sc6 transcript

7/27/2019 Sc6 Transcript

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SECRET CHURCH 6

The Cross of Christ

Dr. David Platt

Father, we pray that by your spirit you would help us tonight to realize the glory of the truths wehave just signed, that we would walk out of here six hours from now with a greater understandingof the depth of love and the magnitude of your glory that is displayed on the cross, that we wouldwalk out of here tonight loving Christ more and looking more like Christ as a result. We praiseyou. Lord Jesus, we pray that tonight, by your spirit you would help us to see you. In Jesus'name we pray. Amen.

Good evening. You hold in your hand tonight the longest Secret Church we've had ever. Thisone this one is going to break the record tonight. It's the longest one we've had. Notice thespiral bounding. This is a first for us because of necessity. You would think you would thinkthat in light of past experiences, things would get shorter, smaller. But here's what I'm thinking you dont need to turn here, but I just want to read you a text from Acts 20:7. Just listen to thispicture.

"On the first day of the week, we came together to break bread. Paul spoke to the people, andbecause he intended to leave the next day, kept on talking until midnight." (Laughter) I just wantto lay the biblical foundation for what we're doing tonight. It continues on, "There were manylamps in the upstairs room where we were meeting, seated in a window was a young man namedEutychus, who was sinking into a deep sleep as Paul talked on and on." (Laughter) "When hewas sound asleep, he fell to the ground from the third story and was picked up dead. Paul wentdown, threw himself on the young man and put his arms around him. Dont be alarmed, he said,he's alive. Then he went upstairs again and broke bread and ate and after talking until daylight,he left." Paul didnt get it, like even when people were falling asleep and dying as a result, he stilldoesnt get the hint.

So, here's what I'm thinking. I'm thinking if we stayed around here 'til daylight, some reallyinteresting things could happen. You dont get that in a 20-minute Bible study. That doesnt

happen. So, we're going to dive in tonight, and in all seriousness, we do have a lot of ground tocover. That's nothing new. How many of you, just out of curiosity, how many this is your firsttime to Secret Church? All right, the rookies around the room. Welcome for the first time toSecret Church.

Feel free, rookies, first timers, to copy off the guy or the lady next to you. You will need themthroughout the night, even though you may be coming in late and you're kind of scattered next tosomebody you dont even know. You're going to be best friends by the end of the night becauseyou will constantly be looking at each other. Here's what I want to start tonight by doing. I wantto share something. It's something actually I shared with a faith family here at Brook Hills.

A couple of months ago at the end of a series we walked through in Galatians, and it's actually aquote. It's a quote that I heard a preacher say at a very pivotal point in my life as a college

student, and I know there's a lot of college students around this room tonight. But the preacher'sname was John Piper, and he said these words, and I just dont think I can improve on them. It'skind of a long quote, but follow with me. He said, "You dont have to know a lot of things for your life to make a lasting difference in the world, but you do have to know a few great things thatmatter and to be willing to live for them and die for them. The people that make a durabledifference in the world are not the people who have mastered many things, but have beenmastered by a few great things. If you want your life to count, if you want the ripple effect of thepebbles you drop to become waves that reach the ends of the earth and roll on for centuries intoeternity, you dont have to have a high IQ. You dont have to have good looks or riches. Youdont have to come from a fine family or fine school. You have to know a few great, majestic,


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unchanging, obvious, simple, glorious things and to be set on fire by them." He continued. Hesaid, "But I know that not all of you want your life to make a difference. There are many of you,you dont care if you make a lasting difference for something great. You just want people to likeyou, or if you could just grow up and have a good job with a good wife and a couple of good kidsand a nice car and long weekends and a few good friends, a fun retirement and quick and easydeath and no hell, if you could have that, d be satisfied."

And he said, "That's a tragedy in the making." Then he used two illustrations. He's a pastor, andhe said, "Three weeks ago we got word at our church that Ruby Elias and Laura Edwards hadboth been killed in Cameroon. Ruby was over 80. Single all her life, she poured it out for onegreat thing, to make Jesus Christ known among the unreached, the poor and the sick. Laura wasa widow, a medical doctor, pushing 80 years old and serving at Ruby's side in Cameroon. Thebrakes failed, the car went off the cliff and they were both killed instantly, and I asked my people,'Was that a tragedy, two lives driven by one great vision, spent in unheralded service to theperishing poor for the glory of Jesus Christ, two decades after almost all their Americancounterparts have retired to throw their lives away on trifles in Florida or New Mexico?' No, thatis not a tragedy. That is a glory. I'll tell you what a tragedy is," he said. "I'll read to you fromReader's Digest what a tragedy is. Bob and Penny took early retirement from their jobs in theNortheast five years ago when he was 59 and she was 51. Now they live in Punta Gorda, Floridawhere they cruise on their 30-foot troller, play softball and collect shells. The American dream.Come to the end of your life, your one and only life and let the last great work before you give anaccount to your creator be, 'I collected shells. See my shells, God?' that is a tragedy, and peopletoday are spending billions of dollars to persuade you to embrace that tragic dream, and I want toplead with you dont buy it," and he pleaded with us not to buy it.

And so tonight I want to speak to you, yes, to teach from the Bible, but to speak to every teenager and every college student and every man and every woman, every senior adult in this room, and Iwant to plead with you to make your life count for one thing. To be consumed by one thing, to beobsessed with one thing, and that one thing is the cross of Christ. And I want to submit to youtonight that if your life is not consumed with the cross of Christ, you will waste your life in thisworld. It will be wasted.

That's how important I'm convinced what we are talking about tonight is. So, we're going to dive

in, and we're going to look at the truth behind the cross of Christ on this Good Friday. You openup your notes, and you see the first page. It says "the cruciality of the cross." I want to set thestage here for where we are going. Kind of a play on words there, the crux of the crucifixion.Cruciality of the cross.

1 Corinthians 1:18, "The message of the cross is foolish to those who are perishing, but to uswho are being saved, it is the power of God." It's why Paul would say in 2:2, 1 Corinthians 2:2, "Iresolve to know nothing among you except for Christ and him crucified." Christ and Him crucifiedwas everything.

So, here's why we are here tonight. First, to commemorate the historical reality of the cross, tocommemorate the historical reality of the cross. This is Good Friday, and we are thinking tonightabout real, historical events that happened approximately 2000 years ago. Some interesting

quotes tried to litter throughout the beginning here just to give you a picture of Christ and history.Napoleon himself said, "Everything in Christ astonishes me. His spirit overawes me. His willconfounds me. Between him and whoever else in the world, there is no possible term of comparison. I search in vain to find the similar to Jesus Christ or anything which can approachthe gospel, neither history nor humanity nor the ages nor nature offer me anything with which Iam able to compare it or explain it. Here everything is extraordinary."

It was the person of Christ, and we all know, secular, Christian scholars alike would attributegreat significance to the person of Christ;, but to the meaning of the cross, cross of thecenterpiece of all history. Robert Leighton, "The whole world in comparison with the cross of


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Christ is one great impertinence." Everything in history revolves around the cross, which is whatwe're going to look at tonight, but not just to look at the historical reality.

Second, to explore the theological mystery of the cross. We're going to find tonight, historicalfacts about the cross, but even deeper theological mysteries behind the cross, and this is wherewe have to really tune in because I'm guessing most, if not all of us, are at least in some sensefamiliar with historical facts about the cross, and most, if not all of us, have probably even seenThe Passion of the Christ . And many have even asked, "Are we going to have different clipstonight?" And we are not.

The reason is because these images that we have fixed on our mind, if that is all we understandabout the cross, we have a very shallow understanding of the cross. There are truths here thatare far deeper. This is where all of Christian theology converges together. The doctrine of man,the doctrine of salvation, all of these doctrines come together right here, and if our doctrines arefaulty about god and man and Christ and salvation, then we'll never understand the cross, and if our understanding of the cross is weak, so will our understanding of God we weak, and our understanding of ourselves will be weak, and our understanding of what it means to be saves willdrift into, well, what we've created it to be today. It's from a lack of understanding about thetheological mystery behind the cross, the doctrine of the death is the substance of the gospel,and it is the determinant of our eternity.

I love this quote from Thomas Brooks, "Christ's blood is heaven's key." I am convinced that weare part of a church culture today that has manufactured a cross-less Christianity, and the resultis we're going to talk about this in just a minute, but the result is I'm convinced there are scoresof people who've embraced a Christianity that is minus the cross, and as a result, their eternityand their perception of where they're going for eternity is deceived because they bought into agospel that's not a biblical gospel.

So, my challenge really, more important than anything we do tonight, is to ask every one of you inthis room, "Have you truly trusted the Christ of the cross?" And as we look at these truths tonight,ask yourself this is what your eternity is dependent on. Have you trusted the Christ of the cross?So, how do we come?

