How Christ's Death Saves

          Highlights from:  In My Place, Condemned He Stood, by J.I. Packer
                                      and Mark Dever


          *How did Christ's sacrificial death actually save His people?

          By redeeming us, which means effecting our transfer from a state of bondage
     without hope to a state of freedom with a future, by paying the price that the transfer
     required.


                                        " ... for all have sinned and fall short of the glory
                                          of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift,
                                          through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus ..."
                                                                                   Romans 3:24


                                        "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by
                                         becoming a curse for us ...
                                         so that we might receive the promised Spirit through
                                         faith."
                                                                                   Galatians 3:13a,14b


                                       "But when the fullness of time had come, God sent
                                        forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law,
                                        to redeem those who were under the law, so that we
                                        might receive adoption as sons."
                                                                                       Galatians 4:4-5


                                      "In him we have redemption through his blood,
                                       the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the
                                       riches of his grace ..."
                                                                                       Ephesians 1:7


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          *How then did the cross actually redeem us, through Jesus' death?


          By reconciling us to God, ending the alienation and estrangement that were
     preciously there, linking God and us together in new harmony, replacing enmity
     between us with friendship and peace, by means of the putting away of our sins.


                                      " ... we also rejoice in God through our Lord
                                        Jesus Christ, through whom we have now
                                        received reconciliation."
                                                                             Romans 5:11b


                                      "For in him all the fullness of God was pleased
                                       to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself
                                       all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making
                                       peace by the blood of his cross."
                                                                             Colossians 1:19-20


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          *So how did the cross actually reconcile us to God, and God to us?


          By being a propitiation, ending God's wrath against us.


                                      " ... and are justified by his grace as a gift,
                                       through the redemption that is in Christ
                                       Jesus, whom God put forth as a propitiation
                                       by his blood, to be received by faith."
                                                                      Romans 3:24-25a


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          *And how did the cross actually propitiate God?


          By being an event of substitution, whereby at the Father's will, the sinless Son
     bore the retribution due to us guilty ones.


                                      "For our sake he made him to be sin
                                       who knew no sin, so that in him we
                                       might become the righteousness of God."
                                                                           2 Corinthians 5:21


                                      "And you, who were dead in your trespasses,
                                       and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God
                                       made alive together with him, having forgiven
                                       us all our trespasses, by canceling the record
                                       of debt that stood against us with its legal
                                       demands.
                                       This he set aside, nailing it to the cross."
                                                                           Colossians 2:13-14


          For Paul, this substitution, Christ bearing our penalty in our place,
     is the essence of the atonement.

          Certainly, he celebrates the cross as a victory over the forces of evil
     on our behalf

                                     ("He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put
                                      them to open shame, by triumphing over them
                                      in him.")
                                                                           Colossians 2:15

     and as a motivating revelation of the love of God toward us.

                                    "For the love of Christ controls us, because
                                     we have concluded this:  that one has died
                                     for all, therefore all have died; and he died
                                     for all those who might no longer live for
                                     themselves but for him who for their sake
                                     died and was raised."
                                                                            2 Corinthians 5:14-15


          "Everyone who died in Christ receives the benefits of his substitutionary
     death.  With this short phrase, 'therefore all have died,' Paul defined the
     extent of the atonement and limited its application.
            This statement logically completes the meaning of the preceding phrase,
     'that one has died for all,' in effect saying, 'Christ died for all who died in him,'
     or 'One died for all, therefore all died.'
            Paul was overwhelmed with gratitude that Christ loved him, and was so
     gracious as to make him a part of the 'all' who died in him."
                                                                            John MacArthur


           The last verse (15 above) shows that Jesus died for those who no longer
     live for themselves, but for him.


          If Jesus' death had not been an event of penal substitution, it would not
     have not for Paul been a "victory" or "revelation."


                                       "I have been crucified with Christ.  It is no
                                        longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.
                                        And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by
                                        faith in the Son of God, who loved me and
                                        gave himself for me."
                                                                            Galatians 2:20


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          Paul's life of responsive faith was wholly formed and driven by the
     knowledge that his Savior had revealed divine love to him by giving
     himself to die on the cross in order to save him.


          Christ's death redeemed us (His people) and reconciled us with God the Father.
     Jesus died as our propitiation, as a substitute for us, thereby saving us.