How do I know that God has fully accepted the death of Jesus Christ as payment for my sins?
“When Jesus died, He died as my representative, and I died in Him; when He rose, He rose as my representative, and I rose in Him. . . . I look at the cross of Christ, and I know that atonement has been made for my sins; I look at the open sepulcher and the risen and ascended Lord, and I know that the atonement has been accepted. There no longer remains a single sin on me, no matter how many or how great my sins may have been. My sins may have been as high as the mountains, but in the light of the resurrection the atonement that covers them is as high as heaven. My sins may have been as deep as the ocean, but in the light of the resurrection the atonement that swallows them up is as deep as eternity” (R. A. Torrey, The Bible and Its Cross, pp. 107-08).
The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the proof that the LORD God has accepted the full payment for our sins in the death of His Son. God is fully and completely satisfied with the atoning work Jesus did on the cross for my sins because He raised Him from the dead.
The resurrection of Jesus Christ proves that every believer in Christ is justified by faith, and cleansed by His blood of all their sins (Heb. 12:1-2; Phil. 2:8-11). It is the evidence from God Himself that the penalty for our sins has been paid in full by the death of Jesus Christ. By the resurrection of Jesus from the dead God declared that He has accepted the death of Jesus as an atonement for our sins.
Do you “believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead”? (Romans 4:24). Jesus “was delivered up because of our transgressions, and was raised because of our justification” (v. 25). God the Father sent Jesus to the cross to die for our sins (Acts 2:23), and “God raised Him up again” (v. 24). “This Jesus God raised up again, to which we are all witnesses,” declared Peter (v. 32). The death of Jesus Christ was according to God’s determined plan to accomplish our redemption. Jesus Christ is “the Lamb of God slain from the creation of the world” (Rev. 13:8).
Moreover, Jesus deliberately chose to die as our substitute. He “died for our sins.” He died in our place on the cross as our sins-bearer.
The fact that we are sinners is proof that we deserve to die. “The wages of sin is death.” We deserve eternal damnation, but Jesus was delivered up by His Father for our transgressions. He was crucified for our sins. I deserve Hell, but Jesus took my Hell and served the sentence of death in my place (Rom. 5:6, 8). We have redemption through His death (1 Pet. 1:18-19).
How do we know this as a fact? Why should we put our trust in His death? How can we know for sure that the death of Jesus Christ is all-sufficient to cover all our sins? “He was delivered up because of our transgressions, and was raised because of our justification.” That is all the proof I need. The resurrection is God’s proof that He accepted the death of Jesus in my place. Because Jesus is alive I know beyond a doubt that a full payment for my sins has been made.
Such evidence as this demands that we respond to God by faith in Jesus Christ (Rom. 10:9-10, 13). It was by His substitutionary, vicarious death that Jesus turned the wrath of God aside and became the basis upon which God is able to justify the sinner who believes.
“Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God” (Romans 5:1-2).Selah!
Message by Wil Pounds (c) 2006 Anyone is free to use this material and distribute it, but it may not be sold under any circumstances whatsoever without the author’s written consent.
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