John 19:30 What Was Finished? 9/8/2019 ßà
#1. I Thirst (Psalm 22:15-22, Luke 16:24)
#2. A Shadow of Good Things to Come
(Heb 10:1-4)
#3. One Sacrifice For Sins Forever
(Heb 10:8-14, Luke 19:10)
#4. This Is the Covenant That I Will
Make With Them (Heb 10:15-16, Isa 40:17, Rev 12:9)
Please open your Bibles to the Gospel According to John, John 19:28 (2X). We are continuing to look into the events that took place when the lord Jesus Christ hung on the cross. But there is additional information in the Gospel of John, which was not recorded in Matt 27:45-50, or in Luke 23:44-46. Therefore, just for today, we will turn to the gospel of John, and see what the crucial information was that the other Gospel writers left out. We read here in John 19:28-30,
Joh 19:28-30 <After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst. Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar: and they filled a spunge with vinegar, and put it upon hyssop, and put it to his mouth. When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.
What did God mean when He said, “After this?“ It means that the reason why the Lord Jesus drank from the vinegar, and the reason why He cried with a loud voice, “It Is Finished”, are all a consequence of the fact that: “After this, Jesus knew that all things were now accomplished.” Let us see how all these things hang together. The Lord Jesus was on the cross for about six hours. The first three hours the sun was beating down on Him mercilessly. The next three hours was a period of darkness over all the earth. There was no burning sun and so the earth was cooling off. The first three hours, from nine O’clock until twelve O’clock was really the hottest part of the day. The coolest part of the afternoon was when Jesus cried out: “I Thirst”. He did not ask for a drink during the first three hours. Why not? It was because He did not want any physical support that man could offer Him. He had to endure the wrath of God alone, without the help of any man. Why then did He ask for a drink at this time? The key to this problem is found in the words, “After this”. After Jesus in His soul had gone through the deepest and darkest portals of Hell, and after Jesus suffered in His soul the most severe agony possible, then Jesus in desperation cried out, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken me?” A moment later He saw light at the end of the tunnel, and He knew that the end of His suffering had come. It was then that Jesus knew “that all things were now accomplished”. O yes, He was still hanging on the cross, and He was still bleeding from His head, and from His hands, and from His feet, and from His back, but the suffering for our sins was now over; because all things were now accomplished. Now He was ready for a little drink to relieve His thirst. He was no longer enduring Hell for our sins. Can you see that this proves that the physical sufferings of the Lord Jesus were not His main sufferings? He suffered in His soul a great deal more than He suffered in His body. That is the only way we can make sense out of this verse. That is why we read, “all things were now accomplished”, and with the words “all things” we understand that God refers to the payment for our sins that were transferred to Jesus. And then we also read, “that the scripture might be fulfilled, (He) saith, I thirst”. It means that this event was foretold in the Old Testament Scriptures. It does not mean that the Lord Jesus Christ, the Creator of heaven and earth, was piteously begging from the depths of Hell for a few drops of water to cool His tongue. Far from it! Christ was not just a man; He was God Himself. It means that He had respect for the Old Testament Scriptures and He wanted the Scriptures fulfilled. It means that Jesus knew all the Old Testament Scriptures better than any human being, because He was there when the Old Testament Scriptures were conceived in the mind of God, and He was there when His servants, the Prophets, penned down all the Old Testament Scriptures. Now, let us return to the words of Christ on the cross. Why did He say: “I Thirst,” and why did He say it at this time, in the cool of the day? It was because He just suffered the equivalent of an eternity in Hell. God wants us to know that, and that is why God inspired the Apostle John to write this. It may not be left out. It is an important piece of the puzzle to know what the atonement really means. Please turn in your Bibles to Psalm 22:15. God dictated these words to David, because David really did not describe his own experiences here. God revealed to David the sufferings of Christ on the cross. This is a Messianic Psalm. These are the words of Christ, which He declared on the cross, and words which Christ prayed silently when He was suffering on the cross. The Lord Jesus then said, “I Thirst”.
