Atonement: From, With, To

Transcript

Good evening, Trinity Church. If you’d please go with me to the words written by Isaiah, inspired by the Holy Spirit in Isaiah 53, verses 3-5. This is God’s Word to you. He was despised and rejected by men. A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And as one from whom men hide their faces, he was despised and we esteemed him not. Surely, he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace. And with his wounds, we are healed. This is the Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Please pray with me. King Jesus, as we set our sights on Good Friday, as we set our sights on Your death, on Your cross, I pray for us, Lord Jesus,

that You would show us from Your Word what we have been saved from. That it would be clear to us tonight with a joyful sobriety that You have saved us from Satan, and You’ve saved us from sin, and You’ve saved us from death, and You’ve saved us from ourselves, and You’ve saved us from every self-salvation project. You’ve saved us from a trust in good works. You’ve saved us from our rebellion. You have saved. And I also pray we would look clearly, not just see what You’ve saved us from, but what You have saved us with. That we would take seriously the reality of Your infinite beauty, and Your infinite glory, and Your infinite power, and Your infinite Godhood as what had to happen, what was needed to pay for our infinite offenses. And You’ve saved us with the cross. But Lord, I pray it would be so clear to us as well.

What You’ve saved us to. That through that cross, You’ve saved us to life, and freedom, and forgiveness, and joy, and love, and acceptance. You’ve saved us to the kingdom. You’ve saved us to peace. You’ve saved us to Your restoration. You’ve healed us, and You’ve moved in our lives. So Jesus, please be with us now as we come to Your Word. Light us up for Your Gospel, but also give us a joyful sobriety around the reality of Your life, around the gruesome nature of Your death, and also that, God, You have accepted the cross through the resurrection. Jesus, we love You. We pray these things for Your glory and for our joy in Your name, Jesus Christ, amen. Here as we gather and we look to this thing we do call Good Friday, I pray for us and seek that we would come to God’s Word

What Jesus Saved Us From

and have a clear look at the cross. That we would look through the cross of Jesus Christ, and as we draw in on His Word, we’d see what Jesus has saved us from, and we’d see what Jesus has saved us with, and we’d see what Jesus has saved us to. So, in many ways, we’ll be meditating on three of Jesus’ statements from the cross to see this reality, and then turning our attention to what some have called the fifth gospel, the book of Isaiah, specifically Isaiah 53, to look and see what Jesus has saved us from, and what Jesus has saved us with, and what Jesus has saved us to. We’ll start in Luke 23, starting in verse 34, as we look to see what Jesus has saved us from. Two others who were criminals were led away to be put to death with Him.

And when they came to the place that is called the skull, there they crucified Him. And the criminals, one on His right and one on His left, and Jesus said, Father, forgive them. They know not what they do. And they cast lots to divide His garments. And the people stood by watching, but the ruler scoffed at Him, saying, He saved others, let Him save Himself. If He is the Christ of God, His chosen one. The soldiers also mocked Him, coming up and offering Him sour wine, saying, if you are the King of the Jews, save yourself. There was also an inscription over Him, this is the King of the Jews. We’re going to focus our attention here on this statement, where Jesus says, Father, forgive them. They know not what they do. Because I think in many ways, this shows us what we have been saved from.

We must remember the context and the reality that we are looking at. This is Jesus, the one who created all human beings and all of creation and the people that are crucifying Him, both the Jews and the Gentiles and the very things He’s even being crucified upon. This is Jesus, the holy, the perfect, the beautiful, the glorious, the omnipotent, the omniscient God of the universe who entered into human history. Not only that, He’s the only sinless man who ever lived. There He is. The only one who is without sin. The only one who’s ever lived rightly. The only one who’s ever lived justly. Dying an unjust criminal’s death amongst criminals on a Roman cross. And what comes out of Jesus’ words, what comes out of Jesus’ mouth as they crucify Him is not, don’t you know who I am? I’m the God that made you.

And He doesn’t stand there and say, don’t you know who I am? I’m the only one who’s ever lived without sin. I’m the only one who doesn’t deserve to be here. He doesn’t. Charles Haddon Spurgeon notes that actually something really special happens here. It’s like a mortar and pestle. If you’ve ever cooked with a mortar and pestle, you put the basil in the mortar and you grind it up. And as you actually crush the basil, the true essence of the basil comes to life. Spurgeon noted as Jesus is crushed on the cross, what really does come out is His divinity and His perfection. Because only Jesus would have responded to such injustice by saying, Father, forgive them. They know not what they do. They don’t actually understand what they’re doing. And the very fact that they would put Jesus on the cross, the very fact that humans,

the very fact that we ourselves would reject Christ apart from Him, apart from the illuminating work of the Spirit in rejecting Christ, we’re showing something that we don’t understand. That we are in fact spiritually dead and spiritually blind. That we are in our sin, which leads us to rebellion against God and rejection from God. And Jesus in His grace and His mercy looks out on the crowd crucifying their Creator and says, Father, forgive them. They know not what they do. This is true of every spiritually blind and spiritually dead person alive. If they don’t receive Christ, they don’t actually know what they’re doing because they’re blinded by their sin. They’re blinded by their love of self. They’re blinded by their own rebellion against the God who made them. I think this truly shows us what we are saved from. We’re saved from blindness. We’re saved from spiritual darkness.

