“Christmas_2020, Part 2: The Meaning of Christ's Death” by Romans
Youtube Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01BcaggibDw
Youtube Audio: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4Cjb9hX53A
Before I begin my notes for this evening, I want to say that there is a particular book that I have used in the preparation for many of these Discussions. I have endorsed it before, and I want to do that again tonight. As I was preparing these Notes, I was bowled over again by the work that went into the outline that I used from the book. The book is called, The World's Bible Handbook by Robert T. Boyd. Including the index, it is a 792 page book, and it is probably the most comprehensive Study Tool I own. It is currently out-of-print, but used copies are available on Amazon starting at $26 or so.
But... Amazon also sells this book under an alternate title, “Varsity's Bible Handbook.” The cover is different, the book is slightly smaller, but the text is identical. I have been able to verify this because I own both versions. It also sells as a used book on Amazon for as low as $6, or so. It is hard for me to imagine how much time it took this one author, a minister with decades of pastoral experience, to write this book.
I give Robert T. Boyd full credit for the outline that I used in the preparation of tonight's specific Discussion, “The Meaning of Christ's Death.” He apparently kept incredible notes from his sermons, and incorporated them into the endless lists and wonderful insights contained in this book. If your spouse or family member needs a hint as to what to buy you for Christmas, or you want to give a really good gift to yourself or anyone else, I highly recommend this book!
Now, you may be wondering as Christmas is upon us, and Christ's birth is the focus of the celebration, why would I
choose a topic that might seem to be better suited for the Spring of the year when we commemorate Jesus' Death and Resurrection? Well, we read in Luke's Account, details of what was said when Jesus was still a baby. Beginning in Luke 2:25, we read: “And, behold, there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon; and the same man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel: and the Holy Ghost was upon him. And it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost, that he should not see death, before he had seen the Lord's Christ...”
“And he came by the Spirit into the temple: and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him after the custom of the law, Then took he him up in his arms, and blessed God, and said, Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word: For mine eyes have seen thy salvation, Which thou hast prepared before the face of all people;”
Christianity is often criticized as being an “exclusive Religion,” that caters only to a select and limited group. Even Simeon, when Jesus was still a babe in arms, before He had taken a single step or spoke a single word, knew that criticism was groundless, declaring that Jesus' coming was for “all people.” Salvation had come embodied in that baby boy, and it would only be accomplished by His willingly laying down His Life, shedding His blood that our sins might be remitted (Hebrews 9:22). And isn't it true that that is why His birth is celebrated at all?
Even before Jesus was born, when an angel told Joseph in a dream that Mary's pregnancy was miraculous, and not the result of promiscuity on her part, the angel added: “And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). Being sent from the Father, His Name was already chosen. His birth was with a Divine purpose: the Salvation of humanity. That purpose that is a major component of the celebration we see.
At least until Covid-19 put a lid on our usual activities, the reason for Jesus' Coming to this earth has been buried under banquets and parties and parades and pageants and concerts and all the shiny objects that materialism can throw at us to distract us from that reason. Simeon was not inundated with these distractions. He said as he held the infant Jesus in his arms, “Mine eyes have seen Thy Salvation... prepared before the face of all people.”
What I plan to do tonight is cite many of the verses that appear in Robert Boyd's list, while also supplementing additional relevant verses. There will be some comment for a few verses, but for the most part I will just share the verses that support the verses' Headers. So let's examine, and come to a better understanding of “The Meaning of Christ's Death.” Let's understand first that Jesus' Death was predetermined:
Acts 2:22: Peter proclaimed to the Jerusalem crowd who gathered to observe Pentecost: “Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know: Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain:”
Then, Peter, again, wrote in 1 Peter 1:18: “Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you.”
Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15:3: “For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;” And then we read in Revelation 13:8, Jesus being referred to as “... the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.”
Another aspect of Jesus' Death that we must never overlook or diminish in our thinking is that it was voluntary: John 10:1: “Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.”
