What
Our Salvation Cost God
Matthew
27:1-50
I. Introduction -
A. Everything has a price! We all know that. People get money from the government every week, but it is not free - people work to pay the taxes so that that money could be given to people!
B. Now here it is the time the world calls “Easter.” And for some reason, the whole event of the crucifixion gets blurred, and people seek to replace the price paid at the cross with a bunny rabbit and Easter eggs!
C. Yet a price was paid there 2,000 years ago, and paid in full!
1. What price, and why?
2. How was it paid? And is it really all that important?
D. Today we are going to sample the events of the crucifixion, to see what really was the price that was paid on that old rugged cross.
II. Message - The Price of the Cross (Matthew 27:1-50)
A. Our Salvation Required Perfection (27:1-4) Behold the Son of God
1. We are born separated from God - because of sin in us - sinners!
2. God is holy and perfect, and pure, and just, and righteous! To get to God requires perfection. Sinners and God just don’t match!
3. So, because of our inability to fulfil this requirement, GOD stepped in and met it Himself - Since we couldn’t become like Him, He became like US!
a. Born of a virgin
b. Lived the only perfect and sinless life
c. He only healed, helped, loved, and did good while here on earth
d. Yet at the Passover, He was grabbed late at night, and brought to a mock-priest-court by a blood-thirsty mob led by Judas Iscariot, and condemned to die without any reason other than ENVY (Matt 27:18)!
e. Pilate’s wife knew Christ was innocent (27:19)
f. Pilate himself knew Jesus was innocent (27:23,24)
B. Our Salvation Required Substitution (27:15-17,20-26) Behold the Lamb of God (John 1:29)
1. This was the whole reason why Jesus came! To be OUR substitute
2. God’s Law had to be satisfied - sin had to be punished, or else God was not God!
3. Since every human is born a sinner, there was a limit to what we could be - we could never be perfect! Our sins would eternally separate us from the God who made us to live forever!
4. And what God did was take the place of EVERY last sinner on this planet, and took their punishement that THEY deserved! Christ took Barabbas’ cross (1 Pet 3:18, 21-24)!
Rom 5:6 For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.
5. Notice that the issue was not that Barabbas cleaned up his life, or that he start going to church, or that he said his prayers, but rather that he permitted a sinless Saviour to TAKE HIS PLACE on the cross that he deserved, so that he as a forgiven sinner could go free, no longer condemned!
C. Our Salvation Required Submission (27:27-31) Behold the Love of God!
1. He yielded. From the Garden of Gethsemane (Matt 26:39,53,54), all the way through the torture and agony of the cross, my Saviour YIELDED to the price that had to be paid for our redemption! Just like any parent would pay what ever price had to be paid to get their children back from a kidnapper, God came down in the flesh and paid it! Willingly, and wholeheartedly!
2. The priests had already beaten Christ all through the night!
3. Now, in the morning, a band of 600 soldiers gathers
a. Strip Him, hang Him by a rope and begin to whip him 39 times. With flesh lacerated, they robe Him like a king, and crown Him with thorns, beating the crown down with reeds!
b. Then they tear the robe back off of him, and send Him back up to Pilate a torn and twisted rack of flesh!
4. THEN they nailed Him to his cross (27:35) - And yet, He never cried out “I’m not guilty!” “This is not right!” He took everything they threw at Him. He took everything man could do to Him!
5. Then Jesus is mocked (27:39-43) - the humiliation of the Son of God - Really, if He was God’s Son, couldn’t He do something? Not if we were to be saved! To save others, He had to sacrifice His own life!
D. Our Salvation Required Completion (27:45-50; John 19:29,30) - It could not be only partially done, with the rest being left to us! Behold the Work of God!
1. The defeat of sin’s power
2. The defeat of Satan’s power
3. The satisfaction of God’s requirements
4. The job was done! Christ came to do a job, and to finish it! All of our eternity hanged on whether Christ would complete His task! And thank God He did!
5. There is nothing more for us to do than to accept it (John 1:11,12! Realize WHY He died (our sins), turn from those sins, and accept His payment as full and sufficient to save your soul!
6. Don’t let any religion tell you that Christ only paid for MOST of your sins, and that YOU have to somehow pay for the remainder - that is a slap in the Saviour’s face! That says that Christ was not good enough, and that somehow, we are “good enough!” We are the one’s that Christ came to die for! Don’t substitute His perfect payment with our efforts!
III. Conclusion - What Was the Price of Our Salvation?
A. Our Salvation Required Perfection Behold the Son of God
B. Our Salvation Required Substitution Behold the Lamb of God (John 1:29) This was the whole reason why Jesus came! To be OUR substitute
Rom 5:6 For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.
C. Our Salvation Required Submission Behold the Love of God! Christ submitted to the wrath of God poured out upon Him, that should have been poured out on us!
D. Our Salvation Required Completion (27:45-50; John 19:29,30) - It could not be only partially done, with the rest being left to us! Behold the Work of God! There is nothing more for us to do than to accept it! realize WHY He died (our sins), turn from those sins, and accept His payment as full and sufficient to save your soul!
Pastor
Craig Ledbetter
Bible Baptist Church Blarney
29 Westcourt Heights
Ballincollig, Cork, Ireland