The Finality of the Cross

Olympia National Park – October 2016 – photo by Greg Miller

 

The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.
—Romans 6:10 (NIV)

This verse is about the death and resurrection of Jesus. Notice the words “once for all”. What does that mean? Is it once for all time? Or does it mean He died once for all mankind? Why is “once” important? Why does Paul (the writer of this letter to Roman Christians) use “once”? What is it he was trying to convey? And what does it mean for us who are reading this 2,000 years later?

Let’s start with the overall picture. In this part of Paul’s letter, he is telling the new believers about how Christ conquered the power of sin. Earlier in this letter Paul writes:

He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.
—Romans 4:25 (NIV)

Paul lays out the purpose of the death and resurrection of Christ. Jesus died for our sins. And He was raised to life again for our justification. So the punishment for our sins was taken care of through the death of Jesus on the cross. And the “Guilty” verdict was removed by means of the resurrection of Jesus. We have been declared “Not Guilty”. That is our justification.

And in the words of Jesus:

“Don’t misunderstand why I have come. I did not come to abolish the law of Moses or the writings of the prophets. No, I came to accomplish their purpose.
—Matthew 5:17 (New Living Translation)

Do you see what Jesus himself said? The whole of the Law of Moses and all the Prophets point to the Christ, the chosen one. All Scripture up to the time of Jesus points to Him!

And what did Jesus say on the cross while dying?

When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
—John 19:30

“It is finished” means that every item on God’s to-do list for Jesus was completed. All of the Old Testament that pointed to the Messiah culminated in these words of Jesus on the cross. It is finished. There is nothing more that needs to be done. It has been completed. And now we return to “once for all”.

Paul wants to convey that Jesus conquered the power of sin in a single act that occurred in one point in time in the past. And that act was so perfect and complete that it is not necessary to ever be repeated again, for all eternity.

Now for the geeky stuff. Paul uses the an emphatic word for “once for all”. It’s actually a compound word that adds intensity to the normal word for “once”. As you may have already guessed, “once for all” here refers to time. You could say something like this to get what I think Paul meant: “once and only once, for all eternity”. And one could easily imply that such an emphasis on a one-time act implies that it will never again be repeated. There is more support for this. The Greek verbs often say more than what we have in a word-for-word translation to English. Here is the verse we began with my notes for emphasis in brackets:

The death he died [at one point in time in the past], he died [at one point in time in the past] to sin once [and only once] for all [time]; but the life he lives, he lives to God.
—Romans 6:10 (NIV with my notes for emphasis in brackets)

This is a dramatic statement about the absolute finality of the once-for-all-eternity sacrifice of the Lord and Master of the Universe on our behalf. Stunning! But I’m not done with this. The writer of the letter to the Hebrews supports this strongly.

who does not need daily, like those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the sins of the people, because this He did once for all when He offered up Himself.
—Hebrews 7:27 (New American Standard Bible)

The pronoun “he” in this verse refers to Jesus Christ. The author of this letter also uses the same emphatic form of the word used to represent “once for all”. And he also makes use of the same combination of verb tense and mood (the “He did” as an action that occurred at one point in time in the past used just before the “once for all”) as Paul did in Romans 6:10. Additionally, in Hebrews 7:27 we can see the contrast between the daily sacrifices of earthly high priests and the one-time-for-all-eternity event of the sin offering of Jesus Christ.

Here is another passage from Hebrews:

He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption.
—Hebrews 9:12 (NIV)

The same dramatic combination words and verb tense and mood are found in this verse, Hebrews 9:12, too. The “he entered” refers to Jesus and emphasizes a simple occurrence of an action that happened at one point in time in the past.

25 Nor did he enter heaven to offer himself again and again, the way the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood that is not his own. 26 Otherwise Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But he has appeared once for all at the culmination of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself.
—Hebrews 9:25-26 (NIV)

The writer of the letter to Hebrews was referring to Christ in this passage. The normal Greek word for “once” is used here but it is still translated as “once for all” because of the context. No longer is it necessary for high priests to offer an annual sacrifice in the Holy of Holies for the sins of the nation. Christ’s one-time-act-for-all-eternity was enough to satisfy the absolutely holy demands of a supremely righteous God. That one-time action was enough to pay the entire penalty of sin for us all—for all eternity. It was enough to declare each and every one of us “Not Guilty”—forever.

