Nature of Christ's Sacrifice

Introduction: The Urgency of Saving Faith and Christ's Priestly Office

0:01 For us, in this series of studies that we are conducting Sunday mornings,

0:07 is no less than that clearly stated in John chapter 3 and verse 36, where the inspired penman declares, He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life, and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. We are studying the general theme of saving faith, the nature of it, the implications of it. And in our study, I want to impress upon you week by week that this is not an academic pursuit. This is a matter of life and death.

0:48 He that believeth hath life. He that believeth not, the wrath of God abideth upon him. Now, what is saving faith? We have seen that saving faith is self, self-commitment to Christ in all the glory of His person and the perfection of His work as He has offered to us in the Gospel.

1:13 Nothing less than this will do justice to the biblical concept of faith. Faith is not simply assent to some facts, dogmas of the Bible or of the Church. Faith is not simply having a little bit of some kind of an emotional, woozy, ethereal, wispy affection. It is something that is something who is somebody called Jesus.

1:35 But faith in its biblical context is nothing less than self-commitment to Christ, the abandonment of my entire being to Christ in all the glory of His person and the perfection of His work as He has offered to us in the Gospel. And if you do not know that experimentally, unless you do, God says you'll perish. But blessed be God, if that's your experience, if as you sit here this morning you can delightfully confess and your life bears witness to that confession that you repose the whole weight of your soul and being in Jesus Christ, in the glory of His person and perfection of His work,

2:18 you are indeed the blessed of the earth, for the Scripture says that regardless of what else you may or may not have, you have the only thing that will matter when you die. That's eternal life. Now to consider His person and His work, we are doing so under the convenient way of considering His offices as prophet, as priest, and as king. We have already studied His office as prophet.

2:43 We are presently studying His office as priest. We have seen our Lord as the appointed priest of God, the uniquely qualified priest of God, being true God and true man, joined in one person forever, seen Him in His twofold work of sacrifice and intercession, and we are now, as it were, putting the microscope upon His work as a priest in offering a sacrifice. The Lord willing, several weeks from now, we'll begin to study His work as a priest in intercession, but now just His work of sacrifice, His offering up of Himself as a sacrifice for sinners. Last week we looked at the uniqueness of His sacrifice.

The Uniqueness and Timing of Christ's Sacrifice

3:27 What sets the sacrifice of Christ apart from every other sacrifice, and we saw its uniqueness in that He, unlike the old priest, who brought an offering that was separate from Himself, our Lord was both offering and offerer. The old priest, the priest of the old covenant, had to offer atonement for their own sins, then for the people, but our Lord was wholly harmless and undefiled, and His sacrifice was unique in that it had only one direction. It was on behalf of the people, and His sacrifice was final, and we closed our study by looking at the time of His sacrifice. When did the Lord Jesus, as a priest, make atonement for sinners?

4:10 And in a general sense, the Scripture declares He's the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. From God's perspective, that sacrifice was eternal. In the general sense, His sacrifice was His whole life, but in a peculiar way, He did the work of a priest in those hours from Gethsemane to Calvary, when He bowed His head upon His breast and cried, It is finished, into Thy hands I commend my spirit. Now this morning, we want to begin to probe into this question set forth in the Scriptures, or answered in the Scriptures, what was the nature of that sacrifice which He offered as a priest?

4:53 That He offered a sacrifice is clearly taught in the Scriptures. That that sacrifice was perfectly unique, one of a kind, is taught in the Scriptures. That that sacrifice was, from God's perspective, offered from eternity, in a general sense, was offered throughout His entire life, but in a peculiar and strict sense, was offered up between the hours of Gethsemane and Calvary. What is the nature of that sacrifice?

The Voluntary Nature of Christ's Sacrifice

5:22 What kind of a sacrifice did the priest offer unto God? As I've tried to take the biblical teaching on this and summarize it under one sentence, under a few key words, I've come down to five words, four of them we hope to cover this morning, and the fifth one, because of its many implications, we shall cover in our next study, The Lord Willing. First of all, then, our Lord's sacrifice as a priest was a voluntary sacrifice, or, what He did, He did willingly. As we turn to the Gospel accounts and we read of our Lord Jesus, we turn to Gethsemane,

6:07 and we see something of that horrible scene, as we tried to depict it last Lord's Day morning, of a full-grown man, in all his true humanity, staggering and reeling like a drunken man, until bowed in His face, He prays with such intensity that, as it were, sweat drops of blood begin to stand out upon His brow. As we view this, and as we view Him bound, and taken down to Caiaphas the high priest, and on to Pilate, and on to Herod, and back to Pilate, and driven out, and hung up upon a Roman gibbet, we ask ourselves this question, what is the nature of that sacrifice? And the first answer God would give to us is this,

6:51 it's a voluntary sacrifice. All that happened in those hours happened because He did it willingly. The answer of the Scripture in this area is so clear, and we'll focus upon one chapter, there are many passages that we could look at, but several verses in the tenth chapter of the Gospel of John. Notice how our Lord emphasizes this again and again.

