OK, this is long, I know, but I thought I’d share it anyway. Much of the information below comes from Mark Driscoll’s Death By Love and Mark Dever and J.I. Packer’s In My Place Condemned He Stood.
The Accomplishments of the CrossColossians 1:19-20
TBQ: What did Jesus accomplish on the cross?
As we approach Easter, few questions are as important as the question of what was accomplished on the Cross by Jesus Christ, our Savior. We sometimes have the tendency to gloss over Good Friday in eager anticipation of Resurrection Sunday, but let me encourage us all to ponder the work of the cross before the celebration of Easter. After all, we celebrate Resurrection Sunday only because Jesus died on a Friday. And how odd, when you consider that the Friday on which our savior died is called good. How can the day of Jesus’s death be a good day? I hope, through an examination of Colossians 1:19-20 and other passages, to show you at least ten things accomplished by Christ on the cross.
He was fully God upon the tree, as affirmed by Paul to the church at Colossae; in him all the fullness of God dwelt, but through him, God was pleased to reconcile all things to himself, making peace through the blood of Jesus on the cross. But what did Jesus accomplish?
Redemption- The word redemption and its derivatives occur about 150 times in the New Testament and it is synonymous with words such as liberated and freed. It means to pay a price to secure the release of something or someone. When we speak of the redemption accomplished by Christ on the cross, what we mean is that Christ has redeemed us from the grasp of sin. We have been rescued. One great Old Testament parallel is seen in the release of the Israelites by Pharaoh, I am the Lord your God, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from slavery to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment (Exodus 6:6). He did not send them out willingly, but rather, God, their redeemer, rescued them with a strong mighty hand delivering them from the grasp of Pharaoh. Similarly, on the cross, Christ offers a rescue from the grasp of sin to all who will call upon his name. Christ is our redemption.
New Covenant Sacrifice- The Old Testament makes clear that blood is necessary for atonement. In Leviticus 17:11, God says, For it is the blood that makes atonement… 1 Peter 1:18-19 says, You were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. Even in our sin-stained state, there is something of the image of God that continues to shine through in our lives which demands justice on those who sin against us. We, however, have committed the greatest sin by sinning against God, our creator, and there needs to be the spilling of blood for our atonement. Jesus is our New Covenant Sacrifice. The book of Hebrews describes this New Covenant Sacrifice this way:
He entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. For if the sprinkling of goats and bulls and with the ashes of a heifer sanctifies for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.
Justification- Justification is defined as the divine, forensic act of God, based on the work of Christ upon the cross, whereby a sinner is pronounced righteous by the imputation of the righteousness of Christ. In Romans 3:23-25 the Bible has this to say about Justification, All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.
Propitiation- The word propitiation actually means to appease wrath. Therefore, when we speak of the propitiating work of Christ on the cross, what we speak of is his work on the cross which appeased the wrath of God toward his creation because of their sins. Jesus satisfied God’s wrath by experience the full brunt of God’s wrath on the cross. Jesus literally experienced hell on earth as he hung on the cross. 1 John 4:10 testifies, 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. It was necessary that God’s wrath be satisfied so that we would not have to incur it for eternity in hell.
Expiation- Expiation means the removal of sin. This is a more popular term in our culture than propitiation. We are comfortable talking about God taking away our sins on the cross, but less comfortable speaking of God as a God of wrath who demands punishment for sins. However, both propitiation and expiation are necessary and both have OT parallels in the Day of Atonement. One goat was offered to God as a sacrifice of atonement, his blood was spilled as he was sacrificed to propitiate for the sins of the people. Another goat, the scapegoat, was sent into the wilderness after the priest prayed the sins of the people onto that goat, to carry their sins away. Jesus, the perfect sacrifices, was at one time the propitiation and the expiation for our sins. His work expunges us of our sins and of the sins that have been committed against us. 1 John 1:7 says, If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his son cleanses us from all sin.
Unlimited Limited Atonement- John 3:16 is probably the best known Bible verse in all the world, but, if God sent Jesus as his gift to the entire world, then why will not the entire world inherit heaven as their eternal home? The answer can be summed up in the doctrine of Unlimited Limited Atonement. The question is often asked this way, for whom did Christ die? 1 John 2:2 says that he is the propitiation for our sins and for the sins of the whole world. So, Christ died in a general way to benefit the entire world. His death has brought about great benefit to all the world as the advances in missions around the world have brought great things even to those who will never turn to Christ in faith and repentance. In this sense, Christ’s sacrifice is unlimited. In another sense, however, Christ’s sacrifice is limited to those who will call upon his name for salvation. Universalism is not a Christian option, only those who have Christ as their savior will be saved for all of eternity, all who die outside of Christ will experience God’s wrath for all of eternity in hell. In this sense, Christ’s atonement is limited because he paid the ransom only for those who are his, those who are outside of Christ will pay their ransom for eternity under the mighty hand of God’s punishment.
