The Son of God, a sermon by Colin Dye

The post The Son of God appeared first on Colin Dye.

God-in-Christ, therefore, is the only substitute who can accomplish your atonement, because Jesus is the only One in whom the should and the could are united by his fully-human, fully-divine nature.

Early in their history, the people of Israel were slaves in Egypt. Eventually, God revealed himself to Moses and appointed him to lead the people away from slavery and into the promised land of Canaan. Moses spoke to Pharaoh, the Egyptian ruler, but he would not let the people of Israel go. So God sent a series of warning ‘plagues’ to Egypt.

When Pharaoh still refused to release the Israelites, God announced that he would send a final ‘plague’ of death on the country. There would be a supreme act of holy judgement on Egypt and a merciful act of deliverance for Israel. God would act decisively to demonstrate his love and his justice, his grace and his holiness.

God told Moses that each Israelite household should take a perfect lamb or goat, kill it, and sprinkle some of its blood on the outside doorposts and lintels of their houses.

Sprinkled with the blood That night, God passed through Egypt and killed the firstborn male of every human family and every farm animal. But he passed over all those homes where the doorways were splashed with blood. There was unlimited salvation from death for all the households whose homes were sprinkled with the blood of a lamb.

Just as Adam and Eve in Eden had personally to accept the blood-stained clothes from God, so each Jewish family had personally to act on God’s provision of the blood sacrifice.

They each had to sacrifice their most valuable animal and sprinkle its blood on their doorposts: this was their personal, faith-filled response to God’s outstretched grace.

The Bible records that God rewarded his people’s obedient sacrifices with unlimited blessing – this time with a personal salvation from death and a corporate salvation from slavery.

Pointers to the cross As we look at Exodus chapter 12 and read the details of the Passover we can see an amazing picture of the cross and our unlimited salvation! ? There was only one way of escape from God’s just wrath, and that was by God’s gracious provision ? God’s merciful love passed over every blood-marked home to shield them from his wrath ? the people of Israel belonged to God because they’d been purchased by the blood and so were consecrated to his service ? the only survivors were those in homes where a perfect lamb had died instead of them ? the survivors were those who’d appropriated the blood ? the sacrifice not only dealt with their past bondage, it also provided them with a new life of freedom And it is still the same today! The judgement of God and the sentence of death hangs over every household today. There isn’t a person alive on earth who doesn’t live in the fear and knowledge of death. The wonderful news, however, is that the perfect Lamb has been sacrificed at Calvary; and that all those who believe his blood was shed to achieve their unlimited salvation will be spared when the terrible day of judgement finally comes.

Claim the blood Make sure that you claim his blood, for yourself and for your entire household. Do it now!

Sprinkle the blood of the Lamb over your life and over your home. Place it over yourself and your loved ones. Live continually in the safety of its covering. And make sure that you spread the good news of Jesus’ saving blood to all your friends and relations. Once you’ve started to believe in the blood, and have personally appropriated it, you’ll begin to sleep easy at night. You’ll rest in the knowledge that his blood is the guarantee of your unlimited salvation and your unlimited life of freedom. Every appearance of the crimson thread of the blood in the Old Testament prepares the way for the New Testament declaration that Jesus Christ shed his blood as a sacrifice for you – and for all people everywhere. All the Jewish sacrifices are meant to point you to Christ: they should help you grasp the significance of his death, and understand why he died. What they don’t do, however, is reveal precisely who Jesus is. Most unbelievers think that he was merely a man; while many believers imagine that he was somehow independent of God.

Right and wrong ideas The problem with these ideas is that they lead people to misunderstand the blood. Never think that, on the cross, Jesus was trying to pacify an angry God and grasp a begrudging salvation. And never think that an unjust God killed an innocent Jesus in place of the real culprits.

The story of Abraham and Isaac on Mount Moriah paved the way for the truth. The Father was ready to sacrifice his beloved Son and the adult Son was prepared to be the willing victim. Their wills were one: the Father gave the Son and the Son freely gave himself. The Father sacrificed the Son and the Son willingly sacrificed himself.

