you have done about it.

We must still stay on this same subject that gets to the heart of the Cross – God's displeasure (understatement!!!) at sin.

1 Jn 2:1,2   Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. 2 He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for [*] the sins of the whole world.

(* or He is the one who turns aside God's wrath, taking away our sins, and not only ours but also.. )

Consider:

We've been trying to paint pictures that convey something of the awfulness of sin as it appears to the perfect vision of God. In his book, “Holiness”, J.C.Ryle wrote, “ I do not think, in the nature of things, that mortal man can at all realise the exceeding sinfulness of sin in the sight of that holy and perfect One with whom we have to do…..We… poor blind creatures, here today and gone tomorrow, born in sin, surrounded by sinners, living in a constant atmosphere of weakness, infirmity and imperfection, can form none but the most inadequate conception of the hideousness of evil… fallen man, I believe, can have no just idea what a vile thing sin is in the sight of that God whose handiwork is perfect ”.

Ryle was right, yet that should not stop us who are born again, crying out, “Lord show me!” remembering that we now have the Holy Spirit within, the Spirit who Jesus said would teach us. Unless we do catch something of this we will never even begin to understand the heart of Easter. Only when we do catch this will we understand why Jesus had to “atone” for us, or be our ‘propitiation'.

The death penalty for sin was established right at the beginning, God's intent to separate off sin from Himself was clearly there in Gen 2:17, “you must not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it, you will surely die.” Do you know (experience and participate in) evil? The death penalty is spoken over you (and me!). What is death? It is the separation from life. In a spiritual sense it is being apart from God now (God seems miles away, some people say) and that continues into eternity when our physical body stops operating.

The incredible thing about this, when we see it in the terms we've been considering is that we who are helpless and hopeless, have been contacted by God and given the choice of responding and receiving life, or refusing Him and continuing in death. The apostle Paul looking back in Ephesians spoke about God having “made us alive in Christ even when we were dead in transgressions.” (Eph 2:5) Sometimes God terminates lives prematurely (what we sometimes casually call His acts of judgement) but whether it is an early death or one in ‘old age' the end is the same. The choice that IS ours, is where we will go after the body ceases to operate. The amazing possibility is that we CAN receive eternal life, life that does not cease at physical death – and that is what the Cross is all about.

Prayer:

Lord, thank you that although my Sin revolted you, you reached out to me through your Son's death and by your Holy Spirit, and brought me to a place of salvation. Thank you so much!

We still need to keep this same verse before us today, as an ongoing reminder of all that we are thinking about as we come to this last week before the start of Holy Week.

1 Jn 2:1,2    Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. 2 He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for [*] the sins of the whole world.

(* or He is the one who turns aside God's wrath, taking away our sins, and not only ours but also.. )

Consider:

We've just been marvelling yesterday that although God is angry and revolted by Sin, because it so clashes with His perfection and the perfection of His design for us, He nevertheless has made provision to deal with it so that instead of receiving death, we might receive eternal life. Theologian R.C.Sproul, writing in “The Holiness of God” comments, “The issue is not why does God punish sin, but why does He permit the ongoing rebellion of man?” When we see God's holiness and perfection and man's sinfulness this does become THE question. Why hasn't God wiped us all out long ago? It's at that point that words like love and mercy come into play. The short answer to these questions is found in Ezekiel and Peter.

Through the prophet Ezekiel (Ezek 18:23 ) the Lord speaks: “Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked? declares the Sovereign Lord. Rather am I not pleased when they turn from their ways and live?” and then later (18:32), “For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Sovereign Lord. Repent and live!” Following a similar line, Peter says, “He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish but everyone come to repentance.” (2 Pet 3:9) Thus Peter is saying God is not wiping everyone out, because He's giving us space in which to repent and be saved. He's not saying everyone will be saved (He's quite clear on that) but that God would like them to repent and be saved, but the choice is theirs.