#1. I Thirst (Psalm 22:15-22, Luke 16:24)
But in the words of Psalm 22:15 the prayer of the Lord Jesus to His heavenly Father was this:
Psalm 22:15 Myy strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and thou hast brought me into the dust of death.
If God, the Son says, “My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws”, then we know that this in no run of the mill suffering of a man who has been crucified. In fact, it has been recorded that some men have endured the agony of crucifixion ten days before they finally died. But when God the Son says “I Thirst”, it is a thirst that is exceedingly more severe than any human thirst experienced on this earth. Only the parable of the rich man and Lazarus can shed some light on this utterance of Jesus. We read in Luke 16:24 that “the rich man cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame”. When we read then how much the Lord Jesus had to suffer for our sins, we stand amazed that the people of the world take such an unbelieving attitude. Some of them say, “I will take my chances”, or “I have lived a pretty good life, God will not cast me into Hell”, or “a loving God will not cast people in Hell”, or “Hell is a lake of fire, and we would be incinerated in an instant”, and many other such sayings inspired by the mind of Satan. But if God caused His only begotten Son to suffer this much, how dare anyone think that they can escape with anything less than an eternity in Hell? We rd in,
Ps 22:16 For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have enclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet.
David was never pierced in his hands and his feet. Who are the dogs and who are the wicked? The Lord Jesus is referring to those who are called Reprobate who were appointed by God to crucify Him. For example, Judas Iscariot was appointed by God to betray Him. And yet, man sins voluntarily. No one can say God made me do it, or the Devil made me do it. Everyone will be cast into Hell for his own sins. But why does God have to take such drastic measures? The answer is simple: God must forcibly draw His Elect, because left on our own inclinations we would never come to Christ. We were conceived and born in sin, and we were enemies of God from the day we were born. Therefore, only if God would draw us could we become saved. God also ordained that His Elect must suffer persecution, and suffer all kinds of other things, because it is good for them to be afflicted. God in His wisdom could see that, but most of us cannot see that. So God’s plan is carried out as He designed it. We read in Psalm 22:17-22:
Ps 22:17-22
What will Christ declare to His brethren, and who are His brethren? Christ will bring the gospel to all those who are the Elect of God. They are His brethren. Christ will make them to know His heavenly Father and Christ will send them the Holy Spirit to guide them into all truth, in order:
Let me read to you once more from John 19:28. Just listen as I read:
John 19:28 Aftter this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst.
The Lord Jesus is God, and therefore He had the greatest respect for the Scriptures. It was because of the Scriptures that He had to endure the full wrath of God for our sins. Our God is a righteous Judge. His Law is totally dependable. If God would set aside His Law for His only begotten Son, or if God would make an exception and reduce the penalty just once for His only Son, how then can we be assured that He would not set aside His promise when we mess up? How can we be sure that we are on the way to heaven? But our God abides firmly on the Scriptures. God has assured us in John 6:29, “This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent”. God has performed His work in us, because He was drawing us irresistibly to the Lord Jesus, and God will continue His work in us, because God does not do anything imperfectly. For example, God will not abandon us because we fail to depart out of His church, as some claim, and God will not abandon us when we fail to partake of the Lord’s Supper, and God will not abandon us when we put all our trust fully in the Word of God, from cover to cover.