God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them. 2 Corinthians 5:19

This should help you to realise that the blood sacrifice on the cross was not made by Christ alone or by God alone, but by God acting in Christ. In their love for you, the Father, the Son and the Spirit worked together in grace and harmony in the shedding of their own blood.

God in Christ Some people have suggested that God died on the cross, but common sense should convince you that the immortal God could not die. God simply had to become fully human (without ceasing to be fully God) if he was to die as your substitute atoning sacrifice, and be both Judge and innocent victim, both high priest and perfect lamb. Jesus Christ, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a servant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled himself and become obedient to the point of death even the death of the cross. Philippians 2:6-8

When you think about it carefully, it should be obvious that only a human should atone for your sins (because it’s you who’s sinned). And that only God could accomplish the necessary atonement (since it’s he who’s justly demanded it).

God-in-Christ, therefore, is the only substitute who can accomplish your atonement, because Jesus is the only One in whom the should and the could are united by his fully-human, fully-divine nature.

Your substitute on the cross The good news, dear friend, is that a substitute has taken your place, offered your confession, borne the pain of your sin, and endured the penalty due to your disobedience. And this substitute wasn’t an animal, nor was it Christ alone or God alone. Instead, the substitute who died in your place was God-in-Christ, the fully human, fully divine being who was uniquely qualified to represent human you and divine God, and to mediate between you.

When God gave his Son for you, he graciously gave himself! When he sent his Son for you, he graciously came himself! God humbled himself to become – in-and-through his Son – human flesh, and to endure and accept the terrible consequences of all your sin. In his amazing grace, the Judge personally intervened and endured the penalty which he’d imposed upon you. In order to save you from death, my friend, God-in-Christ graciously substituted himself and shed his blood for you.

How can you respond to the cross and the blood with anything other than total commitment?

?I confess and declare that I owe everything to the precious blood of Jesus Christ, who died in my place, once-and-for-all, on the cross of Calvary.

I thank You, my Father, for graciously providing the blood of sacrifice so that I can dwell in Your presence forever. I thank You, my Jesus, for willingly donating every drop of Your blood so that I can always have Your life flowing through me. I thank You, my God, for providing the Passover Lamb to die for my life and my deliverance. I sprinkle his blood over my life, over my home, over my family, over all that is dear to me. I receive by faith the unlimited salvation and unlimited blessings that his shed blood brings to me. I affirm before all the host of heaven that the precious blood of Jesus permanently guarantees my forgiveness, eternally removes my guilt, and beckons me into the welcoming presence of God.

In Your grace and mercy, through the great power of the blood, You have provided me with unlimited life and freedom. I accept Your gift. I receive Your gift.

I depend on Your gift. I rejoice in Your gift. Praise Your wonderful name.?

The post The Blood of Christ and Unlimited Salvation appeared first on Colin Dye.

The New Testament echoes with cries of victory. Because Jesus is our conquering King we are victorious conquerors, triumphant winners, and glorious overcomers.

How we thank God, who gives us victory over sin and death through Jesus Christ our Lord! 1 Corinthians 15:57

It may seem that evil triumphed over goodness at the cross, but the Bible declares that it was the place where goodness conquered evil. It may seem that Christ was crushed by earthly powers on the cross, but it was the place where the Seed of the woman finally crushed the serpent’s head. We owe this victory completely to the victorious Jesus. Colossians 2:15 states that it is Christ who overcame and triumphed – and that he did so on the cross.

THE CONQUERING CHRIST

How can a crucified Christ be a conqueror? How can a victim be a victor? How can an executed criminal, who was rejected, betrayed, denied and deserted by his own disciples, be deemed triumphant? The answers lie in God’s plan of salvation to turn defeat into victory and death into life. That plan was accomplished in what we know as the Easter story.

Predictions of victory

Genesis 3:15 is the first glimpse of the gospel, the first foreshadowing of the cross, and it points specifically to the victory of our salvation:

From now on, you and the woman will be enemies, and your offspring and her offspring will be enemies. He will crush your head, and you will strike his heel

.

