Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. - Romans 5:9
Justification and salvation: Two acts which man is ultimately unable to provide for himself. Two acts which had to come through the one mediator between God and men, Jesus Christ (1 Timothy 2:5). Just as surely as there could be no resurrection without crucifixion, there could be no salvation without justification. “For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul.” - Leviticus 17:11. Atonement for our sins demanded that blood be shed..
Many will tirelessly argue that a merciful loving God would never make such a horrendous demand of His only begotten Son. And a less than holy god probably would not, but our God is a holy God and His holiness cannot bear the mere sight of sin. “You are of purer eyes than to behold evil, and cannot look on wickedness.” - Habakkuk 1:13(a). Our God demands atonement. And not just any atonement, but the perfect lamb of God. Enter Jesus Christ.
The sacrifice always demanded a lamb that was spotless without blemish, a perfect lamb. And the perfect life of obedience that Jesus lived was evidence of His spotless life, a life without the blemish of sin. His was perfect obedience, and to this spotless and sinless life God Almighty would transfer our sins.
“For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” - 2 Corinthians 5:21. This was the effect of the crucifixion: Christ bore our sins and to us was imputed Christ’s righteousness. We are justified by His blood. God laid all the sins of mankind on Christ while God then attributed Christ’s righteous obedience to us. But this was just one aspect of our ultimate salvation.
After the shedding of His holy blood, Christ Jesus died and was buried. If our story ended here there would be no honor, no glory, no eternal bliss in heaven, no salvation - just a Messiah . . . dead and buried.
“Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, but also for us. It shall be imputed to us who believe in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification.” Romans 4:23-25. We are forgiven our sins, justified by the blood of Jesus Christ, and saved from eternal condemnation. In Christ’s rising we find our eternal salvation by belief and faith in Christ alone! The cross was for our justification; the open grave was for our salvation. We simply could not have the latter without the former!
This Resurrection Sunday, may we all give thanks to God Almighty for His unmerited grace to us - an undeserved grace that saves us from what we truly deserve; a grace that gives us eternal salvation through the cross and resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
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