SALVATION BIBLE BASICS —Lesson 3

REVIEW FROM PREVIOUS LESSONS

We said we were going to look at things from God's viewpoint. God is the one who looks at the heart of man. He doesn't just look at the outside, just at the circumstances, just the things that are known by others. But God sees the very heart of man. God tells us that we will stand before Him one day. Our lives will be judged in every deed done in this body. We will be judged according to truth, and that truth is the Word of God.

In the first study we also looked at God's law found in the Ten Commandments, which shows us what God requires of a person who wants to get to Heaven on their own merits. We found that no one can keep the Ten Commandments perfectly all their life through. Yet in the book of James the Bible tells us that if a man offends in one point, if he breaks just one point of the law, he is guilty of all of it. Therefore man is guilty.

Then in the second study we said that God looks at men in two different groups: either without a relationship with Him, or having a relationship with Him. They either belong to God or they do not belong to God. In the Bible there are different terms that describe these two groups, and we looked at some of those terms.

God says a man without a relationship is lost, unable to find his way. But a man with a relationship has been saved, rescued. God sees a man who has no relationship with Him as not right, unrighteous. But those who have a relationship, God sees them as having been made right in His eyes, or righteous. He sees those without a relationship as being unforgiven. They have sinned against God, and they have never been forgiven. Those who have a relationship with God have wronged God, but God has forgiven them. Those without a relationship are the enemies of God, fighting against God. That is our nature when we are born into this world. Yet the Bible says, there are some who have a relationship with God who have been reconciled, brought back together with God.

Those without a relationship are walking around already condemned by God, guilty before Him. But those who are related to God have been justified, made or declared just by God. Those who have no relationship are under the wrath of God already. Not only are they under the condemnation, but the very wrath and anger of God is pointed towards them. But He has accepted those who have a relationship with God. Finally, those without a relationship are headed to a place called Hell, and those with a relationship are headed to a place called Heaven.

Notice that the seven terms used to describe those who have a relationship with God   are all things that God promises or things God does in a person's life. They are not things that you and I can do. You can't find yourself. You can't declare yourself just. You can't forgive yourself for sinning against God. You can't cause yourself to be reconciled to God. These are all things that happen to you, something God has to do for you.

Then we talked for awhile about how man tries to make himself right with God. He does things like getting baptized, going to church, praying, giving his money, and trying to be a good person. But we saw in the Bible what God has to say about our good deeds. We saw that all the good   deeds that you and I ever do will never make us right with God.

GOD'S PROVISION

It seems obvious as we look at the Scriptures that every man, woman and child is born into this world in trouble with God. We are in trouble with God because of our sin, because we choose to sin against a holy God. We are in trouble, and we are going to stand before Him one day. Yet the Bible also makes it clear that it is possible to have a relationship with God. We saw in the last study that there are some people who have a relationship with God, some who have been forgiven, some who have been made just, some who have been made right, some who are headed towards Heaven.

The obvious question for us to ask is: how does this come about? How can it be, that some have Heaven as their home and most have Hell as their home? How can it be?  Since we are born sinners and are under the condemnation of God, and since we can't work our way to Heaven, there must be a way somehow for us to get there. We know it must be outside of ourselves, outside of our own ability, our own goodness, our own working, our own endeavors. There has to be a way provided so that people can have a relationship with God. That is literally what God has done. That is what we are going to talk about in this study: what God has done to provide this relationship.

THE GOSPEL

First of all we want to look at the fact that, in God's provision, God has given us the Gospel. The word Gospel means good news.  God's way of provision, God's way of getting a man from no relationship to a relationship, is by the Gospel. Notice in Romans 1:16, “For I am not ashamed of the_____________ of Christ:  for it is the power of God unto salvation  to every one that  believeth;  to  the  Jew  first,  and  also  to  the Greek”.

1. POWER OF GOD

First he says the Gospel is the power of God. This Gospel of Christ, the good news about Jesus Christ, is the power of God. That word for power there is the same word from which we today now get our word “dynamite”. Therefore, the Gospel is a powerful  explosive used to move us from  no relationship to a relationship with God.

2. UNTO SALVATION

Notice that Paul says this Gospel is the power of God unto salvation. It brings people to salvation. That word salvation is the same word that we used when we said there are some who have a relationship with God who are called saved. How do I get this salvation? How does God rescue me? The Bible says here in Romans 1:16 that God does it by means of the Gospel.

