I recently beefed up my blog "Does Scripture Say Baptism Is Necessary to Be Saved?" with much more Scripture in response to the many negative comments on social media. While some readers may be permanently entrenched in their view that baptism is necessary to salvation, those who are open to the biblical teaching to the contrary will benefit from this revision. But at the same time I developed more clearly my belief in how central and important baptism really is, and how every Christian should obey the command to be baptized.
On to today's blog: As you read these quotes on Christ’s sacrifice (excerpted from my book It’s All About Jesus), remember that the Cross was no afterthought. God planned it from before the world’s beginning and foretold it centuries in advance. While we have no choice but to suffer in this life, Jesus did have a choice and elected to suffer for our sins so we don’t have to in eternity. Words cannot capture the shocking nature of Christ’s redemptive work.
Telling Him thank you is not nearly enough. But it is at least a place to begin.
“I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep.” John 10:14-15 ESV
Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. John 15:13 NIV
God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. Romans 3:25 NIV
He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Romans 8:32 ESV
Let love be your guide. Christ loved us and offered his life for us as a sacrifice that pleases God. Ephesians 5:2 CEV
In all human history, who has paid the highest price for evil and suffering? Poll a hundred people on this question, and only a few would come up with the right answer: “Jesus.” Randy Alcorn
In Abraham’s case, God provided a substitute for Isaac, a ram caught by its horns in the bushes. But there could be no substitute when Jesus offered his life as the sacrifice for the sin of all humanity. On the cross, God’s own Son took upon himself the Father’s wrath against all sin for all time. The Knowing Jesus Study Bible
For Christ to be the propitiation for our sins means that He became the sacrifice upon which God’s wrath against sin was brought. Some object to this because they claim if the Father brought our punishment on Jesus it sounds like divine child abuse. But it isn’t, because Jesus, God’s Son, is not a helpless child but eternally God, and He fully consented to this plan. Randy Alcorn
Who delivered up Jesus to die? Not Judas, for money; not Pilate, for fear; not the Jews, for envy—but the Father, for love! Octavius Winslow
The fact that Jesus had to die for me humbled me out of my pride. The fact that Jesus was glad to die for me assured me out of my fear. Timothy Keller
Think as little of yourself as you want to, but always remember that our Lord Jesus Christ thought very highly of you—enough to give Himself for you in death and sacrifice. A.W. Tozer
He loves us in our sin. Only such a view of love correctly appreciates the sacrifice of Christ and respects the infinite chasm between what is deserved and mercy. Jim Elliff
Do not refuse the Lord Jesus who knocks at your door; for He knocks with a hand which was nailed to the tree for such as you are. Charles Spurgeon
Christ was utterly innocent, yet because He took our sins on Himself, He became temporarily damned on our behalf. Not damned forever, but damned on the cross so He experienced Hell on our behalf. Unthinkable. Inconceivable. And yet it happened… for us. Randy Alcorn
If we again ask the question: “Why does God allow evil and suffering to continue?” and we look at the cross of Jesus, we still do not know what the answer is. However, we know what the answer isn’t. It can’t be that he doesn’t love us. It can’t be that he is indifferent or detached from our condition. God takes our misery and suffering so seriously that he was willing to take it on himself. Timothy Keller
Christ’s scars will remain forever. The only one who will appear less than perfect in eternity will be the eternally Perfect One. Randy Alcorn
Photo by Wim van 't Einde on Unsplash
