God Paid the Price for Our Sins

Psalms 22

Jim Davis

In my mind it has always been a mystery as to why God created a world with the potential for so much evil. I think one reason is that there is much more potential for good in the eternal scheme. I think another reason is that it is the only way God could finally defeat evil eternally. Yet, in reality this is probably to simplistic and remains a mystery. 

We are created with the freedom to become our own gods doing whatever we believe to be right in our own eyes. Or, we have the choice to trust God who has a plan for the redemption of a corrupt world and the total destruction of evil. A plan that will ultimately usher the redeemed into an eternal existence with all the heavenly beings with the absence of Satan.

Life on earth between the fall and its redemption is a mystery as to why it all had to be as it is. The entire creation of God has been subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of God. The creation eagerly awaits redemption (Romans 8:18-21). 
  
Romans 8:18-21
I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.

God subjected us to a frustrated world. God, from the very beginning takes full responsibility for such a world. It is God’s deepest desire to liberate those who choose to be redeemed. He desires to bring us into the full freedom and glory he foresees in Jesus Christ.
Messianic Promises

The Creator would become the sacrifice to bring freedom from the evil clutches of a world gone awry. God’s plan was for the Creator to die for those created. 

There are many Messianic passages foreshadowing the coming of the Messiah. The passages were a vague mystery until the Messiah came fulfilling the promises. The plan of God was hidden in the long ages past. Peter says it was a mystery the angels longed to understand (1 Peter 1:12). It was a mystery hidden from view before time began (1 Corinthians 12:7). The mystery is revealed and made known through the prophetic writings of the prophets as they proclaim Christ.

1 Corinthians 2:9 
However, as it is written:

“What no eye has seen,
    what no ear has heard,
and what no human mind has conceived”—
    the things God has prepared for those who love him—
10 these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit.

Many think Paul is speaking of heaven. You can say this about heaven, but initially these verses were written about the coming of the Messiah who was to usher in an unbelievable plan of redemption. He is quoting Isaiah 64:4 as Isaiah prophesied about the Messianic age. No one could have even imagined such a glorious plan. The gospel of Jesus Christ was the mystery.

1 Corinthians 2:6-10
We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. 7 No, we declare God’s wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. 8 None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 

The psalmist foresees the agony of the suffering Messiah on the cross.

Psalms 22:1-19
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
    Why are you so far from saving me,
    so far from my cries of anguish?
My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer,
    by night, but I find no rest.
Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One;
    you are the one Israel praises.
In you our ancestors put their trust;
    they trusted and you delivered them.
To you they cried out and were saved;
    in you they trusted and were not put to shame.
But I am a worm and not a man,
    scorned by everyone, despised by the people.
All who see me mock me;
    they hurl insults, shaking their heads.
“He trusts in the Lord,” they say,
    “let the Lord rescue him.
Let him deliver him,
    since he delights in him.”
Yet you brought me out of the womb;
    you made me trust in you, even at my mother’s breast.
From birth I was cast on you;
    from my mother’s womb you have been my God.
Do not be far from me,
    for trouble is near
    and there is no one to help.
Many bulls surround me;
    strong bulls of Bashan encircle me.
Roaring lions that tear their prey
    open their mouths wide against me.
I am poured out like water,
    and all my bones are out of joint.
My heart has turned to wax;
    it has melted within me.
My mouth is dried up like a potsherd,
    and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth;
    you lay me in the dust of death.
Dogs surround me,
    a pack of villains encircles me;
    they pierce my hands and my feet.
All my bones are on display;
    people stare and gloat over me.
They divide my clothes among them
    and cast lots for my garment.
But you, Lord, do not be far from me.
    You are my strength; come quickly to help me.

The mystery of this psalm is revealed in Christ as he is hanging on cross. Our redemption was planned before time began. That means God entered into creation with full knowledge where it would lead and end. He knew full well our dilemma beforehand. 

It seems an act of justice for the ONE who created such a world to die for the world he created. He submits himself to walking through this world with his own creation. He came to live and die as we must. He came to be tempted with the cruelty of this world as we must. He came to do what he is asking us to do.

Think about this; through Christ all things were created.

John 1:1-5
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

Colossians 1:5-17
The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 

You have the creator and sustainer of creation hanging on a Roman cross crying My God, My God why have you forsaken me. Yet, it seems only just! God created this world knowing full well what lay ahead for those who would have to live on this planet. The Creator bore the responsibility and paid the price for redemption himself.

John 1:14
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Suffering as we suffer is the only way such a God could ever be justified in asking us to follow him. The creator became flesh and blood. The eternal became a mere mortal. 