We’re saved from spiritual deadness. When we think about sin and what we are saved from, we’re not simply saved from all our willful acts and all our rebellion and all our classical sins, but also all of the right things we’ve done for the wrong reasons. Whether to win the approval of humans or to have a pat on the back. Or to save ourselves or to justify ourselves in the world. But sin’s also all those right things we’ve chosen not to do. All those just things we’ve left undone. And it’s all our idolatry. Every time we’ve taken something created and put it in the place where the God of the universe belongs. Because if we could see Him, and when we see Him, and when we are in Christ, and when we are illuminated by the Spirit, and we see Him for who He is, we lay all those things aside.

Because we understand in that moment how valuable and beautiful and glorious and wonderful King Jesus is. And what it means to enjoy Him and to love Him. And with that faith that we know that not only does He make us whole here, but He will make us whole in the kingdom. That He’s gonna put the world back the way it’s supposed to be. That He’s gonna wipe the tears from the eyes. And we’re so quick to forget that. Apart from Christ, we don’t get that. Jesus saves us from our blindness and our darkness and our willful rebellion against a God who made us to enjoy Him, know Him, and love Him.

What Jesus Saved Us With

John 19.30 shows us what Jesus saves us with. And Good Friday shows us what Jesus saves us with. John 19.30 says this.

When Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, it is finished. And He bowed His head and gave

— John 19

(ESV)

up His Spirit. There is a completeness, brothers and sisters, to the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. It is not the cross plus our good works. It is not the cross plus anything we do. It is the cross alone. And it was only Jesus, and only Jesus’ cross that could save us. Because you see, Jesus dying on the cross, when He says, it is finished, to say that the promises of God are durable isn’t strong enough language that we have in English to talk about what God is doing when God says it is finished. When Jesus says yes, the answer never changes.

It is always the truth. And here we see the infinite God of the universe die on the cross for the consequences of our sin, which are infinite. Because we’ve sinned against God. We’ve sinned against an infinitely beautiful, glorious, loving, gracious, and wonderful God. And it turns out that as a human being, there’s no way to pay for those sins. It took the infinite God to incarnate into history, the second member of the Trinity, to die with the consequence for our sins. The infinite consequence for our sins. Infinite, beautiful God dying the death we deserve for our sin. But the amazing thing is, because of His value and beauty and wonder, He can say, it is finished. It was one sacrifice for all time, for all who would put their faith and trust in Jesus. Jesus saves us with His death. Jesus saves us with His blood.

Jesus saves us from the justice that we deserve for our sins by taking the cup of God’s wrath so we don’t have to. Jesus is the perfect Lamb of God and because of His sacrifice, God passes over our sins, not because of anything we’ve done, but everything He has done. And what He has done is everything.

What Jesus Saved Us To

Luke 23, once again, starting verse 39. What does Jesus save us to? One of the criminals who were hanged on the cross, railed at Him saying, are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us. But the other rebuked Him. Now mind you, the other who rebuked Him has clearly joined in the mocking along the way. But He’s had a change of heart. Perhaps as He’s seen things like the man dying on the cross saying, Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.

But the other rebuked Him saying, do you not fear God since you’re under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward for our deeds. But this man, and he says something absolutely accurate, has done nothing wrong. So the thief all of a sudden gets it. We deserve the cross, He doesn’t. Apart from Christ, we all deserve the cross, but He doesn’t.

And he said—that’s the thief again—Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom. This is a man who has a moment of clarity. He understands what he has done wrong, the fate that is ahead of him, that he can’t do anything on his own, and he cries out for mercy.

This is the reality of the gospel. We understand who we are, who Jesus is, that we cannot save ourselves, and we cry out for mercy. And Jesus’ words again are so powerful here. Jesus doesn’t say tough luck. Jesus doesn’t say, well, if you only had 10 more years to come down off that cross, get your life in order. He says this,

truly, I say to you, today, you will be with me in paradise. So in just these few verses, we see that Jesus in many ways, or Luke in many ways, shows us what we’re saved from, and then as we dip out into John, we see what we’re saved with. And suddenly here, as this man cries out for mercy, Jesus receives him. And it’s not that you become a Christian and pay your debts, it’s that I’ve paid your debts. And though this man will inevitably die, in that day, he will find himself in paradise. And so I love these verses, and so often we turn to them to show how much Jesus’ salvation in our lives are based on grace, but sometimes we forget the horrific context in which it’s actually going down, the scene in which it’s actually happening. And we realize how much this man

is in that moment of clarity, calling out for mercy, and Jesus showers more mercy upon him than he can possibly imagine. Just as when we become Christians, when we call out to him, Jesus shows us more mercy than we can even imagine. All of a sudden, he actually sees this thing. As much as they didn’t understand as they were crucifying, for they know not what they do, this man actually is for this moment realizing, this is what we’ve done and we need to be saved. And in so doing, even though he physically dies, this man’s saved from death to life, and even in his death is where he has life, and in the death of Jesus is where he has life. And today you will be saved, and today you will be in paradise, is what he says.

