The Work of the Son of God

[00:00:00] Speaker A: You know, I don't think that you guys really know much about taxes. Maybe you do. Raise your hand if you know a lot about taxes. You do. Okay, that's interesting. You probably know more than me. It's sort of. It's kind of in tax season. So I've been thinking about this. This is a time of year where we got to file taxes and it's kind of the craziest thing. Now, I'm not going to get too much into politics of it because I might sound like a fool. Don't actually know that much. I like to think that I do. But the crazy thing is you file your taxes and a lot of times, especially at this stage in our life, every year we typically get money back, we get money returned to us. I don't know if you're familiar with this, but it's just kind of crazy. I just want you to think about that the government has taken your money and then the next year says, oops, we took too much. Sorry. Here you go. When you know, early on in a career, early on starting a family, I think I could have used the money last year. So I really wish you wouldn't have taken it, but thanks for giving it back. I really just think it's kind of interesting. And as I was thinking of this and thinking of the lesson, I kind of saw this parallel and I said, thanks, thank you, God, that you are not like the irs, that you don't over punish you don't take too much and then say, oops, sorry. Here you go. He doesn't over punish for sins. He doesn't punish one person for sins and then punish them again. He doesn't punish Jesus for sins and then punish another person again. He instead punishes all sins. He doesn't overcharge. Now as we talk about what Christ did, so the work of the Son of God, I hope we see how he has saved, specifically the church. I'm saying church with a big C, the universal church. All Christians in all times and places, past, present and Lord willing future. He has saved from the punishment that they deserve to pay. God the Father, in doing this, he poured out his wrath because he has wrath against sin. And he poured it out on Christ and He did this for his beloved children. As we were just reflected on praying about how the Son is the Son of the Father and through him we can become children. He did this for his beloved children. And he did this act of salvation in the greatest and most undeserved act of love of all time. It is the greatest act of love. It is the most undeserved act of love. Now a question I want to ask you guys just to get the ball rolling. Do you think Jesus had to die to save people from the punishment of their sin? I'm asking, was that the only way? And then explain your answer. What do you think, Jonah? [00:03:08] Speaker B: I think yes, because someone had to die of sin and only a perfect man could pay that. [00:03:19] Speaker A: Yeah, I think that's a good answer. Does anyone else think differently or would add more? Yeah, if we had to pay for our own sin, we would have never. [00:03:27] Speaker B: Been able to make it into heaven. [00:03:29] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, I think that's true too. Uh huh. Does anyone else have an answer? I think those are great and I hope we see how both of your answers are true as we kind of go through what I have prepared. Now today, as you can see, we're talking about the work of the Son of God. The last couple weeks. Last week we did the. Or this would be two weeks ago, we did the offices. So we talked about how Christ was the prophet, the priest and the king. The week before we talked about the person. So we talked about his nature and how he is both God truly and man truly. But now we want to talk about his work. Now it's written in the main idea and it's mistyped on the handouts pretty poorly, so you might want to look up here. So the blank is the atonement. So if you write down the atonement, that is threat and then it says, the atonement is the death of the incarnate son on the cross, not of the cross on the cross. And what it accomplished. I think I typed white, not white. I meant what. So the atonement is the death of the incarnate son on the cross and the atonement is what it accomplished. So the death, that's kind of a little funky phrasing. I'm thinking the death on the cross accomplished atonement. That's what that last phrase is trying to get across. So just a couple of points for us to go through. The first is the nature of the atonement. So I'm just going to put nature. We were talking about the nature of the atonement, the nature of this work that Jesus the Son of God did. But to do this, we need to know what atonement means. I think you might know what it means. You've probably heard it, I hope if you know. Many of you have been in church for a long time, but what does it mean? We don't Use it every day, probably. What does atonement mean? Who wants to take a guess? Or who knows? Yeah. [00:05:47] Speaker B: A way to make up for your mistakes or wrongdoing. [00:05:51] Speaker A: A way to make up for your mistakes or wrongdoing. I think that's a great