Romans chapter 8 and verse 28. And we know that all things work
together for good to them that love God, to them who are the
called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he
also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that
he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom
he did predestinate, them he also called, and whom he called,
them he also justified, and whom he justified, them he also glorified. What shall we then say to these
things? If God be for us, who can be
against us? He that spared not his own son,
but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also
freely give us all things? Amen. May the Lord bless to us
this reading from his word. When I preach, I want to be understood. I never want to leave my hearers
confused or with the impression that Christianity is complicated
or that the message of the gospel is too hard to follow. I will have failed miserably
if the youngest listener cannot grasp what I'm saying. There
is a simplicity in Jesus Christ. And I must always, in my preparation,
in my thinking, in my presentation, I must always be wary of making
our faith seem hard to follow, or of appearing to place the
Saviour in any way out of reach. the Lord Jesus was on earth,
he welcomed little children. He gathered around him ordinary
people like you and me and the common people heard him gladly. Paul could say of those who comprised
the church in his day, those who were saved and joined to
the fellowship of the Lord's people, that not many wise men
after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called and
so it continues to be today. Not many wise men after the flesh,
not many mighty, not many noble are called. And the apostles'
experience was that God rather used the foolish and the weak
and the base and the despised things of this world to confound
the things that are mighty. And having said that, Our faith
is not foolishness. It is the highest wisdom. It
is the wisdom of God. And it deals with and it addresses
the most profound questions of life and living and of death
and dying. Let me say, especially to our
younger listeners, You will meet people who will tell you that
religion is rubbish and merely causes trouble. Well, I'm not
going to try to defend religion, but I will defend personal faith
in Jesus Christ. People who say such things do
not know Christ. nor do they have answers to the
big questions of life. As I grow older, let me be personal
with you, as I grow older I can tell you I wouldn't give up my
faith for anything. I wouldn't give up my trust,
my hope in the promises of God for anything that this world
has to offer. The world and all it does offer
is transitory, it is fleeting and very soon it will turn to
dust. Nothing that man can build or
even imagine can match the glory of the gospel, the joy of having
peace with God and the hope of everlasting life in heaven. And no matter what you aspire
to in this life and in this world, Nothing compares to knowing Jesus
Christ as your Lord and Saviour. The Gospel of Christ is not complicated,
but it is glorious and it is wonderful and it is sublime. It can be understood by a child,
though it deals with infinite truth and with eternal realities. With divine illumination, a wayfaring
man, though a fool, will not err in the way of life. And each
of us has a right and privilege to ask the Lord for wisdom to
help us to understand the spiritual meaning of grace and glory and
eternal life in Christ. Our studies in this chapter eight
of Romans are pure gospel truth. And God promises to give wisdom
and knowledge of the truth to all those who come to him and
ask for it. He will not disappoint. One of the key messages of the
gospel is substitution. And while that might sound complicated,
it really isn't. Because I think no matter what
age we are, we have all heard of substitution. We've all heard
about a substitute player in sport or a substitute teacher
at school. substitute is a person who stands
in for someone else, someone who takes someone else's place
and in the Bible we learn how the Lord Jesus Christ became
the substitute for sinners in order to take their place and
bear the punishment due to them for the sins that they had committed
against God. It is this substitution that
Paul is speaking about in our verse today. We are told that
God the Father spared not his own son, but delivered him up
for us all. God the Father spared not his
own Son, but delivered him up for us all. The Lord Jesus Christ,
the Son of God, was not spared the suffering of the cross. He was not spared death itself,
but was delivered by God the Father as a substitute for us
in our place. with his own precious blood,
the Lord Jesus paid the price of our salvation. He stood before
God's law. He stood before God's justice
as our representative and as our substitute. And he was delivered
up for us all. He bore our grief so that we
would not have to bear that grief. He carried our sorrow so that
we would not have to endure that sorrow and he did it in his own
body on the tree, on the cross when
he was crucified so that the crucifixion, the death of the
Lord Jesus Christ is where that substitutionary work took place
and where the Lord himself represented us before his father in his suffering
and in his death. When Jesus died, He did not die
for his own sin because he had none. He was holy and perfect
in everything, in word, in thought and in deed. nor did he die for
his own crimes. We read that today in the book
of Luke and it's lovely how so often these passages complement
