The Doctrine of Christology – the Work of Christ

Last time we explored the Person of Christ, so now we move on the work that Christ did and is still doing.

Christ’s work was salvation. But it’s so much more than saving us, more than just for you and me to say, “I believe that Jesus is my Savior”, or simply asking Jesus into our hearts. The work of Christ is ultimately to unite us to himself – and in that union with Christ we are forgiven, redeemed, reconciled, adopted, justified, sanctified and glorified.  

In the course “Introduction to Systematic Theology; Lecture 6: Christology, the Work of Christ”, Dr. Scott Swain nicely packages up the work of Christ as Atonement + Enthronement = Saving Mission.  Under atonement we see redemption accomplished: “It is finished.”  Under enthronement we see redemption applied: all the benefits he earned are bestowed upon us!  Geerhardus Vos says, “There is no gift that has not been earned by him. Neither is there a gift that is not bestowed by him.” Isn’t that thought provoking! We do nothing. Zilch. Nada. Jesus earns it, Jesus gives it. Praise the Lord!

Why do we need Christ’s work at all? 

We need to go right back to the beginning for that answer. Genesis 1-3.  Moses gives us the account of Creation by our Trinitarian God. All is good as He created it. He created Adam and then realizing that he needed an “ezer” (Hebrew for helper/warrior, and the description God uses for Himself), he created Eve for Adam. They were given the command to be fruitful and to multiply and fill the earth, and to be stewards of creation by subduing it and caring for it.  Adam and Eve are God’s image bearers.  They are also our first parents and thus our representatives. And, well, if you know the story of the Bible, you know they failed and fell into sin by believing the serpent over God, by desiring to be autonomous over themselves, to be higher than God.  And consequently, plunged the entire human race into a state of utter corruption. But God! Genesis 3:15 – the first gospel – or ‘protoevangelium’ – God promises to send a Savior to restore us to Himself.  A Messiah!  And from Genesis 3:16 to Matthew 1:1 we see the history of God’s people and how he is working out his plan of redemption. We see God’s people constantly wondering whether that or this son born would be the Messiah. Ultimately. that plan of redemption, the Messiah, was Jesus. 

Man sinned, and only man can fully pay the debt we owe this Mighty Creator God. But we’re sinful. Blemished. Unholy. Unable to not sin. We needed a representative to help.  In the time before Creation – that is, from all eternity, the Trinitarian God planned salvation whereby the Eternal Son would become flesh – one of his creatures like us – to pay the debt we could not pay.  As we learned last time, he was the perfect God-Man who was unblemished, holy, completely righteous, unable to sin who came to live the perfect life of obedience we could not, and who died for our sins.  That’s what we needed.  As the Scripture says, “For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.” (1 Corinthians 15:22, ESV).  Jesus Christ is the true and better Adam; he accomplished what Adam – and we, could not.

Sin separated us from God and brought death.  But Jesus’s death on the cross brings us needed reconciliation. Literally, our sin nature was crucified on the cross with him.

Let’s look at all the ways Christ worked for us:

Jesus is the propitiation for our sins. 

1 John 2:2 – “He himself is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours, but also for those of the whole world.”

Propitiation is a sacrificial offering that turns away God’s wrath toward sin.  In the Old Testament these were the animal sacrifices that were offered day in and day out for the sins of the people.  You see, God’s justice doesn’t allow for sin just to go unnoticed.  His holiness and righteousness, his Otherness, his transcendence, his glory – all of that says that God needs to punish sin.  If he didn’t – if he just let it go, he would not be a just or good God. We wouldn’t want someone who has committed a criminal act against us to go unpunished.  Jesus became sin for us.  He turned God’s wrath away!! 

John 4:10 – “Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.”

(You can read a few blog posts previous about the doctrine of “penal substitutionary atonement” which goes into more depth.)

Jesus is our Expiation

There’s another term we use in explaining Christ’s work, and that is expiation. Expiation is the work of making right a wrong. As I just wrote, in God’s justice – in our justice system – a wrong must be made right. Jesus did this! He has made right all the wrongs we ever did, do or will do.  How?  By his suffering and death on the cruel cross – and by his resurrection.  In Jesus’s work, God the Father is satisfied. And we are free.

