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Jesus Christ - His Death

As we turn our attention to the death of Christ, there are several key words that we will consider in our study:
(1) Substitution – many Bible passages clearly teach that Jesus died a substitutionary death on behalf of sinners. This is often referred to as vicarious which means “one in place of another.” Two verses worth looking at that emphasize His substitutionary death are Isaiah 53 in the Old Testament and 1 Peter 2:24 in the New Testament. Other verses that teach the substitutionary death of Christ are, Matt. 20:28; Luke 11:11; 1 Tim 2:6; Gal. 3:13; 2 Cor. 5:21; 1 Pet. 3:18.By dying in our place, He was able to satisfy the righteous demands of God’s justice. Complete payment for sin was made, thus, making it possible for God to declare sinners righteous and adopt them into His family. By dying in our stead, He atoned for our sins and through His death, made satisfactory payment for them.
(2) Redemption – by His death, Jesus purchased us out of the sin slave market and set us free from the power of sin over us (1 Cor. 7:23; Gal. 3:13; 4:5; Rev. 5:9; 14:3-4).A second point needs to be made here. As a result of the fall, Adam and Eve were removed from fellowship with God and caused the entire human race to be estranged and alienated from God. Redemption brings reconciliation and peace with God, the enmity is removed (Rom. 5:10), and for those who will trust in Christ as Lord and Savior, fellowship is restored (cf. 2 Cor. 5:18-20).
(3) Propitiation – propitiation simply means that through His death, Christ satisfied the righteous demands of God, His justice was satisfied. God’s wrath was averted because through His death, Jesus provided the only payment for sin that would be satisfactory (Rom. 3:25; 1 John 4:10). Leon Morris defines propitiation as “The turning away of wrath by an offering…The consistent Bible view is that the sin of man has incurred the wrath of God. That wrath is averted only by Christ’s atoning offering. From this standpoint his saving work is properly called propitiation.”[1]
(4) Justification – justification is a legal act by which God declares a sinner righteous because of Christ’s payment made for sin on behalf of the sinner on the cross.

Two things occur in the believer when he is justified: a) the believer’s sin is removed from him, and b) he is declared righteous because the righteousness of Christ is imputed to him (cf. Rom. 3:24, 28; 5:9; Gal. 2:16).
J. I. Packer writes, “The biblical meaning of ‘justify’ is to pronounce, accept, and treat as just, i.e., as, on the one hand, not penally liable, and, on the other, entitled to all the privileges due to those who have kept the law. It is thus a forensic term, denoting a judicial act of administering the law—in this case, by declaring a verdict of acquittal, and so excluding all possibility of condemnation. Justification settles the legal status of the person justified.”[2]



[1] Leon Morris, “Propitiation,” Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, Walter A. Elwell, ed., (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1984), p. 888.
[2] James I. Packer, “Justification,” Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, Walter A. Elwell, ed., (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1984), p. 593.

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