Substitutionary Atonement - Genesis Part 8

You know, there's a program on television entitled How Stuff Works. I don't know if you've ever seen it, but what this program does is that it goes behind the scenes and it takes everyday things and explains the cardinal principle that makes them work.

For example, atomic energy works because of the cardinal principle that E equals MC squared, and personal computers work because of the cardinal principle of the silicon chip, and rockets work because of the cardinal principle of equal and opposite reaction. Well, today, as you know, we here at McLean are in a study of the book of Genesis, and we're going to finish out chapter 3 today, and as we do, what we're going to talk about are the cardinal principles that makes God's plan of salvation for the human race work. And then we're going to bring all of that forward, and we're going to talk about, well, what difference does that make for you and me?

That's the plan, and we've got a lot of ground to cover, so let's get started. If you'll remember, in the first half of the book of Genesis chapter 3, the first half of that chapter, we saw how Adam and Eve disobeyed God and how they ate from the tree God told them not to, and as a result, they brought a slew of disastrous consequences upon themselves, the worst of which by far was universal death for every member of the human race. Romans chapter 5 in the New Testament reiterates this. It says, verse 12, Therefore, as by one man sin entered the world, who was that? Adam, and death through sin, what chapter of the Bible do we find out that in? Genesis 3, right? So death passed on to, say the next word with me, all men and women, and the Bible tells us that this death was twofold. First of all, there was physical death whereby eventually we become physical corpses, and then there was spiritual death where we come into the world as spiritual corpses in our relationship with Almighty God. Now, if you missed any of this, I urge you to pick up the CD in the bookstore after we're done or to go online and download or podcast these messages, but we're going to pick up there today in the second half of Genesis chapter 3, and we begin at verse 21.

Here we go. Genesis 3 verse 21. Then the Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. Sometime after their disobedience, we don't know whether it was days or men.

It might have even been hours, and after Adam and Eve brought spiritual death upon themselves, God made a way to fix this, a way for their sin to be forgiven, a way for their spiritual death to be reversed. What He did is He took two innocent animals and He slaughtered them. He shed their blood. You say, well, how can you be so sure He did that? Well, because, friends, animals don't give up their skins any other way, right?

Logical. And then while Adam and Eve stood there and watched, God made coverings for them, symbolizing the fact that He had covered their sin in His sight and that they were now back in good standing with Him. Now, if you remember, Adam and Eve had tried to do this for themselves previously. Genesis 3 verse 7 says that then Adam and Eve realized they were naked, so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. But their coverings were inadequate because the Bible teaches that nobody can cover their sin by their own human effort. Romans chapter 3 verse 20 says, For by human effort no one shall ever be declared right in God's sight.

Only God can make coverings for us. Only God can do this, just like He did here for Adam and Eve in Genesis 3. But the really important thing is to notice how God did this for Adam and Eve. We've already said God didn't do this based on their own human effort.

He didn't make coverings for them based on their religious activity or their good deeds. God did this based on the shedding of the blood and the death of two innocent animals, two innocent substitutes. And God meant all of this to be prophetic.

You say, what do you mean by that? Well, I mean that these two innocent substitutes were meant to be prophetic of the ultimate innocent substitute that would come and make a covering for us, the Lord Jesus Christ. And the price these animals paid to reconcile Adam and Eve to God, that is their blood, their death, was meant by God to be prophetic of the price that it would cost the Lord Jesus Christ to reconcile you and me to Him. And the blood covering that these animals provided for Adam and Eve's sin in God's sight was meant to be prophetic of the blood covering that the Lord Jesus Christ would provide by His death on the cross for you and me in God's sight. And finally, the fact that God was willing to accept the death of an innocent substitute to satisfy His justice against the sinner was meant to be prophetic of how God would offer salvation to each of us by Jesus Christ's death being our substitute. The whole thing was meant to be prophetic. I love what John MacArthur said. And I quote, he said, The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.

