The Sacrifice of Christ in the Season of Christmas

00:00:00.000 | Christmas will be here in a couple of days and this is the season when I'm reminded of a powerful line from John Donne the

00:00:06.580 | 17th century poet and pastor in his Christmas Day sermon way back in

00:00:10.740 | 1626 he said this quote

00:00:13.400 | Christ's birth and his death were but one

00:00:16.360 | Continual act and his Christmas Day and his Good Friday are but the evening and morning of one and the same day

00:00:23.500 | end quote

00:00:25.320 | There's a sobriety about Bethlehem

00:00:27.880 | Even there within the text with the slaughter of the innocents all the early signals tell us that the birth of Jesus is not all glee

00:00:35.400 | And joy, but it will be a story tinged from the very beginning

00:00:39.480 | with sacrifice and bloodshed

00:00:42.200 | In fact the meaning of Christ's birth will not make sense unless we see how deeply the incarnation is embedded

00:00:48.960 | Within a grand storyline of atonement and sacrifice in the Bible story from Genesis to Revelation

00:00:56.880 | So on occasional Fridays, I call dr. Don Carson Carson is the co-founder and president of the gospel coalition

00:01:03.240 | And he's also the editor of the NIV's under Vince study Bible man

00:01:06.760 | He takes up a theme in biblical theology for us on those occasional Fridays

00:01:11.080 | And it just so happens that today in the shadow of Christmas. We are talking about sacrifice

00:01:15.920 | Here's dr. Carson to explain

00:01:18.560 | One might think that in western

00:01:22.680 | secular

00:01:24.360 | Thought the notion of sacrifice and especially blood sacrifice sounds primitive and obsolete

00:01:31.600 | Something that doesn't make any sense anymore

00:01:35.240 | But the notion of sacrifice is enduring in every culture in one fashion or another we admire the sacrifices for example of

00:01:43.560 | our soldiers who

00:01:46.000 | Perhaps sacrifice themselves in order to save a batch of their mates for that. We give the Medal of Honor posthumously and

00:01:53.920 | Honor their sacrifice. I remember when I was a high school student reading a story

00:01:59.120 | I was brought up in French it was by a French writer called Gui de Montpassant

00:02:02.320 | Concerning this

00:02:05.320 | couple

00:02:06.640 | childless deeply deeply in love

00:02:08.760 | Long married she had gorgeous gorgeous long hair and they were dirt poor

00:02:15.480 | She would have really liked a certain silver clasp that she had

00:02:19.200 | her eye on to

00:02:21.520 | to

00:02:22.880 | Set off the hair and hold it together and so on and he for his part no less poor both of them hard-working

00:02:29.240 | But with barely enough money to survive he had inherited his grandfather's

00:02:34.240 | watch and he would have dearly dearly loved to have a silver chain to

00:02:40.360 | Wear the wrong watch it was a pocket watch and he wanted a silver chain

00:02:44.480 | But of course neither of them could could afford what they wanted and then that Christmas

00:02:50.080 | She cut off her hair which could be used for a variety of things a century and a half ago and earned enough money

00:02:57.560 | To buy him a silver chain

00:02:59.360 | And he sold the watch in order to buy her a clasp for her hair

00:03:03.600 | And that's all of the story was but in in both cases. There was a an image of sacrifice

00:03:09.960 | Out of love for the other person and in this case there was irony built into it of course

00:03:17.520 | so we are moved by stories of sacrifice and

00:03:20.360 | We need to become aware of how sacrifice works as a theme in all of the Bible and finally brings us to the cross

00:03:27.400 | the first possible mention of

00:03:29.600 | sacrifice in the Bible is in Genesis 321

00:03:32.480 | Where God chooses to cover Adam and Eve to cover their nakedness by selecting the skins of animals

00:03:40.440 | He could have used something else they had used fig leaves

00:03:44.960 | Now there's no specific mention that this was an atonement for sin or the like there's no way that one should read back

00:03:50.480 | complex later sacrificial theology into Genesis 321, but you stick it on a trajectory and it's

00:03:58.560 | Seminal it's a covering that involves the death of another creature

00:04:04.000 | And that's the first mention of that sort of thing

00:04:07.880 | It prefigures as it were

00:04:13.280 | The sacrifices that are still to be unpacked

00:04:16.320 | then there are many many sacrifices in the Old Testament before anything is

00:04:23.160 | ritualized or concretized in law, it's almost as if

00:04:28.160 | Sacrifices hardwired into early humankind both in pagan circles and in believing circles

00:04:35.800 | So in chapter 4 verses 3 to 5 there are sacrifices being offered by

