Welcome to this weekend's In Touch podcast with Charles Stanley. You may know the events of Easter, but do you understand their meaning? Stay tuned as Dr. Stanley leads us to a clearer, richer understanding of what happened at the cross.
Now the crucifixion of Jesus Christ is a historical fact. But what really happened at the cross has been shaded and clouded and left in a mystery because. The physical events, the outward circumstances, and the things that surrounded that crucifixion have primarily captured people's minds and hearts. And so that if you were to ask people what really happened at the cross, more than likely they would begin telling you something like this: they would say, well, Jesus was betrayed by Judas in the Garden of Gethsemane. He was taken before Pilate and condemned.
They put a Roman cross on his shoulders and he drug it all the way up to Galgotha. They drove spikes in his hands there. The soldiers gambled for his robe. The earth began to tremble, the sky turned dark, in the middle of the day, there was an earthquake. And people mocked and jeered, and fear came upon the soldiers and upon the people who were there.
That's really what happened at the cross. Except there were seven sayings, they tell us, that Jesus said, at the cross, one of which was, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do, into thy hands I commend my spirit. These are the things that happened at the cross. But what I want you to see this morning is this. What happened at the cross from God's point of view is that the death of Jesus Christ made it possible for God to place all of the sinfulness of mankind upon the lamb that was slain before the foundation of the world.
Therefore, God could remain just, true, and honest in what he said, that sin must be penalized. How would it be penalized by death? You and I could not die for one another because all of us are sinners. Therefore, somebody had to come in our place and die in order that our sin may be placed upon him and that he may be penalized because of our sin. Otherwise, God would have violated his own law.
So one of the first things that happened from God's point of view is this. God completed his plan of redemption by sacrificing his son at the cross.
Now the second thing that happened was this. And that is that God fulfilled his prophecy. Look, if you will, in Isaiah chapter 53 for a moment. Many, many prophecies in the Old Testament. But here is the one that stands out above all the rest, and here's what was happening from God's point of view.
He says in verse 4, Surely he that is Christ hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted, because God placed upon him our penalty. But he was wounded for our transgression. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed.
What is he saying? From the very beginning of the Old Testament, what do we see? We see the law talking about the sacrificing of lambs, sheep, goats. The shedding of blood, all the Mosaic law, the temple, the altar of sacrifice. What was God doing?
But as he says in Hebrews, foreshadowing what? Foreshadowing the prophecy of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. How did John the Baptist, the last of the Old Testament prophets, the first of the New Testament prophets, identify the Lord Jesus Christ when he came upon the scene at the River Jordan? He said, Behold what? The Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world.
When Jesus Christ came upon the scene and he was crucified, not only was the Father completing his plan of redemption whereby he could still remain just and declare a sinful man righteous, secondly, he was fulfilling all of the prophecies of the Old Testament concerning the completion of man's redemption through the shedding of blood and the placing of that sinfulness upon one man, who is the Lord Jesus Christ. The third thing I want you to notice here is this. And that is how Did the crucifixion affect you and me?
Well, here's the heart of it. Here's the foundation of it. Here's the core of it. And there are many things that are overflows of this. There are four words.
The first one is this: redemption. If you'll turn to 1 Peter just a moment, first of all, and I want you to sort of hold 1 Peter because there are several verses I want to give you here. In 1 Peter. First of all, chapter 1, verse 18. What do we mean by redemption?
By redeeming, we mean to buy back something. And here's what I want you to see.
Now, watch here for a moment. What God did for you and me at the cross is this. He paid what? He paid the ransom for your sin and my sin by taking it upon himself. God bought us, paid the price for our release from the bondage of sin, and set us free.
1 Peter 1, verse 18. Forasmuch as you know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, As silver and gold from your vain conversation, a lifestyle received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without spot and without blemish, he did something for us no one else could do. That is, he liquidated the debt. He canceled the death.
so that you and I are redeemed as a result of what? Jesus Christ becoming your substitute and my substitute and what we deserve, God placed upon him, nailed him to the cross. When he nailed him to the cross, he placed all the sin of all mankind upon him, which means that all men everywhere can be redeemed and freed and liberated from the penalty of sin. He redeems us from three things, in fact. First of all, he redeems us from the guilt of sin.
He redeems us from the penalty of sin. And the scripture says one of these days when you and I get raptured up to glory, we will have been redeemed from the very presence of sin itself. The second word I want you to notice here is the word remission. First of all, he redeemed us. Remission is simply forgiveness.
And if you'll notice in Ephesians chapter 1, verse 7 for a moment, because both of these words are here. He says, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of what? The riches of His grace. By his grace, what did he do? He reached down and bought me out of sin.
