Major Bible Themes
Mike Doyle · Mar 6, 2011
Major Bible Themes (2011), No. 10
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/492622894335

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Okay, we have arrived at the chapter on the substitutionary death of Christ and next week we'll talk about his resurrection and in chapter 10, 4, 8, 12, and 13 are focus questions. So, here we have a timeline. We talked about last week his incarnation. and a week before that his pre-existence. And now we're going to talk right here about his substitutionary death. For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which is lost.

What does substitution mean? What does it mean? I went to the Nuggets game on Monday night kept putting these guys in and taking other guys out, what were they doing? Subbing. Substitution. So in the case of Christ's substitutionary death, why? Why does he have to sub for me? Because we can't take care of it ourselves? Why not? Because we're not good enough? No. We're not perfect.

Now if we had all died and he'd gotten rid of all of humanity, would that have satisfied him or would he have still had to sin Christ? Everybody hear that question? That's a key question. If he would have gotten rid of all humanity, would that have satisfied him about the sin issue? What do you think? It might have satisfied the sin issue, but not the relationship issue. How about the veracity of God? his personhood. Would it have satisfied the insult to him? No, it wouldn't. Why not? Because he's God and we're not.

You know, the example I like to use is when my dog was still alive. If you come over to my house and he bit you on the knee, could he satisfy the insult that a dog made to you as a human No, I've got to make up for it because we're on the same level of creation. So if a creature commits a sin or an offense against the Creator, the creature doesn't have within who he is to satisfy the Creator.

Do you see that? About the insult given. If I insult Craig, I have it within me to satisfy Him, hopefully. You see that? But if I insult God, I mean I can, you know, of myself can seek forgiveness or atonement or something, but He couldn't accept it because of who I am in the hierarchy of creation. I'm not God. You're right.

So when Adam sins, and we all sin in him, and for 10,000 years the stack has been getting higher and higher and higher as human beings are created. They're all created now with sin natures. the pile gets higher, the pile gets higher. You would think, if you were thinking like an evolutionist, at some point there would be enough human beings to satisfy God, right? The bigger the number, the greater the chance.

I don't think so. So, in order for God to satisfy himself about sin, what's got to happen? You go through this The incarnation of the second person of the Trinity, the Lord Jesus Christ. Is he qualified to take on this task? Yes. Why is he? Because he's God. And he was a man. A man. So he fits both criteria. One, he's God. He's of the same nature as the one who's been offended. And two, he's a man, so he can redeem where he can satisfy God about the sins of the whole world.

Substitution. When he substitutes, how many of us are there with him? As a substitute. That's a trick question. Come on. If I'm summoned for you in the game, how many of me are in the game? Just me. So how many of us substitute? How many go with him as a substitute? None of us. None of us. He goes there by himself. Okay? So he's in place of me. The soul that sins it will surely die. Okay?

Why do you think God, that's what he made the penalty. In other words, why didn't he make it 30 years of hard labor or 500 bucks or I don't know, give me your Chevy. Why death? I mean, you ever think about this? One guy takes one bite out of one piece of fruit and the whole thing goes in the dumper and everybody's got to die. Why? Why death? What do you think? Come on, it's not too hard of a question. Is it about separation? Well, death means separation. But God said translated, the soul that sins, it will be separated from me. God can't have unrighteousness.

That's right. It goes back to the character of God himself. And what's really cool about the fact that he is so strict, maybe, about the principles in which he we need a substitute and death is the only consequence of sin. When you begin later on to learn the principles of resurrection, identification, he's just as strict about those as he is about this one. You see that? So you can trust him in the sense that when he says something is so, it is so.

It doesn't matter how you feel about it, it's what he says about it. Everybody okay so far? The death of Christ, there were six in the book, six reasons why the death of Christ, or six things that it proved. I think we can talk about four, and I think Hal, or actually Roger did this years ago, I think he picked the four best ones.

It assures us If Christ is going to go to the cross and he is going to die as our substitute, what does it show? It assures us of the love of God towards the sinner because he was willing to do it. A redemption or a ransom to a holy God for the sinner. It demonstrates bearing the penalty of the sinner and the judgment or condemnation of the sin nature.

This last one right here Wow, this thing doesn't work long distance. Got to get closer. This last one right here is not really an issue of substitution. It's more of an issue of identification. You all right? Everybody understand that? Okay. Let's talk about this.