3. NOT BAPTISM

If the Gospel is the way God moves men from no relationship to a relationship, and if the Gospel is God's dynamite that saves men, then next we need to understand just exactly what the Gospel is and what the Gospel is not. In First Corinthians 1:17 Paul tells us what the Gospel is not. “For Christ sent me not to _______________ , but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect”.

In the previous chapter we talked about the things men do to try to make themselves right with God. One of the things we listed there was that people like to get baptized to make themselves right with God. Many people today believe that as long as you have been baptized, you are going to be okay. They believe they are going to be in Heaven because baptism takes away sins. They believe that somehow baptism takes you from no relationship to a relationship with God. But that is not what the Bible teaches. Paul says that he wasn't sent to baptize, but he was sent to preach the Gospel. In other words, the Gospel and baptism are two different, separate items. They are not related.

Paul is not saying that baptism is not important. He is just saying that baptism does not save anyone. He is making clear that baptism is not the Gospel. It isn't even part of the Gospel. Remember, we are not looking at this from how I look at it, or how you look at it. We are asking ourselves how God sees this, and God says baptism is not the Gospel. So what is the Gospel then?

4. DEATH, BURIAL, AND RESURRECTION OF CHRIST

First Corinthians 15:1-4, “Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the which I  preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; By which also ye are, if ye keep in memory what I  preached unto you, unless ye have  believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our according to the scriptures; And that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the scriptures”. In these verses Paul lays out plainly for us what the Gospel is. Let's take these verses apart and see what he says.

In verse 2 Paul uses the phrase “unless ye have believed in vain”. He is not saying you can get saved and lost, and saved and lost. He is saying very simply that if you really believed the Gospel, you will never go back on the Gospel again. You will never turn away from it. Once you understand what God has done for you in Jesus Christ you will never change your mind. Once you come to know Christ as your Savior and fall in love with Him, you can't ever leave Him again.

5. OUR SUBSTITUTE

So what is the Gospel? He tells us in verses 3-4. The Gospel is the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. The Gospel, the good news, is that Jesus died on the cross, He was buried, and He rose again from the dead on the third day. So why is that good news? First, because He died for our sins. He died as our substitute. You see, those who have no relationship with God are condemned and under the wrath of God, and ultimately heading for Hell because they have sinned against God. They have violated every law that God has given them. They flagrantly live their own life and do their own thing as they thumb their nose at God. But those who have a relationship have been rescued from Hell. How do they get rescued? How do you move from no relationship to a relationship with God? Someone has to pay the price for your sin.

God is a just God. God demands that sin be paid for. How is that sin going to be paid for? Either you are going to die and go to Hell to pay for your own sin for all of eternity, or you are going to take the way that God has provided to pay for your sin so that you can have a relationship with Him. What is the way that God has provided? It is the Gospel, the good news. What is the good news? It is that Jesus died, was buried and rose again. But specifically that He died for our sins. He died in our place. He took our place and died for us.

The death of Jesus Christ in our place is called substitution. It is as if you had been sentenced in some court of law and had to pay a five thousand dollar fine. But someone else walked up, pulled out the cash and paid the fine for you. They mark your fine, “Paid in Full”. The law would no longer have any recourse. They would have no more claim on you. They could no longer come after you and say, “You   owe   this money”. That is exactly what Jesus did when He died on the cross. He paid for the sin of mankind, dying as our substitute. He became our Redeemer, the one who bought us back.

6. SCRIPTURAL

There is another phrase that we want to look at in the above passage. Paul said Christ died for our sins, “according to the scriptures”. He was buried, and He rose again from the dead, “according to the scriptures”.  In other words, Paul is telling us that the Gospel is also Scriptural. Why is that phrase, “according to the scriptures” so important? It is important because the death of Jesus Christ as recorded in the New   Testament is not something that was done in a vacuum. In other words, it didn't just happen. Jesus didn't show up one day and say, “You know what? I think it would be great for me to die on the cross. And after I die on the cross, I'll rise from the dead and solve all of man's problem”. That isn't how it happened at all.