definition and that makes sense. A way to make up for your mistakes or wrongdoing. Put another way, the way that the Bible uses the word, especially in the Old Testament, the word used for atonement is the word that is also translated often as covering. So we think of it as a. It's covering over sin. It is making up for that. And it's the covering of sin specifically, so that guilt is no longer born. So the guilt goes away and the punishment is not due. So the debt you owe is paid. Much like a prisoner, when he breaks the law, he goes to prison and pays the penalty. When he's done, guilt is gone and he owes no more. He's out, he is free, he is back, welcome into society. At least that's the goal. This would be. So he atoned for his crime. That's basically what happens in prison. So the Son who is, as we learned a couple weeks ago, the prophet, priest and king, he died as a sacrifice for atonement. This very thing. Now, to get a little bit about this, go to Leviticus 1. We're just going to read a few verses, Leviticus 1, and look along as I read verses 3 through 5. Leviticus 1, 3, 5 says, if his offering is a burnt offering from the herd, he shall offer a male without blemish. He shall bring it to the entrance of the tent of meeting, that he may be accepted before the Lord. He shall lay his hand on the head of the burnt offering, and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him. Then he shall kill the bull before the Lord and Aaron's sons. The priest shall bring the blood and throw the blood against the sides of the altar that is at the entrance of the tent of meeting. Stop there. We could read on and on and on. The first five or so chapters explain different types of offerings, but I think this is the basis for atonement. There's a reason that this is included and there's a reason that so much of it is included in books like Leviticus. In fact, this book uses the word atonement more than any other book of the Bible by a mile. It uses it so many times because that is the main theme of the book. How the people can make atonement for their sins so that they can dwell in the presence of God, because God desires to dwell with his people. But Hebrews 10:4 tells us, if you want to write that down, Hebrews 10:4 says, for it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. It's impossible for. So you're to offer a male without blemish from the herd. It's impossible for that to. To take away sins, according to Hebrews. And the author of Hebrews is actually referencing the Psalms. So it's not even just a New Testament thing where he's trying to, like, change it. No, this has been known since the days that the Psalms were being written and collected. So why the animal sacrifices? Does anybody have a guess? If we learn later that they don't actually take away sins, why did God tell them to sacrifice animals, foreshadowing Jesus death? I think that's a great answer. It's a pattern of atonement that God has designed so that his people could see. And they would see often and frequently, as there were different types of sacrifices that they would offer day by day by day. And on particular days, they would offer even more specifically holidays like the Day of Atonement or Yom Kippur, as you might more often hear it. They would offer extra ones, and priests would offer them for themselves and offer them for the people. And all this was to demonstrate and point us toward what Christ would do. That was the intention the whole time. It wasn't a Plan B that God instituted when he realized that the animals aren't really cutting it. Israel has gone astray. No, this was Plan A. This was his plan the whole time. He knew, actually before he created the world, that only he himself, God himself, would be a worthy sacrifice able to make true atonement for all who would believe only he could do it. But what's at the heart of this work or the atonement? What is the nature of it? Well, I have an acronym for what I believe is the heart of the atonement. There are different theories to what it could be. I find this to be the most convincing. And it's P S and A. Does anybody have any. Does anybody happen to know that off the top of their head? I think Grant seems. No, I didn't know if any students did. Grant, why don't you tell us, what does it stand for? [00:11:11] Speaker B: It stands for penal Substitutionary atonement. [00:11:13] Speaker A: Yes. They're big words. Yes. Penal. So we're talking about penalties. That's what that means, Substitutionary. So this is going to be a bigger word. Substitute. I Gotta make sure I can spell it. Two, there are a lot of T's in that substitutionary. And then we've been talking about atonement. That's the last word. So I find this to be the most convincing for the heart of what is happening now. What's. You know, let's talk about what that means. Now. There are at least seven truths that help us understand this. First, and this is important, they are all important. God is holy. The Lord tells His people to be holy, for he is holy. And because