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The Gospels
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 Jesus Paid The Price, (And Gave Me Credit) Perhaps one of the most subtle objections to the gospel from the astute mind is that God would be unjust to blame the innocent for the sins and faults of the guilty. The claim that Jesus Christ took upon Himself the sin of the world and all the guilt of it was transferred to Him, and that He paid the price for our sins before being raised from the dead. - It is actually a faulty view! Jesus lived in full accordance with the law of Moses, and showed to all that it was possible to live blamelessly before God. In doing so He showed all that the law could be fulfilled and that God's requirement of us is to repent under the grace of God and the law of faith. There is no transference of guilt in this equation. Rather,. Jesus' obedience and blamelessness showed that the new covenant he mediated between the Father and us is valid - that He lived and died as a man, and was raised as firstborn of the dead, (or rather the lively or quick). It is a much greater doctrine than transference of guilt to suppose that there was no guilt on Jesus for any sins of any others. It was far far better for God (As Paul wrote in Romans) to accept the sinful believers of Israel's remnant under the mediation of this new covenant by the person of a blameless individual who may not be ever discarded - one who knows WHOM are His friends He has chosen to ever live with; (and not die for every day!) than it would be to destroy an idol of sin and accept injustice as righteousness. Paul wrote of Christ as a "last Adam" in that through the obedience and resurrection of Christ, much greater good comes to all than through the sin of the first Adam through whom death from sin came upon many. There is no mention of Jesus being guilty and requiring judgement - rather He is the judge and we are under grace in Him or not. We should see Jesus as a spotless lamb before the throne of God, rather than permitting the cross and the power of God to salvation being diminished or tarnished in any way. I would smile at any one who wouuld state they would rather pay the price for their own sins that make Jesus or another innocent pay the price for them. Such a view is actually more righteous than the other! So how to state the correct truth of the cross? Well, we would simply require that Jesus is our lamb rather than our scapegoat. We would do well to acknowledge that he is blameless and that the blamelessness adds to the greater wealth of grace,.. That obedience to God is possible (but only perfected by God Himself as Christ fulfilling the law), and that God's patience with us is richer than the guilt of sin brought into the world by Adam - and that Jesus without any guilt or blame is accepted before God and that this new covenant made from better promises can indeed make a man perfect as the New Testament attests. It is core to salvation that God accept sinners, but if the guilt were transferred to His Son Christ, then How could he accept a man to blame for everyone's sin? Rather that guilt is not erased with Christ's death but is under judgement and is looked upon closely and needfully - the man is to be perfected under grace in the new covenant, until his repentance is completed. The example of Christ and His words are enough for us to believe upon, with the resurrection and the Holy Spirit given as a downpayment for us. In order for the new covenant to remain perfect Christ must be held spotless without any imperfections. Such an example of obedience (even to death) is wealthier testament to the efficacy of Christ's mediation with His victory over death without the need for any guilt on Christ's part or injustice on the part of God the Father. The thought that Jesus paid the price for our sins is not the gospel truth. The truth is He bore our sins in the respect that He was sinless and his testimony of the new covenant from the Father was in question for three days whilst He was in the grave. The grace supplied our sins from the testimony of Christ is to lead us to repentance and obedience and is therefore "credited" as righteousness due our faith upon Him without usury. For those three days He was wounded because of our sins, but he was never blamed for them,.. he was never a vessel for dishonour and only Christ had the knowledge of the Father to justify His words. Since Christ attested only He had known the Father, the victory was completed at the cross whilst the faith of the world lagged behind in understanding; that God had already brought about the coming of His Kingdom into the world during Christ's ministry. Grace is far richer than the sin it reduces - predestination into obedience under the ministry of the Holy Spirit is the gift of God in Christ, and is a far better and greater thing than the fault of one man "Adam" that brought death into the world. That Christ bore our sins is indicative of God's patience rather than His vengeance. In truth we crucified Christ, we are to blame and not God. To believe we are therefore blameless and it is foregone that Christ paid the price is insulting to the astute individual above, it is faulty at best as heresy, possibly blasphemy against God to most that do so and it is certain that if a person can find no other way into heaven than blaming Christ, perhaps they have not been given a wedding garment as Christ's parable taught. At church I was taught that Christ is the offering for my guilt. I can no longer accept that. Rather He was the offering for my sin. That may not seem like a huge difference to most people except it is the truth. It was not His death on the cross that saved me it was His whole life's example. I was taught that the Father looked away and forsook Christ on the cross because of the guilt of my (and everyone's) sin placed upon Him. I have not found scripture to that effect, So I can no longer believe it. I have found supporting scripture for the contrary through the new testament - most notably in Romans, as well as the logical evidence I try to present in the metaphysics part of this site. It may be a harder truth to know that we have to eat Christ's flesh and drink His blood to be His disciples. We have to know we come to the table unworthy and leave justified, rather than approach worthily and leave satisfied. |
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