The Bible tells us that the coming of Christ to this earth to die for the sins of mankind was planned out. In fact, the death of Christ was planned before the beginning of time. The coming of Christ was planned before God created the earth. From the book of Genesis at the very beginning of the Bible, all the way up until the coming of Christ, God had given to man a trail of prophecies. Down through the generations He  had given the prophecies about  when Christ  would come, about  how and where He  would be  born and live, and that He  would die  for the  sins  of  the  world. Through these prophecies God was setting the stage for what He was going to do in the person of Jesus Christ, “according to the scriptures”.

What difference does that make to us today? Well, it makes a great deal of difference.  If Jesus Christ is the true Messiah, if He  is the  One who can  pay for your sins  and  mine  through His death,  then  He   will  meet all the  qualifications  for  the Messiah listed in the Old Testament. Therefore we will be able to go back in the Old Testament and look up all the prophecies that had to do with this Messiah who was going to die as our substitute, and compare them with the life of Jesus Christ. If we did that, we would be able to see that He meets all the qualifications of the Old Testament perfectly.

That is why the Bible says He died for our sins, “according to the scriptures”. He rose again from the dead, “according to the scriptures”. Because everything Jesus did was according to the Scriptures. God didn't just drop in at the middle of time and say, “Jesus is going to die, so He can pay for the sin of the world”. No, God was planning this from the beginning of time, all the way up until Jesus came. It was planned by the Father that Jesus would come and die   for your sins and for mine. That ought to be a comfort to us to realize that the death and resurrection of Christ was not just a mere whim but was according to the very plan of God to take care of the sins of the world.

One of the things men do  is try to live  as good  as they can, to somehow get God  to forgive them  of  their sin and hope God will  see all the  good   things  they do   and  overlook the  bad things  they  do. In this way they think they will get into Heaven. But the Bible says it is the Gospel, the good news about Jesus Christ, that is the power of God that saves us. In fact, the Bible plainly tells us that if a man tries to keep the law, he is cursed.

In Galatians 3:8-14 we read, “And the scripture, foreseeing that  God would justify  the  heathen   through  faith, preached  before the  gospel unto  Abraham,  saying,  In thee shall all nations be blessed. So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham.  For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse, for it is written, ________________ is every one that continueth not in things which are written in the book of the law to do them. But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith. And the law is not of faith:  but, The man that doeth them shall live in them. Christ hath redeemed us from the_________________ of the law, being made a ___________ for us; for it is written, Cursed  is every one that hangeth on a tree: That the blessing of Abraham  might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit though faith”.

When Abraham was saved, God says he was justified. Remember that word means to be made just, the same term the Bible uses about people who have a relationship with God. How was Abraham justified? Was Abraham made right with God by doing the law, by being obedient, by being a good person?  No, we read in verse eight that he was justified by faith in the Gospel. How   could Abraham have faith in the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ since he lived many years before the time when Christ came?

Even back in Abraham's day, God had already given the Gospel. He had already told the good news that this Jesus was coming to earth to live and die. God had already promised a Messiah that was going to take care of sin. Now Abraham didn't understand all the details, but he understood enough of the Gospel to know that God was sending a Messiah that would pay for the sins of the world. Abraham, by faith, believed God, and that is how he was made right and just with God and given a relationship with Him. That's how men today are also justified.

Notice in verse ten it says, “For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse”. If you try to keep the Ten Commandments, the law, you are cursed. That curse comes because you can't keep the Ten Commandments.  Is there anyone who can say they have never told a lie in their whole entire life?  If you tell only one lie in your entire life, you have broken the 9th Commandment. Remember that James 2:10 says that if you sin in one point of the law you are guilty of it all.

We like to look at things in our own way and forget what God said. We  excuse lying as  being a little sin and  no big  deal since everyone does it, from  the Prime Minister on down. But when we stand before God, you and I are not going to be doing the judging, nor will it be done according to our standards. God   is going to be the Judge and He will judge according to His truth. God's truth says that if you offend in one point of the law, you are guilty of it all. You are under the curse of condemnation. You are already condemned. You are under God's wrath, and ultimately headed to Hell.

