Let us turn once again to God's
Word in Romans chapter 5 Romans chapter 5 and I'll read
verses 10 and 11 Romans 5 verses 10 and 11 for
if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death
of his son much more being reconciled we shall be saved by his life
and not only so but we also join God through our Lord Jesus Christ
by whom we have now received the atonement here we read then
of reconciliation and salvation On a previous occasion we've
looked at those words at the end of verse 11 by whom we have
now received the atonement or as it is in the margin the reconciliation,
the same word as is used in verse 10. But I want this morning to
concentrate your attention for a while on the words that we
have at the end of verse 10. where we read of salvation, though
reconciliation is the great theme that is found in these two verses. There at the end of verse 10,
we're told we shall be saved by his life. That is, saved by
the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so that is the theme that
I want to center your minds upon, with the Lord's help this morning,
salvation by Christ's life. But before we can understand
anything of reconciliation and salvation, we must of course
come to terms with the solemn truth of alienation. What our situation is, naturally
speaking, as we come into this world with those who are born
dead in trespasses and in sins. We are born children of wrath
even as others says the Apostle. And so in order to understand
anything of that salvation that is in the Lord Jesus Christ we
must first of all understand where we are and what we are
in our fallen nature. Because this alienation is truly
the consequence of the fall into sin. We see that in the biblical
accounts in Genesis chapter 3. You know the chapter, you're
familiar. With the content there, the history
of our sin came into that creation that God had pronounced to be
very good. It was by means of the serpent
that Satan comes and attacks God's creation. and that which
was really the pinnacle of his work of creation the man and
the woman made in his likeness and created after his image and
we read about the serpent tempts Eve and she partakes of the forbidden
fruit And then she gives to her husband, Adam and Eve, with open
eyes, also partakes of that that God had forbidden him. And so sin has entered. And what is the consequence of
that sin? Well, immediately. they're aware
of their alienation from God when God comes into the garden
in the cool of the evening obviously there it was paradise previously
there had been real communion between God and his creatures
But now when God appears, they seek to conceal themselves. They cannot face God, they hide
themselves, or they think that they can hide themselves amongst
the trees in the garden of Eden. Or they're in a state now of
separation, a state of alienation. And then when we come to the
end of the chapter we see how God himself does indeed separate
them. He drives them out of the garden. And there's that flaming sword
that turns every way to prevent them ever entering into that
place again. They're now those who are cut
off from God. Here is the consequence of sin. that man, that woman who were
made to enjoy God are now cut off from all communion with God. Your iniquities have separated
between you and your God and your sins have hid His face from
you. But the sinner is not one who
is simply away from God. and separated from God, the sinner
is one who is in real opposition to God. This is the essence of
what sin is. Sin is against God. And we see it, that men will
embrace and believe every lie and set themselves against God
and deny God. The fool has said in his heart
there is no God. I think it's Professor John Murray
who said of sin that it is really the contradiction of God. And that is the state of men
by nature. They are so opposed to Him. They are those who are haters
of God. Remember the language that we
have here later in the 8th chapter concerning man's natural mind,
the carnal mind, as it is in our authorized version. There
in chapter 8 verse 7, because the carnal mind is enmity against
God. For it is not subject to the
law of God, neither indeed can it. So then they that are in
the flesh cannot please God." It's interesting that there in
verse 7 in the margin, the carnal mind is the minding of the flesh,
the fleshly mind. And so we have it in verse 8.
