WHAT HAPPENED AT CALVARY?

 WHAT HAPPENED AT CALVARY?

Here is where God the Holy Spirit brings lost sinners into a saving knowledge of God and causes them to turn from their idols to serve the true and living God. This is how the God of redemption identifies and distinguishes Himself from idols and calls on sinners to seek Him, to look unto Him and be saved (Isa. 45:20-25). When sinners savingly see how God can only justify them based on the righteousness of Christ, then they come by faith to the God who justifies the ungodly expecting salvation based on the righteousness of Christ according to His promise. Then they repent of ever imagining that they could have been saved based on any other ground (Phil. 3:7-10). A sinner must see this glory of God in order to be saved. This does not mean that a sinner must be able to express in theological terms each attribute of God and how it applies to salvation. It does mean that a sinner must see and know how God can be both a just God and a Savior, how God can be both just and justifier of the ungodly. A sinner must know that God can only save him, keep him, bless him, and glorify him, based on the imputed righteousness of Christ.

 At the cross of Christ we learn –

 A. The reality of sin –

 1. Legally, as we view sin imputed to Christ, we learn that wherever sin is imputed, God's law must pronounce a curse. God's law demands death wherever sin is imputed. Christ did no sin, knew no sin, He was holy, harmless, and undefiled (Luke 23:14,41; Heb. 7:26). Yet, when sin was charged to His account, God had to punish it in Him.

2. Morally, as we view fallen mankind, we see the essence of sin lies in the fact that fallen men love darkness and hate light (John 3:19-20; 7:7; Acts 4:26-28; Heb. 13:12-13). Why? It is because the "carnal mind is enmity against God" (Rom. 8:7). This shows that all men by nature are in state of guilt, condemnation, defilement, and unbelief, and all their efforts to save themselves are dead works. But by nature we refuse to believe this because we will not submit to God's standard of good and evil, of saved and lost. Fallen humanity judged Christ to be cursed of God. We as fallen humanity revealed our hatred of holiness when we crucified the Lord of Glory.

B. We learn the reality of righteousness --

1. That righteousness is the standard of judgment for all mankind (Acts 17:31) -- At the Judgment, sinners will not be compared with other sinners. They will be compared with Christ, and all who come short are sinners, and the wages of sin is death (Rom. 6:23). We must have a righteousness that answers the demands of God's law and justice, or we will perish. We cannot produce it. God the Holy Spirit cannot produce it through us. God sent Christ to produce it, and we must receive it by faith, by trusting that He has met all the conditions and that His righteousness is all we need as to the ground of salvation (Rom. 10:9-10).

B. That just as sin demands condemnation and eternal death, righteousness demands justification and eternal life. Just as where sin is imputed, death must be the result, where righteousness is imputed, life must be the result. Christ died, but He did not stay dead. God the Father brought Him out of the grace, because Christ satisfied law and justice. He paid the debt for His people. He drank damnation dry for them and provided the ransom price of righteousness that demands their full salvation and final glory (Rom. 4:23-25). The reality of righteousness teaches us that all for whom Christ lived, obeyed, and died, MUST BE SAVED.

 He cannot lose even one of them because He fulfilled all the conditions of their salvation. He provided a righteousness that enables a holy and just God to remain holy and just and still save sinners. All for whom Christ died shall be saved. They shall hear and believe God's Gospel and repent of dead works. They shall come to faith in Christ and repentance. 

Present day Golgotha

The false notion that He died for everyone conditionally (if they will believe) denies the reality of sin in that it makes salvation ultimately conditioned on the sinner, and it denies the reality of righteousness in that it says that even though Christ died for the sinner, that sinner may never be saved because he may never meet the condition of faith. It says that multitudes will perish even though Christ paid their debt and provided a righteousness for them. It says that His death alone, in and of itself, was not sufficient to accomplish their salvation. It says His death, His righteousness, His atonement, does not make the only difference between heaven and hell. It accuses God of being unfaithful and unjust because it says that even though God promised to save those who perish, He either could not or would not, and it says that God sends them to hell even though their debt was already paid by Christ. Such notions dishonor God and deny Christ, and sinners need to see this and reject such deadly error before it is too late.

C. We learn how God saves sinners.

1. The ground of salvation is the righteousness of Christ, the entire merit of His obedience and death on behalf of sinners. If you come to God on any other ground, you will perish. If you come to God on this ground alone, you shall be saved.

2. The instrument is the Gospel in the power of the Holy Spirit, and the means is by faith in Christ. This is seen in the example of the thief who was saved (Luke 23:42-43).

He was a guilty, hell-deserving sinner. In Matthew's account even this thief mocked Christ at first (Matt. 27:41-44). Had salvation or any part of it been conditioned on one such as this, he would have surely perished.


He was brought effectually under the Gospel. He was brought to understand who the man on the middle cross was - the Messiah sent of God to save His people from their sins. This thief was awakened to understand that this Person was the Lord our Righteousness.

He was brought to faith in Christ. His faith went above circumstances. What did this thief see with the physical eye? He saw a defeated, suffering, wretch, hanging on a cross. He saw a weak, helpless man (less than a man). What did he see with the eye of faith? He saw the Lord of Glory, the King of Kings who would be coming soon into His mediatorial kingdom. He saw the Savior. And recognizing His own sin, and realizing that sin brings condemnation and death, He turned to the only One who could save him and said, "Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom." This thief knew that Christ was fulfilling all the conditions of His salvation. He trusted in the righteousness of Christ as his only ground of salvation, and he rejected all else.

This is what every sinner needs to see, understand and believe. God has promised eternal salvation for every sinner, from a thief on the cross to a religious Pharisee like Saul of Tarsus, who comes to Him pleading the merits of the blood and righteousness of Christ. It is true that God chose a people before the foundation of the world and sent Christ to save them. It is true that Christ died for them alone and that they will be saved. But it is also true that they will hear and believe God's Gospel and repent of dead works. These truths do not bar you from heaven. These truths do not keep you from believing and repenting. These truths glorify God, exalt Christ, and exclude boasting in ourselves. 

These truths insure the salvation of sinners, because if God had not chosen some, and if Christ had not died for them alone, none would be saved. You are commanded right now to believe and repent, to receive the benefits of the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. Your are commanded to trust Him and His righteousness alone, and to reject all your works and efforts and experiences. If you refuse, you have no one to blame but yourself and your own natural hatred of this light of truth. But you have every reason to believe, because God is faithful to save sinners who believe and trust in Christ.Source:rofgrace.com

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