Again  in verse  ten, he  says,  “Cursed  is  every one  that continueth not in all  things which are  written in the book of the law to do them”. If you can't keep all the law perfectly, you are cursed. On the authority of God's Word, I can plainly say that we   are all cursed. We all are under condemnation and without hope if we try to get to Heaven by keeping the law. If you are trying to get to Heaven by being a good person and hoping your good works outweigh your bad works, God says you will never make it. You are cursed, you are without hope. So what are we going to do? What is the answer?

We find the answer in verses eleven and twelve.  “But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith. And the law is not of faith: but, The man that doeth them shall live in them”. Salvation is not by the law. Salvation, or being given a relationship  with  God,  being  forgiven,  is  by   faith  in  the Gospel, by  putting your trust in what God  has  done for you. Salvation is found  in giving up on your own goodness, giving up  on  trying  to  get  God   to  accept  you,  and  determining instead to be  thankful for what God  has done, and rest in His mercy and His offer of forgiveness.

He goes on in verse 13 to tell us this good news, “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us”. When Christ came to earth to die for our sins, He became our Substitute. He hung on the cross to pay for our sins, to become a curse for us, so that we might be redeemed from the curse of the law.

Then in verse 14 he says that just as Abraham was saved by believing on the Messiah that would one day come, we today are saved by faith, by believing on the work that Jesus Christ did on the cross of Calvary. Abraham looked forward to that day by faith, and we look back to that day and by faith believe in what Jesus Christ did on the cross of Calvary.

FORESHADOWED

We said that this Gospel is found in the Old Testament written long before Jesus ever came to this earth. We find the very first mention of the Messiah that would come in Genesis 3:15. You have heard the story of the fall of Adam and Eve, how they sinned in the garden when they ate of the fruit that God told them not to eat. When God   offered to make them right in His eyes, what did He do? In Genesis 3:21 we read, “Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them”. Here we have, in the Old Testament, the Gospel of Jesus Christ foreshadowed.

The word foreshadowed means “a picture”.  If I were to show you a picture of my family, I would say, “Here is my family”. You would understand what I mean. The picture is not my family, it merely reflects my family. It is a representation of my family. It points to the real thing. My family is made up of people, not a picture. The picture lets you see what my family looks like, but the picture is not my family. If you study the picture,  and  some  day  happen  to  meet  one  of  my   family members,  you  would recognize  them  immediately  because you had seen this picture.

That was what God was doing in the Old Testament. He  was giving pictures in the Old  Testament  of  what He  was getting ready  to  do   when Jesus  came  into  the  world. When God clothed Adam and Eve with animal skins, He had to kill the animal to get the skins for them. When you kill an animal, blood has to be   shed.  The killing of the animals to clothe Adam and Eve is a foreshadowing of the fact that one day Jesus would come and shed His blood to pay for our sin. He died in our place just like that animal had to die in the place of Adam and Eve.

In Genesis 22 we find another foreshadowing, another picture of the coming of the Lord Jesus. Abraham has been told by God to take his son, Isaac, to Mount Moriah and offer him as a sacrifice to God. God was testing Abraham's faith to see if he really loved God. Abraham obeyed and set out toward the mountain with the servants, Isaac, wood and fire. Isaac recognized that they were missing one very important ingredient, and asked his father where the lamb for the burnt offering was. In Genesis 22:8 we   find his answer. “And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together”.

I'm not sure Abraham fully understood what he had to say there, but I know what God meant by it. Abraham may have meant, God will somehow provide, and God does eventually provide. But more importantly, God meant that one day God will provide Himself as a sacrifice. He'll be the sacrifice. That is literally what happened on the cross of Calvary, where it is God  who becomes human  flesh  to die  on the  cross  for your sins and mine.

Abraham and Isaac went on to Mount Moriah. Abraham laid his son down on the altar and raised the knife to the sky ready to plunge it into his son’s breast and kill him. But then an angel appeared and stopped Abraham. Look again at Genesis 22:13. “And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son”. God new that Abraham would not withhold his son but was willing to obey God. Therefore Isaac was spared and the ram that was caught in the brush was caught and offered as a sacrifice in the place of Isaac.  That is exactly what happened when Jesus Christ died on the cross of Calvary. He died in your place to pay for your sin. This is another picture, a foreshadowing of the death of Christ in our place, found in the Old Testament.

