The Apostolic Creed, referring to the sufferings of Jesus Christ, says: “He suffered under the power of Pontius Pilate, was crucified, killed, and buried. “This confession, made historically by the Church to this day, is largely and strongly based on the Holy Scriptures. The biblical foundation, however, did not prevent men and theological systems from denying it directly or indirectly, now affirming the impossibility of God’s suffering; Therefore, Jesus Christ is not God, stating now that the facts told in the Gospels are not really as they happened; Would the descriptions, they say, be closer to the faith of the evangelists than to reality?
For us, however, as we have already studied, the Bible is the faithful, infallible, and infallible account of God’s Word, and our faith is generated and sustained by the Spirit through the Word (Rom 10:17; Ep 2. 8).
Let us now study what the Bible teaches us about the sufferings of Christ our Lord.
The sin of our first fathers, as well as that of all mankind, for all sinned (Romans 3:23; 5:12), brought a state of curse and judgment throughout nature (Genesis 3:17-19; Romans 8). : 20-23); having now, the man who will bear the consequences of his choice, being desperately lost, for in him was the symbol of the total impossibility of pleasing God, of reconciling with him. He now became a slave to sin, having his will ruled by this tyrant (Jn 8:34).
The impossibility of man highlights the possibility of God; What is possible for man is done by God; however, it is in the inability of man who often remembers the Almighty God; man’s sin, permitted by God, set in motion the historical execution of God’s eternal and wise plan to save his chosen people from eternity. sin, Christ’s sacrifice would not be necessary, and on the other hand sin does not compel God to send his Son to die for his people; God is not obliged to save us; He does it by grace. With this we do not come to affirm that “God is the victim of evil”, [1] but that the consequences of sin were done voluntarily by Christ on the cross, in order to lead his people definitively to overcome evil.
God is not obliged to save anyone; However, it does!We are all equally indebted to God’s grace.
God always acts in harmony with your being. Man is a sinner and therefore needs to be punished for his act of rebellion against God; discipline is part of the execution of God’s eternal justice. On the other hand, God in his eternal, infinite and self-caused love? Since there is nothing in us that deserves or even awakens the love of God ?, she wants to save him (Jer 31,3; Eph 1,3-14). God’s justice is holy and his love is real; God’s grace is not cheap; it always comes at a high price to God. Grace is the very source of the Gospel; without God’s grace there would be no good news of salvation; we would all inherit the eternal consequences of our sins. However, grace reigns and Jesus Christ is the embodiment of grace; embodies grace and truth (John 1:17; 14. 6). He is the cause, the content, and the manifestation of God’s grace; to speak of Christ is to speak of grace. In this way, God became one of us (John 1,14; Ga 4,4, 5), to free us from the power and curse of sin. “God, who is just, can forgive sin because he has already punished it in the Person of his only begotten Son. (?) God proclaims his eternal justice and can still forgive the sins of those who believe in Jesus? Is this a more terrible and profound statement? [two]
Do the sacrifices of the Old Testament denote the initiative of the righteous and loving God who seeks the reconciliation of his sinful people?But also loved and chosen ?, with himself, finding this process, its fullness and its culmination in Jesus Christ: the Incarnate Word. “Everything comes from God”: the desire to forgive and reconcile, the means indicated, the supply of the victim of his own breast, at an infinite price. Everything happens in God’s very life: because if we take the Christology of the New Testament, we must affirm that “God was in Christ?in this great atoning sacrifice, and that the priest and the victim were the same God?[4]
Therefore, we must emphasize that even in the Old Testament, the patriarchs, the prophets, and the people in general were forgiven, not because they offered sacrifices, but because of faith in the coming Christ. The work of Christ involves all believers: all believers past, present, and future. [5] “The only way for someone to be forgiven, before Christ, after Christ and at all times, is through Christ, crucified. ” [6] The work of Christ involves all his people, no one will be left behind and there will never have been, or never will be, redemption without the one and only power of Christ’s sacrifice. : Is the work of Christ complete and sufficient? In all ages, from the beginning, there were sins that needed atonement. Therefore, unless the sacrifice of Christ was effective, neither parent [elder] would have obtained salvation. Since they were subject to divine wrath, any remedy to deliver them would have failed if Christ, suffering once and for all, had not suffered enough to reconcile men to God’s grace, ever since. the beginning of the world to the end. Unless we want a lot of deaths, let’s settle for a sacrifice. (?) It is not in the power of man to invent sacrifices as he pleases. Here is a truth expressed by the Holy Spirit, namely, that sins are not sacrificially atoned unless there is bloodshed. Therefore, is the idea that Christ is often sacrificed an evil invention? [7]
Paul tells us that Christ’s triumph forgiving us, giving us life, manifested himself on the cross of Calvary:?, forgiving all our crimes; after cancelling the debt sheet, which was against us and contained orders, which harmed us, he removed it completely, putting it on the cross; and, stripping the principalities and powers, did he publicly expose them to contempt, triumphing over them on the cross?(Cl 2:13-15).