They that are in the flesh, those who have only a fleshly mind,
they cannot please God. That natural mind of man, it
is impossible that that mind should ever be subject to the
law of God. It is so opposed to all that
God is, and all that God has said. We read of the Gentiles. Paul writes in his epistle to
the Ephesians, he speaks of those Gentiles having the understanding
darkened, alienated from the life of God through the ignorance
that is in them, because of the blindness, or as the margin there
says, because of the hardness of their hearts. Here is the
condition of men by nature. All are born in this state, it
matters not what their parentage is, Grace, we know, does not
run in the bloodline. Alas, parents who know the grace
of God, and by that grace are saved, yet their offspring are
born as others, children of disobedience and children of wrath, all stand
in need of the grace of God. This is man's condition. And
yet, how ignorant man is with regards to what that condition
is. We often sing those words, striking
words, that we have in the 89th hymn concerning the way of salvation. To understand these things are
right, this grand distinction should be known, though all are
sinners in God's sight, there are but few so in their own,
to such as these our Lord was sent. They are only sinners who
repent. What comfort can a Savior bring
to those who never felt their woe? A sinner is a sacred thing. The Holy Ghost has made him so. New life from him we must receive.
Before full sin we rightly grieve. It is only when that life of
God is brought into the soul of the sinner that he has any
sense of what his real condition is before a Holy God. This is
man's conditioning. He's in that state of alienation. And how David was made to feel
it. This is a man after God's own
heart. What an awful reality sin was
to David against thee, the only of thy sins, and done this evil
in thy sight. He sees where ultimately his
sin has taken him. Oh, he is one who is so opposed
to God, one who is so offended God by his sins. We must, I say
again then, first of all understand something of what our true condition
is by nature, our real state, as those who are alienated. Before ever we can understand
anything of reconciliation or salvation. Now the theme that
runs through these verses, as we've said, is that of reconciliation. There at the beginning of verse
10, for if when we were enemies, in that state of alienation from
God, if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by
the death of His Son. Reconciliation is really what
Atonement is and we have the word Atonement used instead of
Reconciliation as we said at the end of that 11th verse by
whom we have now received the Atonement Atonement is one of
those words that was coined by William Tyndale in his translation
of the New Testament. And it literally means to be
reconciled, at one meant. At one meant. And this is the
great work that the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished when he came
into this world and made that great sacrifice for sins. As we're reminded there, in the
opening chapter of Paul's letter to the Colossians. In Colossians
1.21 Paul says, You that were sometime alienated and enemies
in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled in
the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and
unblameable and unreprovable in his sight. Paul then plainly
declares the manner, the way whereby those who were enemies
and alienated have been reconciled. It is in the body of the flesh
of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is by his dying upon the cross. And what a great work it is that
the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished when he made that sacrifice,
when he bore in his own person that punishment that was the
just dessert of the sinner, when he died in the sinner's place,
in the sinner's room and in the sinner's stead. We sang of it
of course just now in that lovely hymn of Augustus Toplater. And it struck me, just those
last two lines in the final verse, nor fear thy banishment from
God since Jesus died for thee. Although in that state of alienation
and deserving only to be banished, separated, cast out of God's
sight, or yet by his death upon the cross, the Lord Jesus has
reconciled sinners unto himself. He has paid the price He has
borne that penalty that was there just as earth, that they might
be restored to fellowship with God. Now, in the Old Testament,
atonement clearly has the idea of covering. Where there is atonement
made for sins, that sin is covered. Look at the previous chapter
where the Apostle quotes from the Old Testament quotes from
the 32nd Psalm, that Psalm of David. In verse 6 of chapter
4, even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man unto
whom God imputeth righteousness without works, saying, Blessed
are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Quoting there from the opening
verse of the psalm, the blessed man, the man whose iniquities
are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Now, what we have in
the psalm, in that opening verse of the psalm, is that there is
a peculiar feature of Hebrew poetry, these parallel statements,
parallelisms. The same truth, it's repeated, but repeated in
a slightly different form. And so, the forgiveness of iniquities
is the same as having sins covered. This is the idea of atonement,
the sin is covered. It is no more. And we see it
wonderfully in the type of the mercy seat that form the covering
for the Ark of the Covenant. Remember there in the latter
chapters of the book of Exodus we read of the tabernacle and
all the furnishings of the tabernacle and that tabernacle that was
so central to the worship of the children of Israel and in
