John 19:31-42 – What Happened to Jesus Body?

Last week we explored the theological and spiritual significance of the cross.

·  Specifically, we learned about the atonement.

·  What it was and why it was necessary.

·  And why Jesus had to die, and the perils of the human condition that required a divine remedy.

Today we will deal with the last two sections of John 19.

·  These sections answer the question “What happened to Jesus’ body?” – Kostenberger.

·  The first section, one that shows us a dead Jesus on a Roman cross, is rarely contested (Richard Carrier is an exception).

·  The second section, however, is seen by many Christian critics as fantasy.

o   The beginning of the resurrection fairy tale.

·  We will deal with each separately.

1) JESUS IS DEAD

John 19:31–37 (ESV) — 31 Since it was the day of Preparation, and so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away. 32 So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first, and of the other who had been crucified with him. 33 But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. 34 But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water. 35 He who saw it has borne witness—his testimony is true, and he knows that he is telling the truth—that you also may believe. 36 For these things took place that the Scripture might be fulfilled: “Not one of his bones will be broken.” 37 And again another Scripture says, “They will look on him whom they have pierced.”

John begins our text by telling us that, “it was the day of Preparation” (vs. 31).

·  In other words, it was Friday, the day before the Sabbath.

·  It was called the “day of Preparation” because Friday, especially on feast weeks, was literally the “day everything had to be prepared for the Sabbath” – BDAG.

·  And given the fact that this was the Sabbath of Passover week, preparations would have been even more significant.

And because the Jews considered sundown on the day of Preparation to mark the beginning of the Sabbath, they were eager to remove the bodies.

·  Why?

·  It would defile the land to leave corpses up on the Sabbath.

·  Most believe this sentiment is related to Deut. 21:23 – “his body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall bury him the same day, for a hanged man is cursed by God…”

John MacArthur notes the following about the Jews’ purity concerns:

·  “They were zealous to observe the minutiae of the law while at the same time killing the One who both authored and fulfilled it; they were scrupulously concerned that the land not be defiled, but were unconcerned about their own defilement from murdering the Son of God” – John MacArthur.

The Jews were eager to remove the bodies, but all three crucifixion victims would have to be dead to do so.

·  A potential problem, then, was that it usually could take days for a crucifixion victim to die.

·  And a further problem was that, even after death, the Romans liked to leave the corpses hanging in order to intimidate.

·  Remember, the bodies would be within range of dogs and would be picked over by vultures.

·  So between the visual gruesomeness and foul odor, the scene served as a powerful deterrent.

So the Jews “asked Pilate” to speed up the process by breaking the victims’ legs (vs. 31).

·  Fortunately, “Romans accommodated Jewish wishes particularly during the crowded festivals” – IVPBBCNT.

·  In fact, Josephus claims that Jews “always buried crucifixion victims before sunset” – IVPBBCNT.

The soldiers found that the two thieves were still alive (vs. 32).

·  So they broke their legs (vs. 32).

·  This practice of breaking the legs of a crucifixion victim is called crurifragium.

·  “The victims’ legs (and sometimes other bones) would be smashed with an iron mallet” – Kostenberger.

o   We can be fairly certain that the Jews wanted Jesus’ legs to be smashed as well.

o   No doubt, to further humiliate Him and diminish His claims.

·  This practice would often lead to death by suffocation.

·  And no doubt the pain and additional blood loss made it all even worse.

But in Jesus’ case, the soldiers found Him “already dead” (vs. 33).

·  This confirms much of what we said earlier:

o   He was nailed to the stake, not tied.

o   He was flogged twice.

o   He was severely tortured in the 2^nd flogging.

·  It is for these reasons, and certainly the will of God, that Jesus’ death was so quick.

John tells us, however, that the soldiers did, “pierce his side with a spear” (vs. 34).

·  This was apparently done to confirm that Jesus was dead.

·  From medical tests on cadavers, it has indeed been shown that, “where a chest has been severely injured but without penetration, hemorrhagic fluid, up to two litres of it, gathers between the pleura lining the rib cage and the lining of the lung. This separates, the clearer serum at the top, the deep red layer at the bottom. If the chest cavity were then pierced at the bottom, both layers would flow out” – D.A. Carson.

