Category Archives: Atonement

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The Angel Brings Judgement

1 CHRONICLES 21 “God sent the angel to Jerusalem to destroy it,but as he was about to destroy it, the LORD saw,and he relented from the calamity” (v. 15a).

Continuing our look at how the angel of the Lord appears in Scripture, we come today to an interesting passage in which the angel of the Lord plays a key role. David’s census of Israel in 1 Chronicles 21 provides an opportunity for us to see the angel work in both judgment and redemption.

Before we look specifically at what the angel does in this passage, note that in 1 Chronicles 21:1 Satan incited David to take the census, while in the parallel account of this event in 2 Samuel 24 the Lord moved the king to count the people. This is no contradiction; rather, it reflects the way in which God uses secondary means to accomplish His purposes. Being perfect in holiness, it is impossible for the Lord to sin (James 1:12-18), but that does not mean He is unable to use evil and evildoers to accomplish His will. The Lord is the primary cause of all that happens in that He governs all things, but this sovereign providence establishes secondary causes through which His goals come to pass. God moved David to take a census (2 Sam. 24:1), which was not wrong in itself, but apparently the motivation that David had in taking the census was. The Lord was not the actual individual who tempted David to sin (even if He was testing him here); this “honor” belonged to the accuser (1 Chron. 21:1), the end result of which was the good of selecting the temple site (1 Chron. 21:2-30). In the same event, God’s intent was good but David’s was not.

Even though God is sovereign over all, He remains free of evil, as people who sin are fully culpable for their actions. For this reason, Yahweh sent a plague on His people to discipline David for his sin; He even sent the angel of the Lord to destroy Jerusalem (vv. 14-17). Even though the angel of the Lord is not here identified explicitly as a pre-incarnate manifestation of the Son of God, these activities of judgment are in keeping with Christ’s work, for He will bring the sword of judgment to bear upon creation on that final day (Matt. 10:34-39).

At the same time, Jesus will stay His hand against all those who serve the Father through faith alone in His name, evidenced by obedience to His will (John 3:17; James 2:14-26). This too is foreseen in today’s passage, for the angel of the Lord’s wrath is withheld when David confesses his sin and seeks mercy (1 Chron. 21:15-30).

+Our culture is accustomed to seeing Jesus as meek and mild; indeed, this is an accurate picture of Him. Yet it is not a full-orbed depiction, for He is also the great Judge to come who will execute God’s wrath upon the impenitent. When sharing the gospel, it is appropriate to warn people that if they will not take upon themselves the gentle yoke of Jesus, they will be subject to His holy wrath.

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Christ Our Curse by Kim Riddlebarger

There are a number of Old Testament passages that figure prominently in the New Testament. In Galatians 3:10-14, several of them are quoted by the apostle, and he uses these Old Testament passages as proof texts for the doctrine that sinners are justified through faith alone. Those who trust in Jesus Christ to save them from their sins understand that it was Jesus’ suffering upon the cross that turned aside God’s wrath and anger. But this was not yet clear in the Old Testament when these passages first appeared.

The first passage cited by Paul in this section is from Deuteronomy. In Deuteronomy 27:26, Moses writes, “Cursed be anyone who does not confirm the words of this law by doing them.” This passage makes it plain that God is not going to grade the final exam for eternal life on a curve. In order to avoid God’s curse, God demands that we obey His law perfectly. Those who fail to do so come under the wrath of God. That this is what Moses meant becomes clear in Matthew’s gospel, where a rich young man claimed to have obeyed all the commandments. When Jesus exposed him as a law-breaker and therefore subject to the curse the young man went away with great sorrow. Witnessing this exchange, Jesus’ disciples asked Him, “Who then can be saved?” (19:25). Jesus reminded them that people do not obey God’s law; they cannot save themselves — it is impossible. But all things are possible for God (19:26).