So to recap: Sin is an aberration of God's perfect design and as such deserves to be destroyed and so, somehow, there needs to be a way for this to be avoided if we are not all to be consigned to everlasting separation from God (hell). That is where we come at last back again to the words, ‘atoning sacrifice'. To atone for something means you make amends, make up for, provide an answer for a wrong. Some add in the word ‘expiate' here, which means to pay the penalty for a wrong doing. These are all good descriptions but don't focus so clearly as the word ‘propitiate', meaning to meet and satisfy God's feelings about sin. Jesus came to do all these things we've been trying to describe, by his death on the Cross. In the coming week we'll see how.

Prayer:

Lord, thank you that although you are angered by our folly as we turn away from you, you have nevertheless created a way for us to be able to be brought back into harmony with you, avoiding destruction and instead receiving a wonderful life from you. Lord, thank you so much!

We're in the last week of Lent, the week before Holy Week. Historically, in the final year of his ministry, by now Jesus would have been moving towards Jerusalem from the north when he had spent most of the previous three years of ministry.

Lk 9:51   As the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem .

1 Cor 1:18   For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

1 Cor 2:2    For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

Consider:

We interrupt our flow of considering the effects of the Cross to observe the centrality of it in God's plan. Something needs underlining as we approach the end week: there was no mistake about all this! Early on in these meditations we noted that it had been formulated by the Godhead before the foundation of the world, and Jesus had been working to a clear schedule. In that last final year of his life on earth, there came a time when the Son knew it was time to take the final walk. The years of glorious ministry, with incredible healings, staggering miracles, almost unbelievable raisings from the dead, these years were now past. The foundation for belief had been laid and built upon. The upper part of the structure of belief was now to be added as he performed the final act that had been planned in the throne room of heaven before earth had come to be.

When you read the Gospel accounts, there can be no doubt that Jesus knew what was coming. Again and again he spelt out what was to happen – including his death and resurrection (e.g. Mt 16:21, 17:9, 20:18,19, 26:2). After being resurrected, on the road to Emmaus he chided the two disciples with, “Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?” (Lk 24:26). No, Jesus was quite clear that the Cross was the central feature of his work.

Similarly Paul maintained that the heart of his ministry was preaching about Jesus and his death. The message of the Cross, he said, might appear crazy to self-centred, godless people, but those of us who are seeking God and realise we are lost, know that the Cross is the way God releases His power to us so that we are saved from our sins and transformed into children of God.

Just in case somehow you had become tired with thinking about the Cross, can we refocus you for these remaining days of these meditations? In Jesus' eyes and in his apostles' eyes, the Cross of Calvary was absolutely essential to bring about the possibility of our salvation.

Prayer:

Lord, at the heart of your plan for my salvation was Jesus' death on the Cross. Please help me in these remaining days to see the wonder of the truth about Easter. Help me see in such a way that I will never be the same again. Open my eyes, Lord, to see and understand.

We now move out, in this final week before the start of Holy Week, to consider further aspects of Jesus' work on the Cross.

Rom 5:10    while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son,

2 Cor 5:18,19    God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and gave unto us the ministry of reconciliation that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.

Consider:

Before we actually look at just what Jesus did on the Cross, let's consider the outcome of what we have been saying. If Jesus acted as a means of satisfying God's anger against our Sin, it means that the one thing that kept God from us and us from God has been dealt with and so as Paul says (Eph 2:13), “But now in Christ Jesus you who were once far away have been brought near through the blood of Jesus.” Put another way, we have been reconciled to God. Reconciliation is thus the result of the work of Christ on the Cross.