The “beloved disciple”, the writer of the Gospel of John, then tells us that he was an eyewitness to these events.

·  “He who saw it has borne witness” (vs. 35).

·  This statement is a “bioi” (ancient biography) claim.

·  The author witnessed the events.

·  His testimony is not second hand.

·  And this is significant because he is testifying (so that we might believe) not only to the fact that Jesus died on the cross,

·  But that the unfolding of events on the cross, “took place that Scripture might be fulfilled” (vs. 36).

The fulfillments, like the “Righteous Sufferer” from Psalm 69, are typology fulfillments.

·  A typology is, “Key patterns of activity ascribed to God [that] recur in striking, discernible patterns such that the believer can only affirm the same hand of God at work in both events” – Beale/Carson.

·  We will contend with typologies more when we get to the resurrection.

And the Scriptures that were fulfilled were:

(1) Psalm 34:20 (ESV) — 20 He keeps all his bones; not one of them is broken. – AND – Numbers 9:12 (ESV) — 12 They shall leave none of it until the morning, nor break any of its bones; according to all the statute for the Passover they shall keep it.

·  The Psalmist is David and he is referring to how YHWH cares for the righteous.

·  Numbers is literally referring to the Passover lamb.

BTW – From John the Baptist (“Behold the lamb of God…”) to Paul, Jesus was seen as the Passover lamb.

·  1 Corinthians 5:7 (ESV) — 7b For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.

(2) Zechariah 12:10 (ESV) — 10 “And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn.

·  Referring, at the time, to the either a killing or a figurative “piercing” with sorrow of YHWH.

Summary:

There can be no doubt that these professional executioners succeeded in killing Jesus.

·  The evidence is even clear that they confirmed Jesus’ death.

·  This was done to accommodate the request of the Jews.

·  Something, we know from Josephus, was done routinely.

In fact, Mark 15:44-45 tells us that Pilate would not let Joseph have Jesus’ body until His death was confirmed by the executioners.

·  Mark 15:44–45 (ESV) — 44 Pilate was surprised to hear that he should have already died. And summoning the centurion, he asked him whether he was already dead. 45 And when he learned from the centurion that he was dead, he granted the corpse to Joseph.

So Jesus was dead.

·  He was not passed out.

·  He was not in a coma.

·  It was not another who died in His place.

·  And Jesus submitted to all of this of His “own accord”.

·  John 10:18 (ESV) — 18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”

Even the Jesus Seminar’s Crossan accepts this historic event as factual.

·  "Jesus’ death by crucifixion under Pontius Pilate is as sure as anything historical can ever be. For if no follower of Jesus had written anything for one hundred years after his crucifixion, we would still know about him from two authors not among his supporters. Their names are Flavius Josephus and Cornelius Tacitus" – John Dominic Crossan.

BTW – One side note on the crucifixions deeper meaning in John’s Gospel.

·  “It is the means by which he returns to the Father. That is, John overcomes the scandal of the cross by interpreting it in terms of Jesus’ exaltation. This reading is encouraged by the fact that in those places where the reference to the “lifting up” of Jesus is clearest—3:14; 8:28; 12:32–34—John has developed the larger theme of the Son’s journey from and return to God. In this way the cross is interpreted by the journey motif as the means by which the Son of man left the world below to return to the world above” – DJG.

·  John clearly saw the cross as the glorification of Christ, not His humiliation.

2) JESUS IS BURIED

John 19:38–42 (ESV) — 38 After these things Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus, and Pilate gave him permission. So he came and took away his body. 39 Nicodemus also, who earlier had come to Jesus by night, came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds in weight. 40 So they took the body of Jesus and bound it in linen cloths with the spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews. 41 Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid. 42 So because of the Jewish day of Preparation, since the tomb was close at hand, they laid Jesus there.

What happened to Jesus’ body?

·  We know from various historical sources that at least three things were done with the body of a crucifixion victim.

(1) “The body could be left on the cross to rot, and for the animals—especially vultures and ravens—to eat” – LBD.

