Word of Salvation – Vol.52 No.6 – February 2007
Christ is the Only Sacrifice
A Sermon by Rev Martin Geluk on 2Corinthians 5:21
(Sermon 2 on Christ Alone)
Scripture Reading: Romans 5:1-11; 2Corinthians 5:16-21
Congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We are looking at the five solas of the Reformation. We are thinking about what we mean when we say: Scripture alone, Christ alone, faith alone, grace alone, and to God’s glory alone. These five solas didn’t just come up out of the blue – they were a reaction to the many unscriptural teachings that had developed over time in the Roman Catholic Church. God used the Reformers like Luther, Calvin and others, to bring His church back to the teachings of Scripture. These solas are important, not just to the time of the Reformation, which took place five hundred years ago. When we look at the history of the Christian church from the book of Acts onwards, we can see that these scriptural teachings have always been relevant. And they are important again today. Unscriptural teachings and practices are always undermining the five solas at some point. The Reformation might have put the five solas into neatly worded statements, but the Christian church has always had to return to these scriptural teachings because the tendency to go against them has existed in every century of the church’s existence, including our own.
Recently someone gave me a pamphlet called, ‘The Cambridge Declaration’, which was drawn up by the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals in 1996. Its opening statement says this: “Evangelical churches today are increasingly dominated by the spirit of this age rather than by the Spirit of Christ. As evangelicals, we call ourselves to repent of this sin and to recover the historic Christian faith.” The pamphlet goes on to say that many evangelical Christians have allowed themselves to be guided by the culture of our times and the word ‘evangelical’ now no longer stands for the essential truths of the Christian faith as understood by the Reformation. Influenced by the culture of our time means that many churches are offering a gospel that seeks to provide what people want, instead of what God gives.
Many churches try to function and grow by using the marketing techniques of our consumer society, instead of preaching repentance and faith, and relying on the Holy Spirit. Many churches are adopting the strategies of the entertainment world, instead of sticking to methods shown by the Word of God. Many churches, in their worship and in the doctrinal content of their songs and music, are trying to make people feel good, instead of focusing on who God is and what He wants. To counter this trend to fit in with today’s culture, the ‘Cambridge Declaration’ spells out how the five solas of the Reformation need to be heard again in today’s church. Among the signatories of this ‘Declaration’ are names like that of R C Sproul, well-known to many in our congregation, and other Reformed scholars, like John Armstrong, James Boice, Robert Godfrey, to name just a few.
Now in this series of sermons on the five solas of the Reformation, we have already had three sermons on Scripture alone, and one sermon on Christ alone. In the sermon on Christ alone we looked at the Lord’s teaching and His claims and we saw that Jesus is unique. Today we look again at the ‘Christ alone’ teaching and this time we see that CHRIST IS THE ONLY SACRIFICE.
1. Christ’s death was substitutionary
Why does the Bible speak of Christ as the only sacrifice? To answer that we must go back to Scripture’s basic teaching on sin. The holy God does not wink at sin. God fully upholds His perfect law. All people have disobeyed His law and therefore all of us ought to be punished. The punishment that God demands is death. God says, “The soul who sins is the one who will die” (Ezek 18:4).
We are inclined to think that God is too harsh in punishing sinners with death. Why do we feel like objecting to God’s death penalty for even one sin? Because God’s standard of justice seems out of touch with the times. We’re not used to such justice. Australia is among those nations that have abolished the death penalty. And when it still had the death penalty, then it was only for first degree murder. By comparison God seems harsh to demand the death penalty for any and every sin. The only way to stop ourselves from judging God in this is to remind ourselves that Scripture teaches that God is absolutely holy and just. So holy and just that nothing imperfect and sinful can be allowed in His presence. If we prefer God to be lenient on sin, to be a bit more tolerant, then we end up with a god who is not all that different to a human being with high moral standards. In other words, we humanise God. But God is unique in that His holiness and justice are so pure that even the smallest of sins cannot be allowed in His presence. That’s why Adam and Eve, when they sinned, had to leave paradise. And that’s why in the paradise to come – the new heaven and earth – there will be no sin or imperfection of any kind.