They didn't participate in it. God did it all, acting in pure grace towards them as sinners. John goes on to say, This is a magnificent picture of salvation. Nobody can make an adequate covering of his sin by himself.

Only God can make a covering for us that is acceptable in His sight. End of quote. Well, let's go on and finish the chapter, shall we? Verse 22, Then the Lord God said, The man has now become like one of us. Knowing good and evil, he must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat and live forever.

You say, Lon, I don't get it. Why in the world wouldn't God want Adam and Eve to live forever? Well, friends, God did want Adam and Eve to live forever, just not in the spiritual condition that they were currently in. You see, Adam and Eve, by their disobedience to God, had infected their mortal human bodies with a sin nature. Every one of us comes into this world, we're born with the very same infection, and this sin nature won't be eradicated from our bodies until the Lord Jesus returns and gives us new bodies. And here's the point. The point is that had Adam and Eve eaten of the tree of life here in Genesis chapter 3, they would have been cursed to live forever in defective bodies, bodies with a sin nature, evil bodies, and the Lord in his mercy prevented that from happening.

Make no mistake about it, friends. God is going to let a lot of people eat from the tree of life before this whole thing is over. Revelation 7, verse 14, The angel said to John, Blessed are those who have washed their robes white in the blood of the Lamb. He's talking about believers here because, look at this, Revelation 22, 14, They have the right to eat of the tree of life. Hey, God's going to let every single follower of Christ in heaven eat as much from the tree of life as they want to. It's just that He's going to not let us do it until after we have been given our new bodies so that the bodies we live forever in will be holy bodies, they will be blessed bodies, and they will be Christ-honoring bodies. Verse 23, So God banished them, Adam and Eve, from the garden of Eden, to work the ground from which Adam had been taken.

And after he drove the man out, on the east side of the garden, God stationed the cherubim, heavenly creatures, along with a flaming sword that turned in every direction to guard the way to the tree of life. Now, that's as far as we're going to go in our passage because we're going to stop now and we're going to ask our most important questions. So, all of you at Loudoun, and all of you at Prince William, and Bethesda, and on the Internet, and in The Edge, and here at Tysons, are we ready? Okay, come on now. Make it worthwhile, I got up today. Here we go, come on now.

One, two, three. Oh, isn't that sweet? You say, Lon, so what? Say, all right, I read about everything you're talking about here and I understand it, but you know what? The tree of life, it's got this big sword going back and forth. Nobody can get to it anyway, and so what difference does any of this make to my life right now?

I don't get it. Well, let's talk about that, shall we? Friends, we said, remember here in Genesis chapter 3, we said that the principles behind God's plan of salvation are on display in this chapter, are laid out for us in this chapter for the very first time in the Bible. Now it's true that later God codified these principles in the sacrificial system of the Old Testament, and then He illustrated these principles in the operation of the tabernacle that He had the Israelites build in the wilderness, but the principles all start right here in Genesis chapter 3 from the beginning of the human race. So in other words, what we could say is that beginning in Genesis 3 and culminating in the operation of the tabernacle, all of this is God's version of the TV program, how it works. If we understand how it worked in Genesis 3, and if we understand how it worked in the tabernacle, we understand God's plan of salvation through Jesus Christ today. So let's look at the tabernacle where these principles were illustrated. First, let's look at the layout of the tabernacle that God told the Israelites to build there at Mount Sinai. The tabernacle consisted of a large courtyard made out of linen curtains, and inside this courtyard lay the tabernacle building itself.

The building was divided into two rooms. There was a larger outer room called the Holy Place which contained an incense altar, a table for showbread, and the giant gold menorah. And by the way, we only have one picture anywhere in the world, in the history of the world, one picture of what that menorah and some of this furniture look like. It's actually found in Rome on the arch of Titus.