John 3.16 says, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. So what's his motive? What's God's motive? That he loved the world. Now, did his love for the world override his righteousness?

Answer, no. Because he had to give his son, his only begotten son, as a substitute for the penalty of sin. Motivation Romans 5 but God demonstrated his own love towards us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. The Lord Jesus when he was here said greater love has no man than to give his life for his friend. So just as a question did Christ die?

Did he die? What do you mean, yes? Explain that to me. What happened? If I die, what happens to me? What's the process? When you say, oh, Mikey's dead. You're separated from him. My soul and spirit have left my body, right? Did his soul and spirit leave his body? Yeah. Sure did. Sure did. And you were separated from God because he had our sins on him. I'm not going to listen to you. He was separated from God, right? Because of our sin. He was made sin for us.

Okay? Now, when he's dying on the cross, he takes all of Courtney's sins and puts them on him, on Christ. Takes all of my sins, puts them on Christ and everybody. And puts, and the penalty is on him now. Okay? The penalty is you gotta die. Right? If he is, the sins of the world are put on him, all of the acts of sin, every one of those acts has a consequence and the consequence is the same. You die.

That's the substitutionary part of it. I don't think we want to mix up the fact that he was made sin for us, that your sin nature was put on him. That's a different thing. Is that okay? You understand what I mean? When he was made sin, the thing sinned for us, that probably included all the sins. But did God turn away from him because he was suffering the penalty for all your bad actions of mine? all of our falling short? Or was it because he actually became identified with this nature, this thing called the sin nature, and he was in fact the personification of sin?

What do you think? Yeah, I think it is a second thing. Well, which part of him was separated? Was it only his humanity? Or was it the God part of him too? Because, you know, you're saying you're separated from God. See right here when we talked about his deity and his eternality, were you here for that class? I think so. And we talked about he's 100% God and he's 100% man, right? Right.

So when he dies on the cross, did any of his deity die? No. So it's the human part that experienced the death, the separation from God, and then the separation of his soul and spirit from his body. His body was really dead. They put it in the grave. So from a spiritual standpoint, though, when Adam sinned, God warned him. He said, in dying, you will really die. which meant more than one kind of death. He was going to die. He died instantly spiritually. In other words, his spirit was separated from God instantly. And his body would die. He physically would die at some later point.

So the consequences of sin is death not only to Adam, but the whole creation that he was put in dominion over. Everything is dying. This chair is dying. It's going to corruption. Everything. Because of that, I am a sinner and are a sinner. You don't like that? Badger! Badger! So, the whole creation, including all the human beings in it, are suffering the consequences of sin. We're all in one stage of dying or another. Some of us faster than others. So Christ comes and he takes my substitute as a human being, he dies in my place. His death satisfies God and it demonstrates his love towards me, the human being. But how come nothing else changed? I had to put my dog down a few weeks ago. How come he didn't live forever? And how come, you know, we're all getting older and, you know, slower?

You have to define what the word live means. I mean, even though our physical body might die, we are with Christ forever, whether we're in this body or The point I'm asking is this. If he died in my place, what did it accomplish? I'm going to die anyway.

The sin nature is not attached to you. I'm sorry? Your sin nature. No, we're talking substitution now. You're talking identification. Separated from your sin nature. Well, what I'm after is that if he took my place on the cross and he paid the penalty for my sins and the sins of the whole world, it doesn't appear to me like a whole lot has changed. What changed? Here's what I think changed. Is that man was reconciled back to him and his being satisfied about the penalty being paid, he could deal with man on a totally new level now.

In other words, up until the time of Christ, God dealt with the human race based on his relationship to this guy Adam. Right? And you know, there was Abraham and all these other guys, but they were all from Adam. Right? And it was always about the covering of sins and that kind of thing, anticipating. But once this work of Christ is done, he changes men. Do you see that? He now deals with humanity through this new man who has totally satisfied him. So is sin, the sins of the world of issue with him anymore?

You say no, but I'm going to ask you why. Why? Because he's already taken care of. Sure he has. The only issue is who believes. From your standpoint, but from his. Let me ask you a question that I think you're asking differently and see if it changes things. Great.

The question as I understand it is, all right, so take the sin nature off the table, take identification off the table. So let's assume that there's not a human in the past nor one in the future who would ever believe that Jesus died on the cross for their sins. Okay. What was accomplished at the cross? Yeah. Good question. Better than I could have said it. Yeah, what was accomplished? What was accomplished?