Imagine the throne room in heaven. It is the place of utmost purity and nothing unrighteous or impure may enter. Imagine that sin and guilt is like a visible stain on the skin and no one with such a stain can enter. Outside are myriads of sinners, all stained with sin, but they cannot enter because anyone with such a stain who tries to enter is instantly cast into hell. See the young Prince on the throne next to the King, get up and leave the throne room. See him leave the courts of heaven and there stand in the dock alongside the sinners. See him taken away in chains and cast into hell. See him come back after a while having fully borne the sentence of the guilty in hell. He stands at the doors of the throne room and bids the sinners to come. Some come to him, acknowledging their guilt and ready to die, but as he shakes their hand, the stain of sin and guilt disappear from their skin and they walk into the throne room to be greeted warmly by the King. The Prince took their punishment so their sin was truly dealt with. Thus they can enter the throne room with their stain removed. Whereas before they were exiled, now they have been reconciled to the King. And why? Because the young Prince stood in their place and paid the price so that the one thing that stood between them and the king was removed. An imperfect picture that conveys something of the truth of the perfect picture – of what Jesus actually did. It's an absolutely staggering picture, almost beyond our comprehension, but it is true nevertheless. He has done it!

Prayer:

Lord, I was estranged from you. You could not have me near you so contaminated was I, yet you sent Jesus to deal with my contamination, so that it would be possible for me to be cleansed. He has done it. I have received it and now I am your child, reconciled to my Father in heaven. Thank you so much!

We continue to view different pictures that portray what was taking place on Easter Sunday.

Gen 22:2 Then God said, "Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about."

Gen 22:11-13 But the angel of the LORD called out to him …."Do not lay a hand on the boy,"… Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son.

Consider:

Yesterday we painted a picture of the Prince of heaven going and taking the place of sinners to reconcile them to his Father by removing their sin, the thing that estranged them from the King. Today we return to this concept of the substitute that has been there in the background of much we have already considered. The history of Abraham gives us a remarkable picture that must prefigure what was to happen later in history. In Genesis 22 we find an incredible test: God asks Abraham to sacrifice his son, Isaac. Understand that God's intention was not for Isaac to die, merely to see the extent of Abraham's trust. It is complete. He has come to a place where he trusts the Lord implicitly and, as the writer to the Hebrews puts it, “reasoned that God could raise the dead ” (Heb 11:19). What is especially interesting about this account, is that it occurred at Moriah which historians believe is probably the place we now call Calvary , where Christ was crucified! As Abraham went to be obedient, the Lord pointed out a substitute, a goat caught in a thicket, that was substituted for Isaac and became the offering.

Charles Dickens, thought to be a strong Christian, conveyed the concept of death, resurrection and substitution in his story of the French Revolution, “A Tale of Two Cities”. At the end of the story, Sydney Carton steps in and substitutes himself for his friend Charles Darnay who has been condemned to death, and Carton dies in his place by the guillotine becoming, as one literary commentary puts it, ‘a Christ-like figure whose death serves to save the lives of others,' with those now famous words, “It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest I go to than I have ever known.” In the week or so ahead as we run up to Easter, imagine yourself in the condemned cell, like Charles Darnay, awaiting death, but then finding Christ slipping in, taking your place and releasing you to go out and live. That is what was happening.

Prayer:

Lord, thank you that although I did not deserve it, you sent Jesus to die in my place, to act as my substitute, to take my punishment on the Cross as only he could, the perfect innocent one who had nothing to pay for, paying everything for me. Thank you so much.

To bring the truth into sharper focus, we continue to think on our substitute, the One who stepped into our ‘condemned cell'.

Ex 12:3,5 Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household…. The animals you choose must be year-old males without defect

Lev 4:3 he must bring to the LORD a young bull without defect as a sin offering for the sin he has committed.

2 Cor 5:21 God made him who had no sin to be a sin offering for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Consider:

We have already thought about Christ coming as a sacrifice, as the Lamb of God, but we now focus on one aspect of that so that we may wonder even more at God's goodness to us. There are a variety of pictures in the Old Testament history of Israel 's life with God that say things about sacrifice. We have already considered the Passover lamb but let's remind ourselves that the requirement was for the lamb was that it was ‘without defect'. Similarly in the Law of Moses, in Leviticus, in chapter 4, wherever an animal was to be a substitute for sin, i.e. a ‘sin offering', whether it was a bull (v.3,14), a goat (v.23,28) or a lamb (v.32), each creature was to be ‘without defect'.

