A Sinners Death

 

1 Peter 3:18-20  For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit. 19 After being made alive, he went and made proclamation to the imprisoned spirits— 20 to those who were disobedient long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water, 

 

Jesus’ story is not only about the death of Jesus, but also about our own death. The Bible says all are sinners and the price for our sin is death. Death is the physical and spiritual curse that effects each and every person. We are all affected by sin and we are all dead to God. There is a barrier between you and God - sin, and it must be removed before you can have a personal relationship with God. The Bible talks about a sin offering to make things right between an individual and with God.

                       

There is another term for sin which can be translated “missing the mark”. There are lots of good deeds and many religions; new age stuff, cults, and rituals, but no matter how good it is or how happy we feel about it, or what others think about, it is all misses the mark unless it is faith and trust in Jesus Christ. He paid the price and the penalty. He didn't die in sin, but he died for sin. He is innocent, but He died because of sin in our own lives.

                       

Did you notice that, “once for all”?  Christ is not and cannot be crucified again according to the Bible. That's also why the temple veil was torn in two and the priests need not offer sacrifices any longer for the perfect sacrifice was paid. He completed the job and there is no more suffering that can be added by us or others to complete salvation's requirements.

                       

When A.J. Gordon was a pastor of a church in Boston, he met a young boy in front of the church carrying a rusty cage in which several birds fluttered. He discovered that the boy had trapped them out in the field and was going to play with them and feed them to his cat.  Gordon offered to buy them,

           

"Mister, you don't want them " he told him" They're just little old wild birds and can't sing very well."

           

"I'll give you $2 for the cage and the birds." "Okay, it’s a deal, but you're making a mistake."

           

Gordon walked around the back of the church property, opened the door and let the birds soar into the air.  The next Sunday he took the empty cage into the pulpit and used it to illustrate his sermon about Christ coming to seek and save the lost, paying for them with His own precious blood. "That boy told me the birds were not songbirds, but when I released them, they winged their way heavenward and it seemed to me they were singing, "Redeemed, redeemed, redeemed."

 

You and I have been held prisoners. We have been dead, but Christ’s death purchased our pardon and set us free.