Now we're continuing our series
on the fundamentals of the grace of God, and we are at the main
point of the method of grace and the method of God's grace. That is, the way in which God
is able to justify Himself in showing grace and favor to us
is the substitutionary death of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's
the innocent suffering in the place of the guilty. Now, this work of the Lord Jesus,
of course, was accomplished on Calvary. It was a perfect work,
declared by Christ himself to be finished, meaning done, perfected,
accomplished, or brought to its appointed goal. This glorious work cannot be
improved by men, cannot be improved on by anybody. All that the Father
sent the Son to do was perfectly, completely, successfully accomplished
by the Lord Jesus Christ. And so perfect was this work
that it perfected everyone for whom the work was done. Now that's
one of the most important to me anyway, one of the most important
things to understand about this work of the Lord Jesus Christ
in making it right for God to show us favor. And this point
is that his work was perfectly, fully done and therefore everyone
for whom he did that work must and will receive all the benefits
of that work. It cannot be that Jesus Christ
redeemed and made atonement for someone, and that person in the
end suffer for his sins. Now, this perfect work of substitution
is most often described under the words redemption and atonement.
Some people use these terms as though they are synonyms, but
they're not really synonyms. Both are descriptions of the
same event, the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. And both are
payments of some sort. Both are considered to be a payment.
And in both of them, the currency of the payment is blood. But
each word perceives sin in a different way, and therefore, provides
a different kind of remedy for sin. Redemption views sin as
a debt that results in bondage or slavery for the debtor and
the loss of all of his property. Now, redemption pays the debt
and this results in the debtor being released from his bondage
and all the property he lost being restored to him. Now that's
what redemption is. Now on the cross Jesus Christ
fully paid the redemption price for all of God's people and they
were at that moment legally set free from their bondage. Now the experience of that freedom
within the time frame of our lives It doesn't come until later,
but the price has been paid. Our Savior has gone to the one
to whom we owe the debt, God, the judge of all the earth, and
he paid the debt. And as time passes, Christ comes
and claims those he purchased or redeemed. He sets them free. He restores all their property,
and part and parcel of redemption. You see, redemption's more than
merely paying the debt. It involves actually collecting
what was redeemed. And therefore, redemption has
not been fully accomplished in us. The payment's been fully
accomplished for us, but redemption's not been fully accomplished in
us because the Bible says that at the resurrection, The resurrection is considered
the redemption of our bodies. See, our bodies were lost. Our
bodies are, in a sense, our property. But we lost it. Our bodies die. It's going to be restored. Now,
today we'll deal with atonement. We dealt with it briefly a couple
of weeks ago, but I want to devote this entire lesson to the subject
of atonement. Now atonement perceives sin as
a personal affront or offense. Redemption sees sin as a debt. Atonement perceives sin as an
offense. And this offense results in anger
on the part of the one who's been offended. It breaks the
relationship between the offender and the offended person. They're
no longer friends. They're no longer in a peaceable
and loving relationship. And the one who is offended cannot
be reconciled apart from a payment of some sort. There must be a payment that
appeases or satisfies the anger created by the offense. Now,
there are other English words that signify the same thing as
the word atonement. But they're words we almost never
use unless we're talking about things from the scriptures. For
example, the word propitiation. That's one English word that
is used in the Bible to translate the word, which is translated
atonement in other places. There's propitiation, there's
expiation, and then ransom. Ransom is a word sometimes used
in the sense of an atonement. But the result, like I said,
the result of redemption is freedom. The result of atonement is reconciliation. The two that were broken apart
by the offense of one are brought back together. Love, peace, fellowship is restored
by an act of atonement. Our sin is more than a debt,
more than a mere breaking of a law. It's an act of rebellion
against God And it is a personal offense to his holy and righteous
nature. Now, I think sometimes people
don't, well, I know that many people don't see sin that way. They've been given rules, commandments,
and say if you break these commandments, you sin against God. Well, that
may be true. But our sin goes beyond merely
breaking a commandment. It's a personal offense to God. You know, if, well, there's things
that we do to one another that while they're wrong, they don't arouse anger. Now there may be, let's say there's
a law against punching people in the nose. Okay, there's that
law. Now if I come to you and punch
you in the nose, you're not gonna say, hey, you just broke the
law. You're gonna be mad. To you, I didn't just violate
a law, I violated you. And people, when they see our
sin only as the breaking of a commandment, some people say, well, God is
too strict. He shouldn't make commandments
like that. Who is God to tell me what to do? Really? If they see it as merely a breaking
of a commandment, they think there's something they can do
to make up for it. But when they realize it's like
punching God in the nose when they sin, it's a personal attack
on him. And he takes it personally. David
said, against you and you alone have I sinned and done this evil
in your sight. Sin is a personal attack on God
and it makes him livid with anger. And it excites, if that's the
right word, it stirs up his righteous sense of vengeance. See, when
you sin against someone like that, a personal affront, they're
bent on vengeance, aren't they? We'll see an example of that
here in a few minutes. But that, we got to see, that's how our
sins affect God. He reacts to our sin the way
a parent would react to the murder of a dear child. What if somebody
killed one of your children? Would you go say, well, you're
a murderer, they ought to arrest you? No. If you had a gun, it might take
a law enforcement officer to hold you back from taking vengeance
against the person who committed this murder. You wouldn't be
able to look at that event as some external act outside of
you. You look at that act as actually
committed against you. All of our sin is against God.
