This is a re-posting of my post #105 in the 'Penal Substitution' thread.
And so we read,
'And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.' And again,
'Who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness - by whose stripes you were healed.' How could the Lord Jesus bear our sins in His own body unless they were transferred to Him?
So why is this allowable? Partly because of two offices held by the Lord Jesus.
In the Scriptures we have the concept of the mediator, one who might fill up the gap between the outraged holiness of God and rebellious man (
Isaiah 59:2). Job complained,
“For He is not a man, as I am, that I should answer Him, and that we should go to court together. Nor is there any mediator between us who may lay his hand on us both.” But mediation requires a satisfaction to be made to the offended party. We see this is the book of Philemon. Here we have an offended party, Philemon, whose servant has run away from him, perhaps stealing some goods as he went; an offending party, Onesimus, and Paul who is attempting to mediate between them. Onesimus needs to return to his master, but fears the sanctions that may be imposed upon him if he does so. Paul takes these sanctions upon himself:
‘But if he has wronged you or owes anything, put that on my account. I, Paul, am writing with my own hand. I will repay…..’ (Philemon 18-19). Whatever is wanting to propitiate Philemon’s anger against his servant and to effect reconciliation, Paul the mediator willingly agrees to provide. He does not say, "I can't do that; God does not allow punishment to be transferred from the unrighteous to the righteous. In the same way, the Lord Jesus has become a Mediator between men and God (
1 Timothy 2:5; Hebrews 8:6).
In
2 Corinthians 5:19, we learn that God does not impute trespasses against His people; in Christ; He has reconciled the world [believing Jew and Gentile alike] to Himself. How has He done this? Through the Mediator Jesus Christ.
‘For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us….’ (v.21). The Lord Jesus has taken our sins upon Himself and made satisfaction to God for them. Therefore the message of reconciliation can be preached to all.
A similar concept is that of a surety. This is someone who guarantees the debts of a friend and must pay them in full if the friend defaults. There are several warnings in the Book of Proverbs against becoming a surety (
Proverbs 6:1-5; 11:15; 17:18), since one is making the debts of one’s friend effectively one’s own, yet we read in
Hebrews 7:22,
‘By so much more Jesus has become a surety of a better covenant.’
Christ is specifically designated in Scripture as
‘the last Adam’ (
1 Corinthians 15:45) and we are told that the first Adam was a
‘type [or ‘figure’]
of Him who was to come’ (
Romans 5:14).
‘For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive’ (
1 Corinthians 15:22). All those in Adam perish in their sins; all those in Christ are united to Him in His perfect righteousness.
Who are those ‘in Christ’? Those He came to save; those who were given to Him by the Father before time began. “Christ came not to strangers but to ‘brethren (
Hebrews 2:11-13). He came here not to procure a people for Himself, but to secure a people already His” (A.W. Pink). There are many supporting texts for this, e.g.
Matthew 1:21;
John 6:39; 10:27-29; 17:2, 6;
Ephesians 1:4. Christ is united federally to His people. They are
‘chosen in Christ’ (
Ephesians 1:4),
‘Created in Christ’ (
Ephesians 2:10);
‘circumcised in Him’ (
Colossians 2:11) and
‘made the righteousness of God in Him (
2 Corinthians 5:21). But as Surety, the Lord Jesus must also pay the debt of His people, and if they are to be freed from their debt, He must pay the very last penny (
Matthew 5:26).
Neither the concept of mediator nor that of surety is repudiated in Scripture. Therefore it is legitimate for our Lord to suffer and die for guilty sinners.
'For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.'