We must come with deep humility. This is obviously an extremely humbling thing to dive into andstudy. Facts of the cross. Got this quote from _________, and we're going to talk abouttheological mystery, but at the same time, we need to remember the fact of what we're thinkingabout tonight "He stripped off first one robe of honor and then another, until naked He wasfastened to the cross. The He emptied his inmost self, pouring out His lifeblood, giving Himself for all of us.

"Finally, they laid Him in a borrowed grave. How love was our Redeemer brought? How thencan we be proud? Stand at the foot of the cross and count the scarlet drops by which you havebeen cleansed; see the thorny crowns and His scourged shoulders, still gushing with the crimsonflow of blood. See His hands and feet given up to the rough iron and His whole self mocked andscorned. See the bitterness, the pangs, the throes of inward grief, show themselves in Hisoutward frame. Hear the chilling shriek, "'My God, my God, why hast though forsaken me?' If

you are not humbled in the presence of Jesus, you do not know Him. You were so lost thatnothing could save you but the sacrifice of God's only begotten son as Jesus stooped for you,bow in humility at His feet. A realization of Christ's amazing love has a greater tendency tohumble us than even the consciousness of our own guilt. Pride cannot live beneath the cross.Let us sit there and learn our lesson, then let us rise and carry it into practice and spurge it."

So, we come with deep humility, and we come to the cross with desperate urgency, and if youcan let me go off on a bit of a tangent here for just a second because we need to move on, butthis is key. We have reduced the gospel today to a shrink-wrapped presentation that if you canget someone to say the right things back to you or pray the right things back to you, then we


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pronounce them saved from their sins from eternity and move on. We have taken the verylifeblood of the gospel out, and we put Kool-Aid in its place.

We have said pray this prayer, sign this card, do this deal and you're saved. We have usedphrases to describe conversion that are nowhere found in scripture. And it's because we haveminimized the cross. We have talked about God as a friend who needs us instead of us assinners who desperately need him. So, tonight, as we look at these things, this is serious stuff,'cause the very core of the gospel is found in what we're looking at tonight. Live in a day wherewe talk about Jesus, "Well, He is my savior, but He's not my Lord, or I came to know Jesus theSavior, but He wasn't Lord." And people even say preachers even say today, "Trust in Jesusas your Savior, but you dont have to submit to Him as your Lord." That is blasphemy. If He isnot Lord of All, he cannot be our Savior. It's impossible.

You see these quotes here from Pink , "The nature of Christ's salvation is woefully misrepresentedby the present day evangelist. He announces a Savior from hell rather than a Savior from sin,and that is why men are why so many are fatally deceived, for there are multitudes who wish toescape the lake of fire and who have no desire to be delivered from their carnality andworldliness." Scores who say, "Well, I prayed a prayer and I know I'm going to heave," but their lives are so far from God and they want nothing to do with God. This is not biblical Christianity.

And it undercuts the power of the cross. What we have said to the world is, "Trust in Christ, butHe really doesnt make that big a difference in your lives and your battles with sin and your struggles with this and that," and it does. The cross is powerful enough for those things.

So, we come tonight with great urgency. Packer said, "To recover the old, authentic, biblicalgospel, and to bring our preaching and practice back into line with it is perhaps our most pressingpresent need." This is the foolishness of the cross. We've catered a message to a man-centered, me-centered culture and in the process, diluted it of its power. There is power in thefoolishness of the cross. What is this bizarre message, for which believers in the first centurygave their lives and believers around the world together in Secret Churches are giving their lives?

Urgency, what can we expect. We'll be confronted with the severity of our sin. We need to seeourselves tonight in light of the cross. I want you to think with me about the passion narrative, thescene leading up to the cross. Who do you most identify with in this whole narrative? Maybe

Peter, weeping as you realize the magnitude of your denial of Christ, maybe Simon of Syrene,you picture yourself carrying Jesus' cross with Him, for Him. Maybe the women who stood at adistance, maybe Mary, who stood there at the cross, looking up at her son. Maybe John, whomJesus spoke to at the cross. Maybe you picture yourself as the thief on one side or the other,maybe the Centurion who shouted, "Surely this was the Son of God," after He saw Jesus die.

You know who I most identify with? I most identify with the angry mobs yelling, "Crucify him!" And I'm convinced if we were honest with ourselves, were it not for the grace of God, we would allbe right there. See, Jim Haney says we're only flattering ourselves to think otherwise. The oldNegro spiritual asks, "Were you there when they crucified my Lord," and the answer is yes, wewere there. Not a spectators, though, but as participants, guilty participants. Until you see thecross as that which is done by you, you will never appreciate that it is done for you.

So, see yourself in this story tonight, the great Scottish hymn writer, Horatius Bonar wrote, "Was Ithat shed the sacred blood. I nailed him to the tree. I crucified the Christ of God, I joined themockery. Of all that shouting multitude, I feel that I am one, and in that den of voices rude, Irecognize my own. Around the cross the throng I see, mocking the sufferer's groan, yet still myvoice it seems to be, as if I mocked alone."

Tonight we will be confronted with the severity of our sin, and at the same time, we will be struckwith the glory of our God. The glory of our God. ____ said, "The wounds of Christ were thegreatest outlets of His glory that ever were." Calvin said, "There's no tribunal so magnificent, no


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from Maundy Thursday and Good Friday that sum up four scenes along the Passion narrativethat give us different angels on understanding the cross. That's the journey of the cross.

Then we'll get to the intent of the cross, round about 11:00 this evening, we'll look at probably themost hotly contested component of the debate over Calvinism, which is the intent the extent or the intent of the atonement. Calvinism, the whole five points of Calvinism, total depravity,unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace and perseverance of the saints, rightin the middle, probably the one that is most debated is limited atonement. So, that's what we'regoing to dive into tonight around 11:00, solve that thing and then move on to the effects of thecross. It's going to be a good night, all right. (Laughter) [Applause]

Here we go. It's good. Keep the men and women going. Here we go. Reality of the cross.

We're going to fly through this, but basically, what I wanted to give you in your notes here was inscripture, and it predominantly comes from Mark. There's some scriptures especially intertwinedhere from John, but basically from Mark. Basically a timeline of the cross that just gives you apicture of what happened over this last week couple thousand years ago. The timeline.

On Saturday you had the anointing of Jesus. We're not going to read through these scriptures.We're going to go through this pretty quick. The anointing of Jesus, Jesus arrived at Bethany,and he is anointed by Mary, who takes this expensive perfume and pours it on Jesus' feet.Sunday, the arrival of Jesus. This is the Palm Sunday entrance into Jerusalem, and then onMonday, comes back to Jerusalem, goes to the temple. The anger of Jesus. This is when Jesus'holy anger, when he comes into the temple and begins turning over tables and teaches us muchabout worship and the purposes of God and really is a foretelling of what's about to happen whenit comes to the whole temple picture the people of Israel had operated under.

Tuesday, we have Jesus teaching, and there's a lot going on with his teaching and conversationsduring that time. Sum it up here, the authority of Jesus, His authority is challenged, and we see,particularly the chief priests and teachers of the law challenging Jesus' authority and Himasserting his authority in response to him. So, the stage is being set here, and there's obviouslya real tension between religious leaders and Jesus that has obviously coming to a head here.

Tuesday, Wednesday, not sure exactly, the betrayal of Jesus. This is when Judas goes to thechief priests to betray Jesus to them and then begins looking for an opportunity to hand him over.That was Tuesday/Wednesday. Thursday, Maundy Thursday, we see Jesus gather around withhis disciples at the last supper and so, Passover time. We'll talk about this. Obviously just theincredible picture here of the humility of Christ as He washes His disciples' feet, the humility of Christ, He washes His disciples feet.

Last night I was reading over that narrative with our boys at home and just talking about thepicture of God in the flesh, washing dirty feet as a servant. The prophesy of Christ, He predictsPeter's denial, and then the comfort of Christ. This is particularly in John 14, 15, 16. Hepromises the Holy Spirit. He's encouraging them. He's building them up because of what isabout to happen, and then the prayer of Christ in John 17 as he intercedes for His disciples.

Then we move into the Garden of Gethsemane, late Thursday evening. We see three agonizingprayers, three times He goes aside, and we're going to look at the garden tonight. It's one of those scenes in the journey to the cross we're going to dive into. Three agonizing prayers, andmeanwhile, three tired disciples. Every time He comes back and they're sleeping and resting.

All of that leads late Thursday evening from the garden to the arrest of Jesus. The arrest of Jesus. Judas comes and kisses Christ on the cheek and he is arrested there. That leads to avery long evening Thursday night into Friday morning. The trails of Jesus really split up into twocategories: (1) before the Jewish authorities. We see six different pictures here: three before theJewish authorities, preliminary hearing before Annas and a hearing before Caiaphas, which we'll


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talk about a little bit later on, and then the trial before the council. So, then at the end of that,Mark 15:1, "They bound Jesus, led Him away and handed Him over to Pilate." That leads toJesus before the roman authorities. So, Jesus is handed over to the roman authorities, and Hehas a first hearing before Pilate and a hearing before Herod and then a last hearing before Pilate,and from the end of that last hearing before Pilate we see, Mark 15, "What shall I do then with theone you call the King of the Jews?" Pilate asks them. "Crucify them," They shouted. Weshouted.