It's a personal attack upon the one who made us and the one who
deserves our full attention. And when we sin, he is rightfully
made angry, wrathful, and vengeful against us. Now, the only thing that will
satisfy God's personal offense because of our sin is death. There's nothing less that can
appease the anger of God over sin. Jesus Christ made atonement. He offered a payment to God such
that God is no longer angry with the sinner for whom Christ died. His blood And the word, the Hebrew
word translated atonement, it's translated some other ways too,
but the one translated atonement essentially means a covering.
And the blood of Christ covers our sins, and therefore it is
sufficient to remove the offense of them from God. It's a payment
made to God. that satisfies God's vengeance
against our sin. Now sometimes the best way to
understand a concept, to be turning to Proverbs chapter six, we'll
begin reading at verse 30. Sometimes the best way to understand
a concept is to see its opposite or view it when it's merely absent. Now in Proverbs 6 beginning in
verse 30, men do not despise a thief if
he steals to satisfy his hunger when he is starving. Now if somebody did that to you,
I mean they were hungry, they had no way to provide food and
they snuck in your house. And even if they stole a choice
cut, the finest steak, you wouldn't be angry at them.
You might expect to be paid back for it, but you're not ready
to clobber them. You probably wouldn't call the
police and say, throw this man in jail. Why? You don't take that personally,
you understand. His condition of starvation kind
of justifies his action. So it says, if he is caught,
verse 31, he must pay sevenfold, though it costs him all the wealth
of his house. Now, notice this. A man who commits adultery lacks
judgment. Whoever does so destroys himself,
blows, meaning that being punched. Blows and disgrace are his lot,
and his shame will never be wiped away, for jealousy arouses a
husband's fury, and he will show no mercy when he takes revenge. He will not accept any, is that
word compensation? It's the word normally translated
atonement. He will not accept any compensation. He will refuse the bribe, in
other words, meaning the payment, you know, however great it is. Now, you can see the difference
between somebody stealing from you because they're hungry and
somebody committing adultery with your spouse, especially if your spouse was
not willing. Is there anything that such a
person could do that would be able to put away your anger,
your white-hot vengeance against him? There's not enough money
in the world to cover that. They may take some money so that
they won't come after you with vengeance, but they're never
going to like you. There's nothing that will be
able to put that offense out of their mind and make it so
that the relationship you may have had with that person before
is back to the way it was. And so now when you look at how
a person would respond to having someone commit adultery with
his spouse, That's how God reacts to all of our sin. And there is no payment that
we can make that will ever satisfy God to the point that we can
be in a loving and peaceable relationship with him. See, our sin, while it may not
look big to us, it is very big to God. And He is rightly, deeply
offended. And we do not have what it takes
to make an atonement. Look over at Psalm 49.7. Now,
I preached from this psalm, I believe it was last week, yeah. And I
was brought to this psalm as I was doing some research on
the Bible concept of atonement. But we find this word here as
well. Psalm 49, beginning in verse
7. No man can redeem the life of
another. or give to God a ransom, an atonement for him. The ransom for a life is costly. No payment is ever enough that
he should live on forever and not see decay. We know that we cannot redeem
our own lives because our sin against God has created too much
of a chasm. We cannot pay him enough in any
kind of currency that we have. We cannot pay him enough that
he'll say, all right, I'm satisfied. No one else can. No one else
of the sons of Adam, nor all the sons of Adam together, would
have sufficient to atone for another man's sin. Of course, we realize that there
is one who came who is not of the line of Adam. And he did have sufficient payment
to atone for our sins but there's no until he came there was no
one and since he came no one else has come he is the only
one that could provide a payment to God that would cause God to
say okay I'm not angry anymore everything's paid back everything's
been made right Now, as I said, the word, its
essential meaning is a covering. In fact, the first appearance
of the word has nothing to do with making a payment in order
to appease somebody's anger. It was used when God was giving
Noah instructions on how to build the ark. He said, make it out
of gopher wood and pitch it on the inside and the outside with
pitch. Now, the word translated pitch
is this word. So what he was saying was, cover
it on the inside and the outside with a covering, a covering that
will keep the water of judgment from coming through. You know,
I mean, just, you try to make a boat out of just nailing boards
together, you're gonna get it, well, it'll float some, because
the boat, the water, excuse me, the wood itself is a little bit
buoyant. But you're not gonna be able
to put much in it, and it's gonna be deep in the water, because the
water will leak in. So if you wanna make a boat that
won't leak, you've gotta put that pitch on it. And there are
some people, and I've read this, who say that that wood called
gopher wood, It's related to the word for atonement. The word
for atonement is kopher. And you see how it sounds similar
to gopher. And so that whole arc was a big
picture of atonement. It covered Noah and everyone
inside such that judgment never reached them. Now, judgment was