The Fifth Gospel Speaks

Isaiah 53 says this.

He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And as one from whom men hide their faces, he was despised and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgression. He was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace. And with his wounds, we are healed

— Isaiah 53

(ESV)

. I mentioned this earlier, but people often call Isaiah the fifth gospel because Isaiah is so clear on the person and work of Jesus, but we can’t forget that he’s so clear on the person and work of Jesus hundreds of years before the life of Jesus. And I think we see the same pattern here, the from, the with, and the to. What are we saved from?

Well, in keeping what we’re saved from, the spiritual blindness that we saw in Luke 23, 34, he was despised and rejected by men. Now the Old Testament does a very interesting thing here where it speaks about it as if it was past tense, but it’s talking about the future because of the eventuality of these things. They are going to happen and they do. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.

And as one from whom men hide their faces, he was despised and we esteemed him not. What are we saved from? We are saved from our rejection of God. Here they are rejecting Jesus. Every other sin we commit begins with us rejecting God, rejecting his goodness, rejecting his understanding that he understands how the world is made best, how we live best in it, and how he has made us to enjoy him and live forever. We reject that and say, you know what? I’m actually fine on my own, God, thank you. I can be the king of my own world. And we look at Jesus and the world looks at his followers and apart from Christ and apart from the work of the Spirit, we say, oh, those poor fools. But when we’re illumined, when we see, when we understand Jesus and his glory, there’s nothing greater than following him.

But again, we’re saved from this blindness. Isaiah said that they wouldn’t understand him and apart from Christ, we didn’t understand him either. Despised and esteemed not. But also we see what he saved us with. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God. That’s where Isaiah 53 will say, it was the will of the Lord to crush him. This is the cross. Good Friday is not plan B, it is plan A for a loving and gracious God to save and redeem rebellious human beings. It is his plan to take people who were his enemies and make them his children and make them his friends. But he was pierced for our transgressions and he was crushed for our iniquities. How does God save us? With the piercing and the crushing of his son in our place.

The piercing and the crushing we deserve. He was pierced for our transgressions, for our sins and for our iniquities and our rebellion against God. But hear what we’re saved to. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace. And with his wounds, we are healed. This is the sober joy of Good Friday. That yes, our sin is an ugly thing and yes, the cross is an ugly thing.

But it’s that chastisement that brought us peace. It’s with those wounds that we are healed. This word peace here doesn’t simply mean a ceasefire. It means wholeness. It means flourishing. Jesus died that you would live and live in abundance. That you would flourish. That if you’re in Christ, you wouldn’t waste your life chasing the stuff of the world. You’d enjoy your life, enjoying Jesus and living for him with every breath of your life.

But not only that, there’s healing here. There’s the reality that through the cross, we are healed. And we’re healed from the rebellion that we have lodged against God. We’re healed from the wounds that our transgressions have made in our own life. This is a wild thing when you put it all together

and realize that the very vehicle that is our undoing, the very vehicle that leads to our spiritual death is the very vehicle that you and I have created with our sin apart from Christ. But in Christ, Jesus himself comes and pushes us out of the way of the bus and takes the bus that we built in our place.

Jesus saves us from our sin. He saves us from our rejection of God. He saves us from ourselves. He saves us from our rebellion. He saves us from Satan and he saves us from hell. And he saves us from all of the things that we deserve for all of the things that we’ve done apart from Christ. And he saves us with that cross. He saves us with that sinless life lived in our place.

He saves us with his death. He saves us with his blood. He saves us with that great exchange where in my place condemned, he stood. He stood and he saves us by standing as that substitute punished in my place for my sins. The punishment I rightly deserve that I can be not just forgiven, but atoned for, made whole, made right, made complete, made the person that God actually built me to be through that cross. Because here’s what Jesus saves us to. He saves us to peace.

He saves us to healing. He saves us to life and life in abundance, knowing and enjoying him forever. If you are in here today and you are not a Christian, we are pleading with you. He will give you life. He will give you peace. And through that cross, he will heal you. Brothers and sisters, those in Christ, you’ve been given this huge gift that came right through that cross, that came right through that resurrection. And I just pray we’d have a sober joy as we remember what Jesus has done and that we live in response to that as worshipers of him, not so that he will love us, but because he’s lavished grace upon us through his blood in a way that’s hard for us to even fathom. Let’s pray.