30th Mar 26 | 13:54
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Luke 23 06-17 THE LORD WATCHES 11 Luke 23 13-16 God’s victory
📖 Luke 23:6-17
Thu25Nov2021 – God’s victory - Luke 23:06-17 - THE LORD WATCHES (11) - Bible reading: II Corinthians 5:20-21
The Lord took our place on the cross. We ought to have paid the penalty for our sin, which is death. Jesus took our sins on Himself and He died our death.
He did this, not only to meet the legal requirement of God’s justice but also to enable us to live victoriously over sin.
Luke 23:13-16 Then Pilate, when he had called together the chief priests, the rulers, and the people, (14) said to them, "You have brought this Man to me, as one who misleads the people. And indeed, having examined Him in your presence, I have found no fault in this Man concerning those things of which you accuse Him; (15) no, neither did Herod, for I sent you back to him; and indeed nothing deserving of death has been done by Him. (16) I will therefore chastise Him and release Him"
This was the statement that Pilate made to the Jews, who could not substantiate their accusations against Jesus. Herod was not able to find fault with Jesus.
Jesus was without sin.
Man's sin had to be paid for before God, for the wages of sin is death.
Jesus was sentenced to death by all the human courts, who affirmed and confirmed Him to be, 'not guilty'. Then, for whose sin did Jesus die? It was not for His sin but for the sin of humanity.
This is the glorious message of substitution that God has provided for man, which each person, on the face of the earth, must receive by faith.
Man is without excuse, for the fact of the death of Jesus, His burial and His resurrection are not kept hidden in the annals of the church but it is out in the open for every person on earth to know.
This matter of Jesus being without sin and yet having to die on the cross, was not just about meeting the legal requirement of God's justice. There were several more implications and blessings that man receives.
II Corinthians 5:20-21 Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God. (21) For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him .
We, the church, are the ambassadors of God. We are pleading and imploring the world to be reconciled with God.
God longs for man to be reconciled with Him. God does not want anyone to perish in the eternally burning lake of fire. God longs for man to spend eternity with Him, in fullness.
So, God made Jesus, who had no experiential knowledge of sin, to become sin for us, so that we could become righteous before God, in Christ.
If we have to spend eternity with God, we have to be made righteous. We could not make ourselves righteous but Jesus enables us to experience His righteousness, for us to be reconciled with God.
We know that we have sin in each of us.
Romans 8:3 For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh,
Since we could not meet the righteousness of God, God sent His Son, in the likeness of sinful flesh and Jesus condemned sin in the flesh or overcame sin in the flesh .
The stranglehold of sin in the flesh of man was broken by Jesus, coming in the flesh, living as a man, tempted in all points just as a man and yet being without sin. This is the victory that eluded man but Jesus gave this victory to us.
Hebrews 4:15-16 For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. (16) Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Romans 8:8-11 So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
As long as we are in the flesh, we can never be righteous before God, in our own effort.
(9) But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.
When we receive what Jesus has done for us, (by dying in our place on the cross), by simple faith, the Holy Spirit comes and indwells us.
We cannot be righteous before God in our flesh but now we live and operate in the Holy Spirit, who indwells us. The Holy Spirit empowers us. He works through us and the result is that we experience victory over sin and we experience the righteousness of God in us.
If a person is not living in the realm of the Holy Spirit, living victoriously over sin, living in the righteousness of God, then that person does not belong to Jesus.
(10) And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. (11) But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.
The matter of Jesus being without sin and yet having to die on the cross satisfies not only the legal requirement of God but also enables us to live in righteousness before God.
Romans 8:4 that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
God made it possible that not only His justice was being satisfied but we could experience the righteousness of God in Jesus because He who knew no sin became sin for us and went to the cross.
What His enemies thought was a great victory, by nailing the sinless Son God to the cross, turned out to be the very place, where God’s glory was made manifest.
Thought to ponder
We glory in the cross.