Another passage cited by Paul is Leviticus 18:5. In Deuteronomy 27, Moses warned of the curse coming upon all those who don’t obey the commandments. Here, he speaks of a reward promised to those who do: “You shall therefore keep my statutes and my rules; if a person does them, he shall live by them: I am the LORD.” In these two passages, we see one of the basic themes of God’s covenant relationship with His people, the so-called blessing-curse principle. God promises to bless those who perfectly obey Him by giving them life. Yet God also threatens any act of disobedience with the covenant curse.  Anyone who has ever truly considered his own sinfulness can certainly relate to the disciples’ question: “Who can be saved?”

A resolution is found in an obscure passage in Deuteronomy 21. Anyone who has committed a crime and who is put to death on a tree comes under God’s curse. According to verse 23, “his body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall bury him the same day, for a hanged man is cursed by God.” While this passage is dealing with the burial of criminals, from the perspective of New Testament hindsight it becomes the key to understanding how God could put to death His sinless Messiah, who perfectly obeyed the commandments of God and who earned eternal life through that obedience.

In his epistle to the Galatians, Paul is refuting the errors of the Judaizers, who were arguing that while the death of Jesus was necessary for God to save sinners, Jesus’ death was not sufficient to save sinners. According to the Judaizers, those who came to believe that Jesus is the Messiah must also undergo circumcision, keep the dietary laws, and observe the Jewish feasts in order to be justified. The Judaizers contended that Gentiles must not only embrace Israel’s Messiah through faith, they must also live as Jews.

Paul answers this error by reminding the Galatians of the blessing-curse principle and how, in the death of Jesus, God’s curse is taken away. Eternal life comes to the people of God through faith, not works. In Galatians 3:10, Paul cites Deuteronomy 27:26 to warn those who think that Christ’s death is not sufficient to save sinners: “For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, ‘Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.”‘ God’s justice requires perfect obedience. Sin but one time, and we come under God’s curse.

Paul concludes, “Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for ‘The righteous shall live by faith… (v. 11), citing from yet another Old Testament writer — the prophet Habakkuk (2:4). To further bolster his contention, Paul cites from Leviticus 18:5: “But the law is not of faith, rather ‘The one who does them shall live by them”‘ (v. 12). Here Paul echoes the question of the disciples. Sinners cannot save themselves. They do not obey God’s law, they fail to live, and they come under God’s curse.

The good news of the gospel is that someone else bore God’s curse for us in our place. As Paul points out in Galatians 3:13-14, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us — for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree’— so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.” Little did the Romans know that when they put Jesus to death upon a cross, He came under God’s curse, so that those of us who deserve God’s judgment instead receive eternal life through Jesus’ own obedience. And all of this becomes ours through faith.

  • +Dr. Kim Riddlebarger is senior pastor of Christ Reformed Church (URCNA) in Anaheim, California. He is authorof A Cose for Amillennialism: Understanding the End Times
  • From October 2010 Tabletalk Magazine
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The True Love of God

1 JOHN 4:10-12 “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (v. 1o).

In studying how the old covenant feasts and festivals are fulfilled in the new covenant, some new covenant realities of these old covenant types and shadows are easy to see because they jump right off the page for us. For example, the Day of Atonement is fulfilled in the cross of Christ. Hebrews 9 says the death of our Lord purifies our consciences “from dead works to serve the living God” (v. 14). Expiation, or the sending away of sin, pictured by the scapegoat (Lev. 16:20-22), occurs via the cleansing effects of Jesus’ blood. The author of Hebrews also says the death of the Savior “redeems [us] from the transgressions committed under the first covenant” (9:15). Christ’s death propitiates the wrath of God — in Him our Creator manifests His justice through executing the sentence of death on a substitute in order that He will not have to execute it on repentant sinners. This was typified through the death of the sacrificial bull and goat on the Day of Atonement (Lev. 16:11-19).
First John 4:10-12 confirms that the death of Jesus atoned for the sin of His people and propitiated God’s wrath (v. 10). Since we discussed propitiation last month, we will focus today on how the Lord’s fulfillment of the Day of Atonement is grounded in His love and is a model for how we are to love other people, especially believers. As the apostle writes, if we want to understand true love, then we have to look at the atonement (v. 10). This was the most loving act ever performed in history, for there has never been and can never be a gift greater than the life of the Son of God given for the “sins of the whole world” (2:2). Without God’s Spirit indwelling them, people cannot look to the love they have for others or even the “love” they have for God as an example to be emulated (4:10), for we are born self-centered and remain so unless the Holy Spirit changes our hearts. No one seeks God (Ps. 53), and the atonement not only shows us the Father’s love but also enables us to love Him in return, for without the death of Jesus, there is no outpouring of His regenerating Spirit (John 16:7).
Fulfilling the Day of Atonement, Jesus has turned away God’s wrath, shown us true love, and empowered us to love Him and others. By His Spirit we can now love others through acts of self-sacrifice that, however faintly, mimic our Lord’s willingness to sacrifice all for us (1 John 4:11). +