00:04:42.760 | Cain and Abel and

00:04:44.760 | Even Cain the prototypical evil doer according to 1st John 3

00:04:50.080 | 11 and 12

00:04:52.080 | Is offering a sacrifice and you learn there that some sacrifices are acceptable and some are not Noah offers sacrifice following the flood in Genesis 8

00:05:00.040 | Abraham offers sacrifices on various altars mentioned in Genesis 12 Genesis 13

00:05:06.600 | and of course there is the great theme of the sacrifice of Isaac in Genesis 22 or the

00:05:12.680 | near sacrifice of Isaac when God himself in fact provides a

00:05:17.240 | Sacrificial lamb and the son is saved which becomes a paradigmatic of God's own sacrifice see Hebrews

00:05:24.160 | 11 17 to 19 and once the law comes the law of Moses

00:05:29.160 | there are many sacrifices that are required a morning and evening sacrifice and

00:05:34.640 | sacrifices that are not always of animals, but but but

00:05:39.200 | sometimes of

00:05:42.200 | grain or vegetables

00:05:43.960 | But the two dominant sacrifices are Passover and Day of Atonement

00:05:47.920 | Passover is connected with Israel's very identity since the first Passover in Exodus 12

00:05:56.160 | takes place as

00:05:58.240 | The people of God are called out of slavery and on the way toward the promised land to constitute themselves

00:06:04.120 | under God as a nation and

00:06:06.840 | Eventually this this first Passover is tied in a symbol aden way to Jesus death see John

00:06:14.400 | 1914 to 16 Paul goes so far as to say Christ our Passover has been sacrificed for us

00:06:21.760 | in first Corinthians 5 6 to 8 and

00:06:24.960 | So the Passover meal in which a lamb has been slaughtered and its blood

00:06:31.720 | sprinkled on the two doorposts and the lintel of the house and the whole animal is eaten in the house and

00:06:37.080 | reminds the people of the first Passover when they escaped slavery when God redeemed them from the land of of

00:06:44.680 | Slavery and

00:06:47.880 | because the blood was on the doorpost and the lintel

00:06:51.840 | Therefore the the angel of death passed over the house

00:06:56.360 | And hence the term Passover passed over the house and everyone in the house was spared including the firstborn son who was otherwise

00:07:02.720 | Killed so that became a way of looking for looking back to the past and that great act of redemption

00:07:10.200 | But because it was repeated year after year after year after year century after century

00:07:14.520 | Eventually thoughtful people would start asking. What does this point forward to it points back?

00:07:19.840 | But what does it point forward to and in the New Testament the answer to that is Christ's sacrifice the ultimate Passover

00:07:26.040 | In which his sacrifice his blood

00:07:29.280 | Spilt on our behalf means that death and destruction pass over his blood-bought people, too

00:07:36.960 | And then of course, there's the Day of Atonement

00:07:38.960 | Sacrifice was ritually

00:07:41.920 | instilled in Israel through a variety of feasts and so on but the great passage that deals with

00:07:48.840 | The Day of Atonement is Leviticus 16 here

00:07:52.720 | There is the blood of a bull and goat taken by the high priest to cover both his own sins and the sins of the people

00:08:00.720 | Taken behind the veil in the tabernacle later the temple only once a year on the prescribed date only by the high priest and

00:08:10.160 | sprinkled on top of the Ark of the Covenant and

00:08:13.320 | If anyone approached the presence of God in this way

00:08:17.840 | Without the blood or if it wasn't the high priest or on some other date

00:08:22.200 | Then that person was to be killed

00:08:24.840 | You just do not approach God except by the sacrifice and the stipulations that he himself

00:08:30.640 | carefully prescribes and so this becomes really

00:08:35.120 | Crucial in Israel

00:08:38.600 | Sadly on some occasions the ritual becomes more important than what it is pointing to

00:08:45.400 | there are careful precautions and preparations that are stipulated by the law and

00:08:50.320 | These preparations include not only

00:08:54.160 | elements of the sacrifice itself

00:08:56.160 | But of the priest and what he wears and his ablutions and and so on all designed to show

00:09:00.800 | That there is nothing more important for human beings than to have sins atoned for to have sins covered

00:09:07.280 | paid for so that men and women can be reconciled to the Living God and

00:09:11.520 | Everything is stipulated by God with sanctions if if people ignore what God stipulates

00:09:17.760 | Then there are great

00:09:19.840 | sacrificial passages to that point forward nothing more dramatic than Isaiah 52 13 to the end of 53

