Redemption Beyond Forgiveness Alone
- Michael E.B. Maher
- 19 hours ago
- 6 min read
Galatians 4:4-5 “But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, (5) to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.”
The salvation of mankind cannot take place through the forgiveness of sins alone. Under the Old Covenant the sins of the saints could be forgiven. And so if it was possible for men to be saved through only the forgiveness of sins, then it would have been possible for the saints under the Old Covenant to be saved. But in order for men to be saved, the nature of their spirits has to be changed once again. For if our spiritual natures are not changed then once our sins are forgiven we will simply continue to commit sin, for that is the nature of the one who is spiritually dead. Don’t misunderstand me; part of salvation is that our sins must be forgiven (Ephesians 1:7), but in order for men to be saved, God had to deal with both the sin of man and also the sin nature of man. And so God dealt with the sin of man through Jesus Christ our Lord, for it is the blood of Christ that cleanses us from all our sins. But the second part of what Jesus did for us on the cross also had to take place, in that God was able to change the sin nature of man through Jesus Christ our Lord. So how did God accomplish that? We have seen in the previous section that mankind was legally held captive by Satan in spiritual death. And so in order for God to be able to legally free mankind from the kingdom of darkness, Jesus Christ had to become our substitute i.e. our ransom. The passage of scripture quoted above reveals to us that Jesus Christ was born under the law, and the reason He was born under law was so that He could redeem mankind who was also under law. We have already established that everyone born under the law dies in spirit the moment they commit sin. And so just like all men, because Jesus was born under the law, if ever He committed any sin He would also die spiritually.
2 Corinthians 5:21 “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
Jesus as the Son of Man however, lived a sinless life on the earth, for the scriptures teach us that He was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin (Hebrews 4:15). Nevertheless at the end of His life on the earth things changed, for the above quoted passage of scripture reveals to us that He who knew no sin was made to be sin for us. So how did that happen? This passage tells us that God the Father made His Son to become sin. And so when God made Jesus to be sin, He took the sin of the world and placed that upon His Son Jesus Christ. This passage goes on to say that God did that; so that He would be able to make us the righteousness of God in Christ, for don’t forget that Jesus did this as our substitute i.e. our ransom.
Hebrews 2:9 “But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone.”
Because Jesus was under the law when He became sin, His spirit died. And so it was actually the sin of the world that killed Jesus’ spirit, and because it was our sin that killed Jesus’ spirit, Jesus in fact died our death as our substitute. When Jesus took upon Himself the sin of the world, Satan and his angels were deceived into thinking that Jesus had in fact committed sin. And so when Jesus died in spirit, Satan thought that He now fell under his authority, and for a brief period of time that was true, for the above quoted passage of scripture reveals to us that when Jesus suffered death for us that He was made lower than the angels. The angels referred to in this passage of scripture are in fact Satan and his angels, for before Jesus went to the cross, Satan held the keys to both Death and Hades because Death and Hades were part of his kingdom (Revelation 1:18). And so in death, Jesus was held under Satan’s authority, but not for the reason that Satan thought.
2 Corinthians 5:14-15 “For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; (15) and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.”
In the above quoted passage of scripture the Holy Spirit reveals to us that Jesus died for all, and because Jesus died for all, all have therefore died. The Holy Spirit is not speaking about physical death in this passage, because if that were the case then all have died physically and physical death has been done away with. But we know that is not true because it is appointed by God for men to die once (physically) and then after that the judgement (Hebrews 9:27). And so although Jesus died physically on the cross He did not incur our physical death, for all men still die physically. But rather the physical death of Christ condemned sin in the flesh, which relates to this present life and does not relate to the spirit of man (Romans 8:3). No rather, the Holy Spirit is speaking about spiritual death in this passage. In other words Jesus died in spirit for all. Notice that Jesus did not die for Himself, for He had committed no sin. So, not only did Jesus become our sin, but He also died our spiritual death.
Romans 6:3-8 “Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? (4) Therefore, we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. (5) For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, (6) knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. (7) For he who has died has been freed from sin. (8) Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him.”
And so as revealed in the above quoted passage of scripture, what God was able to do through Jesus, was to immerse all who believe, into the spiritual death that Jesus died. Which is why this passage teaches us that we have been baptised (immersed) into His death. So, what spiritual death did Jesus incur for us? For when the scripture teaches us that Jesus died for all and therefore all have died, it means that all no longer have to incur this particular death. We know that Jesus could not have incurred the death of our spirits when we commit sin at the age of thirteen, for all men still incur that death. The above quoted passage of scripture reveals what death Jesus died for us, for it tells us that our old man was crucified with Christ, and that it was our old man that died with Christ. Our old man is the spiritually dead man that we all had before we were saved. In other words when that spiritually dead man died with Christ, he died a second spiritual death. And so whereas Christ died His one and only spiritual death, those whom God baptised into Christ’s death, died their second spiritual death.
Michael E.B. Maher
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