It's this great word that the kids learned two weeks ago. It starts with a P. Propitiation. What's that mean? What does propitiation mean? Now those kids know what it is. You better know what it is. They do. Ask them. Ask them. Next time you see Aidan, ask him what propitiation means. He knows.

Or Grace or any of them. They know. It means God is satisfied. God took care of the problem from his side of the way, and he's totally satisfied now. See? Forget you, he's happy. Okay? So you're saying it hasn't done anything for us, but it's done wonders for God. He's content with the sin situation it's been dealt with. That's right. And I think it's so important that we know that he is satisfied about it. Because otherwise you're kind of under a rock thinking, I wonder if he's doing okay with me.

Sins. Sins. What was the question? Sins or the sin nature. Because if you take the sin nature and identification out of it, then it's just Christ dying for sins. Okay. If that's the only thing that happened on the cross, that he paid the penalty for sins, where does that leave you? You're going to hell, baby.

But is he satisfied? He's satisfied about the offenses, the sins. He's not satisfied about you. Why? Because a sinner cannot be in the presence of a holy God. You see that? You couldn't be in His presence. Because you might be forgiven, and He's totally satisfied about your sins, but He hasn't fixed you yet. You see that? Substitution is all about the sins issue. He's satisfied But you haven't been taken care of yet. And he does that by himself. Because you and I couldn't have any input into this death. We couldn't have. Because we started out by saying we're not worthy. We're not of the same level of creation.

But what do we find out? We talked a couple of weeks ago about how much would we know about God if Christ had never come? I'll ask it a different way. What basic characteristic about God would we not know? Love. That's exactly right. If Christ doesn't come, we don't know that God is a lover. We don't know that. But look at this. These four verses talk about We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us. See? By this, the love of God is manifested in us that God has sent His only begotten Son. You see that? That's how you know He loves you. What's interesting is, not that I recommend you do this, but just a cursory investigation of any other type of religion. doesn't have this in it. How about Allah? He's all over that love deal, isn't he? Give me a break with that.

It's all about dying and death and sacrificing and everything for Him. So it assures us of God's love and we could spend the whole hour on the issue of assurance. The substitutionary death was a ransom or a redemption to a holy God for sinners. Now, at the time in which Christ was before he died, who did you belong to?

Satan. Adam. Okay, and who did Adam belong to? In other words, maybe put it another way. Every one of us has a sin nature and it is the dominating force. Sin has dominion over us. We belong to that marketplace of sin. It didn't matter whether you were a good guy or a bad guy or anything, you were under the dominion of sin.

So, we use these Greek words that have to do with the redemption or Ransom if if you took your car and hocked it Then you want it back. You've got to go pay the redemption price to get it back What's the price paid to get you out of hock? 15 bucks and What what is the price?

It's the blood of Christ That's the only thing that's that would satisfy God is is the blood of Christ. Only thing, nothing else. So when you look at these words, agorazo, it just means to buy in the marketplace. And we don't need to go through the verses there. The marketplace is where God enters into the marketplace of humanity to make some purchases. And He's going to purchase humanity. What did you say? Exoraza? Somebody else say it. Exoraza. Okay. It means to be during, to buy out of the marketplace. Ex means out of. So God went, the Lord Jesus Christ went in to purchase and he purchased you out of the marketplace.

I was in, anybody ever been in Columbia, South Carolina? You ever been there? Kind of a cool old Antelopean town, right in the middle of town. are five or six of these concrete shelter looking things. And what they were for was during the slave trade, that's where they sold the slaves. And now it's an outdoor market. But they sold human beings there. So people would come in and they would purchase people. In ancient times, slavery was a common thing. So human beings were considered property. chattel. Well, in this case, you can say that Christ has entered into the marketplace to purchase you out of it and to set you free and so that you don't ever go back. If I came in there to purchase you, I'm taking you out of there with me and we're going. I'm never going to go back. You're not going to go back. And the reason you're not, why, what's the reason you won't go back? Because the one that purchased you isn't going back. Right. Oh boy, appletrosis, is that how you say that?

