29 Why Jesus Came to Die. To Free Us from the Slavery of Sin
To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Revelation 1:5-6 Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. Hebrews 13:12
Our sin ruins us in two ways. It makes us guilty before God, so that we are under his just condemnation; and it makes us ugly in our behavior, so that we disfigure the image of God we were meant to display. It damns us with guilt, and it enslaves us to lovelessness. The blood of Jesus frees us from both miseries. It satisfies God's righteousness so that our sins can be justly forgiven. And it defeats the power of sin to make us slaves to lovelessness. We have seen how Christ absorbs the wrath of God and takes away our guilt. But now how does the blood of Christ liberate us from the slavery of sin? The answer is not that he is a powerful example to us and inspires us to free ourselves from selfishness. Oh, yes, Jesus is an example to us. And a very powerful one. He clearly meant for us to imitate him: "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another" (John 13:34). But the call to imitation is not the power of liberation. There is something deeper. Sin is such a powerful influence in our lives that we must be liberated by God's power, not by our willpower. But since we are sinners we must ask, Is the power of God directed toward our liberation or our condemnation? That's where the suffering of Christ comes in. When Christ died to remove our condemnation, he opened, as it were, the valve of heaven's mighty mercy to flow on behalf of our liberation from the power of sin. In other words, rescue from the guilt of sin and the wrath of God had to precede rescue from the power of sin by the mercy of God. The crucial biblical words for saying this are: Justification precedes and secures sanctification. They are different. One is an instantaneous declaration (not guilty!); the other is an ongoing transformation. Now, for those who are trusting Christ, the power of God is not in the service of his condemning wrath, but his liberating mercy. God gives us this power for change through the person of his Holy Spirit. That is why the beauty of "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self- control" are called "the fruit of the Spirit" (Galatians 5:22-23). This is why the Bible can make the amazing promise: "Sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace" (Romans 6:14). Being "under grace" secures the omnipo- tent power of God to destroy our lovelessness (not all at once, but progressively). We are not passive in the defeat of our selfishness, but neither do we provide the decisive power. It is God's grace. Hence the great apostle Paul said, "I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me" (1 Corinthians 15:10). May the God of all grace, by faith in Christ, free us from both the guilt and slavery of sin.30 Why Jesus Came to Die. That We Might Die to Sin and Live to Righteousness
He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. 1 Peter 2:24
Strange as it may sound, Christ's dying in our place and for our sins means that we died. You would think that having a substitute die in your place would mean that you escape death. And, of course, we do escape death-the eternal death of endless misery and separation from God. Jesus said, "I give them eternal life, and they will never perish" (John 10:28). "Everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die" (John 11:26). The death of Jesus does indeed mean that "whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16). But there is another sense in which we die precisely because Christ died in our place and for our sins. "He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die . . ." (1 Peter 2:24). He died that we might live; and he died that we might die. When Christ died, I, as a believer in Christ, died with him. The Bible is clear: "We have been united with him in a death like his" (Romans 6:5). "One has died for all, therefore all have died" (2 Corinthians 5:14). Faith is the evidence of being united to Christ in this profound way. Believers "have been crucified with Christ" (Galatians 2:20). We look back on his death and know that, in the mind of God, we were there. Our sins were on him, and the death we deserved was happening to us in him. Baptism signifies this death with Christ. "We were buried . . . with him by baptism into death" (Romans 6:4). The water is like a grave. Going under is a picture of death. Coming up is a picture of new life. And it is all a picture of what God is doing "through faith." "[You have] been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God" (Colossians 2:12). The fact that I died with Christ is linked directly to his dying for my sin. "He himself bore our sins . . . that we might die." This means that when I embrace Jesus as my Savior, I embrace my own death as a sinner. My sin brought Jesus to the grave and brought me there with him. Faith sees sin as murderous. It killed Jesus, and it killed me. Therefore, becoming a Christian means death to sin. The old self that loved sin died with Jesus. Sin is like a prostitute that no longer looks beautiful. She is the murderer of my King and myself. Therefore, the believer is dead to sin, no longer dominated by her attractions. Sin, the prostitute who killed my friend, has no appeal. She has become an enemy. My new life is now swayed by righteousness. "He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might . . . live to righteousness" (1 Peter 2:24). The beauty of Christ, who loved me and gave himself for me, is the desire of my soul. And his beauty is perfect righteousness. The command that I now love to obey is this (and I invite you to join me): "Present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your mem- bers to God as instruments for righteousness" (Romans 6:13).31 Why Jesus Came to Die. So That We Would Die to the Law and Bear Fruit for God