Dr. Joel Beeke writes in his Epistles of John that “the great motivation for practical, Christlike living is the doctrine of the cross; hence, every failure to love can be traced back to a failure to understand the cross. When the cross of Christ grips us, everything in our world changes” (p. 161). True love is costly and does good to others even when there is a risk of being hurt. Where can you sacrifice in order to show real love today?

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Spurgeon on the Substitutionary Atonement

spurgeonJUST AND THE JUSTIFIER OF THE ONE WHO HAS FAITH IN JESUS.  – ROMANS 3:26
Being justified by faith, we have peace with God. Conscience no longer accuses. Judgment now decides for the sinner instead of against him. Memory looks back upon past sins with deep sorrow for the sin, but yet without dreading any penalty to come; for Christ has paid the debt of His people to the last jot and tittle and received the divine receipt. Unless God can be so unjust as to demand double payment for one debt, no soul for whom Jesus died as a substitute can ever be cast into hell. It seems to be one of the principles of our enlightened nature to believe that God is just; we feel that it must be so, and this terrifies us at first. But is it not marvelous that this very same belief that God is just later becomes the pillar of our confidence and peace! If God is just, I, a sinner, alone and without a substitute, must be punished. But Jesus stands in my place and is punished for me; and now, if God is just, I, a sinner, standing in Christ, can never be punished. God must change His nature before one soul for whom Jesus was a substitute can ever by any possibility suffer the punishment of the law. Therefore, Jesus having taken the place of the believer—having rendered a full equivalent to divine wrath for all that His people ought to have suffered as the result of sin—the believer can shout with glorious triumph, “Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect?”‘ Not God, for He has justified; not Christ, for He has died, yes, has risen again. My hope lives not because I am not a sinner, but because I am a sinner for whom Christ died; my trust is not that I am holy, but that being unholy, He is my righteousness. My faith rests not upon what I am or shall be or feel or know, but in what Christ is, in what He has done, and in what He is now doing for me. Hallelujah!

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Spurgeon on Dependence

spurgeonNEVERTHELESS, I AM CONTINUALLY WITH YOU. – PSALM 73:23

Nevertheless”—as if, notwithstanding all the foolishness and ignorance that David has just been confessing to God, not one atom was it less true and certain that David was saved and accepted, and that the blessing of being constantly in God’s presence was undoubtedly his. Fully conscious of his own lost estate and of the deceitfulness and vileness of his nature, yet, by a glorious outburst of faith, he sings, “Nevertheless, I am continually with you.” Believer, you are forced to enter into Asaph’s confession and acknowledgment; endeavor in like spirit to say “nevertheless, since I belong to Christ I am continually with God!” By this is meant continually upon His mind—He is always thinking of me for my good. Continually before His eye—the eye of the Lord never sleeps but is perpetually watching over my welfare. Continually in His hand, so that none shall be able to pluck me away. Continually on His heart, worn there as a memorial, even as the high priest bore the names of the twelve tribes upon his heart forever. You always think of me, 0 God. The tender mercies of Your love continually yearn toward me. You are always making providence work for my good. You have set me as a signet upon Your arm; Your love is strong as death, and many waters cannot quench it; neither can the floods drown it. Surprising grace! You see me in Christ, and though in myself disapproved, You behold me as wearing Christ’s garments and washed in His blood, and so I stand accepted in Your presence. I am therefore continually in Your favor—”continually with you.” Here is comfort for the tried and afflicted soul; vexed with the tempest within, look at the calm without. “Nevertheless”-0 say it in your heart, and take the peace it gives. “Nevertheless, I am continually with you.”

