Word of Salvation – Vol. 25 No. 40 – July 1979

 

The Death Of Christ

 

Sermon by Rev. M. P. Geluk on Lord’s Day 16

Scripture Reading: 2Corinthians 5

Psalter Hymnal: 135 all vss., 228:1,2,3,9; 200:1,2; 233:8

 

Congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ,

We believe concerning Christ that He was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried, and that He descended into hell.

Lord’s Day 16 focuses our attention on Christ’s death, His burial, and His descension into hell.

These words, congregation, would seem to have a note of gloom about them, don’t you think? Death, burial, hell, they are certainly not the kind of words one would want to use to cheer someone up. As regards Christ, to whom these words of death, burial, and hell are applied, one notices how He was placed more and more into despairing loneliness.

Death: it is the moment when the soul is separated from the body. Burial: it is the moment when the body is separated for good from the living ones. Descent into hell: it is the moment when God separates Himself for good from the whole person, both soul and body. Of death, burial, and descension into hell, the last is the worst. What makes dying and being buried so terrible and frightening is the fact that hell is linked up with it. And the dreadful aspect of Christ dying and being buried, is that His death especially was hell-bound! Death, burial, going to hell, terrible words with terrible implications.

Most people would prefer not to think about it; they would rather turn their thoughts to being born, and living. Yet the Bible does not avoid these words of death, burial and hell, and their implications. They are being spoken about just as birth and life are being spoken about. The reality that these words bring is not avoided but faced up to fully. In fact, the Bible nowhere denies the awfulness of death, burial, and hell. Even more so, if anywhere the full implications of these facts are brought home, then it is in the Bible.

The world doesn’t really face up to the terribleness of death, of burial and hell. Oh yes, death is a fact of course, no one can very well deny it. And the grave too; yes of course, everyone knows we need cemeteries. But hell, no, many people would rather not accept its reality. Nor do people in general want to see death and the grave as the beginning of hell, but they would rather continue to see them as the end to life.

But the Bible faces up to the full reality of these facts, and it doesn’t mean either that on these subjects it is morbid and hopelessly despairing. The Bible talks freely about death, the grave, and hell because it brings the wonderful, message that through the death of Christ there is deliverance from all these. The death of Christ is the heart of the Gospel. Everything that is part of the good news of salvation rests on it. It is no Gospel when the love of God is spoken of but not related to the death of Christ.

It is no Gospel when the forgiveness of sins is spoken of as a free gift of God but not linked to the death of Christ. The love of God and His forgiveness of sins are realities only when they are linked in the closest way possible with the death of Christ. This is what the New Testament does and that is the wonderful Gospel of grace we may bring to men everywhere,

The death of Christ was a terrible occasion. It came at the end of much suffering and it involved the grave and a going to hell. But the death of Christ was also a wonderful occasion, for in His death are a great many other deaths. Christ died to save countless others from death. It is therefore of great importance to everyone to consider Christ’s death and to realise what it can do for one’s own death which must surely come some day!

There is of course an important word that describes Christ’s death very well. It is the word ‘substitution’. It refers to a changing of places and in the context of what we are speaking about, the death of Christ is a glorious exchange for our death.

1. Firstly then we say that Christ died the death of the guilty. Yes, the Son of God died, because someone else was guilty. And we are that ‘someone else’. We, people, you and I, are the cause of Christ’s death. Sinful human nature does not let God rule over itself, but rebels against that divine rule. It began with Adam and Eve in Paradise and this rebellious streak in human nature shows up in every person. Adam and Eve were not prepared to let God be God to them, they gave in to Satan’s evil suggestion and decided to be gods themselves. God’s test of obedience, the tree in the middle of the garden, ceased to be a witness to their innocence but became a witness to their sinfulness after they had eaten from it.

Sin had thus entered into the human heart and their whole relationship to God changed immediately. Sin is disobedience to God’s will and its terrible result is death. God has said clearly: ‘In the day you eat thereof you shall surely die.’

Justice of God requires it.

And so death entered into the lives of men.

The whole meaning of life had changed in a terrible way. Before, life meant fellowship with God and a right standing before Him. Now, after sin had entered, life meant bondage and enslavement to the power of sin. Life now had death in it, for death is the result of disobedience. Man had stepped out of the circle of God’s fellowship, which meant life and light, and had stepped into the sinful realm of death and darkness. “The soul that sins shall die,” says the Scripture, and that is precisely what takes place.

