"Without Shedding Of Blood Is No
Remission"
Heb. 9:22
Awed as I am
with reverence for my crucified Lord, there is a question which rises in my
mind as I stand at the foot of the cross and behold his painful, shameful,
ignominious death upon the cursed tree, a question that I cannot suppress, a
question that reason and sound judgment cannot fail to ask - Why? Why did the
Son of God suffer such a death? Why did God almighty so torment his beloved Son
and kill him in such an horribly ignominious way?
Was it to
save my soul? I know that he died so that I might live. He suffered the just
for the unjust that he might bring me to God. But was there no other way for
the omnipotent God to save me?
Was all this
torment heaped upon Christ to show God's love for me? I know that the death of
Christ upon the cross is the revelation of God's love. But surely God could
have made known his love to sinners in some other way, without crucifying his
darling son!
Why did God
slay his Son? What necessity was there for the Son of God to suffer as he did
and die upon the cursed tree?Only one answer can be
found to this question - The justice of God had to be satisfied. There was no
necessity for God to save anyone. Salvation is altogether the gift of free
grace. But,having determined to save his elect from
the ruins of fallen humanity, there was only one way to do it. The only way God
could save his people and forgive their sins was by the death of Christ.
Without the shedding of his blood,salvation was an
impossibility. In order for God to save his people his justice had to be
satisfied; and the only thing that could satisfy his justice is the blood of
Christ.
Since it was
the design and purpose of God to bring some of the sons of men into eternal
glory and happiness as the sons of God by Christ,it
was necessary for Christ to die, to suffer all that the law and justice of God
required for the punishment of his people's sins. I do not suggest that the
satisfaction of justice by the death of Christ procured the love of God for his
people. It did not.The death of Christ is the fruit of God's love,not the cause of it. But I do affirm that it is the death
of Christ and the satisfaction of justice by his death, that
opens the way for sinners to enjoy the embrace of God's love. We could never
have been reconciled to God without the shedding of Christ's blood.
Don Fortner