Sermon on Lord’s Day 16 Q&A 40-43⤒🔗

40. Q. Why was it necessary for Christ to humble Himself even unto death?
A. Because of the justice and truth of God[1] satisfaction for our sins could be made in no other way than by the death of the Son of God.[2]
[1] Gen. 2:17. [2] Rom. 8:3; Phil. 2:8; Heb. 2:9, 14, 15.

41. Q. Why was he buried?
A. His burial testified that He had really died.[1]
[1] Is. 53:9; John 19:38-42; Acts 13:29; I Cor. 15:3,4.

42. Q. Since Christ has died for us, why do we still have to die?
A. Our death is not a payment for our sins, but it puts an end to sin and is an entrance into eternal life.[1]
[1] John 5:24; Phil. 1:21-23; I Thess. 5:9, 10.

43. Q. What further benefit do we receive from Christ's sacrifice and death on the cross?
A. Through Christ's death our old nature is crucified, put to death, and buried with Him,[1] so that the evil desires of the flesh may no longer reign in us,[2] but that we may offer ourselves to Him as a sacrifice of thankfulness.[3]
[1] Rom. 6:5-11; Col. 2:11, 12. [2] Rom. 6:12-14. [3] Rom. 12:1; Eph. 5:1, 2.

Scripture Reading: John 19:28-42, Romans 6:1-14

Singing: (Psalms and Hymns are from the "Book of Praise" Anglo Genevan Psalter)
Psalm 23:1,2
Hymn 7:9
Psalm 116:1,8,9
Psalm 30:1,2,3
Hymn 56:1,2,3,4

Beloved Congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ!

The evangelist John tells us that Jesus at a given moment cried out, "It is finished." Thereafter Jesus bowed His head and gave up His spirit – He died (19:30).

Why, congregation, did Jesus die? I mean: He’d just declared that "it is finished," and that’s to say that He’d atoned for sin, satisfied the justice of God. If all was finished, why did the Lord Jesus not ascend directly from the cross into heaven? Or why did the Lord God not send a heavenly chariot to collect Jesus (as He once collected Elijah) and transport Him to glory? That would have been most impressive!! Why, after Jesus could declare that all was finished, did He still die?!

The question is so very important, congregation, simply because we all must die – unless our Lord returns from heaven before. All must die; in fact, this week some of us stood around an open grave again. We all must die – yet death is not the enemy it once was precisely because Jesus died.

So I preach to you today the gospel of Jesus’ death, and use this theme:

Christ died to take the sting out of our death

1. The need for Christ’s death,
2. The purpose of our death,
3. The blessing of past death.

The need for Christ’s death←⤒🔗

People do not look forward to death. Certainly, the child of God longs for what is beyond death, the life of glory with God in Paradise Restored. But the road to that glory takes us through the valley of the shadow of death, and that’s a place we’d rather not be. Death is unknown, death is somewhat frightening, death is – as Bildad describes it to Job- "the king of terrors" (18:14). We much agree with Paul when he characterizes death as an enemy (1 Cor 15:26).

Death, brothers and sisters, did not exist in the creation God made in the beginning. When God finished His creating work He examined all that He had made and declared it "very good" (Gen 1:31), and death was not part of that work. Death is a foreign entity, a stranger in God’s world. Death entered this world as a result of our fall into sin. I refer to God’s promise in Gen 2:17. God put Adam in the Garden, and told him he could eat of every tree of the Garden. But, God added, not of that tree in the middle, "for in the day you eat of it you shall surely die." You see: God placed a link between death and sin; from the beginning God declared that "the wages of sin is death" (Rom 6:23). Or, as Ezekiel has it, "the soul that sins shall die" (18:14). That is why, when Adam and Eve ate of the forbidden tree and transgressed God’s command, the Lord told them emphatically that they were dust "and to dust you shall return" (Gen 3:19). Every person on the face of this earth since that fall into sin has experienced the faithfulness of God, for all have died (with the exception of Enoch and Elijah) – and all in our present day shall die also (unless the Lord returns first).

What, then, congregation, is death? Death, beloved, is God’s judgment on sin. Death is God’s punishment, death is God’s curse on our disobedience. Death is ‘the king of terrors’ precisely because in death one meets God, in death one comes face to face with the holy Judge of all whom we offended with our sin in Paradise and our sins day by day. To meet this God: as sinners we can’t stand before Him! Yet at death we are called before Him, and that’s why death is so terrible, an enemy.

