Why Did Jesus Have To Die?

[0:00] Many, many times over the years is that there is this book called the Sinai Bible, and in that book there is no crucifixion of Jesus, nor is there a resurrection from the dead of Jesus.

[0:18] And so somebody who knew what they were talking about, was familiar with these things, Wes Huff, just asked some questions. Well, tell me more about that.

[0:28] What is this Sinai Bible that you're talking about? Is it this document called the Codex Sinaiticus? Is that what you're talking about?

[0:39] And it turns out, yes. And that's the copy of the Greek Bible that we talked about last week that is one of the oldest that we have.

[0:49] It's a full copy of the Bible that we have, excuse me, the New Testament of the Bible that we have today. And it's just a few hundred years, a couple hundred years after the events took place.

[1:04] A full copy of the Bible. And guess what's in there? Exactly what's in our Bible today, including Jesus dying and rising from the dead.

[1:15] And so it turns out this guy has no idea what he's talking about, and he's been popular enough to be on all kinds of mostly secular podcasts, kind of promoting these, marketing these false ideas.

[1:27] But the latest is there's the number one podcast in the country. Does anybody know what that is? Joe Rogan. Yeah. And I've seen clips of Joe Rogan, you know, kind of listener beware.

[1:42] He's the kind of person that would make a sailor blush, if you know what I mean. But he decided to have Wesley Huff on his podcast.

[1:54] One reason is because he's had the other guy, Billy Carson, on his podcast in the past. And it was tremendous to have a three-hour interview in which a Christian was able, on one of the biggest platforms in the world, able to give a defense for the Bible that we have.

[2:14] And Joe Rogan was actually quite attentive and persuaded, it seems. Not necessarily to believe the gospel itself, but that, hey, there's actually credible evidence for all of these things.

[2:33] So just an interesting thing. I shared the video in our email. By the way, if you don't get that email, let me know, and we can add you to the email list. Probably this week I'll do the follow-up. There's a short video that shows clips of Wes Huff and Joe Rogan, bleeps out some of the colorful language, and gives a brief summary in maybe 15 minutes.

[2:53] To make it easier to consume. But I just thought I'd share that. That was a neat thing that's been happening over the last... There's kind of a wave, it seems to me, in America at least, where there's been all this kind of like woke, anti-Christian culture, and people are seeing how empty it is.

[3:12] And people are starting to look. Maybe there is actually something to this Christianity thing. There's more of a solid ground to the Bible and Christian teachings.

[3:26] All right, you ready to... We're finished with Mark, so what are we doing today? We finished kind of last week with Mark. Today I wanted to focus in on the...

[3:40] What Jesus accomplished on the cross. And ask this question, Why did Jesus have to die? And, you know, the primary claim of Christianity, really the foundation of Christianity, is that Jesus died for our sins.

[4:04] Jesus died for our sins. But the question is, why? Why did he need to do that? And what specifically was accomplished when he died for our sins?

[4:21] And so what we're going to do is we're going to discuss several theories. In fact, I'm sorry, I should have done this earlier. Could I have my kids pass out the sheet, little half sheet? We're going to talk about some theories that have been promoted over the centuries, from the very beginning of the church until now.

[4:42] And look at them kind of one by one. And look at, well, what does the Bible say? Like I said, Jesus died for our sins.

[4:56] And we call the work that he did, we call it the atonement. That's the word that we use. Atonement is a word mostly used in the Old Testament.

[5:08] Some translations will use it in the New Testament. But just in a couple of different places. Other translations don't use that word atonement at all in the New Testament anyway. But it has become a common word that we use to describe what Jesus accomplished on the cross.

[5:24] The word atonement is actually, it gets its roots back to some early English, Anglo-Saxon English. And you can parse it out as atonement.

[5:39] God did something to unify us, to reconcile us back to God. And so it has to do with reconciliation. If you look at the Old Testament usage of that word, there's actually a feast that the Jews celebrate called the Day of Atonement.

[6:02] And there's a passage in Leviticus that describes, in a brief way, what that atonement is. And it's this in Leviticus 16.30.

[6:13] And it says this, So this atonement is something that is accomplished in order to cleanse or to purge.

[6:36] And the final purpose of all that is reconciliation. You know, of all the religions in the world, there are similarities.

