Post
by _Homer » Thu Nov 30, 2006 11:23 am
Moses Lard makes the point well:
"Christ died in the room or stead of sinners."
That pardon of our sins and our entire salvation is ascribed to the death of Christ is an idea that strikes the mind of every attentive reader of the New Testament, as a fact which will not be questioned. Our salvation is especially and emphatically connected with that wonderful event. “I lay down my life for the sheep.” “He gave himself for us.” “He died the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God.” “Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many.” “While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” “In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our sins.” “We who were afar off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.” “Unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood.” The Son of God came, “to give his life a ransom for many.” “Christ died for us.” “Who his own self bear our sins in his own body on the tree.” “Much more being justified by his blood.” “We were reconciled to God by the death of his Son;” with innumerable other passages in which, with equal emphasis, the salvation of man is connected with the death of Christ. Now what can be the meaning of these and such like passages, except that he died in our stead? That this is their meaning, we proceed now to prove. The Scriptures teach us that “he died the just for the unjust.” He suffered for us. He died for all. He tasted death for every man. He died for the ungodly. He gave himself a ransom for all, and such like.
The Greek prepositions translated for in the above passages, though they do not always, yet do frequently, mean instead of. This can not be questioned. Take some examples. “It is expedient that one man should die (huper) for the people, and that the whole nation perish not.” Here plainly the meaning is that either Christ or the nation must perish; and that by putting the former to death, he would die instead of the nation. In Rom. v., 6-8, the sense in which Christ “died for us” is indisputably fixed by the context: “For scarcely for a righteous man will [182] one die, yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die; but God commendeth his love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died (huper) for us.” In this sense is anti also used by the Seventy, 2 Sam. xviii., 33, where David says concerning Absolom: “Would to God I had died for thee.” He could have meant nothing else but to wish he had died instead of Absolom. In the sense of “in the room or stead of,” anti is used also in the New Testament; as, “Archelaus did reign in Judæa (anti) in the room of his father Herod.” “If his son ask a fish, will he (anti) for a fish (instead of a fish) give him a serpent?” When, therefore, the same preposition is used in Mark x., 45, “The Son of man came to give his life a ransom (anti) for many,” it certainly has the same meaning—in the room or stead of.
Under the law, the blood of the slain animal, which was its life, was substituted for the life of the offender. This was typical of the blood of Christ, which made atonement for sinners; “which was shed (peri) for many in order to the remission of sins.”
While the blood or death of Christ was for us, in the sense of in our room or stead, when considered in respect to God, it was designed to expiate sin.
To expiate means “to atone for, to make atonement for.” God said to Moses: “You shall take no satisfaction for the life of a murderer, who is guilty of death; but he shall surely be put to death.” “The land can not be cleansed (expiated) of the blood that is shed therein, but the blood of him that shed it.” (Num. xxxv., 33.) “When he (Christ) had expiated our sins,” or made expiation for them. (Macknight.) “Now once in the end of the ages has he appeared to expiate sin.” “Who his own self bear our sins in his own body on the tree” (1 Peter ii., 24), where the apostle evidently quotes from Isaiah liii.: “He shall bear their iniquities;” “He bore the sins of many.” The same expression is used by the apostle Paul (Heb. ix., 28): “So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many.” Similar to this expression of bearing sins is the declaration of Isaiah in the same chapter: “He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities;” and then to show in what sense he was wounded and bruised for our [183] transgressions, he adds: “The chastisement of our peace was upon him, 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 hath laid on him the iniquity of us all; he was oppressed and he was afflicted.” In 2 Cor. v., 21, the apostle Paul uses almost the same language: “For he hath made him to be sin [a sin-offering] for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” Daniel says: “Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon the holy city to restrain the transgression, to make an end of sin-offerings—to make a propitiation or reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in an everlasting righteousness.” “Sin-offerings are ended, because reconciliation for iniquity is made, and a justification perfect and complete is brought in.” “Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many.” “He appeared once in the end of the typical ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.”
The apostle teaches us in the most explicit manner, in his epistle to the Hebrews, that the sacrifices under the law were expiatory offerings for certain offenses against the commonwealth of Israel, and that they were also typical of the great expiatory sacrifice of Christ. “If the blood of bulls and goats, and the ashes of the heifer, sprinkled upon those who were defiled, made expiation in respect to eternal purity; how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works, to serve the living God.”
Last edited by
Guest on Wed Dec 31, 1969 7:00 pm, edited 0 times in total.
Reason: A Berean