chapter 25 we have mention of how the Ark of the Covenant was
to be made and there was to be that covering for the ark which
we call the mercy seat. Now the ark of course was the
most important item really in the tabernacle because it formed
a chest which contained the law of God, the tables that were
written with the finger of God, the ten commandments were placed
in the ark. the ark of that covenant that
God had entered into with the children of Israel. And we're
told in Exodus 25 and verse 10 just what the measurements were
of the ark. And then later, just a few verses
later, verse 17, we're told the measurement of that that was
to form the covering, the lids, which was the mercy seat. And
the measurement of the mercy seat is exactly the same as that
of the ark. It was a perfect covering. It covered the Lord of God. and it was there of course upon
the mercy seat that the high priest was to sprinkle the blood
of sacrifice on the great day of atonement spoken of in Leviticus
16. Now it reminds us that God's
mercy is a perfect covering over that law, that law that the sinner
has transgressed. or the sinner, the transgressor,
he deserves to be punished and yet God has made a perfect covering
for his sin. Blessed are they whose iniquities
are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Justice of course always
demands that the punishment should be appropriate The punishment
is to fit the crime. When the judges are given their
instruction by God under Moses in the Old Testament, there in
the 25th chapter of the book of Deuteronomy, "...if there be a controversy
between men, and they come unto judgment, that the judges may
judge them, then shall they justify the righteous, and condemn the
wicked." and it shall be if the wicked man be worthy to be beaten
that the judge shall cause him to lie down and to be beaten
before his face according to his fault by a certain number. Forty stripes he may give him
and not exceed." How the punishment is to be exact. What is deserved
is to be meted out in the way of punishment. This is a just
God. And God's punishment is always appropriate. And the children
of Israel had seen it so clearly in the way in which the Lord
God had delivered them out of the bondage of Egypt when he
had visited his terrible judgments upon those Egyptians. How the
Egyptians were guilty of great crimes, terrible sins. Our Pharaoh
had passed that decree whereby all the males that were born
to the Hebrew women were to be drowned in the River Nile. They were to be slaughtered.
It was a great slaughter of all those males. and when God comes
and visits His judgment upon those Egyptians the 10 plagues,
remember what God does in the plagues 10 plagues in total,
but the first plague so significant all the water throughout the
land of Egypt is turned into blood there is no water anywhere
to be drunk they had might the whole Delta of the Nile, a bloody
river by murdering those babies and now God turns all the waters
throughout Egypt into blood. All the punishments so appropriate
and then by degrees we come to that tenth, that final plague
and what does God do? He sends a destroying angel throughout
the land and all The firstborn of the Egyptians, all the firstborn
males, are destroyed by God. God's judgment is right and proper
and appropriate. The punishment is made clearly
to fit the crime. And so, as I say, when we come
to the Ark of the Covenant and the Mercy Seat, we see it again
in time. The measurements are identical.
God's mercy is a perfect covering for those who are the transgressors
of His Holy Law. And when we come to look at what is typified there in
the Old Testament Scriptures concerning these things, that
great day of atonement. Now we see that it's necessary
that God provides two goats to be a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. There are many different sacrifices,
many different types in the Old Testament. to set before the
Hebrews, as it were, in picture language, that that is going
to be accomplished in the fullness of the time. So great is that
work that Christ has to perform by his obedience unto death,
even the death of the cross. There are many types, many sacrifices. But think in particular of that
that takes place on the Day of Atonement. As I said, sin is
a separation from God. Sin is alienation from God. So
what do we see? Well, two goats. Two goats are
spoken of there. Just turn to Leviticus. And that 16th chapter. And what
do we read? In In verse 8, Aaron shall cast
lots upon the two goats, one lot for the Lord and the other
lot for the scapegoat. And Aaron shall bring the goat
upon which the Lord's lot fell and offer him for a sin offering. And the goat on which the lot
fell to be the scapegoat shall be presented alive before the
Lord to make an atonement with him. and to let him go for a
scapegoat into the wilderness. The one goat is taken, it's to
be sacrificed, it's life is to be taken, the blood is to be
shed, but that second goat is to serve as the scapegoat. And then at verse 20, when he
has made an end of reconciling the holy place, and the tabernacle
of the congregation and the altar he has done that with the blood
of sacrifice and then we read he shall bring
the live goat and Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head
of the live goat and confess over him all the iniquities of
the children of Israel and all their transgressions in all their
sins putting them upon the head of the goat and shall send him
away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness. And the
goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land
not inhabited. And he shall let go the goats
in the wilderness. What do we have represented here?
