Grace Church
257 Kendall Street
Burlington, WI 53105

(262) 763-3021

The Cross: When Jesus took our place 2 Corinthians 5:21 An Earthly Cross, Its Heavenly Significance Sermon 2 Have you ever wished that you had a substitute? Maybe you’re a Mom and you’re really tired of doing laundry. You’d just love to have a substitute, least for a month or so? Do you hate doing your taxes and just wish someone else could do them for you this year…or at least pay them for you, if you owe something? In a few weeks I’m scheduled to go to the Dentist. If I could give my teeth to someone else for a few hours and get them to sit in for me, I’d jump at it in a New York minute.   Today we’re studying what the Cross meant to Jesus Christ. We’re looking at The Cross: When Jesus took our place…when He became our substitute. During these Sundays prior to Easter we’re looking at the Cross from five perspectives–what it meant to God, to Christ and Satan, and what it means to the world and to the church. My prayer is that you’ll be strengthened as we return to the heart of our faith.   Turn to 2 Corinthians 5:21 (p. 819). This is one of most magnificent verses in the all the Bible. Spurgeon called it the heart of the gospel. It’s truly the gospel in one verse. Everything you need to know about how to go to heaven can be found in these 23 words. It could hardly be simpler than this, yet whole books could be written on the meaning of each phrase.   So how important is this verse? Miss this and you’ve missed the truth of God. If you get this right, you can be wrong in a lot of other places and still go to heaven. In our day of rampant theological confusion, it’s critical that the Church be firmly settled on the gospel message because that is, after all, our only message. God has not committed to us a message about political change or military power. We’re not called to right all the wrongs in the world or to pass judgment on every passing trend. The Church of Jesus Christ has been given one major task–to preach the gospel to every person on earth (Mark 16:15). Since that’s our God-given task, then we’d better make sure we know what the gospel is.   Remember when the famous Star Wars movie trilogy was re-released a few years ago with additional computer-generated footage that was not included in the original version. It was advertised with this slogan: "Star Wars: See it again for the first time." I hope something like that happens as we consider the deeper meaning of the Cross of Christ, that we will "see it again for the first time."   2 Corinthians 5:21 tells us what the Cross meant to Christ. Each phrase tells of a miracle that can’t be fully explained but must be accepted by faith. Let’s start this morning by considering the character of the One who was crucified. 1. Jesus Christ was impeccable, He had no sin. On one occasion when Dr. Howard Hendricks was speaking at a conference in Dallas, he asked the question of the audience of 2000, “Do you know someone who is perfect?” He was about to go on, when he noticed a lone hand raised in the back of the auditorium. So Dr. Hendricks asked, “Are you perfect, or do you know someone who is?” The man replied, “Oh, no, I’m not perfect. But as far as I can tell, my wife’s first husband was.”   But no one is perfect except Jesus Christ. Paul begins with the fact that Christ “had no sin.” Some versions say that He "knew no sin," stressing the sinless nature of His inner being. There was no sin outwardly because there was no sin inwardly. When Jesus Christ walked this earth, He was perfectly righteous. Stated negatively, He was without fault, without sin, and without evil. He never did anything wrong, never broke any laws of God, and never deviated in the slightest degree from the path of God’s will.   This is crucial because if Christ had sinned, He could not be our Savior. He had to be what theologians call “impeccable.” A sinner couldn’t pay for the sins of another sinner. The sacrifice must be made by One who was without spot or blemish, like the lambs slain on the night of the final plague in Egypt (Ex. 12). God ordained that the lambs must be one-year-old males, in good health, free from disease and physical defect. The lambs that were slaughtered in Egypt pictured the coming "Lamb of God" who by His bloody, sacrificial death would take away the sin of the world (John 1:29).   How do we know that Christ had no sin? Primarily from the testimony of His enemies. When Pilate examined Him, he declared, "I find no fault in Him" (Jn. 19:4 KJV). When Herod and the Jewish leaders put him on trial, they could find no witnesses against Him so they rounded up false ones who lied under oath (Mt. 26:59-60). When Christ hung on the Cross, the Roman centurion cried out, "Truly this was the Son of God" (Mt. 27:54).   While Jesus knew all about sin, He never sinned…not even once. He lived in a sinful world but the stain of sin never tarnished His character. Of all the billions of people who have lived on planet earth, He’s the only one about whom it can be truly said that He never sinned in word, in thought or in deed. There is not even a hint of moral contamination in His life.     Jesus faced temptation head on, full strength, against all that the devil could hurl at Him. But having felt its full weight, He never gave in, never flinched, never even came close to sinning. He never confessed a fault because He had no faults to confess. He never asked for forgiveness because He never needed it. He claimed that no one could accuse Him of sin and He was right. Christ was and is a "moral miracle." That’s why the writer of Hebrews could say that He was tempted in all points as we are, yet He was without sin (Heb. 4:15). 