Notes From Doctrine Series: Did He Have to Die?

What happened on the cross? What happened so that you and I could enter into our rest found in Christ? In 2 Cor. 5 we read: ¹⁷Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 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.

He took on our sin and we became (have) the righteousness of God! Sin taken away and righteousness given...what a story!

Penal Substitutionary Atonement is one of the most important doctrines in the Christian faith. Yet what does this mean?

Penal - A penalty is due: Penal Code: Penalty for sin

Substitutionary - Jesus died in our place: He suffered what I should have suffered (Gal 2:20) Herman Bavinck wrote: “Sin was of such a nature that it aroused God’s wrath. Needed above all to still that wrath, to satisfy God’s justice, was the satisfaction accomplished by the “God-man.” He achieved it by putting himself in our place as the guarantor of the covenant, taking upon himself the full guilt and punishment of sin, and submitting to the total demand of the law of God. Hence the work of Christ consists not so much in his humility, nor only in his death, but in his total—active as well as passive—obedience. He accomplished this work in his threefold office, not only as prophet by teaching us and giving us an example and exhorting us to love but also as priest and king.”

Atonement - OT Yom Kipper - day of atonement: confess sins (Lev 16) when the high priest lays hands on 2 goats or lambs and sacrifices one and sends the other away with the sins of the people on it's back. Spurgeon writes: “That day of atonement happened only once a year, to teach us that only once should Jesus Christ die; and that though he would come a second time, yet it would be without a sin offering unto salvation. The lambs were perpetually slaughtered; morning and evening they offered sacrifice to God, to remind the people that they always needed a sacrifice; but the day of atonement being the type of the one great propitiation, it was but once a year that the high priest entered within the vail with blood as the atonement for the sins of the people.”

Propitiation - is an atoning sacrifice that satisfies the wrath of God on behalf of those for whom it is made...you and me!
Romans 3: 23-25: “justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed."
I John 2:2: “And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.” An important part of Christ’s saving work includes deliverance from God’s wrath that the unbelieving sinner is under, because Jesus’ atonement on the cross is the only thing that can turn away God’s divine wrath"

Jesus is the reality of the OT atonement sacrifice...Jesus is the Lamb of God who was slain for us and who takes our sin away. He paid the price of our sin and gave us His righteousness.

He did this "for" us which means on our behalf as we see in these texts:
Is 53:5
Is 53:12
Rom 4:25
Rom 5:8
Gal 2:20
Gal 3:13
I Cor 15:3
I Peter 3:18
I John 2:2

It's not about me....it's about HIM!