"'Why? What crime has He committed?' asked Pilate, but they shouted all the louder, 'CrucifyHim.' Wanting to satisfy the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas to them. He had Jesus flogged andhanded him over to be crucified. This led to the torture of Jesus. They put a purple robe on Himand twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on him, and they began to call out to him, 'Hail,King of the Jews.' Again and again they struck him on the head with a staff and spit on Him.Falling on their knees, they paid homage to him, and when they had mocked him, they put off thepurple robe and put His clothes on Him. Then they led Him out to crucify Him."

Crucifixion of Jesus, we have the first three hours, the third hour when they crucified Him, put thenotice above Him, "King of the Jews." What we see is Jesus begin to speak from the cross a fewdifferent times. First, in Luke 23, the prayer for His persecutors, Jesus prays, "Father forgivethem, for they do not know what they are doing." Next, the promise to the criminal, "Today youwill be with me in paradise." Next, the provision for His mother, "Jesus saw His mother there andthe disciple whom He loved, John, presumably standing nearby, and He said to His mother,'From that time on," John took her into his home" and then the last three hours, where we seeat the sixth hour darkness came over the whole land and to the ninth hour, and what we see isthe cry of dereliction, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Another one of the facetsof the journey we're going to look at, acknowledgment of thirst, "I'm thirsty," and then thedeclaration cry of triumph. When he received the drink, Jesus said, "It is finished," and then thecry of resignation, "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit." When He had said this, Hebreathed His last.

So, that's the historical journey in a nutshell to the cross. That's the timeline, the tragedy. Somedeny the fact of the cross. Some deny no serious historians really deny the existence of JesusChrist, but many deny the fact of the cross, notably Muslims. You see this quote from the Koran.

"I deny that Jesus died on the cross, that they sat and boast, 'We killed Christ Jesus, the Son of Mary, the Apostle of God,' but they killed Him not, or crucified Him. But so it was made to appear to them and those who differ therein are full of doubts, with no certain knowledge, but onlyconjecture to follow for of assuredly they killed Him now. Nay, God raised Him up onto Himself and got exalted and power-wise."

Muslims see the crucifixion as a preposterous idea. One Sunni Muslim scholar even wrote, "Wehonor Jesus more than you Christians do. We refuse to believe that God would permit Him tosuffer death on the cross." Muslims would say that what we were talking about tonight is a lowview of Jesus. So, at this point, when we realize, especially in our pluralistic day when there areall kinds of religions and religion is looked at as a matter of preference and people all across our culture and all across the church today say things like all religions are fundamentally the same,

just superficially different. They're all fundamentally the same, just superficially different. This is

where we need to realize this is a core truth at which Islam and Christianity are really Christianityand Judaism for that matter, divide. It's not a matter of preference, it's a matter of truth, not evenasking you to determine which one is true necessarily, but the reality is either Jesus died on across or he did not. If he did not, then we are wasting our time tonight, and we're fools to befollowing Christianity. The Bible says that.

1 Corinthians 15, "If he didnt die on the cross" if he did, this has huge ramifications for all of our lives for all of eternity, and so, we need to know whether or not he died on the cross. It's notsuperficial difference. This is radical difference. Some deny the fact of the cross. Despite whatMohammed said, it was much closer to the historical situation. Christians and non-Christians


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alike reported that it was, indeed, Jesus who died on the cross. Some deny the fact of the cross,but even for those who might accept the fact of the cross, most missed the meaning of the cross.

I got a quote here from Gandhi, "I cold accept Jesus as a martyr, an embodiment of sacrifice anda divine teacher, but not as the most perfect man ever born. His death on the cross was a greatexample to the world that if there was anything like a mysterious or miraculous virtue in it, myheart could not accept. The reality is, whether it's Gandhi or other religious teachers or thecountless millions of religious Americans who watched The Passion of Christ , there's a great lackof understanding about what's happening on the cross, because it's so much easier.

An example, most missed the meaning of the cross, which leads us to the reality we're diving intotonight. We all need the truth of the cross. E Stanley Jones said, "The cross is the key. If I losethis key, I fumble. The universe will not open to me, but with the key in my hand, I know I hold itssecret."

The cross is not just an event to be discussed. The cross is not just an event to be discussed,and the cross is not just an image to be viewed. The cross is not just an event to be discussed or an image to be viewed. The cross represents truth to be believed. Truth to be believed, trustedin, to bank your life on.

So, what is that truth? Talking about the history of the cross here. What I want to do is just givea brief synopsis of church history and how Christians in the church have viewed the cross. Oneterm, and the key theological term here is atonement. Atonement. Look on your brother or sister's page to figure out how to spell atonement, and this is a word, theological word that sumsup to be at one that's how you spell it, "at one ment." Did you get that? Still early in the night,you got that. At one ment.

But the picture is how are holy God and sinful man brought to be one to one another, unitedtogether, atoned? What is the condition or the price that is paid? What has to happen in order for that to take place, in order for them to be at one? How does the cross provide salvation for man? The answer to that question is multifaceted, as we're going to see tonight, but there havebeen all kinds of different theories as church has said, "What's so significant about the cross?"

All kinds of theories.

One theory we're going to run through these quick the ransom theory. Church fathers, likeorigin all the way to 20th century theologians like Gustav Aulen, who basically said, "In the crossJesus delivers us from the powers of evil by paying a ransom price for the devil." So, the pictureis we are held captive by the devil and God pays a ransom to the devil in the form of His Son'sdeath in order to buy us out of our captivity.

If you've seen C.S. Lewis Chronicles of Narnia, read that or seen the movies, this is kind of thepicture. If evil witch okay, if you haven't watched the movie, you're totally out of this, but if youhave, the evil witch says, "Yes, a price has to be paid to me in order for Edmund to be let go."So, Aslan has to pay me a price, okay. That's kind of the picture that's being expressed here,and the main picture is Christ as victor. He's the one who conquered Satan, paid the price and toSatan in order to buy us out. Now, there's grains of truth here, but what we have to be really

careful with when we look at that theory or think about that theory is the idea that Satan has theprerogative to make demands of God. That Satan is owed something by God. This goes againstmuch of what we see in scripture, so there's grains of truth here.

We move on to the second theory, the moral influence theory. Main proponents: Abelard is a 12 th century theologian, Bushnell some say is the father of modern liberalism, American liberalism.The main point they said is there's no necessary payment for sin that needs to be made. Thecross simply shows us how much God loves us in order to persuade us to love God. God lovesus so much, there's no price that has to be paid for our sins. He loves us, and so, when we lookat Christ on the cross, we see that God loves us, and he cares for us. This is very strikingly


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familiar to modern day gospel, love, love, love care for, no picture of justice and the seriousnessof sin. No. Sin is a sickness that you just need to be healed from, and God loves you enough toheal you. That's the picture: God is love, moral influence theory.

Next, the example theory. The Syssinians follow in the 16 th century theologian who said, "There'sno necessary payment for sin." Again, that's kind of like the moral influence theory, but thedifference here is the cross simply demonstrates Christ in order to teach us how to live. He'sshowing us an example for how we should love others. So, Christ is teaching us so we can loveother people like He loves us. Next, the governmental theory, Hugo Grotius, 17 th centurytheologian, said, "There's no necessary payment for sin. The cross demonstrates God's justicewhen the law is broken in order to persuade us to turn from our sin." Instead of focusing on thelove of God, Grotius, governmental theory focuses on the justice of God and says, not that this isa price that has to be paid for people's sin, for specific people's sin, instead, this is God saying, "Iam serious about sin as the judge of the universe, and I'm going to show it in the way Christ dieson the cross," governmental theory, God is judge.

Next, the satisfaction theory, some Latin church leaders, this was a reaction in many ways to theransom theory and basically saying, "No, Satan doesnt demand anything from God. God is theruler of the universe and the cross satisfies the honor of God through the sacrifice to the Son of God," and basically, Ansom talked about how God is restoring His glory and showing Hisgreatness in the cross. That's the point. Showing his rulership, His governorship over allcreation, and the good thing about Ansom here is he begins to focus on a God-centeredunderstanding of the cross.

That leads us to the last one I want to put in front of you, the penile substitution theory, andbasically, this was reformers during the reformation who took what Ansom had done and said,"Yes, there's a God-centered perspective here. The focus, though, of what's going on on thecross is Jesus is paying the real penalty of sinners in their place, as their substitute so that hisrighteous might be credited to them." So, Jesus is dying as a substitute for sinners.

