The Nature of Christ's Atonement

Tonight we're on lesson number 12 as we've been studying Christology. Last week we looked at the priestly office of Christ. Tonight's a continuation of that. We're looking at the nature of Christ's atonement. As a priest, Christ makes atonement for our sins. We'll be looking at what the Bible has to say about that tonight.

In preparation for this, when you study systematic theology, you'll find that there are a number of different historical theories of the atonement. In other words, one particular church father had this particular view, and another had this particular view, and another theologian later had this particular view. All together there's about 10 major views of the atonement. And we could spend all night long kind of going through those. All of them are in part right. They have some aspect that they get right, but they also have other aspects that they get wrong. So what we're going to do tonight, rather than worrying about the historical arguments, we're going to just look at simply what the Scripture has to say about the atonement of Christ. So let's begin with Bible point number one.

Christ, as our high priest, represents man to God. The priest was a person divinely appointed to transact with God on man's behalf. I talked about this last week. This is a repeat, these first two lines. How a high priest's goal or job was to represent man to God. He was to go and do business with God, so to speak, represent man before God and relate to God for us. And he did this primarily by offering sacrifice and by intercessory prayer. That's what the priest of Israel did for the people of God. And the high priest had this exclusive relationship with God, right? That he would go into the Holy of Holies once a year and present this sacrifice and also make intercession for the people of Israel. And then the regular priest would do this every day in the sense of going in and making the morning sacrifice and the morning prayer and the evening sacrifice and the evening prayer.

Christ's atonement is part of His priestly work. That's the first blank, priestly work. The atonement that we'll be discussing tonight is part of what He does as priest. And two weeks from now we're going to be looking at the intercession of Christ, and that will be the second part of His priestly work. But tonight we'll be looking at His atonement, which is part of His priestly work. The atonement is satisfaction. That's the second blank. It's satisfaction of God's demand of holiness.

By the substitution — substitution is the third blank.

By the substitution of Christ's penal sufferings, when I say penal sufferings, meaning that He suffered as a penalty for us, He was paying our price as our substitute, paying the price for our sins. If you've ever played a sport, I used to play soccer when I was a boy and also basketball. Sometimes you are penalized by a ref, right? And if you're playing soccer, they get a penalty kick, right? Because you've broken the rules. Well, Christ paid the price for us breaking the rules, for us transgressing the holiness of God.

Holiness. By the substitution of Christ's penal sufferings for the punishment of the guilty to reconcile — reconcile is the fourth blank — and redeem man. Let me read that definition one more time.

The atonement is the satisfaction of God's demand for holiness by the substitution of Christ's penal sufferings for the punishment of the guilty to reconcile and redeem man. There's a lot in that definition, but over the next eight points, we're going to be unpacking this definition, okay? Atonement, if you can think of it this way, means simply "at-one-ment."

In other words, sin separated us from God. We rebelled against God. We were therefore at enmity against God. We cannot stand before a holy God anymore because we fell. Man was expelled from the garden, and man in his very nature was at war with God. Well, what the atonement of Christ does is to make us at one with Him again, to make us reconciled to God, to bring us into peace with God.

Yes, Jimmy? Do you mind if I just — a funny thought came across as you were saying, I thought, "That's the ultimate reset button." Exactly right. Well, of course. Let's put it from that angle that you and I maybe can stand with. Somebody said, "Reset button." How do you have a resettable disc? It's open. It's reset. Thank you, Jesus. We have a reset, and His name is Jesus. Amen. Christ providing this atonement reset our relationship, right? And actually, we've taught before, it elevates it to even higher than it was in the garden, right? Right. Because now He lives within us, right? And we are said to be in God, and God is said to be in us. That was not even imagined in the garden, right?

Let's look at Hebrews 5, verse 1.

"For every high priest" — we read this last week — "for every high priest taken from among men is appointed for men, in things pertaining to God, that he might offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins." So the high priest is a man appointed by God to deal with things that relate to God. In other words, to have a relationship with God. And in this relationship, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins. That's the chief problem of man — man is unholy. Man is separated from God by his sins. And so the priest's job was to make atonement for the sins of man so that man could have favor with God, and God could look upon man with favor.

Flip over on the back.