It's that separation, you see. It's that separation. The sin
is removed now. The sin is taken away. And so
we see the great antidote when we come to the Lord Jesus Christ,
when we come to the New Testament Scriptures. And that awful cry
that Christ made as he suffered upon the cross, Ilai, Ilai, lama,
sabaxana, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Oh, there is a separation. The
Lord Jesus is the fulfillment not only of that goat that was
to be sacrificed for shedding of blood, he's also the fulfillment
of the scapegoat. He knows himself something of
separation. And so he cries out in all the
bitterness of his soul. And what a mystery it is. Oh,
what a mystery. He is never anything less than
true Almighty God. He never ceases to be God, even
in all the state of His humiliation here upon the earth. The great
mystery of Godliness, God manifest in the flesh. That babe that
was born and laid in a manger at Bethlehem was never anything
less than God, God Almighty. And so there, when crucified
through weakness upon the cross, He is never anything less than
God Almighty. He is always the Eternal Son
of the Eternal Father. He is always one of those three
persons in the glorious Godhead, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Here, O Israel, the Lord our
God is one Lord. How is it possible that there
could ever be a separation in the Godhead? And yet, here is
the mystery. How Christ is brought to cry
in all the agony of his soul, my God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? We cannot, we cannot fathom these
things. Why the ground is holy ground. We have to stand there in wonder
and amazement. Oh, Christ experienced such a
terrible a terrible separation when he made his soul an offering
for sin. What does the Apostle say? Here
in verse 8, God commendeth his love toward us in that while
we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. And you see every sinner
Every sinner who comes to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ receives
all the benefits and all the blessings of that separation
that the Lord Jesus Christ endured. Why all the guilt and the curse
and the penalty of his sin has been separated from that sinner. It's all gone. because the Lord
Jesus Christ has borne that that was the sinner's just dessert.
Remember that great verse that we find in the book of the prophet Jeremiah
in chapter 50 and verse 20. In those days and in that time
saith the Lord the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for and
there shall be none. and the sins of Judah, and they
shall not be found, for I will pardon whom I reserve." Why? All those who are reserved, all
those who have been given unto the Lord Jesus Christ that He
might pay that price of their redemption, their sin is gone,
separated from them forever. This is the great work then that
the Lord Jesus Christ has accomplished. He has reconciled the sinner
to God. That sinner who was born in a state of enmity and alienation,
all the atonement has been made. Sin is gone, the sinner now is
reconciled at one with God. The great day of atonement. Now we're told when that day
was to be observed. In Leviticus 23, 27 it was on
the 10th day of the 7th month. The 10th day of the 7th month. Think of the commandments, 10
commandments. 10 then indicates the end of the
law, the completion of the law, the 7th month, Seven being that
number of perfection. What is typified there then on
the great day of atonement? Why the accomplishment of salvation? The Lord Jesus is that one who
is the end of the law. for righteousness to everyone
that believeth. And as we have it here at the
end of this 11th verse, by whom we have now received the atonement. Oh, it's by the Lord Jesus Christ.