7:19 John chapter 10, verses 11, 15, 17, and 18. John 10, I am the Good Shepherd, the Good Shepherd giveth His life for the sheep. Verse 15, As the Father knoweth Me, even so know I the Father, and I lay down My life for the sheep. Verse 17, Therefore doth My Father love Me, because I lay down My life, that I might take it again.

7:58 Verse 18, No man taketh it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down. I have power to take it again. It almost seems as though our Lord is tedious in His repetition, and this is why I never am embarrassed for being almost tedious in repetition.

8:18 If your repetition, you young preachers, is because you've got nothing to say, then it's a sin, it's a lie. You're filling up time with words to give the impression that you know something. That's deliberate deception. Right?

8:34 So never repeat simply for filler, for the sake of giving the impression that you know something, or not to show that you want to cover up the fact you didn't do too much preparation. If all you've prepared can be said in ten minutes, say it and sit down and be honest. Don't stretch it out to twenty minutes and make the last ten minutes a lie. But there is a time when repetition is necessary to bring the principle of truth into focus, and it would seem that our Lord is doing that here.

9:00 The Good Shepherd giveth His life. I lay it down. I have power to lay it down. This commandment have I received of My Father to lay it down.

9:08 He's trying to get through to His people and to us this tremendous truth that He was not coerced. He was not suddenly caught in the vice of circumstances and had no other alternative. But all that we behold our High Priest doing in that act of sacrifice, we must behold against this backdrop of a voluntary sacrifice what He was doing. He was doing willingly.

9:35 He says in John 20, 28, The Son of Man, came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give His life a ransom for many. As we think of our Lord Jesus Christ offering Himself up in those hours from Gethsemane to Calvary, we must never, we must never conceive of Him as driven to the cross by the wicked schemes of apostate religious leaders. We must never think of Him as being given up to the cross by virtue of the spineless action of that political puppet called Pilate. We must never think of our Lord being held to the tree by the iron nails and cords of human contrivance.

10:18 We must always behold our Lord being driven to that tree and held to that tree by two things, His voluntary obedience to the Father and His voluntary love to His children. And notice how He ties both of those things together in verse 18 of John 10. No man taketh it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down.

10:45 I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of My Father. You see, it was His voluntary obedience to the Father that drove Him to that path that ultimately led to Calvary and to His death. We must never, never think of the path that led to Calvary as being marked out primarily by those apostate religious leaders and by the puppet political figures.

11:16 No, no. We must see that that's the path that was marked out by the Father's plan. And He says, I've marched that path not because men were behind Me, driving Me on, but because My Father was before Me, bidding Me lay down My life. That opens up at least in some measure Gethsemane.

11:38 For you remember when our Lord was in that awful conflict that caused the sweat drops of blood to be forced out from His lovely brow. There's not a word uttered about the crowd, the disciples, the mocking multitudes that He was to face. But the whole issue is what? Not My will, but Thine be done.

12:01 You see, as He looked from Gethsemane to those next hours when He was to take the place of a high priest and offer Himself up to God, He saw that road as a road that was laid by His Father, not by the wicked designs of Judas, not by the designs of the apostate crowd. He knew that if He were to be affixed upon that cross, He would be affixed there by the will of His Father. And so it was His voluntary obedience to the Father at the price of suffering. And this is what makes obedience a virtue.

12:38 It says in Hebrews 5, who in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up strong crying and tears to Him that was able to save Him from death, and was heard in that He feared, though He were a Son, yet learned the obedience by the things which He suffered. You see, obedience is made virtuous in the context of suffering. Now just let that sink in. You see, that's why God must allow His children to suffer.

13:10 Anybody can be a fair-weather Christian. That doesn't take any grace. But when the path of obedience leads through the billows of sorrow, and we say, Lord, though You sleep, yet will I walk, then obedience becomes virtue. And so as the Son thought of the awful agonies that He was about to undergo, He knew that it was voluntary obedience to the Father in the midst of suffering.

