March 2004 Meditation
This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation,
that Christ Jesus
came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.
(1 Tim. 1:15)
In the previous meditation we focused on the reality of our sinnership, namely, that we all come short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23). We fail to answer to the purpose for which we were created and are transgressors of God's holy law. The consequences of being a sinner are very serious indeed. The Bible tells us that “cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them” (Gal. 3:10). In other words, anything short of absolutely perfect obedience renders us unacceptable to God and brings upon us the curse of His law.
What does it mean to be accursed of God? It means that the punishment due to us for our disobedience to God's law is inescapable. And that awful punishment is death and eternal separation from God. Since we are all sinners, no human being can escape this divine judgment upon sin. The only way that I, a sinner, could escape the wrath of God and be reconciled with Him would be if I could meet all the requirements of God's law: perfect obedience and the complete and exhaustive payment of the penalty of the law. Being sinners, however, it is utterly impossible for us to meet those requirements. Our very best efforts will fall short of the absolute perfection God requires from us.
This brings us to the reason why Christ Jesus came into the world. God knew that sinful man is hopelessly and helplessly lost and incapable of delivering Himself from this awful plight. This moved Him, before the world was created, to conceive a plan to rescue sinful man from the wrath to come and to bring him back in favor with Himself. To accomplish this, He sent His only begotten Son into the world to accomplish for sinners what they cannot accomplish themselves: live a life of perfect obedience to God's law and pay the full penalty for the transgression of that law.
And this is precisely what Christ Jesus, the eternal Son of God, accomplished! In His perfect humanity, He lived a truly sinless life, perfectly and actively obeying every detail of His Father's holy law. Yet this perfect obedience was not enough to save sinners. As the divinely appointed Substitute for sinners, He was also subjected to the curse and the penalty of God's law. That penalty had to be paid in full, and that reality brought Him to the awful cross of Calvary. Being nailed to that cross, He was subjected to the curse of God and experienced the full consequences of that curse: being utterly forsaken of God. It was in that way, and in that way alone, that the penalty for sin could be paid.
What a joyful truth it is therefore that this is exactly what Christ Jesus did! After enduring the wrath of God upon sin for six dreadful hours, He cried out triumphantly, “It is finished!”, and then voluntarily commended His spirit into the hands of His father – and thus He died. The penalty for sin had been paid; God's wrath against sin had been quenched; the claims of God's holy law had been met!
The fact that God fully accepted the payment His Son made on the cross on behalf of sinners, was affirmed in two ways: The veil of the temple was rent in half, and after three days Christ Jesus arose triumphantly from the grave. The implications of this will be set forth in the next meditation.
Pastor B. Elshout