This is the life we have “in Him”. It is by trusting completely that the blood of Jesus was enough to deliver us from a conviction of a “Guilty” verdict. And it was enough to pay the penalty of all of our sins…forever. Otherwise, He would still be going to the cross over and over again. It is accomplished with complete finality. Done with absolute certainty. And finished in absolute perfection. Christ left nothing undone or incomplete.

Thank you, Lord and Master of the Universe.
Thank you for you for your amazing, undeserved love and compassion.
Thank you for your unmerited favor.
I didn’t deserve any of this.
But you loved me more than judging my performance.
You loved me because you are love.
It is your character.
And it is in this love for me that you paid for the penalty of all my sins with a one-time-for-all-eternity act of love.
And you arose again to give me your stamp of approval—your righteousness—a judgment of not guilty…forever.
What amazing grace this is!
You took me as your own child.
You call me by your family name.
Your love is beyond my understanding!
Every day your grace is pursuing me.
Your grace is better than life.
Thank you that your grace is eternal. Everlasting. Without end.
I am grateful that your grace does not depend on what I do or do not do.
Your grace is not contingent on how I feel.
When I am happy, your grace is with me.
When I am sad, your grace is still there.
When I’m in a crowd, your grace surrounds me.
When I am all alone, your grace fills me with deep comfort.
When I’m in trouble you help me for the sake of your grace.
Thank you Lord for you matchless love!

Real Acceptance

If you’re like me, you’ve spent a lot of your life spinning your wheels trying to win the approval of others.  But that won’t get you very close to a real solution.  Oh, sure.  You may find some temporary acceptance.  Eventually that emotion will fade away.  And you’ll do it again.  And again.  And each time it will feel less and less satisfying.  Why doesn’t it work?

Everyone has a big hole in their hearts.  It’s got a unique shape to it.  You may try forcing things into that void like relationships, hobbies, self-help solutions, or just about anything you can think of.  But none of those fit the hole.  It’s a God-shaped hole.  And maybe you have tried by going to a Church, or volunteering for group, or giving to charity.  And all these things are great.  But they are not God.

Maybe you’ve had a bad experience at Church.  Or you feel you would never be good enough.  Or maybe you feel it’s just a place for deluded hypocrites.  Maybe you heard a preacher talk about God’s Wrath.  Or you had a Christian point out your shortcomings in a way that left you feeling guilty or condemned.

There is a big difference between the Old Testament and the New Testament.  Really, it’s an Old Contract and a New Contract.  Under the Old Contract man could not uphold his end of the deal.  The consequences for coming up short was a series of curses–legal, divine condemnation.  And no one was able to measure up.  As a result, the Old Contract was inadequate in that humans were incapable of keeping their end of the deal.  Enter the New Contract.

Jesus is the Son of God.  He came to earth as a human being.  He felt what we felt.  He was tempted like we were.  But He fulfilled the Old Contract by living a sin-free life–something no one else had ever done.  The Old Contract was nailed to the Cross in the man, Jesus Christ.  And Jesus gave himself up as a sin sacrifice for us.  He paid for our inadequacies.  He paid for our weaknesses.  He became the embodiment of sin on our behalf.  He wiped our slate clean.

But He didn’t stop there.  He was the Author and Mediator of a New Contract.  It was a contract where Jesus made a deal with God, the Father.  He covered for us.  He represented all of us.  So we get the benefits of this New Contract because of the perfect life and sacrifice of Jesus–not because of anything we do.

There is nothing you can do to make God love you any less.  There is nothing you can do to make God love you any more.

It is nothing we have to boast about except in what Christ did for us on our behalf.  It’s open and free to anyone.

In short, Jesus made a way for us to become righteous–to receive God’s divine approval.  He took our guilt and condemnation. All this is a free gift available to each and every one of us.  All we do is listen to the persuasion in our hearts, consent to receive his Love, and profess that Jesus is now Lord of our lives.  Need some scriptures?  Here you go:

John 3:16-17

2 Corinthians 5:16-21

Romans 10:9-10