executed against them. How so? It was executed against
the ark. The water meant to drown Noah
and his family and all the animals in there. It's not like it disappeared. It was still there. It's just
that that Atonement covering bore the brunt of the judgment. And when the flood was over,
Noah came out. And God was satisfied with regard
to Noah's sin. And there was no more anger,
no more wrath. Now in the New Testament, If you look at Romans chapter
3 verse 25, in the New Testament, the word is sometimes translated mercy. though I wish they hadn't because
it kind of there is another word that means mercy and when they
make translations like that it causes us to miss some things
that are important but here we have in Romans chapter 3 verse
25 speaking of Christ God presented Christ as a sacrifice
of atonement. And that's the word for atonement. Now, in the New Testament, atonement
is always associated with sacrifice. I mean, it's part and parcel
of the word or the understanding of the word. A sacrificial payment
made that puts away the wrath of God. And you can find that word again
in the book of 1 John when he speaks about that Christ is our
propitiation. Do you know what it is to propitiate
someone? It means they're angry at you
and you do something that puts away their anger. And so Christ, by his death,
made a payment to God that put God's anger away and restored
the broken relationship between God and His people. I'm pretty sure I wrote this
down wrong, but I think I know the verse anyway. In Luke 18, and if not I can just tell you
the story and you'll remember it. Luke 18 and verse 13, but the tax collector stood at
a distance. He would not even look up to
heaven, but beat on his breast and said, God have mercy on me,
a sinner. Now this is one of those times
when they've taken the word for atonement. and translated it
as mercy. In fact, I could not find any
translation that translated this with the word atonement. But we're going to have to take
it that way because not only is this not the word for mercy,
it's also In grammar, they say it's in
the passive voice. Now, the way it's translated,
it's in the active voice. It's saying, God, you do something. That's active voice. Passive
voice is when something is done to
you as opposed to you doing something. what this publican was saying.
He wasn't saying just be merciful to me because you're a merciful
God. He was saying may the blood shed
be a sufficient atonement to you to put away your anger and
wrath because of my sin. Christ atoned for our sins and
they are covered from the sight of God, and he no longer takes
them into account. This is the broken sinner's desire. He's not simply trying to avoid
punishment. He is grieved over his sin. He's grieved about how it has
broken the relationship between him and God. It's written, your
sins have separated you from your God. He longs not only that
his sin not be punished, he longs to have the relationship with
God restored. And he knows that that cannot
be done apart from God being appeased by a sacrifice. Until we're made spiritually
alive by the Holy Spirit, our sins are ever before our eyes,
and we perceive them as exposed before the Lord, invoking His
wrath against us. So we cry like the public and
really did, God, be appeased. See, that's passive. Be appeased. Be appeased by the sacrifice
of atonement. Be appeased toward me, the sinner. The publican and all others awakened
by the Spirit desire more than that God merely pity them, as
mercy would suggest. They look for more than God simply
changing his attitude towards them. That's involved, but they
understand. that the nature of their sin
is such that God cannot change His attitude apart from an atonement. They desire that their sins be
covered by the blood of Christ and forever hidden from God's
sight so that He is no longer provoked to anger by them and
His righteous vengeance will never arise against them again. And they recognize that it is
their sin that has separated them from their God, and they
desire that that separation come to an end, and be replaced with
a peaceful, loving relationship, and that all of this be done
by the sacrifice of Christ. So atonement, it's not what releases
us from bondage, that's redemption. Atonement is not, strictly speaking,
that which releases us from judgment, though that is involved. Atonement
is a sacrificial payment made to God that puts His righteous
anger away. And there's only one kind of
payment that can make atonement. When the law was being given
to Israel and the sacrifices were being described, it was
written, it's the blood that makes atonement for the soul. And it must be perfect to be
accepted. And there's only one who, as
a perfect individual, could offer his blood And the Bible also
equates blood with the life. The life is in the blood. That's
why blood isn't a sufficient atonement price. It's the life.
Jesus Christ is the only one who had the kind of life that
could be sacrificed and it would literally put away our sins,
cover them in such a way that God is not angry with us. He's
not upset. So this is the method of grace.
The substitutionary death of Jesus Christ, dying the innocent
for the guilty. It redeemed us by paying our
price and setting us free from our slavery to the law, sin,
and death, and it restored everything that was ever lost because of
our sin. and it atoned for us, so that
we who have been represented by Christ in His sacrifice, we
need never fear to come before God. God says, there is no wrath
in me. Can you grasp what that means?
I mean, most of the world's gonna come before God and there'll
be lots of wrath. But we may come before Him and
we know our sin, we know about it, but we're also confident
through Jesus Christ, God is not upset at us. We always have access to His
throne because of the blood.