CHRISTOPHER A. LEE
The dim light of a distant street lamp filtered through my second story window. Shadows scurried across the canvas of my wall and darted in and out of the bookshelf crevices. My room was in a stuffy converted attic, and the air was hot and heavy despite the best efforts of the noisy box fan wedged in the lower half of the window. I lay on my bed under the whining fan, sleepless and covered in a thin sheet of sweat. Each minute crawled slowly by, marked only by a click as the numbers flipped forward on my new-fangled digital clock.
It is difficult to say if my sleeplessness was caused more by the oppressive heat or by the feverish state of my young mind. I was planning our escape. My mind raced through various possibilities for saving my family. There were large obstacles to be overcome. For starters we were in the middle of a town. Secondly, we were more than 700 miles from the nearest mountains.
With the simplicity of a child I fantasized that my family and I could slip out our back door undetected, make it through the back gate of our fenced-in yard, and proceed on foot out of town. With some preplanning we could have a car hidden outside of town in some deserted place. Perhaps the burnt orange top of our Pinto hatchback could be hidden with a camouflage of large tree branches. It would have to be packed with essentials like extra gasoline, food, water, blankets, and clothing. Once in the car, we would stick to the back roads and make a desperate run, crossing through three states to reach the distant Rocky Mountains. There, in the wilderness, we would ride out the time of trouble surviving on berries, roots, and glacial streams.
I had to be ready when the Sunday-keepers came to our door to arrest us for our belief in Sabbath observance. There was little doubt in my mind that I would be lost if I fell into the hands of the Sunday-keepers. I knew I did not have the necessary arsenal of memorized Scripture to allow me to defend the Sabbath when they took away my Bible. I knew I did not have the strength to withstand hideous torture to defend the seventh day. If the Sunday-keepers took me alive, I would fail the test and be lost eternally.
Then, from somewhere in the corners of my tortured mind came the haunting, accusing voice that so often spoke to me in these moments of fear, “What difference would it make if you escaped the Sunday-keepers? You would still have to prove your perfection and live through the time of trouble without a mediator. You’re lost either way.”
I couldn’t escape the truth of the logic. Running wasn’t the answer. It was then that I began to pray for God to let me die before the time of trouble—but even this desperate hope of salvation was snatched from me by the ever accusing voice, “If you die now your name will still come up for review in the Investigative Judgment. For all you know it might be under review right now. Every wrong thing you’ve ever said, done, or even thought will be reviewed. Every unconfessed sin will count against you. How can you possibly hope to confess every one of the multitude of sins you’ve committed? Your thoughts alone will condemn you. You are lost.”
With the final realization that there was no way out, that I was lost regardless of what action I took, inner night descended upon me. The darkness of my room could not compare to the utter blackness in my soul.
Down Payment On Salvation
The angst and depression I suffered as a child and young adult were shaped in part by an end-time scenario distinctive to Seventh-day Adventism. Attendance at Revelation Seminars and reading such books as E.G. White’s The Great Controversy had instilled a deep fear in my heart that often threatened to bubble over into complete despair. In retrospect, I now see that the most basic problem was not in the dubious end-time scenario or even in the highly aberrant doctrine of the Investigative Judgment. These cultic doctrines were merely a symptom of an underlying pathology. The real problem was much more fundamental. The root of my fear could be traced to a complete lack of understanding of the finality, power, and certainty of the cross of Christ.
I’ve heard former Adventist pastor J. Mark Martin say that he once viewed Jesus’ sacrifice as a down payment on salvation. That is a perfect analogy for my understanding of the cross as an Adventist. I believed that what Jesus did at the cross made it theoretically possible for me to be saved. Jesus had died to pay the penalty for sin, so my own death wasn’t necessarily required as long as I was able to pass the test and do the rest.
Imagine for a moment that you have an extremely rich uncle who wants to do something nice for you. Your uncle decides that he would love for you to be able to live in a beautiful mansion, but he knows that you could never make the down payment on such an estate. He generously pays the enormous down payment; you only need to make the monthly payments to continue to live in the mansion.