This first prediction of triumph identified the woman’s seed, or offspring, as the one who would be completely victorious. It was later revealed to the prophets that this ‘seed’ would be the Messiah, the Christos or ‘Anointed Man’, who would establish God’s righteous rule and eradicate evil.

When we take an overview of the Old Testament, and interpret each passage in the light of the cross, we see that God’s righteous rule over Israel and the promise of the future rule of Messiah are further predictions of the Seed’s ultimate triumph over the serpent.

Foretastes of victory

If Christ’s decisive victory over Satan was achieved in his death on the cross, the early rounds were won in his perfect submission to God throughout his earthly life and in the mighty works which demonstrated his unique anointing and authority.

As soon as Jesus was born, Satan recognised him as his future conqueror and started to attempt to defeat him. For example, he attacked Jesus through:

• Herod’s slaughter of the Bethlehem children – Matthew 2:1-18
• The wilderness temptations to avoid the cross -Matthew 4:1-11
• The Nazareth congregation’s attempts on his life – Luke 4:28-29
• The crowds desire to make him a political ruler – John 6:15
• Peter’s opposition to the way of the cross – Matthew 16:21-23
• Judas’ betrayal – Luke 22:1-6 & John 13:27.

But Jesus was determined to fulfil what had been foretold. He announced that God’s kingdom had come to that generation through him, and that his mighty works were the visible proof of its coming.

Through the Gospels, we see God’s kingdom advancing and Satan’s retreating as demons were cast out, diseases were healed and nature was calmed (for example, in Mark 1:24; Matthew 4:23 & Mark 4:39).

Luke 10:1-24 describes how Jesus sent seventy disciples to announce the kingdom’s arrival by preaching and healing as his representatives. When they returned, Jesus told them that he had seen Satan fall from heaven as a result of their activities.

Jesus said that the strong man must be bound. The devil may have been a very strong man, but a stronger man had come – and he would bind and overpower the strong man and plunder his house.

This binding and overpowering did not fully take place, however, until the cross. In John 12:31, Jesus anticipated the devil’s last offensive on the cross, and promised that he would be driven out and condemned. And Hebrews 2:14-15 states that it was by his death that Jesus destroyed the devil and liberated his captives.

The moment of victory

Colossians 2:13-15 is the clearest New Testament statement about the victory of Christ on the cross:

You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ. He forgave all our sins. He cancelled the record that contained the charges against us. He took it and destroyed it by nailing it to Christ’s cross. In this way, God disarmed the evil rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross of Christ.

In this important passage, the apostle Paul draws together two aspects of salvation.

First, he illustrates God’s gracious act of forgiveness on the cross by comparing it to the way that debts were cancelled. Paul shows that God has released us from our moral and spiritual bankruptcy by paying our debts on the cross. He shows us that God has also destroyed all the records of our indebtedness.

Paul then describes God’s powerful act of conquest on the cross, and shows that he had stripped his opponents of their weapons and exhibited them as impotent, defeated enemies. This describes an apekdusis of the enemy in ancient military life. The commander of the conquering army would publicly strip the defeated commanding officer of every weapon and remove his insignia of rank to demonstrate total victory over and unconditional surrender of the enemy.

We must recognise that Paul uses some vivid physical images to describe an invisible spiritual reality. Just as God did not literally nail a list of our debts on the cross, so Jesus did not literally exhibit defeated demons in Jerusalem. But these spiritual events were nevertheless real and actually took place in the invisible realm

The deep truth beneath Paul’s imagery is that forgiveness and victory both occurred simultaneously, and are always inescapably linked. In fact, we can say that Christ triumphed over evil by repaying our debts, that by delivering us from our sins he delivered us from sin.

Just as Jesus overcame the devil during his ministry by resisting all his temptations, and by his perfect submission and obedience to the Father, so he triumphed over the devil on the cross by his perfect obedience (see Romans 5:19 & Philippians 2:8).