In Exodus 12 we find another Old Testament picture of the death of Christ. The nation of Israel was in bondage in Egypt. God sent many plagues on the nation of Egypt to convince Pharoah to let the Israelites go free.  God   told Moses as the final plague He was going to kill all the firstborn among the Egyptians and then Pharoah would let them go. These are the instructions that Moses gave to the children of Israel.

In Exodus 12:21-23, “Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel, and said unto them, Draw out and take you a lamb according to your families, and kill the passover. And ye shall take a bunch of hyssop, and dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and strike the lintel and the two side posts with the blood that is in the basin; and none of you shall go out at the door of his house until the morning. For the LORD will pass through to smite the Egyptians; and when he seeth the blood upon the lintel, and on the two side posts, the LORD will pass over the door, and will not suffer the destroyer to come in unto your houses to smite you”.

Each family was to take a lamb, kill the lamb and catch the blood in a basin. Then they were to take a bunch of hyssop, dip it in the blood and sprinkle the blood on the lintel, the top piece of the door, and the two door posts. They were then to go in the house and stay in the house until morning. That night the death angel went through the land at midnight. He entered into every house  in the land of  Egypt that  did   not have the blood on the lintel and door posts, and the first born male  child of  those families  and the first  born of  all  their animals was killed. The death angel passed over the houses that had the blood applied.

I'm sure there were probably some who didn't believe that God would really do such a thing. But it happened, just like God said. The people who believed God did what He told them to do. The lamb had to die, so the blood could be put on the door posts and the lintel, so the death angel would pass over the house and the firstborn could live. The Lamb died in the place of the firstborn. That is exactly what Jesus Christ did when He died on the cross of Calvary. He died on the cross so that His blood could be applied to your life and to mine, so that when we stand before God in judgment God   could be justified in passing over us rather than judging us for our sin.

There are so many Old Testament pictures, foreshadows of the death of Christ, that we could look at but we are just hitting a few highlights. Let's  look  next  at  the  Day  of Atonement  found  in Leviticus  16:15-16.  The Day of Atonement  was  a  special  day  on  which  the  priest  offered a sacrifice  for the  whole nation  of  Israel. “Then shall he kill the goat of the sin offering, that  is for the people, and bring his blood within the veil, and do with that blood as he did with the blood of the bullock, and sprinkle it upon the mercy seat, and before the mercy seat: And  he shall make an  atonement for the holy place, because of the uncleanness  of the  children  of Israel,  and  because  of their transgressions in all their sins: and so shall he do for the tabernacle of the congregation, that  remaineth among them in the midst of their uncleanness”.

Once a year on the Day of Atonement, the high priest would kill an animal, carry the blood into the Holy of Holies, and sprinkle the blood on the mercy seat. Only the high priest was allowed into the Holy of Holies, and he was only allowed in once a year on this special day. The blood would cover the mercy seat and make an atonement for the sins of the nation of Israel. The Jewish people were sinners, just like we are today. God says the blood was sprinkled on the mercy seat for an atonement. Maybe one way to look at the word atonement is “at-one-ment” or being made at one with God.

That was the whole purpose of the death of Jesus Christ. He died on the cross to pay for our sins, so we could be at one with God. Remember that word reconciled, brought back together with God. We are not brought back together with God because of what we do. We are not brought back together with God because we are good, because we   give money, because we get baptized, because we join the church or pray or read our Bible. We are brought back together with God, at one with God, because of a sacrifice that has taken place. That sacrifice took place when Jesus Christ died on the cross and shed His blood for our sin.

IN THE NEW TESTAMENT

Every Jewish person knew these stories that I have just told you in brief. They had heard them many times and knew them inside out, and many others also that we didn’t look at. Each one was a picture, a foreshadowing of the Messiah that would one day come. But what do these Old Testament pictures, this foreshadowing have to do   with the New Testament Jesus Christ?

In John 1:29, “The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the of ______________ , which taketh away the sin of the world”. John the Baptist used these words to introduce Jesus to the crowd that was gathered to hear him preach.  We find the same phrase in John 1:36. Why does John the Baptist call Jesus the Lamb of God?

John the Baptist was a Jew, and he knew as he used those words, every Jewish person would immediately know that Jesus was the Messiah promised by God all through the Old Testament that would die for their sin. They would remember that an animal died that Adam and Eve might be clothed. They would remember that ram which had to die in order that Isaac might live. They  would  remember  Leviticus  16 and Exodus  12  and  the  myriad of  other chapters that  talked about  animals  dying so that  others  might live, so that  sin could be  taken  care of, and  so that  God  could forgive the  sin of those people.