2. Jesus Christ took our place, He became sin for us. May 21, 1946, Los Alamos. A young and daring scientist was carrying out a necessary experiment in preparation for the atomic test to be conducted in the waters of the South Pacific, He’d successfully performed such an experiment many times before. In his effort to determine the amount of U-235 necessary for a chain reaction—scientists call it the critical mass—he would push two hemispheres of uranium together. Then, just as the mass became critical, he would push them apart with his screwdriver, thus instantly stopping the chain reaction. But on that day, just as the material became critical, the screwdriver slipped! The hemispheres of uranium came too close together. Instantly the room was filled with a dazzling bluish haze. But young Louis Slotin, instead of ducking and thereby possibly saving himself, tore the two hemispheres apart with his hands and thus interrupted the chain reaction. By this instant, self-forgetful daring, he saved the lives of the seven other people in the room. As he waited for the car that was to take him to the hospital, he said quietly to his companion, “You’ll come through all right. But I haven’t the faintest chance myself.” It was only too true. Nine days later he died in agony. Two thousand years go Jesus Christ walked directly into sin’s most concentrated radiation, allowed Himself to be touched by its curse, and let it take His life. And by that act He broke the chain reaction. He broke the power of sin.   Paul wrote, “God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us.” In C. J. Mahaney's book, Living the Cross Centered Life, he shares his advice to his young son, Chad. “This is what I hold out to my young son as the hope of his life: that Jesus, God's perfect, righteous Son, died in his place for his sins. Jesus took all the punishment; Jesus received all the wrath as He hung on the Cross, so people like Chad and his sinful daddy could be completely forgiven.”   Jesus took our place and this is the second miracle of our text. The sinless Son of God became sin for us. How could this be? Some translations attempt to soften the blow by translating "sin offering" instead of "sin." While that’s acceptable in terms of the Greek language, it’s not necessary. Paul isn’t suggesting Christ literally became a sinner. That would not be possible. Christ remained personally sinless while hanging on the cross. He never committed a sin and therefore never became a sinner. However, in a sense that’s beyond our understanding He "became sin" for us.   Maybe the best way to understand this is to say that God treated His Son as if He were a sinner. He so identified with sinners that He was numbered among the transgressors (Isa. 53:12). Jesus Christ not only died between two sinners, He was included with them and died as they died–a criminal’s death on the Cross. Historically Christians have used two phrases to describe how Christ "became sin" for us.   a) Jesus Christ took our place, “for us.” When Christ died on the Cross, He took my place and He took yours. This is the doctrine of substitution–that Christ died in the place of guilty sinners. Think of it this way. His nails were meant for you, the crown of thorns should have been on your head, the spear should have pierced your side. The jeers and insults were meant for you. It should have been you hanging on a tree–but it wasn’t. It was Jesus dying in your place.   Having said that, we need to quickly add that this has been a controversial doctrine across the centuries. Not everyone believes it’s true. Some have mocked the doctrine of substitutionary atonement saying that it’s a holdover from the primitive pagan religions of the ancient world. Some have derided it as a "slaughterhouse religion." Some mainline denominations have removed all the hymns that mentioned the blood of Christ from their hymnbooks because they find them embarrassing.   True biblical religion is an offense to the natural mind. The world by its wisdom didn’t know God (1 Cor. 1:21) and has always stumbled over the cross. The death of Jesus offends the sensibilities of those who want a cultured, bloodless religion.   Now I don’t have time today to refute that notion except to say that the Bible is a book of blood from beginning to end. Take out the blood and you’ve taken out God’s plan of salvation. Without the shedding of blood this is no forgiveness of sin (Heb. 9:22).   You cannot avoid the doctrine of substitution because it’s the teaching of the New Testament. It’s not just that men treated Him so badly; it’s that God ordained His death on the Cross. When Jesus died, He died taking the place of the very people who put Him to death.   b) Jesus Christ took our penalty, “He became sin.” This follows from the first truth. On the cross Jesus became the sinless Sin-Bearer. He paid the price we owed to God, the debt we could never pay. His death satisfied God’s righteous decree that sin must always be punished.   