THE VICTORIES OF CHRIST ON THE CROSS

YAHSHUA LIVES AND RETURNS!

© Carlos Padilla – April – Easter – Pasover 2023

Christ lives! Has become a declaration of faith itself, one, that announces the resurrection with two words. But, we also await the coming of Jesus Christ – Yahshua at the end of the prophetical times of His Word, and we know that all the prophecies of the Bible are fulfilled without exception. And we also know that before His resurrection He obtained a series of victories through His death on the Cross, which, as a type of altar received His blood for the atonement of the sins. Passover deals precisely with this matter, to fulfil that which was announced, that “This is the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). Those victories include the substitutive atonement and the propitiation, the justification by faith, the redemption, and the reconciliation of those who love Him and receive Him as Saviour. The salvation, to be effective, had to give definitive fulfilment to all the precepts of the divine justice, which now are victories for us believers in the work of Jesus Christ in His love for us. This Easter or Passover share the victories of Christ on the Cross, because… Keep reading…

Jesus offers us a plan of salvation which fulfils all the holy justices requested by the divine justice and that man, under the Law of God should have kept and fulfilled, but he cannot and needs a Saviour on behalf of God. The victories of Christ on the Cross are fruit of His suffering, of which the Apostle Peter talks as the glories that would come after those sufferings on the Cross. In (1 Peter 1:10-11) we read: “Of this salvation the prophets have inquired and searched carefully, who prophesied of the grace that would come to you, searching what, or what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ who was in them was indicating when He testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow.”

The victories of Christ on the Cross are: The substitutionary atonement and the propitiation, the justification by faith, the redemption, and the reconciliation.

The substitutionary atonement and the propitiation is documented with regards to God’s Law in the book of “Leviticus” where we find the holocausts and the offerings, where the blood would be sprinkled over the altar and the propitiatory to clean the sin of the people and sanctify the Holy Place. This way the atonement or expiation for the sin was fulfilled, as well as the propitiation –you may study about sin under “Hamartiology”. But in the book of “Hebrews” we find all the spiritual vision, the final fulfilment explained by the Apostle Paul, about the work of Jesus Christ – Yahshua. We, being Christians who believe in the work of Christ on the Cross, and for the shed of His Blood, have ample and open access to the Holy Place always, because Christ, as a Lamb of God entered once and for ever into Heaven, as the Apostle Paul said in (Hebrews 9:24), in the heart of the Father to open the way for us through faith, if we come to God with a holy and humble hart, repented from sin, to seek His love.

Justification though faith, is the motto of the Protestant Reformation of the XVI century for the Church which has deviated from the Word of God. This justification through faith, exposes the work of Christ on the Cross from the legal point of view, like in a trial, where the accused here is any one of us, sinners, with a clear guilt by the accusation of the conscience and/or by the Law of God itself, which the prosecutor uses to accuse us. The just Judge is God, but we have a lawyer who is Christ, who has a court record which states that our punishment has been fulfilled, has been paid, it justifies us, and that is the Blood of Christ on the Cross in our place, which the Judge accepts as granted justice, the grater of the possible justices. But the guilty, now, must receive it and manifest it, this is, the justification through faith from who believes and receives the payment that his lawyer, Jesus Christ, has presented to the Judge, God Father, which cancels the condemnation that the prosecutor accuser had presented. The victory is of the Lawyer, Jesus Christ, and he grants us that victory to make it ours, through faith (Romans 3:24). New Testament or New Covenant, needs of the death of the testator, who is Christ, who has died and resurrected, therefore the New Covenant in His Blood has made the Old Testament old (Hebrews 9:16).

Redemption was something that slaves longed for, as they could not live as free, and although some had relevant positions in the houses of their lords, they needed to have the price to pay for it, or to have an act from their masters where they agreed to grant them freedom. Our situation as slaves of sin makes us needed of a redeemer, of a liberator, as Moses was for the people of Israel from the slavery of the yoke of Pharaoh of Egypt. Our Lord Jesus Christ has paid the price of our freedom on the Cross, with His life and with His power He makes us free from sin, He makes us haters of sin (Mark 10:45). Although the Christian could sin, no longer seeks to sin, while the none redeemed seeks sin. Ernest Trenchard commented that we must appropriate ourselves of the total power of liberation of the victory of Christ on the Cross, and assimilate that we are free from sin. A growing faith, and sanctification in prayer, grows our power to be free, in Christ. Man put himself under the power of the devil when he accepted his suggestion to disobey God and became slave of the deceiver (Acts 26:18). And even though they deny it, those that want to be independent from God who want to live their lives their way and justify themselves under their own moral which they change as they sin, they know that death awaits them, and the judgment of God, and live slaves of fear (Hebrews 2:14-15).

We have been redeemed and we only need to accept it by faith: “But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation.

Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” (Hebrews 9:11-14).