We sometimes find ourselves thinking that God is terribly hard and unjust on us, and on human nature. God is so great, so full of power and might, why could He not have stopped Satan from tempting man, and Adam and Eve from sinning? And why punish immediately with death? Death is so extreme, so final, death is the end!

The fact that these thoughts are rebellious thoughts, we will probably even admit, but somewhere we feel a little justified in having them. And so we question God’s test of obedience in Paradise, we question His punishment of death, and we question His idea of justice. We feel that God could perhaps have applied measures less severe, less final, than those which He did apply.

But the trouble with us is that we are trying now to look back from a sinful condition into a realm where there was no sin at all. It is not at all surprising really that we do come up with all those questions about the fall into sin and about death. For how can the imperfect understand the perfect, how can we imagine life without death, when we have the results of death all around us?

We say sometimes, when we are discussing the Christian’s future, that we find it difficult to comprehend heaven and the eternal life after Christ’s coming again. The difficulty is there with us probably because we are used to different conditions now. Now we are all the time witnessing the imperfections and shortcomings of human nature. And from the realm of sin it is mighty hard to think of a sinless realm. And so we can’t imagine the future so very well. But by the same token we can’t imagine the past so very well either. Now we see in a mirror dimly, says Paul but then face to face. (1Cor.13). Now our vision is fogged up but in heaven it will be all clear. And we will probably have to wait until heaven before we can have a clear picture of the paradise of Adam and Eve.

But right now, as a result of disobedience to God, we have the consequences of sin before us – death, the grave and hell. We are painfully clear about these. We may not be clear on how and why it all came about, but we are clear on the fact that death, the grave, and hell are really with us.

“The soul that sins shall die.” says Scripture and we know that sinful man is dead. Yes, we may still be alive today but death will come.

In fact, death has already come. It is already present in every living baby that’s born. The Bible may not tell us everything that we want to know about Paradise and heaven, but it does tell us everything about death, the grave and hell And that does not make the Bible an unhappy, pessimistic book, because that is not the only message it brings. It also brings news of deliverance. It also tells us about the Victor who conquered death, the grave, and hell. People who grow tired of the Bible because it does not answer all their questions about Paradise and the entrance of sin, have perhaps never given serious attention to the message of deliverance it brings, for if they had, they would embrace the Bible as a most wonderful book which it is!

For although the Bible says: ‘the soul that sins shall die’, behold, it also says that God has no pleasure in the death of the wicked’. Death has been overcome! No, not by us, for we cannot deliver ourselves from the curse of sin which is death. But, says God, behold, look, I have given my only begotten Son to die in your place. For My justice must be satisfied. So, I will take the guilt of your sin, the result of your disobedience, away, and I will place them upon my only Son and He will die the death that you deserve.

In this way God can be both just and merciful. The death of Christ, therefore, is Him dying as the Innocent Son of God in the place of the guilty. Oh, the great wonder of God’s love. That His own Son, yes, God Himself, should come and die the death of the guilty. Yes, man has sinned and man deserves the punishment of death upon his sin, but wonder of wonders, Christ has come and died in the place of the sinner. That real and terrible separation from God which eternal death brings, Christ suffered its horrible effects when He died. The Innocent in place of the guilty. Oh, what a glorious exchange!

II. Then secondly, we also see that Christ entered the grave of the dead. Death and the grave belong together. Where death has struck, the grave must follow.

But now, why was Jesus buried? Why could Christ not have been raised to life immediately after His death? Why the grave for Christ? The answer of the catechism to this question is that the grave was the proof of Christ having really died. And of course, this is true. The grave is the final proof that a person is well and truly dead. The Bible does not want anyone uncertain as to whether or not Christ really died.

Yet, the burial of Christ has a further meaning which the Heidelberg Catechism fails to bring out.

This other meaning is this: if Christ’s suffering and death was in our place, and on our behalf, then surely His burial was that also. You see, the punishment of death also meant a returning to dust. ‘Dust you are, and to dust you shall return’, God has said. (Gen.3:19) The decay and the decomposition of the body, after death has entered, is all part of the curse of sin. Therefore, the grave is really a humiliation for man’s body which God so wonderfully made.

Yet, here too Christ came to put matters right. Just as He died our death, so also has He gone through the grave on our behalf.

Of course, after we die in the body, our bodies will still need to be buried and they will decay. Yet, the grave is only a temporary thing, for Christ has conquered, not only death, but also the grave. The power of the grave is broken. It will not hold an eternal grip because Christ has broken that grip when He came out of the grave.

