He Died For You

What Christ accomplished on the cross was far more significant than only demonstrating his extreme love for us through this excruciating experience. Through his crucifixion, Christ accomplished four crucial outcomes, and these four outcomes make it possible for us to receive real salvation from God.

Without these outcomes, we would have no way to remedy our sin, escape eternal punishment for our sin, and restore our relationship with God. Said another way, our sin is so bad that the only just and effective way to solve the problem is for God himself to become a man and to die on the cross as Christ did.

To speak of these four outcomes, we will highlight four key biblical, technical, theological terms, which are: substitution, propitiation, redemption, and reconciliation. Together, these four outcomes give us a clear understanding of why Christ died on the cross.

Christ’s death provided substitution.

By substitution, we mean that Christ suffered and died “instead of” us and “in the place of” us. We deserved to suffer and die for our own sins, just as any criminal deserves to serve the sentence for his own crimes, but Christ suffered and died for us instead. He stepped into your place and experienced the sentence for your sins in your place, satisfying God’s perfect, holy justice without you having to experience it for yourself.

Consider the following two statements from Scripture and notice where “instead of” belongs based upon the Greek word (anti) that is used:

• Even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for [instead of] many (Mark 10:45).
• Who gave Himself as a ransom for [instead of] all (1 Tim 2:6).

The word ransom refers to a price required to be released from either a judicial sentence or slavery.

Furthermore, the words many (Mark 10:45) and all (1 Tim 2:6) do not contradict each other, somehow suggesting that Christ died only for some (“many”) in one place and then that Christ died for everyone (“all”) in another place. Both these statements simply point out that the death of Christ alone was so effective and successful that his death served as a satisfactory replacement for the death of many and all guilty sinners who will believe on him.

Now, let’s consider one other Greek word (huper) to see where “in our place” belongs in the following three verses:

• Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse [in the place of] us. (Gal 3:13)
• He made Him who knew no sin to be sin [in the place of] us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. (2 Cor 5:21)
• Christ also suffered for sins once for all time, the just for [in the place of] the unjust, so that He might bring us to God. (1 Pet 3:18)

These are beautiful and powerful statements of Christ’s mission! When he suffered and died, he did so “instead of” us and “in our place.” When a human being dies, he or she dies because of his or her own sin. But when Christ died, he died for your sin in your place. How does that make you feel?

Christ’s death provided propitiation.

By propitiation, we mean that Christ died to appease God’s wrath towards sinners.

• He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world. (1 John 2:2)
• In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. (1 John 4:10)

Some theologians resist this idea, suggesting that God has no wrath towards people. They prefer the concept of expiation, a term which only means “to remove guilt” or to repay a wrong. This concept avoids any hint of wrath from God and relegates Christ’s death to a judicial technicality, not the experience and resolution of actual, personal divine wrath from God towards sinners. This shortsighted view fails to acknowledge that anger is not necessarily evil – especially holy, righteous anger against sin. This is certainly true when we express anger over genuinely evil behavior.

Propitiation refers specifically to the “appeasement of wrath by an appropriate offering.” As guilty sinners, no offering we could ever bring could fully satisfy the wrath of God, so Christ (who is God) offered himself instead.

Can you think of a scenario in which you would be entirely justified to be angry over another person’s awful behavior? How about when someone mistreats a child, defrauds an elderly person, or even kills an innocent victim?

While Christ’s death certainly accomplished the outcome of expiation, it served as a propitiation, too. Scripture teaches that God is rightly angry with sinners.

God is a just judge, and God is angry with the wicked every day. (Psa 7:11)

Thankfully, Christ fully satisfied God’s wrath against our sin by bearing the full force of God’s wrath upon himself. How does this make you feel?

Christ’s death provided redemption.

By redemption, we mean deliverance from bondage and slavery, through the payment of a price, and the ultimate price for our redemption was the blood and life of Christ.

• In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our wrongdoings, according to the riches of His grace. (Eph 1:7)
• You were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold … but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ. (1 Pet 1:18-19)
• Christ’s death delivers us from enslavement to sin, the curse of the law, all lawless behavior, and an empty lifestyle.
• Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law. (Gal 3:13)
• Who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed. (Tit 2:14)
• You were not [a]redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life. (1 Pet 1:19)
  

You were in bondage to sin, but Christ’s death liberated you from your enslavement. You now belong to God and are free to live in a way that honors him and fulfills your original, created, and eternal purpose. Sin no longer enslaves you because the full price was paid freeing you from its power. How does that make you feel? Are you living as though you are freed from sin’s power?

Christ’s death provided reconciliation.

By reconciliation we mean the restoration of fellowship between two parties who are opposed to each other. In the case of needing reconciliation between us and God, there is hostility not because of any wrongdoing on God’s part or because of any petty, misinformed feelings on God’s part. The hostility between us is due entirely to our own sinful, rebellious stance and behavior towards God, who is perfectly loving and good and who made us for good and holy purposes.

The scenario of reconciliation features four key elements:

• an offended party (who had been sinned against)
• an offending party (who has committed a violation)
• appeasement sought by a gift (equal to the crime)
• acceptance of the gift (as the basis for removing the offense)

Let’s look for these four elements in the following verses:

• If while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. (Rom 5:10)
  All these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their wrongdoings against them. (2 Cor 5:18-19)
  Through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross and although you were previously alienated and hostile in attitude, engaged in evil deeds, yet He has now reconciled you in His body of flesh through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach. (Col 1:20-22)

Do you notice anything unique or unusual about our reconciliation with God? It is unique and extraordinary because the offending party (us) is not the one who brings about reconciliation through a gift that we offer and we don’t meet God “halfway,” either. The offended party (God himself) has provided the gift himself instead – through the life, suffering, and death of Christ.
So, the offended party (God) is the one who provides the gift necessary to reconcile the relationship, even though we are the ones who committed the offense! And the gift was the costliest, most painful possible, too. How does this make you feel?

So, to be sure, Christ’s suffering and death inspire us to love God more deeply and persevere through our own suffering with greater resolve, his crucifixion accomplished four crucial outcomes which make possible our salvation from sin:

• We deserve to die as the penalty for sins, but Christ died in our place.
• We deserve to experience God’s wrath against our sin, but Christ appeased God’s wrath by bearing that wrath for us.
• We are in bondage to sin, Satan, and death, but Christ liberated us from this slavery through his death on the cross for us.
• We are separated from God by our sins, but Christ removed this separation, restoring and reconciling our relationship with God on our behalf.

By understanding the death of Christ more clearly in this way, we can more deeply and properly appreciate and remember Christ’s death on the cross, drawing our hearts out more deeply and devotedly towards him.