Releasing for a ransom upon payment. So once the payment is made, the release is made. I was watching, I kind of love those Mecham auto auction shows and the guy that chases antique cars, I forget that guy's name, and he takes them to the auction and he tries to, you know, he fixes them up and he tries to sell them and he's trying to get X price. And sometimes they don't sell because they have a minimum price on them. But when they do sell, ownership takes, the car changes hands. Somebody else now owns it. And so the money has been paid and now Christ owns you.

I think it's a really important thought to have as a believer that we do not belong to ourselves anymore. It was a lie that we thought we did in the first place because we didn't really belong to ourselves. We think we have free will. We think we have the ability to make free decisions. The Constitution tells us. The problem is we're all slaves to sin and the big lie is that we are free and we're But we are free in Christ, but free in the sense of all that sin imposed upon us.

And when I say I'm free or I'm at liberty, I'm now at liberty to do what? To what? To do what God wants. To live unto Him. I couldn't do it before because I was a slave. I can't serve, the Lord Jesus said you can't serve two masters, you can't do it. You're going to have to master one or the other.

Judgment or condemnation of the sin nature. Do you think that the substitutionary death of Christ belongs in this category? What do you think? He died for our sins, sins which are personal failures or transgressions versus sin which is a nature. The root is substitution and being dead unto sin, the same thing. He didn't substitute for our sin nature. He wasn't a substitute for our sin nature, is that what you're saying?

Right? I mean, he died a little too, but he didn't... I mean, he got rid of it, but it wasn't a substitute. Everybody agrees that substitution is a work he does by himself. Obviously, substitution. But when he's dealing with my sin nature, would he do that without me?

How come? Why not? We have to be there. Yeah, we've got to be there. Do you understand why? Because we have to have that released from us. That's what releases us in nature. See if I can keep from screwing this up. When you're looking at this part of the process, you're looking at purchasing through the substitutionary blood of Christ, the human being out of the marketplace. But there is no intrinsic change yet in the person purchased. See, they're still the same old dogs. But when you get over here and you start talking about the root of the sin nature, there's an intrinsic change that takes place in the one who's purchased.

That's not a substitute. That's an identity. Do you see that? In other words, let me explain it this way. From an identification standpoint, we were crucified with Him. We were united to Him. Romans 6.3 says, when did you get united to Him? At what point in His timeline did you go in? Don't you realize that when you were baptized into Christ, you were baptized into His? Okay, that's when you go in.

At the point in which He's dying. Separating. From what? He's made your sin nature and my sin nature and Craig's sin nature and maybe Courtney's sin nature are all put on him. He's now identified with us and we're identified with him. When he dies, from an identification standpoint, what gets separated from what? Do you understand what I'm asking? Okay, look at this one.

Here's you, here's the sin nature. Wherever that sin nature goes, you're going. Right? And the whole time inside here, you're saying, I'm free. Sure you are. Now, the Holy Spirit baptizes you into Christ's death. Now you're identified with Him. He takes on your sin nature. Then He dies. He separates. Like this. He took it with him and he died unto sin and you died unto sin in him. See that? This thing still functions and exists but this relationship is no longer what you are. You're now this with Christ. You see that?

We were buried with him in baptism as Christ was raised from the dead to newness, that you might walk in newness of life. Your old man was crucified, but you were also resurrected with him. When he rose out of the grave, were we united with him at that point? Sure we were. What was different about us now? We've been purchased substitutionary wise out of the marketplace, but now we're different. And why are we different? Because we have a new head, which is the resurrected, glorified Christ.

And the same nature is still there, but this relationship doesn't exist anymore in terms of it doesn't have dominion over you. So did both of those happen at the same time, or did one happen before the other? Same time. Now, so I would say that being dead unto sin is not a substitutionary act. Would you agree with me or not?

I would say that this issue right here, the sin nature, Romans 6.10, he died unto sin. That's not a substitutionary act. He didn't die alone in this process. That's what I mean. He wasn't subbing for me. I was there with him. So that's an identification? I think so. I think so. And I'm actually glad it's here because there has to be, I think for a growing believer, the ability to distinguish between the two. See that? Okay. Are you still pondering it? Okay. Substitute bearing the penalty of the sinner.

John 10, 11. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. Romans 5, 6, and 8. For while we were still helpless, Christ died for the ungodly. That's who we were. God demonstrates his love towards us while we were yet sinners. In 1 Peter, for Christ also died for sins, plural, once and for all. the just for the unjust in order that he might bring us to God. Again, the subject matter today is substitution. That means in place of me. Identification means I'm with him. That's the difference.