13:38 This is what was required of Him. And then it was His voluntary love to the sheep. For He says that I love the sheep. Verse 11, I am the Good Shepherd, and the Good Shepherd giveth His life for the sheep.

13:53 His voluntary love for His sheep. Who were they? They were that body out of the fallen mass of Adamic humanity, rebels, sinners, clenched fists, having gone astray in Adam, turned to their own way, under condemnation. Yet He loved His sheep.

14:17 Voluntary love to His sheep that drove Him and held Him to the cross. So if you and I would have any appreciation whatsoever of the work that the Lord Jesus did as our High Priest, as we ask the question, what is the nature of that sacrifice that He offered up between Gethsemane and the bowed head and the final words upon Calvary, that word voluntary must immediately come to our minds. It was a voluntary sacrifice. Voluntary obedience to the Father.

The Objective Nature of Christ's Sacrifice

14:48 Voluntary, infinite, eternal love to His sheep. But not only was it voluntary, the second key word, it was an objective sacrifice. Now I've tried to use a less academic sounding word, but I haven't been able to squeeze one out of my vocabulary, so I have to use this one. Not only a voluntary sacrifice, but an objective sacrifice.

15:14 And what do we mean by that? Well, simply this. What He did, He did willingly. That's voluntary.

15:21 But He did with primary reference to God. It was an objective sacrifice. You see, as our High Priest, He was not primarily manifesting the love of God to men. He was not primarily displaying an example to men of how we should act when we are abused and falsely accused.

15:43 All of this is true. And the Bible speaks of this. Christ is our example in suffering. Christ is a manifestation of divine love.

15:50 Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us. But the primary aspect, and we must get hold of this, of His priestly work is this. It was an objective sacrifice. It had reference to God.

16:05 Now we can see this when we contrast the ministry of a prophet and the ministry of a priest. When a prophet of God would come, what would be his introductory words when he would be about to speak? He would say, Thus saith Jehovah. And as it were, he had his back to the God, in whose presence he had been.

16:25 He had heard the word of the Lord. Jeremiah says, I got tired of talking in the name of the Lord. Every time I preached, all I got was rebuffs and rebukes. And he said, I'm weary.

16:35 I'm going to keep my mouth shut. But he said, Thy word was in my heart as a fire shut up within my bones. As he lived in communion with God, the word of the Lord came to him. Then the prophet, turning as it were his back upon God, not in rebellion, but in fulfillment of commission, came to men and said, Thus saith the Lord.

16:54 He came from the presence of God with a word from God to the people, but not the priest. You see, the priest started by facing the people. And as you would come as a good Israelite, you would bring your animal sacrifice. And you would slay that animal and the priest would take its blood and catch it in the basin.

17:12 And having caught the blood in the basin, he would now turn his back upon you. And he would go in to represent you in the presence of God. You see, the whole focus of the prophet and priest was different. One was from God to men.

17:26 One was from men to God. Now notice how clearly this is set forth in the fifth chapter of Hebrews. And we shall not understand the sacrifice of our Lord unless we catch this distinction. The cross in some ways is a prophetic declaration.

17:43 God is saying in Christ that He loves sinners. He's showing us truth about how to act in the midst of suffering. But that's not the primary meaning of the cross. It is not a prophetic message as much as a priestly act and work.

18:02 Notice Hebrews 5 and verse 1. For every high priest taken from among men is ordained for men in things pertaining to God. You see, the priest is taken from men with reference to things pertaining to God. The prophet came from God with truths to be declared unto men.

18:30 Now turn over to Hebrews 9 where we have a very clear reference to the objective sacrifice of Christ. Hebrews 9 and verse 14. How much more shall the blood of Christ who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God? He offered Himself to God.

19:01 You see, the primary direction of His sacrificial work as a priest was not manward, but it was heavenward. He who came among us in that mysterious union of the eternal Word now became the man Christ Jesus. He lived amongst us. He dwelt amongst us.

19:20 He suffered among us. He entered into our sorrows. He entered into our weakness. He entered into all that is common to humanity except sin.

19:30 And now He comes out of humanity as the priest was taken from among men. And as He offers His sacrifice, He has, as it were, His back to humanity at this point. And His concern is objectively directed to the Father. And He is offering Himself up to God.