The grave therefore has lost, for Christ has overcome. The grave as the holder of dead bodies will become a meaningless thing when Christ returns to claim His victory and the graves will be forced to give up their dead and the dead in Christ will be raised up with new and glorified bodies.

III. Then in the third place Christ also experienced the hell of the condemned. Hell is the deepest part of the punishment upon sin, it is the lowest point in the suffering of the sinner. Hell, it is the end of a life without God, of a soul not saved, it is being eternally separated from God. It is the terrible place of all the condemned.

But the Gospel of grace also provides an escape from this horrible God-forsaken realm.

For Christ has also experienced hell for others. He was plunged into its anguish and torment when He was on the cross, and God forsook Him and the hours of darkness were upon Him.

Christ gave that despairing cry; ‘My God, my God, why have You forsaken Me?’.

The real torment of hell is not just being forsaken of God, but to know that you are forsaken of God. The Bible has described hell as the place where men gnash their teeth and where the worm dies not. Now in this terrible place Christ has gone but He returned, thereby conquering its horrible power. He experienced the hell of the condemned. He went in so that others will be spared from going in. Christ in the place of the guilty. Oh, what a wonderful Substitute He is. He alone can turn us away from hell and send us to heaven. He alone has conquered, and therefore full salvation is with Him alone.

There is then, congregation, a death for the guilty, a grave for the dead, and a hell for the condemned.

It is the terrible curse upon sin in which we all share. In ourselves, we are guilty, we are dead, we are condemned. But oh, look at the death of Christ! See its purpose, see what it achieved: He died the death of the guilty; He entered the grave of the dead; and He experienced the hell of the condemned. Who would still bypass Christ and think Him not important?

Behold, Christ is man’s only hope.

And now, we ask you: – is this only hope your hope?

We are the guilty, we are the dead ones, and we are the condemned.

But has Christ saved you from all that? Has He died your death? Has He entered the grave for you? Has He experienced hell for you? Oh, do not think that it is not for you because your repentance has not yet been deep enough! Or do not think you stand a chance because you sincerely desire to be saved! Do not regard your feeling or sincerity as the ground of hope! Salvation is not of works but of grace. Christ did not die for those who have sufficiently repented. Nor for those who are sincere. Christ died for sinners, for the ungodly ones, for those who are utterly without strength. And that’s what we all are!

And because He died, such may believe, and receive through Him repentance and forgiveness.

You see, no one can believe when he wants to, no one can repent because he thinks he ought to. And least of all is God put under obligation to us because we have tried to believe and have tried to be sorry to God.

When is faith working in us, congregation? It is there when we are conscious of what our sin is doing to God, it is being aware of the wrong it does to His holiness, of the wound which it inflicts upon His love. But it is not in the power of the sinner to produce such a consciousness, such an awareness, of what wrong is being done to God. The more a person sins, the more repentance is needed so to speak, but he is increasingly the least able. Sin darkens the mind and hardens the heart, and it takes away the knowledge of God’s love and holiness.

So when is repentance produced in us? When are our hearts stirred to faith? Well, when the Gospel of grace is preached. When we hear of what Christ has done for the guilty, for the dead, and for the condemned.

Why should we repent, why should we believe in the death of Christ? What’s the motive for doing so? Well, it’s because we are guilty we are dead and condemned, and because Christ died for the guilty, entered the grave of the dead, and experienced the hell of the condemned. That is the motive, that’s the driving force behind it.

And that, congregation, comes to us through the preaching of the Gospel of grace. It is the preaching of the Word that works faith and repentance.

And so we look at the death of Christ and we may see God making Himself known to us, as to His justice, love and mercy.

Oh, the death of Christ, it brings God and the sinner together again. The death of Christ has slain in us the old man of sin. The old man is crucified, has died, and is buried with Christ. The old man of sin is gone forever. He is not slowly dying but he has fully died, for Christ has died.

Yes, there will still be experiences in the Christian’s life of falling and sinning, and of repenting and being restored.

But the old man of sin is dead because he was slain by Christ’s death and was buried with Him.

That act of grace from God can never be undone. It is entirely impossible for the Christian to fall away from that grace. And that grace will bring the Christian to a repentance when he has sinned, that grace will drive him back to God, that grace will move him to thankfulness and will make him want to live to the glory of God and in holiness of life.

That grace of God is irresistible!

And so with the church of God, the body of Christ, we may go on confessing – I believe in Jesus Christ who was crucified, who died and was buried, and descended into hell.

Amen.