The Great Transaction’s Done

Hebrews 10:9-14

“’Tis done, the great transaction’s done! I am my Lord’s and He is mine!” Redemption’s work is done, completely finished. Nothing is to be added to it to make it complete. Nothing can be added to it. If we attempt to add anything to it, we make it of none effect to ourselves (Gal. 5:1-4). When our Lord Jesus Christ cried, “It is finished,” he had finished the work he came here to do. He had redeemed his people. He had finished the entire will of God he came here to fulfill. That is the entire basis of our faith and confidence in him as our Savior. It is Christ’s finished work of redemption as the sinner’s Substitute which the Holy Spirit declares in Hebrews 10:9-14

The Father’s Will

The Lord Jesus Christ came here to die at Calvary to redeem God’s elect (vv. 9-10). Carry these two verses with you as you make your pilgrimage through this world. When Satan roars against you and your heart trembles because of your own sin, remember what the Lord God here declares in his Word for your soul’s comfort. Rejoice in these blessed facts. Roll them over in your heart. Worship God and give him thanks for great gospel truths.

The Son of God came into this world in human flesh to offer himself as a sin-atoning sacrifice to God at Calvary. He came here to die as our Substitute by the will of God. He came here specifically to die in the room and place of God’s elect (“Them that are sanctified!”), as our great Substitute. And he has successfully, effectually redeemed all God’s elect by the sacrifice of himself (vv. 11-14). There is no possibility that even one of those sanctified and made perfect by his blood shall ever be charged with sin (Rom. 4:8), condemned for sin (Rom. 8:1; 33-34), or separated from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus (Rom. 8:39).

My Hope

Here is the basis of my soul’s hope, comfort, and expectation before God. I have hope of eternal life, I expect to stand accepted before God forever, not because of anything I have done, experienced, and, or felt, but because of what Christ has done for me.

I have hope before God because the Son of God stood as my Surety in the covenant of grace before the world began. By his own oath, from which he will not repent, the Lord Jesus Christ was made “a Surety of a better testament,” Surety of a better covenant, in the eternal councils of the triune God (Heb. 7:22; Gen. 43:8-9; Job 33:24). In that covenant, the Son of God agreed to satisfy the law and justice of God for his people and bring all the hosts of God’s elect safe into glory. God the Father trusted his elect people into the hands of his Son as a Surety (Eph. 1:12). And Christ’s suretyship engagements will not be finished until all that the Father gave him have come to him, and he has raised them up at the last day, presented them to the Father, and said, “Behold, I and the children which God hath given me.” See John 6:37-40; 10:16; Heb. 2:13).

The fact that God the Son came into this world as a man gives me hope as well (Matt. 1:21). Immanuel, God with us, God in our nature, is God come to save. The Son of God would not have become one of us were it not his purpose to show us mercy. “For God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved” (John 3:17). This is good news indeed: “The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14).

I have hope before God because the Lord Jesus Christ obeyed the law of God as my representative. Though I am a sinner, without any ability to produce righteousness, I have hope before God who cannot accept anything less than perfect righteousness. My hope is “The Lord our Righteousness” (Jer. 23:6). Christ lived in this world in perfect obedience to God as my Representative and brought in an everlasting righteousness. It is this righteousness, the righteous obedience of Christ, which God has imputed to me and imputes to all who believe (Rom. 5:19). But before righteousness could be lawfully imputed to me, my sins had to be both atoned for and put away. So ---

I have hope before God because the Lord Jesus Christ died as my Substitute under the penalty of God’s holy law (Rom. 3:24-26; 2 Cor. 5:21). My God, by a marvelously legal but gracious transfer, transferred my sin to Christ and punished him for my sin and then transferred Christ’s righteousness to me and rewards me for his righteousness. Christ became what we were, so that we might forever be what he is. Christ stood in our place, so that we might forever stand in his place. Christ died, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, so that we might live forever with God. And, now, God is faithful and just to forgive the sins of all who confess their sins, believing on the Lord Jesus Christ (1 John 1:9).

And I have hope before God because this Christ, who lived and died as the sinner’s Substitute, arose from the grave, ascended back into heaven, and has been exalted as King over the universe. The Lord Jesus Christ, “when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high” (Heb. 1:3). The fact that he arose from the grave assures us that Christ has completely satisfied the law’s claim against our sins. The fact that he ascended back into heaven assures us that he is accepted of God as the Representative of his people. And the fact that he is enthroned as King over all things assures us that “he is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him” (Heb. 7:25).

Faith

I am confident that Christ has done all of this for me, as my surety, my Representative, my Substitute, because I honestly acknowledge my sin before God and trust him alone as my Lord and Savior. My faith does not save me. Only Christ can save. But my faith gives me a confident hope that I have been saved by the grace of God through the righteousness and shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ (1 John 5:10-13).