Here then we see alienation. Here we have the reconciliation
of sinners. And then the word that I really
want to leave with you this morning, these words at the end of verse
10, being reconciled. We shall be saved by His life. Oh, what is this life in which
there is salvation? Saved by His life. This is His
resurrection life that is being spoken of. This is His life now
as the mediator. This is His interceding life
there in heaven. Why, this is His heavenly life. saved by his life. Not his life upon earth. But
more particularly what we have here is his life in heaven. Now we're not of course to overlook
the significance of the life that he had lived here upon the
earth. Because that earthly life is
very much part of the salvation of the sinner. When the fullness of the time
was come, we are told that God sent forth his son made of a
woman, made under the law. Why? From the very moment of
his birth into this world, he is subject to the law of God.
His whole life is under the law of God. And in that life, is
one great concern, his chief business is to do the will of
Him who had sent him to finish his work. It's a life of obedience. He became obedient unto death,
even the death of the cross. Yes, he's obedient in dying,
and as we sought to say by that dying upon the cross he has reconciled
the sinner but he's not only obedient in death he's also obedient
in life and how necessary is that obedience? Here is the righteousness
that justifies the sinner the Lord Jesus has not only paid
the penalty that was the sinner's dessert, the soul that sins it
shall die, the wages of sin is death, sin must be punished,
but in order to satisfy the Lord of God there must be a positive
righteousness, there must be a doing of the law. We see it
there at the end of Deuteronomy 6, it shall be our righteousness,
if we observe to do before the Lord and God all these commandments
which have given us there is to be the doing of the Lord of God, the obedience
to every one of the commandments of God and that's what Christ
has done by His living here upon the earth, He has lived the life the life of perfect obedience
What does Paul say? He hath made him to be sin for
us, ununo sin, that we might be made the righteousness of
God in him. In his death upon the cross,
he was made sin for us. He died as if he were the sinner.
all the sins of his people reckoned to his account imputed to him
suffering as their substitute. But he has also made their righteousness. Why? As their surety he has answered
all the holy commandments of God. He has fulfilled every precept
of the law of God. Yes, God has made him to be sin
who knows sin, but to this end that we might be made the righteousness
of God. In him is the end of the law
for righteousness. We're not to overlook We're not
to overlook the significance of the life, the earthly life
that he lived here upon the earth, subject to the Lord of God. But this is not what is being
spoken of in this particular verse. Being reconciled, that's
what he does in dying, he reconciles the sinner to God, we shall be
saved by his life. That is, as I said, his resurrection
life. His heavenly life, because raised
from the dead, He has now ascended on high. He has returned to heaven,
and there He lives to apply that great salvation. We were reminded
last Lord's Day evening in the ministry of Matthew Hyde that
great I am statement in John 11 I am the resurrection and
the life he that believeth in me though he were dead yet shall
he live and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never
die believeth thou this we were reminded then of the importance
of that resurrection life in Christ all that Christ has done as the
one who is risen and now ascended on high. We read it just earlier
in the scripture reading there at the end of Luke's Gospel,
the resurrection, but then right at the end the ascension. And
then of course when we come to the opening chapter of the Acts
we find that Luke is giving us a great deal more detail concerning
the significance of his ascension on high. Oh, He had showed Himself
to His disciples by many infallible proofs for those 40 days after
His resurrection, but then there in Acts 1 we see Him ascending,
ascending to heaven. And it is that life that we read
of here. He lives now and He lives to
this end to apply the great work of salvation that He has accomplished. We are saved by His life, His
life in heaven. And immediately on the day of
Pentecost we find Peter preaching the significance of it. The Holy
Spirit has come, what does Peter say? Therefore being by the right
hand of God exalted, he is speaking of Christ. By the right hand
of God exalted, having received of the Father the promise of
the Spirit, He has shed forth His which ye now see and hear. Why? He has given the Spirit.