The Son’s perfect submission was indispensable to salvation. If Jesus had disobeyed for a moment, had deviated one inch from God’s path, the devil would have gained a fingerhold and frustrated salvation. But, Jesus obeyed the Father completely – and so the devil was routed.

On the cross, the devil provoked Jesus through torture, injustice, lies and insults, but Jesus refused to retaliate. He could have summoned an angelic army to help him, he could have stepped down from the cross; but, instead of overcoming evil with power, he conquered it with good.

Despite everything that the devil did at the cross, he could gain no hold on Jesus; and, when Jesus died without sin, the devil had to concede defeat. The devil was truly trying to defeat Jesus through the cross, but he failed, and in turn, Jesus defeated him. This means that the long-predicted victory of the Seed, which began during Christ’s earthly life and ministry, was decisively accomplished by his death at the cross.

The confirmation of victory

Some believers seem to think that the cross was a temporary defeat and that the resurrection was the real moment of victory. But, the cross was the victory and the resurrection was merely the visible proof and public vindication of the victory on the cross. We see this, for example, in Acts 2:24; Ephesians 1:20-23 & 1 Peter 3:22.

Of course, the New Testament always links the cross and the empty tomb together – as in, 1 Corinthians 15:1-8. This means that we should not proclaim the cross without the resurrection or the resurrection without the cross, for Jesus is both the living Lord and the atoning Saviour.

Despite this unbreakable link, we will understand salvation correctly only when we appreciate the true relation between Christ’s triumphant death and his confirming resurrection.

We have been saved by the blood of Jesus, by his death on the cross. It was the blood on the cross which achieved our salvation, revealed God’s nature and won the decisive victory over evil. It was the blood which accomplished our redemption, and reconciliation. It was the blood which satisfied the twin demands of God’s justice and love.

The New Testament always states that ‘Christ died for our sins’ and never that ‘he rose for our sins’: Hebrews 2:14 makes this plain. The resurrection did not earn our salvation; instead, it is the ultimate proof of our salvation. Just as the incarnation was the indispensable requirement for salvation, so the resurrection was the indispensable confirmation of salvation. The resurrection vindicated Jesus, declared that he was the Son of God, and revealed that his substitutionary death had won salvation. It was God’s way of publicly endorsing Jesus’ victory on the cross.

LIVING IN VICTORY

The Greek verb katargeo is often translated as ‘to destroy’ or ‘to abolish’, and is used in Hebrews 2:14 with reference to the devil, the flesh and death itself:

Jesus…became flesh and blood by being born in human form. For only as a human being could he die, and only by dying could he break the power of the Devil, who had the power of death.

Katargeo means ‘to make ineffective’ or ‘barren’, or ‘render inoperative’ and was the verb used in the first century Greek world to describe barren land and unproductive fruit trees. They still existed, they had not been destroyed, but they had been cut down and were quite barren.

When, therefore, the New Testament applies katargeo to the devil, the flesh and death, it is not suggesting that they were completely ‘destroyed’ at the cross. The devil is still active; the flesh continues to assert itself in our lives; death keeps on operating: they still exist, but they were cut down and broken on the cross.

This means that the decisive victory of Christ did not abolish the devil, the flesh and death, it simply rendered them ineffective – it stripped them of their power.

Living in victory, therefore, means living in the knowledge that Satan still exists, but that his power has been fundamentally broken; that the flesh still makes all manner of suggestions to us, but that these are essentially empty threats; that death still rears its ugly head, but that there is nothing to fear any more.

1 John 3:8 shows that the Son was sent by the Father to confront and defeat Satan, and to undo the damage which he had directly inflicted or indirectly caused:

When people keep on sinning, it shows they belong to the Devil, who has been sinning since the beginning. But the Son of God came to destroy these works of the Devil.

The New Testament refers to many different aspects of Christ’s saving victory, but it particularly emphasises our triumphant freedom from the law, the flesh, the world and death itself.

Freedom from the law

In Romans 6:14; and Galatians 3:13, the apostle Paul teaches that we have been released from the bondage of the Law by Christ’s victory on the cross.