[6:51] Good and evil, sin, rewards and punishment, forgiveness. But Christianity is the only religion to have an atonement like we have.

[7:11] Where the God of Christianity dies for the people. That there is a Savior.

[7:22] And really, without that atonement, without that crucifixion on the cross, and resurrection from the dead, Christianity is empty.

[7:37] It has no value to it. The atonement is at the center of Christianity. But the question is, why is an atonement needed?

[7:49] Why was it needed? The Bible indicates pretty clearly that the atonement was absolutely necessary in order for God to redeem mankind, to provide salvation for mankind.

[8:06] And it even seems that it wasn't one of many possible solutions. It seems, from the biblical record, that it was the only possible solution.

[8:17] You remember as we were going through Mark 14, Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, and his prayer. And here's what he prayed. This is Mark 14, verse 35.

[8:30] It says, He went a little further, and he fell on the ground, and he prayed that if it were possible, the hour might pass from him. And he said, Abba, Father, all things are possible for you.

[8:42] Take this cup away from me. Nevertheless, not what I will, but what you will. And so he said, hey, if there's another possibility, another way that we could redeem mankind, let's consider that.

[9:00] But ultimately, there was no other way. So let's look at some of these theories that we find throughout history. If you look at your sheet, you can use that as a reference.

[9:13] I order these generally kind of by where we find them, kind of crop up throughout history. These theories attempt to explain one of two things, or both.

[9:28] The question, well, why did Jesus die? And then the other one is what was accomplished by his death. The first one is popularly known as Christus Victor.

[9:41] You know, theologians like to use big words and, you know, use Greek and Latin and that kind of thing. What in the world does that mean? You can probably guess, right, because of the similarity of these words with our English.

[9:55] But Christus is Christ and Victor is, has to do with victory. And so, this idea of what the atonement accomplished says that Christ's death and his resurrection performed a victory and a victory over what or whom?

[10:13] A victory over Satan, over sin and over death and it secured a victory for humanity, for mankind. This is something that was a theme in the early Christian church.

[10:30] As we go through these, what I'd like to point out is that basically all of these different theories, these views, have some semblance of truth to them. I think there, there are also some concerns with some of them, a lot of the times, in the things they omit.

[10:48] We're going to talk through that. But, let's look at what the Bible says. Turn, open up your Bible to Colossians chapter 2, verse 15. Colossians 2, 15.

[11:01] We'll look at two different passages that point to this idea that Christ for us gave us a victory.

[11:14] Colossians 2, 15 says this, Having disarmed principalities and powers, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.

[11:28] That describes a victory. Jesus gained a victory over what? He doesn't say Satan here, but Satan, I think, is assumed, right? Principalities and powers is talking about the kingdom of Satan, the powers of the kingdom of darkness.

[11:47] Another passage, you can turn to 1 John 3, 8. 1 John 3, 8, that's almost to Revelation towards the end of your Bible.

[12:00] But it says this in 1 John 3, 8, He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning.

[12:13] He's talking about what kind of character the devil is. If you sin, you're kind of acting like the devil. And so, because the devil has been a sinner from the very, very beginning.

[12:23] But then it continues this way, for this purpose, the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil. Right?

[12:35] And so, both of these passages, I think, point to the truth here, that there is a battle in the world, in the universe, between good and evil.

[12:47] God on the side of good. Satan, not necessarily the leader, but maybe more the figurehead of evil in the world. Satan is a real and true foe, just as death and sin are foes.

[13:05] And through the cross, through the atonement, Jesus did triumph over Satan. But here's kind of a criticism of this view.

[13:16] It's just too general, too generic. generic. And it also fails to emphasize some very important things. And the biggest one of those things is really the guilt of humanity.

[13:30] Why does Satan have power over mankind? Is it because he gathered us all into a prison against our wills? We were trying to do our best and live for the Lord and then Satan just captured us.

[13:44] Is that what happened? Not at all. Satan has dominion over the world and over us. In fact, Jesus himself called Satan the prince of this age.

[13:58] But why? How was he given that power? It was because of our sin, because of the sin of mankind. And it also lacks any kind of explanation about how Jesus' death accomplished or gained that victory?

[14:16] How did that actually happen? So that's Christus Victor. The next one down on your list, and just so I have a reference, Caleb, could you bring one of those up for me? It's called the ransom theory.