In  all  those  stories,  the  animal  was  the  picture,  but  the animal was not the payment. Jesus is the One the picture is all about. Jesus was the One who would make the payment for sin. The animal sacrificed in the place of someone pictures the coming of Jesus. That is what John was saying, when he said, “Hey everybody, wake up! There is a great announcement I have for you now. Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world”. He was letting them know that Jesus was the Messiah.

Look at Hebrews 10. We are going to walk through some verses very carefully to help you understand. Verse 1—“For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the  very  image  of  the  things,   can  never  with  those sacrifices  which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto_____________”. Remember that we are looking at how God sees things. God says the law does not make men right with God. He plainly says that the sacrifices offered every year never made the people perfect, right with God. Every year, the Old  Testament  priest on the Day  of  Atonement  would  have  to  offer  the  same   sacrifice again.  Why? Because that sacrifice never took away the people’s sin.

Verse 2—“For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the  worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins”. Doesn’t it make sense that the sacrifice on the Day of Atonement couldn’t take away sin? If it could take away sins, why would the high priest offer the sacrifice again next year? If the sins are gone, they are gone. So if he keeps on offering it, it is because it didn’t take care of the sin problem.

Look at verse 4—“For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away ________________”. It was not possible that the blood of animals could take away sin because the blood of bulls and goats, as verse one said, was nothing more than a shadow. It was nothing more than a picture.

Look at verse 10—“By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all”. How many times did Jesus die? Once. Why once? Because that was all that was needed.  One time paid for all the sin. If Jesus had to keep on dying over and over again, it would be because He wasn’t able to pay for the sins. He would just be a picture like all the Old Testament sacrifices were. But Jesus died one time because His death was enough to pay for all the sins of the entire world.

Look   at  verses  11  and  12—“And  every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can take away sins: But  this man, after be had offered sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand  of God”. Jesus only had to die one time. Once He died on the cross and paid for our sins.

That is the good news, remember? The Gospel—the good news that Jesus died for our sins, according to the Scriptures, He was buried and rose again from  the dead on the third day, according to the Scriptures. The good news is that Jesus died once and forever paid for the sin of mankind.

Hebrews 9:12 says, “Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood be entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us”. The death of Christ was enough to pay for the sins of the world. All He had to do was die one time. The holy place was that inner room in the temple where God met with the high priest one time per year. It was like   coming into the inner sanctuary to talk to God. No one else was allowed except the high priest, one time a year.

The Bible says Jesus didn’t enter into the holy place, into the very throne room of God the Father, by the blood of goats and calves. He didn’t kill an animal to get there. But He entered into that very holy place by His own blood. He died on the cross. The shedding of His blood is what bought His right, if you will, to go into that throne room for us.

Notice then Hebrews 9:13-14,  “For if the blood of bulls and of goats,  and  the  ashes  of an  heifer  sprinkling  the unclean, sanctifieth  to the purifying of the flesh: How much more shall the______________ of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” In the Old Testament, people could offer sacrifices and talk to God, and God accepted them, even though those sacrifices  were not  able  to  completely wash away their sins. How much more powerful then is the blood of Christ which does literally take away the sin!

The Old Testament sacrifice was just like a guarantee. It would be like you signing a note down at the bank saying, “I’ll pay my bill”.  Next year when it comes due, you go down and sign it again. Year after year you keep signing it, “I'm going to pay my bill”. But there comes a day when you walk in, lay the money down, and get your bill marked “Paid in full”.  After that you don’t keep going back again to the bank, signing the paper saying you will pay the bill, because the bill has already been paid.

The Old Testament sacrifices did not take away the sins of the people. It was like they were saying, “I know my sins are going to get paid for. It is going to be taken care of. They are literally going to be wiped off the books. One of these days it is going to happen”. They didn't know when it would happen, but they believed that it would happen. When Jesus came into the world, He died on the cross, and once for all He paid for that sin. That is why Jesus cried on the cross, “It is finished!”