Isaiah 53 
Who has believed our message
    and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
    and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
    nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
He was despised and rejected by mankind,
    a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces
    he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.

Surely he took up our pain
    and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
    stricken by him, and afflicted.

But he was pierced for our transgressions,
    he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
    and by his wounds we are healed.

We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
    each of us has turned to our own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
    the iniquity of us all.

He was oppressed and afflicted,
    yet he did not open his mouth;
he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,
    and as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
    so he did not open his mouth.

By oppression and judgment he was taken away.
    Yet who of his generation protested?

For he was cut off from the land of the living;
    for the transgression of my people he was punished.

He was assigned a grave with the wicked,
    and with the rich in his death,
though he had done no violence,
    nor was any deceit in his mouth.

Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer,
   and though the Lord makes his life an offering for sin,
he will see his offspring and prolong his days,
    and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.

After he has suffered,
    he will see the light of life and be satisfied
by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many,
    and he will bear their iniquities.

Therefore I will give him a portion among the great,
    and he will divide the spoils with the strong,
because he poured out his life unto death,
    and was numbered with the transgressors.

For he bore the sin of many,
    and made intercession for the transgressors.

Christ gave up his equality with God. 

It has been suggested when Christ the creator became God’s son, he gave us his equality with God for all eternity. The reasoning is that a son can never be equal to his father. There is no way to give up his sonship. He is exalted above all creation but not equal or above God.

Philippians  2:6-8 
Who, being in very nature God,
    did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; 
rather, he made himself nothing
    by taking the very nature of a servant,
    being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man,
    he humbled himself
    by becoming obedient to death—
        even death on a cross! 

Uniqueness of God

The uniqueness of the Christian’s God sets him far above all other gods. Here you have a God that forfeits himself on behalf of the world he chose to create. He seeks the highest possible good of those redeemed.

The Creator came to be born out of wedlock. To be born into a despised ethnic race. To live in a despised place called Nazareth. To become a lowly peasant carpenter and fisherman. To be born in one of the darkest periods of human history. To be reared in a one parent home. To be raised as a step child. To be denied by his family  as they thought he was a lunatic. His home life wasn’t idea he came from a divided family. Of all his brothers and sisters—the disciple John, and Mary Magdleine were the only ones standing at the foot of the cross when he died. He came to suffer without retaliation.

The justice the creator suffered on the cross justifies all who believe in him. It justified those who nailed him to the Cross. He simply asks the Father to forgive them. It is a free gift of God for walking through this world with him (Romans 3:23-25). 

Christ Came As Our Advocate

When Christ died to bring us justification, he also became our advocate. 

1 John 2
My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.

John says Christ is the atoning sacrifice for our sins. He doesn’t say he atoned for our sins in past tense. He uses the present tense. Christ atoning sacrifice for our sins is ongoing through each trial we face. In our struggles and failures we need to remember that we are forgiven. When Satan brings charges against each of us for our sins, Jesus Christ is our lawyer advocating our cause. As Christ stands before God he simply says we have been forgiven.

Satan has been defeated.

Revelation 12:10 
Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say:

“Now have come the salvation and the power
    and the kingdom of our God,
    and the authority of his Messiah.
For the accuser of our brothers and sisters,
    who accuses them before our God day and night,
    has been hurled down.

Zechariah gives each of us a glance of what it means to have the Creator advocating our cause.

Zechariah 3:1-7
Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right side to accuse him. The Lord said to Satan, “The Lord rebuke you, Satan! The Lord, who has chosen Jerusalem, rebuke you! Is not this man a burning stick snatched from the fire?”

Now Joshua was dressed in filthy clothes as he stood before the angel. The angel said to those who were standing before him, “Take off his filthy clothes.”

Then he said to Joshua, “See, I have taken away your sin, and I will put fine garments on you.”

Then I said, “Put a clean turban on his head.” So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him, while the angel of the Lord stood by.
The angel of the Lord gave this charge to Joshua: This is what the Lord Almighty says: If you will walk in obedience to me and keep my requirements, then you will govern my house and have charge of my courts, and I will give you a place among these standing here.

Conclusion:

Today when we accept the sacrifice and are baptized into Christ, we are clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ (Galatians 3:26-27).

Christ advocates our cause. As we confess our sins God forgives our sins and purifies us from all unrighteousness. Through our baptism and our confession Christ becomes the atoning sacrifice for all our past and future sins (1 John 1:8-2:2).

The true church is made up of sinners who have been snatched from the fire and redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. The true remnant of God stands in the presence of God purified without spot or blemish (Ephesians 5:25-27).

What is your standing before God today? Have you been plucked from the fire? You are the apple of God’s eye and he wishes to clothe you with a new identity in Jesus Christ.