Precisely for that reason, brothers and sisters, it was so necessary that the Lord Jesus Christ die. Yes, He cried out that all was finished, and that’s to say that He had atoned for sin. But there remained some follow-up work, and that includes taking the sting out of death for us. So, instead of ascending directly from the cross to heaven, the Savior committed His spirit to His Father, and He died. He died, and for Jesus death was not a terrible thing. He died, and went directly to His Father in heaven, where He was welcomed. Did He not say to the man beside Him on the cross: "Today you will be with Me in Paradise"? Jesus knew: upon His death He would go directly to Paradise, to His Father in glory. (I know: the thought is out there that after Jesus death Jesus descended into hell. But that’s not true, as I hope to show next week.)

So He died, and went to the Father. And yes, the Father received Him. His death did not put Him before a God angry at His sins, for Jesus had just atoned for sin; "it is finished," He had cried out. He could walk through the valley of the shadow of death, and fear no evil because the sin that demanded death was gone, was paid for! You see: the curse was out of death! Then yes, He had to die because God had said in the beginning that sin is the wages of death, and Jesus had been made all sin. But because of His triumph over sin on the cross was death for Jesus no longer a terror; He could peaceably commit His spirit to His Father, and be received in heaven.

Here, beloved, is enormous gospel for us. Yes, we need to die, for God is faithful to His promise of the beginning: if you sin, you must die. But since Christ died for us, Christ has taken the curse out of death, has taken the bite out of death. 1 Cor 15: "O death, where is your sting?" Christ has died, Christ has triumphed, and so the sting of death is gone, gone because the punishment is taken out of death.

Given that wealth (and I need to draw it out further in our second point), we need, congregation, to be fully persuaded that Jesus in fact did die. Consider, then, this evidence.

John makes a point of relating that the soldiers came to break the legs of the crucified so that they would die before the Sabbath. But, writes John, "when they came to Jesus and saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs" (19:33). Notice: these unbelieving Roman soldiers were convinced that Jesus was really dead. More, "one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out" (vs 34). The separation of the blood into plasma and water occurs as a result of death. Point: Jesus was truly dead.

John tells us also of the labors of Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, two disciples of the Lord. These two men took Jesus’ body off the cross, carried it from here to there, wrapped it in many meters of linen strips packed with a hundred pounds of spice. They handled Jesus’ body, not for a moment, but for a period. They felt for themselves that the body was cold, was dead. So they buried the body – evidence that they were fully convinced that Jesus was dead. Let’s be honest: had Joseph and Nicodemus found evidence of lingering life, they certainly would not have buried Jesus; they would instead have nursed Him, sought out a doctor, or something in that line. But they buried Him, and that’s because they were convinced Jesus was dead. It’s the point of the Catechism: "His burial testified that He had really died." He wasn’t buried by a landslide, He wasn’t buried by enemies willing to bury despite evidence of lingering life. No, Jesus’ friends buried Him, buried Him after they handled His body repeatedly. They buried Him because they were absolutely certain that Jesus was dead.

The Lord God tells us of the actions of the soldiers and the actions of the disciples so that we might be persuaded too that Jesus had really died. There was no pretense of Jesus’ death, and we may be thankful for that, for pretense does not help us when we have to face Death. He did not faint, and we can be thankful for that, for a fainting Jesus does not help us in the face of Death. No, congregation, Jesus died, as per God’s promise in the beginning. Like we are, so also He was dust and had to return to dust. He died for us, and thereby took the curse out of our death, emptied death of the penalty and the punishment that follows from the fall into sin.

That is why we can join Paul in his song of praise: "O death, where is your sting?", and we can exalt with Paul also: "thanks be to God in Jesus Christ our Lord!" (1 Cor 15:55ff).

That brings us to our second point:

The purpose of our death←⤒🔗

If Christ has taken the sting out of death for us, if Christ has taken away the penalty from death, why must we still die? It’s Q 42 of our Lord’s Day.

Notice first this, congregation. Q 42 does not ask why people still need to die. Q 42 asks why "we still have to die." The pronoun ‘we’ refers to believers, refers to those who confess with Lord’s Day 1 that they belong in life and death to the Savior Jesus Christ who redeemed them with His blood. These are the people who confessed in Lord’s Day 15 that Christ by His suffering has freed us from the severe judgment of God that was to fall upon us. That unbelievers need to die on account of their sins, yes, we realize that’s fully consistent with God’s promise in Gen 2, for the wages of sin remains death. But if Christ died for believers, and if Christ has taken our curse upon Himself, "why do we still have to die?" Does God demand payment for our sins twice, first through Christ’s suffering and death, and then through ours?