1 Corinthians 1:30-31 says, "But of Him you are in Christ Jesus." Speaking of the power of God, you are in Christ Jesus. We're not in Christ Jesus by our own power, our own doing, but by the gracious gift of God. "But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God" — that's His prophetic office, which we studied two weeks ago — "and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption." It's all part of His priestly work, right? Christ became our righteousness. We can be right before God because we are in Christ Jesus, and Christ Jesus is right. We are set apart as holy because we are in Christ Jesus, who is the Holy One of God. And we have redemption because we are in the Redeemer, right? We are in Christ Jesus. "And as it is written, he who glories, let him glory in the Lord." Salvation from beginning to end is of the Lord. And so if we're going to glory, we glory in what Christ has done for us as our mediator, as our high priest.

The application is this. It's a question to consider. Why did Christ come into flesh to suffer? That's the blank, to suffer for us.

There can be multiple answers for this. Anyone want to take a stab at it? Why did Christ come into flesh to suffer for us? Without the shedding of blood, there's no remission at all. Yeah. He was meeting the holy requirements of God, right? It was the only way to reconcile us to God — that a perfect sacrifice would have to take our place. Along those lines, what would motivate Christ to do that? Who would want to suffer and go through what Christ went through? He loved us. He's exactly right. Because of His love. He went all the way to the cross, was buried in the tomb, because He loves us. That should humble us, right?

Bible point number two. The fundamental attribute of God is holiness. This is the first blank for number two. We discussed this when we went through the nature and attributes of God. We took 15 weeks looking at the attributes of God. The last one we looked at was holiness, right?

Some theologians in the past said, "Well, no, love is the controlling attribute or the fundamental attribute of God." But it's holiness, because love is conditioned by holiness, right? Love can wish someone happiness, but only as that correlates to God's holiness, right? You can't tell your kid, "I want you to be happy. You live the life you want to live, whatever makes you happy." Because we have to look at His holiness as His fundamental attribute, right?

The fundamental attribute of God is holiness, which is God's affirmation and willing of His own infinite moral perfection and purity. Maybe a blast from the past, but it's been a while. It's been almost two years ago since we started. It was September, believe it or not, but it was two years ago when we did the nature and attributes of God. Time kind of passes by. But when we say that holiness is the affirmation and willing of His own infinite purity and perfection, what we mean by that is this. God as the standard of righteousness — He is altogether pure and altogether right. So holiness is His affirmation. He must affirm who He is, right? Would God take pleasure in things that are harmful? Would He take pleasure in evil? Would He take pleasure in imperfection? Not at all. He takes pleasure in Himself. And Christ is the perfect image of God, right? So it's the affirmation, loving what He loves, loving perfection, loving things that are good, and willing. And out of willing is His commands, right? He says, "Be holy as I am holy," right? And that's ultimately for your good. You may say, "Well, God wants me to straighten up and walk a certain way."

It's because that certain way is the best thing for you, right? It's the affirmation of His righteousness, of His perfection.

Holiness is God's self-affirming purity and right that demands our conformity. That's the second blank, our conformity to His likeness. It's what "Be holy as I am holy" is about. When Christ says, "Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect," it's expressing the same sentiment. We are to conform to the holy character of God.

Penalty is the reaction of God's being against sin. We've talked about this when we discussed Hamartiology, the study of sin, how sin elicits penalty, right? "The wages of sin is death." If we don't conform to His holiness, that's what penalty is.

Penalty is the reaction of God's being against sin. God's holy demand can't be evaded since God is forever holy. You can't get away from God's holiness, right? And God can't cease being holy and wink at sin and say, "Okay, I'll make an exception. Tori, you can do whatever you want to. I'm going to give you a pass," because God is always holy, right?

The ground — that's the third blank — the ground of atonement is therefore the satisfaction of God's holiness. Why did Christ make atonement for us?

Because it's grounded in His holiness. He needed satisfaction. God's outraged holiness, His offended justice, needed to be satisfied. And who is a perfect satisfaction to the righteousness of God but Christ, right? He's a perfect image of God. So He lived the perfect life, and He died in our place as our substitute to make atonement for us so that we could be at one with God, that we could be reconciled to Him. Ezekiel 18:20 says, "The soul who sins shall" — what? — die. That's an incontrovertible law, right? God's holiness demands death for sin. Now what did He tell Adam and Eve? "In the day you eat it, you shall surely die." 1 Peter 1:16, "Because it is written, be holy, for I am holy." He demands holiness.

Flip over on the back.

Isaiah 53:10 shows how Christ's atonement was grounded in God's holiness. He says, "Yet it pleased the Lord" — it pleased Yahweh — "to bruise Him." Who's Him?

Jesus. Jesus, right? "Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him. He has put Him to grief; when You make His soul an offering for sin."

He was pleased in Christ's righteousness. And He was pleased to bruise Christ because that was our salvation. He was an offering for our sins, right? Christ was not bruised for His own sin. He was bruised for our sins. He paid the price for us so that God could reconcile us to Him.