Jesus is our Redemption/Redeemer

Redemption.  How do we describe this?  The concept of redeeming something is winning or trading something to get something else back. Like a ransom payment.  When a child is kidnapped, the kidnappers demand ransom money in order for the parents to get their child back – and so they pay the ransom. Mary Wiley compares it to trading in a slew of tickets to get a prize at a fair or arcade. What did Jesus do? He traded himself.  His traded his righteousness – for our unrighteousness.  He took our sins, and he gave us his righteousness. He became our substitute – which is the view that Jesus bore the penalty of sin for us all by dying on the cross.  We rightfully belong on a cross, we rightly earn the penalty of eternal condemnation.  The penalty for sin is death. But Jesus died and gave us his life and wholeness!  No other religion in the world has such a pathway of salvation. No other savior or god offers this love.

Jesus is our Reconciliation

We receive this free gift of salvation – forgiveness of all our sins, made right in the presence of God as if we had never sinned.  What does this mean?  Reconciliation!

Romans 5:10 – “For if, while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, then how much more, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life.”

1 Peter 3:18 – “For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring you to God. He was put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit.”

Because Jesus took on our humanity, because the Creator became a creature like us in every way, he has redeemed AND reconciled us to God. Jesus lived obediently on our behalf since we couldn’t. He obeyed perfectly the laws of God, fulfilling all righteousness because we couldn’t.  What a great God!! He looked at us with compassion, loved us so incredibly deeply, that he made the way possible in the sacrifice of the Eternal Son.  On our behalf, he lived, was crucified, died, was buried.  But he also rose from the dead, ascended into Heaven and is glorified – enthroned forever!  And all he has done is ours. You and I both were crucified with him. We both died with him, were buried with him, AND were resurrected and glorified with him. We are reconciled to God forever.

Jesus is our Adoption

All this means another amazing aspect of Christ’s work. Through him, in him, we are adopted as sons and daughters of the Heavenly Father.  We’re no longer sinners separated by an unfathomable chasm from the God of the universe.  We are his children.  He loves us with a love we cannot comprehend. He delights over us. Sings over us. He tells us to come to him boldly and confidently – says, “Approach my throne of grace and mercy! I will not turn you away. Come, my child!”  And we respond with joy, “Abba! Father!” Adoption. We are brothers and sisters of Jesus.  He is the One True Son who inherits all from his Father.  And because we are adopted fully into his family, we are co-heirs with Jesus Christ.  All that is his, is ours!  His name is our name. His glory is our glory.  Oh, the wonder of it all!

Union with Christ

How?  How?  Here is the umbrella over everything – over justification, sanctification, forgiveness, redemption, reconciliation, salvation, glorification: our Union with Christ.  All of this is made possible because we are united with him. Being in him describes the location of our salvation and our location after salvation.  This is about our reconciled relationship to God. It’s our relationship to Christ when we believe.  Ephesians 1:3 – 14 is the quintessential passage about our union with Christ.  The phrase “in Christ” (in him) is used 9x!

“Praise be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will – to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has feely given us in the One he loves.  In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding, he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment – to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ. In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, in order that we, who were the first to put our hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory. And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession – to the praise of his glory.”  (in all 5 chapters, “in Christ, or in him” is used 20x).  Yes, Paul was really pushing us to see the beauty of our union with Christ!

Jesus Christ is perfect. Jesus is righteous. Jesus is holy. Jesus is seated in the heavenly realms.

And all that is true of us.  We do live in the “already and not yet”.  We are waiting for the fullness of salvation when Jesus returns on the clouds of heaven. Then there will be the resurrection from the dead. We will all be changed in the twinkling of an eye!  Our mortal bodies will be made like his immortal body. We will be unable to sin as he is unable to sin.  We will be perfectly holy and righteous on that day and forever!!

Jesus is our Victory

Jesus is the victor over evil, sin, death, and the devil.  His victory is yours and mine! And even in this life as we dwell in our sinful bodies, in a sinful broken state, that victory gives us his power to choose not to sin.  The Holy Spirit’s indwelling in our hearts gives us the ability to turn away and gain victory over Satan and sin. I think sometimes we do not realize the power we do have.  The victory we have in Christ isn’t just a pie in the sky kinda thinking.  No, it’s real. True. In his power, we are empowered to beat sin.

Jesus Christ’s work began in heaven and carried over into the womb of a poor peasant girl in Nazareth. Philippians 2: 5-8 give us an understanding of what he did.  I’ll use the NLT:

“You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on the cross.”

