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Ask FGBC #8 - How could one man pay for the sins of the world in 36 hours?

Jim Butler · 2024-04-24 · 724 words · 4 min

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Okay, so a question here. How 
could one man pay for the sins of the world? If we deserve an 
eternity in hell as just punishment for our sins, how was Christ 
able to pay the punishment for billions over a period of 36 
hours? It was, after all, Christ according 
to his humanity that died for our sins. Go ahead. Just let me formulate my thoughts 
here. That's a big question as far as like three minutes. I 
would say covenant theology, the doctrine of God dealing with 
us based on either Adam the first or Adam the last. So, the Bible 
tells us that in Adam all died. So, when Adam takes that fruit, 
he does rebel against God, he transgresses God's law, he forfeits 
eternal life for he and his posterity. So, God's corrective or remedy 
is to send his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. So, as Adam represented 
us, or was what is called a covenant head, as he was that one who 
stood in our place and we fell in him, so Christ comes as God's 
answer, God's remedy to that situation. So, Christ is a public 
person. He's a representative. And I 
would extend that 36 hours to 33 years. Because it's not just his death 
that we need. We need that for blood atonement, 
for forgiveness, for cleansing of our transgression, but we 
need his righteousness. We not only need him to die for 
us, we need him to live for us. And it's not just as an example, 
oh, look at how good Jesus was in those 33 years. I need to 
go and do likewise. No, what Jesus does in terms 
of his, what we call active obedience to the law, is provides a righteousness 
for us so that when we, by God's grace, believe the gospel, that 
righteousness is imputed to us and received by faith alone, 
and that forgiveness is given to us based on the doing and 
the dying and the rising of the Lord Jesus Christ. I also think 
theology proper can help us here, the doctrine of God as well as 
Christ. So what is God? Well, God is 
infinite in his being. And so when man sins against 
this infinite God, this infinite God requires an infinite punishment. And there's only one who is infinite, 
and that is God. And thankfully, our God exists 
eternally in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And so 
then we have to then think of who our Christ is and what he 
is. He is with that hypostatic union, the one person in two 
natures, but it's the one who, it's the one eternal son who 
takes on a human nature. And so man has engaged in this 
infinite sin against this infinite God, and it can only be infinite 
God assuming human nature to be that perfect sacrifice for 
his people. So the fact that it is the eternal 
son is vital and important to understand. Yeah, one person. 
The one person. That's right. The one who. The one who. Of 
the hypostatic union. Of the hypostatic union. Who 
he is and what he is. Actually, we can plug in the 
book we're studying on Saturday mornings here in this answer. 
Willem's book, right? Sure. The Person of Christ. Yeah, 
Stephen Willem's book, The Person of Christ, An Introduction. So, we do that every other Saturday 
morning. We have a theology class at 6.30 in the morning. All are 
encouraged and invited to come to that. So, yeah, we're presently 
considering the person of Jesus Christ. Yeah. It's definitely 
been helpful to me just around the natures and how you attribute 
these things and such. And that goes back to something 
we were discussing earlier, you know, with reference to theological 
precision and articulation. When you start asking questions, 
it's not bad to find answers. You know, the longer you grow 
in your Christian faith, the more questions, good ones, you 
know, how is it that the Word became flesh and dwelt among 
us? That's not a bad question, and the Bible provides the answers, 
and the church, thankfully, has mined out or has looked at and 
exegeted those answers and provided them for us. So, it's a recognition 
that God's called us to do theology, to think through these things.