Jesus offered Himself as the holy Lamb of God who, on the cross, bore the sin of humanity and the judgment of God on sinners. On the cross He made atonement for our sins, died in our place and then rose from the dead.
What is the result of the sacrifice and resurrection of Jesus?
1. We are forgiven of sin, redeemed from its power and cleansed from its pollution.
In Him (Christ) we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished upon us (Ephesians 1:7,8a).
On the cross, Jesus offered Himself as the holy sacrifice for sin, taking upon Himself our sin, our curse, our judgment, our alienation from God and our death. All the evil consequences due to humanity because of our sin came upon Jesus so that all the good due to Jesus through His sinless existence might come upon us. Because Jesus bore the sin that separates sinners from a holy God and because He received the consequences due to sinners, now, those who repent of sin and place their faith in the sacrifice of Jesus are forgiven of sin.
God not only forgives our sin, He also redeems us from sin’s power to enslave and corrupt: In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace (Eph. 1:7).
Peter adds, Knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ (I Ptr. 1:18,19).
The word redeemed — lutroo — refers to the purchase of something or someone, for instance, purchasing a person out of slavery or imprisonment. Redemption means to buy back. Through the blood of Christ we have been purchased, bought back by God from sin’s destruction and from satanic control over our lives. Though we still sin and deal with the consequences of our sin, the power of sin to control our lives is broken by the greater power of Christ’s blood shed on our behalf.
God’s forgiveness is so complete that He says, I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more (Jeremiah 31:34). This does not mean that God limits His perfect knowledge of all truth. Rather, He chooses not to recall our sin or hold it against us. Rather, God removes our sin as far as the east is from the west (Psalms 103:12). This is a way of saying that our sins, and the resulting condemnation and punishment, are removed an eternal distance from us. Sin, when forgiven by God, can no more come back upon us than east can meet west.
As we confess our sins to God, trusting in the blood Jesus shed on our behalf, we are not only forgiven of sin but also cleansed of its guilt and purified of the pollution that sin produces. This cleansing is the beginning of the new work of holiness, purity and wholeness in the heart of the believer. The Apostle John reminds us, The blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin … if we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (I John 1:7,9).
2 . We are reconciled to God.
God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them (2 Corinthians 5:19).
We are now reconciled to God because that which separated us from Him, our sin, has been removed by the sacrifice of Jesus, the holy Lamb of God. This reconciliation is possible because God counted our sins, not against us, but against Christ our Sin-Bearer. The writer to the Hebrews speaks of this reconciliation using the image of the Old Testament temple: Since therefore brethren we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh … let us draw near (Hebrews 10:19,20,22).
In the temple, there was a thick veil separating the Holy of Holies from the rest of the temple. Only the High Priest could enter once a year, on the Day of Atonement bearing sacrificial blood for the sins of himself and the people. But when Jesus offered His sacrifice and died shouting, Tetelestai — Complete, Fulfilled — the veil of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom (Matthew 27:51), signifying the access of forgiven, reconciled sinners into the presence of the Holy God.
This reconciliation was entirely God’s work on our behalf — God reconciled us to Himself even though we were still enemies of God when Christ died for us: For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, how much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life (Romans 5:10).
3. We are justified by God.
To be justified is to be declared righteous or just — declared not guilty. The judge of the universe bangs His gavel and He says, “Not guilty.” This is possible because on the cross, Jesus took upon Himself our sin and God’s judgment against sinners. Christ was made a sin offering for us.
Hundreds of years before the birth of Christ, Isaiah prophesied that the sin of humanity would be transferred to Messiah resulting in the justification of the sinner, My Servant will justify the many, as He will bear their iniquities (Isaiah 53:11).
Jesus was, in the terminology of the Old Testament, a sin offering. Under the Old Covenant sacrificial system, a person who had sinned would bring the appropriate animal to the priest — for instance, a lamb — and confess his sin. The priest would then lay his hand on the head of the animal and by that act symbolically transfer the sin from the person to the animal. The animal would then be put to death, as if it were paying the penalty for the sin of the man or woman.
Those offerings could not actually absolve or cleanse anyone of sin. Although in Hebrews 9:13 we read, For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh, this was a symbolic cleansing. The writer goes on to say, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? (Hebr. 9:14). That is an actual cleansing.
The Old Testament sacrifices were a symbolic covering for the sinner until the time when the true, holy Lamb of God would be slain for sinners. God initiated the sacrificial system to demonstrate the cost of sin, which is death, and to prepare people for the Messiah who, as the Lamb of God, would become the true guilt offering. In the fulness of time, Jesus was born, offered Himself as the holy Sacrifice and God transferred the sin of humanity to the person of Jesus, as the Apostle Peter testifies, And He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness (I Peter 2:24). The effect of that sacrifice reaches back in time to cleanse every righteous Old Testament saint and reaches forward in time to cleanse every person who trusts in the atoning work of Jesus.
None of us, neither Jew nor Gentile, by our own religious works or good deeds, can make ourselves righteous before God. A sinner cannot make himself just before a holy God. Only God can make us righteous and declare us to be just: Because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight ... for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus (Romans 3:20,23,24).