Let me try to summarize what I have been saying in the past 15 minutes or so. What does it mean that Jesus said “I Thirst”? It meant “That the Scripture might be fulfilled.” The Spirit of God moved David to say of the coming Messiah, “They gave me also gall for my meat; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink” (Psalm 69:21). How marvelously complete was this prophetic view! No essential item was missing from it. Every important detail of the atonement had been written down beforehand. Let me just list 15 of these prophesies: The forsaking of the disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane. The false accusations before the High Priest. His silence before His judges. He was the sinless Lamb of God. He was numbered with the transgressors. He was crucified. The mockery of the spectators. The scorners who taunted Him with non-deliverance. The gambling for His garments. The prayer for His enemies. Him being forsaken by God. His thirsting for the love of His Father. The yielding of His Spirit into the hands of His Father. His bones were not broken. His burial in a rich man’s tomb. And so on. There are just too many to be listed in one sermon. But these were all prophesied in the Old Testament. If we just stay with Psalm 22 we have more material here than we have time for. Look at verse 22 where Jesus says: “I will declare thy name unto my brethren: in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee”. How do I know that Jesus said this? It is because God quoted these as Jesus’ words in Heb 2:12. If Jesus states that He will declare the Father’s name to His brethren, the Elect of God, how can we pretend that we can rest, and take our ease? Of course, we shall not do that. We too shall declare His name to the unsaved. Please return now to John 19:30 (2X). There we read, "When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar". What is the "therefore" there for? You can see from the presence of this little Greek word how God crafted the Bible with great care. The word "therefore" refers to what has gone on before. The fact that Jesus was offered the vinegar was not enough. The fact is that He drank the vinegar, so that every last detail of the Law and the Prophets would be fulfilled. Every prophecy concerning Christ's first coming, was fulfilled when Christ died and rose from the grave and ascended into heaven.
But why did He drink
the vinegar this time, whereas earlier He refused to drink. The key lies in the
words, "It Is Finished!", which in the Greek text is actually
only one word: "Tetelestai!"
The same Greek word was used also in verse 28, but there it was
translated as: "Accomplished!", "Tetelestai!" But do we
understand WHAT Was Finished?
Since all things were now accomplished not only the Scriptures were fulfilled,
but also the payment for sins has been accomplished, and the purchase of the
world and of the church has been accomplished. Therefore Jesus was now relieved
from any spiritual payment, and therefore He could officially take a drink, and
therefore He could loudly proclaim to the world: "Tetelestai!",
or "Accomplished!", or "Finished!". The full payment has
been made of everything Christ came to pay. The meaning, therefore, is this:
All things that contribute to the salvation of men is found in Christ; we must
not seek it anywhere else. The perfection of salvation is all contained in
Christ. Based on this, therefore, all the ceremonies of the Law could now be
done away, since all these ceremonies of the Law were now proven to be only
shadows. Christ, the Substance, to which all these shadows were pointing
had arrived. Please turn in your Bibles to the Epistle to the Hebrews,
Heb 10:1 (2X).
#2. A Shadow of Good Things to Come
(Heb 10:1-4)
Look also at the importance of Christ's spiritual
sufferings. Here He was hanging on the cross, proclaiming victory that all was
accomplished, all payments were complete because God cannot lie, but He was
still hanging there, nails piercing His hands and feet, He was still suffering
in His body and still bleeding. Jesus counted it all as nothing compared to the
suffering he had already endured. How has He suffered? He suffered in His human
body and in His human soul. The preexisting Spirit of the 2nd Person
of the Triune God was united with His human body and human soul at the moment
He was conceived in the womb of the Virgin Mary. When Christ had finished all
the suffering He had to endure in His human nature, He proclaimed: "Tetelestai!",
or "Accomplished!", or "Finished!". His body
was not dead yet. His body was still suffering. Why did Christ have to suffer
in His soul? Why do people have to suffer in body and in soul when they are
cast into Hell? They sin with their bodies, but the sins are stored in their
souls. When the Lord Jesus Christ took my place on Calvary, He had to endure in
my place what I would have to endure for my sins, both in my body and in my
soul, which means He had to endure the equivalent of an eternity in Hell. Only
God knows how to calculate the equivalent of an eternity in Hell, but it means
that Christ had to suffer in His human body as well as in His human soul. But
the suffering in His soul was much greater than the suffering in His body. That
is why He cried out, "Tetelestai!" when His body
was still suffering. Now we read Heb 10:1-4,
Heb
10:1-4 For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not
the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they
offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect. For then would they not have ceased to
be offered? Because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more
conscience of sins. But in those sacrifices
there is a remembrance again made of sins every year. For it is not possible that the
blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.
