Classic Christianity – A Closer Look at The Finality of The Cross P4 (08-16-21)
What the Cross Made Possible for Mankind: An Indestructible Life
What did Jesus’ shed blood on a cross make possible for you and I? And, if Jesus was not raised from the dead, would all that was made possible by the cross be a reality in our life? Think about these questions as you ponder over the passages of scriptures in Hebrews, where the New Covenant God made, not just with the Israelites, but with all of mankind, is explained. Looking at specific passages in scriptures, such as Hebrews 9:22, 27-28, Hebrews 8:6-13, and Hebrews 10:1-18, what conclusions can you come to in regard to the totality of the cross? What can you say in regard to the forgiveness of sins, of being made holy, to be made complete, in Christ?
What God has done for us in this New Covenant is He tells us that He will remember our sins no more and where these have been forgiven there is no longer any sacrifice for sins. In order to usher in a New Covenant, what was done in order for God, through His resurrected life, to be able to give you a life that is indestructible and a life that is eternal? To be able to impute to you what you could never do or earn on your own efforts, what did Jesus Christ have to do for you?
In the gospels, Jesus taught before the cross. He taught under the Old Covenant. That Old Covenant was a system of sacrifice, called atonement, involving the shedding of the blood of bulls and goats, to cover sins. But such priests performing such sacrifices had sin of their own, and they performed sacrifices for us, continually year after year, and they could not continue in office. Someone else had to take his place after he died. With such sacrifices, the sinner was always conscious of his sin. You could never draw near to God.
So Jesus came to do away with such sacrifices, to fulfill the law for us by becoming the once and for all sacrifice, by the shedding of His own blood, the blood of God Himself. That way, He dealt with sins once and for all, so there will no longer be any sacrifice for sins and we could draw near to God, now that the sin barrier would be taken away. His sacrifice is of such value that it took away the sins of the entire human race, back to Adam and forward to eternity for the person yet to be born. He did something for us, who in our natural weak state, being born dead in sin, could never accomplish.
No one can be made righteous in the sight of God by means of obeying the law. Jesus spoke on this earth in regard to the demands of the law. He told us to be perfect as His Father in heaven is perfect. That is all that will do. He told us to be holy as His Father in heaven is holy. That is all that will do. We see our unrighteousness in the light of God’s perfect righteousness as shown in Christ Jesus, the exact representation of God on earth. That is what Jesus taught before the cross, showing us how the law is meant to bury us, to help us see the futility of our own self efforts of ever being made right before God, so that we might seek a Savior. He wants us to realize He did not come to condemn but to save, for we were condemned already through the inherited sin nature in Adam. So He tells us also about a New Covenant to come and tells us of what it will be like under a New Covenant once He finishes the work for us that His Father sent Him to do. That work has now been completed over 2000 years ago when Jesus died on a cross, was buried, rose again, and then ascended back to His Father.
So He died in our place to pay the punishment for sin we deserved, that being the wages of sin is death. He died for us then so He can live in us now. He made it possible to give a new kind of life to mankind that Adam never had, an indestructible life, a life that can never be taken away due to sin. Once a crime has been tried in the courtroom of law and settled, the person can never be tried again for the same crime. Jesus paid for all the crimes of the entire world. The sins of the world have been paid in full. You and I can never be tried again in the court of heaven. We have been released from condemnation by receiving the pardon offered to us in Christ Jesus, who took the punishment for us.
He proclaimed the new but he taught under the old. His life buried us as we saw what perfection was, that being the holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens, the nature of God in Christ Jesus. Why did Jesus say things like “Be holy” in the Old Covenant that was still in place at that time? He said to be as holy as His Father in heaven is all that will do. That buried us. Be perfect. How perfect? Only as perfect as My Father in heaven will do. That buried us. To be reconciled. How can you reconcile yourself to God? How can you be declared righteous in the sight of God through your own activities? You cannot do it.
But Jesus told us that we, those who received Christ by faith alone in what He accomplished for us, have been made perfect forever, have been saved completely, have been made holy, because Christ Jesus is the guarantee of all of this for us. Having resurrected from the dead, and never to die again, He always lives to intercede for us. He reminds Satan of the final settlement in the courtroom in heaven, of the word of our testimony and the blood of the Lamb, that all our sins and lawless acts have been paid in full (Tetellestai). We have been given the righteousness of God. The perfect righteousness of God has been imputed to us, beginning at a point in time, when we by faith in Christ, were born again and made into a new creation, when we received the resurrected life of Christ Jesus.
We encourage you now, if you have not received Jesus by faith in what He did on the cross for you, to put away the unbelief and thank Jesus for His complete forgiveness on the cross for you and receive His eternal life in you today!