[14:31] And the ransom theory provides a little bit more detail. Thank you. But it says this, that Christ's death was a ransom paid to free humanity from bondage to Satan, liberating us from sin and death.

[14:49] Many of the early church fathers had this view, and this adds kind of a new line of reasoning to the atonement, that there was some kind of transaction that happened.

[15:07] there was a transaction of a purchasing sort. And so Jesus gave his life as a ransom, but the ransom was paid to who?

[15:22] Here, it's taught that it's paid to Satan. We were captured by Satan, and a ransom was paid so that we could be set free. Now, there are some passages that speak to a ransom, so turn to Mark chapter 10.

[15:42] Mark chapter 10. Depending on time, we might move through some of these verses a little bit more quickly, but I figured I'd do the best we can to try to get our eyes on these verses.

[15:57] Mark chapter 10, verse 45, this is something that Jesus himself says, for even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.

[16:15] There's that word. Jesus, his life was a purchase price for mankind. The next, there's another passage in 1 Timothy chapter 2, verse 5.

[16:31] I won't have you turn to that one just for the sake of time. You can if you'd like, but 1 Timothy 2, verse 5 says this, for there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Jesus Christ, who gave himself a ransom for all to be testified in due time.

[16:52] There Paul says in his letter to Timothy that God gave his life as a ransom for many. Now, it doesn't say in these verses who the ransom was paid to though, right?

[17:09] Now, there is another passage, this is in Colossians, where it mentions that we were delivered from the power of Satan. This actually goes back to the Christus victor.

[17:21] Colossians 1, verse 13. Colossians 1, 13. It says this, he has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of his love.

[17:36] So, we were under the power of darkness, but we were rescued, we were delivered from that power because of what Jesus accomplished for us.

[17:50] So, that's, I think that's better. I think that's getting closer to what the Bible teaches as what is accomplished. There was a ransom paid. But what are some of the criticisms here?

[18:03] I think it's a mistake to say or to teach that the ransom was paid to the devil, to Satan, as if he really had the clout or the power or was that much in charge.

[18:20] Maybe I'll say that. here's what, here's some passages that point to what the payment or who the payment was paid to.

[18:33] Turn to Ephesians chapter 5 verse 2. Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 2. It says this, and walk in love as Christ also has loved us and given himself for us.

[18:58] Remember, he is the purchased price, an offering and a sacrifice to who? To God. Did it say to Satan?

[19:09] Was he given as an offering to Satan or a sacrifice to Satan? No. To God for a sweet-smelling aroma. Next, turn to Hebrews chapter 9.

[19:21] Hebrews chapter 9 talks about this in depth, about what exactly was accomplished through Jesus' death and the shedding of his blood.

[19:33] Hebrews chapter 9 9. It's closer to the end of the New Testament. You'll find it. Hebrews chapter 9 verse 11 says this, but Christ came as high priest of the good things to come with a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is, not of this creation.

[19:58] So the big context here is that the writer of Hebrews is comparing what Jesus accomplished as a high priest and comparing it to what the law had the Jews do through their priesthood and their tabernacle and their sacrifices and their offerings.

[20:19] The one, the Jewish system, the Jewish law, the sacrificial system, was a type and a shadow pointing to something future that Jesus would accomplish in reality.

[20:31] So that's the big picture context. Verse 12, not with the blood of goats and calves, so unlike the sacrifices that the Jews did with animals, but with his own blood, he entered the most holy place once and for all, having obtained eternal redemption.

[20:55] So Jesus offered his blood as the purchase price, excuse me, the purchase price. And where did he do that? In the most holy place, the holy of holies.

[21:06] Now, did Jesus go into the tabernacle at the time to do that? No, let's keep reading. For if the blood of bulls and goats and of the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit, offered himself without spot to, who?

[21:31] to God. Cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God. And then just for a little bit of extra context, go down to verse 24, Hebrews 9, 24, that says this, for Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands.

[21:50] He didn't enter the actual physical temple in Jerusalem, which are copies of the true, but he entered into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us.

[22:05] Jesus came and, you know, this, I'm sure, is metaphorical, but Jesus, he delivered his blood, which represented something, it represented his life and his death, and he went to heaven to offer it to God.

[22:25] This is a sacrifice offered to God the Father in heaven. So, that's the ransom view, some support, I think there's some truth in there, that we were purchased, I don't think we were purchased from Satan, but there was a purchase price paid to God.