Now, we take all those together, and we've got many different theories reflecting dimensions of the atonement, and I think we'd be on safe ground saying there's grains of truth in each one of those theories. I've listed some there. The cross is no question a triumph over the forces of evil,

sin and death. No question. The cross communicates the extent of God's love for us, noquestion we see God's love for us. The cross shows us how to love like Christ. He knows how tolove. That's what 1 Peter 3 is all about: The cross illustrates the significance of God's justice. Wedefinitely see the justice of God expressed in the cross. The cross honors the character of Godas Ansom shows us, demonstrates the glory of God, and the cross demonstrates our need for asubstitute.

But if you had to boil it down, and tonight what we're going to boil it down to, one central truthexpressing the meaning of the atonement, and I want to show it to you in scripture, but if we hadto sum it up, the cross is about two main words: satisfaction through substitution. Satisfactionthrough substitution. What I want to propose tonight is that this is the heart of the atonement, theheart of what's going on at the cross are these two words: satisfaction through substitution.

So, let's dive right into that: meaning of the cross. Satisfaction through substitution and what yousee at the top of the next page is 1 Timothy 2: - it's actually verses 5 and 6. I only put verse 5 onthere, but it's actually Verse 5 and 6 that are listed there. These are going to be a guide for usthroughout the night. You see, Packer said, "These words are the key, not merely to the NewTestament, but to the whole Bible. They crystallize into a phrase, the sum and substance of itsmessage." So, here's the two verses that are really going to guide the rest of our time together tonight.

There is one God and one mediator between God and men. The man Christ Jesus who gaveHimself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time. So, what we're going


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You condemn the innocent, that's detestable before God. You acquit the guilty, that's detestablebefore God. Did you catch that?

So, for God to overlook our sin, guilty we are all guilty before Him. For God to overlook our sin,to acquit us in our sin would be detestable to Himself. Did you catch that? This is the questionthe Bible is asking us here. How can God love guilty sinners and not be an abomination tohimself? How can God satisfy all of these characteristics, attributes that are summed up in whoHe is with guilty sinners before Him? This is not the question we wrestle with. There's nobody inour culture losing sleep tonight over how God can be so kind to sinners. How can He be so kindto us? No. We point the finger at God, "How can you do this or this or this to us?" The questionin the Bible is, "How can you, God, let rebels into heaven into your holy presence?" That's thedivine dilemma. You feel the tension here. How can God express His holiness withoutconsuming us within our sin? How can He show His holiness without consuming us in our sin?How can He express His love without condoning us in our sin? This is what the Bible's asking us.How can God judge sin and justify the sinner at the same time? How can God satisfy Himself and save us at the same time?

You feel the tension here in Hosea 11, "How can I give you up, oh Ephraim? How can I give youover, Israel? How can I treat you four times? How can I make you like Zeboiin? My heart ischanged within me; all my compassion is aroused. I will not carry out my fierce anger, nor will Iturn and devastate Ephraim, for I am God and not man, the Holy One among you. I will not comein wrath."

Do you feel the tension here between the compassion of God and the anger and the wrath of God? How can God satisfy Himself and save us at the same time?

Where we left things, where we left things was talking about the character of God, sinfulness of man and the tension specifically identifying the tension, the love, holiness, wrath of God. Howcan God be holy in His love and holy in His wrath? When we talk about God satisfying himself,it's probably not better terminology, but the picture is, how can God be true to His nature, to Hisattributes, how can He express His holiness without consuming us in our sin? How can Heexpress His love without condoning us in our sin? How can He be the judge of sin and the

justifier of sinners at the same time? How can He satisfy Himself and save us at the same time?

This is the dilemma that we're looking at. Scripture gives us, and it needs to be fixed in our minds. This is a God-centered picture of where we're going here, looking at the cross, how canGod be just and gracious towards sinners at the same time? That's the dilemma, the problem,the tension, all that leads to the reality. Dont miss this, 'cause this leads us now we're gettinginto the reality that's expressed on the cross.

The reality is first and foremost, the cross is a demonstration of the character of God. First andforemost, the cross is a demonstration of the character of God. Listen to Romans 3:25 and 26,"God presented Jesus as a sacrifice of atonement through faith in His blood." He did this why?Why did he do this, Paul? To demonstrate His justice. Because in His forbearance, He had leftthe sins committed beforehand unpunished. He did it to demonstrate His justice at the presenttime so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus. What do you meandemonstrate His justice?

Well, see the problem that's being expressed here in these words, Romans 3, God had left thewins committed beforehand unpunished. So, there's unpunished sin. The guilty acquitted, whichis detestable to God, so how can there be unpunished sin and God be righteous in all His ways?His righteousness is at stake here. This is where we realize God's forgiveness of our sin is athreat to His character. Illustration, 2 Samuel 12, David in the Old Testament is guilty of adultery,lying and murder. Nathan the prophet confronts him and says, "David said to Nathan" confrontshim on that. This is how David responds. "David said to Nathan, 'I have sinned against the Lord.'Nathan replied, 'The Lord has taken away your sin. You are not going to die.'" Did you hear that? Adultery, murder, lying just passed over. Is that justice?


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If there was a judge today in a courtroom who looked at an adulterer, liar and murderer and said,"Forgiven, passed over." We would have that judge off the bench in a heartbeat. That's not just.That's not right. This is where we come face to face with a common question. People ask, "Whycan't God just forgive sins? Why is the cross even necessary? Why can't God just I mean, weforgive one another. Why can't God just forgive us?" This is what Ansom was addressing. Hesaid if anybody imagines that God can simply forgive us as we forgive others, that person has notyet considered the seriousness of sin or literally what a heavy weight sin is. It's not realized thegreatness of the one we have sinned against. And how His character is at stake here in Hisresponse to sin.

John ____ said, "Forgiveness is for God the profoundest of problems." Bishop Westcott saidnothing love this quote, "Nothing superficially seems simpler than forgiveness, but nothing, if welook deeply, is more mysterious or more difficult." How can God be just and righteous and yetforgive sins, pass over sins? That's where we see before the cross is before anyone else's sake,what God is doing on the cross is for God's sake. God is displaying His justice. He isdemonstrating His righteousness. Why did Jesus die on the cross? Who did Jesus die for? Hedied for me? Certainly. Died for you? Certainly. But not ultimately. Ultimately, Christ died for God. The cross is ultimately centered around a demonstration of the character of God.Watchman Nee said, "If I would appreciate the blood of Christ, I must accept God's valuation of it,for the blood is not primarily for me, but for God." We need to hear this.

We have heard the gospel presented as God's answer to human problems, and it is that in manyways. It is that, but ultimately, the cross is God's answer to a divine problem, and this is whatdrove Jesus to the cross. The glory of God drove Jesus to the cross. Look at John 12. "Whatshall I say? Father, save me from this hour? No. It was for this very reason I came to this hour.Father, glorify your name." We say things like "YOU were on this mind when you went to thecross. I was on His mind when He went to the cross." Ladies and gentlemen, the Father Godwas on His mind when Jesus went to the cross. The glory of God drove Him there, and we'regoing to see how this affects us, but see the cross as it relates to the character of God. WhatGod is doing at the cross is He's showing us that sin is infinitely offensive. The severity of sin isput on display here. There's no room for self-exaltation of the cross. We say things today like Iwonder what Jesus saw in me that would cause him to go to the cross for me?" Jesus saw

nothing in you, nothing good in you. Nothing. There's nothing in here and nothing in the crossthat speaks to something we deserve or we earn or we should have. Nothing here about self-exaltation. This is not the the cross is not about displaying our value. The cross is all aboutdisplaying the value of God. Everything at the cross is God-exaltation. The cross is the end of self-exaltation. It's why it makes sense when we see Jesus saying things like, "Deny yourself.Take up your" what? Cross. Deny yourself. Deny yourself. The cross is completely, totally,radically about God exaltation. He shows us that sin is infinitely offensive and that God isinfinitely glorious. The cross is not a display of the finite worth of man.

The cross is not a picture of how valuable we are. The cross is a picture of how valuable God is.The cross is a display, not of the finite worth of man, but of the infinite worth of God. Now, here'sthe deal. As soon as we begin to see the cross, first and foremost as good news for God, and for the first time we begin to realize how good this news is for us, because the cross is not about

exalting us and our value. The cross is about exalting God and showing the value of the God thatwe will supremely enjoy for all of eternity, and get this. Your salvation at the cross is nowgrounded in a God who is radically committed to His glory, and he will for all of eternity, enableHis people by the cross to enjoy that glory, guaranteed. The cross is about showing us, not our value, but the value that God that we will eternally be with. God centered. Because he will betrue to His character, guaranteed.

So, how does He do that? How does He satisfy Himself and save us? How does divinesatisfaction happen second part through divine substitution? One god, starting point of 1Timothy 2, 5 and 6, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus who gave


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Himself. One mediator. This is where we begin to see the cross is not just one of about 10options God had for how to save sinners. I'm going to choose this one. This is the only way.The only way. Why? What was so significant about Christ? These words, divine substitution,what do we mean by them? God satisfies Himself by substituting Himself in the place of sinners.God made him who had no sin, to be sin for us. Instead of us.