During the war between Britain and France, men were conscripted into the French army by a kind of lottery system. When someone's name was drawn, he’d to go off to battle. There was one exception to this, however. A person could be exempt if another was willing to take his place. On one occasion the authorities came to a certain man and told him he was among those who had been chosen. He refused to go, saying, "I was shot 2 years ago." At first they questioned his sanity but he insisted that this indeed was the case. He claimed that the military records would show that he had been conscripted 2 years previously and that he’d been killed in action. "How can that be?" they questioned. "You’re alive now!" He explained that when his name came up, a close friend said to him, "You have a large family, but I’m not married and nobody is dependent upon me. I'll take your name and address and go in your place." And that’s exactly what the record showed. This rather unusual case was referred to Napoleon Bonaparte, who decided that the country had no legal claim on that man. He was free. He had died in the person of another!   This principle of substitution is at the heart of the gospel. The Savior willingly took our place, not because He had any less to lose than we, but because of His infinite love. He died in our place and paid the penalty for our sin. The law, which demands the ultimate punishment, has no claim on us. We died 2000 years ago in the person of Christ. His finished work is the basis of our salvation. We depend on Him as our Substitute! Isaiah 53:6 says that "the Lord has laid on Him (that is, on Christ) the iniquity of us all."   Suppose all your sins had been written in one huge massive book. That book is very heavy because it records every rotten thing you’ve ever said, every unkind word you’ve ever spoken, every mean thought, every lustful fantasy, every evil imagination, and all your bad attitudes from the day of your birth till the day of your death. Picture yourself trying to hold that massive book in your hands. But now picture Jesus standing next to you. He’s holy, perfect, pure, and good. He has no book in His hands because He’s never sinned. You want to be rid of the book but you can’t seem to find a place to put it down. What will you do? Now picture Christ on the Cross, with the weight of millions and millions of books upon His bleeding back. He bears that crushing weight as long as He can, then He dies. Look closely and you will see that each book is the personal record of someone who lived on the earth. If you look closely, you can see your book too. He took your sins–the record of all your evil and all your failings and all your shortcomings–He took it all upon Himself when He died on the Cross. Truly, the Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all.   If someone says, "it just doesn’t make sense," we have to agree. We’ll never understand this. From the world’s point of view we cannot fathom how one man could die in the place of another, bearing his penalty, and thus providing for him a right standing with God. While there are many accounts of one man dying for another’s benefit, the benefit ends with this life. We cannot conceive how a death in time could provide eternal benefits, yet that’s precisely what the Bible teaches. The issue is not does it make sense, the issue is whether it’s true and do you believe it?   We don’t worry about what the world says or what it thinks. The world does not know God and cannot know Him apart from divine revelation. This is what we know–Jesus Christ died for the sins of the world and that in His death God Himself has suffered on our behalf. We believe that God in Christ made Himself sin for man, and that man in Christ is now made the righteousness of God. This is a true miracle, and like all miracles it cannot be explained but it cannot be refuted either. It can only be believed or denied. Please ponder these two truths from the sacrifice of Christ: 1) Sin is exceedingly sinful. 2) God’s grace is beyond all comprehension. How much God must love us to do something like this!   3. Jesus Christ does what is humanly impossible so that we could become the righteousness of God. Here we come to the third and final miracle in this verse, “so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.” This is what we all want–to be made right with God, to have our record cleared, to know that when we go to sleep at night there’s nothing between us and our Heavenly Father. In this final phrase we have the Great Exchange: He was condemned that we might be justified. He bore our sin that we might be set free. He died that we might live. He suffered that we might be redeemed. He was made sin, that we might be made righteous.   Theologians have a term for this exchange. They call it the doctrine of imputation. That’s a term from the banking world. It means that when we trust Christ our sin is credited to Christ’s account and His righteousness is credited to our account. He takes our debt and we get His credit. He paid what we owed (and could never pay) and He gives us what He has (and we could never earn).   Some would say that this is impossible. Skeptics call this a legal fiction. How can the righteousness of one man be given to another? On earth I can’t literally take your sin and you can’t literally take my righteousness. The answer to the dilemma is profoundly simple: With man this is impossible, with God all things are possible.   You might be saying, “I can’t accept it.” But then my friend, you will never be saved. There is no salvation apart from this because receiving His righteousness by faith is what salvation is all about. God does not have a Plan B for people who don’t like Plan A. You either come to God by way of the Cross or you don’t come at all.   