The theme we are following reveals the very essence of what Christianity is all about, and that is the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. One would think this pivotal point of all human history would be well understood by now. After all, this truth has been proclaimed for two thousand years, but it isn’t well understood. Great confusion and misunderstanding still abound. Many cannot get beyond seeing Christmas and Easter with little more than tradition and sentimentality, apart from realizing their true significance and vital impact upon their eternal destiny. Christianity Clarified seeks to explain what was really involved and why it is so critical to every human being who ever lived.
Substitution is the key to Christianity, the key to Christ Himself and to all who want to be rightly related to God. Hebrews, chapter 2, uses a curious but wonderful expression in stating that Jesus Christ, by the grace of God, “tasted death for every man.” Three vital elements are found in this brief phrase: the motivation was God’s grace, that is, the graciousness of God toward man was the motivating factor for God sending His Son, and for Christ to willingly be sent; and 2) the purpose for His coming was to taste death for every man. We all know that to taste something means to take it to ourself, ingest it, and experience it. Christ did that very thing with death. He experienced, or underwent, it. He took death to Himself, and death took Him. And, thirdly, the beneficiaries of the death He experienced was every man, a simple generic expression meaning all of humankind. This sums up what is both the most simple yet the most profound event ever to take place in all of human history. The moral scales of the universe were balanced when Christ, “who knew no sin, was made to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.” That claim from 2nd Corinthians 5 echoes Hebrews 2, Christ tasted death for all mankind. No exceptions. All that remains is for the individual person to embrace that fact and trust in that great transaction wrought by Christ.
Precisely how is that done? It’s done in the same way we make a decision about anything else. We do it with our will, our decision-making mechanism. We all have one, you know. The very reason for the proclaiming of the Gospel is to provide people with the opportunity to believe it, accept it, embrace it as being true, just as the Bible says. We make a conscious choice by acknowledging our need for a Savior and reaching out by faith, as an act of our will, to Jesus Christ. When we admit our sin, which is why we all need a Savior, Christ stands at the ready to receive, pardon, forgive, and cleanse us from all our sin. This is why the Gospel is called “Good News”. Have you ever heard any better? Have you done anything about it? We pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.
CC 10-13
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