The Law condemned our disobedience, and so brought us under its ‘curse’ or judgement. But, Christ’s death released us from the Law’s curse because he became a curse for us. This means that Christ was the fulfilment or completion of the Law, and it no longer enslaves us by its condemnation.

Romans 8:1-4 explains that we are not condemned when we are in Christ, for God has condemned our sins in Christ. This passage shows that God did this so that the righteous requirements of the Law could be fully met in us; and it demonstrates that the cross released us from the Law’s condemnation so that we would be released into a life of walking in obedience to the Holy Spirit.

This means that Christ’s victory over the Law, and our resultant freedom from the Law, is demonstrated or evidenced by our walk in-and-with the Spirit. Quite simply, our life in the Spirit is our ongoing experience of Christ’s victory.

Freedom from the flesh

The ‘flesh’, sarx, represents people in their earthly origin, natural weakness and alienation from God, and that it is often the cause of sinful activity. The basic characteristic of human ‘flesh’ is selfcentredness, and Galatians 5:16-21 lists some of the consequences of the flesh’s natural appetites. Jesus spoke about the freedom he brings in Romans 6:6 show that our freedom from the fallen, selfish nature of the flesh comes from the cross:

Our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin.

It is important to note that Galatians 5:16-25 describes freedom from the flesh in terms of walking in the Spirit. Once again, our ongoing experience of Christ’s victory is demonstrated by our walk in-andwith the Spirit. Our partnership with the Spirit is our experience of victory.

Freedom from the world

We can say that the ‘flesh’ is the devil’s basic hold inside us, and that the ‘world’ is his basic means of pressuring us from outside. In this context, ‘the world’ means the godless society which is hostile to the Church and which continually attempts to compromise its holy values.

In 1 John 2:15, the apostle John says that the love of the world and the love of the Father are incompatible, mutually exclusive:

Stop loving this evil world and all that it offers you, for when you love the world, you show that you do not have the love of the Father in you.

The world is characterised by selfish desires, superficial judgements and sinful materialism, but Jesus overcame the world. Therefore, we can be overcomers too – through him.

When Jesus claimed that he had triumphed over the world, he meant that he had rejected its distorted values and maintained his godly perspective on people and material objects. When we believe in Jesus, we share his victory over the world by sharing his eternal values. Living in Christ’s victory over the world means not being conformed to its values and being progressively transformed by our renewed mind’s grasp of God’s will.

Nothing reveals God’s nature more clearly than the cross. It is through the cross that the world has been crucified to us, and we to the world, so that we are released from its bondage to live in the freedom of God’s will and values.

Freedom from death

Hebrews 2:14-15 teaches that Jesus has released us from the fear of death because, by his death, he has ‘destroyed’ (or, better, ‘made ineffective’) the one who holds the power of death.

Because sin is the ‘sting’ of death, the primary reason why death is painful and unpleasant, Jesus dealt with death by dealing with sin. It was sin which caused death in the first place, and which continues to cause humanity to face divine judgement after death – and this sinful root is the essential reason for the universal human fear of death.

Christ, however, has died for our sins and has taken them away. His victory over sin means that we are released from the fear of sin and judgement, and, therefore, from the fear of death.

In 1 Corinthians 15:54-57, the apostle Paul likens death both to a scorpion whose sting has been drawn and to a military conqueror whose power has been broken. Now that we have been forgiven through the death on the cross, death cannot harm us: through our Lord Jesus Christ, God has given us victory over the fear of death.

Of course, like the devil, death still remains: it has been neutralised, not eliminated. It still exists, but has lost its power to harm and terrify. John 11:25-26 records Jesus’ great promise to his disciples about death:

“I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die like everyone else, will live again. They are given eternal life for believing in me and will never perish.”

This does not mean that we will escape physical death, but that it will simply be a transition from life on earth to fullness of life.