Now, in order to get the substitution idea, we've got to consider some facets of Christ. First,consider who He is, the person of Christ. We need to see the humanity and deity of Christ, andboth of these are extremely important. I think it's to our detriment today that you will search mostevangelistic tracks and even a lot of evangelistic preaching and teaching, and you will find veryfew that talk about the full humanity and full deity of Christ. It's like we dont think it's thatimportant, but it is that important. This is what separates Christianity, the Christian gospel, NewTestament gospel from the multitude of cults that are out there today. It's what separates NewTestament gospel Christianity from Islam or Judaism. This is the picture here, humanity anddeity.

Stott said, "The possibility of substitution rests of the identity of the substitute," and by the way,I'm quoting Stott numerous times, and there's a part of the back of your notebook that hasrecommended reading, probably top book on there is The Cross of Christ by John Stott,incredible book. "The possibility of substitution rests in the identity of the substitute." Who isJesus? First, he's fully man.

Hebrews 2:17 says, He had to be made like His brothers in every way. How is He like us? Hewas born. Obviously somewhat difference from us that He was born of a virgin. Here's thepicture of the spirit conception of Christ. He was born. He possessed the full range of humancharacteristics. He had a human body. "He was wrapped in cloths at His birth. He grew andbecame strong," Luke 10. John 4, "He had a body that got tired." I mean, he'd get a little wearyat the end of a long night. Matthew 4, "He was hungry." He would get hungry. Had a stomachthat would growl like ours. This is the picture. He is fully human, human body. A human mind, itgrew in wisdom. Human mind, human soul, my heart is troubled. Jesus was troubled in spirit,John 13. Matthew 26, "Soul overwhelmed to the point of sorrow to the point of death." A humansoul. Human emotions, Matthew 8:10 talks about how Jesus was astonished when he heardsomething.

John 11:35, "He wept." Hebrews 5: 7 and 8, "He offered up prayers and petitions with loud driesand tears." He had human emotions and human observation. Pointing out there, this is acommentary, where did this man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers, in Mathew 13,isn't this the carpenter's son? Where did this man get all these things? People looked at him asa man. They saw Him as a man. They identified Him as fully man. That means He is fully ableto identify with us. He is not unlike us trying to do something for us. He is a representative of us.If He is not fully human, if He is not like us, He cannot represent us. It's about Hebrews 4:14through 16, let these words soak in. "Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has goneto the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess, for we do nothave a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who hasbeen tempted in every way, just as we are, yet is without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

Jesus is familiar with our struggles. He's familiar with our struggles. He's familiar with our sorrow. Hurting brother or sister tonight, he's familiar with your sorrow. He's familiar with our suffering. Longer I walk with Christ, it's the humanity of Jesus that brings more and more comfortto my soul.

There's a term in music called sympathetic resonance. If you had two pianos on stage up hereand you were to hit middle C on one of the pianos, that note would resound just ever so slightly inthe other piano, same note would respond to it. It reminds you when you go through difficulttimes in this life, and when your heart is broke and you're weeping and you hurt, know that thereis a man in heaven whose instrument is like yours, and when you feel that hurt, there is a


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resonance that comes from Him. He's our sympathetic resonance, what an incredible picture.Fully human.

Second, He is fully God. Fully God. C.S. Lewis said, "The doctrine of Christ's divinity seems tome, not something stuck on which you can unstick, but something that peeps out at every point,so you'd have to unravel the whole web to get rid of it." There's a lot of people who believe Jesusis fully man. Not a lot of people. A lot less people who believe He is fully God. His identity, John1:1-4, "Beginning was the word. The word was with God. He is eternal." Hebrews 1:8, "Aboutthe son he says your throne, oh God, will last forever and ever." Jesus is eternal. He's our creator. We've seen God as creator. "By Him," talking about Christ, Colossians 1:15 and 16, "ByHim all things were created," things on heaven and earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities, all things were created by Him and for Him. He's creator. He'ssustainer. You see Him being equated with God here. "In Him all things hold together." "Christholds all things together." Colossians 1:17. He's omnipotent. "He stands up and the wind andthe waves obey Him." Matthew 8. Matthew 14, "He multiplies the food." He's omniscient.

Jesus knew in His spirit this is what they were thinking in their hearts. He knew what was in aman. People said we can see that you know all things. This makes us believe that you camefrom God. He is sovereign. I put Mark 2 there where Jesus claims to have authority to forgivesins. For C.S. Lewis, this is what convinced him of the divinity of Christ. To claim to have theauthority, to be the one sinned against and then have authority to forgive sins. Then I've gotMatthew 11 there, "All things have been committed to me by my Father in the middle." Histestimony. Jesus claimed identification with his Father. "'I tell you the truth,' Jesus answered.'Before Abraham was born, I am.'" He uses this picture of "I am" in the Old Testament to identifyHimself.

"I am the father of one," John 10:30. Man's testimony of Him, Thomas said to Him, "My Lord andmy God," after he'd risen from the grave. Colossians 2:9, Paul writes, "All the fullness of thedeity lives in bodily form." Then you've got the author of Hebrews telling us that Jesus is theexact representation of the being of God. Then you've got John in Revelation showing us thispicture, "I'm the Alpha Omega, says the Lord God who was is and who was and is to come, the

Almighty." The quintilemma. In other words, five options. Number 1: - aren't you glad I didn'tleave that a blank right there? Quintilemma. Yeah. Sure. (Laughter) I was just talking about

quintilemmas today. Yeah, anyway. It's one of those moments I know you're like, "Man, youpreachers got two much time on your hands. You're making up words. That's not a word."

The quintilemma, Number 1 is Jesus a legend? Are all these writings about him phony? He's amyth that's evolved over time. We dont have time to dive into this, but there was more historicalreliability in the New Testament than in any other ancient book in history. Not just a legend. IsJesus a lama, a picture here, being an Eastern pantheistic sense, like the Dalai Lama, picture of a guru, eastern guru? So, when Jesus was claiming to be God, was He just saying, "I'm one withGod like everything is?" The only problem was is He was a Jew. That didnt fit at all with theentire worldview He was living in and representing. Third, is Jesus a liar? He said He was God.If He wasn't and He knew He wasnt, then He was a liar. Even secular scholars would claimJesus was a great man. Was He really a great man if He walked around saying identifyingHimself with the creator of the world, deceiving others in the process? Does that make one

great? Does that make one humble and meek, as he is described?Is Jesus a lunatic? Maybe He said He was God and really thought He was when He wasn't. Or if He's not a legend, Eastern guru, lama, liar, lunatic, then this is C.S. Lewis' conclusion, He is Lord.You can shut Him up for a fool. You can spit on Him and kill Him as a demon, or you can fall atHis feet and call Him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about Hisbeing a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us, and he did not intend to. Jesus isable to fully identify with God.


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Jesus is God in the same sense and the same degree as the Father. He is not any less God thanthe Father is God. He is fully able to identify with God. John 1 said, "He suffered not as God, butHe who suffered was God." Now, that doesnt make this picture simple, fully human, fully God,the person of Christ is a mysterious unit y of two natures. Got a quote there from the AthenacianCreed, a mysterious unity, not a contradiction, but a mystery. How does this come together? Iwas looking back and reading some about these natures of Christ together, and I came across

Arthur Pink and what he wrote, and this I think this clears it up.

"This important distinction calls for careful consideration by a person as meant an intelligentbeing, subsisting by himself. The second person of the trinity assumed a human nature and gaveit subsistence by union with His divine personality. It would have been a human person if it hadnot been united the Son of God, but being united to Him, it cannot be called a person because itnever subsisted by itself, as other men do, hence the force of that holy thing which shall be bornto thee. It was not possible for a divine person to assume another person subsisting of itself andto union with himself, for two persons remaining two to become one person is a contradiction."

Ahh, like that's it. Thanks for clearing that up, Arthur, like it all makes sense now.

Okay. So, we got a mysterious unity here. How does this fit together? Think about it this way.First, His human and divine nature are different. There are things He does that reveal give us apicture of human nature and things He does that reveal divine nature. There's a distinction here,in a sense. We're going to get to how they're unified, but we've got examples here. He returnedto heaven in human nature and he's present with us, divine nature. He was 30 years old and heeternally existed. Human nature, divine nature. My goal is to give you a headache in thisprocess right here.

He was third. This is a great thing. Matthew 8 sets a picture. He's tired. He's worn out, sleepingon a boat, and then he wakes up and tells the wind and the waves to obey him. Tired andomnipotent, right there together. He was born a baby, and he sustains the universe. He lost Hishuman life, and He possesses divine authority. How does this happen? This is the picture of thehuman nature and the divine nature together, yet different. Human nature and divine nature aredifferent, at the same time, it's human nature and divine nature are unified, and what I mean bythat is anything that Jesus does that shows the picture of His human nature is truly the person of Christ, in the same way, anything He does that shows His picture of the divine nature is truly the

person of Christ. When he says in John 8:58, "I tell you the truth. Jesus answered, 'Before Abraham was born, I am.'" He doesnt say, "Before Abraham was born my divine nature existed."Not what he says.