Why ‘without defect'? Well possibly various reasons. The first reason would be so that the giving of this lamb for God's purposes would not be done casually. The owner would have to take care in choosing. The second reason is that having taken care, he now has to commit his very best to the Lord. (Cain was chided for being casual with his offering – Gen 4:3-5). The third reason is that this sacrifice has no need to be put to death – there is nothing defective about it that should warrant its death. Fourthly, there is a sense whereby we might say that it had no sin to deserve its death and so it its perfection highlights the awfulness of what is happening to is – a totally blameless creature is taking the sin of completely guilty people.

Now, if you look at these reasons and apply them to Jesus, you see something wonderful. His coming as The Lamb was carefully decided in heaven, the very best that heaven could commit to the task, and there was nothing about him that was defective, nothing that warranted his death. Heb 7:26 tells us that Jesus was ‘holy, blameless, pure.' Peter tells us that he came as this lamb, ‘without blemish or defect' (1 Pet 1:19 ). What point are we making? That you and I were redeemed by a perfect being. He didn't deserve it, but we did. The one who stepped into your ‘condemned cell' was utterly perfect. If you imagined him as a cup, he was empty of sin, so would take all your sin, every single drop of it. There was no element of your sin that he didn't die for.

Prayer

Lord, I am beginning to realise the completeness of what Jesus did. There is no sin of mine that hasn't been taken by him. I am utterly cleansed.

As we draw near to the start of Holy Week, we continue to focus on the terrible event of Good Friday as understood in the light of the life of Israel as shown in the Old Testament

Lev 16:2 The LORD said to Moses: "Tell your brother Aaron not to come whenever he chooses into the Most Holy Place behind the curtain in front of the atonement cover on the ark, or else he will die, because I appear in the cloud over the atonement cover.

Lev 16:34 "This is to be a lasting ordinance for you: Atonement is to be made once a year for all the sins of the Israelites."

Heb 9:25-28 the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood that is not his own…. Christ…has appeared ….to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself….to take away the sins of many people;

Consider:

We consider the instituting of the Day of Atonement in the Law of Moses, a day when, only once a year, the high priest would go into the innermost part of the Tabernacle or Temple . In that innermost part, referred to in older versions as ‘the Holy of Holies' or in later versions as ‘the Most Holy Place', was the ark of the covenant, symbolising the very presence of God, over which (in the earlier days at least) the glory of God hovered. Thus Aaron was warned not to dare to come into God's presence when he felt like it, but only on the day of Atonement in the prescribed manner. To be able to enter that innermost part, Aaron had first to make a sin offering for himself first, to signify his being cleansed of sin before he could come into God's presence and then a sin offering for the sins of the people whom he was representing. Even then he was to take fire and incense into the inner part so that the smoke would hide the angelic figures of the cover of the ark over which the glory of God hovered (Lev 16:13).

There is much in the imagery of the rites laid down for that day, but the point we would wish to dwell on here, is simply the fact that God was not accessible, and even on the one day a year, it was one special man, in a special way which involved the death of sacrifices. The point that was being emphasised is that God is holy and anyone who dares barge into His holy presence will die because of their sin.

The writer to the Hebrews tells us that Christ came as both the high priest and the sacrifice, and concludes (Heb 10:19-22) “Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us….let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith” The creating of access to God was signified as Jesus died as, “the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom” (Mt 27:51). The Cross gave us access to the Father, without fear of destruction. More tomorrow!

Prayer:

Father, thank you that Jesus reconciled us to you, so that today we may come to you and know your love without fear of death because of your holiness.

Before we move into Holy Week there is one final word that hasn't been mentioned yet but which must be mentioned in the midst of all the other themes we've touched on – justification.

Rom 3:27 ,28 Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. On what principle? On that of observing the law? No, but on that of faith. For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law.

