THE CROSS: CHRIST DIES IN MY PLACE TO SAVE ME
FROM THE PENALTY OF MY “SINS”
(Rom 5:8-9) “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (9) Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.”
(1Pet 2:24) “Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree”
(1Pet 3:18) “For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit”
(Isa 53:4-6) “Surely he hath borne our griefs, & carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, & afflicted. (5) But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him & with his stripes we are healed (6) All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.”
I.) CONVICTION of “sins”: (verses feeling GUILTY for your sins)
A genuine conviction of sins& the accompanying dread of being judged for them is the supernatural work of Holy Spirit.
(John 16:8-11) “And when he {the Holy Spirit} is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment”
When this occurs we become convinced we have offended a Holy & righteous God and justly deserve to spend eternity in Hell as a just penalty due our sins.
The Holy Spirit gives us a clear Revelation of the purpose & horrors of the cross of Jesus.
A.) The Purpose: to reveal God’s judgment upon all sin.
make salvation possible for all men (I Tim. 1:15).
B.) The Horrors: Because of my sins I am responsible for the death of the Holy, spotless, sinless Son of God Who took my place on the cross!
II.) REPENTANCE for the sins I committed:
True Repentance is a gift of God (2 Tim. 2:25-26; Acts 3:26; 5:31; 11:18; Rom. 2:4). Genuine Repentance is the only way a sinful Human being can prepare to meet God (2Cor. 7:10). We “flee from the wrath to come” by Repentance (Matt. 3:7-12; Lk. 13:3, 5; 2 Pet. 3:9; Acts 11:18). This occurs when we act upon the Holy Spirit’s conviction of sins and turn from our sins to serve the living God (I Thess. 1:9-10). True repentance is not something we do once to get saved. It is a way of life that maintains our intimate relationship with Jesus Christ.
Genuine Repentance includes:
A.) A clear vision of the Crucified Christ on the Cross:
“I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, & repent in dust & ashes” (Job 42:5-6). Illustration: of the Dreamer.
B.) Forsaking of sin.
Suppose you had a child living a drunken, sinful, profligate life. Would you be satisfied if they come home every day with tears, saying: “I am so sorry, father, I have been living in such sin,” but they never made any changes in their life? Of course not!
C.) Restitution for sins we committed against others.
John the Baptist preached: “Bring forth fruits worthy of repentance.” Illustration: Zacchaeus (Luke 19:1-9).
III.) THE BLOOD of Christ shed for my sins on the Cross:
When we genuinely repent The Holy Spirit reveals to us the awesome power of the Blood of Christ!
A.) By Faith in the blood I experience the purpose of the cross.
THE BLOOD CLEANSES ME FROM ALL SIN: (I John 1:7; Rev. 1:5)
“If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.”
Be aware of the difference between being forgiven & being cleansed!
THE BLOOD ALLOWS ME TO COME INTO GOD’S PRESENCE: all sin is ultimately against God & it is He alone Who can Forgive me & restore our relationship (Ps. 51:4; Gen. 20:6; 39:9; Lev. 5:19; 6:2-7)
(Heb 10:19) Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus” (Compare Exodus 19:9, 21; 20:19; 24:1 – Before the blood of the Lamb was shed with Exodus 24:6-8, 9, 10, 11 – after the Blood of the Lamb was shed and “they beheld God and did eat & drink.”
Illustration: John Williams – Dream of a Mountain & drop of blood
B.) Faith in the blood saves me from the horrors of the cross.
“Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him” (Romans 5:9; Romans 3:24-26).
“God has set forth Jesus to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past…”
(read Romans 3:24-26, especially verse 25)
Illustration: “Propitiation” & the Mercy seat. The word “propitiation” is the same word translated “mercy seat” (Heb. 9:5). Jesus is now our propitiation with God or our Mercy seat (I John 2:2; 4:10)
IV.) BELIEVE what the Bible reveals about the Blood:
When you Believe then you can experience what God has promised in His infallible word! Where does this life changing Faith come from? (Rom 10:17) “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”
“FOR ABRAHAM BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS COUNTED ONTO HIM FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS.” (Rom. 4:3) For he “WAS FULLY PERSUADED THAT WHAT GOD HAD PROMISED, HE WAS ABLE ALSO TO PERFORM.” (Rom. 4:21)
The Greek word for faith is pisteuo (Strong’s #4100). It means “to put trust in, to be committed to, to be persuaded of, to place confidence in, and to rely upon.”
We Believe what the Bible says about the Blood of Christ to save us from the just & eternal damnation we earned because of our sin (Rom. 6:23). Believing this is necessary for peace with God (Col. 1:20).
Because Jesus is “God manifest in the flesh” (I Tim. 3:16KJV) we are empowered to Believe He can accomplish in us all the spiritual realities revealed in His Word. Faith is taking God at His Word. Faith is the means by which God’s supernatural power is appropriated to our own special needs.
God the Father has given us: “ all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ” (Eph. 1:3). Everything that belongs to Christ is ours once we belong to Him (I Cor. 3:21-23). It is the ministry of the Holy Spirit to take the spiritual blessings that are ours in Christ and make them ours in our daily experience.
(John 16:13-15) “Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth… (14) He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you. (15) All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall shew it unto you.
We have a spiritual bank account in Christ. The Holy Spirit enables us to make withdrawals in our time of need.
We must learn to “appropriate” from our account “in Christ” all the blessings we will ever need for Godly daily living.
V.) APPROPRIATE the power of the blood to remove all the guilt and
damage we’ve sustained from our sins.