Look at Hebrews 9:15, “And 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”. I know that is a long involved statement, so I will try to explain it for you. Jesus Christ is the One who is in charge because He died on the cross for our sins. He is the One who is in charge of taking care of sin. He is the mediator, the go between.

Everyone who lived during the Old Testament days was saved, if you will, on “credit”.  “Our bill is going to be paid one of these days, but we don’t have it paid yet”.  But when Jesus came and  died on the  cross,  His New  Testament,  His new covenant,  His payment  for our sins  was also the payment  for their sins.

Let’s look now at Hebrews 9:24-28. “For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us: Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood of others;  For then must he often have  suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by  the sacrifice of himself. And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation”.

Jesus didn’t have to come back and die again and again. He only had to die one time. When He died, He not only paid for all the sins of all the Old Testament saints, but He also paid for the sins of the people who would be born in the future. He paid for all the sins of the entire world. He paid for all the sins of every person who had ever lived up to that time and every person who would ever be born down to the end of time. He only had to die once.

Now He is at the right hand of the Father, interceding on our behalf. It is as if He is saying, “Here’s the bill marked Paid in Full, Father. See that fellow right there  who  is  just  now trusting  in Me  alone  to  get him  into  Heaven? Father, I’ve already paid for him. There is another one, Father. He is trusting in Me alone. He has given up on himself. He is not trying to get in here by his own ways anymore. He is trusting in Me, Father. He is one of Mine also”.

That is what the good news, the Gospel, is all about. You and I can’t get to Heaven on our own, but the good news is that Jesus has made a way for us to be right with God.

QUALIFIED

How do we know that Jesus is qualified? In John 5:31-39, we see the five proofs of   who Jesus is. Number one, Jesus said, “I tell you who I am. But you don’t have to listen to me if I’m the only One who says it”. For instance, if I stood up and made some bold, brash statement, and had no witnesses to agree with me, you probably wouldn’t listen to what I said. Jesus told the people that He was the Messiah, the One who came to pay for their sins.

But there were other proofs besides just Jesus saying it. Second of all, there was John the Baptist. He pointed at Jesus and said, “Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world”. He knew who Jesus was and he pointed him out to the crowds.

The third proof that Jesus was the Messiah were the works Jesus did, the miracles He performed. How do you explain the miracles that Jesus worked? He made the blind to see. He made the lame to walk. He made the dumb to talk. He made the people who were deaf to hear. Jesus worked miracle after miracle. How could He do it? Because He is God. He is who He claims to be. He is the Messiah who paid for the sin of the world.

The fourth proof came from God the Father. Remember when Jesus was baptized and Jesus came up out of the water? God spoke from Heaven and said, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased”. Again, when Jesus was on the Mount of Transfiguration with Peter, James, and John,  God   spoke out  of  heaven saying, “This is my beloved Son; hear  him”. God the Father recognized who Jesus was and He declared it publicly for all to hear.

The fifth proof that Jesus was indeed the Messiah is the c, the Scriptures. This one is the strongest proof of all. We can literally go through the Bible, from beginning to end, and find hundreds of Scriptures that talk about Jesus Christ, telling who He is and identifying Him as the Messiah. In fact, there are thirty-seven different prophecies about the Messiah in the Bible. These prophecies were fulfilled in the life   and ministry of Christ, proving that He is indeed the Messiah.

One of those prophecies is found in Micah 5:2. There we find that the Messiah was to be born in Bethlehem. Do you remember the story of how Jesus was born? Because of the decree of Caesar Augustus, Joseph and Mary had to go over to Bethlehem in order to register or the census. When they were there, Jesus was born. If it hadn’t been for that decree, Jesus would not have been born in that town. God worked it out so Jesus would be born in Bethlehem, just as the Bible had prophesied.

Isaiah 7:14 tells us that the Messiah would be born of a virgin. How can a virgin be a virgin and have a baby? It is impossible apart from the intervention of God. It was definitely a miracle of God. That prophecy was fulfilled literally in the life of Mary, for the Bible tells us that she did not know a man sexually until after the birth of Jesus. As you look at all the things that happened in the life of Christ, you have to say, “There is no way Jesus could have been just a normal man. Jesus has to be God in the flesh, as He claims to be”.