Matthew 26:42 — this is in Gethsemane — "Again, a second time, He, Christ, went away and prayed, saying, 'O my Father, if this cup cannot pass away from Me unless I drink it, Your will be done.'"

Christ knew what was coming in Gethsemane. He knew the agony of the cross. He knew the coldness of the grave was coming His way. He says, "This can't pass Me. I have to do this. It's the only way that mankind could be saved, that we could be reconciled to God."

Psalm 97:1-2, "Yahweh reigns, the Lord reigns. Let the earth rejoice, let the multitude of the isles be glad. Clouds and darkness surround Him. Righteousness and justice are the foundation of His throne."

If He is not righteous, if He is not just, He has no throne.

He must punish sin. He must punish evil. Righteousness and justice are the very foundation of His throne. It's who He is. It's His character, and it cannot be changed.

Hebrews 1:8-9, "But to the Son" — He says, to Christ — "Your throne, O God, is forever and ever. A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness. Therefore God, Your God, has anointed You with the oil of gladness more than Your companions." Christ the Son is exalted at the Father's right hand because His kingdom is ruled by a scepter of righteousness. He loves righteousness, and He hates evil. Christ is the express image of God. Therefore He is the perfect sacrifice for our sins.

The application for number two: Can we ever measure up or earn — that's the blank — earn God's favor?

Everything we do is filthy rags. But there are whole religions that are built upon works, are they not? Yeah, it's trying to balance out the scales of justice. If I just do enough to overcome my bad deeds, then maybe God will favor me. Right? Islam does that, right? He tries to do all the pillars of Islam to win Allah's favor, right? But even then, he's a capricious God, and he may not take you, right? But Christianity is the religion where Christ has come to me. "All you who labor and are heavy laden, I will give you rest," because He's already paid that price. He's made objective atonement for our sins on the cross, given perfect divine satisfaction to the Father, because His life is an exact mirror of the Father, and He lived a perfect life for us and died on our behalf.

Bible point number three.

The atonement of Christ is chiefly an objective work focused on God as the party who is wronged. That's the first point, wronged. And we say it's an objective work, meaning it's something that has been done. It's not subjective. Math is something that's objective, right? Two plus two equals four. Whereas if we're maybe writing a literature piece and we're trying to be persuasive in a paper, that's somewhat subjective, right? Maybe your arguments persuade some folks, and maybe not others. But when we say Christ's work is an objective work, it means that it is quantifiable, it has been done, it has been accomplished.

And it is primarily focused on God as the party who is wronged. We often think of the atonement as being about us — saving us — because we're humans and we're in need of a Savior, right? And it is partly about us, but only secondarily. The chief ground of the atonement, or the chief focus of the atonement, is on God, it's on satisfying His righteousness, making us acceptable in His eyes, right?

The atonement is subjective secondarily as it transforms the believing sinner. And we're going to be talking about this in point four, how the atonement is applied to the believer. The primary focus of the atonement is the influencing of the offended one rather than the offenders. In other words, the focus of the atonement is on God,

not on us as the offenders, but on the One who is offended. His justice cries out, "I must be satisfied. There is a debt of righteousness that is owed to Me. Sin has shaken its fist at Me and must be dealt with," right? The Levitical priest did not offer sacrifice to affect the worshipper, but offered sacrifices to satisfy God's holy demand. And he satisfies — that's the second blank. Remember in the Old Testament, you hear about the sacrifices offering up to God, and they were a sweet-smelling, pleasant aroma? God was pleased in those sacrifices. He demanded that sacrifices be made, and He was pleased in the offering of those sacrifices. So we need to think of the atonement as having its primary effect on God. The priest made sacrifices to do something about sin.

The atonement was made to propitiate God and to reconcile — reconcile is the third blank — Him to the sinner.

Let me reread that. The atonement was made to propitiate God and to reconcile Him to the sinner. The word "propitiate" — that's a scriptural word. We're going to be reading some verses with that in it. "Propitiate" means to appease, or to please, or to satisfy. When speaking about propitiating God, to satisfy, or to please, or make atonement for man in God's eyes.

The atonement was made to propitiate God and to reconcile Him to the sinner. When we say "reconcile Him to the sinner," it means that God could look upon man with favor. We deserved to be ended in the garden, did we not?

What was Adam and Eve told? "In the day ye eat it, ye shall surely die." Humanity should have ended right then and there.