There are 2 essentials to appropriate our blessings in Christ:
A.) We must have a revelation of what is already ours in Christ (Eph. 1:17-19; I Cor. 1:21-3). Every stage of spiritual growth comes as a result of clear revelation of just how infinitely great our LORD Jesus Christ truly is (Col. 2:9-10)
B.) We must become aware of our need to claim the promise
We appropriate the Power of the Blood of Christ to cleanse our every sin through prayerful confession to God Himself:
(1John 1:9-10) “If we confess our sins, he is faithful & just to forgive us our sins, & to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (10) If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.” (read I John 1:7 – “all sin”).
VI.) CLEANSED from our sins. CLEANSED from our Guilt!
Why is it so important to experience this supernatural cleansing from sin & its guilt? Psychiatrists’ & doctors say that unresolved guilt is the #1 cause of mental illness and suicide. Over half of all hospital beds are filled with people who have emotional illnesses.
One of satan’s great tactics is to get us to focus on past failures and losses rather than on the limitless Hope that is ours in Jesus Christ! Satan convinces us God doesn’t want to forgive us or isn’t great enough to forgive us. He tries to put us in bondage to “guilt trips.” We can’t live with Guilt. So we deal with it in 2 ways: 1. We justify our sin & ourselves. 2. We condemn ourselves when we feel we have failed God.
But when our knowledge of God’s Word finally causes us to come to Jesus & appropriate his salvation from the burden of sin, then we will experience a genuine, deep, complete cleansing from the pain & defilement caused by all our sins (Ps. 51).
(Heb 9:14, 22) “How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? (22) Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience…” (see also Hebrews 9:9; 10:2, 10, 22; see Colossians 2:14).
THE TWO-FOLD FINISHED WORK OF THE CROSS
FORGIVENESS DELIVERANCE
Through Christ my Substitute Through Christ my Life
| Salvation in Christ is entered by the Death route (2 Cor. 5:14, 17) |
2 Parts to the Finished Work of Christ on the Cross
(John 19:30)
The Blood & the Cross was planned from eternity past (I Pet. 1:19-20; Rev. 13:8)
& Impacts all life through- out eternity future (Rev. 5:12-14) |
Sanctification through the Holy Spirit is entered by the Death route (Rom. 6:5,8) | ||
| Jesus died for me as my substitute:
I am forgiven for sins I committed “The LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isa. 53:5-6) |
I died with Christ: I was “in” Christ when
He died on the Cross (Eph. 1:4). So I can be delivered from my sinful self (I am born a sinner by nature) |
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| Christ is crucified for me
(Rom. 5:8; I Pet. 2:24; 3:18) |
“I am crucified with Christ”
(Rom. 6:6, 8; Gal. 2:20; Col. 3:3) |
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| Freed from the Penalty of Sin
by the BLOOD of Christ (I Cor. 15:3) |
Freed from the Power of Sin through the CROSS as the Holy Spirit places me “in” Christ
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| Solves my problem of SINS I have committed (I John 1:9)
Deals with what I have done Justification (Rom. 3:24-26; 4:25) |
Solves the problem of the sinner
that I am (SIN) (I John 1:8) Deals with what I am (I John 3:7) Sanctification (Rom. 6:4, 19, 22) |
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| 1 | CONVICTION OF SINS
John 16:7-8; Rom. 5:6-8; 4:25; 3:24-26; Heb. 9:28; 9:14-15) |
CONVICTION OF SIN: “I know that in me (that is in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing” (Rom. 7:18-23) | ||
| 2 | REPENTANCE: for the sins I committed (Zacchaeus – Lk. 19:1-9) | REPENTANCE: for the sinner I am
(Paul – I Tim. 1:15; Phil. 3:4-8) |
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| 3 | KNOW the truth of THE BLOOD: God reveals the power of the BLOOD to cleanse me of all my sins (Zech. 13:1; I Pet. 1:15-19; Rev. 12:11; I John 1:7; Heb. 13:12; Rev. 7:14-15) | KNOW the truth of THE CROSS:
God reveals the power of the Holy Spirit “to crucify our old man with Christ, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin (Rom. 6:6; Col. 3:3). |
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| 4 | BELIEVE: what God has revealed in His word about the BLOOD of Christ (Rom. 3:24-26; 4:3, 21; Eph. 1:17) | BELIEVE: what God reveals about me being “dead, and my life being hid with Christ in God” (Col. 3:3; Heb. 11:1; Eph. 1:17). | ||
| 5 | APPROPRIATE: the spiritual reality of what’s mine in Christ; I apply it to my need for cleansing (Rom. 5:2-4) | APPROPRIATE: I “reckon myself dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. 6:11; Gal. 5:24); Dead to the World (Gal. 6:14). | ||
| 6 | CLEANSED: the blood washes away my SINS; saves me from the wrath of God for what I have done (Rom. 3:25; I John 1:7) | DELIVERED: from the power of SIN in me. He delivers me from what I am (Rom. 7:24-25). Saves me form the condemnation of an evil conscience (Rom. 8:1-4; Heb. 10:14) | ||
| Romans 1:1 – 5:11 Explains how
Jesus saves us from our SINS |
Romans 5:12 – 8:39 explains how Jesus
saves us from our SIN [sin nature] |
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| God gives me a new Hope: Forgiveness for my sins; Pardon For what I have done | God gives me a new heart; a new spirit; & Power to overcome SIN (Ezek. 36:26). | |||
| Jesus died in my place (my substitute)
for my forgiveness (Matt. 20:28) |
Jesus lives in me (He is my life) for my deliverance & victory (Gal. 2:20: I Cor. 6:17) | |||
| Reconciliation:
Peace with God (Rom. 5:1, 9). My standing before God. No more fear of God’s judgment. |
Sanctification & Glorification
Peace with myself (Rom. 7:24-25; 8:6-7). My conduct before God (I John 3:1-8). No more fear of my own failure (Phil 4:13) |
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