one another though in the way in which they are set out, they
are quite randomly brought together. But there we learn that neither
Herod nor Pilate could find any justification having fully examined
the Lord Jesus Christ for putting him to death. The Lord was not
crucified for any crimes that he had committed. He was perfect,
pure and holy in every way. And that is exactly what made
him a suitable and qualified substitute. You know, if the
Lord Jesus Christ had been a sinner, then he could not have been a
substitute for others because he would have had to pay for
his own sins. But it was because he was the
sinless son of God that he was a suitable substitute for his
people, for sinners. The Lord Jesus came into the
world to accomplish the great task of substituting himself
in the place of his people, to redeem them with his own blood
and give his life a ransom for many. So when Paul says that
Christ was delivered up by his Father, this is what he was delivered
up for and this is what he was delivered up to do. Now you might ask, Why would
God do that? Why would God give his own son? Why would God deliver up his
own son? Why would God not spare his son
that suffering and that death? Well, this is exactly what we've
been speaking about for the past few weeks. The sacrifice of the
Son of God was the only way that God could show his love manifest
his grace and express his mercy while maintaining his holiness,
justice and truth. We have learned in our studies
how God loved a people before time began. We have learned that
in the eternal mind, he fixed upon a particular people. He set them apart in Christ and
he made Christ their head. He predestinated that people
to be conformed to the image of his son, to be made like Jesus
Christ. And he justified that people
upon the merits of the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, their
substitute and representative. He determined that he would glorify
that people and he willed their good as the highest purpose of
creation. We learned that all things, all
things created, were created for the good of that chosen people. The three persons of the Godhead,
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, agreed together. We call that agreement a covenant. They agreed together in the covenant
of peace called the Covenant of Peace because its purpose
was to make peace and reconcile the Holy God with the fallen
people. The three persons of the Godhead
agreed together in the Covenant of Peace to accomplish the great
salvation and to do all that was necessary to bring God's
chosen people to salvation. despite them being guilty of
sin in Adam and all of them being workers of iniquity in their
own lives. God covenanted to bring many
sons to glory. The father would send his son
and deliver him up for us all. The Son would come as the substitute
and die in their place and the Holy Spirit would apply the benefits
of Christ's death in quickening, that is in making them alive,
in giving them life, spiritual life, a life-giving power And
all for whom Christ died would be born again, just like Nicodemus
was born again, you must be born again. All for whom Christ died
would be born again by God the Holy Spirit and made a new creation. It's all the work of God. Paul
tells the Ephesians that we are God's workmanship. We are created
in Christ Jesus. And it is God the Father, God
the Son and God the Holy Spirit in this covenant purpose that
accomplishes and achieves the full salvation of God's chosen
people. He is the one who has made us
holy and righteous in his sight. in the sight of God and God is
the only one who is in himself holy and righteous so if he declares
us to be holy and righteous then we can be sure that we are. When Paul speaks in this little
passage that we're looking at today of us all that Christ was
delivered up for us all. He is referring to all for whom
Christ died. The all there refers to God's
elect whom he foreknew. These are the people that have
been spoken about in this whole passage. That's why we always
have to be careful when we just look up a verse and read a verse
and say, oh yes, I know what that means. That sometimes we
don't know what it means, especially if it has a context in which
it has to be interpreted. So that just because the little
word all is in there doesn't mean to say that it's every single
person who's ever lived, every single person without exception.
Paul is speaking about a distinct group, the group that were foreknown,
the group that were predestinated, that were called, that were justified
and glorified, and for whom all things work together for their
good. They are the very same individuals
who were committed to the care of the Son in the everlasting
covenant of grace and represented by him in the eternal councils
of peace. For the salvation of us all God
the Son was delivered into the hands of cruel men and he freely
submitted himself according to the terms of the covenant as
the substitute for us all who were chosen in him before the
foundation of the world. Paul's teaching here and the
use of the word delivered shows us God's active role in giving
up or yielding up his son to suffer and die. Such is the Father's
love. that he didn't spare his own
son, but sent him to accomplish redemption, to secure our pardon,
to effect the work of reconciliation, so that the Saviour was not taken
and crucified until he was first delivered and given. It was only because God gave
him up, delivered him up, that he was taken and crucified. The Lord Jesus Christ was always
the divinely appointed substitute and he was given for that reason.