·  “In a comedy of Plautus, one slave laments: “I know the cross will be my sepulcher: that is where my forbears are, my father, grandfathers, great grandfathers, and great, great grandfathers” (Miles Gloriosus, 372; text in Cook, “Burial,” 206). This indicates that the slave would not be buried” – LBD.

·  “An inscription from Caria details that, after a slave murdered his master, he was: “hung while yet living for the wild animals and birds” (text in Cook, “Crucifixion and Burial,” 206)” – LBD.

·  “Ancient writers often referred to crucifixion victims as food for ravens or vultures (Petronius, Satyricon 58.2; Juvenal, Sat. 14.77–78)” – LBD.

(2) “The corpse could be taken from the cross and abused—dragged through the streets—and then thrown into a mass grave for criminals (Cook, “Envisioning Crucifixion,” 280)” – LBD.

·  In fact, “had the Romans had their way, the corpses would not have been buried at all” – IVPBBCNT.

·  This is the fate ascribed to Jesus by most of Christianities skeptics and antagonists.

o   Including John Dominic Crossan.

·  And especially by those that reject any possibility of the resurrection.

(3) “Some condemned persons were handed over to family for burial” – LBD.

·  “The Ulpian Digest of Roman law states that corpses of condemned criminals are not to be withheld from family members (Cook, “Envisioning Crucifixion,” 279)” – LBD.

·  “Philo observed that in Alexandria, he had known of cases where the bodies of crucified persons were given to their relatives, especially on holiday evenings (Philo, Flacc. 83)” – LBD.

·  “Josephus (J.W. 4.317) writes: “Jews show concern for burials so that they even take down those crucified and bury them before sunset” (text in Cook, “Crucifixion and Burial,” 212)” – LBD.

·  “The discovery of the bones of a crucified man in a tomb near Jerusalem demonstrates that crucified victims were sometimes buried. The Romans may have allowed Jews to bury condemned criminals because of the Jewish sensitivity about burial” – LBD.

The third historically attested option is of course the claim of the Gospels.

·  Some of the more “covert” disciples of Jesus, Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, obtained Jesus’ body, prepared it for burial, and laid it in a rock-cut tomb.

·  Archaeology has verified that “ancient rock-cut tombs of the period surround the walls of Jerusalem on three sides” – NBD.

·  And throughout the OT, we have examples of bodies being buried in caves or rock-cut tombs.

o   “Ge 23:19-20; 25:9-10; 50:13; Jdg 8:32; 16:31; 1Sa 25:1 “at his home” probably refers to the family tomb, but could mean more literally under the floor of the house or yard; 2Sa 2:32; 17:23” – DBT.

Joseph’s involvement is also another typological fulfillment of Scripture.

·  Isaiah 53:9 (ESV) — 9 And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth.

John points out that this, like the earlier request of the Jews to speed up the deaths, was both known and approved by Pilate – Joseph “asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus, and Pilate gave him permission” (vs. 38).

·  This importantly gives multiple attestations to the burial of Jesus’ body by both His disciples and His executioner.

·  The Romans knew what happened to the body of Jesus.

John tells us that Jesus’ dead body was prepared for burial in traditional Jewish fashion.

·  “So they took the body of Jesus and bound it in linen cloths with the spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews” (vs. 40).

·  According to Jesus, this preparation for burial started before Jesus was even crucified.

o   Mark 14:8 (ESV) — 8 She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for burial.

The burial of the dead for the Jew at this time was a two stage process.

·  The burial itself was stage 1.

·  Then, typically, they would have come back a year later and collected the bones and put them in an ossuary.

·  When Jesus was laid in the tomb, this second step surely crossed their minds.

Summary:

It is interesting to note that this practice differs significantly from the way the Romans, Greeks or Egyptians treated their dead heroes.

·  The Greeks and Romans usually burned their dead heroes.

·  The Egyptians embalmed and mummified theirs.

·  In either case, the body was destroyed or its insides completely removed.

Jesus’ body, on the other hand, was buried:

·  Dead

·  Brutally tortured and traumatized

o   Punctured side, arms and feet, flogged, severely beaten chest, etc.