19:49 We find essentially the same truth set forth in 1 Timothy 2, 5 this classic text. For there is one God and one Mediator, one go-between between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. And the Mediator has primarily not a reference of God toward man, but of man approaching God. John 14, 6, I am the way, the truth, the life, our Lord said.

20:16 No man cometh to the Father but by Me. 1 Peter 3, 18 declares that He gave Himself for us, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God. Now let me give a word of caution here. When we state that the Scripture declares that His sacrifice was objective, it was offered with reference to God, not primarily an example, a demonstration of love, but something done with a Godward direction, we do not want to leave the impression that you've got an angry God the Father who would damn the world if He could, and then you've got a loving God the Son who's somehow placating the anger of this God.

20:59 No, no. Don't ever, ever, ever think that for a moment. That borders on blasphemy. All the affections within the Godhead are one.

21:08 Did Christ love His sheep? Well, listen to what the Bible says. God so loved that He gave. Did Christ give His life?

21:17 The Bible says, God spared not His Son, but gave Him up. You see, there is a perfect identity in all of the, and I say it reverently, all of the pure, holy, affections of the Godhead. We must never think of an angry God who would damn the world and never save them unless Christ did something. No.

21:38 But we must rather think of the Triune God, moved with love to an innumerable company of sinners that would be rescued out of humanity. And now, in that actual rescuing, the Father takes peculiar responsibilities. The Son takes peculiar responsibilities. The Spirit takes peculiar responsibilities.

21:58 But we are saved by the love of the Triune Jehovah. We are saved by the saving activity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And this is not just to find theological distinctions, dear one. If you love the Triune God, you long and delight to trace out the ways of His grace.

22:09 And this is one of the greatest mysteries of God's grace revealed in Jesus Christ. That God, who so loved as to give His life to the Son of Man, is the one who loves the Son of Man and who loves the Son of Man and who loves the Son of Man and who loves the Son of Man and who so loved as to give was, in that actual act of sacrifice, having His anger turned away by the sacrifice of His Son. by the sacrifice of His Son. You see, the key to understanding the sacrificial work of Christ is set forth in the Gospels.

22:45 When you read about His groans in Gethsemane and His sighs upon Calvary and His expiring words into thy hands, I commend my spirit. You and I must, as it were, push into the background that milling crowd that stands about His cross and mocks it, shoot out the lip and says, If thou be the Christ, come down from the cross. You saved others? You can't even save yourself.

23:10 It's, you see, it's difficult not to get emotionally involved and think, well, the issue's between those men and my Lord and I want to get my hands on them and tell them to stop that blasphemy. When we read of a spineless pilot who says, I find no fault in him, but they yell and they holler, he's one of these political leaders who was moved by mob violence and not by principle. When I read that, I want to come between my Lord and Pilate and denounce him. Spinelessness.

23:41 But we've got to resist that temptation. You've got to resist the temptation to get yourself involved with that crowd and with Pilate and Judas and all the rest. For the core of the meaning of those hours upon the cross is not to be found in the activities that were found between men and the Lord of Glory. No, no, no.

24:02 The meaning of the cross is to be found in the activity within the Triune God. He, according to Hebrews 9.14, He, by the eternal Spirit, was offering Himself up to God. There you have the Father, the Son and the Spirit, the activity of the Triune God in the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Vicarious Nature of Christ's Sacrifice

24:23 It was an objective sacrifice. He was offering something to God in order to procure the redemption of sinners. You say, that's a new thought to me. Well, I trust it won't be the last time you think of it.

24:41 Try to penetrate this mystery. What happened in the councils and in the relationship of the Triune God? And I think we'll begin to understand that more fully when we come to the third word. His sacrifice was voluntary.

24:56 Or, in other words, what He did, He did willingly. It was objective. What He did willingly, He did with primary reference to God. It was a vicarious sacrifice.

25:06 Or, in other words, what He did willingly, with reference to God, He did in the place of others. Now, the word vicar means one who stands in the room of another. The Pope claims to be the vicar of Christ. Christ, earthly representative.

25:24 Blasphemy. Christ, earthly representative is the Holy Spirit. He is the one sent to direct and guide and lead us to the right path. But, something that is vicarious is something that is done in the place of another.

25:46 Now, the Scripture makes abundantly clear that the priestly work of Christ was a vicarious sacrifice. What He was doing willingly, with primary reference to God, objectively, was being done on behalf of others. In the Old Testament, two key passages, one a picture, the other a picture of this, in the setting forth of the day of atonement, or what was to transpire in the day of atonement in Leviticus chapter 16. God is speaking by types and symbols.

