Derek Prince - The Cross Is An All Sufficient Sacrifice
This is an excerpt from: The Cross At The Center - Part 1
I want to give you a number of different reasons why we need the cross at the center, why nothing else must ever be allowed to take the place of the cross in the church in general, and in our own lives in particular. I'm going to present to you six aspects of the cross, three in this session and three in the session to follow.
First of all, let me explain for the benefit of possibly some people who are confused, what I mean by the cross. I realize for people with certain backgrounds the cross is a piece of wood or metal that they hang around their necks or that they put on the wall of the church. I want to say I'm in no sense criticizing that, I can perfectly accept it. In fact, in some of the circles in which I move in strongly anti-Christian social environments I always am glad to see somebody with the cross around their neck because it has a lot to say in that environment. But when I talk about the cross that's not what I'm talking about. When I talk about the cross I'm talking about the sacrifice that Jesus made of Himself upon the cross, His sacrificial death, and all that it accomplished for us. But rather than use all those phrases again and again I condense it to the phrase 'the cross.'
The first aspect of the cross that I want to present to you is that it represents one perfect all sufficient sacrifice. This is stated in Hebrews 10:14. Excuse me. For by one sacrifice he [that is Jesus or God]... For by one sacrifice He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified. What the writer is saying is by His sacrificial death on the cross, Jesus made... Excuse me. After about the first two hours it gets better. Jesus made total, perfect, all sufficient provision for every need of every human being at any time and in any place forever. He never would have to do it again. If you read the preceding verses the writer is contrasting the priests of the Old Covenant with Jesus as the priest who offered Himself as a sacrifice. And he says about the Old Testament priests they never sat down.
They always remained standing because their job was never finished. They could offer any number of sacrifices but always another sacrifice was going to be needed. But then he says about Jesus: But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sin forever, sat down at the right hand of God. Why did He sit down? Because He was never going to have to do it again. By one sacrifice He had made total perfect provision for every need of every human being. The nature of the sacrifice is prophetically described 700 years before it took place in the prophet Isaiah, chapter 53, this great preview of the atonement of Jesus. Although Jesus is not named, He is the only one that answers this description.
In verse 6 Isaiah says: All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned everyone to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him [that is on Jesus] the iniquity of us all. That's the problem of the whole human race. It's one thing we all have in common. We may be Europeans or Americans, Russians or Asians or Africans, it doesn't make any difference. This statement applies to all of us, all we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned everyone to his own way. We have turned our back on God and His requirements and gone our own way. The Bible here calls that iniquity. That is a very strong word. I think the best most helpful modern translation would be rebellion. God has made to meet on Jesus the rebellion of the whole human race. But that word that's translated rebellion also means the evil consequences and the punishment for rebellion.
And that's why it is a perfect sacrifice. Because, God visited upon Jesus the rebellion of all of us, all its evil consequences and all the judgment that was due to it. In very simple language the truth is this: All the evil due by justice to us came upon Jesus that all the good due to the sinless obedience of the Son of God might be made available to us. Very, very simply, all the evil came upon Jesus that all the good might be made available to us. That's all that Jesus needed to do. He did it all by that one sacrifice. In Isaiah 53:10 the prophet takes this picture one step further and says: Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise [or crush] him; he has put him to grief; when you make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.
There, incidentally, is a clear prediction of the resurrection of Jesus. Because in the previous verses it has stated that His life was taken from Him. So, when it says 'he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days', that could not be without His resurrection. But it says there that God made the soul of Jesus the sin offering or the guilt offering for the entire human race. This is something that our human, finite minds cannot really comprehend. That when Jesus was on the cross, I believe personally, our sicknesses and our pains were visited upon His body. But our sin came upon His soul. And His perfectly righteous holy soul was made sin with our sinfulness. And by that sacrifice He carried away our sin.
See, the whole Bible has one consistent message. There's only one remedy for sin it's a sacrifice. And every sacrifice of the Old Testament looks forward prophetically to the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. But by that one sacrifice He removed sin forever. Really, it's important in this context to study the epistle to the Hebrews. The writer of Hebrews says about the sacrifices of the Old Testament in those sacrifices there was a reminder again made every year of sins. But they could not take away sins.
Take, for instance, the chief sacrifice of Israel, the sacrifice of the Day of Atonement. It was only valid for one year. It did not take away sin, it covered sin. It covered sin for the year till the sacrifice was due again. In a sense, it was a reminder of sin. Every year they were reminded you've got to deal with the sin issue. They could only deal with it for one year. But then the writer of Hebrews says that Jesus put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. Consequently, no more sacrifice is needed for sin.
Paul interprets this in 2 Corinthians 5:21. Many Christians reading that verse in the New Testament would not immediately understand that Paul is quoting Isaiah 53:10. You only understand that when you realize that according to the law of the Old Testament sacrifices the animal sacrificed was identified with the sin of the person who sacrificed it. So, when Jesus was sacrificed on the cross He was identified with our sin. And Paul expresses it like this in 2 Corinthians 5:21: For God made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in him. You see the very simple exchange but very profound. God made Jesus to be sin with our sinfulness that in return we might be made righteous with His righteousness. That's God's remedy for sin, there is no other.
I think it would bless us and help us all if we were to say that. If you're a believer in the Bible, a believer in Jesus, then whether you've ever realized it or not before, these words are true. I'll say them phrase by phrase, you say them afterwards. Are you ready? God made Jesus to be sin with our sinfulness that we might be made righteous with His righteousness. All right. Now just thank God quietly for that. Thank you, Lord.