What Cost Christ? Part 1

When I first framed the question for this blog I had one idea in mind.  Then as I thought about the question I realized how many different ways that the question could be asked using the exact same words.  I am not even sure that the punctuation needs to be changed.  Then I thought about what order the questions might come in and there was an order to them.  But the first thought I had with the question wasn’t the first in order.  So let’s begin at the beginning.

What cost Christ?  What cost Christ what?  First we will consider what cost Christ His life?  Why did He have to die?  A major truth of Scripture is that “The wages of sin is death.”  Jesus never sinned.  Therefore Jesus never had to die.  So what cost Christ His life?

Paul wrote the Corinthians and said, “For He (God) made Him (Jesus) who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. (2 Cor. 5:21)  Jesus put on the cloak of our sin that we might be able to wear the cloak of His righteousness.  It was the great exchange and we came out ahead.  We turned from certain death to everlasting life and He, the Prince of Life, took on death for us.  But the Father declared Him righteous and He was raised from the dead so that all who believe in Him might also be raised from death to life.

So what cost Christ His life?  I did.  You did.  Everyone did.  But what would make someone make such a great sacrifice for us?  Love would.  “For God so loved the world,” Jesus said to Nicodemus.  “But God demonstrated His own love toward us that while we were in sin Christ died for us,” Paul said to the Romans. (5:8) Or as Jesus expressed it in John 15, “Greater love has no man than this that He would lay down His life for His friends.”  What cost Christ His life was the very essence of who He is – Love.  The love of the Triune God wrapped the Son of God in humanity so that He could pay the just cost for our sin, the cost of death.  Praise God He was willing to pay the cost.

It is great to pull out the hymnbook and look up the topic of God’s love.  One that really connects the ideas of His love and our sin together is “Love Lifted Me” by James Rowe.

I was sinking deep in sin, far from the peaceful shore

Very deeply stained within, sinking to rise no more

But the Master of the sea heard my despairing cry

From the waters lifted me, now safe am I

Love lifted me. Love lifted me.  When nothing else could help, love lifted me.

Love lifted me. Love lifted me.  When nothing else could help, love lifted me.  

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