He is the One who has made the jump. He made the jump from heaven to earth.
He jumped from the safety of heaven to this burning building called earth where we are all perishing.
He WHO HAD NO SINS came to you while YOU WERE STILL IN YOUR SINS and took your sins onto Himself.
He who is the JUDGE was judged BY THE LAW in your place.
And the judgment that was given Him was death. But it was YOUR DEATH He died because it was YOUR SINS He bore. “He was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities… For the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” (Is.53:5-6)
But then, HE DID A NEW THING. He made the jump from death and the grave to life and the right hand of the Father.
Just as, even today, He makes the jump from the glory of the Father in heaven, to this bread and this wine and to your lips and your mouth.
So, “we hold that one is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.” (vs.28) This is radical and it changes everything. It makes all your good works and good deeds COUNT FOR NOTHING toward your salvation.
Strange as it sounds, lot’s of folks don’t like this. Folks who have put a lot of work and energy into making the jump don’t like this. ‘You mean it all counts for nothing?’ “Then what becomes of our boasting?”
What fools we are. Repent. “Let every mouth be stopped.” For once in your life, just shut up. Just ‘stand still.’ Just ‘listen.’
Stop trying to “put forward” your good works and your good life before God. Because God has already “put forward Christ Jesus, as a propitiation by His blood, to be received by faith.”
“Propitiation” is one of those $100 theological words that is worth an explanation. “Propitiation” has to do with justice. ‘DIVINE JUSTICE’ is done for you by the blood of Jesus Christ shed for you. The price is paid IN FULL, no balance due, no I.O.U.’s, no time in Purgatory. “It is finished” means just what it says.
But justice done doesn’t necessarily mean that the relationship is restored. If someone hurts you or commits a crime against you, even if justice is been done and even if they pay for their crime, even though you’ve ‘forgiven them,’ that doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re friends again. There are still those hard feelings. That ‘wall of separation’ is still there.
But a “propitiatory” sacrifice means that the relationship is completely restored. The wall is completely gone. “It is ‘very good.’ “I call you my friends.” “Bring quickly the best robe… and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. And bring the fatted calf and kill it and let us eat and celebrate.” (Luke 15:22-23).
So when the Holy Spirit opens our mind and turns our heart so that we do the unheard of and dangerous thing, and GIVE UP ON OURSELVES and trust solely in Jesus Christ, we have ‘peace with God.’ We are “free” from all the worrying and striving and stressing about our salvation. The Son, by His GOD PLEASING SACRIFICE on the cross, “has set you free indeed.”
Not FREE to continue in sin. FREE to love God and FREE to love our neighbor.