Secondly, He nailed our sin to the tree. Watch this. If he nailed your sin and mine to the tree, he canceled the death.
Now, if a thing is forgiven, it is canceled. And I want us to see something here what he did. He canceled forever. any of Satan's privilege or right to put us under the wrath of God. The sentence upon us, which was what?
The sentence upon us beginning in the Garden of Eden was the sentence of death. And what he says by forgiveness is the sentence has been canceled. We're no longer under the wrath of God that we're living what? By the riches of God's grace. Has nothing to do with my merit.
Has nothing to do with what I deserve. It is what? Out of the riches of his grace, God doing what? Justifying, declaring the sinner righteous before himself, assuming the responsibility of my sin, nailing his son to the cross, placing upon his son all the sinfulness of all of man everywhere. That means that every single man alive today has the privilege to walk out of the slave market of sin and have his sins remitted, which means to be taken away.
When we're forgiven, what does God do? He just takes that away. You say, but now, wait a minute. If we've been forgiven already, how can we have sin? Because we have an old sin nature.
We'll never get rid of it until we get to glory. And secondly, as I said before, and I'm going to say it again: if you and I disobey God, we break fellowship, but we never break relationship because our relationship is sealed. Listen, if you've got a saved today, lost tomorrow's salvation, you don't understand the cross. The cross was God's eternal act of everlasting redemption and forgiveness for all men everywhere who will accept His Son as their Savior.
Now, brother, that's Shelton Grant. Amen? Forever, our name is written in the Lamb's book of life. Why? Because forever God put your sin list and my sin list on the Lord Jesus Christ.
And where did He take it? He took it upon himself, and the scripture says he separated our sins for what? The East is from the West, and they never meet. As a third word. Wonderful word.
Reconciliation. What in the world does he mean by that? Reconciliation is what? Reconciliation is to bring two opposing parties back into a sense of oneness, not simply physically, but in the heart. There's a change of attitude.
There's a change of mind. And he says when Jesus Christ died on the cross, what did he do? Here's what he did. God just took the cross and laid it across the gap between man and God. And what did he do?
It made it possible for sinful man to walk across that cross all the way back to God. And what happens? God and man became one once again. Reconciliation, taking two opposing parties and bringing them back into fellowship again. Every single person who's ever lived has been out of fellowship with God.
Every single person who's ever lived has had that gap between them and God. What he's saying that happened as far as we're concerned, he says that we have been reconciled. We've been brought back into fellowship with. We've been brought back into a sense of oneness with. And how did he perfect that?
Not only at the cross did Jesus Christ die, but the Bible says he was buried and rose again. What happened? A little few days later, a few weeks later, he sent the Holy Spirit at Pentecost to do what? To indwell the believer, to do what? In order that our relationship with Jesus Christ would be a spiritual relationship and that there would be perfection in our relationship to him.
You and I can walk in simplicity before God in harmony and love and fellowship with him, being as he says in 1 John, being continuously cleansed from our sins. He says, if we walk in the light as he is in the light, have fellowship one with another. He said, the blood of Jesus Christ is doing what? Not one time but present tense in the Greek, constantly doing what? But cleansing us from our sin.
And if you and I are being constantly cleansed from sin, we are living in a state of reconciliation and perfect harmony with God. Hallelujah. Amen. And he says, that is the gift of every believer. And when did it transpire?
It all took place at the cross. 1 John chapter 2, my little children, these things write I unto you that you sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate, somebody to go in our behalf, an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.
Now watch this. And he is the propitiation or the sacrifice or the substitute. For our sins and not for ours only, but also for the sins of whom? The world That means anybody Anyone, everywhere, anywhere. has the privilege of having.
been redeemed. Their sin canceled, released, and freed from what? The bondage and the guilt of sin in their life, their sin is taken away, nailed to the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, and what? Being brought back into oneness and fellowship and relationship to Him. And I want to ask you: Has that ever happened in your life?
Do you know that today you can look in your life and say, there at that time in my life, I know that I accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior. I know that I've been redeemed. I know that my sins have been remitted. I know that I'm living in a state of reconciliation with Him. That once there was a gap between God and myself, but now.
By his grace. And listen. Who initiated the closing of the gap? It wasn't sinful man. He says, no man seeks after God.
Listen, who initiated it? It is God the Father in his wonderful love, sending his only begotten Son down to this world and doing what? Splattering him upon a cross. Nailing that man's sins there, and then giving that man the privilege to live what? Not his own life merely with his sins forgiven, but living the life of God.