Of course "it is not possible
that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins", because bulls
and goats cannot endure the equivalent of an eternity in Hell. But that is what
is required to satisfy the righteousness of God. The sacrificial bulls and
goats were only shadows of the perfect sacrifice of Christ. A shadow is like a
sign. It is only pointing to Christ, but a shadow has no substance. Therefore
shadows cannot do anything else than point to the Lord Jesus Christ. But all
the bulls and goats were burned in the fire on the altar. When we look at
Christ on the cross, where is the fire? The fire was in His suffering in His
soul. The great service of OT shadows is that they show us details of the
atonement which the NT does not immediately offer. Let us now continue in Heb
10:5-7,
Heb 10:5-7
Wherefore when he cometh into
the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast
thou prepared me: In burnt offerings
and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, "Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is
written of me,) to do thy will, O God."
When
the Lord Jesus cried out with a loud voice, "It Is Finished",
the specific mission for which the Father sent His only begotten son into the
world was now accomplished. The difficult work is done. A work more honorable
and momentous than ever entrusted to man or to angels, has been completed. The
mission for which He had left heaven's glory, for which He had taken upon Him
the form of a servant, for which He had remained upon earth for about 33 years
to do, was now completed. Nothing remained to be added. The goal of the
incarnation was reached. This event is the focus of the entire volume of
the Bible. God said it here in Heb 10:7. If there ever was a period in
history that could be called the most important, it was the period in history
when Christ walked on the earth: "God with us". The most
important time segment of that period when Christ walked on the earth were the
three days and three nights that are called: "the atonement". The
most important moment within these three days and three nights was the moment
when the Lord Jesus Christ shouted out: "It Is Finished", "Tetelestai!"
"Accomplished". What a joyous triumph He
must have had when He viewed the costly work which was committed to Him and
which was now completed. That which had been eternally purposed had come to
pass. The plan of God that His Son would be a Substitute for those of mankind
whom He had chosen had been fully carried out. It is true that the Savior had
been "by wicked hands crucified and slain", and yet He was
"delivered by the determined counsel and foreknowledge of God" (Acts
2:23). It is true that "the kings of the earth stood up, and the
rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and against His Christ",
and yet it was but for to do what God's hand and God's counsel "determined
before to be done" (Acts 4:28). Again and again the Scriptures
insist upon the irresistibility of the pleasure of God Almighty. God's secret
will cannot be obstructed. God's counsel must stand. God's purpose cannot be
overthrown. And this was the moment in all of history that God's counsel was
confirmed, signed and sealed in blood. We should continue in Heb 10:8-14,
#3. One Sacrifice For Sins Forever
(Heb 10:8-14, Luke 19:10)
Heb 10:8-14 Above
when he said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering
for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein; which are
offered by the law; Then said he,
Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may
establish the second. By the which
will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for
all. And every priest standeth
daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never
take away sins: But this man, after
he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of
God; From henceforth expecting till
his enemies be made his footstool. For
by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.
Look at the OT priests in
Israel, and look at those NT denominations that also have priests. God says in verse
10, "Every priest stands daily ministering and offering often the same
sacrifices, which can never take away sins". Why can their sacrifices not
take away sins? It is because the entire institution of priests ceased to exist
when the Lord Jesus shouted: "It Is Finished". The entire
system of animal sacrifices ceased to exist. All the priests after the cross
have become abomination to God. And they are many. They are all a stink in the
nostrils of God. Why? It is because they are offering unauthorized sacrifices.
The Lord Jesus Christ "offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, and sat
down on the right hand of God". This was the only sacrifice for sin
approved by God. The apostles never offered sacrifices in the temple. Instead
"they broke bread from house to house", which probably meant that
they were having the Lord's Supper, which is a memorial of the Lord's death
till He come. The Lord's Supper must be held in high esteem. It must not be
given to those who will degrade it to some kind of sacrifice on an altar. That
would be an insult to God. When the Lord Jesus
shouted: "It Is Finished", it meant that the atonement was
accomplished, and it meant that His sufferings were completed forever, never to
be repeated by any so-called "priest". This was the moment when
"the Son of Man was lifted up". He was literally lifted up on the
cross, but spiritually He was lifted up by the Father. This cross-experience of
the Lord Jesus was His most glorious event. In fact, it is the most glorious
event in all of eternity. But God, in His wisdom, made it so that only by faith
can it be seen as glorious. That is why the heathen go to Hell, because they
ignore the most stupendous act of God done for mankind, and they continue to
invent other modes of worship, which God never approved of. But here, at the
cross, "the Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost"(Luke
19:10). And He was successful. Here in Heb 10:14 "by one offering
he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified". God did not
say that Christ sanctified every human being that ever lived on the earth. No!
