When we sin, we have an innate and real impression that we deserve death. Death, in this sense (that is, the Biblical sense) is relational in nature and not merely individual. On a human level, when we sin against another, we understand that the other person has every right to dissolve the relationship and to demand that payment be made – a payment that is more than the transgressor can afford. The payment amount has every judicial connotation in that it is directly and judicially connected to the worth of the person who was transgressed. Our value as human beings, created in the image of God, is so high that when it is crossed, the payment must be as valuable.
Therefore, the transgressor understands that death is the due payment for his transgression. He is now faced with two options: 1) he can lay himself at the feet of the transgressed and take his due, or 2) he can abandon the relationship for fear of death. The first is honest and noble. It places the sinner in the hands of the one who alone can handle the situation. He is there quite vulnerable, as the transgressed has every just reason to inflict punishment – death; or dissolution of the relationship. The second option is dishonest and contrary to human reality. The sinner will transgress again – it is his nature. And this will place him, yet again, in the damnable situation of loosing his life – the life of relationship.
Biblical death is not merely the cessation of the heart; but more meaningfully, it is the cessation of and judicial prohibition of the enjoyment found in relationship with our Creator.
When a person transgresses God, the body of sin, takes the law and makes it ultimate – that is, it avoids the vulnerability of confession and repentance, and opts for making payment himself by way of law (which is an utter impossibility). This is how the moralist seemingly avoids Christ by trying to avoid sin; and he tries to avoid sin by fulfilling the law. Finding justification in the law is what I mean by making the law ultimate. Pride and sin take hold of the ladder of the law, and attempt to climb up to the Throne. The law will have none of it. Its way of throwing them is called condemnation. This is what the Apostle means when he says, “The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me” (Rom 7:11).
This is living to self – doing good things to try and justify self. This is not living to God – doing good things in response to God’s justification in the Gospel.
And this is the message of the Gospel. That in Christ’s death, we were there “with Him” (Rom 6:1-14; Gal 2:20). His was a “death to sin.” And b/c of our union with Him, so we “died to sin” (Rom 6:2). Death, therefore is no longer a threat to us. The relationship [with God] will not be broken. We can therefore, come vulnerable, open, repentant, without the fear of death; without the fear of loosing our greatest enjoyment and satisfaction – God (cf. Heb 4:16). The “body of sin” will deny this historical reality saying, “Sinner! If God finds out about this transgression, you will surely die! He will deny you and you will be without enjoyment forever. Here…take this law…it is easier than God’s law. Do it and do it well. This will atone for your small blunder.” If we forget our historical death [in Christ], we will hide that sin within us, trying to wipe it away and pay its punitive damage. A life lived this way, in reality, is a life of bondage to sin. The “easy law” is no law that can justify. It will be insufficient. It will change. It will condemn. Ultimately, it will keep us from God our Creator and our Life (Jn 17:3).
But if, by faith, we remember, embrace, and reflect upon our union with Christ – our dying and being raised with Him – we will have no fear of death as a consequence for our sin. That death has been accomplished at Calvary. How do we know it was sufficient? Because we were also “raised with Him.” The sacrifice that Christ provided paid the just penalty and was thus acceptable to the Father. We are now “seated with Him” at the right hand of God. This is no place for the unrighteous. How then are we there? How can we be at such a heavenly place?? Christ became sin that we might become the righteousness of God (2 Cor 5:21). In Christ we are “safely hidden” (Col 3:3). Not as sinners hiding from the justice of God; but as sinners who have died (with Christ) and have been raised with Christ, hidden in Him safely until the end of the age (Col 3:4). Our perseverance and glorification is secure IN CHRIST.
In Christ, God the Father is pleased with us – just as He is pleased with God the Son (Jn 15:9). In Christ, we are eternally accepted (without the threat of death); without the threat of loosing our greatest enjoyment. Praise Christ that our sins have been paid for. Praise be unto Christ for His death, burial and resurrection! If this Historical progression should never have taken place, we would be still dead in our sins and without any hope of life in this world (cf. 1 Cor 15:17). “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ – by grace you have been saved – and raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages He might show the immeasurable riches of His Grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus” (Eph 2:4-7).
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