The Gospel is really very counter intuitive. We are wired as Pharisees. We have a hard time understanding the nature
of grace. Even though we confess that
we believe God saves us by grace, we tend to operate in the arena of
works. We are basically performance
driven. We live on a treadmill of
performance in how we conceive of God dealing with us. We are treated by others this way and we
treat others this way. But God does not
treat his born again and justified children in this way!!!
Now it is important to understand two realities about
being a Christian and living as a Christian.
First, a Christian is a new creation. This means that God’s grace has worked and
continues to work in the heart or inner life of every true disciple of Jesus
Christ. Paul emphasizes this inward work
of grace in many verses in his letters.
It is summarized clearly in 2 Corinthians 5:17. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a
new creation, the old has passed away, behold the new has come.” Paul is saying that those who are really in
Christ have become new creatures. Here
he is speaking of our being by the Holy Spirit united to Christ. We are in relationship with Christ by the
Holy Spirit and we have become new people.
It is also clear from the rest of the New Testament that while the old
has passed away it has not done so completely and while the new has come it
likewise has not come completely. Yet,
because as a believer you are joined to Christ you are new and God’s grace is
at work within you. In part this means
that the Holy Spirit is working in you, giving you new affections, desires and
will-power to live obediently, even though it is still a struggle. It means that you have a whole new
disposition toward sin – though you sin you cannot live with it – you are not
at peace with your sin and with the Spirit’s help you will make it your aim to
put it to death by not allowing it to come to expression in you.
Second, a Christian is one for whom Christ offered his
life upon the cross to atone for sin, so that those who trust in him might be
accounted righteous in Christ. Again,
we find this in many, many places in the Bible. In 2 Corinthians 5 and verse 21 we read. “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin,
so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” What a wonderful verse this is! If you are a believer in Jesus Christ you
are included in the phrase “For our sake.”
Packed into this phrase is the infinite love and grace of God the Father
for the ungodly. What did the Father
do for our sake? The one who knew no
sin, the one who had lived an obedient life, the one who loved God with all his
heart, soul and mind and the one who loved his neighbor as himself, the Father made him sin. This does not mean that the Father made him
to be a sinner or made him to be inherently sinful. What this verse does is not only get at the
nature of Christ objective historic atoning work but also the nature of the
believing sinner’s justification before God.
Rather here is an image or a figure of speech that basically says that
the Father accounted this sinless one with our sin and this is why he died upon
the cross. There are echoes of Isaiah 53
here in this verse and we will look at that too. Yet here are a few statements from that very
important of prophetic Old Testament texts.
“Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded
for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the
chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed.” (Isa
53:4-5 ESV)
Here we see the willingness of the suffering servant to do what he did for
our sakes. He bore our sins, yet it was
God who struck him and smote him and afflicted him. It was God who wounded him for our
transgressions, who crushed him for our iniquities, who placed the chastisement
upon him that brought us peace and whose stripes at the Father’s hand is our
healing.
“All we like sheep have
gone astray; we have turned--everyone--to his own way; and the LORD has laid on
him the iniquity of us all.” (Isa 53:6 ESV)
Like stupid yet unruly sheep we have stayed from our creator – turning from
his rightful and good way to our own idolatrous self-serving paths. Yet it was Yahweh who laid upon him our
iniquity. Here is what Paul means when
he says that God made him who knew no sin to be sin for our sakes.
On the cross God was imputing to
Christ the sin of all who would believe upon him, the sin of his people, the
sin of the ungodly. Jesus did not
become sinful, he became a sin offering by substituting himself for our sakes in taking the punishment due us for our sins and making full payment thus
satisfying the just wrath of God.
Now the benefit of what Christ
did by becoming sin for us becomes ours by faith. This is captured in the next clause, “so that
in him we might become the righteousness of God.” This does not mean that we become personally
righteous in the same way that Jesus did not become personally sinful. Here is a figurative expression that captures
the grace of justification. This
righteousness of God is conveyed to us in the Gospel and it is the gift-righteousness
of God.
Jesus suffered greatly yet he also
triumphed. Part of his victory was his
seeing the benefits of his suffering. He
was satisfied by this. It was worth it
all. The particular benefit that Isaiah
describes is how by his knowledge – that is his personal experience of
suffering and particularly his obedience proving that he was the
righteous one – he makes many to be accounted righteous. This verse describes both the active obedience
of Jesus “by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many
accounted righteous” and the passive obedience of Jesus by freely laying
down his life in keeping with the Father’s will and bearing our iniquities secured our salvation.
If you are in Christ – joined to
him by faith (really a Christian and not a pretend one) then you are both a new
creation and a justified child of God.
This is the Gospel and this is what you are to rehearse or preach to
yourself every day. Here is what is true
about you. You are joined to Jesus
Christ on your good days and your bad days.
What this means is that by being united or joined to Jesus Christ by the
Holy Spirit you have His life working in you and his righteousness working for
you. It is this reality that gives you
grace to live obediently before Father and it is this reality that gives you
comfort and assurance when you sin and repent.
You are joined to Christ as new and justified people!
Rev. William Still provides some encouraging insights into
how the Gospel is about your being in Christ.
“I had been ‘going at it’ one Sunday evening about living your whole
life in Christ and for Christ, and one chap, because he thought that I must
live my life on my knees, came to me, wringing his hands, because he was not
being as holy as he thought he ought to be. I said to him, ‘You foolish
boy, do you think this means winding yourself up into a kind of robot
existence, forever clicking your heels before a ruthless sergeant-major
Christ? You have got it all wrong. Christ is a world of being, not
a set of rules. You live your life in him, you are naughty in him, alas,
as well as good in him. You have fun there as well as seriousness.
You must learn that Christ is no mere censor, but a Savior who saves us by
gaining our trust and confidence more and more, and letting us live our total
life in him. He is much more concerned about where we are going than
about how far on we have got.'”
This means that even when you sin
you have not lost God’s love if indeed you are in Christ. If you persist in your sin God in love will
chastise and correct you. What good
father would not? Yet your sin as a
believer does not mean that you lose God’s favor, or the Holy Spirit who works
within you or your status of being credited with Christ’s righteousness. This very fact itself when rehearsed daily
will give you the motivation and power not to sin! Milton Vincent puts it well in his Gospel
Poem from his book "A Gospel Primer for Christians."
So now God relates to me only with grace
The
former wrath banished without any trace
And
each day I’m made a bit more as I should
His
grace using all things to render me good.
Yes,
even in trials God’s grace abounds too
And
does me the good He assigns it to do
And
when I am sinning God’s grace does abound
Ensuring
my justified status is sound
No
wrath is awakened in God at my sin,
Because
Christ appeased it (to say it again).
God’s
heart pulses only with passionate grace,
Which
jealously wants me back in His embrace.
God
does not require even that I confess
Before
He desires His forgiveness to press
Forgiveness
has been in His heart all along:
And
when I approach Him to make right my wrong,
He
runs up to greet me and draws to me near,
Embracing
and kissing and ready to clear.
God
does see my sins and He grieve at them so,
For
when I am sinning, His love I don’t know.
He
even will send me some heart-rending pain,
So
I’ll learn new ways and His holiness gain.
His
disciplines always are with love imbued,
A
love that seeks ever my ultimate good.
photo credit: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/100899678@N06/16496581610">Caspersen beach</a> via <a href="http://photopin.com">photopin</a> <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/">(license)</a>
photo credit: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/100899678@N06/16496581610">Caspersen beach</a> via <a href="http://photopin.com">photopin</a> <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/">(license)</a>
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