“The Meaning of Christ's Death” by Romans
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There is a particular book 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 by the work that went into the outline that I used from it. 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. You can buy it new on Amazon for $47, or, as of this morning, you can buy it “used” for as little as $5.97! (Plus, shipping and handling.) I wholeheartedly recommend it.
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. He apparently kept incredible notes from his sermons, and incorporated them into the endless lists and wonderful insights contained in this book. I give Robert T. Boyd full credit for the outline that I used in the preparation of tonight's Discussion, which I have titled, “The Meaning of Christ's Death.”
Yes, I did say, “The Meaning of Christ's Death.” You may well be wondering as Christmas is upon us, and Jesus' birth is being celebrated, why I would 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 an infant.
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, before Jesus could walk or talk, knew that criticism was groundless, declaring that Jesus' coming was for “all people.”
Jesus came to this earth to bring Salvation to this world by taking the punishment for sin by dying for the sins committed by every man, woman and child on the planet. That Salvation could only be brought about by His Sacrificial Death. And isn't it true that that is why His birth is celebrated at all?
During this time of year, too many people have effectively buried the reason for His Coming under all the shiny objects that materialism generates to distract us from that reason. But as Simeon 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. Next week I plan to go back over many of tonight's verses, but there will be significant commentary on each one, putting to full use some of the commentaries that I have shared with you in previous Discussions. So let's examine, and come to a better understanding of the Father's decision to send His Son to the earth, and “The Meaning of Christ's Death.”
Let's understand first that Jesus' Death was not a accident, or a fluke. It was not outside or against the Will of God. The death of His Son was predetermined: We read in 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 his first epistle 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 Gethsemane, after the mob arrived to arrest Him, and Peter cut off Malchus' ear, Jesus, Himself, said beginning in Matthew 26:52: “Then said Jesus unto him, 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.
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, were sacrificing lambs for that evening's Passover celebration. And they missed it. Completely. The original Passover Lamb's 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:”
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. God poured out His full Righteous wrath 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 found in Paul's writings: We read 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 significant reflection. It is not a verse that I can read without being profoundly impacted. It read, “For He {the Father} made Him {Jesus} to BE SIN for us.” How much meditation value is there in just those nine words? Christ indeed was the Lamb of Whom God sent to take away the sin of the world, but He took sin away by becoming sin so that when the Father saw Him, and poured out His full Wrath on Him, He both satisfied and exhausted the Father's Righteous Judgment on His Son. By this, our sins were paid for in full, and utterly abolished.
A while back, a friend of mine on Facebook posted this thought: “I was guilty, and deserving of punishment, but God dropped the charges.” I would like you to comment on that thought: “I was guilty, and deserving of punishment, but God dropped the charges.” Is that a true statement?
When I read that statement, I immediately challenged it. I wrote, “With all due respect, if the charges were “dropped,” Jesus would not have needed to come to the earth at all, much to have experienced the most brutal execution ever devised by man.” I assure you, the charges were not dropped. Instead, we read, “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).
Had the charges been “dropped,” Jesus would not have have suffered a merciless scourging and death on a cross. Referring to Jesus, we read in Romans 4:25: “Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.” We also read in 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.”
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.”
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: (Expiatory, as defined by the Online Merriam-Webster's dictionary: to make obsolete, or put an end to. To extinguish.) Now what does this term “expiatory” have to do with Jesus Death? Example: E-mail has expiated having to wait for days for a correspondent to receive a letter 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.
Romans 5:8: “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. 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.”
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”). What if, for example, my son hit a baseball that broke a neighbor's window, and my son's mere apology to the neighbor was not acceptable, the neighbor would be appeased if my son offered to pay for a new window out of his allowance. That appeasement would be a propitiation. Jesus' death is the propitiation that reconciles us to God.
Let's look at the verse that tell us that Jesus is our propitiation: We read in 1 John 2:1: “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.”
We also read 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.” And 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.”
Jesus Death was also Redemptive: (In the Greco/Roman world, redemption was when someone intervened on behalf of a slave, and bought his or her freedom). 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.”
Jesus Death was substitutionary:
1 Peter 2:24: “Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.”
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, “the propitiation for our sins 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 which is quite familiar to us, but we do not understand it or apply it in the way is was used and applied in ancient Rome. That word is “ransom.” Whenever we hear in the news of a ransom being paid, it is paid to free the child of a rich family, or to have a kidnapped corporate executive released.
In ancient Rome, it was possible to buy a slave out of slavery. That did not mean that one who offered payment was buying the slave for himself. Rather, the payment was to release the slave from slavery that he or she might be free. Free to go. Able, perhaps for the first time, to not be owned or commanded to perform every order. That payment was called a “ransom.” With that in mind, we read in 1 Timothy 2:5-6: “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.”
Jesus Death was for each of us, and for all of us:
This was the message from the very beginning. When Jesus was born, an angel announced to the terrified shepherds in the environs of Bethlehem, “Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people...” (Luke 2:10).
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.”
1 Timothy 1:15: “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners;” We also read in 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:”
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, sin is remembered no more. Let's focus on each of the effect 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, we also read in 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.”
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 that 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? We read 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...
That is where God intervenes, initiating the next step that we are powerless to take on our own. Because of Jesus' death on 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 what it is saying, here: Jesus was made sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him! THAT is how God sees those who accept the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ, and for whom His sacrifice is applied to the penalty for 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 that we do... there is nothing we can do to earn Salvation. There is nothing we can boast about. 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 also 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.)”
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.”
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.”
And 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, and adoption into the Family of God is possible:
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. Yes, forgiveness is provided, righteousness is imputed and Grace is freely given. We cannot earn any of those.
The Cross accomplished what we could never do on our own. Because of the Cross, condemnation is forever removed: We read in Romans 8:1: “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:”
Romans 8:33: “Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.”
And lastly, 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.”
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.”
There are things we do as Christians, not to earn Salvation and Eternal Life, but in response to being their undeserving recipients. We read in Ephesians 2:10: “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.”
In a few weeks Christians will celebrating the birth of our Savior. It is important that we allow God's Word to set our focus on the coming of God's promised Messiah, and not distracted by the world's glitter and noise and often ungodly excesses and temptations. The promise that a Messiah would come was recorded by the prophets of Israel, but, as Paul wrote, “... if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise” (Galatians 3:29). Jesus was born for all of us, and for each of us.
This concludes this Evening's Discussion, “The Meaning of Christ's Death.”
This Discussion was originally presented “live” on December 15th, 2021
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