Wednesday 19 December 2018

Why Christmas? Answer: To save sinners. How did Jesus save us

In yesterday’s blog, I looked at what Jesus saved us from, and today I would like to reflect on the question, how Jesus saved us?

The simple answer to this question, is that Jesus saved us from the wrath of God (which we saw yesterday was the big threat from which we needed to be saved) by taking on himself, and thus taking away, the penalty and punishment for our sins.

Matthew 1:21 said that Jesus would ‘save his people from their sins’. In John 1:29 (ESV), we read of how John the Baptist ‘saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”’. Jesus saved us from our sins, or from the penalty deserved for our sins, by dying as the sacrificial “Lamb of God”. His death was the death that our sins deserved. On the cross, Jesus offered the real sacrifice that "takes away... sin", to which all the OT animal sacrifices had pointed.

In Romans 3:23-25 (ESV), Paul explains that the cross was a wrath-removing sacrifice. This amazing passage says: “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.” That word, 'propitiation' means ‘a wrath removing sacrifice’.

Isaiah predicted it hundreds of years before the cross. We read in Isaiah 53:5-6 (ESV): “But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. 6 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.”

To avoid confusion, we need to note that because Jesus is God (John 1:1, 14), the second Person of the Holy Trinity (Matthew 28:19); Jesus is not saving us from a reluctant, angry Father God. No, in the mystery and resolution of God's love and justice, God, in Christ, was Himself, saving us from Himself. God taking our sin upon Himself in the person of his Son. 2 Cor. 5:19 (ESV) says that “in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them.”

This saving act of Jesus involved what might be called the saving transaction, described in 
2 Corinthians 5:21 (ESV), which says: “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” Our sin was transferred to Jesus, who was 'made ... to be sin', and punished on the cross; and Jesus’ righteousness, or perfect life of obedience, was transferred to us and we get saved from the wrath of God.

In tomorrow’s blog, I will discuss who gets saved by the work of Jesus.

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