  • Morning and Evening, July 29th a.m. entry
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God’s Suffering and God’s Mercy

If I were GodAs I’ve already said, I don’t think I have answers for all my intellectual questions about suffering and pain. I guess I could write another book on all the stuff I don’t know about suffering. But what I learnt as an 18-year-old, as I was wondering what God understood of my loss, has changed my perspective forever. In the great work of art we call the universe, I cannot always follow the hand of the Artist: some of his work just eludes me. But what the biblical narrative tells me—and, in particular, the account of Christ’s passion—is that while I may not be able to trace the Artist’s hand at all times, I can always trust his motives. The God who is in control of all things, who acts behind the scenes in all things, is also the God who willingly suffers. He is the one I can shout at, cry with and find comfort in. His heart, if not all his ways, is clear to me because on the cross he wore it on his sleeve for all to see. This God is able to sympathise with those who suffer not simply because he is `all-knowing’—an attribute ascribed to any version of divinity—but because he has experienced pain firsthand. . . .Having said this, God’s wounds speak to more than just our wounds, they address something even more fundamental. . . Christ’s death is more than an identification with us. The Bible makes clear it is a substitution for us. On the cross God not only stands alongside us, he stands in our place. Here we arrive at perhaps the most liberating dimension of biblical faith: in that god-forsaken moment on the cross Jesus bore the god-forsakenness I deserve for rejecting my Maker and mistreating my neighbour, or in biblical shorthand, for my ‘sin’. Jesus’ death, therefore, is God’s invitation to experience not just his comfort but his mercy as well.

  • From If I Were God, I’d End All the Pain by John Dickson
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Spurgeon on Works

spurgeon“If thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it.”   –Exodus 20:25

God’s altar was to be built of unhewn stones, that no trace of human skill or labor might be seen upon it. Human wisdom delights to trim and arrange the doctrines of the cross into a system more artificial and more congenial with the depraved tastes of fallen nature; instead, however, of improving the gospel carnal wisdom pollutes it, until it becomes another gospel, and not the truth of God at all. All alterations and amendments of the Lord’s own Word are defilements and pollutions. The proud heart of man is very anxious to have a hand in the justification of the soul before God; preparations for Christ are dreamed of, humblings and repentings are trusted in, good works are put forth, natural ability is much vaunted, and by all means the attempt is made to lift up human tools upon the divine altar. It were well if sinners would remember that so far from perfecting the Savior’s work, their carnal confidences only pollute and dishonor it. The Lord alone must be exalted in the work of atonement, and not a single mark of man’s chisel or hammer will be endured. There is an inherent blasphemy in seeking to add to what Christ Jesus in His dying moments declared to be finished, or to improve that in which the Lord Jehovah finds perfect satisfaction. Trembling sinner, away with thy tools, and fall upon thy knees in humble supplication; and accept the Lord Jesus to be the altar of thine atonement, and rest in Him alone.

Many professors may take warning from this morning’s text as to the doctrines which they believe. There is among Christians far too much inclination to square and reconcile the truths of revelation; this is a form of irreverence and unbelief, let us strive against it, and receive truth as we find it; rejoicing that the doctrines of the Word are unhewn stones, and so are all the more fit to build an altar for the Lord.

