We miss the sheer magnitude of what Jesus the Messiah, Son of God and Fullness of Godhead did for us. Many theologians have resorted to using shallow terms for Christ's sacrifice, words like atonement and sacrifice do not do justice to exactly what happen to Jesus. The proper word is propitiation, something I have discussed in other posts, but has not be fully realized until now. Let me put it this way, man and woman, all humans were destined to die and be damned to hell:
For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." (Romans 3:23). The math is simple, there is no way man was able to assuage his guilt and be pardoned by God. Even the sacrifices at The Temple in Jerusalem were insufficient, because people would sin afterwords and thus be tainted again and thus damned again. The situation was hopless, and God answered in a way that if taken under a microscope should make us marvel every day of our walk with Him.
God judged God. Wait? What! Yes, God Judged God. The Father and Jesus Christ are One (John 10:30, 1 Corinthians 8:6), and "For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form,"
(Colossians 2:9) and "For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ." (Colossians 1:19, NLT). Thus when Jesus hung on cross and all the sin: wickedness, evil deeds, bad habits, crooked thoughts, and nastiness of every person who ever lived, will live, and is living came upon him, God judged Himself. Jesus is God. and so by taking our place on the cross was judging Himself, and being judged by the Father and Holy Spirit. The equation was that a sacrifice for sin had to be made, once and for all to make propitiation for God's wrath; and this Christ did, "For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body, but made alive in the spirit." (1 Peter 3:18, BB and NLT). God could not live near sin or be among it, so we humans we separated from God when Adam nad Eve sinned in Eden (Genesis 3:22-23). We continued the separation from God by our own terrible deeds, and what should have happened is that man and woman of every race, age, and time period should have stood before God the Father, God the Son (Jesus Christ), and God the Holy Spirit to face judgement, wrath, and the destination of hellfire. But Instead, God said, "I will suffer the sentence, I will be judged in their place, and face my own Wrath." Think about that! A perfect, holy, and sinless God said, "I will take your place, suffer for your sins, and be judged for your rebellion." This is the mystery of Christ's Passion, Crucifixion, and Death.
On the cross Christ experienced what man knew too well. For first time ever, when all sin of all history (past, present, and future not even yet before us) came upon his body, Jesus experienced separation from the Father and Holy Spirit. He felt for one agonizing moment, what human history since Eden has had to contend with, and suffer; separation from God (Matthew 27:46). Now Jesus did not sin, despite all sin coming on him, Christ Jesus was and is sinless (Romans 8:3, Hebrews 2:17, Hebrews 4:15), For God is spirit (John 4:24) and Jesus' spirit was in a body that had never sinned (Hebrews 4:15), but Sin of all people came on Him in an instant, so that He could kill its power, and give us eternal life (Hebrews 2:17, 1 Thessalonians 5:10, 2 Corinthians 5:15). Jesus even in the moment of all sin upon Him did not sin, for sin requires action (1 John 5:17, NLT), and Jesus thus put no action to sin, even when all sin was upon Him, but rather He put it to death through His death on the cross (Romans 6:1-15). The next part is omitted from many new Bibles, something that is startling, because Jesus went to Hell (Acts 2:24, Ephesians 4:9, Peter 3:19, Hosea 3:14, Zechariah 9:11) and that was the sentence remember? God's perfect judgment required us to go to hell, and so God Himself went, but in there he preached to the dead (1 Peter 3:19) and then rose from the dead (1 Peter 3:19, this verse has been changed by pseudo-translation, see my blog post on translators corrupting Scripture). Jesus had taken our place in hell, but he didn't belong there because He had never sinned, and thus having served our sentence and not being sinner, broke hell's claim to us if we confess Jesus as God (Yahweh, which is LORD in English) and believe in our hearts and follow him (Romans 10:9, Matthew 6:24) we then have our sentence completed: we do not have to go to Hell because Christ lives in us now (Galatians 2:20, Romans 8:11) and has already gone to hell for us!
It is a shame that in this day and age, many believers will not mediate on gravity of what God has done. They keep it superficial and say, "he loved us and died for us," but they fail to understand what exactly transpired on Good Friday. It was not simply just God laying down his life for us, it was allowing Himself to be judged on our behalf, to point of even descending into hell! And if we believe in Him as our Savior, Lord, and God, we don't have to be judged, suffer a cruel death, or go to hell! How magnificent! This is a miracle, a masterpiece of God and yet how easily does the Church miss it! How often do we ignore or do not acknowledge the powerful image of Christ on the Cross! It is in that scene that played out in history, and has an effect on eternity, that God did the unthinkable. He chose to let Himself be judged by His Law and Wrath instead of us! He held Himself up to His own judgement and suffered under it! So how can people proclaim today that God is not just, and too judgmental?! Uh, God judged Himself first! So when He comes to judge: "In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom..," (2 Timothy 4:1), "He shall judge the nations, heaping up the dead, and crushing the rulers of the earth" (Psalm 110:6) and that From His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may strike down the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God the Almighty (the winepress of wrath will be the blood of wicked 180 miles long and up to bridle of the horse, Revelation 14:20). And on His robe and on His thigh He has a name written, "KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS", (Revelation 19:15-16), remember that God already judged Himself this harshly on the cross! He spilt his own blood before will spill the blood of unbelievers at His Second Coming! The only reason Christ did not remain judged was He could not sin, and so could not be contained in the grave or hell! Because God cannot sin, but He suffered what all who will not believe in Him shall suffer! So do not say my God Emmauel (God with Us, Jesus, Matthew 1:23) has no empathy! He already has been there: tortured, separated from His Father on the cross, and felt the flames of hell itself.
I hope as believers we can better appreciate what God did for us and stop trivializing it with notions that we would rather focus on Easter or Resurrection Day. Yes, He is Risen (Matthew 28:6), but you would appreciate that even more if you paid attention to the Fact that "In Our Place He Stood Condemned." (name of a book on propitiation and Christ crucified). Christ judged Himself, and suffered what all unbelievers will suffer if they do not repent (say they sorry for their sins and bad actions), and turn and believe in Jesus Christ as their Lord (God) and Savior.
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