26:22 God is preparing His people to understand the whole concept of a vicarious sacrifice. A sacrifice made by one on behalf of another. And one of the aspects of this is set forth in Leviticus 16 verses 20 to 22. When he hath made an end of reconciling the holy place and the tabernacle of the congregation and the altar, he shall bring the live goat, this one that is called commonly the scapegoat.

26:59 Now notice what Aaron the high priest was to do. He shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat and confess over him all the iniquities of the children and all their transgressions and all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat and shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness. And the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited and he shall let the goat go in the wilderness. Now let's take several of the ingredients of this situation.

27:41 When someone or another this was a picture of the transferal of blessing or the conferral of blessing or the transfer of responsibility. You remember when aged Isaac would bless his sons he laid his hands upon them. When Jacob would bless his sons he lays his hands upon them thereby signifying an official transferring an official communication of the blessing of God. Now the priest was to take this goat that the goat has is not a sinner.

28:16 It may eat tin cans might come in your house and chew your rugs up but it never defied God like you did and like I did. You see? So at this point the type is a valid one. There's that goat that had no involvement in the sin of the children of Israel.

28:37 It was an innocent goat with all of its failures and problems. It was not morally accountable for sin. In this way symbolically transferring the sins of the people he would now pronounce all the sins of the people of the children of Israel as though they were being placed upon that goat their guilt being transferred to him and he was sent off into the wilderness. Then of course you know the other animal was slain its blood was brought in.

29:09 You see the sacrifice of Christ was so perfect this thrills me to the point that I can't even conceive of a better way he had to have two goats to try to bring before men in pictorial form the great once for all sacrifice of Christ. But you see God from eternity had this sacrifice in mind and when he gave the orders for these earthly sacrifices he gave them in such a way as to try to pattern them as best as possible after this one eternal sacrifice. Hebrews says that these things were made and now the best we can we see how they fit here no the other way around this is the true sacrifice the lamb slain

29:54 from the foundation of the world and now God gives directions as to how best it may be prefigured. And so we have the concept here of a vicarious atonement the sins of the people of Israel being transferred to the head of that goat and that goat bearing their iniquities of wilderness. Now what we have in pictorial form in Leviticus we have in great clarity in what we might call propositional form in Isaiah 53. As God speaks of the true lamb the true scapegoat the true offering the suffering servant of Jehovah

30:38 in this wonderful chapter setting forth prophetically the sufferings of Christ notice what is said particularly in verses 4 5 6 11 and 12 surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows verse 5 he was wounded for our transgressions bruised for our iniquities the chastisement of our peace was upon him verses verse 6 and the Lord hath laid or made to light upon him the iniquity of us all

31:23 a perfect fulfillment of that type as the sins of Israel were made to light and rest upon the head of that goat so here we read that the sins of men are being made to light upon the head of the Lord Jesus Christ and then verses 11 and 12 he shall see of the travail of his soul a righteous servant justify many for he shall bear their iniquities therefore will I divide him a portion with the great and he shall divide the spoil with the strong because he poured out his soul unto death was numbered with the transgressors and bear the sins of many now God couldn't speak in clearer words to us

32:07 to let us know that the sacrifice which our Lord offered as a high priest was not only voluntary not only was it objective it had a reference to God but it was vicarious he was suffering in the room instead of others and then of course the New Testament is so full of passages that we could spend another hour just reading them I'm sure but let me quote several very quickly we read in Matthew chapter 20 and verse 28 the son of man is come to give his life a ransom for or in the place or in the stead of many Romans 5 verses 6 to 8 God commended his love toward us and that while sinners Christ died for us in our room instead Romans 8

32:52 32 he that spared not his son but delivered him up for us all 1 Corinthians 15 1 and 2 the gospel Paul said is this Christ died for our sins 2 Corinthians 5 21 he hath made him who knew no sin to be sin for us Galatians 3 13 Christ hath redeemed us from the curse for us 1 Peter 2 24 he bore our sins in his body to the tree and the New Testament is full of these words for us in the place of on behalf of what is this saying it's all joining witness to the fact

33:36 that his sufferings were vicarious if words mean anything they teach us that his sacrifice was offered on behalf of others and that for this reason we are all the same and that the Bible is the relationship with God the basic relationship that God is the cause of our pain or of our suffering or of our suffering but he was the God who made entered into the world, and death passed upon all men, for that all sinned, sinned in that one man.