In becoming one of us, Jesus left behind the riches and the privileges of heaven in all its splendor and glory and exchanged it all for poverty, for a dirt floor, for humiliation, for the weakness of being a person. He cried, hurt, sorrowed, was humiliated, washed his disciples’ feet, taught through his exhaustion, healed while he was desperately needing food and drink.

Mary Wiley says, “What we see is self – restraining, to be God in the confines and limits of human flesh in a way no other person could ever do.”  And all of it perfectly.  He did not give up his deity – I went into more detail about this in the Person of Christ post. 

Jesus is Exalted and our Intercessor

After he died, rose again and ascended into heaven we see the final 2 works of Christ – his Exaltation and his ongoing work of Intercession.  His is a cosmic exaltation, a coronation like no other!  Here is the Eternal Son of God, having achieved and accomplished our salvation, reigning as King of kings, and Lord of lords in heaven, enthroned on high, and given the name above all names – Lord. Kurios. God of salvation.  He is Ruler Supreme.  He has all the authority and power the universe could hold. And although he has accomplished the work he was sent to do on earth for our salvation, he now continues his work of interceding for us before the Father. He stands there and says, “She is mine. He’s mine. I died for her. He belongs to me.”  Isn’t that incredible?  Doesn’t this make you want to sing and dance and shout for joy?  (if you could see me now – I’m not actually leaping for joy, but my heart is overflowing with love for my God!)

A Final Note- an Analogy

There is one final aspect of the work of Christ that I want to talk about. Exodus. How I love the book of Exodus! I fell in love with that book when the ladies Bible study group I’m in did Jen Wilkin’s study “Exodus – God of Deliverance”.  You want to know what redemption and salvation is? The exodus of Israel out of Egypt is THE story.  Jen will also tell you that Exodus is a birth narrative – which is connected to re-birth and our redemption, however, that’s a topic for another time.

We see in the story of the exodus God’s plan of redemption being made visible. In Genesis we are told all about God’s covenant love for Israel – a covenant love that we, the Church, still have with God. He is still our God, and we are still his people. In Exodus, we see God redeeming His covenant people out of slavery in Egypt.  This is a story that foreshadows the coming of Christ!

They receive redemption from slavery.  We receive redemption from slavery to sin.

Their redemption occurred through the shedding of blood – the Passover lamb. The presence of the lamb’s blood on the doorposts of the houses saved the first-born sons from death, and heralded the actual exodus out of Egypt.  We receive redemption through the shedding of blood – Jesus – the Paschal Lamb.

They are redeemed, brought out to be God’s children.  The Creator God adopted them as his own!  In our redemption Christ gave us freedom from slavery to sin and thus we are adopted children of God!

Israel also receives the inheritance of the Promised Land – part of the covenant God made with Abraham in Genesis. Why did God do this? To dwell with them! First in the Tabernacle, and later in the Temple when they have conquered the land. As God’s children, we receive the inheritance that is Christ’s! And our dwelling with God is even more personal than Israel experienced. We have Immanuel – God with us! Through redemption – we have union with Christ. We are in him. He is in us.

Paul uses the imagery of Exodus to teach the people in the church of Galatia. He uses those same words to explain how we are redeemed through the work of Christ. In Galatians 3: 10-14, Paul tells them and us that we were all under the law (as Israel was), but that could never make us right with God. Christ, however, redeemed us (exodus!) from the curse of the law, by becoming a curse. And in Galatians 4: 4-7, we see Paul using the words redeem, adoption and inheritance.  In his incarnation, Jesus was born under the law to redeem us who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons and daughters, that we might no longer be slaves, and instead be sons and daughters who receive an inheritance in Christ!

You can see how closely linked the Person and Work of Christ is. One cannot be without the other. And the doctrine of Christology is inseparable from the doctrine of Salvation. Praise be to God for the salvation we have been given through our Savior Jesus Christ!

Grace and Peace

Galatians 3:10-14: “For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, ‘Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.’ Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for ‘The righteous shall live by faith.’ But the law is not of faith, rather ‘The one who does them shall live by them.’ Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law be becoming a curse for us – for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree’ – so that in Christ Jesus the blessings of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.”

Galatians 4: 4-7: “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons and daughters. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts crying, ‘Abba! Father!’ So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.”

Resources:

Wiley, Mary: Course “Theology 101, Session 6 ‘Jesus’ and Session 8, ‘Salvation’

Dr. Swain, Scott: Course “Introduction to Systematic Theology, Lecture 6, The Doctrine of the Work of Christ.”

Grudem, Wayne: Systematic Theology