“Thou hast laid me into the lowest pit” (Ps. lxxxviii:6).
“Thy wrath lieth hard upon me” (Ps. lxxxviii:7).
“Thy fierce wrath goeth over me” (Ps. lxxxviii:16).
“I suffer Thy terrors” (Ps. lxxxviii:15).
But what it all meant for the Son of God! Who can tell out His sorrow and deep affliction? Never shall we fully discover the greatness of the price which was paid. The death of the cross, it has been truly said, stands perfectly alone. It can never be repeated and because of its eternal efficacy, will never need to be repeated.
It is Finished.
And this great work He came to do, is finished. “It is finished!” thus He spoke on the cross and the words assure us that all is done. The rent veil and the open tomb tell us “It is finished.” But what has been accomplished in this blessed work? We cannot fully grasp it now as long as we look into a glass darkly. When at last we are brought into His Presence, transformed into His own image, when we shall have share with Him in His glorious inheritance, when at last sin and death are no more and a new heaven and new earth are called into existence, then shall we more fully know what that work has accomplished. All, ALL we have and are, all we shall have and shall be as His own, has its blessed source in the cross of Christ.
He died for all. He gave Himself a ransom for all. He tasted death for every man. He is the propitiation for the whole world (not for the sins of the whole world, else the whole world would be saved). It means His work is available to all sinners. Upon that fact that He died for all, the Gospel is preached to lost and guilty sinners. Christ died for the ungodly. “Whosoever will”—“Whosoever believeth,” these are the precious conditions of the Gospel of Grace which sounds forth from the finished work of Christ on the cross. And all who believe on Him and accept the Lord Jesus Christ as their Saviour, for them He bore their sins on the cross. Each believing sinner can look back to the cross and can say, “He loved me, He gave Himself for me.” He paid my debt. He bore my sins in His own body on the tree. He stood in my place. He was my substitute. He tasted death for me.
Much of the evil teachings of the present day, such as universal salvation, larger hope, millennial dawnism, etc., emanate from the fact that propitiation and substitution are not correctly understood. Propitiation is the Godward side of the sacrifice of Christ, with this God is satisfied. The propitiation is for the whole world. This does not mean that the whole world is therefore to be saved. He bore the sins of many—not the sins of all. He was the substitute on the cross only for such who believe on Him.
And what do we possess who have believed on Him, own Him as our Saviour and our Substitute? Many Scriptures might be read in answer to this question. We cannot do so, but shall mention briefly a few things which all believing sinners share on account of the finished work of Christ on the cross.