It's like if I were to write you a letter and I were to say, "I wrote you this letter," I would not say,"My fingers wrote you this letter, but my toes had nothing to do with it." I would not say that.

Anything my fingers are doing are representative of me doing it. So, that's the picture, and whenwe look at a picture Paul writes, "What I received I passed on to you, of first important, that Christdied for our sins according to the scripture." Did God die? Did God die on a cross? The pictureis certainly in His human nature, Jesus died. His divine nature, though, sustaining the entireuniverse, cannot die. Divine nature, it's dead, then how can things continue to exist? The divinenature's not there, we're not there.

So, the picture is would it be right to say, did God die on the cross? Yes and no in the sensethat Jesus in His person died? Yes, but his divine nature did not die. Different but unified. WhenHe says, "I come from the father and enter the world. Now I'm leaving the world and going backto the Father," and then He says, "I'm going to be with you always." So, when it comes to theperson of Christ on the cross, this is not Jesus alone as if He had no divine nature. It's not Godalone as if He had no human nature, but the one on the cross is God and Christ. Not God alone,not man alone, but God in Christ, fully God, fully man, displayed wonderfully in Colossians 1:19-20, "God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him and through Him to reconcile toHimself all things, whether the things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through His


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blood shed on the cross." That's the person of Christ, fully able to identify with us, fully able toidentify with God, fully human, fully God. That's His person. What about his purpose?

He came with a purpose to seek and save what was lost. Jesus came, divide that up into twopictures. He came to live a sinless life, to live a sinless life. He came to live the life that we couldnot live. See it listed there, John 18:38, I find no basis for charge against him. Hebrews 4:5, "Hewas without sin." 1 Peter 1, "A lamb without blemish or defect." 1 John 3, "In Him is no sin." Hewas obedient, perfectly obedient to God.

This is important. It's important because, obviously Jesus didnt come and give His life for us ona cross as a child. He was obedient. He demonstrated obedience to the law of God, fulfillment of the law of God in His obedience. John 15:10, "I have obeyed my Father's commands." He wasobedient, and his obedience is necessary for our salvation, and He was righteous, is righteous.We need, in order to be reconciled to God, we dont need to just be rid of sin. We need to beclothed in righteousness. So, it's necessary for Christ to be righteous, and you see these versesthat show us that picture. So, we came to live a sinless life, obedient and righteous, and Hecame to die a substitutionary death. This was the purpose of Him coming. You look at every oneof the gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, and you will see in different ways this picture thatthe fact of the cross was not an accident. This is why Jesus came. Mark 8, 9, 10 back to back toback, Jesus is giving us pictures of where he is going. Luke is showing us how this is going toJerusalem. John constantly talks about the hour that is to come. It's not time.

There were times when they wanted to stone Jesus or wanted to throw Jesus of a cliff, and thepicture is walk right through them. It was not time. He came to die a very purposeful death at anexact time. Substitutionary death, what does that mean? It means that He assumed our identity.Think about this with me. What is the payment for sin? Death. Well, if Jesus is obedient andrighteous, then he has no payment to pay. He does not deserve death. So, if He were to die, itwould not be because of Himself, it would be because He is dying on another's behalf. He isassuming our identity, that he might make, Hebrews 2 says, "Atonement for the sins of thepeople," and the picture is He died and the keywords here in the place of the disobedient. Hedied in the place of the unrighteous.

You've got verses listed there, John 11, Romans 5 and on in to 2 Corinthians and Galatians, and

what you see is this little, three-letter word, for, mentioned over and over and over again. Oneman would die for the people, Caiaphas said, in Romans 5 you see it over and over again. "Justthe right time, while we were still powerless, Christ died." circle it there. "For the ungodly rarelywill anyone die; for righteous man, though, for a good man someone might possibly dare to die,but God demonstrates His own love for us in this. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."Now, this word it's two prepositions in the New Testament that are used in these passages, canmean on behalf of, instead of. The picture is, and it's really summed up well in 2 Corinthians 5here, "Christ compels us because we are convinced that one died for all and, therefore, all died.In one dying, all died." That's a representative. It's a substitute. He is doing something not juston behalf of, but instead of, in the place of, as a representative for all these others.

You look at Galatians 3, "Christ redeemed us" look at this passage later "from the curse of alaw becoming a curse for us. Instead of us, He took the curse." He Himself bore our sins in His

body on the tree so that we might die to sins, by his wounds, you have been healed.So, he assumed our identity, and as a result, he accomplished our salvation so that Paul wouldsay, "I have been crucified with Christ." There's a unity here, and in His assuming our identity,He is accomplishing our salvation. He loved me and gave Himself for me on my behalf, insteadof me, as my representative. That's how God is reconciling us to himself.

Colossians 1, so here we come back to the divine dilemma, and here is how it is solved. Divinesatisfaction, now look at the cross. Bring everything we talked about when it comes tosatisfaction through substitution, bring it all together. Divine satisfaction, the totality of God's


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character is expressed at the cross. We see the full picture of His justice and His wrath and Hisholiness and His love and His mercy. Here I put Psalm 85 in the back of 3, we've got this pictureof love and faithfulness meeting together and wrath remembering mercy. They're all converging,all of the attributes of God converging right here at the cross, the totality of God's character isexpressed at the cross, divine substitution, salvation through God's son is achieved. The uniqueson, fully god and fully human.

Think about it, the essence of sin, man substitutes himself for God. Man asserts himself againstGod and puts himself where only God deserves to be. That's the essence of sin. What issalvation? The essence of salvation, God substitutes himself for man. God in Christ sacrificesHimself for man and puts Himself where only man deserves to be. This is what 2 Corinthians5:21 is all about. God made Him who had no sin, to be sin for us. Instead of us, on our behalf sothat in Him, we might become the righteousness of God.

There is nothing greater than this. He lived the life we could not live. He died the death we didnot want to die. In our place. He substituted Himself, and at he cross, God does these things.He expresses his judgment on sin. See the beauty of the cross here. At the cross, Godexpresses His judgment on sin. At the same time, god endures His judgment against sin. Heexpresses judgment on sin and endures judgment against sin. That can only happen throughsubstitution and at the cross, God enables salvation for sinners. Christ, the god man, is the onlypossible substitute that brings satisfaction to the glory of God and salvation to the sons of man.That's the picture that's being displayed here. Let me show it to you.

Isaiah 53, if you've got a Bible, go with me to Isaiah Chapter 53, Isaiah Chapter 53. This is theprophecy, written 700 years, spoken 700 years before Christ went to the cross. Listen to what itsays. I want to show you here, satisfaction through substitution. Chapter 53, Verse 1, "Who isbelieved our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? He grew up beforehim like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground, He had no beauty or majesty to attractus to Him, nothing in His appearance that we should desire Him. He was despised and rejectedby men, a man of sorrows and familiar with suffering, like one from whom men hide their faces,He was despised and we esteemed Him not. Surely, he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows. Yet we considered Him stricken by God, smitten by Him and afflicted, but he waspierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities, the punishment that brought us

peace, was upon Him, and by His wounds, we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray.Each of us has turned to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He wasoppressed and afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter,and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open His mouth. By oppression and

judgment He was taken away, and who can speak of his decedents, for He was cut off from theland of the living. For the transgression of my people, He was stricken. He was assigned a gravewith the wicked, and with the rich in His death, though He had done no violence nor any deceit inHis mouth, yet it was the Lord's will to crush Him and cause Him to suffer. As the Lord makes Hislife a guilt offering, He will see His offspring and prolong His days, and the will of the Lord willprosper in His hand. After the suffering of His soul, He will see the light of life and be satisfied byhis knowledge, my righteous servant will justify many, and He will bear their iniquities. Therefore,I will give Him a portion among the great, and He will divide the spoils with the strong because Hepoured out His life into death and was numbered with the transgressors, for He bore the sin of

many and made intercession for the transgressors."That is one beautiful chapter of scripture. What we see here, same truths we see, and this is animportant passage, eight of these 12 verses are attributed directly to Jesus in the NewTestament, 8 of those 12 verses. Verse 1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 twice and verse 11. Eight out of those 12verses. It's quoted seven times in the New Testament. Seven different times, and you can seethe parallels I just listed them for you there. Quoted seven different times, but here's the picture.Kind of go past all those verses, and I want you to think about all that we've seen in this pointdisplayed in this one chapter of scripture, insightful passage.