[22:48] We'll talk about more, well, why would that be required anyway? We'll talk about more about that in a moment. The next one I'd like to look at is called the moral influence theory, and it says this, that Christ's death demonstrates God's love.

[23:06] love, inspiring humanity to repentance and moral transformation. And so, Jesus died so that he could be an example of how we ought to live.

[23:25] So, is there anything in the Bible that supports this? Well, actually, there is. I think Jesus' death is meant to influence us towards love.

[23:39] And, is Jesus the ultimate example, the ultimate influence of goodness and love and mercy? I think so. Philippians chapter 2, turn to Philippians chapter 2.

[23:52] Philippians chapter 2, we'll look at verse 5. verse 5. It says this, let this mind be in you.

[24:06] This is Paul speaking to believers on how they ought to live, how they ought to act, what sort of character they ought to have. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men, and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.

[24:42] And so, there is a real truth that what Jesus accomplished for us in his death is an example, is something that we should be inspired by, inspired by what he did to also live the same kind of life, laying down our lives as a sacrifice for others.

[25:05] But I think there's criticisms to be had, too. In fact, this is a theory that is a lot of times offered by more liberal Christians, things.

[25:18] And the reason is is because it focuses more of the things that it doesn't focus on than maybe the things that it does focus on. But really, it fails to address that there was a debt that had to be paid, that there was a debt that was even owed.

[25:38] This theory does not in any way speak to a debt being owed. and it tends to downplay really the seriousness of sin that runs amok among mankind.

[25:54] And in the end, a moral example does not have any more power than the law did to make us good, to make us righteous.

[26:06] We could look to moral examples all day long, and all they can do, just like the law, is be a mirror to reflect that I'm not good as that person is.

[26:17] Cannot make us righteous just by looking at an example. It also lacks any kind of explanation why Jesus had to die.

[26:29] Couldn't he be a moral example in a hundred other ways? So, anyway, that's the moral influence theory.

[26:39] The next one is called satisfaction. And, the idea here is that Jesus' death satisfies God's honor, which was offended by human sin, and it restores the relationship between God and humanity.

[26:59] This was something put together by a man named Anselm back in the 11th century, a thousand years ago. It was developed in a time where you had feudal lords, the feudal system, if you remember that from your history class.

[27:14] And honor was this big thing, and so that was the lens kind of how he interpreted things. And so, what does the Bible say?

[27:29] Well, the Bible does say that our sin dishonors God, right? Romans 3, 23, many of us are familiar with this, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

[27:41] Our sin tarnishes God's honor, his glory. And also, the satisfaction theory points to there's this being a separation between us and God and how what Jesus accomplished satisfies something that will restore that relationship.

[28:03] Colossians 1, 21, says this regarding that need for reconciliation. Colossians 1, 21, and you who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now he has reconciled.

[28:23] And so, we, as sinners, were alienated from God. We were enemies, even, in our mind towards God and rebellion against him.

[28:36] But because of what Jesus accomplished through the cross, he made a way so that we could be reconciled back to him. Instead of enemies, we could be friends and even part of the family of God.

[28:51] This one also highlights the offense of the sin and the debt that was owed. We owed a debt of some kind. And that a forgiveness was required to, forgiveness was required, or forgiveness, excuse me, requires some kind of satisfaction or a payment.

[29:16] Something needs to be satisfied in order for their forgiveness to be made possible. Hebrews 9, so, if you still got your finger there, I'm just going to read one verse from there, but Hebrews 9, verse 22 says this, And according to the law, this is the law of Moses, almost all things are purified, are cleansed, are purged with blood.

[29:47] Back in the law, it was the blood of animals. And without shedding of blood, there is no remission. You see, the Old Testament system of sacrifices pointed to this truth.

[30:00] that in order for forgiveness to be transacted, in order for pardon to be made, it can't just be offered by itself.

[30:15] There's a legal transaction that has to be made. There's a payment, a transaction of payment that has to be made in order for that remission of sins.

[30:30] to take place. Jesus even said this. This is in Matthew 26, verse 28, when he was having his last supper with his disciples. He talked about the cup that they were drinking from and he said this, for this is my blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.

[30:50] My blood shed for many for the remission of sins. There is a payment of blood that needs to be made so that sins can be forgiven.