No, congregation, God does not. Rather, with His work on the cross the Lord Jesus Christ has changed the purpose of death. By God’s ordinance in the beginning, the purpose of death was penalty, the purpose of death was to pay for sin. But that penalty, that payment, Christ took on Himself, and He made the payment on our behalf. So God no longer asks of us to pay for sin. No longer is our death the penalty, the payment for sin!

Why, then, do we still have to die? The Catechism puts it this way: death "puts an end to sin." The point is this. As young people we struggled against so many temptations, so much sin. As we get older, do we get better? That is: does a parent of teenagers have fewer struggles against sin than a teenager? Does a person of 70 need less forgiveness of sins than a person of 47 or of 17? The answer is simple: the struggle remains as great as ever. That’s true not just of unbelievers but also for believers. The apostle Paul was renewed by the Holy Spirit, but he cries out his despair in the face of his abiding sinfulness: "O wretched man that I am!" "I can will what is right, but I can’t do it!" (Rom 7). That’s why Lord’s Day 23 says that even persons made righteous through Jesus Christ "are still inclined to all evil," and Lord’s Day 44 adds that "even the holiest have only a small beginning of the obedience God requires." You see: as long as we remain in this life, we cannot outgrow sin, cannot get past sin.

What, then, is the only way to get rid of sin, to get past sin? There is but one way, and that is death. Romans 6: "he who has died has been freed from sin" (vs 7). 1 Cor 15: "flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does corruption inherit incorruption" (vs 50). Flesh: that’s fallen, sinful human nature. As long as one is ‘in sin’, one cannot enter eternal life. As long as one is corrupt, one cannot inherit incorruption. How can one get past sin, become guilty of no more sins? Only death provides escape from sin.

There, beloved, is the new purpose of death. The old purpose of death was penalty for sin, payment for sin, facing the judgment of God. Christ has taken that purpose upon Himself, and so for the child of God death is no longer our payment for sin. Now there’s a new purpose for death. That’s this: death puts an end to sin, death frees us from this body of sin. Death is the entrance into eternal life, is the door through which we must pass to move from this room, this life (with it’s sin and brokenness) into the next room, the next life – where there is no sin, no brokenness, no tears, no pain. Through His death the Lord Jesus Christ has changed the purpose of death! Through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit the psalmist foresaw this changed purpose, and therefore said in Ps 116: "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints" (vs 15). Precious, for death is no longer judgment but entrance to glory! Equally, that’s why Paul could tell the Philippians that for him to die was gain (1:21). When Paul wrote those words he languished in prison, and despite the discomforts of prison death would not be gain if death remained God’s penalty, judgment, curse on sin. But Paul can confidently say that death is gain because he knows that the curse is out of death, death’s bite is gone, because the purpose of death has been changed; it’s now the entrance into the next room, life with God in glory!

This gospel gives great comfort as we face death. This past week some of us had to bury a loved mother and grandmother, sister in the Lord. With her death there’s an empty place, and we don’t like that. But she confessed with Lord’s Day 1 that she belonged, in life and death, to her faithful Savior Jesus Christ. That’s to say, beloved, that as she traveled through that valley of the shadow of death, her Lord and Savior was with her, so that she did not need to fear any evil – not the evil of death either. For her, death was gain because it put an end to sin. Today she lives on in the next room, so to speak, in heaven where sin is no problem to her anymore, where the temptation to sin is gone for her now, where the tyranny of sin over her is broken. She has died, and death has done for her what 92 years of effort could not do, and that is overcome sin, get past sin. Because of Christ’s death, her death put an end to sin. Truly, how precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints!