But God knew in His plan that the atonement was coming, right? That Christ, who was preordained before the foundation of the world to be the Lamb of God, slain before the foundation of the world, would die on the cross. So in view of what He would be providing for in the future, God could be merciful to man and let man continue in this world, because He was propitiated, if you will. He was appeased by the atoning sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Scripture teaches that the chief objective of Christ's atonement was that God may be righteous — that's the fourth blank — while He pardons the believing sinner.

In other words, the chief objective of the atonement — again, it's not about man. Secondarily, it's about man. We're going to talk about that in just a minute in the next Bible point. But the chief thing is that God would be considered just in forgiving man.

If God said, "Hey, I forgive Toby of her sins just because I like Toby."

And then He says, "But I don't forgive Jacob of his sins because I don't like Jacob."

That would not be justice, right? It would not be a single standard, right? God can only forgive us based upon our sins being paid for, right?

By Christ's blood being shed — apart from the shedding of blood, there's no remission of sins. He can't forgive us apart from the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. So the chief effect of the atonement is that God would be considered just when He justifies man. That God would have a just basis to say, "Shawn, you're forgiven. And the reason why you're forgiven is that Christ has paid your price. Christ lived the perfect life. He satisfied My holy demands. And He was punished in your place as a substitute for you. Therefore, I can forgive you truly, because the price has been paid." He'd be an unjust judge showing favoritism if He

offered you forgiveness apart from that price being paid. "I'm just going to do it for my folks that I favor. I'm going to wink at your sin and let it go unpunished." God must punish sin. We see this in Romans 3:24-26. This is the great classical passage on the atonement.

"Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus." We are justified or declared right freely, without cost to us — but it did cost somebody, right? It cost Christ. "Through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood." Again, propitiation means to appease — a place for God's wrath, a shielding, a place of mercy. In the Bible, when it talks about God reconciling man, God's atonement, there are two words that are actually used. One is expiation and the other is propitiation.

E-x-p-i-a-t-e, to expiate. The second is to propitiate.

This isn't in your notes, but this is something that you should know. Expiate simply means — if you can think about it this way — God's exit plan for your sin. It's God taking your sin away from you.

For example, John the Baptist says, "Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." That's what expiation is, okay? It's God removing your sin as far as the east is from the west, burying it into the sea, putting it behind His back and remembering it no more. God removing your sin from you, the stain of your sin, cleansing you from your sin, right? That's what expiate means. Propitiate is along the same vein, but rather than just having a legal connotation — removing your guilt, removing your unrighteousness far from you — it's more of a personal relation. That means making God pro-you. To propitiate, to appease God's wrath, so you can experience God's favor. That's what propitiation means: that God no longer looks upon you as an enemy. He no longer looks upon you as a rebel, but He looks upon you as His own son, because you are in Christ Jesus. So He is in full favor of Christ, and it rests upon you. That's what propitiation means. Christ bore the wrath of God so we could receive the favor of God. That's the wonderful mercy of God.

So verse 25, "Whom God set forth as a propitiation" — an appeasement, rendering you acceptable — "by His blood." How was that propitiation possible? By His blood.

Through faith. It's given to us through faith, through appropriating what Christ did on the cross, saying, "I believe that Christ is the Savior of the world, that He died for me, that He was the sinless Son of God, and that His punishment was mine. He took my punishment that I deserve, and He paid for my sins upon the cross."

"Because in His forbearance" — actually, through faith, "to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus." From the very beginning of the garden, all the way until Christ's death, burial, and resurrection, God was able to overlook sins based upon the atoning sacrifice of Christ that was to come.

Now that that sacrifice has been made, it shows God was just. He's both the Just and the Justifier of men. He's the One who is totally just in forgiving anyone's sin who comes to Him through faith, because it's through faith that we receive the righteousness of Christ Jesus. Our sins can be forgiven, and God can be declared just and can justify us because of Christ's atoning work on the cross. He paid the punishment and the penalty that we deserved.

Flip over on the back. There are some more verses that deal with this. Hebrews 2:17, "Therefore in all things He" — Christ — "had to be made like His brethren" — He had to take on flesh, right? — "that He might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God." Again, a faithful priest would be one who makes atonement in things where he relates to God. "To make propitiation for the sins of the people." Christ took on flesh so He could make propitiation. He could appease the outraged holiness of God, so He could reconcile us to God.

Matthew 5:23-24, "Therefore if you bring your gift to the altar" — this is from the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus says, "If you have a gift, a sacrifice, and you bring it to the altar, and there remember your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar, go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift."

He's saying it's your duty. If someone has an act against you, maybe you've offended them, leave your gift, and first go make sure that you're right with them before you offer Me your gifts.