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Number one, see the person of Christ. This passage shows us that in his humanity, He is familiar with suffering. Verse 3: He was despised and rejected by man, a man of sorrows and familiar with suffering. Jesus is not a savior with flowing hair and impeccable features who is alwaysclean and everything looks nice and he's got a little crown around his head at any moment. Hehad nothing in His appearance to attract us to Him. Familiar with sorry, familiar with suffering, likeus His humanity, His deity free from sin. He had no done no violence, nor was any deceit in Hismouth. Sinless and righteous, just like we just saw, the person of Christ. The sinfulness of man,what we've looked at. Verses 4 through 6, 8 and 12, we see our sins all over this passage, andthat leads us to the substitution of God. Verses 4 through 6, you can circle every time we see thepicture, surely He took up our infirmities. Whose infirmities were put on Him? Ours were.Whose sorrows put on Him? Ours. Pierces for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities. ByHis wounds we are healed.

The Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. It's all put on Him as our substitute. Over andover and over again we see this, substitution of God. Satisfaction of God, who sent Jesus to thecross? Whose will was it to crush Jesus on the cross? It was the Father's will. It was the Lord'swill to crush Him, verse 10.

Jews, nor the Romans, were ultimately responsible for the death of Christ. God the Father wasultimately responsible for the death of Christ. It was the Lord's will to crush Him. God,substitution of God, satisfaction of God leading to the salvation of men in Verse 11, after thesuffering of His soul, He will see the light of life and be satisfied. By His knowledge, my righteousservant will justify many, and He will bear their iniquities. The way we are justified is because of the satisfaction and substitution of God that leads to our salvation, so this is the picture.

If we were to imagine that the cross as an infinitely precious diamond, at the core of thatdiamond, I want to invite you to see, look into it and see satisfaction through substitution. Godglorifying Himself by substituting Himself on a cross. And based on that picture, here's what Iwant us to do. I want us to go to the passion narrative, four scenes, and tilt this diamond a littlethis wy and see the light just shine from it. Then we'll tilt it a little another way in the Garden of Gethsemane and see the light shine, and then we'll go to the cross and see Jesus crying out, "MyGod, my God, why have you forsaken me?" and we'll see it shine, and then we'll look at thatdeclaration of triumph, "It is finished," and from these four angels, to see this glorious picture of

satisfaction through substitution just come alive. Journey to the cross. That's where we're going.Those four different scenes.

What does it mean, 1 Timothy 2:5, this is where we're focusing here, as a ransom? last Supper,Garden of Gethsemane, cry of dereliction, declaration of triumph. Let's dive right into the lastSupper. We're going to do our best to fly through this. We're not going to dive into all of thesepassages in depth because there's a lot, especially in this section right here, but you know Jesushaving the Passover meal, was the time of the Passover, there in Matthew 26.

What I want to do in each of these scenes that we're going to look at sorry, just had a flashbackto me waving this thing around, and it's not pretty. Three components of each of these scenesthat I want us to think about. I want us to think about a theme, the key text to help us understandthat and the key truth. So, the key theme here in the Last Supper is sacrifice. Basically we're

going to look at four key themes based on these four events, sacrifice, and the key truth here isthat Jesus died our death. Again, feel the substitution there. He died our death as arepresentative for us, instead of us dying, He died.

The key text that we're going to run through as best as we CA, Exodus 12, Exodus 24, Leviticus16, and then in 1 Corinthians 11 is Paul's description of the Lord's Supper and the NewTestament epistles. Sacrifice, Jesus died our death. Here's the reality the scripture teachers: Wedeserve to die for our sin. God made this very clear in Genesis 2, "When you eat of the tree, fruitfrom the tree, you will surely die." Romans 6:23, "The wages of sin is death." We deserve to die


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for our sin. On the cross, Jesus sacrificed himself and died in our place. He gave Himself up for us. He sacrificed Himself.

Hebrews 9:26, now you know the picture of sacrifice goes all the way back to the Old Testamentand all the way back to even I mentioned Exodus 12 there, but even go back to Genesis 22,patriarchs, ever since before that you've got a picture of Cain and Abel sacrifice being offered toGod and man's sin. Even in Genesis 3 you've got Adam and Eve, as soon as they sin, an animalis sacrificed to provide covering for them.

So, what you've got is sacrifice from the very beginning of scripture, a dominant theme, andyou've got substitutionary sacrifice in Genesis 22, remember. Abraham and his son, participationpart of our program, Abraham's son, Isaac. Isaac God says, "Abraham, take Isaac up on MountMoriah and sacrifice your son." What's the point here? Why does God tell Abraham to do that?

Abraham in obedience takes his son up and raises the knife above him. At that moment, Godintervenes and He says, "No, do not kill your son. Instead, I provide a ram in the thicket. Youtake the ram, and you sacrifice the ram instead of your son." Substitution. Sacrifice. Genesis22, from the very beginning.

If you were an Israelite listening to that story as it's passed down, you identify yourself with Isaac.Isaac is the lineage of Abraham. The son of Abraham, the promised line of Abraham. If Isaac isgone, the line of Abraham is gone. That's tension. The climax there in the story as the knife israised over, the lineage of the people of God, and God says, "I will preserve my people byproviding a sacrifice for them." That's the picture in Genesis 22, and then go to Exodus 12, andgo and turn actually, I've got most of he scriptures mentioned here, so you dont have to turnthere. The picture of the Passover, and I put Matthew 26 and John 19 very intentionally herebecause the week of Jesus' crucifixion was the week of the Passover. John there's a little bit of discrepancy when you compare the synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke, with John, butJohn's intention will show us, in John 19:14 it was the day of preparation of Passover, about thesixth hour. So, John is intent to show us that time Jesus is being sacrificed at the cross is thetime of the sacrifice of the Passover.

Old Testament and what we've got in Exodus Chapter 12, you remember God's people wereslaves in Egypt, nine different plagues demonstrating His glory to the people of Egypt and

Pharaoh and the Egyptians not getting it. So, the tenth plague comes, and what happens is Godsays I'm going to go throughout Egypt, and I'm going to go to every home, Egyptian home andIsraelite home, and I am going to strike down the firstborn son in every home. I will pass over your home if you take a lamb without blemish, you bring it into your home for a few days, andthen you sacrifice it, and you take the blood of that lamb, and you put it over the door post of your home, and when I see the blood over the door post of your home, I will pass over. That's thepicture in Exodus 12. It's a picture that is celebrated every single year after that in the Passover.

So, what are we seeing about God in this picture? Three pictures of God. He is the almighty judge. He says in Exodus 12:12, "I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord."He's the judge. He's the gracious savior. He will save these homes, and he's the faithfulprovider. I will provide a way out. I will provide you with a lamb, and you will take the blood of thelamb and put it over your doorpost, and you will commemorate my faithfulness to you because I

will do what I've promised and deliver you out of slavery in Egypt. There's two acts of deliverancethat are going on here. Number 1 is deliverance from the rulers of Egypt. They've been slavesthere for hundreds of years. They're being delivered out of that. God has heard their cries, seentheir suffering, is delivering them out from the rulers of Egypt, but not just out of slavery. Their deliverance from the judgment of God. This is what's interesting.

When you look at the other plagues, they were those plagues that God just brought on theseEgyptians. He's bringing this judgment on Egyptian and Israelite alike. It doesnt matter who youare, if you dont have blood over your doorpost, then the firstborn son is being struck down, andso they're being delivered from the rulers of Egypt and the judgment of God here in Exodus


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Chapter 12, and the decisive element if the blood of a substitute sacrifice, a spotless lamb. Takethis lamb and put the blood of the lamb over your doorpost. That's the picture in the OldTestament, and it sets the stage for this Passover celebration in the New Testament as Jesus sitsdown and has the Last Supper with his disciples in the New Testament, on the cross, God isgoing to reveal Himself in the same way, as the almighty judge. We've talked about this. He'sgoing to demonstrate his justice as the gracious savior, as the one who sent the son to be thesavior of the world. He is going to provide a way out, faithful provider. Same picture we see of God in the Old Testament, a pre-representation of what is to come in the New Testament. On thecross, God delivers us from the power of sin. No longer slaves to sin, Romans 6, and our slaveryto sin, what happens at the cross is we're delivered out of that slavery and not just he power of sin, but the penalty of sin. We're delivered from the wrathful judgment of God due sin, and all of that happens because of one element: the blood of a substitute sacrifice, the Lamb of God.

