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This sermon was broadcast on
December 15, 1963, over stations WTTL and WFMW. The speaker is C.D. Cole, interim
pastor of the First Baptist Church, Madisonville, Kentucky. My text
for this message is 2 Corinthians 5.21, and I will read it from
the translation of Moffitt. Speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ,
Paul says, and I quote, For our sakes he, God, made him to be
sin who himself knew nothing of sin, so that in him we might
become the righteousness of God. Unquote. In a word, Paul is saying
that God the Father treated Jesus Christ the Son as a sinner or
unrighteous person so that we sinners might be treated as righteous
persons. A missionary was once preaching
from this text to a group of natives in a foreign land. When
he had finished his message, he was desirous to know whether
they had understood it or not. So he asked them to tell him
in their own words just what it all meant to them. The chief
of the tribe spoke up and said, It means that the Lord Jesus
swapped with me. And I might say that this puts
the way of salvation just about as plain as human language can
put it. He who was without sin took the
place of sinners under God's holy law so that sinners might
have the place of sons before God as father. Christ, the righteous
son of God, took the place of the guilty and bore their sins
in his own body on the tree of the cross. He who was rich became
poor for our sake, that we through his poverty might become rich. Christ died as the just one for
the unjust one, that he might bring us into God's favor. A man was once asked if he would
not like to be saved. He replied, yes, if God can save
me without doing wrong. This man was a thinker. He saw
a problem in a just God saving unjust people. He realized that
a just God must punish sin. He confessed that he was a sinner,
and that if God was just in dealing with him, he would have to punish
him for his sins. This was Job's problem in the
long ago when he cried out, How then can man be justified with
God? Their reasoning is after this
fashion. If God is wholly unrighteous,
And all men are sinners and deserve punishment? How can they justly
go unpunished? The answer is in the blessed
and glorious gospel truth that the Son of God swapped places
with sinful men and redeemed them from the curse of the law
by being made a curse for them. In swapping with us, he took
our place under the law of God and obeyed the law for us. The
sinner is saved by obedience. but not by his own obedience.
Romans 5.19 says, For as by one man's disobedience many were
made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. If we had obeyed the holy law
of God, we would have been righteous in our own name and on our own
record. God will never punish a good
man if a man can be found who has never sinned. That man will
live before God as a matter of justice. He will need no grace
or mercy, but only justice. But the truth is that no such
person has ever lived except the sinless Son of God. The Bible
brings the changes on the fact that all have sinned, that none
is good, that there is none righteous, not even one. The chief of police
in a western town received a letter from a woman asking him to put
her in touch with a perfect man with a view to matrimony. The
chief did a very sensible thing. He sent the letter to the Bureau
of Missing Persons. The perfect man is missing and
there is no kind of bureau that can locate him on this earth. The spirits of the just made
perfect or even now in Heaven. There once lived the perfect
man, the Lord Jesus Christ, and he kept the law for sinners,
and all who trust him have his righteousness, the righteousness
he provided, and stand justified before God. There is now no condemnation
to them who are in Christ Jesus." Romans 8, verse 1. The Lord Jesus
obeyed until death. That is, he obeyed all the days
of his life, your honor. He never had a sinful thought.
He never did a selfish or sinful thing. He never spoke a sinful
or even idle word. He did the will of God in all
things, at all times, and in all places. When he came to die,
he could truly say, I have finished the work thou gavest me to do. John 17, verse 4. And let us
remember that all that work was for us to make us right with
God. I reject with abhorrence any
religion that adds anything to the precious blood of Christ
as the ground of salvation. The Bible says it is the blood
of Christ that cleanses us from all sin. 1 John 1, verse 7. The Bible says that when he had
by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the
majesty on high, Hebrews 1 verse 3, and the redeemed sinner delights
to confess, nothing in my hands I bring, simply to thy cross
I cling. The Lord Jesus Christ obeyed
unto death, that is, he obeyed at the cost of his life. denotes both time and degree. The time of his obedience was
until he died. The degree of his obedience was
at the cost of his life. In swapping with sinners, Christ
had to settle with the holy law of God for all our sins. As sinners,
we were responsible to settle with the law we have broken.