How can a just God declare an unjust sinner to be just? Only because on the cross Jesus bore our sin and the penalty which that sin incurred. God, then, is able to be both just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus (Romans 3:26). What an incredible transaction! God, the holy and righteous Judge, offers through the blood sacrifice of Christ to make covenant with the forgiven sinner, declares the sinner to be just and righteous and sees the forgiven sinner as just and righteous with the righteousness of His Son.
God takes away the filthy garments of our sin and, as Isaiah prophesied, He has clothed me in the garments of salvation. He has covered me with the robe of righteousness (Isa. 61:10).
4. We are spiritually regenerated as new creations in Christ, children of God.
For you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God (I Peter 1:23).
Jesus said to Nicodemus, a Pharisee who trusted in his own righteousness, Truly, truly I say to you, unless one is born again (or from above) he cannot see the kingdom of God (John 3:3). Separated from God by sin, we are spiritually dead. But when the life giving word of the cross penetrates our hearts and causes us to turn from our sin and place our faith in Christ as the atoning sacrifice for our sin, the Lord regenerates our dead spirit. We are born anew by the power of God.
This new birth results in new creation: Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come (2 Cor. 5:17).
We are new creations with a new nature conformed to a divine pattern and energized by the life of God in us. Therefore we are called children of God: But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name (John 1:12, see also Rom. 8:16 and I John 3:2).
Forgiven of sin, redeemed from its power and cleansed from its pollution, reconciled to God and declared just, spiritually regenerated in Christ, we are new creations, children of God.
5. We share the righteousness of Christ and are being transformed into the likeness of Christ.
God not only declares us to be righteous with the righteousness of Christ. More than this, He progressively transforms us into the righteous, holy image of Christ.
He (God) made Him (Jesus) who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Cor. 5:21). On the cross, Jesus took our sin so that we might share His righteousness. He was made sin with our sinfulness so that we might be made righteous with His righteousness. This is not merely a declaration of God — that we are righteous. It is also a gradual work of transformation in us.
But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:18).
We have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him (Col 3:10).
For we are His workmanship (poiema, art work) created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them (Eph. 2:10).
This transformation will not be completed in this life but God has promised to perfectly fulfill that which He has begun in us (Philippians 1:6). We share the righteousness of Christ and are being changed into His righteous image.
6. We have peace with God.
Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 5:1)
Having been forgiven of sin and declared righteous, we have peace with God. God will not make peace with sin. Only when sin is dealt with — and it was in the atoning work of Jesus — then God can make peace with us: For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fulness (of God) to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross (Col. 1:19,20). We have peace with God and enjoy the peace of God.
7. We share in the life of Christ.
The cross and the resurrection join in one magnificent event. Jesus died our death that we might share His life: The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly (John 10:10).
Abundant life means sharing in the life of Jesus — we share His peace and His mercy, His truth and His power, His grief and His joy, we find meaning and fulfillment in sharing His ministry. The life of Christ is also a future hope. To share the life of Christ is to share eternal life, unending life with Him: Truly, truly I say to you, he who hears My word and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life and does not come into judgment but has passed out of death into life (John 5:24).
Because I live, you will live also (John 14:19).
Jesus came to destroy death’s domination of this world, to set us free from slavery to sin and death and to give us everlasting life. This gift of life is made available through His death and resurrection. For the wages of sin is death but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom. 6:23).
The only Being in the universe who has life in Himself is God. None of us are the origin of our life. We are dependent on God for life and the only channel for eternal life with God is the blood of Jesus. If we want everlasting, abundant life, it comes to us through the sacrifice of Jesus.
God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life (I John 5:11,12).
When we placed our faith in the holy sacrifice of Jesus, we were baptized (baptizo, immersed) into His death and into His resurrection life: Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection (Rom. 6:3-5).
This is not only a someday event. We share the resurrection life of Jesus now. The same power that raised Jesus from the dead is now operative in believers: But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you (Rom. 8:11).
Paul prayed for the church that, The eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places (Eph. 1:18-20).
The same power that raised Jesus from the dead seated Him … in the heavenly places is working now in believers, enabling us, energizing us to live this new life, empowering us to overcome sin and fulfill the Lord’s calling and design for our lives. Again Paul testifies, Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us (Eph. 3:20).
8. We share in the glory of Christ.
Jesus endured our shame that we might share His glory: Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who, for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God (Hebrews 12:2).
Having endured the shame and suffering of the cross (which was rightly ours but which Jesus gladly took upon Himself) the risen Christ sat down at the right hand of God, sharing in the glory and majesty of the Father. He now invites us to share His glory.
In the hours before the cross, Jesus prayed to the Father: The glory which You have given Me I have given to them (John 17:22). The Apostle Paul speaks of this as an accomplished fact, And these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified (Romans 8:30).
Glorified refers to the future completion of God’s salvation purpose in our lives — perfected souls clothed in resurrection bodies, all sin and corruption removed not only from our lives but also from the entire universe while we enjoy unending communion in the infinitely creative, glorious presence of God. Though this is a future reality, it is so certain that Paul uses a past tense verb, These whom He justified, He also glorified.