So it is, congregation, for all who believe in Jesus Christ, who know themselves redeemed through His blood. In life and in death we belong to Jesus Christ, and so death has lost its bite. That glorious gospel has implications for us all. Shall we –who by God’s grace may belong to Him, may know ourselves washed through Jesus’ blood - shall we look up against death? Shall we resist death, pull out all stops to live a week longer, a month longer, five years longer? In our world of progressive scientific technology, we can do much to prolong life, and in many cases that is good, a blessing of the Lord. I think especially of persons upon whom others are dependent, who have a task yet in this life. But the Lord, congregation, has said that the life of man is three-score and ten, and by reason of strength four-score. 70 years, 80 years: that, by God’s ordinance, is the life of man in this fallen world, and we fly away. Shall we resist that reality, fight it, and strive at great costs to keep our loved ones with us? Does our Lord’s Day, brothers and sisters, not have something to say about the extent we should go to prolong life? If death is now gain, thanks to Jesus’ death, shall we begrudge this gain to an ailing parent or grandparent? If death puts an end to sin, shall be begrudge that a loved one who has fought sin so many years is finally relieved of the struggle and instead crowned with glory?

Here me well. Suicide is sin against God, and so is euthanasia, for God told us not to kill – neither ourselves nor another. But there is something between killing a frail and dying person and bringing in all technology to prolong his life somewhat. We all must die, and realism accepts that, let’s death take us. We all must die, and the child of God will work with the confession of our Lord’s Day and so let death take a loved father, mother, brother, sister in the Lord. The child of God knows: such a death is gain. Then the resulting empty place is painful, yes, but we do not grief as those who have no hope; we believe that Christ’s death has taken the bite, the sting, the curse out of death for God’s people.

I come to our last point:

The blessing of past death←⤒🔗

Q 43 asks about a "further benefit … we receive from Christ’s sacrifice and death on the cross." We’ve discussed at length the first benefit; through His death Christ has taken the sting, the curse out of our death, so that for us death is gain. What "further benefit" might there be?

Says the Catechism: "through Christ’s death our old nature is crucified, put to death, and buried with Him." That is: when Christ was crucified some 2000 years ago, He was not the only one crucified; we were crucified with Him. When Christ died some 2000 years ago, we died also, and when He was buried we were buried also. I don’t know how to understand that, no more than I know how to understand that I fell into sin with Adam some 6 or 7000 years ago. But this is what God says, and so I believe it.

We died with Christ when He died. That’s what Paul writes in Romans 6. Vs 5: "For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him…" (vss 5-8).

It’s hard to wrap our minds around this concept of dying with Christ. Why, then, does Paul mention it? What’s he mean? He mentions it because of the thought that readily lives in the minds of sinners, this thought: if Christ has paid for our sins so that we are saved by His grace alone (and that’s what we confessed in Lord’s Day 15), hey, let’s just continue to sin for we’ll be forgiven anyway. The more we sin, the more grace we’ll receive. It’s the question of vs 1: "shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?" In that context Paul writes about the ‘further benefit’ we receive from Christ’s death. It’s this: we died with Christ 2000 years ago already! The implication of that? Recall what we said before about the change Christ has worked in the purpose of death. Death used to be punishment on sin, God’s penalty, curse on sin (as it still is for the unbeliever). But Christ changed that for the believer; because of Christ’s death our death "puts an end to sin." Those who die do not sin anymore, do not languish any longer under the tyranny of sin.

Well, says Paul, that is true not just in relation to physical death. True, at physical death one leaves this broken body and goes to be with the Lord in perfection, where there is no more sin at all. But, says Paul, we have already died – with Christ. When He died, we died, died to sin. And death puts an end to sin! We died with Christ, and so it will not do live in sin. That’s Paul’s argument here. Vs 11: "Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord." And vs 12: "Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts." Death puts an end to sin, you have died with Christ, and so sin may not be your boss. Be consistent, be what you are – redeemed, alive to God!

"What further benefit do we receive from Christ’s sacrifice and death on the cross?" We died with Him in the past, and that is why we may no longer give ourselves to sin. Christ’s death touches us today, affects our lifestyle today, makes us today put sin in the past. No, we shall not achieve perfection on that point, no more than Paul did when he despaired at his continuing brokenness. But we believe we’ve died with Christ, and so today already we strive to live as persons who have been freed from sin.

"It is finished," Christ declared on the cross after He had suffered for sin. But He did not immediately ascend into heaven. First He died, and for that I’m so thankful. First He died, and so took the curse out of death for our benefit. He died, and so I can be sure that I belong to Him not just in life but also in death. He died, and so my death can only be gain – for at my death sin shall no longer have dominion over me. In fact, He died, and I died with Him so that today sin is not my boss. What glorious incentive to live for Him, to present myself a sacrifice of thankfulness every day anew as long as I live – be it in this room or in the next! Amen.