The Receipt!
”Who
was raised again for our justification”
(Romans 4:25).
Do
you ever have doubts and fears about whether Jesus has saved you? You
are not sure if His blood has paid for you? If so, you can do no
better than to look at the receipt!
The receipt? …
What
is the receipt? …
Is the receipt the blood of Christ? …
No,
the blood is not the receipt. The blood was vital. It was the
currency used to pay our ransom, but it is not the receipt!
So,
what then is the receipt?
The receipt is THE RISEN CHRIST. God
has raised Him for (because
of)
our justification. This
does not mean that His resurrection justifies us. No indeed! He was
raised, not to justify us, but because we were already justified by
His saving acts at the cross.
Romans 5:9 tells us the we
were justified by His blood. Because of Christ’s work for
us,
we were given a new standing before God. His resurrection is proof
positive that the debt we owed has been paid in full! It is the
receipt.
I like what Barnhouse says, “It was our merited
condemnation that caused His death, and it was our accomplished
justification that caused His resurrection”
[Barnhouse:
Romans: Cpt 37: Delivered and Raised].
Christ
Jesus came into the world to save His people. He undertook to pay the
penalty earned by our sins; He endured the wrath of God. He died the
death and sustained the judgment we His people deserved. He died not
merely for us,
He also died instead
of us.
God’s Lamb took our sins and suffered as the innocent
substitute—the just for the unjust—that He might bring us to God
(1 Peter 3:18).
His
blood was that which paid our debt; but His resurrection and
exaltation declared that the Father is satisfied that the debt has
been paid. The resurrection was the receipt that the account had been
settled.
The
resurrection validated every claim Jesus ever made about Himself. He
is God in human flesh, the Way the Truth and the Life. The
resurrection confirms these and all other claims He made (see John
8:56–59; Exodus 3:14; John 5:18; John 14:6; John 14:9).
Christ
was raised from the dead and then ascended to heaven. We also will be
raised from the dead, (should we die before the Lord returns). On
what basis will we be raised from the dead? Because we have been
good? No! It is because the Father is entirely satisfied with Jesus.
He sees us in Jesus and all of Christ’s accomplishments and
perfections are reckoned as ours.
Jesus
arose,
Jesus ascended,
Jesus is seated in cosmic
authority.
What an amazing receipt!
His resurrection,
ascension and glorification can neither lie, nor change.
“The
everlasting God
In time a babe was born;
The lowly Jesus,
Son of Man,
In woe, in want, and scorn.
What works of love,
what words of grace,
He heralded afar;
And then He bled for
sinful men,
A dying Conqueror.
Now exalted on
the throne of God,
In majesty and might,
His name the
sinner's joyful plea,
The Father's full delight.
Messiah,
Lord, the Saviour-God,
The Bright and Morning Star;
Oh,
tell His triumph and His fame,
The Risen Conqueror.”
We
have our receipt!
Not only has Christ’s work of atonement been
accepted by the Father, but Christ Himself has also been accepted.
This is witnessed in His ascension and glorification
(1 Timothy 3:16). God has seated Him in the highest place
in heaven—at His own right hand, (the
term for the place of ultimate authority).
See
Ephesians 1:20-22; Philippians 2:9-11; Colossians 3:1. He is
there now as a glorified Man with all the favour and majesty of
God resting on Him.
What a wonderful receipt!
And
that’s the Gospel Truth!
-preacher
D. G. Miles McKee
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