Spiritual Sabbatical (Part 2): What happened on Calvary?

In Part One: Introduction of Spiritual Sabbatical, I laid out two reasons that are paramount for understanding why taking a break from God or religion is not possible. This is the second part of the series in which I will talk about the fall and its implications, thus the necessity for Calvary and ultimately the atonement for our sins. I will lay out what exactly happened on Calvary... In case anyone was wondering. How does it relate to us as believers or as potential believers, and our need in a Savior. Thereby creating a clearer image of why taking a break from God is impossible and quite frankly is in no ones best interests.

The one thing that I absolutely love about the Word of God is that everything points back to the beginning. To understand the end of the book, you must understand the beginning of the book. For instance, for us to understand why Calvary was so necessary, we must understand what happened in the beginning in the Garden with man's first sin. Genesis chapter three. As we begin this session, you can start by reading the chapter. 

What were the consequences of mans sin or ramifications of  the Fall? 

1. Loss of relationship - Our sin severed that channel of relationship.
2. Sin entered the world- thus we are condemned to death. The penalty of sin is death.

These two consequences were a direct result of mans desire for something that was forbidden. Our pride which desired to be like God. This was touched on in the first article. If you have not read it begin there. 

As a result of man's sin, God created different covenant relationahips throughout history starting with the noahic covenant, then the abrahamic covenant and then the mosaic covenant. Ultimately each covenant relationship that God made with the people of Israel failed until Christ died on the cross. So what was the  impact of Calvary... In simple terms?

1. Sin was paid for by a blood sacrifice - The Atonement - Propitiation which is a blood sacrifice that appeases the wrath of God.
2. Thus we are brought back into covenant relationship - Reconciliation & Redemption

What truly impacts me as a believer of Christ's sacrifice is when I began to internalize what Christ truly went through up there on the cross. Secondly by internalizing that immense pain and seperation I cognitively recognized that the pain and separation He felt up there was meant for the foulest of sinners, which is me. What did Christ endure on the cross? And how does it relate to us as sinners? Wayne Grudem, one of my favorite authors on Systematic Theology beautifully describes the four ways in which Christ suffered or as he put it, "The Nature of the Atonement." 

Jesus endured (in our place):

1. Physical pain & death: we deserve to die as the penalty for sin. " A criminal who was crucified was essentially forced to inflict upon himself a very slow death by suffocation." (Grudem, 75). There was nothing easy about a death by the cross. Men stayed up there sometimes for days, slowly suffocating to death. It was a brutal and grotesque way to die. 
2. The pain of bearing sin: We deserve to bear God's wrath against sin. Isaiah 53:6, 53:12, John 1:29, 2 Cor. 5:21, Gal 3:13, Heb. 9:28, 1 Peter 2:24. The weight of sin, the guilt is not a light thing especially for a man that had never sinned. For Him to bear the weight of sin for an entire world is a lot of guilt, shame and sorrow. He bore it all. Grudem argues that bearing the weight of sin must have been heavier than the physical pain on the cross.
3. Abandonment: We are separated from God by our sins. Jesus faced the physical and spiritual weight of sin on His own. Alone he bore the sins of the world. His closest friends forsook him and fled (Matt 26:56), and in Matt 27:46 when He cried out those loneliest of words, 'Eli, Eli, lama sabach-thani?' 'My God, my God why have you forsaken me?' Was showing the consequence that sin has on someone... Ultimately, separation from God. Yet on the cross, Christ bore that separation for us.

4. Bearing the wrath of God: We are in bondage to sin and to the Kingdom of Satan. (Grudem, 75-83)

This section will be more heavily discussed in the next article. 

Jesus bore all these things in our place. We deserved this judgment but God in His infinite love bore the cross for us. The foulest consequences but rightly justifiable and God bore it. And through it we were gifted with Christ's sacrifice in our place, propitiation (payment): which is a blood sacrifice that appeases the wrath of God (1 John 4:10), Reconciliation which brings us back into relationship with God and redemption which means Christ was the ransom for our sins (Mark 10:45). Wow! Christ did all of that so that He could know you, be in relationship with you, save you and keep you! He did all that... And we take a break from him? Does that even make sense?

How does this relate to us taking a break from God? When we take a break from God we are rejecting His mercy and grace. We are rejecting His sacrifice and infinite love. We are willfully rejecting a way out from what we deserve, which is death. This is also starkly in contrast with the fact that by rejecting salvation and God, you are rejecting a gift of mercy that was already so intensely undeserved. 

Romans 5:10 states, "For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of his son, much more having been reconciled, we shall be saved by his life." 

This passage states that while we were sinners, we were enemies of God. When we reject God, whether we realize it or not, we are against God. Because our natural tendency is not good but evil. I hope to expand on this topic in the next article. 

Please be blessed!