Okay, so a question here.
Question Introduced
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.
Federal Headship and Covenant Theology
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
Active Obedience and Imputed Righteousness
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
Infinite God, Infinite Punishment
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
Hypostatic Union and the Sufficiency of the Atonement
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,
Recommended Resource
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.