·  Wrapped in a burial shroud

·  And with full approval of Pilate

All hope is gone?

The scene is pregnant with possibilities.

·  But there is nothing unusual or non-historical about it at all.

·  Jesus, a man hated by many and revered by few, was executed.

·  He died for trumped up reasons.

·  The system was manipulated by a politically savvy Jewish leadership.

·  Pilate submitted to their conniving due to his politically tenuous circumstances.

o   Power, greed and political maneuverings – nothing new there.

·  Most of His followers had dispersed.

·  Only the women, a few fearful, little known disciples, and the “beloved disciple” hung around.

·  And the death they witnessed, one witnessed by thousands, was at best, the brutal murder of a great rabbi, prophet and martyr.

The most optimistic hope of Jesus’ followers’ was likely this:

·  In a year, His bones would be collected.

·  And He would be resurrected at the end times with the rest of the righteous and be vindicated.

·  Daniel 12:2 (ESV) — 2 And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.

·  The wicked Gentile rulers would be judged and things would be put right.

·  Jesus’ resurrection 3 days later was not, I repeat, not on the radar at all – N.T. Wright.

·  We will explore this more next week.

John 19:28-30 – What Happened on the Cross – The Atonement

Thus far we have looked at both the actual playing out of the crucifixion historically and some of its prophetic fulfillment.

·  Last week we specifically saw John’s one thousand year old prophetic connection between Jesus and David.

·  The connection was found in Psalm 69.

·  We saw that Psalm 69 gave us a “type” for the Righteous Sufferer in David.

o   Jesus perfectly fulfilled this “type”.

·  We also so that Psalm 69 had a “sour wine” connection with Jesus.

·  Both David and Jesus as Righteous Sufferers were mocked and “sour wine” was used to do the mocking.

·  Today we will examine the theological/spiritual significance of the cross.

1) IT IS FINISHED

John 19:28–30 (ESV) — 28 After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), “I thirst.” 29 A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth. 30 When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

When Jesus spoke the words, “It is finished” (vs. 30), an obvious question presents itself.

·  What is finished?

·  Putting ourselves in the shoes of Jesus’ followers who were present at the cross, we can speculate that they would have been tempted to fear that all hope was finished.

After all, they had just witnessed:

·  The death of their Messiah.

·  The death of their King

·  The death of their Rabbi.

·  The death of the Son of God.

·  The death of a dear friend.

Yet we know that Jesus’ words were not a “cry of defeat” – D.A. Carson.

·  And in three days, Jesus’ followers would also know it as well.

·  His words were a “cry of victory”.

With the completed work of Jesus on the cross, at least three things were accomplished (there were many more of course).

·  (1) Jesus had completed the Father-given mission of bearing witness to the truth.

o   John 18:37 (ESV) — 37b …For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth.

·  (2) He finished laying the groundwork for the now and not yet Kingdom of God.

o   Historical Jesus scholar Dale Allison puts it like this, “Jesus’ death marked the beginning of the fulfillment of eschatological expectation…the birth of the new era” – DJG.

o   Jesus Himself said He must die so that He could send the Holy Spirit (John 16:7).

·   (3) The Atonement

We are going to dive deeper into the third of these three – the atonement.

Jesus’ own words introduce us to His thoughts about the atonement.

·  Mark 10:45 (ESV) — 45 For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

·  John 12:32 (ESV) — 32 And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.”

Paul’s words, the earliest written words we have from Christianity, agree with Jesus’ – not surprisingly.

·  Romans 4:25 (ESV) — 25 who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.

·  1 Corinthians 15:3 (ESV) — 3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures,

So having seen briefly that both Jesus and Paul saw the work on the cross as essential for the atonement, let’s see what exactly the atonement is.

2)  THE ATONEMENT – JESUS’ WORK ON THE CROSS

What is the atonement?

·  “The atonement is the work Christ did in his life and death to earn our salvation” – Wayne Grudem.

·  “By offering himself as a sacrifice, by substituting himself for us, actually bearing the punishment that should have been ours, Jesus appeased the Father and effected a reconciliation between God and humanity” – Millard Erickson.

Why is it so important?