He sanctified only "them". Who are these blessed ones? They
are those whom the Father has chosen in Christ before the foundation of the
world. Can we see now that the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ was only for
the sins of His elect, and not for anyone else? But let us now look more
carefully at verses 9 and 10.
Heb 10:9-10 Then
said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he
may establish the second. By the
which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ
once for all.
What is meant by "the
first" and what is meant by "the second"? Look at the
context. "The first" refers to what was mentioned in verse 8:
"Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for
sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein; which are offered
by the law". God had no pleasure in these. But why did God command the
children of Israel to do them? God commanded these because they were pointing
to the Lord Jesus Christ. These offerings and sacrifices were never meant to be
an end in themselves, they were only shadows, but they were meant to point
people to Christ. "Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to lead us unto
Christ" (Gal 3:24). The Law is not to be despised. The Law is holy
and good. But the Law is not an end in itself. The Law serves the purpose of
leading us to Christ, and Christ is there at the end of the Law. Christ makes
the final decision. All those who were chosen in Christ have found, or are
going to find, Christ standing there at the end of the Law. But for all those
who are not in Christ, the Law still stands, and the Law still makes its
demands that people go to Hell who do not obey the Law perfectly. Christ is
become of no effect to them. When the Lord Jesus shouted: "Tetelestai!",
"It Is Finished", He had fulfilled all the requirements of the
Law in the place of those whom He came to save. That Law must be kept, and must
be kept by a Man, so that the Law might be honored and magnified, and that God,
the Giver of the Law, might be vindicated. We read in Rom 8:3-4: “For
what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending
his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the
flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us (not by
us, but in us), who walk not after the flesh, but after the
Spirit". Christ did that at the cross. He purchased the right to account "that
the righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us". That
is how "Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the Law".
And what is meant by "that he may establish the second",
in Heb 10:9? Look again at the context. "The second" refers to
what is being spoken in verse 10. Not only is it God's will that Christ
rescued us from the curse of the Law, but also it is God's will that we are
sanctified (= set apart) through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ, and
that offering took place only once, sufficient for all time. Christ set us
apart on Friday, April 3, in the year AD 33. We were not saved yet. Our souls
would yet be born in rebellion against God, but Christ's offering guaranteed
that our souls would become saved at some point in our life. We were already
set apart in the counsel of God before the foundation of the world. And we were
again set apart when God sware an oath to Abraham concerning His Seed, which is
Christ, and included all those who were represented in Christ. But now at the
cross God signed and sealed that we are sanctified, or set apart, "once
for all", meaning, "fixed for all time". God could only do that
"after Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law".
Let me summarize what we have
covered so far. #1, we have
seen that God, in His wisdom, has designed an astounding plan of substitution:
Christ, the Judge, would substitute for man and pay the penalty for man, the
criminal. #2, we have seen
that on the cross the Lord Jesus drank the vinegar to indicate that He had come
to the end of His sufferings, the payment for our sins. #3, we have seen and read that He shouted: "Tetelestai!", "It Is
Finished", all is "Accomplished", so that even we
dummies would understand that He had come to the end of His sufferings for our
sins. (Here is the proof that Christ suffered the equivalent of an eternity in
Hell.) #4, we have seen that
the OT sacrifices were only shadows pointing forward to the atonement of
Christ; that was all the Law was intended to accomplish. #5, we have seen that "In the volume of the Book it is
written of Christ" and of His atoning work. It means that the Bible is One
Book; not 66 books like so many preachers want us to believe. #6, we have seen that the
sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross is valid forever, and is never
to be repeated by anyone, not even by God Himself. (Mormons and Roman
Catholics, please take note of this.) #7,
we have seen that Christ fulfilled all the requirements of the Law for those He
came to save. It was in this way that He redeemed us from the curse of the Law.