  • From Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening – July 14th a.m. entry
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1 Timothy 2:4

New testament scroll

3 This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, 4 who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

Reformation Study Bible notes:

  • This does not mean that God sovereignly wills every human being to be saved
  • It may refer to God’s general  benevolence in that he takes no delight in the death of the wicked, or it may mean that God wills all types of people to be saved (i.e., God does not exclude certain types of people from election to salvation
  • see God’s will

Continue reading →

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Alistair Begg – God demands perfection

  • From “On the basis of love, part A” – a study from Philemon
  • There are two reasons people stay away from Jesus on the cross
    • they are too good to need him
      • a Christ who bears sin is an obsolete idea
    • they think they are so bad that he can never cope with him
  • Unlike any other religion of the world which either creates in our minds pride – whereby we are doing everything we should or despair whereby we cannot do what we ought to do, Christianity deals with both our pride and our despair
    • those of us who think we are doing marvelously well run right up against the requirement of absolute perfection
  • The standard for entry into heaven is absolute perfection
  • Only one has kept God’s law in its totality – Jesus and unless we are placed into Jesus and credited with all he has done in keeping God’s law then we have no place before God
  • “bearing shame and scoffing rude in the sinner’s place condemned he stood” taking all the punishment my sin deserves so that I may be accepted before the father
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Spurgeon on Limited Atonement

From The Death of Death (Packer’s introductory essay):
1 Compare this, from C. H. Spurgeon: ” We are often told that we limit the atonement of Christ, because we say that Christ has not made a satisfaction for all men, or all men would be saved. Now, our reply to this is, that, on the other hand, our opponents limit it: we do not. The Arminians say, Christ died for all men. Ask them what they mean by it. Did Christ die so as to secure the salvation of all men? They say, ” No, certainly not.” We ask them the next question- Did Christ die so as to secure the salvation of any man in particular? They answer ” No.” They are obliged to admit this, if they are consistent. They say ,. No. Christ has died that any man may be saved if “–and then follow certain conditions of salvation. Now, who is it that limits the death of Christ! Why, you. You say that Christ did not die so as infallibly to secure the salvation of anybody. We beg your pardon, when you say we limit Christ’s death; we say, ” No, my dear sir, it is you that do it.” We say Christ so died that he infallibly secured the salvation of a multitude that no man can number, who through Christ’s death not only may be saved, but are saved, must be saved and cannot by any possibility run the hazard of being anything but saved. You are welcome to your atonement ; you may keep it. We will never renounce ours for the sake of it.”

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TFL: “What Is This You Have Done, Part 2″ *****

  • Peter’s declaration in Mark is the last thing you would expect him to say
    • Mark 8:27
    • 27 Jesus and his disciples left Galilee and went up to the villages near Caesarea Philippi. As they were walking along, he asked them, “Who do people say I am? 28 “Well,” they replied, “some say John the Baptist, some say Elijah, and others say you are one of the other prophets.” 29 Then he asked them, “But who do you say I am?” Peter replied, “You are the Messiah.[b]” 30 But Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him.
    • b: Or the Christ. Messiah (a Hebrew term) and Christ (a Greek term) both mean “the anointed one.”
  • Messianic secret
    • Expectations of the people were for overthrow of the Roman empire, power, glory, and to the overall wonders of God’s Kingdom, but Jesus came to suffer and die
    • He came instead to receive rejection, humiliation, and shame
    • Because his being a Messiah is not according to what the apostles and the people know a Messiah should be.
    • Yes, indeed he was the Messiah, but his being a Messiah involved suffering and great hardship.
  • It was after Peter’s declaration, that Jesus started to preach about why he came and how it was all going to go down
  • Peter says we cannot have you (Jesus) suffer and die and Jesus states that He came to undergo rejection, humiliation, and shame and if we are to be His disciples we should do the same
  • Disciples had to wrestle with this question: If God in His love longs to forgive sinners and longs for reconciliation, yet at the same time in His justice he cannot ignore our rebellions and our sins and they have to be punished, how can He display His love and execute His justice?
    • The Great Question has a Great Answer – at the cross of Jesus Christ.
    • At the cross Jesus is an emblem of the Father’s wrath.
    • If He (God) were simply to ignore sin, He would not be true to Himself in the perfection of His Holiness, therefore sin must be punished.
    • But because of His infinite love, God executes His justice on His son so that those who deserve that judgement may find in His son their forgiveness and His love and their life.