When Jesus said, "It is finished!" (τετέλεσται tetelestai) on the cross, what a mouthful He uttered!  The infinite wrath of the infinitely holy God was absorbed by the infinitely worthy Son of God.  This wrath was the wrath of God against all the sins of all the elect for all time.  There is no greater accomplishment--indeed there can be none greater!  The Father forsook the Son on the cross, putting the Son in hell on the accursed tree.  My sins put Him there.  All the sins of all the elect put Him there.  If you turn from depending upon yourself, your sins were also placed there.

How do I know?  Because God is just, and He has determined to punish sins in one of two ways: either on the cross or in hell.  There is no third option.  We all know that this world is pretty messed up.  Each one of us is doing what is right in his or her own eyes.  Each one of us is pursuing pleasures at a frenetic pace.  The desire behind each pleasure is designed to satisfy, but no matter how many games you win, no matter how many sales you make, no matter how many votes you may win, no matter how much money you control; you will find that what you are striving after fails to give that permanent satisfaction.  We are told in Ecclesiastes 3:11 (LSB) "He has made everything beautiful in its time.  He has also set eternity in their heart, yet so that man will not find out the work which God has done from the beginning even to the end."  That emptiness you feel from seeking that next satisfaction and finding it less than what you were dreaming or hoping for is due to this fact: God and God alone is infinite.  Therefore, God and God alone can satisfy the longing in our heart for the eternal and the infinite. 

So, what is sin?  Sin is lawlessness (1 John 3:4).  It is any want of any conformity unto or transgression of the law of God (WSC 14).  What is the law of God?  To love the one Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength (Deut. 6:4-5) and to love our neighbor as ourselves (Lev. 19:18).  Sin, therefore, is not loving God or neighbor in any way or in any degree.  Since all sin is ultimately against God (Psalm 51:4) and God is infinite and ultimately holy and without any flaw or injustice or unrighteousness, even the slightest sin is justly punishable by the eternal death of hell.  But God, being rich in mercy, did not want all to perish but sent His Son to bear the just, due penalty of the sins of all His saints in His body on the tree about 2,000 years ago.  Death is the just penalty for sin, for God has declared that the wages of sin is death.  Therefore, Christ actually died on that cross.

But that only takes care of one side of the equation.  If death is the wages of sin, then life is the just reward for righteousness and love.  Jesus did not die for His Own sins.  If He had, He would still be dead.  But to prove that His death absorbed the just penalty of sins and was for the sins of others, He was raised from the dead.  In fact, it was impossible for Him to stay dead, for it was granted to Him to have life in Himself.  Life and righteousness go together!  Christ's resurrection to an eternal life of intercession for all who believe means that He will never die again and that He will forever plead His blood on behalf of all who are in His presence.  This is indeed cause for a believer to cast the crown of his or her reward at the feet of Christ, giving Him the praise, the glory, the honor, the magnification forever and ever.  There is none who compares with the One Who absorbed infinite wrath with infinite worth on behalf of all who will believe and all to the glory of God the Father.

At so many times and in so many ways, we trample underfoot the blood of Christ.  "How do we do this?" you ask.  Let's go back to love.  When you love someone, you believe that someone.  One of the greatest offenses any of us ever endures is betrayal of the trust we extend to another.  Betrayal of trust comes from one of both of the friends not believing the other.  When belief disappears, love disappears with it.  Now, let's think about the Garden of Eden.  Adam and Even sinned when they ate the forbidden fruit, and that one act of disobedience is counted as everyone's sin, and we commit our own sins because we are sinners.  But, they never would have eaten that fruit if they had not desired it.  And they never would have desired it if they had believed the truth of God's declaration that they would surely die in the day that they ate of it.  So, because they believed the lie of the serpent, they desired the fruit, and they disobeyed God.  We have all been disobeyed.  We all know what it is like to have someone do the exact opposite of what we have told them.  We get angry!  God would have been just to kill Adam and Eve on the spot, but He instead provided a substitute as a pointer to the ultimate substitute of His Son on the cross who rose from Joseph of Arimathea's tomb nearly 4,000 years later.

Again, how do we trample underfoot the blood of Christ?  By thinking that we can do enough good to earn our way into heaven.  This is what most people think in some way shape or form: my good outweighs my bad.  This is such a great lie!  A single sin is deserving of infinite wrath, and Christ absorbed infinite wrath for all the sins of all the saints for all time.  How great is His salvation!  There is none like Him!  Why would you want to depend upon anyone or anything other than Him?  The twin commands of the Apostles in the New Testament are: "Repent and believe!"  Now, most of the time when we hear, "Repent!" we think, "I'm supposed to think poorly of myself and not positively."  That is actually a consequence of repentance.  True repentance is a change of mind about what is true and what is false.  Repentance is objectively turning from believing lies to believing truth.  There is no more popular lie than, "Believe in yourself.  You can accomplish anything you dream up!"  If you want eternal life, you have to stop believing that you can earn merit before God, and you have to start believing that Christ's righteousness alone is meritorious to save you from the death that you deserve. 

In conclusion, let me leave you with a few thoughts.  Jesus was really dead; otherwise, you cannot be justified.  Jesus was really raised; otherwise, you cannot be glorified.  Jesus was really raised to complete the covenantal atonement of our death to Him and His life to us by grace through faith in Him … alone!

Come and see Jesus!  Go quickly and tell! 

#comeandseeJesus

#comeandlivebyfaith

#loveandworshipHim

#SoliDeoGloria