34:21 Now God is dealing with the second race, the race of His redeemed, His elect of all nations and all ages, and He appoints as their representative and head the Lord Jesus Christ. So that just as what happened to Adam involves me, so what happened to Christ involves all those on whose behalf He stood as a representative. And so the Scripture says that when He died, I died. When He rose, I rose.

34:49 What He bore, He bore on my behalf as my representative, as my substitute. And in His death, I need not die. Because of His sufferings, I need not suffer the just dessert of my sins. It was a vicarious sacrifice.

35:06 He stood in my stead to bear what should have been mine. Let me use a simple illustration that has been a help. To me, this is supposed to be a true story. I wish I could verify it, time, place, names, but I cannot.

35:22 But a boat was out on the high seas and due to either a storm or some problem in the vessel itself was about to sink. And as the seamen were making their way, making their way to the lifeboats, an old seaman and a young seaman came to the last available seat at the same time. The young seaman was a profligate, wicked man. The old seaman was a Christian.

35:48 And the old seaman had often spoken to this young man about the Savior, had often spoken to him about his need of Christ. And the young man had nothing to do with it. The old seaman got there first, and by all rights could have gotten into that boat and left the young seaman on the ship to certain death. The old seaman said to the young man, by rights I could take this place.

36:13 I was here before him. But I know that I'm ready to meet God. I know that I'm ready to meet God. I know that I'm ready to die.

36:18 You're not! If I sink with the ship, it just ushers me into the presence of my God, but it'll usher you into the presence of hell. Young man, you take my seat in the lifeboat, and I'll go down with the ship. And this is what happened.

36:34 And the story goes on to say that years later, sometime later, the young man came to the knowledge of forgiveness of sins and will be there with that old seaman. But now when that ship went down, and with it, the old seaman, you see, he was dying in the place of, in the room instead of, the young man. Had he not exchanged places, what was his death would have been the death of the young man. He acted vicariously in the place of, in the room instead of.

37:05 And this is what the Lord Jesus did for an innumerable company of sinners. He had no sin for which to die. He had no sin of his own for which to atone. But he said to the Father in the councils of eternity, of the Trinity, of the Triune God, I will stand in the room instead of that great multitude out of every tribe and tongue and nation whom we are pledged to bring to glory.

The Penal Nature of Christ's Sacrifice

37:33 And I will bear what should be theirs so that my death will be accounted as their death. It was a vicarious sacrifice. And then the last word that I want us to consider this morning, it was a penal sacrifice. Now what do I mean by that?

37:49 We'll follow through now. We've been building up a sentence here. What he did, he did willingly, voluntary, with reference to God, objective, in the place of sinners, vicarious, in order to satisfy the wrath of God, penal. The word penal means that which pertains to legal punishment.

38:13 Now there are two kinds of punishment, at least two kinds. There is that that we might call didactic, by which we teach, you didn't know it, parents. Every time you spank your child with the right motive and with the right end in view, you are giving him didactic punishment. He might think you're killing him, but that's what you're giving him.

38:32 You're giving him didactic punishment. And God says, let not your didactic punishment be spared because of his much crying. Now what this proverb says, let not thy soul spare for his much crying, for he shall not die if you beat him. You'd think he's dying, at least mine sound that way.

38:49 Like they're going to die. Now, you see, the purpose for which you do that is to teach and instruct. Hebrews 12 says, Our fathers chastened us as it seemed good to them in order to teach us. To teach us.

39:08 But now there's another kind of punishment that is legal punishment which is punitive. It's not to teach a lesson, it's to bear the wrath of a broken law. Let me illustrate. Here's a man who's a judge.

39:20 And he has a 14-year-old son. And that 14-year-old son, like my father's 14-year-old son did one time, the one that's standing before you, he mumbled under his breath when he was asked to go clean the cellar. He was asked what he said, and when he told him what he said, he got spanked until he told him, then he got spanked for what he had said. I learned my lesson, never again did I mumble under my breath to my dad.

39:50 Well, you see, he was dealing with me to teach me something. That was didactic punishment. Now here's the judge. He's got a son who miles off and so he spanks him.

40:00 And you know, not too old to get spanked at 14. Not too old. Something else may work better, but I think a lot of people think other things may work better if they just mind the Lord. They'd find out God's way would work.