This is where it's really interesting. Your see in Exodus 12 that in the Passover, the food must beeaten in one house, take none of the meat outside of the house. Do not break any of the bonesof the lamb. That is why John is intentional to show us these things happen so the scripturewould be fulfilled, not one of His bones will be broken. That's why when we take the Lord'sSupper we dont say this is my Jesus said this is my body broken for you. It's my body given for you; it's an intentional picture here. John is identifying Christ with the Passover lamb and theintroduction to Christ in the book of John with John the Baptist's words, "Look, the lamb of Godwho takes away the sin of the world." 1 Corinthians 5:7, "Christ is our Passover lamb." Moveforward to Mount Sinai, Exodus Chapter 19, and what happens in Exodus 19 through 24 and 25is God enters into covenant with His people. When Jesus says in Matthew 26, "The last supper drink from it, this is the blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins," what he's doing is he's harkening back to this picture in the old covenant, mosaic covenant.What happened? Overview, Exodus 19, God brings his people to Mount Sinai, and he says tothem at Mount Sinai I don't think I have I do have this verse in here, in Exodus 19:12 he givesthem this command, He says, "Stay back in fear. Stay back in fear. You put limits for the peoplearound the mountain and tell them be careful. You dont go up to the mountain and touch the footof it. Whoever touches the mountain shall surely be put to death." God is going to reveal Hisglory, and the picture is in Exodus 19, God reveals his glory on that mountain, the wholemountain starts shaking. There's smoke going up everywhere. It's an intense scene, andeverybody's sitting back afraid to go anywhere near it because God has said dont go near it.

What happens in Exodus 20, He gives His people the Ten Commandments. In the chapters tocome, he gives some other laws, rules, regulations. He's entering into covenant with them, untilyou get to Exodus 24, and what we see is God it's like a marriage relationship. You can almostpicture it, entering into covenant like a wedding, but God is entering into covenant with his people,the Mosaic Covenant, and he's promising to bless them and to be faithful to them and be withthem. It's inaugurated with blood.

Old covenant people, in need of the blood of a sacrifice. Moses took the blood, sprinkled it on thepeople and said, "This is the blood of the covenant the Lord has made with you, in accordancewith all these words." Those people were in need of a blood of a sacrifice, but because they hadsin and because they were unable to obey the law. What happens when the covenant takesplace, it is the people respond and say, "We'll do everything the Lord has said. We'll obey."Exodus 24:7, but then I've listed all throughout the Old Testament we see the people of God

turning their backs on God, turning from the covenant with God.So, we come in Jeremiah 31 to the old Covenant promise, "Time is coming, declares the Lord,"that's what Jeremiah tells us. "When I will make a new covenant with the House of Israel and theHouse of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers, when I took them bythe hand to lead them out of Egypt, for they broke my covenant, though I was husband to them.This is the covenant I will make with the House of Israel after that time. I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their god, and they will be my people. No longer will aman teach his neighbor or a man his brother saying, 'know the Lord,' because they will all knowme. From the least of me to the greatest, declares the Lord, for I will forgive their wickedness and


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will remember their sins no more." That's what was promised. This is a new covenant that iscoming, and what we see in Christ is that new covenant inaugurated, new covenant fulfillment.

Spirit testifies about this. "This is a covenant I will make with him after that time, says the Lord."This is Hebrews 10, giving us a picture. "I will put my laws in their hearts, write them on their minds." It's exactly what Jeremiah had said. "Their sins and lawless acts I will remember nomore." How? New covenant people. Old covenant people in need of the blood of sacrifice. Newcovenant people, forgiven by the blood of a sacrifice, forgiven by the blood of a sacrifice.

Old covenant people, unable to obey the law. New covenant people, enabled to obey the law.Christ is covered over their sins, and he dwells in them, and he changes them from the inside out.The new covenant invitation, remember old covenant, stay away from the presence of God. Styback in fear. New covenant invitation, draw near in faith.

Brothers and sisters, we have this confidence to enter the throne of the most holy place, mostholy God and we can go there any time we want because the blood of a new covenant. That'swhat Hebrews 10 is all about. Now, Exodus sets up the picture of Leviticus. We're just runningthrough Old Testament history here. Exodus sets up the picture of Leviticus because in acovenant, God said I'm going to dwell with you and I'm going to live with you, but how can a holygod dwell with a sinful people, and Leviticus answers that question by saying via sacrifice. Theremust be sacrifices to atone for sins. Part of Leviticus, Leviticus 16, once a day, the Day of

Atonement, the Day of Atonement in Leviticus Chapter 16. What we have is a lasting ordinance,on the tenth day of the seventh month, you must deny yourselves, not do any work, whether native born or an alien living among you because on this day, atonement will be made for you tocleanse you. Before the Lord, you will then be clean from all your sins.

So, here's what happened. In the Old Testament what we have is an old covenant provision, anannual sacrifice on the Day of Atonement. Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. Once a year what would happen is a priest would go into what you had was God dwelling among his peopleand through in the Tabernacle, and the way this whole picture worked was you had an outer chord and inner chord, and basically, the very core center was the Holy of Holies, and the Holy of Holies you had the law, and this was spelled out in Exodus 25. You had the law of the covenantGod had made with his people, and over it you had the atonement cover or the mercy seat. You

had this picture of God dwelling among his people.

Obviously, God is everywhere, he's omnipresent, but in a special way, His glory is dwellingamong His people. Center ultimate picture among His people is in that Holy of Holies. So, oncea year on the Day of Atonement a priest goes into the Holy of Holies, the priest entering anearthly sanctuary. The priest would wash himself. This is where we remember. If the priesttreated this lightly like Aaron's sons earlier in Leviticus, you get struck down. So, a priest entersthat place, and it's intense. History tells us, scripture tells us the priest would have bells sewninto the hem of his garment so that when he went into the most holy place, you could hear himmoving around, and if the bells stopped singing, you knew he had stopped moving. They history tells us they'd put a rope around his leg that would reach to outside so that if he went intothe Holy of Holies and was struck down, they would be able to pull him out.

Can you imagine the intensity of that scene, sitting outside the presence of the dwelling of Godwith His people, and you're listening intently in silence for these little bells because a man isgoing to meet with God? He comes out and everybody breathes a sigh of relief. Priest enteringan earthly sanctuary. What he would do is the priest would go in, and he would take the blood of an animal and he would do this twice. He'd do it once to atone for his own sins, and then he'd doit to atone for the people's sins, and he would sprinkle blood over the atonement cover so thatwhen the presence of God looked down and saw His law that had been broken, instead of seeinga broken law that resulted in condemnation of his people, He would see that that had beensatisfied in the blood of another, and the blood of the sacrifice sprinkled over was a substitute for the people's sin, would atone for their sins. Blood of a spotless animal, and it was a sacrifice that


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would need repeating. It was a sacrifice that would need repeating because they would do itevery year, year after year after year. They would do it over and over and over and over again.The effect was old covenant effect, a reminder of all our sin. Hebrews 10 tells us, "This is areminder over and over again for the people of God that they needed the blood of another toatone for their sins."

So, you come into the New Testament. We dont have an annual sacrifice on the Day of Atonement. Instead, New Testament provision, we have an abiding sacrifice in the death of Christ. We have been made holy through the sacrifice of the boy of Jesus Christ once for all.Here's the new covenant elements. A priest entering, not an earthly sanctuary, but a heavenlysanctuary. Jesus did not enter into some place that symbolized the glory of God dwelling with hispeople. He entered into the very throne room of God in the presence of God, heavenlysanctuary, not a copy of the true one, Hebrews 9 says, "He appeared for us in God's presence,the blood not of an animal, but he blood of a sinless man. He didnt offer the blood of another."Dont miss this. Jesus offered his own blood on the atonement cover so that when God theFather looks at your life and my life, and he sees his love broken and your life and my life, insteadof pouring out His judgment on us, He sees the blood of another. He sees the blood has beenoffered on our behalf, and that's why Hebrews 10 says, "Our hearts have been sprinkled with hisblood, and we are free from a guilty conscience, purified. We are able to enter into the throneroom of God, and that's a sacrifice that will last forever."

New covenant effect: the removal of all our sin and what Jeremiah prophesied is true. Brothersand sisters, when you trust in the blood of Christ, he remembers your sins no more. You say Idon't know what I did last week; you dont know how awful that was that I did. You are notcondemned for that. You are not guilty. By the blood of Christ you are not guilty. Sacrifice. Thisis the picture in the Last Supper, Jesus died our death. So, when we see in Matthew chapter 26Him saying, "Take and eat, this is my body, drink from this cup; this is my blood," the picture is of a sacrifice. Remember the Passover. We are delivered by His blood. Remember the covenant.We are sealed by His blood; His relationship with us sealed by the blood of Christ, and remember the Day of Atonement. We are covered by His blood.

If you got a Bible, let me invite you to turn with me to Matthew chapter 26. Matthew 26. Whatwere going to do is were going to take three more steps in the passion narrative. Weve started

with the last supper and now were going to go to the garden. And then well go to the cross andsee two glimpses of the cross. The cry of dereliction, My God, my God, why have you forsakenme. And the cry, or declaration of triumph, It is finished.

So Matthew chapter 26, verse 36. I want us to read this one together. Sinclair Ferguson said,The Garden of Gethsemane is one of the most sacred and solemn scenes in the entire bible.One of the most sacred and solemn scenes in the entire Bible. Matthew 26:36 Then Jesus wentwith his disciples to a place called Gethsemane. And he said to them, Sit here while I go over there and pray. He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him and he began t

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