Who Did Jesus Die For?

Yesterday I was meeting in a home group from my Church for Good Friday and we were watching a live podcast of David Platt. One of the things Platt taught on (and he taught a lot that night) was our salvation. He said something that struck me very hard. It's a truth that I knew, but the way he said it hit me in a very amazing way.

Platt was commenting on how so many times Christians miss the point of the crucifixion of Jesus on the cross. We like to say "Jesus died for me." And this is 100% true! However, Jesus did not die primarily for us. Primarily, Jesus died for God!

When I heard this, I was struck. Like I said, I knew that Jesus died on the cross to satisfy God's wrath, but it hit home to hear that statement, "Jesus died FOR God!" To remember that God's holiness demanded satisfaction against my sin and demanded me to stay away, yet His love desired to bring me in so I would not stay away. So, there was the "Divine dilemma" as people like to call it. How can God be holy and love at the same time? How can He be just and yet save sinners? The Divine Solution...Jesus ' death! The Father sent His Son to die for the One Who sent Him, so that His wrath would be appeased and His grace would be imparted!

Watchman Nee once said, "If I would appreciate the blood of Christ I must accept God's valuation of it, for the blood is not primarily for me, but for God." Jesus' blood is of infinite value to the Father because Jesus died for the Father. Not in the same way He died for us. He died for God to make it possible for Him to be just and the Justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus (Rom. 3:26). That is the primary reason for Jesus' death!

Had Jesus not died for God to solve this Divine dilemma, then we humans would have a dilemma of our own. When we see how precious this blood is to God, then we will see this death aright, and it will make it all the more glorious to us! What a wonder it is that Jesus died for us. But a greater wonder still, is that first and foremost, Jesus died for God!

Adoption.

I was thinking the other day on adoption.
When we think of adoption, we think of adding someone not born of our family into our family. We think of making them one of us. We think of them becoming one with who we are.
One of the definitions of adoption is "to make a child one's own."
So, when we, as believers in Christ, consider adoption, what should we be thinking?
Galatians 4:4-6 says "But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. 6 And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” 7 So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God."
God sent His son to die for our sins. And through the death of Jesus, we can be called sons and heirs through God!  
Adoption is not in the physical aspect. We can call ourselves children of God, because we have been saved by His grace, through faith. It is nothing we did ourselves, it is a gift from God.
This adoption is and remains a total and utter blessing from the Lord. It was planned since the beginning of time. It was divinely inspired. We were rescued from sin by the death of Jesus, so that we might be called children of God.

Romans 8:15–16 says "For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” 16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God."
Adoption is never one at a time. We are all adopted into this spiritual family together. One is not more important than another in the family of God. We are not above one another, because we are ALL saved by the grace of God. When we are saved, there is a blatant moral, physical and total spiritual transformation. We have thrown out our old selves and put on the new. We are no longer slaves, but a son.That is when Christ adopts us.

 

"He chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved." (Ephesians 1:4-6) 

Before the foundation of the world, God chose us. 

 

How do you feel when you realize this? How do you feel when you know that you are adopted? I can say I feel overwhelmed knowing that before the world was created thousands and thousands of years ago, God had chosen to make me and form me and grow me more in the likeness of His son... He adopted me, when I was a child of wrath, as Ephesians put it, and He added me to His cloister. 

That is a blessing. 

That is a gift from God.