·  “The atonement is the crucial doctrine of the faith. Unless we are right here it matters little, or so it seems to me, what we are like elsewhere” – Leon Morris as quoted by Millard Erickson.

·  This is because the atonement is where the love, justice and holiness of the Father and the depravity of man find resolution in the work of Jesus Christ on the Cross.

·  So how one views God’s love, justice and holiness and how one views the extent of man’s depravity affects how one views what happened on the cross.

Millard Erickson teases out the implications of a right or wrong view of the atonement as follows:

·  “If God is a very holy, righteous, and demanding being, then humans will not be able to satisfy him easily, and it is quite likely that something will have to be done on humans’ behalf to satisfy God. If, on the other hand, God is an indulgent, permissive Father who says, “We have to allow humans to have a little fun sometimes,” then it may be sufficient simply to give them a little encouragement and instruction. If Christ is merely a human being, then the work that he did serves only as an example; he was not able to offer anything on our behalf beyond his perfect example of doing everything he was required to do, including dying on the cross. If, however, he is God, his work for us went immeasurably beyond what we are able to do for ourselves; he served not only as an example but as a sacrifice for us…If humans are basically spiritually intact, they probably can, with a bit of effort, fulfill what God wants of them. Thus, instruction, inspiration, and motivation constitute what humans need and hence the essence of the atonement. If, however, humanity is totally depraved and consequently unable to do what is right no matter how much they wish to or how hard they try, then a more radical work had to be done on their behalf.”

3)  WHY WAS THE ATONEMENT NECESSARY?

God didn’t have to save us.

·  The atonement was not necessary.

·  God was not lonely, lacking love and fellowship – all were perfectly present in the Trinity.

·  So, He could have simply dealt with us the way He did with sinful angels.

·  2 Peter 2:4 (ESV) — 4 For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment;

But God did choose to reconcile believers to Him.

·  In His grace and mercy, He desired to invite us into the eternal fellowship of the Trinity – Father, Son, Spirit.

·  So having freely chosen to do this, we have to ask the following question.

Why was Christ’s work on the cross necessary, can’t an all powerful God just forgive our sins?

·  There are many reasons why the cross was necessary.

·  We will look at just a few.

·  We will organize them into God-Centered reasons and Man-Centered reasons.

God-Centered Reasons:

1) Jesus Says So

·  Matthew 26:39 (ESV) — 39 And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.”

·  Wayne Grudem says of this passage that if Christ was to accomplish what the Father had sent Him to accomplish, then “it was not possible for Jesus to avoid the death on the cross”.

·  Jesus also alludes to the necessity of the cross on the road to Emmaus, Luke 24:25–26 (ESV) — 25 And he said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?”

·  John 12:27 (ESV) — 27 “Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour.

2) God’s Holiness

·  The very nature of God’s holiness required action to be taken that believers might be reconciled.

·  Millard Erickson puts it like this, “The nature of God is perfect and complete holiness. This is not an optional or arbitrary matter; it is the way God is by nature. Being contrary to God’s nature, sin is repulsive to him. He is allergic to sin, so to speak. He cannot look upon it.”

·  The presence of sin could no more exist in fellowship with a holy God than there could be a square circle.

The holiness of God is so absolute and unrelenting it can seem oppressive.

·  The story of David and Uzzah demonstrates this for us.

·  1 Chronicles 13:9–11 (ESV) — 9 And when they came to the threshing floor of Chidon, Uzzah put out his hand to take hold of the ark, for the oxen stumbled. 10 And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzzah, and he struck him down because he put out his hand to the ark, and he died there before God. 11 And David was angry because the Lord had broken out against Uzzah.

·  R.C. Sproul tells us, “Uzzah assumed that his hand was less polluted than the earth. But it wasn't the ground or the mud that would desecrate the ark; it was the touch of man.”

·  God’s holiness and our depravity are oil and water; they can’t be mixed and God’s holiness can’t be diluted.

3) God’s Covenant

·  Our God is a covenant God.

·  And the new covenant of Jeremiah 31 “will be dependent on [God’s] performance rather than [ours]” – Michael Horton.