In the Garden of Gethsemene, after the mob arrived to arrest Him, and Peter cut off Malchus' ear, Jesus, Himself, said to Peter beginning in Matthew 26:52: “Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword. Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels? But how then shall the scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be?” Jesus was a willing participant in His crucifixion. We read His words in John 10:17-18: “Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself.”
Scripture tells us that Jesus' Death was sacrificial:
John the Baptist clearly identified Jesus as a sacrificial lamb in John 1:29: “The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” For centuries, Israel went through the motions of sacrificing the Passover Lamb without ever applying its significance to what the Messiah would experience when He arrived. They expected the Messiah to come; but they never expected His Life to be snuffed out by way of, what I believe is still, the most heinous form of execution ever devised by man.
It is amazing to realize that at the very time that Jesus was bleeding out as He was hanging there, nailed to the cross, His fellow-countrymen, who were not a part of the crowd that was there at His crucifixion, was sacrificing lambs for that evening's Passover celebration. And they missed it. Completely. The original Passover Lambs blood dripped down the wooden frames of the doors, while Jesus' blood ran down the wood of the cross. That picture, and the significance of Jesus' death was not lost to the Apostle Paul. He wrote in the second part of 1 Corinthians 5:7: “Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us:”
It has occurred to me in the preparation of other Studies I have delivered to other groups, and I shared it here as well, that the Father sent His Son to die for us that we might have forgiveness and Life, because there was nothing and no one better or more precious to Him that He could have given. But then I realized, much to my revulsion, that the crowd demanded that Pilate crucify Jesus because there was no execution more brutal and merciless, and no death more disgraceful and detestable than public crucifixion. The Father gave us Jesus, His absolute Best; mankind responded by demanding that Jesus be subjected to the absolute worst that was available.
Jesus' Death was vicarious: (Vicarious, as Defined by the Online Merriam-Webster Dictionary: “performed or suffered by one person as a substitute for another or to the benefit or advantage of another.” Sometimes you hear of a parent living vicariously through their son or daughter as they sign them up for various sports teams or beauty pageants. Well, Jesus' death was vicarious in that He took the full punishment that we brought on ourselves and deserved. God's full Righteous wrath was satisfied when it was poured out on His Son as He was nailed to the cross.
Let's see a few Scriptures that demonstrate that: The first one I want to highlight is nothing less than astounding when you realize the full impact of what it is saying. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5:21: “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.” This is not a verse that I can read without substantial and deep reflection: “For He {the Father} made Him {Jesus} to BE SIN for us...”
There is so much meditation value in there in just those nine words! Christ indeed was, as John the Baptist identified Him, the Lamb of God Who taketh away the sin of the world. He took sin away by becoming sin so that when the Father saw Him, and poured out His Wrath on Him, He both satisfied and exhausted His Righteous Judgment on Jesus such that we could be completely forgiven, our sins having been both paid for in full and utterly abolished.
1 Peter 3:18: “For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:”
Galatians 2:20: “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”
Referring to Jesus, we read in Romans 4:25: “Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.”
Most of us are familiar with the prophecy found in the first part of Isaiah 53:10: “Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin.” Those are, for me, difficult words to read. But as a Commentary whose author I cannot specifically name, said, (and I am paraphrasing): “What pleased the Father was not the bruising of His Son, but the result of that bruising, namely, our Salvation by and through the transfer of the punishment from us who deserved it, to His Son Who did nothing to deserve it. Our sin debt was paid in full by Jesus' sacrifice.
We read in Hebrews 9:13: “For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?”
And again in Hebrews 9:26: “For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.”
Jesus Death was expiatory: This is one of those words that we hear in relation to Jesus but many of us, myself included, need to look it up too understand it. So I did: Expiatory, as defined by the Online Merriam-Webster's dictionary: to make obsolete, or put an end to. To extinguish.) In what way, then, does “expiatory” relate to Jesus Death? Let's use it in a sentence: “E-mail has expiated having to wait for days for a correspondent to receive a document or photo or other attachment from you.” In like manner, the Sacrificial Death of Jesus Christ has expiated the sentence of death that we incurred for our disobedience and rebellion against the Commands of God.