Titus was the Roman general who in 70 A.D. put down the Jewish revolt, destroyed the temple, brought all the temple furniture back to Rome, and paraded it through Rome in a magnificent victory parade. And right on this arch is a bas-relief of some of the soldiers carrying that great menorah, that great candlestick out of the temple along with some of the other furniture in the temple. All of this was in that outer court, and then that outer room. And then in the inner room called the Holy of Holies, this room was the most sacred place in all of Israel because it contained the most sacred object in all of Israel which was the Ark of the Covenant. And we all know what the Ark of the Covenant looks like because we've all seen Indiana Jones.

So we all know what it looks like. All right, so that was the layout of the temple. But the really important thing was how did the temple, how did the tabernacle operate?

Well, here's how it operated. A Jewish worshiper would bring an innocent animal to the tabernacle or the temple, and the priest would kill the animal. He would put its blood on the altar. And in response, God promised to forgive, to overlook that worshiper's sin. Leviticus chapter 17 verse 11 in the Old Testament says, For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given you the blood to make atonement for your sin on the altar. It is the blood that makes atonement. The New Testament repeats this, Hebrews 9 22, For without the shedding of blood, the Bible says, there is no forgiveness of sin.

Now this process went on day after day after day, year after year after year. But once a year on the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur, the high priest, was allowed to enter the inner room where the ark was. And he would go in with the blood of an unblemished goat that he had just sacrificed. He would sprinkle that blood on the top of the ark. And in response, God promised to forgive the sin of the whole nation for that past year.

Listen, Hebrews 9 verse 7, Into the holy of holies went the high priest alone, once every year, but never without blood, which he offered for his sins and the sins of all the people. Okay, so this is the operation of the tabernacle, right? Now we said earlier that when it comes to God's plan of salvation, the tabernacle and the way it operated was God's version of the TV program, How It Works.

In other words, in the operation of the tabernacle, we learn the cardinal principles upon which God's plan of salvation for the human race is based. And there are two of them, and I want to tell you what they are. Here we go. Number one, cardinal principle number one, is substitutionary atonement. You say, what?

What was that? Well, don't let the big word scare you. Every one of you here already understands substitutionary atonement. You say, no, I don't. Yes, you do.

You say, Lon, I don't. Yes, you do, because you and I just saw it demonstrated in Genesis chapter 3. We understand it perfectly. Let's go back to Genesis 3.

What happened there? God granted atonement. There's our first word, forgiveness to Adam and Eve based on the death of an innocent substitute. There's our second word, substitutionary atonement. You understand what he did in Genesis 3? We understand the concept. And friends, this is precisely what the Lord Jesus Christ did for you and me on the cross.

The exact same thing. First of all, He was innocent. Hebrews 4 15 says, For Jesus was tempted in all ways as we are, yet without sin.

Second of all, He was our substitute. Isaiah 53 verse 5 says, He was pierced. Jesus was for our transgressions. He was crushed for our sins, and the punishment that brought peace to us was laid upon Him.

He took the hit for you and me as our substitute. And finally, the result of all of this was our atonement. Ephesians chapter 1 verse 7 in the New Testament. In Him, Jesus, we have redemption, the atonement, there's our word, for our sins through His blood. What Jesus did for you and me on the cross is the very same thing that God did for Adam and Eve in the garden.

It's the very same thing that happened in the tabernacle day after day after day. Substitutionary atonement and innocent substitute's death was accepted on behalf of a guilty sinner, and atonement was granted by God to that sinner in response. 1 Peter 3 18 says, For Christ died for our sins once for all. Look, the just for the unjust, the innocent for the guilty, the substitute for the real offender, in order that He might reconcile us to God, in order that He might give us atonement in God's sight. Now, does everybody get that? Okay, so you understand substitutionary atonement, right? When you go out to lunch, you can say to your waiter or waitress, Hey, you know what? I understand substitutionary atonement. And they'll go, What are you talking about?