·  Jeremiah 31:33 (ESV) — 33 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

Jesus’ work on the cross was part of this new covenant action of God.

·  And as with the Mosaic covenant, the new covenant was to be sealed with the shed blood of an acceptable sacrifice.

·  Hebrews 9:22b (ESV) — 22b …and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.

·  John 1:29 (ESV) — 29 The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!

So as we pivot from these God-Centered reasons to some Man-Centered reasons for the atonement, we have to appreciate and recognize something absolutely foundational.

·  The atonement had meaning for us first and foremost because it had meaning between Jesus and the Father.

·  “The primary emphasis and the primary influence of Christ’s work of redemption is not on us, but on God the Father” – Wayne Grudem.

·  Millard Erickson also argues that the direct effects of the atonement were first on God the Father and then on believers.

o   He says that firstly, “Christ died to satisfy a principle in the very nature of God the Father.”

When the Father’s wrath was satisfied and justice was secured, Jesus’ work on the cross could save believers.

·  Jesus first had to accomplish the work required by the Father.

·  And only then could the Holy Spirit apply Jesus’ work to us.

·  This is called the economy of salvation.

Now we can look at some Man-Centered reasons for the atonement.

Man-Centered Reasons:

In addition to the necessity of the atonement as cited above, there also exist at least 5 perils of the human condition that necessitated action from God (1^st four from Wayne Grudem).

·  (1) We deserve to die as the penalty for sin.

·  (2) We deserve to bear God’s wrath against sin.

·  (3) We are separated from God by our sins.

·  (4) We are in bondage to sin and to the kingdom of Satan.

·  (5) We fall short of the glory of God.

How did the cross remedy the five aforementioned perils?

Five Perils Remedied by the Cross:

The 5 perils of the human condition were remedied for believers by Christ’s work on the Cross in the 6 ways.

(a) Sacrifice – Hebrews 9:26 (ESV) — 26 for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.

·  “To pay the penalty of death that we deserved because of our sins, Christ died as a sacrifice for us” – Grudem.

·  Hebrews also shows Christ “as the high priest who entered into the Holy Place to offer sacrifice. But the sacrifice Christ offered was not the blood of goats and calves, but his own blood” – Erickson.

·  The priests offered sacrificed year after year but the nature of Christ’s sacrifice made it necessary only one time.

·  “What is unique about Christ’s sacrifice, and very important to keep in mind, is that Christ is both the victim and the priest who offers it” – Erickson.

(b) Propitiation – 1 John 4:10 (ESV) — 10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

·  “To remove us from the wrath of God that we deserved, Christ died as a propitiation for our sins” – Grudem.

·  A propitiation is an appeasement and removal of God’s wrath from believers; Christ took believer’s wrath on Himself.

·  “‘Propitiation’ is a reminder that God is implacably opposed to everything that is evil, that his opposition may properly be described as ‘wrath’, and that this wrath is put away only by the atoning work of Christ” – NBD.

(c) Reconciliation – 2 Corinthians 5:18–19 (ESV) — 18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.

·  “To overcome our separation from God, we needed someone to provide reconciliation and thereby bring us back into fellowship with God” – Grudem.

·  “The death of Christ…brings to an end the enmity and estrangement that exist between God and humankind” – Erickson.

(d) Redemption – Mark 10:45 (ESV) — 45 For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

·  Because “We as sinners are in bondage to sin and to Satan, we need someone to provide redemption and thereby “redeem” us out of that bondage”, Christ ransomed Himself to destroy that bondage. – Wayne Grudem.

(e) Substitution – 2 Corinthians 5:21 (ESV) — 21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

·  Galatians 3:13 (ESV) — 13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”—

·  “Because he has come to be sin, we have ceased to be sin or sinners” – Erickson.

·  Christ took our place literally not symbolically.

(f) Participation – John 17:22–23 (ESV) — 22 The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.

·  Paul tells us that we fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23).

·  We lack the character and attributes of God – His glory.

·  Because of the work of Jesus on the cross, we are afforded the privilege of participating in Jesus’ glory.

·  The glory that He shares with the Father.

·  Our glory deficit is thus remedied.