ON WHAT BASIS DID CHRIST DIE FOR THE UNGODLY?
Preached at Emmanuel, Workington on Sunday, 19th March 2006
Reading: Genesis 3 verses 1-19.
Text: Romans 52 vs 6,7, “Christ died for the ungodly; Christ died for us.”
ON WHAT BASIS DID CHRIST DIE FOR THE UNGODLY
My text tonight as we come to the Lord’s Table is Romans 5 vs 6-8 “Christ died for the ungodly. Christ died for us.” Jesus commanded us to come to the Lord’s Table to remember His death for us. The preposition ‘for’ means on behalf of someone, for the benefit of someone; from that it came to mean in the place of someone.
To say that anyone died for our benefit, on our behalf and especially, in our place is to make a big claim. To establish such a claim clear evidence would be needed. If true, it would be a most remarkable event. We are so familiar with the claim that ‘Christ died for us’ that we have lost the sense of shock and wonder, the sense of debt and obligation that should fill our hearts if it is true. We take it for granted and it means almost nothing to us.
My question is this: On what basis do we make the claim that ‘Christ died for our sins’?
A RECENT CHALLENGE TO PENAL SUBSTITUTION
Recently the idea that ‘Christ died for us’ has come under attack. The attack has done the church good in that us to obey Jude, to ‘contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints’.
In 2003 a Baptist minister, Steve Chalk, founder of the Oasis Trust, wrote a book entitled “The Lost Message of Jesus.” The Oasis Trust is due to open an academy school and Steve Chalk let it be known that it will not teach Creation in six days. In his book, Steve Chalk denies original sin; penal substitution and the wrath of God. Penal Substitution is that on the cross Christ bore the penalty of our sin in our place. On page 182 of his book, Steve Chalk calls that “cosmic child abuse”!
Perhaps it is only when the Gospel is challenged that we begin to defend it. Preachers often say, “Christ died for our sins” but rarely justify the claim or give the legal grounds for the claim. On what basis is it true?
PAUL GROUNDS THE GOSPEL ON CHRIST AS SECOND ADAM
Think about it. Since, every person who ever lived has died, how can it be said that one person lived for us and died for us? There must be good reason, good grounds, for such a claim to hold water!
Are we entitled to decide who it is that lives for us and dies for us? Could we decide on Mary and claim that she lived for us and died for us? It would not be true! Could we decide on a saint and claim that he lived and died for us? It would not be true! Is Jesus just a better choice of someone to live and die for us? No!
In Romans 5 vs 6-10 Paul repeatedly claims that Christ died for us. He says, “When we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when 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.”
And that great statement is followed by the legal grounds for such a claim, 5 vs 12-21 . Paul argues, “Just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned - … even so through one Man's righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life. As by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man's obedience many will be made righteous.”
Paul grounds the claim that Christ died for our sins on His role as representative head of a new humanity, the Second Adam. As Adam’s sin was imputed to mankind, so Christ’s obedience is imputed to the new humanity that we might be reconciled to God. Let’s note certain things about that basis for claiming that Christ died for us.
1st, PAUL GROUNDS THE GOSPEL IN FACT, EVENT and HISTORY
1st, Paul grounds the Gospel on fact, event and history. In his letters, he refers to Cain murdering Abel, to Adam formed before Eve, to Eve tempting Adam, to Adam as head of humanity – all real persons and events.
Unbelieving scholars categorise early Genesis as myth, non-historical stories important to people . Ancient Rome invented the story of Romulus and Remus, twins abandoned beside the Tiber, brought up by a she-wolf, then by a shepherd. As adults they built a city and fought over it; Romulus killed Remus and named the city Rome. The story satisfied the desire of ancient Rome for a story to explain the origin of the city.
In Romans 5 Paul uses Genesis 3 to explain the origin of sin and death. If Adam was not a real historical person, whose disobedience is imputed to all humanity, we have lost the grounds for the claim that Jesus is head of a new humanity. If Genesis 3 is myth, the Gospel is not better than myth – nice story, no foundation in fact and event!
If Adam is not for real, the first man; if his sin did not happen; if he was not representative man, neither is Jesus the new representative Man. Jesus is at best just another man and His death just another death. The claim that He died for us is wishful thinking; and our reconciliation to God in Christ is based on a lie, a fantasy, a falsehood.
2nd, PAUL GROUNDS THE GOSPEL IN CREATION
2nd, Paul grounds the Gospel on Creation as described in Genesis 1-2 . In Romans 5 v 12, Paul says “death entered the world through sin.” These days that is a dramatic statement full of implications! It presupposes that death was not in the world from the start, nor for millions of years, but only recently as consequence of Adam’s sin.
Until Adam sinned, there was no death; no pain; no sickness; none disabled – blind or lame; deaf or dumb; and no disease, no cancer, no heart failure; no sorrow; no grief or loss! What a wonderful world! God world was very good! If death entered the world by sin, sin pre-dates death ! And that means that man pre-dates death .
Sure, the fossil record is evidence that death, sickness and disease were in the world before the fossils were formed. Then if the Bible and its Gospel is true, the fossils were not formed millions of years ago but in recent history, only since man lived and sinned against God.
Friends, if you deny divine creation in 6 days out of nothing by the Word of God’s power, you deny both the authority of the Word of God and the authenticity of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. You also rob Jesus Christ of His glory as Creator by Whom all things were made. And if He is not Creator, neither may He be Saviour or Judge. If He is not Creator, we debase Him. He is nothing, a nobody, a deceiver and a liar.
3rd, PAUL GROUNDS THE GOSPEL ON THE BIBLICAL MEANING OF DEATH
3rd, Paul grounds the Gospel on the biblical significance of death. According to Genesis 2 v 17 and 3 v 19, death is God’s judgment upon man’s sin. It follows that a righteous man should live and not die. Jesus agreed with that, Luke 10 v 28, if any person love God with all his heart and love his neighbour as himself, he will live!
That is why Jesus did not die as we die; He died only as Lamb of God, the sinless sin-bearer! That is why it was not possible for death to hold him, Acts 2 v 24! King death could not reign over Him!
So the Gospel is predicated upon the biblical understanding of death. If the biblical understanding of death is wrong; if death is natural to existence; if death is from the beginning; if death is not God’s judgment upon sin; if death reigns even over the morally righteous, the Gospel is fatally flawed.
Evolutionists teach that death is built into nature as a natural phenomena; it is essential to the programme of evolution; thanks to death, evolution gets rid of failures and guarantees the survival of the fittest; death is essential to natural selection; death is therefore a good and necessary thing.
If evolutionists are right about death, the death of Jesus cannot bear the weight which the Gospel puts on it! It cannot have redemptive significance! The cross of Christ cannot be a sacrifice for sin; it cannot depose king death; it cannot be the death of death; it cannot put away our sin and promise eternal life.
Evolution renders the cross of Christ just another meaningless death, of no more significance than the death of President Kennedy. And it invalidates His resurrection from the dead. That becomes as David Jenkins, Archbishop of Durham, 1984-94, said it was, “a conjuring trick with bones’, that is, a lie.
Did Paul make a mistake in Rom.5 vs 12-21 when he based the Gospel on disputed events and controversial history? Did he weaken it fatally? His Gospels stands or falls with the authority and authenticity of Scripture.
Friends, be not deceived by the devil. Evolution is already on the way out. Long after history forgets evolution, the Gospel that “Christ died for our sins” will be proclaimed and remember at the Lord’s Table.