There are many passages that talk about the death of Christ and how He would die. Isaiah 53:7, 9, and 12 is just one of those passages. When Jesus Christ died on the cross, Isaiah said He would be numbered among the transgressors. The New Testament  tells us  that  there was a thief  hanging on either side of Jesus when He was crucified. It happened exactly as the Bible had prophesied. Isaiah also prophesies that He would make His grave with the rich. Where was His tomb? It was a borrowed tomb, but it was the tomb of Joseph of Arimathaea, a very wealthy man.

Isaiah 53:7 says when He died, He was like a lamb led to the slaughter. Lambs go to the slaughter with their mouths closed. They don't say anything.  They are docile and quiet.

When Jesus went to the cross of Calvary, He didn’t fight back. He could have called the angels to rescue Him. He didn’t do it. He could have objected because of His illegal trial. But He didn’t do it. He could have kicked up a fuss, but He went quietly to the cross, bearing shame and humiliation.

Not only are there prophesies of the death of Christ, but there also are all the prophesies about the ministry of Christ and about the life of Christ. As we look at all the prophecies and see that they were all fulfilled literally in the life and death of Jesus Christ, we must say that He is indeed the Messiah. He fits all the requirements. He   meets all the qualifications. There is no way a mere man could plan all those prophecies to come true. Jesus Christ could fulfill all the prophecies because He was God in the flesh, the Messiah who came into this world to pay for the sins of mankind.

SUBSTITUTE

In 2 Corinthians 5:21 the Bible says, “For he hath made him to be sin ______________, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him”. God the Father made Jesus to become sin. He took your sin and my sin and placed it on Christ. Jesus Christ never had any sin of His own. Yet He took our sin, so that you and I, who are sinners, could take His righteousness. In other words, Jesus Christ traded places with you. Suppose you have a million dollars in the bank and I have a negative balance in my account. You decide to help me   out, so we trade bank accounts. We go down to the bank, sign all the right papers, and I take over your bank account and you take over mine. Now I can go out and spend all I want, and you have to go out and work all you can to pay back the bill.

That is exactly what happened when Jesus Christ died on the cross. He took our negative account, our need to pay for our sin, and He gave us His positive account of righteousness. We just traded places. He died on the cross to pay for our sin. He became our Substitute.

Look again in Galatians 3:13: “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree”. The word redeemed means to buy back. It was a word used when you went into the slave market to buy a slave off the auction block. You would buy him back, in order to set him free. Remember we said the law curses us. It points out our sin and shows us our condemnation. Because we have broken the law, we deserve Hell itself. But Christ came to buy us back off that auction block of sin, and He bought us back to set us free.

Why did   Jesus die   on the cross? Because He was fulfilling Scripture. That was where God’s curse was. He was being cursed for your sins and mine. He didn’t sin. He never had a sin. He was dying in our place. He was taking our place so we could be free from the curse.

Last of all, in Romans 5:8-11 it says, “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died______________. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the___________”.         

Let's take these verses apart carefully. The word commendeth is a big word, but it very simply means that God showed, or demonstrated. God demonstrated His love to us by sending Jesus Christ to die in our place, to be our Substitute. How then are we justified, or made just?  It is through His blood which He shed for us. He had to die for us to pay for our sin. Those without a relationship with God are not only under the condemnation of God, but under the wrath of God. But when Christ died on the cross, shedding His blood for your sins and mine, He made it possible for us to be justified and saved or rescued from that wrath to come.

Notice also God says that we receive the atonement through Jesus Christ. How do we get “at one with God”? We get “at one with God” because of the death of Jesus Christ. Notice those two words right in the middle of these verses: “For if”—here is the key.

We said that there are two groups of people, those who have no relationship and those who have a relationship with God. We have seen that Jesus Christ died for the sins of the whole world. But there are still two groups of people. How can there still be two groups, if Jesus died for all the sins? There are still two groups because not everyone has been reconciled.

He says “For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled” through His blood, then we have been saved. But if we have not been reconciled, then we are still an enemy of God. This is what we call a conditional promise. The condition of us being reconciled to God must be met through the blood of Jesus Christ.

You may understand that you are a sinner and that Jesus died for you. You may even understand that you are an enemy of God. But it is not enough for you to just see it and understand it. You must be reconciled to God. How does a person get reconciled? The Bible says it is by repentance and faith. That is the subject we will discuss in the next lesson.

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Ready for lesson 4?