There’s nothing except your sin that stands between you and God. God’s wrath was turned away at the death of His Son, His justice has been satisfied, His love poured out for the world. Now you must choose–your sins or Jesus Christ! Damnation or salvation! If you come to God through Christ, you will be accepted. You will not, you cannot, be turned away. Conclusion: Velma Barfield was a drug addict who had been convicted of poisoning and killing four people, including her mother. As a consequence of her actions she was condemned to death and lived on death row for six years while the appeals process was taking place. But while in prison Velma received Christ as her Lord and Savior and sought God's forgiveness for her sin. Now this was a sincere conversion, not one concocted by a PR person for the benefit of the media. And as a result of her conversion she firmly believed her sins were forgiven and she became a vibrant and enthusiastic Christian while in prison. She shared and lived the Gospel during her incarceration. Now Velma didn't take lightly what she had done; she’d committed a horrible crime and took complete responsibility for it. Nor did she take God's forgiveness lightly because she knew God's forgiveness came at a high cost, Christ's life on the Cross. Yet through Christ's death she knew God had demonstrated His love for all sinners, even for a murderer like herself. So Velma, for the first time in her life, knew what it meant to be loved. As the time of her execution approached Velma was quoted as saying, "If I had the choice of living free on the outside [of prison] without my Lord, or living on death row with Him, I would choose death row." Can you imagine having a life so void of love, so void of God that returning to a "free" life would have been worse than living in a prison?   Before she died, Velma wrote her story of tragedy, turmoil, drugs, anger, depression, violence, and finally, the grace of God. She said, "I want my story told because I hope it will help people understand what God can do in the life of one loathsome and desperate human being. I [now] understand what the Apostle Paul meant when he called himself the chief of sinners." The day Velma was put to death it was recorded that she went peacefully to her death, her lips moving in silent prayer. God's glory was revealed in Velma's life while in prison, as she became a powerful witness to God's saving grace offered through faith in Jesus Christ. That’s the gospel, the good news that even in the midst of horrible sin no one is so far gone that God can't redeem them.   Maybe you’re here and you’re asking, “How can I become a Christian?” Friend, in order to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, you must trust Him as your Savior. Does that sound strange? I hope not. Already you know much about Jesus. You know that He worked many miracles and helped many people. But the most important thing to know about Jesus is that He died on the cross for your sins. That is, when He died on the cross 2,000 years ago, He took your place. You should have died there. But He died in your place, as your substitute and by His death he paid the price for all your sins. That’s a lot to think about and you don’t have to fully understand it (no one fully understands it), but you do have to believe it. That’s what trusting is. It’s believing, really believing in your heart that something is true. Trusting is what you do when you get on an airplane. You trust your life to the fact that the airplane will safely take you up in the air and then safely get you back to the ground again. That’s trust. It’s staking your life upon something you believe to be true.   Trusting Jesus Christ means staking your life upon the fact that when He died on the cross, He really did pay the price for your sins and He really did take your place. Do you believe that Jesus Christ died for you? Are you willing to stake your life upon that fact? If you are ready to say Yes, then you can be a Christian.   As we close today, let me give you a simple prayer to pray. This prayer is not magic. You should only pray it if it expresses the real desire of your heart. But if it does, then you can pray this prayer:   Dear Lord, Jesus, Thank you for dying on the cross for me. Thank you for taking all my sin away. I believe you are the Son of God and the Savior of the world. I gladly take you as my Savior. Come into my life and make me a Christian. Please help me to live a life that will be pleasing to you. Thank you for hearing this prayer. Amen.   That’s simple, isn’t it? If you will pray that prayer and mean it from your heart, you can become a Christian right now. I hope you’ll just stop right now and pray that prayer to God.   That’s the power of faith when it is directed toward the right object–Jesus Christ. Sometimes we forget how powerful the gospel is and how easy it is for a sinner to be saved. I have been preaching for over 30 years and I can say with conviction that I have never known a sinner whom Christ would not receive. I know thousands of people who have experienced the life-transforming power of a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.   Friend, if you have the slightest desire to know the Lord, run to the cross. Do not hesitate, do not delay, do not wait for a better moment. Christ died for you. He took your place and bore your penalty. Receive him into your heart. Welcome Him as your own Savior and Lord. I beg you in the name of Christ, be reconciled to God!