But God is more than just holy and just. He is also loving and compassionate. Therefore God worked a plan of salvation in which another takes our sin and guilt and receives God’s punishment instead of us. Jesus Christ is that ‘other’. He, as the eternal Son of God, has become the sacrifice. And Scripture stresses that Christ is the only sacrifice. No human being is able to do what Christ did. We might be willing to give up our life for someone we love. But only Christ was willing to give up His life for sinners who are despicable in God’s sight and in full-blown rebellion against Him.
Furthermore, Christ the sacrifice had to be completely sinless. If Christ had sins of His own, then He would have to pay for His own sins. But being free from sin Himself, Christ was able to suffer and die for the sins of others. No other human being is free from sin, therefore no other human being could die for another. For these reasons Christ is the only sacrifice acceptable to God.
The Bible teaches that Christ’s death was substitutionary. A substitute is someone who stands in for another. In Scripture Christ is called a ransom (Mk 10:45). That helps us understand substitution. As a ransom Christ offered Himself as a payment for sin, which God accepted, and thus allowed us, the guilty ones, to go free. Christ as a ransom is different to the kind of ransom that is given to a kidnapper who then allows the victim to go free. In that kind of situation the kidnapper is an evil person who has committed a crime and threatens to harm the victim unless he is paid a ransom. God is not evil but perfect, and when He demands the death of the sinner then He is simply being a just God. But in His love God comes up with His own ransom and it is Christ, His own Son. God punishes the sinless Christ when He transfers the guilt of sinners onto His Son, thus allowing the guilty to go free. And Christ, as the Substitute who becomes the guilty one, dies in the place of, or on behalf of, the sinner. Our text, 2 Corinthians 5:21, says it all: “God made Him (i.e., Christ) who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.”
The text says “for us” – plural. The words ‘for us’ means all the sinners God has chosen to save from death. They are the ‘many’ for whom Christ is the Ransom (Mk 10:45). Christ is their Representative. In His suffering and death on the cross, Christ represented all those sinners whom God has elected to save. Christ is not the Representative of all sinners of all time, but only the elect. This is clearly taught in Romans 5:12-21, where Adam and Christ are compared. Adam’s fall into sin affected all of humanity. All people are guilty and all deserve to die. All people are born with original sin, which causes them to commit other sins. So when Adam fell, he represented the whole human race. But when Christ died as the Substitute, then He represented only those sinners whom God has elected to salvation. And these God will call to repentance and faith, will justify them through Christ and glorify them (Rom 8:30).
Scripture does not allow us to make Christ the Saviour and Substitute for all of humanity because that would mean that people like Hitler and Saddam Hussein are also in heaven. Only those for whom Christ became the Substitute are saved. If Christ died for all of humanity then His death had no effect on those who remained lost, which would mean that God was powerless to save them. But that is not the picture the Bible gives us of God. He saves those for whom Christ died and nothing can stop God’s power in this.
Now why is it so important that we understand Christ’s death to be substitutionary? Because it is the only way that our sin is paid for. If we were to pay for our own sins, then it is death, which of course doesn’t help us. So people who reject Christ as the Saviour, who refuse to believe in Him as the Substitute for their sin, have actually signed their own death warrant. God’s punishment on their sin remains on them. Saying no to Christ as the Substitute is actually also rejecting the love God is willing to show sinners. The Bible says that God so loved the world that He gave His only Son (Jn 3:16). But if Christ is rejected as the Substitute, then it is also a rejection of God’s gift of love, which is Christ.
Sadly, God’s love is not given its proper recognition when Christ is not held up as the Saviour from sin but only as someone who is able to help you with your marriage problems, or financial problems, or whatever other problems you may have. There are churches that present Christ only as the answer to all kinds of problems, except the biggest of all problems, sin. Christ then merely becomes a Christ who is there to make you successful, happy, healthy, and even wealthy. God loves you, it is said, and He seeks to make you happy. But all this misses the boat. Sin is hardly mentioned. But our sin is the main problem and Christ died first and foremost to deal with the problem of sin. If Christ is only there to make you successful, happy, healthy and wealthy, then all He needs to be is a psychologist and financial planner. There is then no need for Him to die as the Substitute.
