THE GREATEST SALVATION
IMAGINABLE
“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when
I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel
and the house of Judah…” —Jeremiah 31:31
God is just and holy and separated from sinners like us.
This is our main problem at Christmas and every other
season. How shall we get right with a just and holy God?
Nevertheless, God is merciful and has promised in Jeremiah 31 (five hundred years before Christ) that someday
he would do something new. He would replace shadows
with the Reality of the Messiah. And he would powerfully
move into our lives and write his will on our hearts so that
we are not constrained from outside but are willing from
inside to love him and trust him and follow him.
That would be the greatest salvation imaginable—if
God should offer us the greatest Reality in the universe to enjoy and then move in us to see to it that we could enjoy it with the greatest freedom and joy possible. That would be a Christmas gift worth singing about.
That is, in fact, what he promised. But there was a huge
obstacle. Our sin. Our separation from God because of
our unrighteousness.
How shall a holy and just God treat us sinners with so
much kindness as to give us the greatest Reality in the universe (his Son) to enjoy with the greatest joy possible?
The answer is that God put our sins on his Son, and
judged them there, so that he could put them out of his
mind, and deal with us mercifully and remain just and holy at the same time. Hebrews 9:28 says, “Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many.”
Christ bore our sins in his own body when he died.
He took our judgment. He canceled our guilt. And that
means the sins are gone. They do not remain in God’s
mind as a basis for condemnation. In that sense, he “forgets” them. They are consumed in the death of Christ.
Which means that God is now free, in his justice, to
lavish us with the new covenant. He gives us Christ, the
greatest Reality in the universe, for our enjoyment. And
he writes his own will—his own heart—on our hearts so
that we can love Christ and trust Christ and follow Christ from the inside out, with freedom and joy.
This is our main problem at Christmas and every other
season. How shall we get right with a just and holy God?
Nevertheless, God is merciful and has promised in Jeremiah 31 (five hundred years before Christ) that someday
he would do something new. He would replace shadows
with the Reality of the Messiah. And he would powerfully
move into our lives and write his will on our hearts so that
we are not constrained from outside but are willing from
inside to love him and trust him and follow him.
That would be the greatest salvation imaginable—if
God should offer us the greatest Reality in the universe to enjoy and then move in us to see to it that we could enjoy it with the greatest freedom and joy possible. That would be a Christmas gift worth singing about.
That is, in fact, what he promised. But there was a huge
obstacle. Our sin. Our separation from God because of
our unrighteousness.
How shall a holy and just God treat us sinners with so
much kindness as to give us the greatest Reality in the universe (his Son) to enjoy with the greatest joy possible?
The answer is that God put our sins on his Son, and
judged them there, so that he could put them out of his
mind, and deal with us mercifully and remain just and holy at the same time. Hebrews 9:28 says, “Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many.”
Christ bore our sins in his own body when he died.
He took our judgment. He canceled our guilt. And that
means the sins are gone. They do not remain in God’s
mind as a basis for condemnation. In that sense, he “forgets” them. They are consumed in the death of Christ.
Which means that God is now free, in his justice, to
lavish us with the new covenant. He gives us Christ, the
greatest Reality in the universe, for our enjoyment. And
he writes his own will—his own heart—on our hearts so
that we can love Christ and trust Christ and follow Christ from the inside out, with freedom and joy.
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