It is important to note that the Bible makes no distinction between the love of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit; the sacrifice of the Son reveals the love of God One and Triune: the Father did not come to love us because his Son died for us; rather, the Son died for us because God One and Triune loved us eternally and entrusted us to the Son (Jn 3:16; 10:22-30; 15,16; 17,6-26; Rom 5. 8; 1 John 4. 9 ). The Son has reconciled us with the Father and with our neighbour through the cross (Ephesians 2:11-22; Colossses 1: 19-20). “No study of the Atonement can be properly developed without first recognizing God’s free and sovereign love (?). This love is the cause or source of atonement. “[8]
The coming of Jesus Christ and all his actions were guided by his obedience to the Father and by the awareness that it was necessary to do so, always with the aim of glorifying God and saving his people (Jn 4:34; 5. 30; 6,38, 39; 10. 10-18; 17. 1-8).
In this way, Christ’s work was done in a voluntary spirit; He took our place by dying under the stigma of the curse, saving us from the resulting condemnation, by his free grace (Gal 3:13,14) So what was impossible for man?Having access to God and atoning for his own sin. ?, Jesus fulfilled perfectly and by power (1Pe 3:18; Heb 7. 26-28; 9,23-28; 10,10-18). On the cross, the Will of the Father and the Will of the Son were in perfect harmony. Should we never assume that the Son offered to do anything against the will of the Father, or that the Father demanded something from the Son against his own will?. 9?Was Jesus’ death because of sin an act of sacrifice and according to the will of God the Father?. 10 We will return to this topic on another topic.
[1] Cf. Millard J. Erickson, Introduction to Systematic Theology, Sao Paulo: Vida Nova, 1997, p. 190-191.
[2] D. M. Lloyd-Jones, God the Father, God the Son, p. 420
[3] “The purpose of sacrifices was for God to look at sinners in a benevolent manner, in a way that revealed the will to receive them. [DMLloyd-Jones, God the Father, God the Son, p. 406].
[4] Donald M. Baillie, God was in Christ, Sao Paulo: ASTE. , 1964, p. 215.
[5] When the Son of God suffered and died, so he atoned for the sins of all who accepted or accepted him with a living faith, that is, for all believers of both dispensations. Do the merits of the cross extend to both of you?Back and forth? [W. Hendriksen, Romans, Sao Paulo: Christian Culture, 2001, (Rom 3. 25-26), p. 178].
[6] D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Studies in the Mountain Sermon, Sao Paulo: FIEL. , 1984, p. 359. No one can say, not for a moment, that people like David, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob have not been forgiven; But not because of the sacrifices they offered; they were forgiven because they turned to Christ; they did not realize it clearly, but they believed in teaching and made these offerings by faith. that one day he would offer a sacrifice in the future, and by faith they stood firm there. Is faith in Christ what saved you, just as faith in Christ now saves?(DMLloyd-Jones, The Cross: The Justification of God , Sao Paulo: Selected evangelical publications, (sd), p. 9-10).
[7] Joel Calvino, Exhibition of the Hebrews, Sao Paulo: Paracletes, 1997, (Heb 9. 26), p. 245-246. The reason God had ordered the victims to be offered as a thank you was, as we know, to teach people that their praises were contaminated with sin and that they needed to be sanctified externally. As much as we set out to praise the name of God, however much we make him desecrate with our unclean lips, Christ had not offered himself as a sacrifice to sanctify us and our sacred activities [He 10. 7]. Is it because of him, as the Apostle tells us, that our praises are accepted?[Joo Calvino, Book of Psalms, Sao Paulo: Edies Parakletos, 1999, Vol. . 2, (Sl 66. 15), p. 631].
[8] John Murray, Redemption: Consumed and Applied, Sao Paulo: Cultura Crist, 1993, p. 11, 13.