In fact, our transformation in glory is already underway, But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:18).
9. We are translated into the kingdom of God.
For He rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of our sins (Colossians 1:13,14).
Our sin not only separated us from God but placed us within the dominion of Satan’s rule. Now, forgiven of our sin and reconciled to God, we have been brought into the gracious dominion, the merciful rule which is called the kingdom of God. Satan no longer has rulership over our lives. Jesus does.
This does not mean that we are no longer tempted to sin nor does it mean that we never sin. But we are no longer citizens of the kingdom of darkness wherein we were entirely vulnerable to the powers of sin and death. Now, reconciled to God and living in His kingdom, that is, under the gracious dominion of His Lordship, indwelt by His Spirit and guided by His word, we can choose not to sin.
Further, because Jesus triumphed over the powers of darkness on the cross, and because we are immersed into relationship with this risen Lord, we share in His triumph.
10. We are delivered from this present age, from this world system and into the age to come.
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for our sins so that He might rescue us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father (Galatians 1:3,4).
The Greek word translated age is aion which refers to a period of time but also the values and perspectives that define that time. It is the same word used in 2 Corinthians 4:4, The god of this age / aion has blinded the minds of the unbelieving.
Jesus gave Himself for our sins so that He might rescue us from this present evil age. Why do we need to be delivered from this age? Because it is dominated by evil, because it is temporary, corrupt and dying and we are of another age that is incorruptible and everlasting.
Jesus spoke of this present age as something that is coming to an end, impermanent, So shall it be at the end of the age (Matthew 13:49). This age is coming to an end because it is evil. It is evil because it is dominated by Satan, who is the god of this age in the sense that his corrupt, evil values have been incarnated into political and economic systems, artistic expressions, cultural laws and customs, imaginations, philosophies and false religions.
God’s program is not merely to depose Satan but to terminate the age. As long as this age continues, Satan will be the ruler of this age. When the age terminates, Satan will no longer rule. This is the reason Satan does everything in his power to prevent the present age from coming to an end. He persecutes the church because the church is God’s instrument to proclaim the good news of the inbreaking kingdom of God as the Lord brings this age to its conclusion.
The writer to the Hebrews speaks of those who have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age / aion to come (Hebr. 6:5). We are tasting, experiencing the age to come through our union with Christ mediated through the indwelling Holy Spirit. Paul reminds us, But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus (Eph. 2:4-6).
God wants to spoil our taste for the powers of this age, wants us to taste something so totally different and superior that we will never again be enamored with the powers of this age. Though we have not been physically removed from this age, we have been rescued from its domination through the cross and resurrection of Christ. And through our union with Christ, we are experiencing the power of the age to come.
A related thought is that we are delivered from the world: God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ by whom the world has been crucified to me and I to the world (Galatians 6:14).
This Greek word for world is kosmos, which refers to the order of this world system ruled by Satan and by the principalities of darkness. The kosmos is comprised of the governmental, economic, cultural and religious systems into which the powers of darkness have incarnated their perverse, anti-Christ values and purposes and which refuse and resist the righteousness of God.
What does the Bible tell us about the world / kosmos?
a. The whole world (kosmos) lies in the power of the evil one (I John 5:19).
b. The world is in violent rebellion against its Creator. Jesus told two parables in which He portrayed the hatred of this world for its Creator: The Parable of the Wedding Banquet (Matthew 22:1-14) and The Parable of the Ten Minas (Luke 19:11-14).
c. The world is passing away (I John 2:17). This kosmos, this world system is impermanent, fading, temporary, corrupt and crumbling.
d. The world is under God’s judgment. In 2 Peter 2:5 (and 3:5-7) we read that the world / kosmos which existed in Noah’s day perished under the judgment of God. The physical earth did not perish though it was radically changed. What perished was a sociological order — a world that was not submitted to the righteousness of God. This world order will also perish under God’s future judgment (see, for instance, Revelation chapters 15 through 19).
But God has delivered us from the power of this world. Therefore we are able to actively resist its seducing influence. We are able to resist conformity to the world because, having surrendered to the Lordship of the living, resurrected Christ, we have been crucified to the world. The world has not yet been put to death but in our identification with the cross of Christ, our affection for the world has been put to death. This does not mean that the world no longer has any influence on us but we are no longer living under its rule, it’s domination, having been translated out of the domain of darkness and transferred into the kingdom of His beloved Son (Colossians 1:13).
Now the resurrection life and presence of Jesus empowers us, energizes us to live as citizens of the age to come even as we live in this age. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God (Colossians 3:3). The corollary to being dead to the world is that we are alive in Christ, living in resurrection union with our risen Lord. The cross of Jesus and the empty tomb have come between the world and the Christian. The atonement and the resurrection are the line of separation between the Christian and the world. From the holy, risen Lamb of God flows the grace and power that enable us to live in forgiven, reconciled peace with God even as we still exist in this age and this world.
Dead to this dying age and world, we are alive in the the risen Christ forevermore. We share in His resurrection life now and so shall we forever, as Jesus promised: I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die (John 11:25,26).