Being an overcomer

The central message of Revelation is clear: Jesus has defeated Satan on the cross, and will one day eliminate him altogether. It is only against the backdrop of these two absolute certainties that Revelation can encourage believers to confront Satan’s continuing activities of persecution, deception and seduction.

The Holy Spirit, through the Revelation of John, urges us to be overcomers, to enter into Christ’s victory on the cross and triumph over the devil’s power. And the New Testament suggests that there are two simple ways of becoming a victor and living in victory.

First, James 4:7 urge us to resist the devil, to stand firm against him in faith. We have nothing to fear because he has been defeated at the cross. When we are equipped with the Ephesians 6:10-17 armour of God, we can stand against him and prevail.

We are not to flee from the devils’ monsters of persecution, deception and seduction; we are to resist them in the name of Jesus the Victor so that the devil flees from us as he flees from Jesus.

In fact, we are not just conquerors, for Romans 8:37 describes us as hupernikao – ‘hyper-conquerors’ or ‘super-heroes’. Even in times of tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, war, poverty and peril, Paul proclaims that we should be ‘more than conquerors’ – through him who loved us.

Then, second, Revelation 12:11 shows that we overcome the devil through the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony. We are called to proclaim, to demonstrate and to incarnate the good news about Jesus Christ. We witness and minister to Jesus that people turn from Satan to God, that Satan’s kingdom retreats and God’s advances.

We must remember that it is only by the cross of Christ that we can triumph over Satan – both in our personal lives and in the Church’s mission. We know that we are called to repentant holiness and radical evangelism, to selfless self-sacrifice and patient endurance; but these only have meaning and purpose because the ultimate completion of the Seed’s crushing victory over the serpent – which he won when he died.

The post The Victory of the Cross appeared first on Colin Dye.

God?s gift of forgiveness must be the best news in the Bible! It meets your most basic need as a sinner and establishes your relationship with God forever.

Visit my store and buy my books here.

The post God?s gift of forgiveness appeared first on Colin Dye.

Russian Christians Demand Apple Change ‘Offensive’ Logo to Cross

What is your opinion on this?

The post Russian Christians Demand Apple Change 'Offensive' Logo to Cross appeared first on Colin Dye.

Jesus was made a curse for you so that you might receive the blessing of the Spirit freely into your life.

Key Thought

Jesus was made a curse for you so that you might receive the blessing of the Spirit freely into your life. The curse of the law is gone forever and you can live in all the promises of abundant blessing as you follow the Lord.

Prayer

Thank you, Lord Jesus that you carried every curse of mine on the cross and you have opened up the way for the blessing of God to come into every area of my life.

Discipleship Steps

God has called you to walk in the path of blessing. The curses of disobedience have been removed and in place of them you have received the blessings of obedience ? the obedience of Jesus Christ Himself. Now you must turn away from every action, thought or attitude that clings to the past way of life under the curse. To live in the freedom of God?s blessing takes a life of persistently yielding to the Spirit. Be conscious of this as you go about your daily affaires.

Read: Galatians 3:10-14

The post The Curse is Lifted! appeared first on Colin Dye.

God's Wisdom was revealed at the Cross

The post The Wisdom of God appeared first on Colin Dye.

The cover of our Church magazine, "revival times"

In order to fully understand the cross correctly we need grasp the natures of the Father, the Son and the Spirit.

Most of the secular objections to the cross are based on wrong ideas about God and Christ; and nearly all the Christian misunderstandings about salvation come from inaccurate pictures of the relationship between the Father and the Son. The idea of substitution rests on the identity of the substitute. Everyone knows that Christ was the substitute, but we need to grasp precisely who the Christ is who died on the cross.

An independent Jesus Unbelievers think that the person who died on the cross was simply a human being. Although most Christians reject this idea, many believers think that the Son was an individual being who was quite separate from God ? an independent third party in the act of salvation.

