Future Grace (Part 3)

THE SUBSTANTIVE VICTORY EXPERIENCED NOW

God’s grace was demonstrated in the past through His promise of redemption.  The promise of God’s grace would find its substantiation in the life and death of His only Son Jesus.  Through the redeeming action of the shedding of blood on the cross and the subsequent resurrection, Jesus has provided the present pathway to justification and salvation (Hebrews 9:22 and 1 Corinthians 15:17).  Having complete faith in the finished work of Jesus is the only way that we can be justified before God (John 14:6-7).  This solitary act of redeeming mankind sets us free from the slavery of sin; “To be set free from captivity or slavery.”[1]

The life is in the blood.  Salvation, our hope of eternal life, is in the blood of Jesus.  The sacrifice that He made, giving His blood for us on the cross, brought about atonement.

1. The Atonement Surpasses works (Titus 3:5): There is nothing we could do, there is nothing we could say to justify and redeem ourselves before a Holy, Almighty God. There is only this, “confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9).
2. The Atonement is Superior to the blood of goats (Hebrews 10:4): The sacrifice of animals on the altar in the Holy of Holies was only a reminder of the sins Israel had committed against God, not total absolution bringing eternal life (Hebrews 10:3). God was not pleased with animal sacrifices (Hebrews 10:6).  Jesus stepped forward and said, “Here am I, I have come to do Your will” (Hebrews 10:9).  It was through the blood of Jesus that we find complete atonement.
3. The Atonement is Secured in the Garden (Luke 22:42-44): Jesus had the authority to lay down His life or to take it back (John 10:18). Therefore, the decision was not whether to go to the cross, He had made that determination, Jesus would die. The suffering He was to experience would be the cup, “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me” (Luke 22:42). The cup represented the full wrath of God (Isaiah 51:17, Revelation 14:9-10).  Jesus would experience this wrath as a result of becoming sin for us.  He understood the incredible cost of receiving the wrath of God.  But, in His last moments in the garden, He secured His fate and guaranteed our redemption when He said, “Yet not My will, but Your will be done” (Luke 22:42).  Although He understood the full gravity of the punishment He would suffer, Jesus surrendered Himself willingly for us.
4. The atonement is Sealed on the Cross (John 19:30). When Jesus said, “It is finished,” the final sacrifice was made, the curtain was torn, the way to eternal life was opened, redemption was made possible, the price had been paid, salvation was a reality. Three words, three simple words that satisfied the penalty and payment for sin forever, forever.

The blood of Jesus Christ provided the sacrifice for our sin and redeemed us so that we might be rescued or freed from the dominance of our sin nature.  The resurrection becomes the proof of the divine nature of Jesus.  No one but God could bring life from death.  The resurrection also provides the power for salvation.  The power that can bring Jesus back to life is the same power we receive through salvation.

It is faith that brings us to salvation and gives us peace with God.  We are no longer at war with God once we have been justified by faith (Romans 5:1).  However, if it had not been for the resurrection, faith would not have been possible.  1 Corinthians 15:17 says this about Jesus being resurrected, “And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins.”  Faith is the key that opens the door, but it is the resurrection that forms and grinds the key.  

The resurrection also unites us with Christ.  We were once dead in our sin.  Jesus was dead because of sin.  When Jesus was brought back to life we were no longer united in death but now we are united in that life.  His body was resurrected, and our spirit was united through faith in Him. Romans 6:5-7 explains this process when it says, “If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection.  For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin—because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.”

Finally, we have found hope in the resurrection.   Peter 1:3-5 says, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.”

The Grace of God in our lives today is represented in the redemptive plan that was carried out on the cross and through the resurrection.  Complete atonement for our disobedient nature is found in Jesus, by grace, through faith (Ephesians 2:8-9).  Today, right now, we experience salvation, the salvation that brings eternal life in Him (Romans 8:38-39).

[1] Redemption and Salvation, © Christianity.com 2016, All Rights Reserved, christianity.com/theology/redemption-and-salvation-11541696.html