Well, you do, right? Okay, now there was a second principle that the tabernacle taught about how God's plan of salvation works. It's also very important, and that is the tabernacle teaches us about the all sufficiency of Jesus' work on the cross for us. Did you notice, do you remember we pointed it out that the priest in the tabernacle and later in the temple, they had to keep offering the same animal sacrifices over and over, day after day, year after year, ad infinitum.

Why? Why do they have to do this, friends? Because the animal sacrifices they were offering never dealt with sin permanently. They were insufficient to fully deal with sin. Hebrews 10 verse 1 says, These sacrifices, talking about the tabernacle, repeated endlessly year after year, could never make perfect those who were offering them for if they could have. If they could have what? If they could have made the offer perfect. If they could have forgiven our sin once and for all permanently forever, if they could have, people would have stopped offering them because they would have been cleansed for sin once and for all. That makes sense? Uh-huh, right?

I mean, look, after all your teeth fall out, you don't need to buy dental floss anymore. Does that make sense? Okay, and in the same way, after all your sins are forgiven permanently, you don't need to offer any more sacrifices for sin. But here at the tabernacle, they did need to keep offering sacrifices for sin day after day, year after year, because Hebrews 10 verse 4, it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to permanently take away sin. Friends, for that to happen, for sin to be permanently dealt with, it took, not a physical lamb, not a physical goat, not a physical sheep, but it took the Messiah, it took the Lord Jesus Christ, it took the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, as John the Baptist called him to do that.

So let's summarize, shall we? What have we learned today? We've learned that by His death on the cross, Jesus did for us what generations of Jewish priests and millions of Jewish sacrifices were never able to do, and that is He atoned for our sin permanently and forever. Listen to the Bible, Hebrews 9-12, not by the blood of bulls and goats, but by His own blood, praise the Lord, Jesus entered the Holy of Holies once for all and obtained eternal permanent redemption, permanent redemption for us, Hebrews 10-14, for by one sacrifice, that is Himself on the cross, He, Jesus, has, say the next two words with me, perfected forever those who believe in Him, verse 18, now. Where there's forgiveness like this, like what? Permanent forgiveness, eternal forgiveness, sufficient forgiveness for all of time and eternity. Where there's forgiveness like this, watch, there is no further need for sacrifices. No further sacrifices for sin are needed. Can we say praise the Lord for that? Huh?

Hey, how great is that? And why is this the case? Because we have an all-sufficient Savior. Because we have an all-sufficient salvation. Because we have an all-sufficient substitutionary atonement. We have an all-sufficient blood covering. We have an all-sufficient atonement for sin.

We are perfected forever in the sight of God by what Jesus did for us on the cross. You know, in heaven, next to my name in God's ledger book, Lon Neil Solomon, there are two dates written in heaven. The first date, of course, is the date upon which I was physically born and that's August 1948.

I'll save you the trouble, I'm 63, now pay attention. Okay, now, okay, so that's the first date written. The second date that is written next to my name in heaven in God's ledger is this entry, perfected forever, perfected forever by Jesus' blood, March 1971. And you know what I love? I love the fact there are no footnotes next to that second date.

No, no, no, no, no. The second date is simply there and it stands on its own because Jesus' perfection of me is sufficient. Plus nothing. Reminds me of the great hymn. I need no other argument. I need no other plea. I don't need good works. I don't need keeping the Ten Commandments. I don't need to be bar mitzvahed. I don't need to be confirmed. I don't need to be baptized. I don't need to say the rosary. I don't need to go to confession.

I don't need to be a church member. It is enough. It is sufficient that Jesus died and that He died for me. All sufficient, folks.

All sufficient. So here's the bottom line. The bottom line is that from the beginning of mankind, Genesis chapter 3 to today, right now, God's offer of salvation to sinners has always been based on the same principle. Substitutionary atonement. It's just that now, listen carefully, the innocent substitute is not some bull or some goat or some sheep or some chicken we bring to church and sacrifice. No, no, no. The innocent substitute now is the sinless Son of God Himself, Jesus Christ. And the atonement is not temporary anymore.