Now we move on to point #4 of the sermon outline, and you
know what this means: This is the application. We find the application right
here in Hebrews chapter 10.
#4. This Is the Covenant That I Will
Make With Them (Heb 10:15-16, Isa 40:17, Rev 12:9)
What is a "covenant"? A covenant is an agreement.
It could be an agreement between two men, or an agreement between two human
nations. But a covenant that God makes with man is totally different, because
these are two very unequal parties. God does not make agreements or contracts
with man. God, who made this universe, is greater than this universe, whereas
man is just a speck of dust in all of God's creation. God says in Isa 40:17,
"All nations before him are as nothing; and they are counted to him
less than nothing, and vanity." But God does make a covenant with
man. It is called the "Covenant of Grace". God takes all the actions,
and man is the beneficiary of all of God's actions. We read in Heb
Heb 10:15-16 Whereof
the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that he had said before, This is the covenant that I will
make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into
their hearts, and in their minds will I write them;
You can see who takes all the
action. God says: "I will make with them", and "I will put My
laws", and "I will write them". This is the nature of God's
"Covenant of Grace": God takes all the initiative, and God's
providence makes sure that everything works out as He planned before the
foundation of the world. And since I brought up the subject matter of the
Covenant, I am obligated to work out the principles of the Covenant in next
week’s sermon. Satan cannot obstruct these plans of God at all. When the Lord
Jesus shouted: "It Is Finished", for God's elect it meant that
Satan's power was reduced to nothing. We can only see this by faith. To the
human eyes it looked like this was the greatest triumph of Satan. But with
spiritual eyes God and all the spirits in heaven could see that this was the
moment of defeat for Satan. In fact, God declared in Rev 12:9 that 40
days later Satan was cast out of heaven forever.
Here we read about the great compassion that God has for His
people. God forgives, only through Christ's substitutionary work at Calvary, in
the year AD 33. All those whose sins were forgiven on that blessed Good Friday
were those whom God had written in His Covenant of Grace before the foundation
of the world. Forgiveness is a great attribute of God. So great is this
attribute of God that God desires His children also to have some of this
attribute. God writes forgiveness in our hearts, so that we also forgive
others. In fact, if we have an unforgiving spirit, it is a sign that God has
not worked a work of salvation in our hearts. God says here in Heb 10:17-18,
Heb 10:17
And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.
Heb 10:18
Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for
sin.
Therefore, if our sins have
been forgiven, there cannot be another sacrifice for sin. That would be an
insult to God. The Roman Catholic Mass claims to be such a ceremony, where
Christ is sacrificed again and again. Therefore the Roman Catholic Mass is
basically an abominable idolatry. When the Lord Jesus Christ shouted: "It
Is Finished", this meant the end of sin. All our sins were transferred
to the Lord Jesus Christ. We read in Isa 53:6, "The Lord laid on
Him the iniquity of us all". If then God laid my sins on Christ,
they are no longer ON my soul. It is true there is still sin IN me, because I
still live in this Adamic body till I die, but there is no sin ON my soul. This
difference between IN me, and ON me, is a most important difference. Everyone
outside of Christ has the sentence of God's condemnation resting UPON his body
and soul. But when one of God's elect believes in Jesus and receives Him as His
Lord and Savior, he is no longer under condemnation. Sin is no longer ON his soul,
which means that the guilt, the condemnation, the penalty for sin is no longer
UPON him. Why? Because the guilt, the condemnation, the penalty for our sins,
was transferred to our Substitute. Therefore, because my sins were transferred
to Christ, they are no more UPON my soul. This was what was finished
when the Lord Jesus cried with a loud voice, “It Is Finished”. Praise God for such a beautiful Savior,
who saves to the uttermost. AMEN. Let us turn to the Lord in prayer.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------