he is holy, he hates sin. In fact, even close to where we were a minute ago in Psalm 5, we would read about how God hates sin, and we read it elsewhere. Therefore, he cannot let sin go unpunished because he is holy. His holiness means he's just. So that means justice must be done. Goodness is. When justice is done, goodness is rewarded, wickedness is punished. We try to emulate this in society by, you know, incentivizing good things. That's why a lot of times there's like, tax breaks for having families because families are good. There's punishments for committing crimes because crimes are bad. We try to do this because we're all created and government was even given to us by God. But he's holy and just, so the sin must be punished. Second, atonement was accomplished by Christ's death. It was accomplished at the sacrifice. And, you know, we often sing songs, I even heard some at the weekend where we sing about the part where Jesus dies. And the song is really sad and quiet. And in a sense, the people there were sad. But at the same time, this is when the atonement was accomplished. It's not over and all lost until he comes back from the dead. That is how we get new life. But Jesus says on the cross, it is finished. The atonement was finished then. So that itself, when he dies, was triumphant. So it was accomplished by his death. He is holy. Third, a penalty for sin must be paid in full. There's not a payment plan. It must be paid in full. And that penalty, fourth, is death. The penalty is death. It must be paid. And you can't pay a penalty of death. Partly Roman Catholics have tried to get around this by having you pay parts of it by practicing sacraments. And sacraments like confession and Mass and the Eucharist, or Communion, as we call it, or marriage even, is a sacrament. They do these things so that they can pay it off and they'll pay off the rest in Purgatory, and then they go to heaven. This is not how it works. This is them earning their way over time into heaven, which is contrary to salvation by grace. Fifth, only God can pay the penalty for sin and rescue sinners. As we mentioned earlier, only he can do it. But he has to have a human nature. He has to be like us to actually be our substitute. How can he stand in our stead as a substitute if he's not like us? And so God had to be human. Does God have a human nature? Do you have an answer? God the Son has a human nature. He assumed human flesh in the when he became incarnate. That's what that means. He put on human flesh. And Hebrews tells us how he therefore sympathizes with our weaknesses. He endured temptations that we see in John and other gospels from the devil. He can sympathize with us and therefore he can be a substitute for us, if otherwise he wouldn't be able to substitute. And because he is God, he can take the penalty, right? So he was God. Only God can pay the penalty, but only human can be the substitute. So we're seeing why the God man, Jesus Christ came to be, and that's what he did on the cross. The God man, Jesus Christ paid the penalty for sin. And finally we believe, and we kind of talked about this earlier, that the atonement couldn't have been paid for in any other way. Sometimes non Christians especially, or maybe even some of us in this room, ask a genuine question. Why couldn't God have just snapped his fingers and forgiven the sins? Because remember the first point. He is holy. That is not just for the sins to just disappear. No, his holiness is offended by the sin. It must be covered. And in fact, because God is the most loving being, in fact, he is the source of all love. His act of sending His Son to assume human nature to be a substitute and pay the penalty so that we can be saved from our sins is the greatest act of love. Way greater than just trying to look the other way, but knowing all the while it's still there. This way the sins can actually be completely forgiven, forgotten. The guilt is gone. The penalty that is due is gone. All of it. Christ substituted Himself in the place of all who would believe. And as a substitute, he endured the penalty that they all deserved. Does that make sense? Does anyone have questions before I move on? I just don't want to move too fast. I understand. There could be a lot. No questions. Grant God is all powerful. [00:17:19] Speaker B: Why can't he just bend that part of his nature and forgive sins without providing punishment? [00:17:26] Speaker A: Because that's a great question. Because for God to abandon his nature is to abandon who he is. And God is a loving and a real God because of his nature. So it would be for him to change. For him to change is to lose what sets him apart as God. God has never changed and the Bible tells us as much. And so he can't just change part of his nature. This is how he's always existed. He's always existed Father, Son and Holy Spirit in a union of three persons in love, in eternity. And so the natural outworking of these three persons and one being God loving, naturally ends up with this, the most