40:13 But anyway, that same judge, after spanking his boy on a Saturday afternoon, goes to the bench Monday, and before him stands a criminal who's broken the laws. And after all the evidence is given, and it's even still possible to convict a man of crime in our day. Give him another 10 years, give our Supreme Court another 10 years, and a man will practically have to stand there with a smoking gun and with blood dripping off his fingers, and even then he won't be condemned. No such thing as justice anymore, defense of the criminal.

40:43 Terrible. But still possible to bring a man to justice. And so all the evidence is in, and the judge now says to this man, I hereby sentence you to three years at such and such a penitentiary. Now that is not didactic punishment.

41:00 There's the whole problem with our system today. There's the whole problem with the poor blind men in our Supreme Court. They have forgotten that the purpose of their position is not to teach a lesson. It is not didactic.

41:14 They've broken laws, and the broken law demands punishment. Now we've got to keep those two things separate. When a child disobeys, he does not provoke law, my law, he provokes the law of God, and is therefore liable to the punishment of God's judgment, but to me as a parent, I must discipline him in order to teach him. That's didactic.

41:37 But when that same child goes out and breaks the laws of the land, the judge is not there to teach him, the judge is there to administer justice against a broken law. Romans 13 makes that so clear a ten-year-old can understand it. He says, the human government is the minister of God to issue justice, to punish evil doers, to reward good doers. Now you say, how did we get from the atonement to the poor judge and his son?

42:05 For this reason, that we cannot understand the cross unless we get this distinction in our minds. God is not in Jesus Christ primarily teaching a lesson through his sufferings. His sacrifice was a penal sacrifice, and by that we mean simply this, God's holy law said, this do and thou shalt live, this fail to do and thou shalt die. The law says cursed is everyone that continues not in all things that are written in the book of the law.

42:41 The scripture says the wages of sin is death. The scripture says the soul that sinneth, it shall die. Then if sinners are ever to be free, and if sinners are to know that the demands of the law have been satisfied, the one who stands in their room instead, he must bear not a didactic punishment, but a punitive punishment. He must stand there and bear his bosom to the wrath of his father.

43:09 He must turn away the wrath of God by satisfying justice through sacrifice. This is what the scripture means when it says he who knew no sin was made sin for us. Galatians 3.13 Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law.

43:27 How? He made a curse for us. Romans 8.4 says God condemned sin in the flesh.

43:37 Now in what sense did Jesus Christ become sin for us? In what sense did he become a curse for us? In what sense did he bear our sins in his body to the cross? Well, it cannot mean that he actually committed sin, for it says he did no sin.

43:53 Neither was guile in his mouth. It cannot mean that he was defiled by our sin, for the scripture says in Hebrews 7, he is holy, harmless, and undefiled. Well, he didn't bear sin in the sense that he committed it, in the sense that he was defiled by it, and certainly he did not actually become guilty of our sins, for there can be no guilt where there is not commission of sin. Well, in what sense did Christ bear our sin?

44:22 Listen closely. He bore the due punishment for the guilt of sin. And what is that punishment? Death.

44:30 The wages of sin. Death. The soul that sinneth, it shall die. And so when the scripture says he bore our sins, it does not mean that he became defiled with our sin, that he became involved in the guilt of our sin.

44:46 It means that he stood there and took into himself the just punishment due to our sin, namely death, soul death, as well as physical death. The death of the soul, that separation from God that brings us into the mysterious cry, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Where in a way that is unfathomable to us human beings, and will be perhaps through all eternity, God was separated from God. This is the atonement.

Defining the Atonement and Its Implications

45:22 The introduction to the Shorter Catechism asks the question, what is meant by the atonement? And the answer is beautiful, precise, scriptural. It is Christ satisfying death. He is satisfying divine justice by his sufferings and death in the place of sinners.

45:37 That is the atonement. Christ is satisfying divine justice. Justice demands if you sin, you die. God in his grace and sovereign mercy is purposing to take out a great multitude of death-deserving, death-bound, death-cursed sinners.

45:55 But his law says they must die. And so the God who loves them describes this marvelous plan whereby he himself shall come in the person of his Son, standing as the representative of his people. He will take that which was their due, that which was the full demand of justice, death. And so the scripture says in Hebrews 2.9,

46:20 he tasted death for every man. Oh beloved, this is the core of his work as a priest. The sacrifice he offered was voluntary. It was objective.

46:34 It was vicarious. It was penal. To put it now into one sentence, what he did as a priest, he did willingly. He did with reference to God on behalf of sinners in bearing against human sin.