Well, that's what sinful man is supposed to do, right?

But in the atoning work of Christ, we have God coming to us, the sinner, right?

And providing for our sins. It's not the sinner coming to God — we have God making a way, God making propitiation through Jesus Christ, God sending His own Son to us, so we might have mercy, that we might have forgiveness, that we might be accepted in His sight.

Flip back over on the front.

Application: "Do you seek to reconcile others to yourself?"

That's the blank, yourself. "If God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son,"

that whosoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life — if He went to that level of giving, that level of love, where Christ would give His very life for us, how about ourselves? Do we seek to reconcile broken relationships?

Do we seek to be redemptive in our lives? Most all of us, if we think really hard, we probably have someone that we're at odds with. Maybe we haven't talked to them in a long time, maybe someone we've wronged in the past. We are to live as Christ lived, right? To live redemptively, to seek to reconcile others not only to ourselves, but ultimately to God, right? Because in forgiving them and showing them mercy and grace, what are we doing? We're pointing to the grace and the mercy that we've received from God the Father.

Bible point number four. The secondary and subjective side of the atonement focuses on man being reconciled to God by Christ — that's the first blank — and made new in Him.

This is the part of the atonement that we think most about, right?

Is God reconciling man by Christ Jesus? It is prominent in the New Testament as it is at the very heart of the gospel. The atonement is the gospel, right? That Christ died as a substitute for guilty sinners to reconcile us to God.

Since the objective atonement of Christ is an accomplished fact — what He did is accomplished, He is risen, the grave is empty, He sits at the Father's right hand — believers are to be ambassadors to call sinners to lay aside their hostility. That's the second blank, their hostility to God, and accept Christ's atonement by faith.

This is true repentance — that's the third blank — and belief, the fourth blank. Let me reread that.

Since the objective atonement of Christ is an accomplished fact, believers are to be ambassadors to call sinners to lay aside their hostility to God and accept Christ's atonement by faith. This is true repentance and belief. We often think about repentance as feeling sorry for our sins, but it's more than that. It's a change of mind, a change of heart about God. We have a hostility towards God when we are not saved. In other words, we have a natural inborn enmity that we inherited from Adam and Eve, where we shake our fist at God and we don't want Him to be Lord over us. We want to sit on the throne, right? We want to be our own king, we want to be our own ruler, and we despise someone trying to tell us what to do.

So as faithful ambassadors of the atonement that Christ has already achieved, we call on people to lay down their hostility and to believe in the reconciliation of Jesus Christ. This is what we call true repentance — a changing of the mind, a changing of the heart, to repent, to turn from their sins, their selfish ways, and to turn to Christ, who has made atonement for their sins, to look at Christ who has perfectly obeyed the Father on our behalf. That's the very essence of what we call repentance and faith, and they're inseparable, right? Repentance is turning away from sin and self and the world, and faith is turning to Christ.

Acts 16:31 — this is the account of the Philippian jailer.

When he is before Paul, after Paul has been miraculously released by the angels, he thinks he's going to kill himself because if the prisoners under your charge escape, Rome's going to have your head anyway, right? And he wants to be saved. And so what does Paul say? "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved," right? That's true repentance and belief. It is laying down your hostility against God and accepting Christ as your atoning sacrifice, trusting, committing yourself to Him.

Flip over on the back.

2 Corinthians 5:18-20.

"But now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation." That is, "that God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God." We have the awesome privilege, as redeemed humanity, as those who are born again, as those who are united to Christ, to be ambassadors and to reconcile men to God in the place of Christ, as if we're the voice of God on earth, right? Speaking His words, proclaiming the gospel, the good news of our Lord Jesus Christ. An ambassador speaks on behalf of the King, right? We speak on behalf of King Jesus, and we plead with people, "Be reconciled to God, look to Christ. His sacrifice was perfect. His sacrifice is for whoever believes in Him."

Flip back over on the front.

The application is: Are you an ambassador for Christ?

And what does that look like as an ambassador for Christ? It starts in our families, right? Using the influence that God has given us in our families, whether it's as a grandparent or a parent or as a brother or as a sister, to point people to Christ, right? Then it goes beyond our family, right, to all of our relationships — that we should be salt and light, right? That we should be pointing people to our Lord Jesus Christ.

Bible point number five. Christ's atonement is substitutionary.

I didn't write this word here, but it can also be said to be vicarious. Have you ever heard that word before? Vicarious — on behalf of somebody else, right? Right now they're trying to select a new pope. In the Catholic Church, they call the pope the vicar of Christ, as if he stands in place of Christ in this world, right? Well, Christ's atonement is substitutionary. It's vicarious.

