Ruth E. R.’s Reviews > Whatever Happened to The Gospel of Grace?: Rediscovering the Doctrines That Shook the World > Status Update

Christmas itself is no gospel. The life of Christ is no gospel. Even the Resurrection itself is no gospel. The Good News is not just that God became man, nor that God has spoken in Christ to reveal a proper way of life for us, nor even that death...has been conquered. The Good News is that sin has been dealt with, that Jesus suffered its penalty for us...that all who believe...can look forward confidently to heaven.

When a person becomes conscious of God, he does not proceed unchanged in his “righteousness,” as the Pharisee did. Rather he becomes conscious of sin, and the more so the closer to God he comes. We know the tax collector knew God because he knew who he was—and did not hesitate to describe himself as—a sinner. (He understood his need for the blood of the sacrifice, the propitiation, sprinkled on mercy-seat.)

The Pharisee and the tax collector (Luke 18:9+)

...one of the most beautiful pictures of the work of Christ in the Bible: the ark of the covenant, which was kept within the Most Holy Place of the Jewish wilderness tabernacle and was the focal point if Israel’s worship.

...the ark is a picture if judgment, intended to produce dread in the worshiper through a disclosure of his or her sin. ...But this is where the mercy seat comes in... ...on the Day of Atonement

Given this situation, salvation can only be achieved one who is both God and man, that is, by Jesus Christ: “...the debt was so great that, while man alone owed it, only God could pay it, so that the same person must be both God and man. Thus it was necessary for God to take manhood into the unity of his person, so that he who in his own nature ought to pay and could not should be in a person who could...”

...if anyone imagines that God can simply forgive us, that person has “not yet considered what a heavy weight sin is”... What can be done? Obviously God must save us. We cannot achieve salvation for ourselves...even our will is bound; therefore we cannot even WANT to please God... On the other hand...salvation must be achieved by man, for man is the one who has wronged God and who...must make the wrong right.

How do we go about handling a topic both as simple and also as rich and complex as the Cross of Christ? One way we can do so is by looking at the three most important words for grasping what the Cross is about and then bringing in a number of verses that relate to those three themes. The words most essential for understanding what the Cross is about are
Satisfaction
Sacrifice
and
Substitution

There are even more texts about the Cross in the New Testament... Matt 1:21... Luke 22:19, 20... John 1:28... 2 Cor 5:21... Heb 9:27-28... 1 Pet 2:24... 1 Pet 3:18... To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father—to him be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen (Rev 1:5-6).

We [find] complexity as we list the words commonly used to explain [the Cross]: substitution, sacrifice, satisfaction, atonement, expiation, propitiation, purchase , redemption, ransom, mediation, reconciliation, and so on.

Or when we begin to list the important texts...found throughout the Bible, in the Old Testament as well as the New... Jesus...explain[ed] the meaning of his death...from the whole Old Testament.