God has but one problem in His universe - it is sin. All other problems of whatever nature emanate from this one. The sweat of grinding toil, the suffering of broken hearts, the sorrow of the world's crushing maladjustments, all have their beginning in sin. God has but one enemy in the universe - it is satan. All other enmities, whether among angels or men, have their ultimate source in him. To regain His rightful sovereignty over the world and in the human race God had a double victory to win. This twofold victory was won through the Saviourhood of Jesus Christ. Salvation from sin and all its consequences, deliverance from satan and all his allies, were gained for the sinner at the Cross.
The Old Testament classic which reveals Jesus Christ as the Sin-bearer is Isaiah fifty-three.
Isaiah 53:4, 6, 11, 12, "Surely he hath born our griefs, and carried our sorrows. And the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin. For he shall bear their iniquities. He bare the sin of many."
The New Testament is full of the same truth.
John 1:29, "The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold, the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world."
Hebrews 9:28, "So Christ was once offered to bear the sin of many; and unto them which look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation."
Jesus Christ faced the problem which sin had created and solved it by taking upon Himself the whole responsibility for it. When He entered into human life and as the Son of Man became the connecting link between God and the ruined race, He pledged to become responsible for sin and its effects.
Sin had brought upon man four terrible consequences for which Christ as Sin-bearer assumed responsibility. The first is guilt. The whole world is guilty before God (Romans 3:19). The whole of man is defiled and depraved. That this guilt might be removed God made Christ sin and then treated Him as sin.
2 Corinthians 5:21, "Him who knew no sin he made to be sin on our behalf; that we might become the righteousness of God in him."
The second is death. "The wages of sin is death." The sentence of death rested upon the whole human race. As the last Adam Jesus Christ assumed all responsibility for the first Adam's sin and its consequences. Therefore He executed the death sentence upon sinners by Himself dying.
Romans 5:6, "For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly."
The third consequence of sin is the curse. Sin is lawlessness and the penalty for broken law is the curse. Jesus Christ acknowledged the justice in God's judgment upon sin and voluntarily offered to assume even this responsibility on the sinner's behalf.
Galatians 3:13, "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree."
The fourth consequence of sin is the wrath of God. God hates sin. God's holiness demanded that He take some action against it. So God was compelled to decree that sin would bar sinners from His presence through time and eternity. Here again Jesus Christ assumed responsibility for the presence of sin in men and on the Cross of Calvary bore the full force of God's wrath against it even to the point of conscious separation from His Father's presence.
Romans 5:9, "Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him."
In becoming the Sin-bearer Jesus Christ fully met and solved the problem of sin. "In His death everything was made His that sin had made ours ... everything in sin except its sinfulness."
The Cross of Christ is God's starting point of victory over satan and all his allies. God is the One who has been hurt most by sin. "satan was putting the knife into God's heart through Adam's hand." So any effectual dealing with sin must go back to its first cause and any permanent victory for God must be a crushing defeat for satan.
The first curse pronounced after the fall was upon the serpent. The serpent's curse and the Saviour's Cross are inextricably interwoven. The prophecy containing the curse foretells a double bruising. "It shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his heel."
Men and women are being taught that the record of the fall in Genesis three is just a myth and that no scholarly person believes it today. This is indeed the devil's lie and he has a very good reason for telling it. By the death of Christ his head was bruised, his doom was sealed. The Cross of Christ robbed that world and of all dominion over any man or woman who fully trusts in the atoning blood of the Saviour and who yields to the Lordship of Jesus. Christ's cry of victory from Calvary's Cross "It is finished" was satan's death knell. The victory over the devil commenced in the wilderness, continued in Gethsemane, culminated on Calvary. The hour of Christ's death was the hour of satan's defeat.
John 12:31, "Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out."
The death of the Cross deprived him of his power and rendered him inoperative.
Hebrews 2:14, "Since then the children are sharers in flesh and blood, he also in like manner partook of the same; that through death he might bring to nought him that had the power of death, that is, the devil."
~Ruth Paxson~
(continued with # 2)
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