Listen to that. He says, in Jesus Christ, listen, in Jesus Christ, there is all of the Godhead in Christ bodily. That means God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit in the Lord Jesus Christ. When the Holy Spirit comes into your life, and my life, it's salvation, what happens? God the Father, God the Son, God the Spirit comes into your life and my life to do what?
To live through us that redeemed, forgiven, reconciled life. But there's one more. Not only is that true, but the fourth word here is righteousness.
Now here's what the Bible says. Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us. Man has no righteousness within himself. But when Jesus Christ died at the cross, what did he do? He made it possible.
Listen. He made it possible for man, listen, to become... What God wanted him to be which man could never become within himself and on his own efforts and abilities. When he speaks of righteousness here, look if you will in Well, let's look in Romans chapter 3 for a moment and look, if you will, in verse 24. He says, being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
Now the word justify and righteous come from the same Greek word. To make righteous or to justify are almost synonymous terms, not quite, but almost. And it simply means to declare a thing in a given state.
Now, here's what he's saying.
Now, watch this. When Jesus Christ was nailed to the cross, what happens? He says he opened the door that all men may be. What? May be redeemed or released from the burden and the enslavement of sin.
Secondly, He was forgiven. His sins were remitted. That means all the debt that was upon all of us, all the debt of sin was canceled, and we were freed of God's wrath. Thirdly, he says, we have been reconciled, brought back into a sense of oneness in our relationship with him. As a result of that, the fourth thing that happened for mankind is this.
having been redeemed. having our sins forgiven and reconciled to God, God says, I want to make a declaration. I declare that those who've been redeemed, those who've been forgiven, those who've been reconciled, I declare divinely, they are righteous. They have been justified, he says in Romans chapter 5. Therefore, being justified or declared righteous by faith, he says, we have peace with God.
And he says, we have access into the Father. Why? Because of God's grace, His justifying experience. Justification means that God has declared us righteous. When Satan points his ugly finger at your life, you just tell him sorry.
I want to tell you, Satan, four things. Number one, I've been redeemed. Secondly, all of my sins have been canceled by God, not by man.
So you can't accuse me of them. Thirdly, I've been reconciled back to the Father. I may disobey him, but I have been reconciled to him, and I do have that oneness with him. My fellowship may be hindered. I may have conflict in fellowship, but relationship never.
Therefore, because those things are true, in the eyes of God, he says one of these days he'll present us before the Father what? Holy Unreprovable. Righteous, unblameable in his sight. Listen, because he took the rap for you and me. He bore the penalty for you and me.
God placed upon him what? Nail him to the tree. Put all of our sin upon him. He paid the penalty and that made it right for God to declare man not guilty. Sin, cancel.
Freedom given, man is released to become everything that God wants him to become. Let's say amen. Yeah. That's what God has done for you and me.
Now, let me ask you one question. You say, well, Is that free to everybody? Listen carefully. It is free to everybody. But everybody will not accept it.
It's not accepting a word. It is accepting a person. And everything that God did at Calvary. is absolutely empty, void. of no avail and a waste.
If you live your life and allow the gap to remain, I'm not willing for God to redeem, remit your sin, and reconcile you unto Him as Father and Son. and let him declare you righteous. And my friend, there's only one way to be saved. And that is accepting Jesus Christ as Savior. And here's what happens: watch this, in the light of redemption.
In light of remission of sin, reconciliation toward God, and declared righteous, here's what happens. When you ask the Lord God in heaven to forgive you of your sins, What you're saying is this. Father, On the basis of what Jesus did at the cross. He bought my way. He canceled my debt.
He closed the gap. And he said that he would present me before you. Unreprovable. without blame, faultless and holy before you. Because of what he did.
I come to you, accepting His death on the cross. as the totality of all that those four words say. And I'm coming to you not on my merit, not on my goodness, not on my promises. I'm coming. By the shed blood.
of Jesus Christ. Will you come and receive? what you can only receive from God the Father through Jesus Christ His Son. Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, we thank you for providing for us.
so bountifully, so graciously, so lovingly, so eternally. what we could not have taken the first step or made the first mark toward accomplishing. Cleansing us and keeping us continually cleansed. Writing our name in the Lamb's Book of Life not because we could buy our way in. but because you purchased our way-in by making your only begotten Son a substitute for us.
And Father, I want to pray today for somebody out there who's never been saved. that they be willing to recognize their only hope is in Jesus Christ. And I pray that even now, They'll be willing to make that decision by the simple prayer of asking for forgiveness of sin. The surrender of their life on the basis of what they've heard today And this I pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
Uh Thank you for listening to Understanding What Happened at the Cross. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or In Touch Ministries, stop by intouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia. I'm going to use a bottle of the same piece of the bottom of the bottom of the column.
