'Why Christ?' Cont'd

I have hope that the content of the post prior to this is now well appreciated. Returning then to the question which was left pending when I broke off: having known the necessity of man's salvation being by another, why does God then particularly choose Christ?

Let's start here. Whose law was offended in the garden of Eden? Who was it that we angered? Whose wrath are we at risk of facing should we continue in our solemn state? Is it not YAHWEH? So then, who is best positioned to tell us what is necessary for our state of affairs to change for the better? Should it not be the very one who took offence? See then that the question we must ask is, 'What has YAHWEH said concerning these things?' Has He not been clear that salvation must be through Christ alone? What other name besides this have we been given to call on that we may be saved? None but Christ! This alone should suffice to answer our question; but we are by nature inquisitive. Also, God has revealed in Scripture the reasoning for having done things the way He did.

First, remember these attributes of His; loving, (1 Jn. 4:7) merciful, (Ex. 34:6) just, (Deu. 32:4) wrathful (Rom. 1:18). None of these attributes shall be overcome by the other. God's justice means that He suffers no injustice. Yet His love means that He wills to save us from our merited damnation. His wrath is the end of His justice; that all ungodliness be punished by being subjected to His wrath. By His mercy, He devises a way for us to be saved without His other attributes being undermined. If He simply forgives without atonement for the sin, He would thereby be unjust. What justice is there in a judge who turns a blind eye to transgression? Nor can taking our good deeds over our iniquities amount to justice. If you were a judge, would you withhold punishment from a thief only because he stole to give to the poor? Noble as his intent may be, it remains that he committed a crime to which no exception was given and must face the punishment due to him.

Similarly, God would not say to us, 'Well, I see that you're adulterous, promiscuous, profane, blasphemous, and insolent. Yet again, you're charitable every now and then, you're kind when you feel like it, you bring joy to those who do not frustrate you. For your good deeds, I will disregard your misdeeds.' If anyone believes that God would do that, such a one has fashioned an idol after his own heart. Therefore, we get from God an acquittal from all charges because another has claimed the fault for us. I'll borrow an analogy from a prominent writer. The best way to understand this is to think of our sin as creating a debt which must be offset. Whereas we are unable to pay our debt to God for our iniquities, there is another who can offset that debt and relieve us of our indebtedness. Precisely, through Christ our debt is paid. Your own good deeds will not offset your debt. It is as a debt issued in legal tender and must be repaid in legal tender, not one that can be offset by payment in kind.

Secondly, knowing that God couldn't just overlook our sin and remain just, we could still ask what was so special about Christ. Why could it be only Him and not, say - Mohammed? Well, if any other man, woman, or creature had been in Christ's place, there would be no perpetuity in the atonement. Indeed, for the longest time in the law of Moses, several sacrifices were made for the atonement of sins. How lacking they were found to be! Consider God's lamentation; 

'Children have I reared and brought up, but they have rebelled against me... Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, children who deal corruptly! They have forsaken the LORD, they have despised the Holy One of Israel, they are utterly estranged...What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the LORD; I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed beasts; I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of goats. When you come to appear before me, who has required of you this trampling of my courts? Bring no more vain offerings; incense is an abomination to me. New moon and Sabbath and the calling of convocations - I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates; they have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them.' (Isa. 1:2b,4,11-14)

Interesting that these are the very things God had required Israel to do for the atonement of their sins (Lev. 4). Yet here we see Him decrying the very things He had required of them.

Why? Severally God has made it clear that He is far more concerned with what lies in the heart than what is done with the hands (1 Sam. 15:22; Ps. 51:16-17; Mat. 9:13, 12:7). Israel had taken a habit of legalism where it fulfilled all the law without any care for aligning itself in obedience to God. How pitiful! They would go on in corruption and oppression, injustice being the order of the day, yet turn up for all prayers and offer all sacrifices that God had required. This is the conduct that the prophets Micah and Isaiah condemned. These people made a mockery of God! So He became dismissive of their idle sacrifices; the very sacrifices that would be an atonement for them.