This means that they present the cross either as Jesus trying to pacify an angry God and grasp a begrudging salvation, or as an unjust God who kills an innocent Jesus in place of the real culprits. This is a grievous misrepresentation of the Father. He is not reluctant to suffer himself or to forgive humanity, and he is not a cold tyrant whose anger has to be appeased and whose antipathy to humanity has to be overcome by someone outside himself, by some third party. This ?third party? approach sets the Son against the Father, yet there has never been any discord or conflict between them. Whatever happened on the cross was willed and accepted by both equally.

The second clause of Isaiah 53:10 is notoriously difficult to translate. It is unclear in Hebrew who makes the offering: the clause could mean either ?though God offers his servant as an offering? or ?though the servant offers himself as an offering?. At first sight, the New Testament appears to be equally ambiguous.

Passages like Romans 3:25, ?[Christ Jesus] whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed? and the well known John 3:16, ?For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life? stress that the Father sacrificed the Son. Whereas Matthew 20:28 emphasises that the Son sacrificed himself, ?the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.?

Once again, the truth is parallel and inter-related. The Father gave the Son and the Son freely gave himself. The Father sacrificed his Son, and the Son voluntarily sacrificed himself. The Father did not make the Son endure an ordeal he was unwilling to bear, and the Son did not surprise the Father by his selfless action. Galatians 1:4 & John 10:17?18 express this paradox very plainly.

In one sense, the story of Abraham and Isaac on Mount Moriah is an obvious foreshadowing, for there we see the father ready to sacrifice his unique son of promise, and the son prepared to be the willing victim. At another level, however, it is a thoroughly inadequate picture because Abraham and Isaac are separate, independent beings. God is not divided into three. He is one, but more than one. The Father, the Son and the Spirit are not three distinct individuals; they are three self-distinctions within one being who reveal their essential oneness in a three-fold diversity of ?uni-persons?, characteristics and functions.

If we misunderstand this absolute divine unity we are likely to fall into error whenever we think about the cross. If we think of the Father and the Son as separate individuals we inevitably caricature Calvary as either God punishing an innocent Jesus (cosmic child abuse) or as Jesus placating an angry God (as in paganism).

But 2 Corinthians 5:18?19 makes it clear that the sacrifice was not made by Christ alone, or by God alone, but by God acting in-and-through Christ with his full agreement. They worked together in harmony. Their functions may have been different but their wills were one. They were co-dependent not independent.

God himself

The essential unity of God has led some people (they are usually called ?Unitarians?) to believe that God alone was the substitute, that he took our place and died for us. They argue: 1 Corinthians 2:8 shows that it was the Lord of Glory who was crucified; Revelation reveals that the Lamb who died is at the centre of God?s throne; Hebrews 9:17 teaches that we can benefit from the promises in a will only after the testator has died; and Acts 20:28 announces that God purchased the church with his own blood.

Their argument fails, however on the fact that no verse specifically declares that God himself died on the cross, and on the realisation that the immortality of God means he could not have died. Common sense should be enough to convince us that God simply had to become human (without ceasing to be God or becoming independent of God) if he was to die as our substitute and simultaneously be both Judge and innocent Victim.

We should note that the New Testament usually means ?the first uni-person of God, the Father? when it mentions God. This is another reason why it can be misleading to suggest that ?God? died on the cross ? for it was the fully-human, fully-divine Son who died, not the fully-divine Father. If we over-emphasise ?God?s? sufferings on the cross we are in danger of confusing the ?uni-persons? of the Trinity, of denying the eternal distinctiveness of the Son, and of denying Jesus? full humanity. Passages like Romans 5:12?19; Galatians 4:4; Philippians 2:7?8 & Hebrews 5:8 underline the ?unity and functional distinctiveness? within God by stressing the Son?s willing submission to the Father.

God-in-Christ

The substitute who took our place, offered our full confession, bore the pain of all our sin, and endured the penalty incurred by all our rebellious disobedience was not Christ alone (as this would make him an outside third party) or God alone (because this would negate the incarnation). Instead, the Substitute on the cross was God-in-Christ, fully-human and fully-divine, uniquely qualified to represent both God and humanity, and to mediate between them. Whenever we think about the cross in terms of Christ suffering and dying, we overlook the Father?s gracious initiative. But when we think about it in terms of God suffering and dying, we overlook the Son?s gracious mediation.

