Lesson 103 – What Jesus Did for Us
Adam was created by God as a perfect man. He was perfect because he was created in God’s image both physically and in having a soul, because God is spirit but can also have a body. And God gave Adam free will in order to dignify him beyond being a robot, without the ability to choose whether or not to obey Him. But when given the choice to sin or not sin, Adam chose to deliberately disobey God. Then, and for all future generations, the harmony between man and God was broken. Now every person, ultimately descended from Adam, sins. In fact, we cannot not sin. And God tells us the wages of sin is death, and there can be no remission of sins without the shedding of blood. Because He is a God of righteousness, He demands that sin be punished. But also, being merciful, He doesn’t require the life and blood of the sinner. Under the covenant He initially established, He allowed substitutionary atonement and accepted the sacrifice of the life of another being, a sheep, bull or goat. But the sacrifice had to be perfect, without spot or blemish. And so, over millennia, God allowed sinful people to be made right with Him by regularly offering up sacrifices to atone for their constant sinning. But God said that He does not delight in the blood of bulls, sheep and goats; what He wants is obedience. Instead, people were ritualistically offering up sacrifices without changing their hearts. This did not please God.
Foreseeing this, God had in mind from the beginning a new covenant, by providing a sacrifice that would atone for sin, once, for all people for all time. This eliminated the need for every person to repeatedly offer sacrifices. The sacrifice of atonement would have to be of a perfect sinless human. It had to be in the flesh because our sins are all committed in our flesh. No human who ever lived could ever meet this requirement. It could only be met by God sending His son, Jesus, himself God, who took on flesh and became human in every way, except He lived a totally sinless life. Jesus experienced the full range of emotions and fears that every human does. His would be the only perfect sacrifice totally acceptable to God. And because Jesus himself was also God, his death alone was sufficient to atone for the sins of all people for all time. Jesus had the choice to not go to the cross; He said “If thou will let this cup pass from me, but thy will be done, not mine”. And so, like Adam, He had the choice as to whether or not He would obey God, but unlike Adam, He chose to be obedient to death. And so, the wrong that Adam committed in disobeying God, Jesus righted by his act of obedience. This despite not only the physical suffering He would undergo, but primarily separation from God for the first time from eternity past. But Jesus said He did this of his own will for the joy that was set before him, eternity with his father and now with many brothers and sisters. Jesus accomplished not only our forgiveness, but also, in leaving us a helper, his Holy Spirit; we now have the ability to please God in a life of obedience, which was not possible under the old covenant. Now we can choose whether to obey or disobey God. Without Jesus’ willing sacrifice for us, we would be consigned to eternal separation from God. Jesus’ resurrection evidences God’s satisfaction that justice has been served, and that by faith in Jesus, our lost holiness has been restored.
We will always struggle with sin because we live in the flesh. But Jesus paid the price for our sins, past, present and future. And with the help of the Holy Spirit we can gain victory over our sins bit by bit. Obedience is the fruit of genuine faith and repentance when we do sin, is a form of obedience. For the believer Easter means that through our union with Jesus through faith, we too will be raised to everlasting life with God. When we meet Jesus to give an account of our lives, we will need to own up to our sins but will not be punished because Jesus already took the punishment. This is what Jesus did for us.