[31:03] Just one kind of criticism around this view of satisfaction is it really only, it doesn't go far enough, I think, because I think there's more than just God's honor at stake.

[31:18] There's more than just God's honor that needs to be satisfied. And so why did God require, why was a sacrifice required?

[31:31] A sacrifice that involves violence and death? Why not just offer forgiveness to anyone who asks?

[31:42] I mean, really, that's how things work with us, right, in our human relationships. Somebody does something to offend us and we can offer forgiveness if they ask for it.

[31:56] We don't require that somebody else take their place to be punished. We can just basically forgive the debt. Nobody else has to pay it.

[32:07] It's just forgiven. And this is actually one of the criticisms that Islam will have against Christianity. In Islam, God is, Allah is merciful and if you ask him for forgiveness, he will forgive you.

[32:20] What's wrong with that? Well, here is the problem. When God created the heavens and the earth and he created you and I, we have in physics we call laws of nature, right?

[32:39] Newton discovered this principle called gravity and it is a law. It's a law of nature and that kind of a law is the kind of law that describes how things are.

[32:52] But when God created, he created not just those physical laws that determine how things are, how the planets circle different things and rotate and the laws of motion, but he also created another law called what we call today the moral law and this describes not how things are, but how things ought to be.

[33:19] And there's a system of justice that God through the Old Testament specifically begins to develop and explain to his creation.

[33:31] A justice system that has to be honored, that cannot just be ignored in the same way that you can't just ignore gravity.

[33:43] the consequences have to be followed. You see, when we forgive one another, a lot of times somebody offends us, we're the one that they offended and we can offer our forgiveness for them, but with most sins, is it just, is the offense, is the sin, does it just impact one person?

[34:10] Almost never, right? Whenever we sin, it almost always affects not just one person, but many people, and a lot of times more than we would even think or consider.

[34:26] And so, if God were to just forgive somebody based on the offense made to him, well, what about the rest of creation that was offended, that was harmed, that was hurt?

[34:40] God is certainly the greatest victim of our sins. In fact, David, when he sinned with Bathsheba, remember he committed adultery with Bathsheba, and then he tried to hide his sin, and when Bathsheba's husband, Uriah, wouldn't kind of go along with his plan to hide the sin, he had Uriah killed.

[35:07] And so, I forget which psalm it is, but there's a psalm in which David is basically grieving over his sin, and he says this, against you, God, against you and you only, have I sinned.

[35:24] And I think he was making a point that God is the primary one that is the victim of our sins when we sin. But, there are many victims to David's sin, right?

[35:37] He killed Uriah. He compromised Bathsheba. He brought shame and reproach to all of their families. He was a bad influence to his own family.

[35:52] Oh, look at what dad did. Think about all the things that happened to his sons, and so many of them went wayward, but they had this example from their father and what he did.

[36:05] Oh, here's a beautiful woman, I'm just going to take her. Hey, I have similar power and privilege to my father, I can do the same thing. His sin was not limited to just a small group of people.

[36:19] And not only his family, but anyone in the kingdom might see that bad example and be impacted by it, tempted to do the same thing.

[36:31] And then think about all those who were now afraid. Can you imagine, hey, Uriah has this beautiful wife. Well, hey, my wife's pretty beautiful as well.

[36:46] What if he decides to do the same thing with me and I get in the way of what he wants? And the kind of fear that that puts into all of society, and we see that today, right, when crime runs rampant, people live in fear.

[37:03] In the last, what, few months, there's been all kinds of things about what's going on in the New York subway. I don't know if any of you have seen any of those things. And the number of people taking the subway has dropped precipitously.

[37:16] People are afraid because justice is not being done in that part of the country, those particular types of things. Sin has an impact on all of society.

[37:32] When we sin, it doesn't just affect us. I think about the sin of pornography. Somebody might consume pornography and might think, oh, you know, maybe this is harming me, and maybe this is harming my family or my wife.

[37:45] They don't think about all the cascading effects where we are exploiting the people on the other side of that screen or those images. And we are part of creating a system of exploitation through our participation in that economy.

[38:07] Sin is pervasive. It impacts all of us. And so, if God were to provide a pardon just based on a request and even just repentance, what would happen?

[38:24] the justice system would be undermined. Think about a human judge, right? A human judge in our courts today, somebody has committed a crime, and they're sorry for their crime.