Here is another such term that sent me to the dictionary: Christ's Death was Propitiatory: (Propitiatory, as defined by the Online Merriam Websters dictionary: “to gain or regain the favor or goodwill of...” Synonyms include “appease” and “pacify”). If, when he was young, my son threw a ball and broke a neighbor's window, he may not be satisfied even with a sincere apology from my son. But, if my son offered to pay for its repair with his allowance, and my neighbor's anger is appeased, then that offer was propitiatory. Jesus' death was propitiatory in satisfying the Father's righteous judgment, that the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23). His death is applied to our sin debt, and the Father's wrath is similarly appeased.
Referring to Christ, the Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 3:25: “Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God.”
Also with this in mind, we read, “My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world” ( 1 John 2:1). And again in 1 John 4:10: “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”
Jesus' Death was Redemptive: (In the Greco/Roman world, redemption was when someone intervened on behalf of a slave, and bought his or her freedom out of slavery). We read Galatians 4:4: “But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.” We read in Acts 20:28 the purchase price of our redemption: “Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.”
Let's take Jesus' Death in Perspective and examine it. When we do that, we see that it was for the whole world: 1 John 2:2: “And he is the propitiation for our sins:” there is that word again, indicating that he satisfied the demands of justice to a righteous God, but the Verse goes on to say, “and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.”
In this next verse, we read Jesus' sacrifice for us using a term for which we need no dictionary definition: 1 Timothy 2:6: “Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.” In the culture in which this was written, when a slave was redeemed, the money to redeem him was called the ransom. Jesus, Himself, was the Ransom that the Father paid for our redemption!
Jesus Death was for each individual:
Hebrews 2:9: “But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.”
Let's take a look at the Saving Power of the Cross:
Romans 5:6: “For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
I will again defend this subject matter at this time of year by quoting 1 Timothy 1:15: “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners;” Yes, Jesus' birth is celebrated at this time, but He was born to suffer and die: “For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit” (1 Peter 3:18).
Jesus' Death draws men to Him:
John 12:32: “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.” Sin is addressed by the Cross in 5 ways: 1.) Sin is forgiven at the Cross; 2.) Sin is removed by the Cross; 3.) Sin is blotted out by the Cross; 4.) Sin is buried by the Cross, and, 5.) Because of the Cross, our sins are remembered no more. Let's go back, now, and focus on each of these effects one at a time:
First, Sin is forgiven at the Cross:
Ephesians 1:7: “In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace.” And, Romans 4:7: “Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered.”
Second, Sin is removed by the Cross:
Psalms 103:12: “As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.”
Third, Sin is blotted out by the Cross:
Isaiah 44:22: “I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins: return unto me; for I have redeemed thee.”
Fourth, Sin is buried by the Cross:
Micah 7:19: “He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.”
Fifth, Sin is remembered no more:
Hebrews 10:16: “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.”
Because of the Cross, the distance between God and man is annihilated:
Ephesians 2:13: “But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.”
But then, because of the Cross, once distance is annihilated, reconciliation with God is possible:
Romans 5:10: “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.”
Because of the Cross, redemption from the curse of the Law is secured:
Galatians 3:13: “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us:”
Because of the Cross, justification from guilt is provided:
Romans 5:9: “Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.”
And then, because of the Cross, forgiveness is secured:
Ephesians 1:7: “In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;”
Because of the Cross, sonship is furnished:
Galatians 4:3: “Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world:
But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.”
Notice also what we read in 1 John 3:2: “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.”
Because of the Cross, cleansing from all sin is provided:
1 John 1:7: “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
Because of the Cross, the power of sin is potentially nullified:
This is interesting. Why did Mr. Boyd, the author of this Outline in his World's Bible Handbook, say that “the power of sin is potentially nullified”? Let's read the verses he chose to explain his choice of words: Romans 6:6-13: “Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin. Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him: Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him...
“For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.”
