As we look into the Scripture about salvation, this second blog will be on the second part of salvation that involves the death of Jesus Christ. In the last blog, we looked at the first aspect of salvation which was the eternal phase, God's choice of who He would save from eternity. This next phase which we will call the legal phase involves Christ's work to make our salvation possible.
Since God is a righteous judge (Psalm 7:11) "God is a righteous judge, and a God who feels indignation every day", He cannot save someone from sin without that sin being paid for. Either sinners must suffer eternally in hell and pay for their own sins or a substitute must be found to pay for those sins. God cannot over look wickedness. In (Exodus 34:7) we read, God "will by no means clear the guilty" God is so righteous and so just that all sin and transgression must be punished either by the sinner themselves or in a substitute.
This is the second phase or legal phase of salvation where Jesus provided a legal basis for which people could be saved.
Look at (Romans 3:24-27), "and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus."
The main component of the legal phase is justification. Justification is based on the shed blood of Jesus. (Romans 5:9), "Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God."
Christ must justify us, and the reason Christ must justify us, is because God must punish somebody for sin. It is Christ's life, death, and resurrection by which man must be saved. God could not have saved us without this legal payment to be paid on our behalf.
Look at (2 Corinthians 5:21), "For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." Notice in this verse a legal transaction took place, God charged or imputed Christ with our sins and God charged or imputed us with the righteousness of Christ.
So this second phase of salvation is God's work to satisfy His holy nature and perfect justice for the salvation of His elect. Because every sin must be punished, He sent a Substitute to die for their sins.
No comments:
Post a Comment