Downplaying the substitutionary nature of Christ’s work results in shifting Christ and His cross from the centre of our vision. When the importance of the cross is no longer the heart of the gospel, then the church starts changing its message. Repentance, which is turning away from sin, is no longer emphasised. Instead, the message begins to focus on recovery from problems and unhappiness. God’s demand for holiness is downgraded to God wanting you to experience wholeness. Obedience as spelled out in Scripture becomes less important than intuition, which is doing what you think God wants you to do. Belief in all that God has done and promised is ignored, and what you feel is talked about more. Continuing to hope that God will care for you in whatever trials and difficulties you may have to endure, is not mentioned as much as instant delivery from whatever problems you might have. As we said, in all this the emphasis has shifted from Christ and His cross to you and your daily needs. When there is no preaching of the cross then preaching ceases to be Christ-centred and becomes man-centred instead.
2. Christ’s death was a judicial substitution
We have spent some time explaining Christ’s death as substitutionary because it is important that we understand it as a judicial substitution. What do we mean by judicial? Well, look again at the words in our text where it says, “that we might become the righteousness of God.” God made the sinless Christ to be sin for us, so that in Christ “we might become the righteousness of God.“
What happens when the saved are made “the righteousness of God”? Well, it means that the sinner, whose guilt has been removed by Christ the Substitute, has been declared just by God. The person saved by Christ is now seen as righteous by God in Christ. Judicial substitution means an act of justice was done by God. Remember how we spoke of our sin incurring the penalty of death. God, instead of making us suffer that just penalty, in His wonderful love had Christ our Substitute pay that penalty. Jesus dies instead of the sinner whom God saves. God did not give up His justice. Instead of executing sinners who deserved it, God executed His Son who did not deserve it.
That means, as Luther explained, that Christ as the Substitute on the cross became Peter the denier. On the cross Christ became Paul the persecutor. As Christ suffered and died He became David the adulterer and murderer. Christ became Adam the disobedient one. Christ became the criminal next to Him on the cross. On the cross Christ became you and me. As Christ became us, He did not become corrupt as we were, but He bore our sins and took upon Himself our iniquities.
In punishing Christ instead of us, God remains just throughout. Right here we see the depth of His love. God’s love never took anything away from His justice. If anything, God’s justice only shows how deep His love is, because it required the death of Christ, His Son. God so loved us, that He willingly sacrificed His only Son. ‘So loved us’ means that God said that His justice must be satisfied and He allowed Christ, instead of us, to satisfy it.
The result of this judicial substitution is that God not only reckoned our sin to Christ’s account, He also reckoned Christ’s perfect obedience to our account. That means that God can now look at those whom He has saved as having kept His law flawlessly. As if we have never sinned – as if we have always been as perfectly obedient as Christ was obedient for us. And that’s what God asks us to accept in faith – that we through Christ are made right with God.
Can you now see why it is a poor gospel that portrays Christ as someone who only helps you with the needs that you feel and experience? What good is Christ to me when He only helps me in my marriage needs, in my financial needs, in my self-image needs? What I need most of all is to have my sin and guilt taken away.
When I learn that this is what God does in Christ, and then gives me the righteousness of Christ, then it is as if I have never sinned. What better self-image can I have but one where God sees me as righteous in Christ! In all areas of life, in my marriage, in my finances, in my work, I may now live as one who has been accepted by God because He has made me righteous through Christ. I may, no, I must continue to believe that. Christ has not failed. He has not died for nothing. For the rest of my life I am to become what God has already made me in Christ.
I don’t need a Christ who is only a great teacher, or just a wonderful example. I don’t need a Christ who is only a social reformer, or only an idealist who gives me new thoughts. I don’t need a Christ who is only a celebrity, or a spiritual superstar. We need the Christ of God who is our only sacrifice as He died on the cross as our Substitute.
You should now also understand why the church should sing songs that do more than merely say how lovely God is, or how much we love Jesus. We want the content of our songs to reflect the heart of the gospel. The church should sing about Christ the Substitute, the only sacrifice on the cross, because that is worshipping God. An old hymn from Charles Wesley brings it out:
And can it be that I should gain an interest in the Saviour’s blood?