In contrast to these partial approaches, the New Testament consistently stresses that the Father acted in salvation ?in-and through Christ with his whole-hearted agreement?. It should be obvious that only a human should make atonement for the sins of humanity (because it is men and women who have sinned) and that only God could make the necessary atonement (since it is he who had justly demanded it and humans could not provide their own). Jesus Christ, therefore is the only possible substitute because he is the only person in whom the should and could are united by virtue of his fully-human, fully-divine nature.

The cross

These ideas of ?divine oneness? and ?God-in-Christ? mean, first, that there are only two participants in the drama of the cross, not three: humanity and God; and, second, that it is all down to grace. In giving his Son, God graciously gave himself for us. In sending the Son, he graciously came himself for us. By grace, the Judge intervened and himself endured the penalty that he had imposed on us. In order to save sinful humanity in a way which was fully consistent with his holy nature, God-in Christ graciously substituted himself for us. Before we can consider what happened on the cross, and its consequences and implications for us, we need to be absolutely clear what the cross is and is not. For example, the cross was not:

?A bargain with the devil ?A requirement of some code of law or honour ? A punishment of an innocent Jesus by a harsh Father ? A means of extracting salvation from a mean Father ? An action of the Father which by-passed Christ?s mediation

Instead, the just-and-loving God humbled himself to become ? in-andthrough his only Son ? human flesh, and to endure and accept the terrible consequences of human sin. He graciously did this so that he could save us without compromising his holy divine character. In many ways, substitution is at the heart of both sin and salvation. We can say that the essence of sin is humanity substituting itself for God, while the essence of salvation is God substituting himself for humanity. Through our rebellious sin, we put ourselves where only God should be; and by his amazing grace, God puts himself where only we deserve to be. Truly our salvation is by grace.

The post Jesus, the Substitute Sacrifice appeared first on Colin Dye.

The mystery of Godliness

The Early Church worshipped God not out of sentiment but revelation. Just how packed with truth the worship of First Century believers was can be seen from Paul’s quotation from one of their worship songs. Truly Spirit-inspired, this song’s lyrics were as follows:

God was manifested in the flesh, Justified in the Spirit, Seen by angels, Preached among the Gentiles, Believed on in the world, Received up in glory. 1 Timothy 3:16

Paul introduces the song by saying without doubt the revelation we carry is magnificent: And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness.

The word ‘mystery’ means ‘a truth previously hidden, now disclosed’. Our worship also should be filled with truth about God – not just a personal response to God.

Recent surveys show that 15% of British people attend church services at least once a month. This leaves many ‘unchurched’ people who have yet to experience the joy of Christian worship. But what’s the appeal of songs of worship? Is it the musical style, the technical excellence or the feelings they evoke? Perhaps this has something to do with it – but far more important than that, is the fact that our worship gives us the opportunity to set our hearts ablaze with truth. Just look at the truth-content of this early worship song:

? God was manifested in the flesh – hallelujah! Jesus came; ? Justified in the Spirit – he died and was raised again; ? Seen by angels – he revealed the reality of the supernatural realm; ? Preached among the Gentiles – he came for all nations; ? Believed on in the world – we can all come to know him by faith; ? Received up in glory – he ascended to heaven taking up his place on the throne of the universe.

This Easter we celebrate all these great truths, not just as poetry or sentimental ideas, but as truth. The mystery has been revealed. God has made himself known. Singing songs of truth edifies our mind and excites our spirit – and it rests on one great fact – Jesus is not dead, but is risen from the dead and is alive for evermore. We know that we are forgiven, called for a purpose and empowered by love.

Take time to worship the resurrected Christ in spirit and truth. Take even more time to spread the message that is the heart of it all. Let the world know the God whom we worship is the Lord of all.

The post The Mystery of Godliness appeared first on Colin Dye.

The post Jesus was anointed for the cross appeared first on Colin Dye.