How that Christ died

'How that Christ died'

— 1 Corinthians 15:3

The one vital issue of the gospel is this: ‘How that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures’ (I Cor. 15:3). The gospel is not a declaration of God’s love, which all men delight in. Neither is it a mere statement of the fact that Christ died upon the cross, which all men can understand. ‘The gospel reveals the justice of God and the effectual satisfaction of that justice in the sinner’s Substitute, the Lord Jesus Christ. Everyone knows that Christ died on the cross, but few know how he died.

How did the Son of God come to die the painful, shameful, ignominious death of the cross? Isaiah tells us that ‘It pleased the Lord to bruise him.’ Christ died according to the eternal purpose and decree of God. Because he and his Father loved us, the Son of God voluntarily laid down his life for us, according to the will of God (John 10: 11, 17, 18; Heb. 10:5-14; 1 John 3:16; Acts 2:23).

Why did the Lord of Glory endure such a death for sinners? When Christ died as the sinner’s Substitute, God made him to be sin and made his soul an offering for sin (2 Cor. 5:21; Isa. 53: 10). In order for God to save his elect people, whom he loved with an everlasting love, justice had to be satisfied. And there was no way for justice to be satisfied without the substitutionary death of the incarnate God in our place (Rom. 3:24-26).

What are the results of our Lord’s sin-atoning sacrifice? Isaiah tells us that there are three things which are the sure results of Christ’s substitutionary death (Isa. 53: 10). First, ‘He shall see his seed’. He shall see all his seed, justified, sanctified and glorified. ‘He shall not fail’ (Isa. 42:4). ‘He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied’ (Isa. 53:11). In other words, all of those for whom he died shall live for ever with him in glory. Second, ‘He shall prolong his days.’ That is to say, though he died for our sins, he lives in glory to make intercession for his redeemed ones. Third, ‘The pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.’ That is to say, he must rule all things as the God-man, our Substitute in glory, to accomplish God’s eternal purpose of grace.