Gal 2:16 We…. know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified.

Consider:

Justification is a key doctrine for the Christian which is the outworking of the work of Christ on the Cross as it is received by us. Why have we left it this late? Because we've been focussing on the work of Christ on the Cross and strictly speaking we were not justified by the Cross, we are justified by God after faith on the basis of the Cross.

At various times in these meditations we have been seeking to show that what Christ achieved on the Cross was sufficient for the salvation of any and every person that would respond in repentance to him. There was nothing any one of us could have added to it. It was complete as an act by God to establish the basis for our salvation, but it was not our salvation. That only came when we responded in faith to this good news. Then and only were we ‘justified'.

So what is ‘justification'? It is the instantaneous legal act of God whereby He declares our sins forgiven and taken by Christ, and Christ's righteousness declared as now belonging to us, so that we are now righteous in His sight. Why ‘instantaneous'? Because it happens the very moment when we believe and surrender to God seeking His forgiveness and newness of life, i.e. at the moment when we exercise faith. Hence faith is the key that brings the already complete work of Christ to bear on our lives. There is no merit in our faith; we have not earned this justification, we have simply received it as an act of grace by God. When we believed what He has done and said, then by an act of grace on God's part He declared that that work of Christ on the Cross that dealt with our sins, now applied to us and we were justified. In normal usage, a dictionary definition of ‘to justify' means ‘to show the justice or rightness of a person or act'. Note the closeness of the words ‘justify' and ‘justice'. Thus, to justify means that justice has been done, and we have been put right with the Law, and the basis of that is Christ's work on the Cross.

Prayer:

Lord, thank you that you provided the completed work of Christ for me to believe in and when I did you declared me free from my sin and guilt and now righteous in your sight.

Palm Sunday is a day of praise and exaltation, but also a day of shame. Why shame because the contrast of this with the end of the week shows just how fickle we human beings are!

Lk 19:37,38     When he came near the place where the road goes down the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen: “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!”

Consider:

Jesus is being hailed as a conquering king as he enters the city of Jerusalem . The other three Gospels report the crowd crying “Hosanna” means “Save Lord!” They see Jesus as their Messiah who has come to deliver them from the might of Rome . Instead he has come to deliver them (and us) from the might of sin, but they aren't bothered with that. They see him as one who comes with supernatural ability to perform miracles and they hail him as king. Both Luke and John pick up the fact that the crowd are as excited as they are because of the miracles that Jesus had performed (see also Jn 12:18 ). It was particularly the miracle of the raising of Lazarus from the dead at Bethany , just before coming down to Jerusalem , that had excited them.

It was rather akin to the excitement after the feeding of the five thousand when they had wanted to make Jesus their king (Jn 6:15). It was an excitement born out of self-interest – what this man could do for us! And so, as he enters Jerusalem they herald him as their king hoping that he will go up to the fortress and deal with the Roman garrison, but instead he turns the opposite way and turns and goes up to the Temple and proceeds to cleanse it of the tradesmen. Jesus has come to restore communion with God (which is what the temple had originally been for) not deal with national institutions – they will be dealt with after men's hearts had been dealt with.

So, here on this glorious day, the Son of God enters the Holy City in such a manner that will yet further provoke the authorities to rise up against him and bring about his death. Without realising it, they will be the ones who will sacrifice the Lamb of God, an offering for sin. Of course we now know what followed which makes the events of this day, at least by the people, seem so shallow. There IS going to come a time of great glory and great rejoicing at the achievement of the Son of God, but not because of some miracles, as wonderful as they were, but because of the incredible thing he does at the end of this week.

Throughout this week, we will examine Jesus' last words on the Cross. Technically this is the end of Lent but, being the beginning of Holy Week we will continue to meditate on these things through to their terrible but glorious conclusion.

Prayer:

Lord, in this week ahead, help me even more to understand the incredible nature of these things that were happening, that brought about the basis for my salvation.