The same God who in virtue of His holiness must punish sin is also a God of love — that's a blank — and mercy.

In virtue of His love, He Himself bears the punishment of human sin.

Because He is love, He pays the price as our substitute. This substitution is unknown to mere law and above and beyond the powers of law. It's not a function of law. It is an operation of grace — that's the second blank. Law gives you what you deserve, right?

If you obey the law, you'll be blessed. If you disobey the law, you'll be cursed. We see that in Deuteronomy 29, right?

But God's mercy is an operation of grace, not of the law. Grace, however, does not violate or suspend law, but takes it up into itself and fulfills it. In grace, God can forgive us of our sins because Christ did not ignore the law. He didn't go around the law. He didn't find a loophole. Christ took the law and He fulfilled the law, perfectly obeying it.

The righteousness of the law is maintained in that the Source of all, the judge and punisher Himself, voluntarily — this is the third blank — voluntarily submits to bear the penalty.

It's as if you go before the judge and he says,

"I sentence you to five years for your unpaid traffic tickets, right?

But I'm going to go to jail for you."

The judge — in this case Christ — pays our price, which is amazing.

Christ, our high priest, is therefore not only the mediator between God and man, but also between God's justice — that's the fourth blank — God's justice and mercy.

God can be just and the Justifier of men. He can show us mercy because Christ paid our price. He did not receive mercy. He received the full wrath of God as our substitute.

Psalm 85:10 says, "Mercy and truth have met together. Righteousness and peace have kissed." This is fulfilled in Christ, right? Mercy and truth have met together in Christ. Righteousness and peace have kissed.

Flip over on the back.

We see this all throughout the Gospel message. 1 John 4:10, "And this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins, to be the appeasement for our sins, to be the mercy seat for our sins." Romans 5:8-11, "But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified — declared right — by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him, because He bore God's wrath. For when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son. The death of His Son propitiated God, made us no longer His enemies, but now His own children. Much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation." It's by Christ's substitutionary death that we're reconciled to God.

Look at Galatians 1:3-4, "Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for our sins." The highest price you could pay is to give yourself. "That He might deliver us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen." We see that it's not just Christ — Christ gave Himself, but He did it according to the goodwill and pleasure of God, right? God loves us, so He gives His Son.

Colossians 1:19-20, "For it pleased the Father that in Him — in Christ — all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross." Christ's substitutionary death brought us peace with God.

Flip back over on the front.

The application for number five is: "Praise God for His amazing love." Love is a blank, love for us. I love that hymn, "Amazing Love." "How can it be that Thou, my Lord, should die for me?" Right?

Bible point number six. Christ's substitutionary atonement includes both His passive — that's the first blank — and active obedience.

We're going to discuss what that means here in just a second. His atonement, His substitutionary atonement, includes both His passive and active obedience, as they cannot be separated.

The passive obedience of Christ is His paying the penalty of sin by His suffering and death on our behalf, to discharge our debt.

When we say Christ's passive obedience, what we mean is that Christ humbly submitted Himself to the Father's judgment that was due us.

Christ submitting Himself to the pain that should have been ours, for us. The suffering that should have been ours. The death that should have been for us. That's what we call His passive obedience.

The active obedience of Christ is all that Christ did to perfectly observe and fulfill — fulfill is the third blank — the law on our behalf, to provide us with the righteousness and merit of eternal life.

If Christ's obedience was just passive, if He was just paying our price, we'd be right back to the garden, right?

Before Adam fell, our sins would be forgiven,

but we would not have the highly exalted blessings that we have because of His active obedience. He perfectly pleased God, perfectly fulfilled the righteous requirements of the law. Therefore, He gives us the merit of eternal life, His eternal glory with the Father. Rather than God walking beside us, now God is in us and we are in Christ Jesus. We have the blessing of inheriting God Himself.

The active obedience of Christ was necessary to make His passive obedience acceptable with God as a perfect sacrifice for us, and to make us heirs — heirs is the fourth blank — of eternal life. We're heirs of God in Christ Jesus. What does Jesus say? "This is eternal life, that they may know You," right? And have this fellowship with You. And now we have this fellowship with Christ. The same fellowship and pleasure that God had in His Son from all of eternity is showered upon us. And it can never be removed. We don't have to worry about, as Adam did, falling again, right? Never, because we are eternally reconciled to God in Jesus Christ.

Galatians 4:7, "We're no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ." An heir of God? That means all of God's favor, all of God's righteousness, all of God's blessings, His eternal perfection is given to us in Christ Jesus. That's something that Adam didn't possess, right? That's something that we possess.

