Christ's Mediation: Reconciliation Through His Sacrifice

"All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself, and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making His appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God." [00:02:42]

"Now, if we think for a minute as to the work of Christ, and think of it in terms of how does the New Testament answer the question as to the work of Christ, and the New Testament does that in a multifaceted way. It does so for example in one instance using the language of the courtroom, and that we as human beings are sinful and guilty, and that we need the grace of God in order to be in a right standing and in a right relationship with God, the language of justification." [00:07:28]

"Or the New Testament uses the language that is associated with the temple, that we are by nature unfit and unclean to come into the presence of God. And that was symbolized in the Old Testament by the ritual of a veil that separated parts of the temple, and separated what was regarded as the presence of God from the people. And furthermore there were priests that separated people from the presence of God." [00:08:11]

"And, the language of the temple suggests that God has cleansed us and washed us by the blood of Christ, and that we have a great High Priest in Jesus Christ who ushers us into the presence of God, so that believing in Jesus the veil has been rent asunder. And that we are all priests, the priesthood of all believers. We're all priests by faith alone in Jesus Christ alone." [00:08:54]

"Or we could go to other parts of the New Testament that take up the picture, of the marketplace, where in New Testament times, men and women were sold as slaves. And the New Testament and the Bible as whole using the language of redemption as the payment price to set us free from our bondage and our captivity." [00:09:17]

"Alienation from God, man is alienated to God, but actually in this passage God is also alienated from man. You notice in verse 15, He died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves, and that's a part of the human problem, the human predicament, that we tend to live for ourselves." [00:13:35]

"Now, we need to ask ourselves the question, who is alienated to who, is it man that is alienated to God, or as I think the passage here suggests, that the basic problem we might say is not simply a human problem. The basic problem is the problem of God's character, and God's nature, and God's holiness." [00:16:09]

"God was in Christ in the whole of Christ's life from the moment of His conception in the womb of the Virgin Mary, from the moment of His birth in a stable in Bethlehem. From the time of His growth as an infant and a teenager, and into adolescence, and into a fully grown human being to His death upon the cross, His burial in the grave, His resurrection from the dead, His ascension to the right hand of God, God was in Christ in the whole of Christ's life." [00:18:52]

"Now, if we were to ask ourselves, how? We're thinking of the means of reconciliation, and if we think of how God brings about that reconciliation, I want us to sort of focus and come in close to verse 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.'" [00:19:48]

"God made Him sin, who knew no sin. He reckoned Him a sinner who had never committed any sin, and therefore wasn't a sinner. Think of those words on the cross. 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?' He's quoting from the 22 Psalm. And I think he's doing more than just, well, remembering and recalling a favorite psalm that perhaps He had memorized as a child, and recited to Himself as an adult, and that therefore came back to Him as -- in this -- in His moment of pain and dereliction upon the cross." [00:23:53]

"And the answer of the Reformation was, that this was an act of substitution and satisfaction -- of substitution and satisfaction. Of satisfaction. A word, well, a word that goes back to Anselm of Canterbury in the twelfth century, who wrote a book (a fascinating book) 'Cur Deus Homo,' Why the God man? Or, why did God become man?" [00:30:45]

"Now, in our own time, of course, the doctrine of substitution has been criticized as an act of cosmic child abuse. The violence of the cross is indicative of a God who is abusive of His own Son, and all of the ramifications of that imagery. But you understand here, as the Reformers insisted upon, that when the New Testament uses the language of substitution it is imperative that we understand that that act of substitution was undertaken by Jesus willingly." [00:34:44]