A Sure and Effectual Savior

With the uncertainties of life, this one thing is sure. The LORD Jesus Christ took away the sins of His people in His death on the cross. “…but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.” (Hebrews 9:26) That means that whatever legal binding it had upon the sinner for whom Christ died has now been annulled, as in a debt written off- PAID IN FULL!

It is not conceivable in God’s high court that Christ should die for some who, in turn, will have to answer even for one sin. The apostle John wrote, “My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous...” (1 John 2:1) Would you make God an unjust judge in first punishing His Son for someone’s sins and then turning again to punish that sinner? The LORD Jesus Christ was appointed to bear the sins of many, not everyone, Hebrews 9:28. Although He was God Himself, He came into the world as a man and took upon Himself the form of a servant and bore those sins, not merely in sorrow but in death itself, even the death of the cross! [Philippians 2:7-10] He paid the ransom for His people and God’s justice is satisfied, therefore His people are justified in Him! As the hymn writer expressed it:

“Yea, justified, O blessed thought; And sanctified, salvation wrought.

Thy blood hath pardon bought for me, And now I am complete in Thee!”

Justification then is the sinner’s acceptance by God having been declared righteous by Christ's punishment on the cross as Substitute. Justification is uniquely by the effectual sacrifice of the LORD Jesus. Every sinner for whom He died was fully and freely justified when He died, Romans 4:25. His resurrection from the grave is proof that God the Father had forever justified those for whom Christ died. What a Gloriously Effectual Savior those sinners for whom He died have in Him!