If then God had required sacrifices for the atonement of sins, yet He now found these sacrifices unbearable, what was it they were to do? Well, consider what Micah says to Israel when they ask a similar question, 'He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?' (Mic. 6:8). Yet, as we have seen above, mankind has time and again failed to do this, almost as though he is allergic to the holiness which the LORD has required. So the Apostle Paul reminds us, 'for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God' (Rom. 3:23). If then man cannot be pleasantly righteous before God, what is left for him? For God will not take sacrifice without obedience; that is, after your sins have been atoned for, perfect obedience must follow. Yet we are incapable of it. What then does God do?

'For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it - the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.' (Rom. 3:20-25a)

Recall what Christ said to John the Baptist when the latter objected to the baptism of the former. 'Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.' (Mat. 3:15) It was not theatrical of Christ to be keen on fulfilling all righteousness. Nor was it only for Him to be free of the sin of disobedience at the cross. Indeed, Christ had to live a perfect life so that after our atonement, we would be viewed by God in a state of perpetual righteousness through Christ. Perfect obedience which God has required was done by Christ alone; except Him, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Christ was enabled to observe such perfect obedience by His divinity. So, it could not have been any man for any other mere mortal would have fallen short. But His divinity served another grand purpose in the sacrifice. He was not only able to obey perfectly, but He also survived the wrath of God. Any man subjected to the wrath of God would certainly die; so Christ died. Yet, being God, He was raised from the dead that we too, having put to death the damned creatures that we were, may be raised together with Him.

In this way, God remains truthful when He said, 'The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and fourth generation.' (Exo. 34:6-7) How is it He is forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin while in the same measure not clearing the guilty? God punished all sin for them that believe in Christ and thereby withheld punishment on them. So without Chrsit we still have our own sin to pay for and only He could be both our sacrifice and perpetual perfect obedience. For these things to be possible, the sacrifice had to be both divine and human. Only one being in history has been both things; that is Christ.

The Scriptures have made it clear that God is holy, whereas we are terribly unholy.

We are also shown that our ungodliness is because of the fall and our continued rebellion in disobedience against God. We are told that God is just. This justice demands blood for the transgression; without exception. All sin must be atoned for with blood without which there can be no forgiveness. For this reason the patriarchs were instructed to make sacrifices among which was a sin offering, wherein the blood of a bull without defect was shed in place of the blood of the transgressors. (Lev. 4:2-7, 4:20) So, Christ was without defect so much so that He did not inherit the original sin; He was the seed of the woman conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit. His blood is that perfect atonement for our iniquity.

Know then that any teaching presenting a way to God without shedding blood for sins is wrong? If any of those teachings are correct, Christianity must be wrong. Yet, if we truly believe Christ to have been true, then all these other teachings must be wrong. He was unequivocal in saying, 'no one comes to the Father but through Me.' This is not an issue about which we should fear being thought of as judgemental or intolerant. Let the world call us bigots; know that this is one of those hills on which we die. When the Muslim believes that Christ was a prophet whose blood was not shed for the sins of man, he tramples underfoot the very sacrifice that would cleanse him; he foregoes the atonement for his sins. And the sacrifice of animals no longer suffices, for, God Himself has given a perfect sacrifice in Christ, one which satisfies wrath, meets justice, exercises mercy and reveals God's love for us; and imputes upon us a perpetual righteousness.

Not a single soul will be saved outside Christ. Let God be true and every man a liar. As God has warned us through His apostle Paul, 'But even if we [the apostles], or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed.' (Gal. 1:8) Not even an angel is permitted to say anything contrary to what Christ has said or done. Yet a whole faith was founded on an 'angel' contradicting what God incarnate taught. Be not deceived that any higher authority shall come and teach anything contrary to the word.

Needless to say, therefore, that the question need not be how a church has gone technically astray in doctrine. We need only ask, 'How far have they gone from teaching Christ crucified?' Any teaching that is not for Him, in Him, and through Him is a teaching contrary to the gospel which the apostles taught. Rest not in the comfort of what your preacher says if it contradicts scripture lest you perish for lack of knowledge.

Now, pray to God that you may be taught of Him; that is, by Him. (Jn. 6:45) Let the Holy Spirit reveal to you the truth which is in the word of God - the Scripture. Live by this and reject the deceit of the world. The word of God is true!