Parousia and the Everlasting Gospel: What Took Place On and Because of Calvary
https://www.buzzsprout.com/2192965/13685857
“And when they were come to the place, which is called Calvary, there they crucified Him.”
“That He might sanctify the people with His own blood,” Christ “suffered without the gate.” Hebrews 13:12. For transgression of the law of God, Adam and Eve were banished from Eden. Christ, our substitute, was to suffer without the boundaries of Jerusalem. He died outside the gate, where felons and murderers were executed. Full of significance are the words, “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us.” Galatians 3:13.
Upon Christ as our substitute and surety was laid the iniquity of us all. He was counted a transgressor, that He might redeem us from the condemnation of the law. The guilt of every descendant of Adam was pressing upon His heart. The wrath of God against sin, the terrible manifestation of His displeasure because of iniquity, filled the soul of His Son with consternation. All His life Christ had been publishing to a fallen world the good news of the Father’s mercy and pardoning love. Salvation for the chief of sinners was His theme. But now with the terrible weight of guilt He bears, He cannot see the Father’s reconciling face. The withdrawal of the divine countenance from the Savior in this hour of supreme anguish pierced His heart with a sorrow that can never be fully understood by man. So great was this agony that His physical pain was hardly felt.
Satan with his fierce temptations wrung the heart of Jesus. The Savior could not see through the portals of the tomb. Hope did not present to Him His coming forth from the grave a conqueror or tell Him of the Father’s acceptance of the sacrifice. He feared that sin was so offensive to God that Their separation was to be eternal. Christ felt the anguish which the sinner will feel when mercy shall no longer plead for the guilty race. It was the sense of sin, bringing the Father’s wrath upon Him as man’s substitute, that made the cup He drank so bitter, and broke the heart of the Son of God.
The spotless Son of God hung upon the cross, His flesh lacerated with stripes; those hands so often reached out in blessing, nailed to the wooden bars; those feet so tireless on ministries of love, spiked to the tree; that royal head pierced by the crown of thorns; those quivering lips shaped to the cry of woe. And all that He endured—the blood drops that flowed from His head, His hands, His feet, the agony that racked His frame, and the unutterable anguish that filled His soul at the hiding of His Father’s face—speaks to each child of humanity, declaring, It is for thee that the Son of God consents to bear this burden of guilt; for thee He spoils the domain of death, and opens the gates of Paradise. He who stilled the angry waves and walked the foam-capped billows, who made devils tremble and disease flee, who opened blind eyes and called forth the dead to life, —offers Himself upon the cross as a sacrifice, and this from love to thee. He, the Sin Bearer, endures the wrath of divine justice, and for thy sake becomes sin itself.
On Calvary
- You were justified, declared righteous-
Romans 5: 9 “We have now been justified by His blood how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through Him”
- Reconciled with God-
Romans 5: 10 “For if while we were God’s enemies we were reconciled to Him through the death of His Son how much more having been reconciled shall we be saved through His life.”
- God proved His love for you-
Romans 5: 8 “But God demonstrates His own love toward us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.”
1 John 3:16 “This is how we know what love is, Jesus Christ laid down His life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.”
- God made peace with you reconciling all things including you to Himself-
Col. 1:20 “And by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.”
- You were redeemed, bought back from slavery to sin and completely forgiven.
1 Peter 3: 18,19 “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit. After being made alive, He went and made proclamation to the imprisoned spirits.”
Revelation 5:9 “And they sing a new song saying You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain and with your blood You purchased for God persons from every tribe and language and people and nations.”
Ephesians 1: 7 “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace.”
- You were crucified with Christ-
Romans 6:5-7 “For He who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him.”
- He became sin for you and died for you-
2 Corinthians 5: 14, 21 “For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus that if one died for all then all died. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
Because of Calvary
- Your sin was taken away-
Hebrews 9:26 “He then would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world but now, once at the end of ages, He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.”
- You were released from your sins-
Revelation 1:5 “And from Jesus Christ, the Faithful Witness, the first born from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth. To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood.”
- You can consider yourself dead to sin-
Romans 6:11 “Likewise you also reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
- You have no second or eternal death-
Hebrews 2:9 “But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone.”
Revelation 20:6 “Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ and shall reign with Him one thousand years.”
John 11: 11-15 “These things He said, and after that He said to them, our friend Lazarus sleeps, but I go that I may wake him up. Then His disciples said, Lord if he sleeps, he will get well. However, Jesus spoke of His death, but they thought that He was speaking about taking rest in sleep. Then Jesus said to them plainly, Lazarus is dead. And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, that you may believe. Nevertheless, let us go to him.”
- Satan can no longer have power over you-
Hebrews 2:14 “Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil.”
- You are free from the fear of death from slavery to sin and to Satan-
Hebrews 2:15 “And release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.”
- You were healed-
1 Peter 2:24 “Who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness— by whose stripes you were healed.”
- You are no longer condemned-
Romans 8:1 “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.”
CHRIST IS THE GOSPEL
“Hanging upon the cross Christ was the gospel. Now we have a message, ‘Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the world.’ Will not our church members keep their eyes fixed on a crucified and risen Savior, in whom their hopes of eternal life are centered? This is our message, our argument, our doctrine, our warning to the impenitent, our encouragement for the sorrowing, the hope for every believer”
CHRIST CRUCIFIED
“Christ crucified—talk it, pray it, sing it, and it will break and win hearts. This is the power and wisdom of God to gather souls for Christ”
https://www.buzzsprout.com/2192965/13685857
Parousia and the Everlasting Gospel: What Took Place On and Because of Calvary