"Who gave Himself for our sins."
“The Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins” (Galatians 1:3-4).
The small phrase of “who gave himself for our sins” is a truly deep and profound truth. In these few simple words God dispels all notions of self-merit for all time. No matter what human conceived ways of man getting to God are fabricated in the world we have for all time God’s clear testimony that Jesus Christ gave himself for our sins. When we were incapable of getting to God, God came to us. He did not come to receive any work or merit from us but he came to give Himself for our sins, to close the infinite chasm between us and God the Father. So how are sins put away? Not thru any effort of our own but solely by the effort of Jesus Christ who gave Himself for our sins.
The worth of a ransom is determined by the size of the debt. We must learn to reflect on the fact that the Man Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, very God of very God, was given into death for our sins. What is a greater sacrifice? What is a greater ransom than this? What are we against that requires God to give His one and only Son into death in order to make amends? It is sin that is so great within us, consuming and devouring us. The blindness that we are under first manifests itself in our complete misunderstanding of sin. Because we live fully buried and dead in sin we cannot even realize it is there. Does a dead man know he is dead? Does the man who has lived in complete darkness his whole life even realize he is in the dark? Because our sin is so great we are unaware that we are fully enveloped in it. Within our sin we make our own judgments about what is “good” and “evil” all the while thinking that we are performing righteous deeds right alongside our occasional sin. No. Sin is greater than this in us; our sin is so great that it requires the very Lamb of God in order to be forgiven and vanquished. No sacrifice from us or from the world could ever pay for any sin. If we do not recognize the true size of this debt we will never appreciate the true awesomeness of the ransom that was paid by our Lord Jesus Christ.
We need to come to appreciate the little word “our” that lies at the heart of Paul’s statement. Do we truly understand that Jesus Christ’s death was for us, for our very own sins? Do we say we acknowledge this but then deep down we gloss over the tangible reality of it? Do we recognize that because of the sin we have done today that Jesus Christ, God and Man, died on the cross for our sins? Scripture hammers on this point over and over, and we all need to stop and listen to what God is telling us. “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21). “The glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good” (Titus 2:13-14). “If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all” (Romans 8:31-32). “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). It is only when God’s Law and wrath towards sin has cut deep into our heart that we can by the grace of God truly hear and appreciate what the little words “for our sins” really mean. Martin Luther said, "Our feelings shy at a personal application of the pronoun 'our,' and we refuse to have anything to do with God until we have made ourselves worthy by good deeds. This attitude springs from a false conception of sin, the conception that sin is a small matter, easily taken care of by good works; that we must present ourselves unto God with a good conscience; that we must feel no sin before we may feel that Christ was given for our sins. This attitude is universal and particularly developed in those who consider themselves better than others. Such readily confess that they are frequent sinners, but they regard their sins as of no such importance that they cannot easily be dissolved by some good action, or that they may not appear before the tribunal of Christ and demand the reward of eternal life for their righteousness. Meantime they pretend great humility and acknowledge a certain degree of sinfulness for which they soulfully join in the publican’s prayer, 'God be merciful to me a sinner.' But the real significance and comfort of the words 'for our sins' is lost upon them."
These few words of “gave himself for our sins” should strike us deeper than any others we may ever hear, and if they do not we need to ask ourselves if we are understanding sin at all. That Christ gave himself for our sins is meaningless if sin is an insignificant trifle we think we can handle on our own or if sin is too great to be overcome by His sacrifice. On the other hand, when we appreciate sin for the utter filth and unbearable corruption that it is nothing will be sweeter news than the fact that Jesus Christ’s sacrifice is great enough to overcome all of our stubbornly ingrained and overwhelmingly hideous sin. Luther said, "We are not to look upon our sins as insignificant trifles. On the other hand, we are not to regard them as so terrible that we must despair. Learn to believe that Christ was given, not for picayune and imaginary transgressions, but for mountainous sins; not for one or two, but for all; not for sins that can be discarded, but for sins that are stubbornly ingrained." As the phrase goes, “without the sour the sweet ain’t as sweet.” It is this concept of polar opposites that we see in the Law and Gospel. The Law points out the utter magnitude and wretchedness of our sin on one end, while the Gospel points out Jesus Christ’s prefect act of love that overcomes our sin on the other end. Without the true sour harshness of the Law against sin we will not see the true sweetness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. “The law was added so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 5:20-21).