Application to Unbelievers: Flee to Christ

46:58 Now what does this say to us in closing? Oh dear one who has never repented of sin and fled to Christ, you know what this says to you? Almighty God from heaven, heaven commands you to believe in his Son. This is his commandment that we believe in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

47:19 And what does it mean to believe? It means to commit yourself to him in all the glory of his person and the perfection of his work. That means if you don't see yourself as one exposed to wrath and judgment who desperately needs one to stand in your room instead, you're trampling underfoot the blood of Christ, saying it's of no use to me. I don't need such a drastic remedy.

47:43 God says you do. That's why he offers that remedy to you in Jesus Christ and promises that all who come unto God by him will have mercy. And so the word of God to you who are indifferent in your sin is to wake up and flee the wrath to come. If the Father spared not his Son when he was bearing his wrath against sin, what makes you think he'll spare you?

48:07 What about those of you who see yourselves hopeless, helpless, undone sinners? You say, can it be that that voluntary, objective, vicarious, penal sacrifice is for me? Can it be? Can it be that there's mercy in that sacrifice for me?

48:26 Ah, listen to the words of Christ. Come, come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden. I will give you rest. As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up that whosoever believeth in him should not perish.

48:42 God's word to you is, listen, sinner, my Son is set before you in the Gospel as a willing, able, powerful Savior. Flee to him! Trust him! Commit yourself to him!

48:58 That's God's word to you, awakened, convicted, concerned about your need. Flee to Christ with the assurance that there is grace and mercy for all coming sinners. For him that cometh unto me, he said, I will in no wise cast out. And what is God's word to us, his people?

Application to Believers: Hate Sin, Love the Savior, Proclaim Him

49:19 What can I say? But somehow just trust that you'll be caught up in a little bit of the holy bafflement, if I may use a term, that comes to a servant of God who tries to penetrate these mysteries that angels fain would look into. Oh, how terrible sin should be to us. God took sin seriously.

49:45 He took the demands of justice so seriously that he was willing to give up his Son. And the Son took it so seriously he was willing, acting alone as our high priest, to bear his breast and take into that breast all the arrows of divine wrath and judgment for your sin and mine as Christian. Oh, how we should hate sin. Oh, how we should love the Savior.

50:16 He did it voluntarily. You see, that's the part that I can't get over. He was coerced by nothing but his love for you and me. And he saw all of your coldness, all of your waywardness, all of your indifference, all of your pride, all of your stubbornness.

50:33 Yet it's as having loved his own, he loved them even to the end. Oh, hallelujah, what a Savior. Dear child of God, should we not love him with a pure love? With a deeper love?

50:47 With a more intense love? In God's name, what are you doing playing around with trinkets when your life should be a torrent of holy affection to Christ, producing a holy life and a life of zeal? God's word to us as we behold him doing what he did willingly, with reference to God on our behalf in bearing the justice, the just demands of the law, it should be a fresh response of hatred to sin, a fresh response of love and affection to Christ, and a fresh implantation of zeal to proclaim him to men. Because wonder of wonders, he's authorized me and you

51:31 to tell men of this highest, of this high priest, to set him before men in the gospel, not as a pitiable Savior who's trying to save the world and can't do it, but as a triumphant Savior who went to the cross with a people on his heart for whom he died. And as we see next week, the Lord willing, that sacrifice was efficacious. It purchased and procured all that he purposed on that cross. We can declare to men that a great multitude are as sure as in heaven as though they were there now, and who are they?

52:04 Those who come acknowledging their guilt and their sin and throw themselves upon the mercy of God in Christ. And we bid men, yea, we command them in the name of Christ to forsake their sin and self-righteousness and pride and flee to Christ. May God grant that some of you will look to him this morning. Look to him and live.

Closing Exhortation and Hymn Quote

52:29 I had planned for us to sing a closing hymn but the time has gone from us. May I just quote one verse of it? Listen. Come ye sinners, poor and wretched, weak and wounded, sick and sore.

52:41 Jesus ready stands to save you, full of pity, joined with power. He is able, he is willing, he is able. Weep no more. I trust you'll come.

52:54 Those of you who are still enamored with the world, with its standards, with its trinkets, with its toys, with its ambitions, with its music, with its entertainment, with its pleasures, talk not about having gazed upon the Lord of glory dying in your place. For a sight of the Savior bleeding for your sin will wean you away from the love and the pride. May God grant that this will be true for you and for me. Let us pray.