So, Christ bore the penalty. And what was the penalty? Death? But was it just a fact? Am I not going to suffer the penalty anyway? Am I not going to die? The penalty is to give the blood. What's that? The penalty is to give the shedding of the blood. Well, how about the penalty for me? What's the penalty? If I never come to Christ, what's my penalty? I'm going to die. I'm going to die anyway. So what's... Total separation. What's that? Total separation. There you go. I think that's the answer. It's eternal separation. It's what the word of God calls the second death. Eternally separated.

And the reason is, Romans 8.3, what the law couldn't do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, what did he do? Did he save the sin nature? He condemned sin in the flesh. This sin nature, this little dog that's got everybody, this thing is condemned, not saved.

You're saved, it's condemned. So if you're not a believer, and this relationship exists between you and the sin nature, when you check out of the planet, what's going to happen to your sin nature? It's condemned. What's going to happen to you? You're hooked. You're going to go where it goes. was the condemned sinner's sins paid for? Yes. Sure they were.

Well how come I'm going to go to hell then? Because of this relationship. So is your sin nature somehow still connected with your earthly body? Because obviously it has to die, it can't go... Yeah, that's a good question. You know, I was wondering, do all our sin natures go to our death or something when we die? I don't know. I think you're right. Because I think when we fall asleep and are separated from this planet, our body stays here and it goes into corruption and I think the sin nature is connected somehow. It doesn't go where we go.

When we get a new body, is it the same as like this as far as it looks? No, you're going to be a little heavier. No, it will be a brand new body like the one Christ has resurrected, glorified body. I don't think it will have blood in it. It won't need it. You alright so far? Alright. Gee, am I done? No. Wow. What I was wondering, weren't we like with Christ like in his crucifixion? Sure. So you were mentioning about the substitution. You were saying who all was there? It was just Jesus. Jesus was there by himself as our substitute. We were there with him, identified with him, being crucified with him.

Galatians 2.20, I have been crucified with Christ. Crucified in the sense of what? I was there when he died unto sin.

Say that again? Positioning. Okay, yeah, that's a better way to say it. Positioning, I was there. Okay. You know, one last question. How could God, based on this event happening a couple thousand years ago, how could he forgive sins in the Old Testament? Or cover them over? I mean, sin's a serious business with God. What's that? They were on credit. Yeah, he had a credit card. He didn't have time. So he could cover the sins of the Jews in anticipation of what Christ was going to do. Because Christ is known as the Lamb slain from the foundations of eternity. So when Adam sins, Christ wasn't old plain B. Christ was already in place.

So doesn't it seem foolish that God would sort of do a plan like that where he'd create these human beings that had wills and give him the opportunity to choose against him, it almost seems like he didn't make us good enough to pass the test. Doesn't it seem like that?

It is confusing what he chose to do. I don't think it is when you think about from the standpoint of if God makes us in his own image and likeness, which he did, we've got to have this thing called will. We've got to be able to choose. And if God wants human beings to love him as he loves us, and to respond in kind, he's got to give us a will to do that. Which means he's going to take the risk, so to speak, of us choosing against him.

And so therefore, no one can say, well, you know, nice going God, you just made these wind-up robots, you know, big deal. But we willingly love God because He first loved us. We willingly obey Him because of all that He's done. And so He's way more glorified that way than He is any other way. We talked last week, why does God do everything He did and does? To glorify Himself. He wants to manifest this incredible character of His which is love. to his whole creation. And he does it in such a way that there's never a question about whether he did it right or not. I don't question that. No, I'm not challenging that. There won't be a question to any detractors, including Satan, as to whether he did it right or not.

Because he did. And it would appear in one sense that he took a big risk I don't know, from God's standpoint, he loves the whole world, but some of his creatures are not going to be with him for all eternity. His righteousness and his holiness, wow. But then, he goes through this process of Christ becoming a man, and physically dying a horrible death on the cross, to do what? So that his original purpose would be carried out.

So there will never be a thing like, God you didn't do enough. Next week we will talk about resurrection. And here is what I want you to think about. One question for next week. Which side of the cross do you live on? the substitutionary death side or the resurrection side. Dear Father, we thank you for your son, the Lord Jesus, that he did die to pay the penalty for our sins and that we now are free to behold him and to be conformed to his very image, Father. We thank you and we pray in his precious name. Amen.