In Christ Jesus God turns Satan’s greatest attack into sweet reassurance; God in fact uses Satan’s attack to our ultimate good. Without Christ in our life Satan’s accusation of us being a damned sinner is a crushing blow that leaves us despairing and broken; but it is in this despair that God’s grace in Christ Jesus comes to us and saves us, proclaiming that we are forgiven in spite of our utter sinfulness. It is in fact because we are sinners that we are saved in the cross of Jesus Christ and when Satan unwittingly points out our sinfulness he is in fact helping God’s cause. It is for this reason that Satan changes his attack once we know Christ. If we are aware of Christ’s sacrifice then Satan tries to convince us that we aren’t sinners and that we aren’t damned in order that we don’t cling to God’s grace on the cross in faith. If Satan can convince us we aren’t damned sinners then Jesus Christ will be “worthless” to us. Therefore we must use God’s holy Law to rebuke Satan, pointing out that we are wretched sinners who have broken and continue to break all of God’s perfect Law and it is for the sake of Jesus Christ that we are saved and forgiven in spite of this. God’s Law isn’t what saves us; it shows us our helplessness and need for Jesus Christ, “I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!" (Galatians 2:21).
It is important that we occasionally take a step back and stop thinking about Christ’s death in only the universal sense. He absolutely did die for all sin and for all men, but we also need to appreciate that He died specifically for “me.” Don’t undermine this personal sacrifice by thinking that He only died for “me” because there were enough others to die for also. Appreciate that if you were the only sinner in the whole world that He would still have died just for you. This seems like an arrogant and haughty view, but for us to appreciate what Jesus Christ really did on the cross then we must see it this way. “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, 'Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.' I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent” (Luke 15:4-7). Here in the parable of the lost sheep we see this idea illustrated perfectly. Jesus Christ was willing to die for you; He left heaven to come down here to save specifically you, a single lost sinner in need of salvation. Each of us is the lost sheep that He goes out of His way to seek after individually and we should rejoice greatly at this fact. Let us pray that we come to acknowledge that God’s Word tells us that Christ came down to earth to specifically suffer, die, and rise again for “me.” “For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God” (1 Peter 3:18). “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed” (1 Peter 2:24).
The small phrase of “who gave himself for our sins” is a truly deep and profound truth. In these few simple words God dispels all notions of self-merit for all time. No matter what human conceived ways of man getting to God are fabricated in the world we have for all time God’s clear testimony that Jesus Christ gave himself for our sins. When we were incapable of getting to God, God came to us. He did not come to receive any work or merit from us but he came to give Himself for our sins, to close the infinite chasm between us and God the Father. So how are sins put away? Not thru any effort of our own but solely by the effort of Jesus Christ who gave Himself for our sins.
The worth of a ransom is determined by the size of the debt. We must learn to reflect on the fact that the Man Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, very God of very God, was given into death for our sins. What is a greater sacrifice? What is a greater ransom than this? What are we against that requires God to give His one and only Son into death in order to make amends? It is sin that is so great within us, consuming and devouring us. The blindness that we are under first manifests itself in our complete misunderstanding of sin. Because we live fully buried and dead in sin we cannot even realize it is there. Does a dead man know he is dead? Does the man who has lived in complete darkness his whole life even realize he is in the dark? Because our sin is so great we are unaware that we are fully enveloped in it. Within our sin we make our own judgments about what is “good” and “evil” all the while thinking that we are performing righteous deeds right alongside our occasional sin. No. Sin is greater than this in us; our sin is so great that it requires the very Lamb of God in order to be forgiven and vanquished. No sacrifice from us or from the world could ever pay for any sin. If we do not recognize the true size of this debt we will never appreciate the true awesomeness of the ransom that was paid by our Lord Jesus Christ.
