Word of Salvation – June 2026

Scripture Readings. John 11:17-44; John 19:28-42. (With HCLD 16 Q/A 40-43)

Message: “A Saviour dying for us”

By Rev John Zuidema

Congregation, it never seems to amaze me that even in times when the world is in a state of panic, so many people refuse to turn to God in repentance.  Although there are hundreds dying all over the world with Covid-19 virus, the most important thing that has been on the local news is whether the Easter bunny can come.  Well apparently the Easter bunny can come, so what a relief.  But seriously, you would think that people have more important things on their minds, such as life and death matters.  Since when does an Easter Bunny save lives or for that matter deal with our sin and rebellion before a holy God. They don’t!

Our Saviour knew the people’s greatest need, and it wasn’t about providing some lighthearted relief.  If Good Friday and Easter Sunday, means anything at all to you, then may you realise that these two days deal with our souls and where we will spend eternity!  When we read the story of Lazarus and his death, we can readily understand the pain and sorrow of Mary and Martha.  And even the Lord Jesus was affected, for he wept (v35).  But perhaps what grieved him most was seeing the consequences and result of sin.   And one of the results is death and even if you live to be a hundred, you will not escape death.

Thankfully, Good Friday and Easter Sunday reminds us that Jesus defeated death and that is of great comfort for us.  That is why we recite the Apostles’ Creed at funerals for we believe in the resurrection of the body.  Thankfully, the details about Jesus suffering, dying and burial and resurrection are recorded for us in Scripture, for if they were not, we would never really know that Jesus paid for our sins.    John 19:30, reminds us that after Jesus had received the sour wine, he said “It is finished” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit!   Our debt was paid in full!

But in the early church, not everyone believed what we read in Scripture about Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection.  They couldn’t understand how a loving God and Father could send his own Son to die for sinful man.   One such person was a man named Marcion.  To by-pass what the Scriptures taught, Marcion said that Jesus had only the appearance of a man but was not a physical man.   In other words, He was like a phantom and hence Marcion taught that all Jesus’ pain and suffering was imaginary.

Another man named Nestorius, separated the divine and human natures of Christ.  He said that the divine nature came upon the plain man Jesus at his baptism and left before He went to the cross.   In other words, Jesus was only a plain man when he was born and when he died.  But that can never be for no plain sinful man could ever make satisfaction for our sins for he has sins of his own.

But we also have modern day heretics.  There are leaders of the church who claim that Jesus died to pay for the more ‘serious’ sins like murder and rape and stealing, but that he didn’t have to die for the person who tries to do good.  In fact, some people, such as Richard Dawkins, a self-professed atheist, says if there is a god, then he is guilty of child abuse for allowing his son to die for sinners.   He goes on to say that that the Christian’s infinite wise and loving God made a big mistake!

Now we as saved Christians are the first to admit that God sending His one and only Son to die for us and to be buried is a remarkable show of love, incomprehensible in many ways.  But that doesn’t mean it is not true.   John 19 states it clearly, Jesus died and was buried!  The reason Christians today can speak of death in a theoretical manner is because Christ never did!   When Lazarus died, Jesus wept!  Not just because he missed his friend but because he knew that for this terrible thing to be reversed, he would need to suffer the full wrath of God to pay for our sin with his own body!

Both Matthew and Mark record for us that Jesus’ soul was overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death when he started thinking what lay before him.   A person can die from such heavy sorrow, which in God’s providence did not happen to Jesus.  However, the magnitude of Jesus’ sorrow apparently caused the blood capillaries right under His skin to burst.  From the extreme emotional pressures Jesus endured, blood escaped through His pores, “and His sweat became like drops of blood, falling down upon the ground” (Lk 22:44).

Such sweating was just one outward result of what our Lord felt at the excruciating prospect of His having to become sin for us. His holiness was completely repulsed by such a thought. However, his Father in heaven had determined that the wages of man’s disobedience was death. He warned man in Gen 2:16-17, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 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 surely die.”

That was the just punishment of a most holy God.  And if God’s Son was to be our Saviour and really take our place, he had to be perfect man and He had to die.   Since man sinned, man had to pay, and death was the payment!   Congregation, when people say we can cry at death and have the right to hate death because Jesus did, we would not disagree with them.  However, let us not forget that Jesus’ death was not a punishment for His sin, but a punishment for our sin.  He who knew no sin became sin for us.  Jesus’ death was the only way to pay for our sins and satisfy God’s justice and truth.  And Jesus did that for us when he died for our sin!

If we were to accept Marcion or Nestorius’ teaching, then we would still have to bear the punishment for our sin. That would mean eternal punishment rather than eternal life in glory with our Saviour!  We also read that Jesus was buried in Jn 19:38ff.  He was laid in a tomb.  Now we may ask, “Was that really necessary?  Why didn’t God just end it with Jesus’ death?   Jesus had already said “it was finished” (John19:30). He had already met God’s demand for our sin!  The Roman soldier had pierced his side with a spear showing that He was truly dead.