Paul admonishes us to not “yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin...” It is a daily choice to obey God. And it is a daily warfare against temptation. Notice Luke 9:23: “And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.” That is why I agree with Mr. Boyd's saying that because of the Cross, “the power of sin is potentially nullified.” But we must arm ourselves against it as the enemy that it is. That is where the putting on of the “whole armour of God” comes in.
But after all of that, if all that happened was the complete wiping away of our sins, rendering us as clean slates, could we at the point be able to inherit the Kingdom? What about the element of Righteousness? Jesus clearly stated in His Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5:20: “For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.”
The Scribes and Pharisees were repeatedly identified by Jesus as hypocrites. Jesus told the chief priests and the elders flat out in Matthew 21:31: “Verily I say unto you, That the publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you.” And what of us? If only our sins are removed, can we depend on our own righteousness to grant us entrance into the Kingdom? What does Scripture tell us in regard to our righteousness?
I think we are all familiar with what was written in Isaiah 64:6: “... all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags...” And so where and what is the remedy? The Cross abolished and eradicated our sins, but our righteousness is as filthy rags. And that is where God intervenes to fill the next gap that we are powerless to fill. Because of the Cross, the Righteousness of Christ is imputed (or, assigned) to us.
Not only does God fully accept the punishment Jesus endured for our sins, He also fully accepts Jesus' Righteousness being applied to our accounts, as if it is ours! But with God... there are no “if's” where we are concerned. When He sees us, He sees us with the Righteousness of Christ. Let me go back to a verse I quoted earlier, and shift the focus to our righteousness.
In the verse which spoke of Jesus becoming sin for us, we read in its entirety, “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” (2 Corinthians 5:21). Notice that, Jesus was made sin, the we might be made the righteousness of God in Him! THAT is how God sees those who accepted the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ, and applied His Sacrifice to the penalty of their sins. We are made the Righteousness of God through Christ!
Notice: Romans 3:25: “Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.”
There is nothing we do... there is nothing we can do to earn Salvation. There is nothing we can boast about. It is not of works, it is God's Gift to us! The forgiveness of our sins, and the application of Jesus' Righteousness to our accounts is absolutely undeserved and unmerited. If we could live a million lifetimes, we could not earn what God freely gives us. They are all Gifts from God.
Notice what we find in Romans 4:6: “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. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.”
Because of the Cross, Grace is poured out on all those who accept it:
Romans 5:17: “For if by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.)” And, in Ephesians 2:7: “That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.”
Finally, because of the Cross, the fear of death is abolished: Hebrews 2:14: “Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.”
1 Corinthians 15:20: “But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept. For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming.”
The Christian life is a journey... a walk that merely begins with forgiveness of sin, and imputation of righteousness, and the pouring out of Grace upon us. Once we start, we must continue that walk. We read in 1 John 1:7: “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.”
Jesus cleanses us from sin, present tense and continually. But, redemption is not like getting your parting ticket validated. Once that ticket is punched, you stick it in your pocket and forget about it. Notice John 8:31: “Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed.” To continue in His Word is to walk in Faith, to walk in the Light, to bear fruit to God's Glory, to resist Satan's temptations, and to reject the world and its ways.
Yes. This is the Christmas Season. Christians all over the world will be celebrating the birth of the Savior of the World. Tonight, I shared with you the why's and the how's, the prophetic foundations and the fulfillment of those prophecies, all of which explain WHY the birth of Jesus Christ, unlike the birth of every other baby ever born, is worthy of celebration.
Simeon was directed by the Holy Spirit to go to the Temple was Joseph and Mary had brought the infant Jesus there. And he held Jesus in his arms, and thanked God not for an infant, but for the physical manifestation and fulfillment of the Promise of our Salvation that Jesus would accomplish. When I focus on that, the most clamorous passing parade, and the brightest Christmas lights fade into obscurity. And my eyes and ears, my mind, and my heart turn to, and dwell on Jesus Christ, our Passover Lamb, our Expiation, our Propitiation, our Redemption, our Ransom and our Lord and Savior.
This concludes this Evening's Discussion, “Christmas_2020, Part 2.”
This Discussion was originally presented “live” on December 16th, 2020
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