Died He for me, who caused His pain?
For me, who caused His bitter death?
Amazing love!
How can it be that You, my Lord, should die for me? (BoW 186)
Also the second verse of another hymn by Johann Heerman:
Who was the guilty? Who brought this upon You?
It is my treason, Lord, that has undone You.
‘Twas I, Lord Jesus, I it was denied You;
I crucified You. (BoW 300)
And this verse from the hymn “Man of Sorrows – what a name”:
Bearing shame and scoffing rude,
in my place condemned He stood,
Sealed my pardon with His blood:
Hallelujah, what a Saviour! (BoW 398)
Also some of our contemporary songs, like “He was pierced” by Maggie Dawn, whose words reflect Isaiah 53:
He was pierced for our transgressions,
and bruised for our iniquities;
And to bring us peace, He was punished,
and by His stripes we are healed. (Suppl. Songs, 612)
And Stuart Townend’s beautiful hymn:
How deep the Father’s love for us, how vast beyond all measure,
That He should give His only Son to make a wretch His treasure.
How great the pain of searing loss, the Father turns His face away.
As wounds which mar the Chosen One brings many sons to glory.
Behold the Man upon the cross, my sin upon His shoulders;
Ashamed, I hear my mocking voice call out among the scoffers.
It was my sin that held Him there until it was accomplished;
His dying breath has brought me life, I know that it is finished.
(Suppl. Songs 632)
3. Christ substitutionary death is complete
By complete we mean final and sufficient. Christ’s death does not need to be repeated, re-enacted, or supplemented. The letter to the Hebrews brings this out very clearly. Let me quote some relevant sentences:
“He (i.e., Jesus) is able to save completely those who come to God through Him.”
(He) “meets our need – one who is holy, blameless, pure…”
“He does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for His own sins and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when He offered Himself.” (7:25-27).
“…we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” (10:12).
Christ’s sacrifice was a once-for-all accomplishment. In His death He bore all the sins of all His people throughout the whole of world history. “It is finished”, Jesus said from the cross (Jn 19:30). Jesus substitutionary death was complete, totally sufficient to atone for all our sins. Nothing needs to be added to it!
The Reformers saw this very clearly in the face of what the Church of Rome was teaching and doing. What you heard today is what the Reformers were teaching and it transformed the church’s understanding of the gospel. Still today the Roman Catholic Church holds to the decisions of the Council of Trent (1545-63). They were reaffirmed by the 2nd Vatican Council (1962-65). These decisions state that the cross of Christ is in need of continual supplementation through the altar.
But like the Reformers we must not see Holy Communion as a sacrifice but as a supper (1 Cor 11:20). It is served upon ‘the table of the Lord’, not an altar (1 Cor 10:21). For the same reasons we see the term ‘priest’ as being inappropriate for Christian ministry. Priests wear special vestments and offer sacrifices upon altars. Christian ministers dress in normal clothes or in simple robes, and feed and tend God’s sheep through the ministry of God’s Word.
Before Luther understood what the gospel really was, he used to pray to the saints of old, asking them to help him. But later on he realised that there is no need to go to the saints for merit because Christ’s merits are sufficient. And saints don’t have any merits anyway. There is also no need for purgatory. The Roman church teaches that purgatory is the place where the souls of the departed are purged of any remaining unpaid sins. But in Christ there are no unpaid sins. Christ’s sacrifice covers all the believer’s sins for all time. There is no purgatory, nor is there a need for one.
There was, therefore, also no need for indulgences, which the Roman church sold in order to reduce the punishment in purgatory. And neither is there any need to pray for the dead because the future of the dead is sealed from the moment they die in the body. Those who die are either in heaven because of Christ’s sacrifice for them, or they are in hell because of their rejection of Christ.
We must always continue to see that Christ’s sacrifice was an once-for-all event and completely sufficient for all our sins. Once we see and believe that, then we will truly thank and worship God who gave His only Son to be our Substitute and only sacrifice. Yes, the whole ministry of the church to its members, and to those to whom we witness, is transformed by the way we see Christ and the cross.
Amen.