00:09:28.640 | where the ideal lamb is wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities and

00:09:34.080 | the beating that fell on him was for our peace and healing and

00:09:39.320 | he sees the the the agony of his own soul and and is is satisfied by

00:09:46.080 | By this sacrifice on our behalf, but it still has to be said that sacrifice is not

00:09:52.520 | automatically effective

00:09:55.640 | for for example that there is a vilification of Old Testament sacrifice by prophets when the sacrifice is offered as a

00:10:04.440 | Cover-up for heartless greed and selfishness when it's merely religious duty and the like

00:10:09.800 | See for example Isaiah 1

00:10:12.440 | 10 to 13 1st Samuel 15 22 and 23

00:10:17.120 | This does the Lord require sacrifice or does he require obedience or Micah 6?

00:10:21.480 | 6 to 8 where sacrifice is being used as a an excuse for not

00:10:26.440 | pursuing righteousness and the like in which case all the sacrifice in the world is is

00:10:31.400 | Merely ritual. It's a stench in the Lord's nostrils. He cannot stand it because it's it reeks of hypocrisy

00:10:37.760 | So the Psalms for example

00:10:40.720 | hallow

00:10:42.840 | lawful and heartfelt sacrifice

00:10:44.840 | Psalm 4 5 Psalm 5 3 Psalm 50 verse 5

00:10:49.400 | but even at the same time they point to the reality behind the act and

00:10:54.160 | And insist on sincerity of heart. So that brings us to the New Testament and before we go any farther

00:11:00.920 | It's it's worth pausing for a moment to think carefully about some of the terms we use

00:11:07.240 | Atonement for example is God's work on sinners behalf to reconcile them to him

00:11:15.240 | It's a generic term that is very very broad

00:11:17.720 | There is a need for it because we're alienated from God and stand under God's righteous judgment

00:11:27.360 | The means for it are prescribed in the Old Testament and together these means point forward to the ultimate sacrifice

00:11:34.640 | Christ Jesus himself and that's where we need to stop and think about some theological terms like

00:11:42.520 | expiation and propitiation by expiation

00:11:45.880 | We mean that the sacrifice cancels the sin. So the object of expiation is the sin

00:11:52.120 | Christ's sacrifice

00:11:54.920 | cancels sin by

00:11:57.000 | taking the guilt and

00:11:59.720 | Absorbing it paying for it suffering taking it on himself

00:12:04.280 | But propitiation the object of the verb to propitiate is not sin, but wrath

00:12:11.400 | Propitiation is the sacrifice by which God is propitiated that is made propitious made favorable and it's

00:12:20.280 | Reasonable simply because God stands over against us both in love and in wrath

00:12:26.840 | he stands over against us in wrath because he's a holy God and

00:12:31.120 | must respond with perfect righteousness and

00:12:34.240 | Therefore judgment against our sin, but he stands over against us in love because he is that kind of God

00:12:41.280 | So some people have objected to the notion of propitiation because they say God

00:12:47.040 | So loves the world that he gives his son if he's already so favorably disposed to the world that he gives his son

00:12:53.240 | Then how can you speak of turning aside his wrath?

00:12:55.920 | But what that neglects is that God stands over against us both in love and in wrath

00:13:02.080 | He stands over against us in wrath as a function of his holiness. He stands over against us in love

00:13:07.220 | as a function is very of his very character and

00:13:10.840 | Thus the sacrifice of Christ is presented in Scripture as simultaneously

00:13:16.800 | Canceling sin and turning aside the wrath of God. It's a mistake to pit propitiation and expiation

00:13:23.360 | Against each other. They're both taught in Scripture

00:13:27.320 | And I suspect that both are hiding behind the words used in that great atonement passage of Romans chapter 3

00:13:34.280 | verses 21 to 26

00:13:36.560 | One has to remember that before reading those verses Romans 3 21 to 26 one is supposed to read Romans 1 18

00:13:44.480 | to

00:13:46.080 | 320 that huge passage

00:13:48.500 | outlines all the human sin that

00:13:52.000 | Requires atonement if there's to be any cleansing and it begins the wrath of God is disclosed from heaven in other words

00:13:59.040 | The sacrifice that is presented deals with the wrath of God as a function of God's own holiness

00:14:03.840 | so Christ sheds his blood in the New Testament the blood of Christ and the cross of Christ and

00:14:11.480 | the atonement of Christ the death of Christ

00:14:15.600 | Are all referring to the same thing that is Christ's sacrifice on our behalf

