What The Cross Achieves (2 Corinthians 5:17-21, Exodus 12:1-28)
Rev. David Huffman, March 24, 2024Part of the Eastertide series, preached at a Sunday Morning service
Where do our influences about Christian doctrine come from? Internet scoffers, or the Bible? Scoffers are critical of orthodox doctrine. They sometimes find acceptable that God is love. Yet, they get uncomfortable if asked how He can punish sin. The Bible has many passages talking about sin and punishment. A good question is why someone would die in our place. Why is the cross necessary? What does it achieve? John Calvin says it accomplishes a wondrous exchange. The exchange is penal substitution. Christ accepts a legal judgment in our place. The judgment results from God's infinite holiness. It makes sense that the seriousness of the sin be judged by the position of the one sinned against. The natural man can't define what is just and unjust with any sense of agreement. We all tend to pursue our own rule. Sin is the greatest injustice against the holy God. In sin, we incur a great debt we can never repay. The punishment for this is torment in hell forever. But God placed our sin on Christ on the Cross for our sake, upon Him who knew no sin. He could not sin. He was the innocent Passover lamb. In this penal substitution, the debt of sin we owe is credited to the account of the Son, and the Son's righteousness is credited to us. We are then cloaked in the royal robes of righteousness. Christ was cursed for us, quelling God's wrath in propitiation. This is all of God's love for us. By this means, God provides us with reconciliation with Him, even though we did not ourselves pursue reconciliation with Him. God removes from us the offense of sins, brings us peace and friendship with God, and makes us a new creation. For the first time, we can love instead of hate in selfishness. We can now regard people created in the image of God, not according to the flesh. This work has just begun among God's people, and will only become fully complete when Christ returns. Until that time, we are ambassadors for Christ, testifying to the world about God's unmerited favor toward us.
| Earlier: | Same day: | Later: |
|---|---|---|
| « Christianity An Open Faith | None | The Assurance Of Knowing » |
2 Corinthians 5:17–21 (Listen)
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
(ESV)
Exodus 12:1–28 (Listen)
12:1 The LORD said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, 2 “This month shall be for you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year for you. 3 Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month every man shall take a lamb according to their fathers’ houses, a lamb for a household. 4 And if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his nearest neighbor shall take according to the number of persons; according to what each can eat you shall make your count for the lamb. 5 Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats, 6 and you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight.
7 “Then they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. 8 They shall eat the flesh that night, roasted on the fire; with unleavened bread and bitter herbs they shall eat it. 9 Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roasted, its head with its legs and its inner parts. 10 And you shall let none of it remain until the morning; anything that remains until the morning you shall burn. 11 In this manner you shall eat it: with your belt fastened, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. And you shall eat it in haste. It is the LORD’s Passover. 12 For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the LORD. 13 The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt.
14 “This day shall be for you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the LORD; throughout your generations, as a statute forever, you shall keep it as a feast. 15 Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall remove leaven out of your houses, for if anyone eats what is leavened, from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel. 16 On the first day you shall hold a holy assembly, and on the seventh day a holy assembly. No work shall be done on those days. But what everyone needs to eat, that alone may be prepared by you. 17 And you shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for on this very day I brought your hosts out of the land of Egypt. Therefore you shall observe this day, throughout your generations, as a statute forever. 18 In the first month, from the fourteenth day of the month at evening, you shall eat unleavened bread until the twenty-first day of the month at evening. 19 For seven days no leaven is to be found in your houses. If anyone eats what is leavened, that person will be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he is a sojourner or a native of the land. 20 You shall eat nothing leavened; in all your dwelling places you shall eat unleavened bread.”
21 Then Moses called all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go and select lambs for yourselves according to your clans, and kill the Passover lamb. 22 Take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and touch the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood that is in the basin. None of you shall go out of the door of his house until the morning. 23 For the LORD will pass through to strike the Egyptians, and when he sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the LORD will pass over the door and will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses to strike you. 24 You shall observe this rite as a statute for you and for your sons forever. 25 And when you come to the land that the LORD will give you, as he has promised, you shall keep this service. 26 And when your children say to you, ‘What do you mean by this service?’ 27 you shall say, ‘It is the sacrifice of the LORD’s Passover, for he passed over the houses of the people of Israel in Egypt, when he struck the Egyptians but spared our houses.’” And the people bowed their heads and worshiped.
28 Then the people of Israel went and did so; as the LORD had commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did.
(ESV)