At first you are overjoyed. After all, the down payment alone was more than you could ever earn in a lifetime. Clearly you could never afford this mansion without his help. However, your joy begins to fade when you receive the first mortgage bill. You clean out your bank account and still find that you’re short on the very first month’s payment. You make up your mind to work harder, and you get a second job. When the next month rolls around you find that everything you make from both jobs is still not enough to cover the mortgage. You’re getting farther behind every month, so you resolve to work even harder and get a third job. Still, no matter how hard you work, you find that you simply cannot earn enough to make the monthly payments on this monstrous house.
You become consumed by the struggle to keep the house, but every month you fall further behind. You live in fear of losing the house, and you no longer take any joy from it. It is an albatross about your neck. As the realization sets in that you will inevitably be evicted, your uncle’s gift no longer seems to be such a blessing. You know intellectually that you should be grateful to your uncle, yet you feel nothing for him. In fact, you begin to wish that he had simply left you alone and let you blissfully live where you were. If there was no chance of ever making the monthly payments, why bother with the down payment? As generous as your uncle’s gift may have been, in the end, the dream of a mansion is still an impossible dream.
Free gift—not a down payment
That was my view of the work of Christ at the cross—but the biblical truth is that Jesus did not just make the down payment on our salvation. He purchased it in whole and gave it all to us as an absolutely free gift.
Fortunately for us, God is sovereign over all and can use even our warped understandings for His glory and His purposes. In my case, God used my experiences as an Adventist to bring me to the place where I knew, without reservation, that there was no hope of salvation if it depended in any way on anything I did. Ultimately, that is the place to which the Holy Spirit must bring each of us. As long as we are laboring under the delusion that we can, to any degree, make ourselves acceptable to a holy, just, and righteous God, then we are denying both the necessity and the all-sufficiency of Christ’s work.
Every human since Adam has been born with a sinful nature. As such we are naturally ungodly and unrighteous. A holy God cannot tolerate that which is against his righteous nature. He displays his wrath against sin and those who commit it. The Apostle Paul tells us in Romans 1:18,
“…the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,” (NASB)
Paul makes it clear in Ephesians 2:3 that every single one of us starts out under God’s wrath. In fact, despite popular assertions to the contrary, we are not naturally children of God. We are, by nature, children of wrath.
“Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.” (NASB)
I now understand that my position in relation to God was even worse than I had realized.
I now understand that my position in relation to God was even worse than I had realized. It’s one thing to see oneself as a basically good person trying to do one’s best but not quite living up to the standard. It’s quite another thing altogether to begin to understand how utterly repugnant all sin is to a holy God who is both infinite and eternal. Not only is God infinite and eternal in His being, but so are all the attributes which are essential to His being. This includes His holiness, righteousness, justice, and yes, even His wrath. As finite creatures, there is nothing that you and I could ever do nor is there any punishment that we could experience that could ever quench God’s infinite eternal wrath. Until we come to this realization, we have not fully appreciated our natural position as objects of wrath.
Perhaps this discussion of God’s wrath will make some uncomfortable because it seems so out of phase with the one-dimensional picture of God that is so often preached from pulpits today. And yet, without understanding God’s righteous wrath against sin, one cannot comprehend the depth of our need for the cross nor the infinite grace and mercy God showered upon us in the person of Jesus. There is an infinite gulf between being children of wrath and children of God. The cross bridges that gulf. Only the eternal Son of God could accomplish our reconciliation perfectly, all sufficiently, infinitely, and eternally.
More than an object lesson
The cross was much more than an object lesson in love. While the cross was most certainly a demonstration of God’s great love (John 3:16), it cannot be understood apart from the concept of atonement. Atonement describes the work of Christ in reconciling sinners to God, not by example, but by substitution. Christ is our substitute in at least four very closely related ways.
First, Jesus became Adam’s substitute as the new representative for the human race. All who are descended from Adam are born into his sin and death. All who are in Christ are reborn into His righteousness and life.
“For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.” – 1 Corinthians 15:22 (NASB)
Secondly, not only did Christ become the new Adam, thus conquering sin and death, but He did so by completely fulfilling the righteous requirements of the Law. Christ’s perfect life substituted for our own imperfect life. He redeemed us from the curse of the Law and became a curse for us by going to the cross.
“Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us—for it is written, “CURSED IS EVERYONE WHO HANGS ON A TREE” … But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.” Galatians 3:13, 4:4-5 (NASB)
We can see that Christ’s substitutionary life, fulfillment of the law, and sin-bearing work on the cross covered our sins. This is the concept of expiation. However, expiation does not entirely explain the cross. One must still deal with the matters of God’s wrath against sin and the penalty of sin. Accordingly, the atonement must encompass more than just expiation. The atonement must also include the concept of propitiation.
In order to understand what propitiation is and the necessity for it, think back to the last time you opened a newspaper and read of a horrendously evil act against a child. You were no doubt filled with outrage over the injustice, and you fervently hoped that society would bring justice to the perpetrator. You felt this righteous anger and this sense of justice because you are created in God’s image and are able to reflect His communicable attributes.
The difference, however, between our human reaction toward evil and God’s reaction is that we are not perfectly just or righteous, so our anger is inconsistent. Only certain especially egregious sins raise our ire—and then we turn the page of the newspaper, forget our anger, and go about our day. God is a perfectly just and righteous God. He experiences anger against all sin, great and small, not just the most heinous acts. God’s anger against sin is not forgotten. It is as infinite and eternal as God Himself. God’s very nature requires that justice be done. If God is truly just, then His anger against that which is unjust cannot simply be dismissed. God’s wrath must be appeased or propitiated. The problem for you and me, as finite creatures, is that we are incapable of propitiating God.
This brings us to the final two ways in which Christ is our substitute. Rather than pouring out his wrath on us, God chose to bear it Himself in the person of Jesus. In addition to suffering the wrath of God, Jesus also paid the full penalty of sin by dying in our place. The eternal God was propitiated through the sacrifice of the eternal Son. In this way, God’s perfect justice was satisfied. God, through Jesus, paid it all.
“But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him.” Romans 5:8-9 (NASB)
“By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” 1 John 4:9-10 (NASB)
Rather than being at odds with each other, as some theologians have suggested, expiation and propitiation are actually complementary concepts that are both essential to a full and complete atonement. In understanding both concepts we are brought to an awareness of our absolute need for a substitutionary Savior. Only then can we grasp the magnitude and finality of the atonement.
Finished Work
Although Christ’s atonement was completed at the cross, our understanding of His work would be incomplete without knowledge of the resurrection. In His resurrection, Jesus proved He was who He said He was, the Son of God (Romans 1:4). Furthermore, in the resurrection we see that the Son’s sacrifice was accepted by the Father as a complete and finished work. Christ is not abandoned to Hades nor is He pictured as continuing to work. Instead, the resurrected Christ is pictured as one who has finished the work and has sat down to wait in the place of greatest honor and glory.
“But He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, SAT DOWN AT THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD, waiting from that time onward UNTIL HIS ENEMIES BE MADE A FOOTSTOOL FOR HIS FEET. For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.” Hebrews 10:12-14 (NASB)
By His very presence in heaven, Christ assures us that we stand justified before God through Him. The resurrected Christ has become our intercessor guaranteeing that no charge can be brought against us.
“Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies; who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.” Romans 8:33-34 (NASB)
Through our resurrected Lord, we have the sure hope of our own resurrection from the dead. We have assurance that our salvation is secure, not by our own efforts, but by the power of God.
Through our resurrected Lord, we have the sure hope of our own resurrection from the dead. We have assurance that our salvation is secure, not by our own efforts, but by the power of God. Our imperishable inheritance is safe in Him. In Christ we have become heirs to the Kingdom, sons and daughters of the King.
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” 1 Peter 1:3-5 (NASB)
As we celebrate the resurrection of Christ, I cannot help but humbly contemplate the riches that have been lavished on me in His life, death, and resurrection. I have passed out of death into life (John 5:24). I am no longer a child of wrath, but a child of God (John 1:12). I no longer live in fear. I’m no longer trying to make impossible mortgage payments on my salvation. There is nothing left to pay. My Father in heaven has a mansion waiting for me. It’s been bought and paid for in full through the blood of the Lamb.
I can finally sing, along with hymnist Fanny J. Crosby, “Redeemed, how I love to proclaim it, redeemed by the blood of the Lamb; redeemed thro’ His infinite mercy, His child, and forever, I am.” †
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