Flip over on the back.

Jeremiah 23:5-6, "Behold, the days are coming," says the Lord, says Yahweh, "that I will raise to David a Branch" — Branch is capitalized because it's speaking of Christ the Messiah — "a Branch of righteousness. A King shall reign and prosper, and execute judgment and righteousness in the earth. In His days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell safely. Now this is His name by which He will be called: The Lord Our Righteousness." We have inherited Christ's very righteousness.

Cannot fail.

Romans 8:3-4, "For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh. On account of sin, He condemned sin in the flesh" — giving us perfect victory over what is condemned, which cannot rise again. Christ defeated sin for us. "That the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit." We are deemed as fulfilling the righteous requirement of Christ, even though it isn't us who fulfilled it — it's Christ. But it's merited and given to us.

Philippians 3:8-9, "Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. For whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ Jesus, the righteousness which is from God by faith." We have this perfect righteousness that cannot fail. That's because of His active obedience. If it was just His passive obedience — just a beating, taking the skin — we'd be right back in the garden, prone to sin. Just as Adam sinned, we would have to be worrying about our righteousness failing. But we have the righteousness of Christ that never fails, never changes — the perfect righteousness of Christ.

The application for Bible point number six: "Rest completely on the perfect work of Christ."

Know that Christ's work is perfect, and rest on that. We often think, "Are our works measuring up?

Am I still favored by God?" You're not favored based on your performance.

You're not favored based upon what you have done or have not done for God.

You're favored because of what Christ has done, His perfect work.

Bible point number seven. Christ's atonement is a work of redemption.

Meaning to buy — that's the first blank — buy back, or set free. Free is the second blank. In the Old Testament, we see many examples of redemption. If you were a person who had sold yourself into indentured slavery, which would have been a seven-year term, you could buy your freedom back. You could also buy the freedom of a loved one. Maybe you had a brother who sold himself into slavery. You could also redeem a prisoner, and you could also redeem a prisoner of war. Maybe someone who was captured by another army, you could redeem them to set them free, to purchase them. We see this particularly in Hosea. Remember Hosea chapter 3?

What do we know about Hosea? Hosea had a wife that God told him to marry — Gomer, who was a prostitute. And she went whoring from him. And what do we see in Hosea chapter 3 but a picture of God's redemption, where Hosea goes to Gomer, who is living with another man, living in her sin, and he redeems her, takes her back to live with him the rest of his days. What a beautiful picture that is of Christ redeeming us. So Christ's atonement is a work of redemption, meaning to buy back or set free. Christ has freed us from our sins. The reference there is Revelation 1:5-6. Let me read that to you.

"And from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth, to Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood."

Christ has freed us from our sins because He has washed us from our sins in His own blood. Isn't that amazing?

Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law. And we see this referenced in Galatians 3:13. Let me read that to you.

It says, "Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law" — meaning He has purchased us, He has set us free — "having become a curse for us, for it is written, 'Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.'" Christ became our curse. He redeemed us, right?

Christ has delivered us from the power of darkness. We see that reference in Colossians 1:13. Let me read that to you. "He has delivered us" — same word meaning redeemed — "from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love."

Every single one of us were once in the kingdom of darkness if we're a Christian, right? And you may remember how terrible that was, right?

But God has delivered us from that into the domain of His Son, the Son of His love.

Christ has redeemed us from aimless conduct. 1 Peter 1:18.

It says, "Knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers." Have you ever seen a crazy ant before? Swarming? A crazy ant is a little ant that moves around and doesn't seem to have any order. It's darting left, darting right. That was our aimless conduct, right? We've been redeemed from that.

"But with the precious blood of Christ, as a lamb without blemish and without spot." That's what we see here. "Redemption is costly" — the third blank — 1 Peter 1:19. We were redeemed with the precious blood of Christ as a lamb without blemish and without spot. 1 Corinthians 6:20 says, "For you were bought with a" — what? — price. With a price. And it goes on to say, "Therefore glorify God with your body and your soul." And that's what we are. We're body and soul. It's our whole makeup, right? Both our material makeup and our immaterial makeup. This is for your God. So everything about your soul, everything about your body belongs to God, because we've been bought with a price. We've been redeemed by the precious blood of the Lamb.

Flip over on the back.

Ephesians 1:7 says, "In Him, in Christ, we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace." We have redemption, but again, that redemption came at a price, at His blood.