Ransom- We have already said that Jesus is the redeemer of the elect. However, Jesus is also the ransom. The ransom is the price paid to release someone from punishment, slavery, or imprisonment. The Psalms recognized the need for ransom and saw the future ransom offered by God, Truly no man can ransom another, or give to God the price of his life…But God will ransom my soul from the power of Sheol (Psalm 49:7, 15a). In Matthew 20:28 Jesus reveals that his purpose in the incarnation was to give his life as a ransom for many. Jesus is not only our redeemer, in this divine act, his life is also the price to be paid.
Reconciliation- To reconcile two parties, is to bring together two parties that are estranged or in dispute. In his work on the cross, Jesus has brought reconciliation between God and man. We were at enmity with God. Colossians 1:21 says that we were “once alienated” from God. But our passage of emphasis for the night, Colossians 1:19-20 tells us that God was pleased to send Christ, and “through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or on in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.” On the cross, Jesus made it possible for man and God to once again live in peace as they had in the beginning of creation in Eden.
Revelation- On the cross, Jesus also gave us the fullest revelation the world has ever seen of God. For those of you who sit in our audience tonight wondering who God is and what God is like, on the cross we see the full and complete revelation of God. We see God as both just and the justifier of sin (Romans 3). We see God as good and loving by opening the door wide for eternal life with him. We see God as relational because on the cross God reconciles us to himself. We also see God as a saving God who desires to see men, women, boys, and girls come to him in salvation so that he can be their eternal hero. God is shown as merciful because Christ’s death on the cross offers salvation to us sinners who do not deserve it. God is shown as a living God, even after his death on the cross, Jesus is still alive because he overcame the grave. We are also shown that God is all-knowing for his word predicted this event more than 700 years before the crucifixion, Isaiah said:
Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned-every one-to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all (Isaiah 53:4-6).
Gift Righteousness- Some of you may not believe this, but only in Christ are you anything worth loving. The good that lives in you is not of your own doing, it is only the work of God. As Christians, we all need to be reminded that he is our righteousness. 2 Corinthians 5:21 says it this way, For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. Martin Luther called this the great exchange. Jesus takes our sin and filth and we get his absolute righteousness. The Bible says that this righteousness is both imputed and imparted. The imputed righteousness of God is similar to justification, it is a courtroom analogy that points to the fact that God no longer sees our sin, but instead sees Christ’s righteousness when he looks at us. Further, his righteousness is imparted to us. Through his death, he actually gives us power through his righteousness, he changes or regenerates us. Your righteousness is yours only because Christ has given it to you.
These ten things, Jesus absolutely accomplished on the cross, and if you are a blood-bought believer in Jesus Christ, then these things were accomplished by Christ for you. If however, you are among us tonight and have never given your life-heart, mind, soul, and will-to Christ, then Christ’s work on the cross serves not to save you, but rather as your condemnation. Salvation awaits you today if you will but give you life to Christ, but understand, that if you will not surrender to Christ, then eternal punishment awaits you, and you will absolutely deserve it for having refused to bow you knee to the maker and saver of the universe. You will bow to Christ one day, either in this life in humble adoration and praise, or in the next life in fear and trembling under the hand of his wrath.
Our text for the evening makes clear that it was in Christ that God was pleased to dwell and to reconcile the world to himself. No other person could achieve ransom for human souls than the God-Man, Jesus Christ. Therefore, rest assured that belief in him is absolutely necessary for one to experience the full force of reconciliation between God and man. In Christ alone is salvation found.
In closing, a friend in our church recently shared with my wife that she was saddened to hear a co-worker, when asked about her salvation, reply “but, doesn’t everyone go to heaven?” As Christian people, we have a responsibility to an unbelieving world to correct this false notion. We do no favors to non-Christian people to allow them to believe that there is salvation outside of Christ, we serve only to seal their eternal fate. If you do not know Christ as your savior tonight, please, hear me out…He will save you and he is the only path to heaven, he is the way the truth and the life, and through his death he has paved the way for reconciliation if you will but turn to God. Will you come tonight?