We need to come to appreciate the little word “our” that lies at the heart of Paul’s statement. Do we truly understand that Jesus Christ’s death was for us, for our very own sins? Do we say we acknowledge this but then deep down we gloss over the tangible reality of it? Do we recognize that because of the sin we have done today that Jesus Christ, God and Man, died on the cross for our sins? Scripture hammers on this point over and over, and we all need to stop and listen to what God is telling us. “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21). “The glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good” (Titus 2:13-14). “If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all” (Romans 8:31-32). “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). It is only when God’s Law and wrath towards sin has cut deep into our heart that we can by the grace of God truly hear and appreciate what the little words “for our sins” really mean. Martin Luther said, "Our feelings shy at a personal application of the pronoun 'our,' and we refuse to have anything to do with God until we have made ourselves worthy by good deeds. This attitude springs from a false conception of sin, the conception that sin is a small matter, easily taken care of by good works; that we must present ourselves unto God with a good conscience; that we must feel no sin before we may feel that Christ was given for our sins. This attitude is universal and particularly developed in those who consider themselves better than others. Such readily confess that they are frequent sinners, but they regard their sins as of no such importance that they cannot easily be dissolved by some good action, or that they may not appear before the tribunal of Christ and demand the reward of eternal life for their righteousness. Meantime they pretend great humility and acknowledge a certain degree of sinfulness for which they soulfully join in the publican’s prayer, 'God be merciful to me a sinner.' But the real significance and comfort of the words 'for our sins' is lost upon them."
These few words of “gave himself for our sins” should strike us deeper than any others we may ever hear, and if they do not we need to ask ourselves if we are understanding sin at all. That Christ gave himself for our sins is meaningless if sin is an insignificant trifle we think we can handle on our own or if sin is too great to be overcome by His sacrifice. On the other hand, when we appreciate sin for the utter filth and unbearable corruption that it is nothing will be sweeter news than the fact that Jesus Christ’s sacrifice is great enough to overcome all of our stubbornly ingrained and overwhelmingly hideous sin. Luther said, "We are not to look upon our sins as insignificant trifles. On the other hand, we are not to regard them as so terrible that we must despair. Learn to believe that Christ was given, not for picayune and imaginary transgressions, but for mountainous sins; not for one or two, but for all; not for sins that can be discarded, but for sins that are stubbornly ingrained." As the phrase goes, “without the sour the sweet ain’t as sweet.” It is this concept of polar opposites that we see in the Law and Gospel. The Law points out the utter magnitude and wretchedness of our sin on one end, while the Gospel points out Jesus Christ’s prefect act of love that overcomes our sin on the other end. Without the true sour harshness of the Law against sin we will not see the true sweetness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. “The law was added so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 5:20-21).
In Christ Jesus God turns Satan’s greatest attack into sweet reassurance; God in fact uses Satan’s attack to our ultimate good. Without Christ in our life Satan’s accusation of us being a damned sinner is a crushing blow that leaves us despairing and broken; but it is in this despair that God’s grace in Christ Jesus comes to us and saves us, proclaiming that we are forgiven in spite of our utter sinfulness. It is in fact because we are sinners that we are saved in the cross of Jesus Christ and when Satan unwittingly points out our sinfulness he is in fact helping God’s cause. It is for this reason that Satan changes his attack once we know Christ. If we are aware of Christ’s sacrifice then Satan tries to convince us that we aren’t sinners and that we aren’t damned in order that we don’t cling to God’s grace on the cross in faith. If Satan can convince us we aren’t damned sinners then Jesus Christ will be “worthless” to us. Therefore we must use God’s holy Law to rebuke Satan, pointing out that we are wretched sinners who have broken and continue to break all of God’s perfect Law and it is for the sake of Jesus Christ that we are saved and forgiven in spite of this. God’s Law isn’t what saves us; it shows us our helplessness and need for Jesus Christ, “I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!" (Galatians 2:21).
It is important that we occasionally take a step back and stop thinking about Christ’s death in only the universal sense. He absolutely did die for all sin and for all men, but we also need to appreciate that He died specifically for “me.” Don’t undermine this personal sacrifice by thinking that He only died for “me” because there were enough others to die for also. Appreciate that if you were the only sinner in the whole world that He would still have died just for you. This seems like an arrogant and haughty view, but for us to appreciate what Jesus Christ really did on the cross then we must see it this way. “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, 'Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.' I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent” (Luke 15:4-7). Here in the parable of the lost sheep we see this idea illustrated perfectly. Jesus Christ was willing to die for you; He left heaven to come down here to save specifically you, a single lost sinner in need of salvation. Each of us is the lost sheep that He goes out of His way to seek after individually and we should rejoice greatly at this fact. Let us pray that we come to acknowledge that God’s Word tells us that Christ came down to earth to specifically suffer, die, and rise again for “me.” “For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God” (1 Peter 3:18). “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed” (1 Peter 2:24).
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