loving act of all time. So that, that, does that make sense? Okay, Is there anything else you would add to that that might help it. [00:18:26] Speaker B: Reason? It's, it's opposed to his nature. [00:18:29] Speaker A: So God is all powerful. [00:18:31] Speaker B: That doesn't mean he can do anything conceivable. [00:18:39] Speaker A: Yeah, that's exactly right. The, you know, the paradox is saying, can God, you know, make the rock so big that he can't move it? It's, it's a paradox. It's, it's not like a gotcha. It's just ridiculous. It's insane. It doesn't make sense. God created a world that makes sense, so he can't violate his nature. That's a good point. Thank you, Grant. I think that this view of Christ substituting in the place of sinners to pay the penalty to atone for their sins and cover them, I think it's the most reasonable for at least a few reasons. First, because it takes seriously human sin. I think this view takes sin seriously because sin actually offends a holy God and deserves death as a punishment. Some views try to get around this and lessen sin a little bit. I think it takes it seriously. It can't just be disappear like we just said. Second, it takes seriously God's holiness. He is just, all sins must be punished. He doesn't actually just like pretend they aren't there or overlook them. It's just that if you have faith in Christ, then your sins are already covered by Jesus. He has paid them already. And third, it also takes seriously his love. As we've said multiple times, what greater love is that than the Father gave his only begotten Son to pay the penalty to stand in the place of sinners. It is a great love. That's the nature of the atonement. The second question we usually talk about with the atonement and when we're studying theology is its extent. While the nature, you know, a Lot of people hotly debate the nature of the atonement. A lot of people really disagree with what I said. I think is, you know, they disagree with this. The extent might be in some ways even more controversial to people, but it's nonetheless an important question that we should talk about. So go to Romans 8. I find this to be a helpful place to start. We're going to read just a few verses. Romans 8. We're going to start in verse 29. Now it would be more helpful if we could just read the whole book or at least the chapters surrounding this. But for the sake of time, we just got to read a few Romans 8. Look at verse 29. We're going to read a few verses. We read for those whom he for those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called and those whom he called, he also justified. And those whom he justified, he also glorified. Now look at verse 33 we read. Who shall bring any charge against God's elected as God who justifies who is the elect, who's being referred to? Does anybody have an idea? It's brought up in verse 33. I think it's referring to a specific group, Jonah Christians. I think that's a great answer. And maybe more specifically in the context, it's referring to those whom he foreknew and predestined to be conformed. Those whom he predestined and called and justified and will glorify in the last day. I think that's which would be Christians. So what we're seeing, I think, is a particular group of people that God foreknew and predestined before the foundation of the world. We don't see the words before the foundation of the world, I believe here. But we do. If we flip over real quick to Ephesians 3, which isn't too far to the right, if you grab too big a chunk, you'll miss it. And I'm in Ephesians 1, not 3. So look at this passage, Ephesians 1 3, 10. We just studied this as a church just several months ago. Paul writes to the Ephesians, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. So without sin. Therefore, pause, they need atonement. Continuing, he says, in love, he predestined us for adoption to Himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace which he lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of his will according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. So we see here a lot of things, a lot of rich passages, but we'll only focus on a couple. He chose before the foundation of the world. I believe that's referring to creation. And he did this not arbitrarily, but in love, not because of anything he knew we would do necessarily. I think that might make it be more based on what we would accomplish, what we would do, the decisions we would make. But it's purely because of his love. He chose those who would believe because of his love for them. And though we cannot quite know, we know that God is in charge of this. It was his will, the purpose of his will, according to the glorious riches of his grace, that he did this. So what does that mean for you? Okay, he chose unconditionally. What does that mean for me? Basically, it means that if you have faith in Christ, you've turned to him from your sin. You can know and be assured that you have salvation. You can know and be assured that he has stood