What Jesus did for us (Part 4 of series on The True Jesus/Gospel)
This is part 4 of a series I am writing on the true Christ and the true gospel. I would invite you to read the other parts to the series before you read this part.
part 1- https://www.modernberean.org/single-post/2018/10/24/The-True-Jesus-and-True-Gospel
part 2- https://www.modernberean.org/single-post/2018/10/24/Making-a-Decision-for-Christ
part 3- https://www.modernberean.org/single-post/2018/10/26/Mans-condition-and-being-a-good-person
What Jesus did for us-
We now understand man's condition and that there is no way to earn your way to heaven. The question is now what exactly did Jesus do for us? Many would answer this, “He died for us”, and while that is a PART of what He did for us it does not explain ALL that He did for us. Jesus both lived a perfect life for us (fulfilling the whole law) and then died on our behalf, taking the wrath of God that all of His people deserve. I can not possibly exhaust this subject here but I will give a general overview. Paul sums it up like this in Galatians 3:10-13, 4:4-6-
10For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. 11But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith. 12And the law is not of faith: but, The man that doeth them shall live in them. 13Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree 4 But when the set time had fully come,God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5 to redeemthose under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship.[b]6 Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba,[c] Father.”
All men are born under God's law, if you do not do ALL that God's law commands perfectly then you are under a curse. No man has fulfilled the law perfect so all are under this curse (because of Adam's sin all men are born dead and unable to fulfill the law). Christ was born of the virgin Mary, lived a perfect life under the law, and then became cursed for us, in our place, and took the wrath of God that we deserved so that we can have eternal life. Through this sacrifice we not only have forgiveness of our sins but we have been made sons of God!
To dive a little further down into this under the old covenant God required sacrifices from priests for the sins of His people. These could never really take away their sins but pointed His people to the coming sacrifice of Christ and the shedding of the blood that could in fact cover sins because He Himself was sinless! Hebrews 9:6-9, 11-15 says it like this,
…... the priests went always into the first tabernacle, accomplishing the service of God. 7But into the second went the high priest alone once every year, not without blood, which he offered for himself, and for the errors of the people: 8The Holy Ghost this signifying, that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing: 9Which was a figure for the time then present, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices, that could not make him that did the service perfect, as pertaining to the conscience........ 11But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; 12Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. 13For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh:14How 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? 15And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.
In His sacrifice He also did away with the Old Covenant and sealed a New Covenant, one that had been promised to the people of God since the Old Testament (Jer 31:31-34). The Old Covenant is now “waxed old” and is done away with and replaced by the New Covenant sealed in the blood of Christ. In Hebrews 8:8-13 God says,
8For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah: 9Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord. 10For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people: 11And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest. 12For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. 13In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.
In the next part we will cover the true Gospel.