Just as He, though equal with the Father, was sent by the Father
in the fullness of the time, God sends forth His Son, so Christ
sends forth the Spirit, though the Spirit in the Godhead, of
course, is equal to God the Son. This is the whole economy of
grace, the outworking of the great covenant of redemption
between Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And so Peter says concerning
the coming of the Spirit, this is Christ. It is Christ who was
shed abroad, the Holy Spirit. And what a gift! All the Psalmist
says back in Psalm 68, they were ascended on high. Thou hast received
gifts for men, yea, for the rebellious also. All this precious gift
of the Holy Spirit granted by the Lord Jesus Christ to rebel
sinners, those who are in that state of alienation and enemies
against God. And yet the Spirit is shed abroad
to come and to work salvation in the soul of these rebels.
John the Baptist says a man can receive nothing except it be
given him from heaven." Oh, it all comes from heaven. It all
comes from the life of the Lord Jesus Christ there in heaven. Him hath God exalted with His
right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour to give repentance
to Israel and the forgiveness of sins. This is the the life
of the Lord Jesus that he's being spoken of then we're saved by
it he gives repentance he gives the forgiveness of sins he gives
faith or you say to me today oh that I had that repentance
or that I had that faith we're to be looking on to Jesus the
author and finisher of our faith who for the joy that was set
before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and he sat
down at the right hand of the throne of God. There from heaven
he bestows all that is necessary for the application of salvation. He gives repentance, he gives
faith. He is able to save to the uttermost
all that come unto God by him. This is the life you see. that
is the sinner's salvation, Christ's resurrection life, Christ's ascended
life. Because I live, he says in the
Gospel, John 14, because I live, ye shall live also. Now the life
of the believer, the life of the Christian is altogether bound
up in the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. Thy dead men shall live
together with my dead body shall they arise he says in the prophet
Isaiah this is the life then how important the resurrection
so we come together Lord's day by Lord's day every first day
of the week the Christian Sabbath we remember that Christ has died
but Christ is risen again from the dead and he is the one who
bestows life and salvation upon his people. All, all those who
are saved, they know this reconciliation. But remember what we said at
the outset, in order to understand what reconciliation is all first
we have to experience something terrible. The reality of our
condition by nature, our alienation And how awful it is when there
is that work of the Spirit that Christ has given and accomplished.
When He has come He reproves of sin, of righteousness, of
judgment. Oh, the psalmist knew these things. How he cries out, I said, in
my haste I am cut off from thy eyes. why the Samis felt himself
to be separated from God. He was made to feel something
of his alienation when God dealt with him and opened his eyes.
He felt, how can I dwell before him whose eyes are as a flame
of fire? Whose eyes are too pure to behold
iniquity. I'm cut off, he says. He feels
his separation. Jonah knew it. I am cast out
of thy sight, he says. I'm cast out of thy sight. He'd
been disobedient. He'd gone the very opposite to
what God had commanded him to do. He'd been cast overboard. He'd been swallowed by a great
fish. He's in the fish's belly. I'm cast out of thy sight, yet
will I look again toward thy holy temple. or those who are
made to feel their alienation, they cannot look in vain to the
Lord Jesus Christ? Does he not bring his people
to that place of willing submission? For they are brought to submit
to him in all his dealings with them as that one who is now reigning
in heaven, reigning in his mediatorial kingdom, the head over all things,
they are brought to submit to him. Look at what it says here, The end of verse 10, being reconciled
we shall be saved by His life. Verse 11, and not only so, but
we also join God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Why we join
God? We reconcile to this God. We
rejoice in all His dealings with us. All we're brought to that,
we're reconciled to his way, his manner of dealing with us. Because he is too wise to be
mistaken, he's too good to be unkind. Why? He makes us in a
sack in order to make that synagogue. It's alienation. Oh, but it's
reconciliation. its salvation, and all in the
Lord Jesus, if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by
the death of His Son, much more, much more being reconciled, we
shall be saved by His life. May the Lord bless His Word for
His name's sake.