00:14:20.680 | some want the

00:14:23.400 | Shedding of blood and the sacrifice of Christ to be merely exemplary or merely celebratory. That is something that provides an example

00:14:31.000 | Or something that is celebrates the love of God, but don't want to call it substitutionary

00:14:37.120 | But Christ dies in our place

00:14:40.520 | There are so many biblical texts that insist on that point. That's what cancels sin and turns aside the wrath of God

00:14:47.480 | So he took our sin in his own body on the tree

00:14:52.440 | And that's why Christians still insist on an expression such as penal substitution. Now, of course, there are different elements of

00:15:00.440 | Truth that are depicted in the cross

00:15:03.480 | Christ is our representative

00:15:06.000 | He becomes a human being and dies as one of us standing in for us

00:15:10.640 | But he is also our substitute. He demonstrates his love toward us on the cross

00:15:16.040 | But he does so precisely by bearing our punishment. That's why we speak of penal substitution

00:15:21.480 | And in my view penal substitution though

00:15:25.840 | It's not the only means of appropriate expression to depict the sacrifice of Christ. It is foundational and

00:15:32.640 | and

00:15:34.080 | not merely

00:15:36.080 | metaphorical

00:15:37.160 | And probably is the one that best grounds all the rest of the ways of talking about the cross of Christ

00:15:42.960 | Perhaps perhaps it should also be said that Christ's sacrifice unlike the sacrifices of the Old Testament

00:15:49.040 | Are once for all Christ cries just before he dies it is finished. There is no more sacrifice for sin

00:15:56.840 | Hebrews insists

00:15:59.400 | Hebrews 9 depicts Christ as the ultimate fulfillment of the great day of atonement passages and

00:16:05.480 | And thus the New Testament insists that Christ brings all of these sacrificial themes

00:16:11.200 | together in himself and

00:16:13.720 | of course the the sacrifice of Christ is inevitably tied to the priesthood theme and to the temple theme and

00:16:20.880 | to the Jerusalem theme

00:16:23.160 | because

00:16:24.520 | The sacrifices were offered in the temple in Jerusalem by the priests

00:16:28.800 | And and thus all of these themes come together in spectacular fulfillment in the vision of Revelation 21 and 22

00:16:36.600 | Where so many of these things come to a certain kind of climax?

00:16:40.400 | Two more details that I should mention

00:16:43.440 | during his earthly ministry the Lord Jesus performed healings and

00:16:49.280 | Raised the dead and cast out demons preached the gospel and so on the very interesting

00:16:54.520 | passage Matthew chapter 8 verses 14 to 17

00:16:58.120 | insists that when he was

00:17:01.080 | Healing the sick and casting out demons. He was actually fulfilling

00:17:04.120 | Isaiah 53 and so people have asked in the healing of people and this healing is paid for by the sacrifice

00:17:12.400 | depicted in Isaiah 53

00:17:14.640 | Does this mean there is healing in the atonement and if there is why does such healing take place?

00:17:21.360 | before the cross

00:17:23.360 | That is it takes place while Jesus is in his earthly ministry

00:17:26.640 | Heading toward the cross and to this two things must be said first of course

00:17:32.000 | There's healing in the atonement all the blessings that come to us from God are secured ultimately through the atonement

00:17:41.080 | Including resurrection bodies the fact that God is patient with us and forbearing and doesn't just wipe us out is

00:17:47.160 | A function of the fact that his dear son has now paid for our sins

00:17:51.840 | So of course this healing in the atonement the question is not whether this healing in the atonement

00:17:56.080 | The question is when do we receive all the benefits of the atonement some of these benefits we receive right away

00:18:02.160 | But physical healing in its most ultimate sense takes place at the consummation when we gain resurrection

00:18:09.000 | Bodies all secured at the end of the day by the cross of Christ

00:18:12.560 | So of course there's healing in the atonement

00:18:14.600 | But it doesn't follow that we always get the healing right now that we want which is why for example the Apostle Paul has to leave

00:18:21.640 | Trophimus behind because he's sick

00:18:25.160 | It's not that Paul forgot to pray for him or that that his prayers weren't particularly effective that day some some sicknesses are not going

00:18:31.440 | to get healed now until the end and

00:18:33.440 | Yet there are

00:18:35.440 | instances where God's

00:18:37.640 | Miraculous healing that does a point to the ultimate healing that takes place at the end and in both cases

00:18:43.360 | They're secured by the cross of Christ

00:18:45.360 | But the fact remains that the healings that Jesus performs are

00:18:50.360 | Themselves a function of Christ's cross work which when Jesus performs the healing has not yet taken place in other words the effect of

00:18:58.760 | Christ's cross work runs backward in time as well as forward in time

00:19:03.640 | And that's merely a function of the fact that God knows Christ knows

00:19:07.760 | What Christ has come to do there is a sense as?