[38:43] And they go to the judge and they say, I'm sorry. I did it, but I'm sorry. And what if we had a system in which the judge had leeway to just say, all right, I forgive you?

[38:56] Well, what about all the other people that have been harmed? And what about all those who see that and think, hey, I can just commit the same crime, and then what? All I have to do is apologize at the end.

[39:12] The system of justice that God put in place would be undermined. And so, through what God would accomplish, he had to honor this justice system.

[39:27] The justice system itself, with God as the chief justice, the chief judge, had to be paid, had to be honored, had to be considered.

[39:41] And you know, this penalty that comes with sin was communicated at the very, very beginning of creation. God put Adam in the garden. says this in Genesis 2, verse 16, and the Lord commanded the man, and he said, of every tree of the garden you may freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it, you shall die.

[40:04] Right? And so, that's just the very kind of beginnings, the very foundation of this moral or this justice system that God put in place. If you break the law, you must die.

[40:17] And Ezekiel puts it very succinctly. This is in Ezekiel 18, verse 20, the soul that sins, or the soul who sins, shall die.

[40:29] And then Paul says, again, succinctly in Romans 6, 23, he says, for the wages of sin, this is what you earn through your sin, the wages of sin is death.

[40:42] But of course, the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus. So, there was a wage that had to be paid.

[40:52] And that gets us to the next view of the atonement. And it's called penal substitution. This is a view that was more formed and popularized during the Reformation period about 500 years ago, with the Reformation away from Catholicism, started by Martin Luther and continued by many others.

[41:17] But it says this, that Jesus took our place in bearing the penalty for humanity's sin on the cross, satisfying God's justice while demonstrating his mercy.

[41:29] So, there were two things that had to be dealt with, that had to be kept together. God's justice system upheld, but forgiveness and pardon provided.

[41:41] We can't just ignore the justice system. We have to uphold it. And so, penal substitution, penal is just a name that speaks of a penalty.

[41:54] And so, there was a penalty that was paid, a price that was paid, that was Jesus and his death. And there was a substitution in which he took our place.

[42:07] So, some support for this from the Bible, and I think it's throughout. But actually, the prophet Isaiah spoke to this when he spoke of the suffering servant.

[42:19] It was unclear at the time for many who that was. Was this the Messiah or was this somebody else? Is he talking about Israel as a whole? Many people were not clear at the time.

[42:29] Now, looking back, we can see that Isaiah 53 was very much about Jesus. But it says this in Isaiah 53, verse 5, but he was wounded for our transgression.

[42:41] So, he paid a penalty, the wounds were a penalty, a punishment, for our sin. He was bruised for our iniquity. The chastisement for our peace was upon him.

[42:55] And by his stripes, we are healed. And all we, like sheep, have gone astray. We have turned every one to his own way. And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

[43:09] Jesus suffered a penalty for sin that was due us. We owed, we owed that debt. And the penalty, the wages of sin, death, was owed to us.

[43:26] But he took it in our place. 1 Peter 3, verse 18, speaks to this as well. 1 Peter 3, verse 18. For Christ also suffered once for sin.

[43:39] He suffered. That's the penalty. The just for the unjust. That is the substitution. The just one, the righteous one, took the place of the unrighteous.

[43:55] Many today call this, I love this term, the great exchange that happened. the righteous one took the place of the unrighteous. Took our penalty.

[44:08] 2 Corinthians 5, 21, that was brought up this morning, is another one that speaks to this. 2 Corinthians 5, 21, for he made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in him.

[44:25] The righteous one who didn't know any sin, who was not a sinner, became as if he was a sinner, because he was punished like one, that we might gain righteousness.

[44:40] Jesus was set forth as a sacrifice. He took our penalty.

[44:53] He was substituted for us. The last one, because of time, I'm not going to really get into it. There's some kind of nuance about that, but the governmental one really kind of looks to, hey, there's a, there's, it's a it really speaks more to the government that we talked about that's in place, and that Jesus' death does something to uphold the moral order of the universe.

[45:21] And this last verse that we're going to look at will really speak to that, and this was brought up a lot this morning by Roger. And this speaks to God that he needed to demonstrate something to the world.

[45:38] He needed to demonstrate one his love, which was great for the world. But he also needed to demonstrate to the world his commitment to this moral system, to this justice system that he created, that is founded really on him.