But this would have meant our eternal ruin, for the wages of
sin is death. As Savior Jesus Christ paid our
sin bill, and as believers in him we delight to sing, Jesus
paid it all, all to him I owe. Now let us look a little deeper
into the meaning of the death of Christ. He died the death
that denoted a curse. In his death he was being cursed
by God. In Galatians 3, Verse 13, Paul
says that Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by
being made a curse for us. And he adds a quotation from
Deuteronomy 21, verse 23, which says, he that is hanged is accursed
of God. In saving sinners, God had planned
that his son would die the death that denoted a curse. And so
Christ died while the Romans were in power. If Christ had
died under Jewish law, he would have been stoned to death. But
God had decreed that his son would die on a cross, and the
scripture had foretold this kind of death. And so in divine providence,
Christ died on a Roman cross as a sign that he was being cursed
by God. It was more than physical suffering
Christ endured for us. He suffered separation from God. On the cross, the Father turned
his back upon his Son, because he was being made sin for us. The Father was forsaking his
Son for a while, that he might not in justice forsake us forever. If God had been with Christ on
the cross to help him bear our sins, he could not have redeemed
us. To save us he had to be forsaken
and punished by God, and this is what constituted his terrible
suffering. Jesus was an exile from heaven
while here on earth. Heaven was his proper and rightful
place where he enjoyed all the glory of God the Father. While here he spake of the glory
he had with the Father before the creation of the world. It
is to be observed that after Jesus went to Calvary, no word
came to him from heaven and the Father. The heavens were as brass
above his head. No help came in response to his
cry. It was easy enough for the Lord
to hear from home, from heaven, before he went to the cross.
At his birth, millions of angels came from heaven to celebrate
the great event. They may have sung the songs
he had heard them sing in heaven around the throne. At his baptism,
the Holy Spirit came from heaven in the form of a dove, and the
voice of the Father was heard, saying, This is my beloved Son,
in whom I am well pleased. On the Mount of Transfiguration,
the Father's voice was again heard, This is my beloved Son,
hear ye him. And all through his earthless
sojourn, he was in constant touch with the Father. When he would
pray in the silent hours of the night, he could hear the Father
speaking to him. When his enemies came to arrest
him, he told them that even he could ask the Father and get
twelve legions of angels for his defense. But on the cross
he had no word from God. Heaven was silent. The three
hours of darkness symbolized this separation from God. God
was making his son to be sin for us, and therefore he could
not smile or even look upon sin with any mercy. God spared not
his own son when he found him in the sinner's place. All that
a just and holy God can do with sin is to punish it and pour
out his wrath upon it. If God were to give us sinners
what we deserve, we would not deserve salvation but his wrath.
Jesus Christ, the sinless Son of God, came and exposed himself
to the wrath due us, that we might receive the blessings due
his sons. Yes, it blessed be his name. He took our place as sinners,
that we might have the place of sons in the Father's house.
He took our guilt, that we might have right standing with God.
Yes, he swapped places with us. He was made to be sin for us,
that we might be righteous before God. It becomes us to sing with
Charlotte Elliot these verses which so beautifully and strikingly
set forth the experience and hopes of the redeemed. Just as
I am without one plea, but that thy blood was shed for me, and
that thou bidst me come to thee, O Lamb of God, I come, I come. Just as I am in waiting not to
rid my soul of one dark plot, to thee whose blood can cleanse
each spot, O Lamb of God, I come, I come. Just as I am, though
tossed about with many a conflict, many a doubt, fightings and fears
within, without, O Lamb of God, I come, I come. Just as I am
poor, wretched, blind, sight which is healing of the mind,
Yea, all I need in thee I find. O Lamb of God, I come, I come. Just as I am, thou wilt receive,
wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve. Because thy promise
I believe. O Lamb of God, I come, I come. Yes, beloved, the Lord Jesus
Christ swapped places with us. He took our place in guilt of
sin. that we might have the place
under grace in him. Hallelujah. What a Savior.
Christ our Righteousness
Converted 7/27/2018 by the Hero's of the Baptist Faith Ministry from the Robert Ginn Library
| Sermon ID | 730182152546 |
| Duration | 13:21 |
| Date | |
| Category | Chapel Service |
| Language | English |
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