00:19:11.880 | Revelation puts it in chapters 13 and 17 that Christ is the lamb who was slain before the foundation of the world

00:19:17.800 | Not literally, but in God's mind. It's it's already a done deal and thus there is a sense in which Jesus healings done before the cross

00:19:25.600 | Find their effective payment in the cross which is still around the corner and thus point forward to the cross

00:19:33.160 | Just as any healing in the book of Acts for example points back to the cross and the resurrection

00:19:38.400 | What have already taken place as the crucial step in bringing about the ultimate healing that arrives with the consummation of the return of Christ?

00:19:46.240 | And the last thing to be said although it is true that

00:19:51.400 | Christ's sacrifice is once for all and it pays for our sins and it grounds our

00:19:58.800 | Forgiveness it grounds our assurance before God

00:20:01.480 | We don't have to earn our way to the presence of God all of these things

00:20:05.560 | Flow from the cross they flow from the sacrifice of Christ they flow from a shed blood

00:20:10.000 | Yet at the same time when for example in Matthew

00:20:14.960 | 16 or mark 10

00:20:18.360 | Jesus announces clearly that the Messiah must be crucified and rise again the third day the apostles aren't ready to accept it

00:20:25.840 | Jesus insists that it's the case and then also says that his disciples are to take up their cross and follow him and

00:20:32.280 | In that sense Christians are called to sacrifice, too

00:20:35.600 | So in first Peter 2 where this is very strong the uniqueness of Christ's sacrifice is greatly stressed

00:20:42.840 | He bore our sin in his own body on the tree

00:20:46.680 | That's unique, but at the same time Peter can say

00:20:51.040 | That Jesus went to the cross leaving us an example that we should follow in his steps

00:20:55.520 | So there is an exemplary

00:20:58.120 | component to the cross of Christ

00:21:00.280 | That's why the Apostle Paul can pray. Oh that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his suffering

00:21:06.640 | He wants to be conformed to Christ and it's why elsewhere

00:21:11.160 | Paul can write to the Philippians and say it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe on his name

00:21:19.160 | But also to suffer for his sake so there is a sense in which we are to take up our cross

00:21:23.880 | Gladly and follow Christ on the way to the cross not because any suffering that we endure

00:21:31.800 | atones for the sins of others

00:21:34.280 | But because it does identify us with Christ

00:21:36.880 | We want to go where Jesus went Paul can go so far as to say that he'd like to fill up the afflictions

00:21:44.800 | of Christ

00:21:45.920 | that is to say

00:21:48.520 | Christ through his body the church still suffers Jesus identifies with his body the church it still suffers

00:21:55.320 | it's almost as if there's a quota a top amount of suffering that the church must endure and

00:22:00.800 | Paul is prepared to take more than his share as it were precisely

00:22:05.000 | by filling up the

00:22:07.680 | afflictions of Christ in this way to

00:22:09.680 | Enable some fellow Christians to suffer a little less

00:22:12.600 | So in our day and generation when dark clouds are looming

00:22:18.280 | Far from complaining that it's not fair

00:22:20.720 | We need ourselves to take up the example of the early apostles who rejoiced when they were beaten up

00:22:26.800 | Because they were found worthy to suffer for the name so in that sense Christ's sacrifice is

00:22:32.640 | Perpetual

00:22:34.560 | Perpetually effective rather it's unique it does not recur

00:22:38.040 | It cannot be copied or imitated

00:22:42.200 | But the Lord's table points back to it and our own sufferings are to be aligned with it that we in turn ourselves

00:22:49.520 | May commend the cross of Christ to others today

00:22:52.440 | Amen that is a helpful and valuable overview from his home office that was dr.

00:22:58.400 | Don Carson the co-founder and president of the gospel coalition

00:23:01.240 | Well, it's time for us to celebrate Christmas this weekend and for John Piper and on behalf of the entire team at desiring

00:23:08.840 | God org we would like to extend to you all a very Merry Christmas

00:23:13.800 | And we pray that it would be a season to draw you near to Christ to see the magnificent glory of

00:23:20.200 | His sacrifice a sacrifice which begins in the little town of Bethlehem

00:23:25.840 | I'm your host Tony Reinke. We'll see you on Monday

00:23:28.960 | You

00:23:30.960 | [BLANK_AUDIO]

The Sacrifice of Christ in the Season of Christmas

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