The Christ of God

by Dick York

Christ died for us ––a cliché, or an event that altered our eternal destiny?

Our penalty for sin was death, which has been defined as eternal separation from God. Should he then not have needed to die and remain dead forever in order to have died in our stead?

No! His work went beyond paying our personal penalties. It was, through death, to abolish death and to destroy him that had the power of death, that is the devil, and to bring life and immortality to light through the Gospel.1 Consider the account transfiguration in Luke 9:29-31: “And behold,there talked with him two men, which were Moses and Elias: who appeared in glory,and spake of his decease which he should accomplish in Jerusalem.”

Does this not seem a strange choice of words? Accomplishment, by definition,is to succeed in a purpose; to fulfill a plan.If a man is murdered,is that an accomplishment? Or if a man commits suicide, did he accomplish something? If he dies of cancer is that a goal to which he aspired?

Normally, dying would not be considered an accomplishment,but rather a grim end of any opportunity to accomplish anything.Living a life of courage may be considered an accomplishment; dying in the process would be a courageous but sad termination of that accomplishment. Living a hundred years would be an accomplishment, but dying brings it to an end. But in Jesus’ case, death was something he was sent to “accomplish.”

It could not have happened in the normal course of his life because he was without sin for which death is the wages. But Jesus, the perfect man, came into the world specifically to give his life a ransom for many ––to satisfy God ’s righteous demand that death can be the only satisfaction for the absolution of sin. Sin must die; there is no other remedy for it.

In Jesus' earthly life, all that preceded that dark, but glorious day at Calvary qualified him to be the perfect and unique sacrifice for sin. His virgin birth, which precluded his inheriting Adam’s fallen nature;his perfect obedience to the Father,which made him free from any sin of his own doing; his humble submission to the cruel punishment by his executioners; all marked him as the perfect, unblemished sacrificial lamb of God.

Jesus knew who he was and why he came. He asked his disciples,“Whom say the people that I am?”2 They had many fanciful ideas. Then he said unto them,“But whom say ye that I am?” Peter answering said,“The Christ of God .”3

Jesus responded,“The Son of man must suffer many things,and be rejected of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be slain, and be raised the third day.”

Notice the imperative! This is not something that is incidental to Jesus ’ resume. This is the critical imperative of Jesus ’ career ––he must be slain; he must be raised the third day.

Peter, of course, was right when he described Jesus as the Christ of God. Christ means Messiah, literally the anointed one. He was indeed the anointed one who, since the Garden of Eden was designated as he who himself would be bruised while crushing the serpent ’s head.4 He was the one typified by the serpent nailed to Moses ’ pole in the wilderness, upon which the people must only look in order to live after being bitten by the deadly snakes. That serpent represented sin.Jesus, many years later, was made sin for us,5 and with that identity he went to the cross and became our “serpent on the pole.”6

He was the one to whom Isaiah made reference when he said,“Unto us a child is born; unto us a Son is given,”7 a statement prophetic of Jesus’ birth and of his death.“A child is born” is unmistakably the announcement of the birth of a baby; and in this case the miraculous birth of a unique infant ––the Son of God and a virgin mother. None other could have qualified to accomplish the purpose for which this one was anointed.

“A Son is given:” Not a redundant statement reiterating his birth,but the shocking announcement that a mature son had been given up ––sacrificed. And that message is followed by the incredible revelation that his sacrifice of himself will not preclude the fact that the government shall [nevertheless] be upon his shoulders. And, furthermore, of the increase of his government there shall be no end ––the obvious presumption of his resurrection to rule and reign forever.

If indeed, as Peter had discerned, Jesus was the Christ [anointed] of God, he was anointed for a specific employment during the thirty-three year period between his birth and his death. It was the performance of that assignment that identified him as the Christ, the Messiah,the anointed One.

The prophet Isaiah, speaking for Christ said, “The spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek.He hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted,to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound. To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn; to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified.”8

That is what his disciples witnessed as they trod the highways and byways of Judea and Galilee with him preaching good news for the hearing ears of the meek (for it was the meek that heard him gladly,while the proud and self- righteous condemned themselves by rejecting him.) They saw him opening the prison house to those who were bound by sickness and sin, deception and demonic darkness. They heard him proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and announce God’s vengeance upon sin and unbelief. They saw the dispensation of joy to the mourners, and those who traded the spirit of heaviness for a garment of praise; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified.

For three and a half years they saw all this and were convinced that “this is he of whom Moses, in the law, and the prophets did write.”And, having done all, he laid down his life in that cruel Roman execution at Calvary, fulfilling all that the law and the prophets said about him.

So what was achieved when he “accomplished ” death??

Jesus, in fact, came to die. The Bible says, “He was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor;that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.”9 Actually, his role was to be the last Adam and carry the whole corrupted race to the cross and to death.Christ died for all and, if one died for all,then were all dead. For this reason, if the Gospel message ended with “Christ died for your sins,” it would not be good news. It would be a hopeless finality. The good news ––the gospel ––is in the resurrection. The good news on the personal level is, since we died in Christ we cannot die again.We no longer have a past;it is dead.We have only whatever glorious future is reserved for us in Christ Jesus.

When Jesus went to the cross, he “his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree …”10 He was literally “made sin for us.”11 So we know how fully and finally sin has been dealt with on our behalf. The writer of the epistle to the Hebrews takes it a step farther when he writes of Christ ’s death saying, “Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood,he also likewise himself took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is the devil; and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.”12 According to the apostle Paul,“Our Savior Jesus Christ …hath abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.”13

What a glorious accomplishment has been wrought through the death of our Lord. It made way for the resurrection, by which a new race of men was brought forth,created in Christ Jesus. The apostle Paul says of the resurrected Christ, “He is the head of the body, the church:who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead. The apostle John reiterates that truth saying, Jesus Christ,… the faithful witness,and the first begotten of the dead .14 Jesus Christ is the second man now, the head of a new race in which all are made alive. Whereas in Adam all die, In Christ shall all be made alive.

The death of the Lord Jesus was no tragedy.It was the victorious stroke by which death was abolished,sin was fully and finally dealt with once for all,and Satan was rendered powerless over those redeemed men and women who have been washed from their sins in Christ ’s own blood.Those who have trusted Jesus death as their own are no longer sons of Adam,struggling under the bondage of a fallen nature;we are sons of God waiting expectantly for that day when we shall see him as he is and we shall be like him.What a marvelous hope has been born by the glorious death and victorious resurrection of our living Lord. He “accomplished ” death...

(Endnotes)
1 2 Timothy 1:10
2 Luke 9:18
3 Luke 9:20
4 Genesis 3:15
5 2 Corinthians 5:21
6 John 3:14
7 Isaiah 9:6
8 Isaiah 61:1-3
9 Hebrews 2:9
10 1 Peter 2:24
11 2 Corinthians 5:21
12 Hebrews 2:14,15
13 2 Timothy 1:10
14 Revelation 1:5