Yet, Paul reminds the Corinthians that Christ not only died according to the Scriptures, but that he was also buried according to the Scriptures (1 Cor 15:4).  There are at least three things that comfort us as Christians knowing that Jesus was buried.

First, at Christian funerals it is a great comfort to be reminded that they buried the Lord Jesus, but the grave could not hold Him, nor will it hold us.  Second, Scripture tells us that to be buried is an honourable thing.  For instance, Jezebel’s body was devoured by dogs.  No one buried her (2 Kings 9:10).  Third, in his burial, our Saviour fully identifies with his people.  Even though he created the dirt, he is put into a hole in the ground (Psa 8), completing his humiliation!

Jesus being buried identifies with our pain. Jesus must give in to an enemy, and by all appearances suffer defeat.  The same with us.  Our lifeless bodies are surrendered to decay, which of course remains painful to friends and family.   When a person is buried, we see the dethronement of the image of God.  We were created to rule and have the earth under our feet, yet in the end we lose all polish.   The shine has gone, and we return to dust.   And so also Jesus was buried, surrendered to the earth.   Spices were placed around him to ward of the odours of decay.

And then God the Father intervenes.  The humiliation had gone to the very end.  No more humiliation for his dear Son.  Satisfaction for man’s sin was complete.    Therefore, as Psalm 16 reminds us, God the Father would not let his Holy One see decay and hence we have Easter Sunday!    Now the question may be asked, “If Jesus died as a payment for our sin, why do we still have to die?  Wouldn’t it be wonderful to be plucked up by God’s chariot and taken to heaven like Elijah?”

Many Christians will say that we die because of our sin.  And it is true we do sin, and this side of the grave we will continue to be sinners.  But our sin is not the answer to why we must still die.  Since Jesus cried from the cross, “It is finished” our death cannot be  payment for our sin but should now be seen as the doorway to heaven.  The thief who repented on the cross was told by Jesus, “Today you will be with me in paradise!”

Scripture doesn’t refer to our death as dying, but as passing on.  John 5:24 “I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes in him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned, he has crossed over from death to life.”  Perhaps the best known verses comes from our first reading when Jesus said a similar thing to Martha at Lazarus’ death. “I am the resurrection and the life.  He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die [John 11:25-26].

We merely move from a life of sin, through death’s door into eternity.  That’s why Paul could say to the Corinthians, that for the Christian the sting has been removed, death is harmless.  1 Cor 15:55; “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?”  It is gone because of our blessed Saviour died and was buried – and rose again!  Of course, the struggle to not sin but to obey continues until God pulls us through that door of death. Thankfully, death puts an end to our sinning and is our entrance into perfection.   And if Jesus should return this afternoon, we will be clothed with immortality in one blinking moment without going through death’s dark door (1 Cor 15:52).

Yet, even knowing all this, doesn’t make death a friendly thing.  Although no longer a sentence of eternal punishment for those who believe in Jesus, it is still an enemy.   It remains the door through which we are called home.   So, what advantage is there for the living in Christ’s death and burial?   We are inclined to say that Jesus takes the fear out of dying, rather than saying Jesus’ death and resurrection puts us to death while we are still living.

We don’t mind dying in the Lord at the end of our days but dying is only gain for those who are living in Christ now (Phi 1:21).   Because Jesus died for me, dying is easy, but once I have said this, I should add, and this is the difficult part, “I no longer live, but Christ lives in me” (Gal 2:20).  This is where the rubber hits the road!   Our lives are to show that Jesus lives in us and that we are dying for him every day.

In that sense, you and I as believers are included in Christ’s crucifixion, his death and his burial and his resurrection.  All Jesus did he did for those who believe.  Jesus’ death and resurrection was a representative act.  What He did, we did!  The death He died He died for us, and for all those who believe in Him!     Through Him, we overcame death, and by his Holy Spirit, we now live a different life!   We no longer live according to the old sinful flesh.  That has passed away.

 We are now in Christ!   All things have become new.  We don’t just say we died when Christ died on Golgotha.  That is true, but if that is all you say then it is an incomplete gospel.  For surely we die every day to sin.   Not just when we first believed, but every day, we died to sin and now live for Christ.  We don’t say, “Lord, Lord and do not do what [Jesus’] says.”  We died with Christ on Golgotha.  Historical fact.  That is when Christ made us His own. The reality of Christ’s death and his life can be experienced only if we consciously believe his Word and walk in His ways.

And if you are unwilling to die to sin, to die with Christ, then you cannot live with Christ.   So hear the good news again.  Jesus died to save sinners.  He was buried, He rose and He is Lord and King forever!  He invites all sinners to repent and believe and to live a new life in Him!   Amen.