His death was always intended for the salvation of the elect. No more and no less. and I'm going to come back to
that in a moment or two. Adam's sin and our fallen nature means
that we are all guilty and we all come short of God's glory. Our sin means that we are all under God's judgment and we are
all the enemies of God. We are in open rebellion against
God. And the Bible tells us that the
wages of our sin is death. So that a substitute, if he was
going to be a real substitute for us, would have to both suffer
for our sins and die in our place. because the righteous God had
been so offended, because his holy law has been transgressed,
and justice requires retribution, and it calls for blood. Ezekiel, the Old Testament prophet,
tells us, the soul that sinneth, it shall die. But what if a suitable substitute
could be found to carry our guilt and to bear our punishment? Such
a one was indeed found. Indeed, he was the only one who
was suitable, the only one who could do this job of substitution. the Son of God, coming in flesh
as a man, joining himself to our humanity to be able to represent
us as a real man. The Son of God, our substitute,
died in our place. And in 1 Peter 3, verse 18, the
apostle there says, for Christ also hath once suffered for sins,
the just, that is, the holy, perfect one, the just for the
unjust, the unholy, imperfect ones, that he might bring us
to God, being put to death in the flesh but quickened by the
Spirit. That's a beautiful verse, so
simple, so straightforward and yet there we see the Father,
the Son and the Holy Spirit all working together to accomplish
the salvation of God's people. The gospel that we preach or
the good news of God's grace is the message of Christ's substitutionary
atonement. Atonement just means bringing
together that which was separated and apart. It literally means
at one meant. It is reconciling, bringing together
that which was broken and separated. And this work of the Lord Jesus
Christ, where it was Christ instead of us, is the work of the Lord
Jesus Christ in the Gospel. God says, deliver him, he's speaking
about the sinner, deliver him from going down to the pit. I have found a ransom. And this is the fact of the matter. The Lord Jesus Christ has become
our substitute and he has saved us, he has brought us into the
experience of being united at one with God. And it is useful
for God's people to know and to understand the nature of this
substitutionary work. We've gone to some lengths to
explain the fact of it. I just want us to think in closing
about its significance, the significance of our atonement, the significance
of the position in which we now stand because of the position
in which the Lord Jesus Christ stood for us. He took our sin
and he made us righteous. The death of the Lord Jesus Christ,
his precious blood, the atoning work of propitiation and reconciliation
is the ground of our acceptance with God. Propitiation just means
that God's anger has been taken away. God's anger at our sin
has been removed and peace has been restored. A ransom has been
paid and God is satisfied with the death of his son in our place. And all of that is within the
covenant of grace and peace. It is the elect for whom Christ
died. And that is so important when
we come to understand the work of Christ on the cross. It has
no bearing or consequence for the non-elect, for the reprobate,
and any who are outside of the terms of the electing, predestinating,
justifying love of God. Sometimes you'll hear preachers
say that Christ's blood is so precious it is sufficient to
cleanse the sins of all men and women, all boys and girls, whether
they are God's elect or not. Well, such talk has no merit. It's not that we're denying the
intrinsic virtue and value of Christ's sacrifice and blood. The question is the intent of
God in not sparing his son and in delivering him up for us all. For whom did Christ die? According
to the will and plan of God in the covenant of grace. He died
for the elect, specifically and distinctively. He was delivered
up for us all who were loved, chosen, called and justified. That's all. The cleansing power
of Christ's blood is limited to that purpose for which it
is designed and for which it was shed. it effectively and
efficiently secures its end. And speaking about it being sufficient
for everyone, for all men and women, has no usefulness and
merely serves to confuse matters in the minds of the Lord's little
ones. Again, here's another example
of the value of properly understanding what happened at the cross. Sometimes
you'll hear it said that Christ's death has taken away all our
past sins, wiped the slate clean and, as it were, turned over
a new page. But now In order to continue
to be holy and to honour God and to please God, we must live
according to Moses' law and obey the Ten Commandments. That's
the teaching of so many churches today. But this too denies the
purpose and the design of Christ's death. Peter tells us, Christ
suffered for us who his own self bear our sins in his own body
on the tree. Listen, that we being dead to
sins should live unto righteousness. That's why Christ died, that
we live unto righteousness by whose stripes ye were healed. That's in 1 Peter 2, verse 24. Paul told the believers in Corinth,
For he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that
we might be made the righteousness of God in him. It's a transactional
work. It's a substitutionary work.
Christ was made sin that we would be made righteous. Christ took
our sins that we might be dead to sin. that we might live unto
righteousness. This is the apostolic teaching. In 1 Corinthians 1, verse 30,
the Apostle Paul again says, But of him are ye in Christ Jesus,
that is, the Father, who placed us in the eternal covenant in
Christ Jesus, but of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God
is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. We have been made righteous. We have been sanctified and made
holy in Christ. As being in him, we are righteous. As being in him, we are sanctified
and holy. Paul tells the Ephesians, Ephesians
1-4. Now that's the apostolic teaching. Not that we are now by our obedience
to the law to make ourselves holy, but we are to consider
ourselves holy, believe ourselves to be holy, have faith in the
completed work of Christ who has made us holy by taking away
our sins and delivering unto us that cleansing and that holiness
which is the holiness, the righteousness of God. Now these matters are
important because they tell us first that Christ as our substitute
carried away our sins and second that by his death he has made
us righteous. We are reconciled and perfectly
holy in the sight of God. We are justified That means made
righteous in the sight of God. We're not made holy by obeying
the Ten Commandments. We're not made holier by obeying
the Ten Commandments. On the contrary, they are designed
to show men how unholy they are. We are holy in the new creation. Holy in our spirit. righteous in Christ, well-pleasing. We couldn't be any more pleasing
to God the Father because we are in Christ who
verily has adorned us with righteousness, the righteousness of God in Christ
Jesus. Christ is our holiness. Christ
is our righteousness. Christ is our sanctification. And we please God by living in
this world by faith. in the promises of grace and
the glory given to us in Christ. We don't please God by our obedience
to the law. Christ pleased God by his obedience
to the law and yet he died for our sins. We please God by trusting
in that completed work. We please God by faith. The just
or the justified or the righteous shall live by faith. That is
what we do. We live according as we live
in the Lord Jesus Christ. We must not look to the work
of Christ for justification. and then the work of man for
sanctification. We look to Christ for everything
and Christ is our all in all. May the Lord apply these truths
to our heart, illuminate our minds and teach us the simplicity
that is in Jesus Christ. Amen.