Acts 20:28 — when Paul is meeting with the Ephesian elders, he's afraid he's not going to see them again. He's warning that wolves would be coming in to the church. He says, "Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God, which He purchased with His own blood." Praise God, He purchased us. He purchased the church with His own blood. Believers, we ought to love the church.

So many times it's easy to dump on the church.

We'll say, "Oh, you know, churches are just a group of people who complain about things. I didn't like the pastor's message this past week. He said this, and I didn't like that. I didn't like the song Jimmy sang. I didn't like the way the lady was playing the piano. I don't like these table setups. No one said hi to me when I first came in and sat down. What's wrong with these people?" — even though you didn't go say hi to them, right? The idea, though, is we should love the church because they were bought by the precious blood of Christ. Every single church member is special in God's eyes.

The application is this. "Live for Christ as you belong" — that's the blank — "belong to Him." Live for Christ as you belong to Him. He has bought you. You are His. You are not your own, right? You can't live and do the way that you want to do in light of what Christ has done for you. We should willingly offer ourselves up to Him saying, "Okay, God, You've redeemed me. You've bought me." I have a question.

It has just occurred to me as you were saying —

So let's say, when you say the church, that we should love the church —

I kind of don't like this church. Our brothers and sisters are here. But what do you say to the people in Kenneth Copeland's church? Sure. Do they love one another and not the leader? Well, this is what you would do. Think about — and I'll use myself as an example. My kids are grown, right? They're 30, 29, and 26 this year. I can't believe that. But when they were young and they were living with me, there were times when they needed to be corrected.

And I corrected them because I love them, right? I spoke the truth to them because I loved them, right? And so when you confront sin, you're doing it because they have been bought with the precious blood of Christ and you love them. They're precious in God's eyes and they're precious in your eyes. And if they're truly precious in your eyes, you'll speak up and correct them. If not, can you really say you love your kids? You just let them go. I don't know what could be better.

Bible point number eight. Christ could justly — that's the first point — Christ could justly be punished in the place of sinners because of His incarnation.

Many theologians throughout history have been troubled. How could God inflict punishment on Christ, who was innocent? In other words, how could the innocent One justly be punished? Doesn't that make God unjust? Even if it's voluntarily submitted to by Christ, who was innocent, it's not right to punish the innocent, right? It wouldn't be right to inflict pain on someone who didn't deserve that, right?

Christ could justly be punished in the place of sinners because of His incarnation. When Christ joined Himself to humanity, all the exposures and liabilities of humanity fell on Him. Remember, He's not just God, but He's the God-man, right? God made flesh.

Though He was personally without sin — that's the second blank — though Christ was personally without sin, He was made sin for us. As man, human guilt — that's the third blank — belonged to Christ to bear.

Christ did not have depravity.

He did not sin, but in joining Himself to humanity in the incarnation, He did become responsible for the guilt of mankind. Guilt and depravity are separable, right? As Christians in Christ Jesus, our guilt has been removed, right? "There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus." But we still have to struggle with depravity, which is the pollution from sin, right? That's why we're being sanctified — why we're trying to conform ourselves to the image of Christ, daily being renewed in our minds through the word of God and through the power of the Holy Spirit, the sanctifying influence of Christ.

Christ was free from depravity. He had no influence of sin in His life. He was born of a virgin, right? But He wasn't free of guilt once He took on human flesh, because He was man, right? And He shared in mankind's guilt before God. That's how He could vicariously be our sacrifice, because He wasn't just God, but He was God made flesh. Human guilt belonged to Christ to bear as a man, but as God, He could exhaust that penalty. That's the fourth blank, exhaust that penalty. As God, He could exhaust — which means to spend — that penalty. He could bear that penalty in full. He could say on the cross, "It is finished," right? The price has been paid, because what Christ did as the God-man — He died as a man, right? But His death had infinite value because He was God made flesh. He was the perfect Lamb of God, slain before the foundation of the world.

2 Corinthians 5:21, "For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." He took our guilt to give us His righteousness, right?

Flip over on the back.

Isaiah 53:6 says, "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way, and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all." He was the scapegoat, right?

Our sin, our iniquity was transferred onto the head of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ on the cross. He bore the wrath of God perfectly, fulfilling the law on our behalf, and in doing so made us righteous.

The application is this. Trust that in Christ, you — that's the blank — you are pleasing to God.

Trust that in Christ, you are pleasing to God. When you look in the mirror, it's hard for you to say sometimes, "I am pleasing to God," because we see our sin, right? We see our shame. We know what we're thinking. We know what we have done. We know our failures. We know our shortcomings. But trust that in Christ, you are pleasing to God, because Christ is pleasing. And He has taken your sin, and on Him was laid your iniquity.