in your place and paid the penalty. You can be confident in that. If you feel called by God and turn to turn from your sins and to follow Christ, you don't then have to wonder, well, have I been chosen? What if I haven't? I want to follow God, but what if I can't? That's not how it works. If you desire to follow him, it means he's calling you. And so you should answer in faith and not delay. He's not going to drag you one way or another against your will, but your decisions and responsibility are perfectly compatible with what he has ordained and does by his great power. And therefore we can rest secure in the reality that because he ultimately is in charge, no one can take you from his hands. You cannot be lost. He protects you. John 10, 28, 30. Jesus says, I give them eternal life and they will never perish and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father who has given them to Me is greater than all. And no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. I and the Father are one. So the Son and the Father keep you safe and secure because they secure your salvation. It is the work done by Christ on the cross. What this all means is that the extent of the atonement is definite. Some people use the word limited to the church, to Christians. Now, this can be a little confusing, but here's basically the options we have. Maybe it'll be easier on this side. So Jesus paid for sins, right? But what sins? How many sins did he pay for? All. All sins for everyone. That's option A. We'll say option B. Do you pay for some sins? Some sins of everyone. So we'll take these, like, as we go. There are more options. So all sins of everyone. What would this mean? Does it mean universalism? Correct. This is what it seems like, right? If every sin is paid for every single person, then for some people, then to go to hell and be punished again would be like the IRS taking too much God, he punished His Son for it already. Whereas if it's some sins for everyone, then nobody's safe. Right? Because some of your sins are still there. There's still more. C, maybe it's some sins for some people, but that, you know, same issue, nobody's really saved. And it really. That's probably like the. That's definitely, probably the worst answer. Well, maybe this, this one is also. It just doesn't make sense. So some sense of some people. No, but this is what I think is true. Again, some people disagree in my. Articulate it differently, but I think it is all the sins of some people. So the extent is limited. But, you know, all of these limit the extent, except for option A. Option A would be universalism. And we don't believe in universalism. So I find that last one to be the most convincing. This means that Jesus had a definite specific group of people, those who he had called and justified and will glorify the people set apart before the foundation of the world, the people that will come to him in faith, he knows they will come to him in faith, he knows who exactly it is, and it will happen. If Christ dying paid the penalty for sin and satisfied God's wrath, then if he actually died for all these, that would be a problem. I just find it to be the most convincing. He died for his sheep. I think this is a beautiful picture that Christ knowing who he loved, knowing all that he did know, the Father giving them into his hand and the Father holding it in his hand as well as their hands are one, they are one God. This gives us total assurance that the salvation Christ came to accomplish is accomplished. You cannot be lost. He knows who you are not because of something you would do unconditionally out of love, the greatest act of love. And the only thing we can do is marvel at this love and think, why me? How could I be set apart? How could I be called by God? How could I be justified by God? How could Christ have me on his mind when he was on the cross? How could he stand in my place and pay my penalty that I owe? That's the beauty of the love of Christ on the cross. And so students, if you haven't turn to Christ, if you turn to him and there's no one holding you back but yourself, but if you turn to him, then you will be saved. Your sins will have been paid for on the cross by Christ. And so humble yourself and turn from your sin and put your faith in Christ and then trust in his perfect and wonderful magnificent atonement on your behalf, covering your sins. This is the work that Christ accomplished on the cross. We'll close there and pray and end. Father, we thank you for your son, Jesus Christ and his work on the cross. God help us each day to search the Scriptures and see more and more about the great salvation you accomplished and about your holy and loving character. Lord, with this in mind, we ask that you would be with us as we go and worship with the church. Lord, help our minds to be sharp and attentive as we sing and pray and hear the word preached. God fold and conform our hearts and minds and lives to the image of your Son, Jesus and Lord, we pray this all in his name. Amen.