Blood of Jesus Christ 10
By Dr. Derek Thomas
God said to Him, the Lord curse you and make His face to turn away from You, and lift up the anger of His countenance upon You, and give You Hell, so that sinners could hear those words, Lord bless you and keep you and make His face to shine upon you and be gracious to You, and to lift up the light of His countenance upon You and give You peace. Being justified by faith, we have peace with God. He knew no peace. God needed to be propitiated. God needed to be propitiated so that He might be just and the justifier of him who believes in Jesus. You notice in Romans 3:25 & 26, the third word is demonstration. He demonstrates, He placards, now The Gospel of free justification before the world.
That's what the cross is, a giant display of the magnitude of the love of God for sinners. The cross is God having passed over the sins under the Old Covenant, having in His forbearance passed them over for a season. He deals with sin in the cross, in the blood of His Son as that spear of the centurion pierces the side of Jesus and blood flows down to the ground, as blood pours out of His hands and feet, that holy blood of the Lamb of God for sinners like you and me.
What is the means of justification? Well, you see it over and over and over, faith, faith, faith alone. Why faith? Because of what faith is. Faith is empty hands, forsaking all I take Him. That's what faith is. I cannot say it myself. I'm a sinner, deserving of Hell and condemnation, but Jesus died for sinners like me, and I take Him. He offers Himself to me, and I take Him. God the Father says to me, look at My Son. Look what I've done for sinners like you. And I take Him. What is the Gospel? It is the manifestation of the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ.
The more I live, the more thankful I am for the Gospel of penal substitution, that He died for me, in my place, that there s a green hill far away outside the city wall where my dear Lord was crucified. He died to save us all, and when I say that, I mean it. He died to save all those for whom He died, all those for whom He shed His blood, because otherwise what you have is double justice that you put into your constitution which you love so dearly. That is entirely wrong.
Let me close with this, words of William Cooper, a great hymn writer and poet and melancholic man who tried to take his life from several occasions, a dear friendship that he had with John Newton as he lived for many years next door to him. There was a time when he was in his room, and in agony of soul and a terrible, terrible conviction of sin, and he could not find peace, driven to despair, to a sense of utter hopelessness, that Cooper felt in a profound way.
He sits in a chair beside the window, and there on the table is his Bible, and he opens it to these verses in Romans 4. He says, I received the immediate power to believe. The rays of the Son of righteousness fell on me. Uprightness filled my soul. In an instant I believed. My eyes filled with tears. I could only look to Heaven in silent fear and overflowed with love and wonder. Atoning love. Atoning light. There is a way of salvation out of the dark night of sin and despair by faith alone in Jesus Christ alone. There is no other way. There is none other name in Heaven given amongst men whereby we must be saved.
Let's pray.
Father we Thank You for Your Word, and we ask, oh, Lord, that this sweet treasure in the Gospel be forever hidden within our hearts and bring us to that point where we glory in You. We ask it in Jesus' Name. Amen.