Reconciliation, lastly, reflects the state of enmity in which we find ourselves before God for living separated from Him, until we receive the salvation which Christ has obtained for us, through faith. Paul explains it perfectly in his letter to the (Romans 5:10-11): “For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.” The reconciliation required a sacrifice, which we see it was also something the priest did for himself and his house to be able to serve God in (Leviticus 16:6). But Christ on the Cross has already reconciled us, if we believe in His reconciling work, which is open to Jews and Gentiles. Now, the only thing the believer needs is to repent and come to Christ like in the Parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32 – I recommend reading it) knowing that the Father awaits us with open arms.

These victories of Christ on the Cross set us free from all legal burden for the imputed sin to all humanity, since Adam and Eve, which have produced evident results in all eras of humanity, for all have sinned (Romans 3:23). The guilt and the punishment of our sin was carried by the Lord Jesus Christ – Yahshua in the altar of the Cross in His own Body, for love to us; there is no greater love than this, that One lays down his own life for His friends (John 15:13), and this is not any man, no matter how holy he was, but the God-Man Himself, God made man, the Son of God, who offered Himself in our place. Only He, for being the Lamb of God, is clean of sin and acceptable before the divine justice and for having an indestructible life can once and for all fulfil all the justice of the Law of substitutive atonement, propitiation and redemption, and which’s result reconciles us with God. Therefore: “And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment, so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation.” (Hebrews 9:27-28). And finally the Holy Spirit confirms: “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them,” then He adds, “Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.” Now where there is remission of these, there is no longer an offering for sin.” (Hebrews 10:16-18).

THE NEW BIRTH AND THE SANCTIFICATION OF THE BELIEVER

Now once the victories of Christ on the Cross are fulfilled, the believer accepts the salvation if he has recognized himself a sinner and needed of a Saviour. Therefore, it is by repentance “metanoia” in Greek, change of the mind or of the way of thinking about our fallen nature that cannot be spiritual in the sense that God is, comes before God to be regenerated, born again from the Spirit by receiving the Gospel through faith. The conversation of Jesus with Nicodemus about the need to be born again we find it in (John 3:3), which makes us a new creature, gives us the power to become children of God (Juan 1:2), to all that received Him, to those that believe in His name; which includes His saving work. Now, once regenerated, Jesus Christ leaves us in the hands of the Holy Spirit, once saved, to be sanctified. This way we give fruits of the Spirit until Jesus Christ returns, He who lives for eternity, to establish His Kingdom also in this world.

The final victory of Christ on the Cross is the salvation of our souls, and more than our souls, all our beings, spirit, soul and body (1 Thessalonians: 5:23). The soul transcends the death of our body, but it has beginning, for God created it (Ezekiel 18:4) and can destroy it in hell (Matthew 10:28). Hell is the place of punishment of the sinner who does not repent, who lives arrogant and enemy of God, a place of fire and sulphur which is the second death (Revelation 20:14) and where devils and ungodly people are thrown. It is so serious and so grave to ignore the importance of avoiding that place, that the love of God has provided our salvation through faith in the work of His Son on the Cross for us. To study further about the work of Christ on the Cross, read: PASSOVER

Finally, after the victories of Christ on the Cross, which have culminated in our salvation, our new birth and sanctification, there is another victory which continues enduring until the return of the Lord, and this is that His Church continues to fulfil the Great Commission, making disciples of all nations almost 2000 years after His resurrection and ascension, saving souls by preaching of the Gospel, for the glory of God.

CONCLUSION

Easter week of Passover is the triumph against the death and the sin of man, but we could not achieve it and the grace of God has provided the work of salvation which include the victories of Jesus Christ – Yahshua on the Cross: The substitutive atonement and propitiation, the justification through faith, the redemption, and the reconciliation of those who love and accept Him as Saviour.

After receiving salvation through faith which provides us the victories of Christ on the Cross, and consequently for being born again of the Spirit, the sanctification of the believer is a later work after those victories of Jesus Christ on the Cross, which is made by the Holy Spirit, who makes His dwelling in each of us who are the temple of God (1 Corinthians 3:16-17), if we open our heart to Him, being the culmination of the work of God in us. This work lasts from our new birth through faith, until our resurrection. Accompanying the progressive sanctification through our lives, goes the fulfilment of the Great Commission, when we give testimony of our faith, when we preach the Gospel and when we do the good works in the name of Jesus Christ. The Grace of God is and has been the source of the spiritual life from where our salvation originated, since before the creation of the world (1 Peter 1:20), in such a way that death because of sin is defeated, as we read in (1 Corinthians 15:54-57): “…So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” “O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?” The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.”

Christ lives and returns! Must be our motto of faith and hope, while we bear fruit of the Spirit for the glory of God. Resurrection changes everything and now we await the coming of the Kingdom of God that will bring new heavens and new earth, where justice dwells (2 Peter 3:13). May we give glory to God for the victories of our Lord Jesus Christ – Yahshua on the Cross for those who love Him and wait for Him. Halleluiah! Hosanna! Amen!