[45:58] Romans 3.21, and I want you to turn there if you've got your Bible, because this is, there's a lot here, and I want us to look at the words on the page. Romans 3.21.

[46:10] I'll give you just a moment to turn there. But now, now Paul was talking before this about how things worked under the law, and now he's going to talk about how things are different now because of what Jesus accomplished.

[46:33] That's what the but now there is for. But now, the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the law and the prophets.

[46:44] So the law and the prophets spoke of something that would happen in the future. Even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ, and what he accomplished, by the way, to all and on all who believe, for there is no difference.

[46:59] For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. That's the problem that needed to be solved. We had a debt we could not pay because of our sin against God.

[47:11] But then it says this, this is what speaks to what happened on the cross, to the transaction that happened. For being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

[47:24] We were made righteous. There was a transaction that happened where we were made righteous, through his gift of grace, through his death.

[47:37] The redemption, or the purchase price, redemption is a purchase price that is in Christ Jesus. It says this, whom God set forth as a propitiation by his blood.

[47:50] Propitiation, that's a big word, but there was this purchase price that was paid. That's what that speaks to. Through faith, to demonstrate his righteousness.

[48:05] This is the key. This is, he needed to demonstrate his commitment to righteousness. Because in his forbearance, God had passed over the sins that were previously committed.

[48:15] You see, in the past, did God forgive sins in Israel? He certainly did. People asked, he forgave them. But it was, it was insufficient.

[48:28] There was something more that was needed that would come later. He passed over the sins that were previously committed to demonstrate at the present time to all of us, all of us over the last 2,000 years who have seen what Jesus did, to demonstrate to us his righteousness, his commitment to justice, that he might be just, so uphold justice, uphold righteousness, and he could also be the justifier, the one who forgives sins, the one who makes us righteousness, of the one who has faith in Jesus Christ.

[49:09] And so, I think this penal substitution theory is the one that provides the most meat to it as far as what Jesus accomplished for us.

[49:20] He took our place and suffered the penalty that was due us. Love and justice.

[49:33] It's the two things that God is committed to in his redemption of mankind. You see, God loved a sinful world.

[49:45] God loved mankind. And he wanted to save mankind from our sins and from the consequence of that sin, the penalty, which was death.

[49:58] I think of it this way, and this is an illustration. But imagine that there was this conversation that happened in heaven when sin entered the world.

[50:10] God loved mankind that he created despite their rebellion. And he wanted to be able to provide a pardon to those who would seek it, who would want it.

[50:29] But there's this problem. There's this justice system that had to be honored that was in place that was so important. And if he would undermine that justice system, there would be a sort of unraveling of the moral fabric of the whole universe.

[50:51] So what do we do? And I imagine maybe between the father and the son, somebody said, I have an idea.

[51:02] But he hesitates. Because the idea is insane. And it's utterly horrific.

[51:20] He says this. One of us could suffer death in their place.

[51:36] And I imagine a long silence. Maybe God the son would respond after thinking for a little while and say, that would work.

[51:51] Wouldn't it? And after weighing the gravity of such a thing, God the son says, I'll do it.

[52:10] And the plan was put in place. And as that famous verse, John 3.16 says, For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

[52:36] And that is what he accomplished for us. And because of that transaction that he paid, we get all those other benefits, right?

[52:49] He gained a victory for us, right? Christ has the victory over Satan. We are ransomed from the kingdom of darkness. We're reconciled to God. In fact, we become sons and daughters of God.

[53:01] And we're counted as righteous. And we become even co-heirs with Jesus Christ. And on and on and on. Because of that important transaction to uphold justice.

[53:15] But to provide us a pardon for all of us. For any of us who are just willing to say, I want it. And believe in him. Amen.

[53:27] Are you glad that he did that for you and for me? Amen. Let's pray. Father, sometimes we really just need to dig in to remember, to understand, to really grasp the gravity of what you accomplished for us.

[53:53] I hope today is a reminder to all of us of just how amazing your grace grace is. That we can be so grateful that your moral influence can have an impact because of the amazing thing, the amazing transaction that you accomplished for us.

[54:10] That we can be reconciled to you because of what you did. You didn't have to. You said yes to that pardon for us to pay for that pardon that we might be part of your family.

[54:25] I pray that we would live lives that would honor what you accomplished for us in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you.