No, no. It is permanent. It is eternal.

It is forever. Can we say hallelujah or praise the Lord for that? Hey, how great is that to know? Now, Isaac Watts, the great hymn writer who wrote a hymn you all know very well probably called When I Survey the Wondrous Cross, also wrote many other hymns. And one of them he wrote applies to this. Here's some of the words from that hymn. He says, Not all the blood of beasts on Jewish altars slain could give my guilty conscience peace or wash away the stain, but Christ, the heavenly Lamb, takes all our sin away, a sacrifice of nobler name and richer blood than they.

Wow. What great news the Bible has for you and me. So as we conclude today, I want to conclude by asking you a question. And my question is this. When you leave this earth and you show up in heaven and God opens his heavenly ledger to your name, he will find written next to your name one date for sure.

And that is born physically. And there will be a date there. The question is, what's the other entry that he will find next to your name? There are only two options.

That's it. He will either find a second entry that reads perfected forever by the blood of Jesus with a date attached, or he will find written next to your name payment due by account holder. Now, I'm just telling you, friends, believe me, you do not want number two written next to your name when you meet up with the living God. The consequences of that will be eternally disastrous.

You don't want that. You want perfected forever by Jesus's blood written next to your name. And so if there's the slightest doubt in your mind that that's written there with a date in the ledger of heaven, we're going to give you a chance to make sure of that right here today. I'm reminded of the words of the great Scottish preacher Robert Murray McShane.

He said, and I quote, How many worlds would every lost soul in hell give for just one chance to go back to earth and cleave to the blood of Jesus? Well, friends, the good news is you're still here. Hey, the good news is you still got the chance to cleave to the blood of Jesus.

And we're going to give you that chance right now. Let's pray. With our heads bowed and our eyes closed, here's what we're going to do.

If you're not 100 percent sure that perfected forever by the blood of Jesus is written next to your name in heaven and you want to make sure, we're going to pray a short little prayer. I'm going to pray one phrase at a time. I want you to pray right behind me. I'll pray out loud. You pray silently. And what we're going to tell God is that you're giving up today every other fig leaf you've ever trusted to make a covering for you in his sight.

Your good works, your religious activity, trying to be a good person, all of it. And instead, you are going to throw yourself 100 percent on the blood of Jesus as your remedy and as your covering. So here we go. If you want to do that, I'll pray out loud. You pray silently.

Here we go. Lord Jesus, I come to you today because I get it. Maybe for the first time in my life. I understand today that all my fig leaves are worthless, that they will not cover my sin in your sight, but that the blood of Jesus shed on the cross will. And so today I give up those other remedies, my good works, my religious activity, all of it. And I embrace the work of Jesus on the cross for me and His shed blood for me as my one and only remedy for sin and my one and only covering in your sight.

Come into my heart today. Become my personal Lord and Savior. Forgive me for my sins.

Grant me eternal life and cover me forever with the blood of Christ. And right next to my name in heaven, perfected forever by Jesus' blood, November 20, 2011. And I pray this in Jesus' name. And Father, I want to pray for the folks who prayed this prayer that you would confirm in their hearts that if they're sincere, that entry has just gone in by their name in heaven.

And they have nothing to fear. It'll still be there fully operative when they arrive on the shores of heaven. Because what Jesus did for us is eternal and all sufficient.

There is no eraser in heaven. And Father, for those of us who have already done this, we already know that perfected forever is written next to our name. Remind us today of the principles upon which you built your plan of salvation, how it really works. The marvelous wisdom that you put into this that allows you to remain just as the holy God of the universe and at the same time to justify and save people like us.

It's a marvelous thing, Lord. So encourage our hearts today and give us much hope from the truth of the Word of God. And thank you, Lord Jesus, when we arrive in heaven, perfected forever, we'll still be there next to our name. And we pray these things in Jesus' name. What did God's people say? Amen. Thank you.