God’s Provision (Holy One dies for the unholy)
If it were possible for God to have a dilemma, this would be it. He loves us, but we cannot come into His presence. He is morally perfect and because we have violated His moral law, our very nature precludes us from coming into His presence. Not only are we precluded from coming into His presence, we also stand before Him guilty.
God Himself left the majesty of heaven and became a man. His name is Jesus. The Bible says, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.” Jesus lived a holy, righteous (morally perfect) life and never sinned. He had no debt of His own because He had no sin of His own. He kept God’s law straight from the heart and never violated it. The Bible says He was without moral spot or blemish—morally perfect—righteous in every way. God the Father placed the sins of the whole world on Him when He hung on the cross. He was declared guilty for our sin as if He had committed every sin Himself. He who had kept the Law perfectly was treated as if He had broken the Law completely. He had no sin of His own, yet was willingly declared guilty. He was our substitute. He took our place. There is no greater love than this. God’s holy wrath of judgment fell on His own Son and we will never know the anguish He (the Son) suffered.h Let us make no mistake about it: God Himself was on the cross bearing the guilt of our sin because only the precious blood of a sinless (righteous) life would satisfy the debt of our sin.
(See note J)
Holy Blood Pays in Full
I remember thinking to myself, “Why is it that the death of Jesus Christ was necessary to pay my debt in full?” When a debt exists, it is the offended party who sets the price required to pay off the debt. The offended party in our case is God and He is righteous (morally perfect). As mentioned earlier, the extent to which He is offended by our sin determines how costly the penalty or debt will be. The Scriptures say only the life of the One who is righteous (sinless—morally perfect) is of sufficient value in the eyes of God to pay the penalty demanded by the offended righteousness of God.
Only the holy blood of Jesus Christ is of sufficient value. The Bible says we were “not redeemed (i.e., set free by someone paying a price) with perishable things like silver or gold…but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ. The word precious can also be translated “costly, valuable.” Jesus Christ lived a sinless life—morally unblemished and spotless; therefore, only His life is valuable, precious, costly enough in the eyes of God to satisfy in full the moral debt we owe. He did not pay off our debt with silver or gold, but with His blood—His very life. (See note J) “The blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without (moral) blemish to God.
People may talk at great length about the love of God and yet reject or minimize what Jesus Christ did on the cross. He proved His love for us by bearing the judgment of God for us. To reject His death on the cross is to scorn His love. The two cannot be separated. We cannot know His love if we do not accept what He did on the cross for us. The Bible even defines His love in terms of His death for us: “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation (mercy seat) for our sin.”
(See note K)