You also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. Romans 7:4
When Christ died for us, we died with him. God looked on us who believe as united to Christ. His death for our sin was our death in him. (See the previous chapter.) But sin was not the only reality that killed Jesus and us. So did the law of God. When we break the law by sinning, the law sentences us to death. If there were no law, there would be no punishment. "For . . . where there is no law there is no transgression" (Romans 4:15). But "whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that . . . the whole world may be held accountable to God" (Romans 3:19). There was no escape from the curse of he law. It was just; we were guilty. There was only one way to be free: Someone must pay the penalty. That's why Jesus came: "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us" (Galatians 3:13). Therefore, God's law cannot condemn us if we are in Christ. Its power to rule us is doubly broken. On the one hand, the law's demands have been fulfilled by Christ on our behalf. His perfect law-keeping is credited to our account (see chapter 11). On the other hand, the law's penalty has been paid by the blood of Christ. This is why the Bible so clearly teaches that getting right with God is not based on law-keeping. "By works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight" (Romans 3:20). "A person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ" (Galatians 2:16). There is no hope of getting right with God by law-keeping. The only hope is the blood and righteous- ness of Christ, which is ours by faith alone. "We hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law" (Romans 3:28). How then do we please God, if we are dead to his law and it is no longer our master? Is not the law the expression of God's good and holy will (Romans 7:12)? The biblical answer is that instead of belonging to the law, which demands and condemns, we now belong to Christ who demands and gives. Formerly, righteousness was demanded from outside in letters written in stone. But now righteousness rises within us as a longing in our relationship with Christ. He is present and real. By his Spirit he helps us in our weakness. A living person has replaced a lethal list. "The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life" (2 Corinthians 3:6). (See chapter 14.) This is why the Bible says that the new way of obedience is fruit-bearing, not law-keeping. "You . . . have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God" (Romans 7:4). We have died to law-keeping so that we might live to fruit-bearing. Fruit grows naturally on a tree. If the tree is good, the fruit will be good. And the tree, in this case, is a living relationship of love to Jesus Christ. For this he died. Now he bids us come: "Trust me." Die to the law, that you might bear the fruit of love.32 Why Jesus Came to Die. To Enable Us to Live for Christ and Not Ourselves
He died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. 2 Corinthians 5:15
It troubles a lot of people that Christ died to exalt Christ. Boiled down to its essence, 2 Corinthians 5:15 says Christ died for us that we might live for him. In other words, he died for us so that we make much of him. Bluntly, Christ died for Christ. Now that is true. It's not a word trick. The very essence of sin is that we have failed to glorify God-which includes failing to glorify his Son (Romans 3:23). But Christ died to bear that sin and to free us from it. So he died to bear the dishonor that we had heaped on him by our sin. He died to turn this around. Christ died for the glory of Christ. The reason this troubles people is that it sounds vain. It doesn't seem like a loving thing to do. So it seems to turn the suffering of Christ into the very opposite of what the Bible says it is, namely, the supreme act of love. But in fact it's both. Christ's dying for his own glory and his dying to show love are not only both true, they are both the same. Christ is unique. No one else can act this way and call it love. Christ is the only human in the universe who is also God and therefore infinitely valuable. He is infinitely beautiful in all his moral perfections. He is infinitely wise and just and good and strong. "He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature" (Hebrews 1:3). To see him and know him is more satisfying than having all that earth can offer. Those who knew him best spoke this way: Whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ. (Philippians 3:7-8) "Christ died that we might live for him" does not mean "that we might help him." "[God is not] served by human hands, as though he needed anything" (Acts 17:25). Neither is Christ: "The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many" (Mark 10:45). What Christ died for is not that we might help him, but that we might see and savor him as infinitely valuable. He died to wean us from poisonous pleasures and enthrall us with the pleasures of his beauty. In this way we are loved, and he is honored. These are not competing aims. They are one. Jesus said to his disciples that he had to go away so that he could send the Holy Spirit, the Helper (John 16:7). Then he told them what the Helper would do when he came: "He will glorify me" (John 16:14). Christ died and rose so that we would see and magnify him. This is the greatest help in the world. This is love. The most loving prayer Jesus ever prayed was this: "Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory" (John 17:24). For this Christ died. This is love-suffering to give us everlasting enjoyment, namely himself.