The Perfect Sacrifice for Pure Salvation

Posted on Aug 24, 2022 Topic : Men's Christian Living, Women's Christian Living
Posted by : Eric Johnson

A high school boy was celebrating his sixteenth birthday with family and friends in attendance. After opening most of his presents, his grandfather handed him a card. The boy ripped open the envelope and quickly read the words that were penned inside:

“Dear Grandson, I love you so much. I have deposited ten into your bank account. Happy birthday.”

The boy looked at his grandfather and then smiled before he lifted a half-hearted thumbs-up. “Thanks, Grandpa,” he said before grabbing the next present. The boy may have hidden his discouragement at what he considered to be a “cheap” gift, but probably not.

A few weeks later, this grandson was driving the family car when he happened to notice the gas gauge arrow pointing to “E.” “Great, now what do I do?” he asked himself, knowing full well he was broke. Suddenly, he remembered the ten dollars his grandfather had deposited in his bank account, so he drove to the nearest branch, parked the car, and walked inside. Handing his debit card to a teller, the boy said, “Give me my ten dollars.” She punched a few buttons on her register, opened her cash drawer, and handed him a crisp ten-dollar bill along with the receipt.

As the boy returned to his car, he glanced at the receipt and became agitated. He ran back into the bank and made a beeline for the teller, knocking into the older female customer she was helping and not apologizing. “What a cruel joke!” he shouted while waving the receipt in the teller’s face.

“Excuse me, just what is the matter?” she asked, obviously shocked at his behavior.

“Oh, like you don’t know? You manipulated the receipt to read $9,999,990. How would you like it if I played that joke on you?” She smiled and then began to quietly chuckle. “Oh, I’d love it if you did this to me,” she said. “You had ten million dollars before you took out your ten dollars, so this is what you have left over.”

Suddenly, the boy’s face became beet red as he dropped the receipt and it fluttered to the floor. “You’ve got to be kidding me,” he whispered. Those in the bank lobby were mesmerized watching the spectacle. What a difference six extra zeros make! Even if this boy worked for 40 years, he would need to earn an average of $250,000 each year to make this much money over four decades. Few people make $5 million in wages during their lifetimes, let alone $10 million!

What this boy didn’t know is that his grandfather had sold everything to gift him with this much money. The elderly man showed his love by sacrificing all he owned. For several weeks, the “ten” gift had meant nothing to the boy because he did not view the gift as having value. Now it all made sense. This was a gift with no strings attached, even if he didn’t deserve it.

I told Marcus this illustrates the sacrifice made by Jesus on the cross and how it satisfied “the positive demands of the law by imputing Christ’s righteousness to us…His perfect righteousness is thus the ground on which we stand before God.”21 Jesus said in John 15:13,

“Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” In the next verse, He called believers “friends.” First John 4:9-10 adds these words of hope: “In this, the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”

Propitiation refers to how justice is fully satisfied through the sacrifice of Jesus. Nineteenth-century pastor Charles Spurgeon—known as the Prince of Preachers—put it this way:

When Christ redeemed his people, he did it thoroughly; he did not leave a single debt unpaid, nor yet one farthing for them to settle afterward. God demanded of Christ the payment for the sins of all his people; Christ stood forward, and to the utmost farthing paid whatever his people owed.

The sacrifice of Calvary was not a part payment; it was not a partial exoneration, it was a complete and perfect payment, and it obtained a complete and perfect remittal of all the debts of all believers that have lived, do live, or shall live, to the end of time.

Christians rejoice when the incredible concept of this gift is grasped as contrasted with the idea that obedience on the part of the individual is required. John Stott describes this misunderstanding: We insist on paying for what we have done. We cannot stand the humiliation of acknowledging our bankruptcy and allowing somebody else to pay for us. The notion that this somebody else should be God himself is just too much to take. We would rather perish than repent, rather lose ourselves than humble ourselves.

Outside of Christianity, adherents of every other religion, including Mormonism, ask, “What must I do for eternal life?” On the other hand, Christians ask, “What did God do for me?” Jesus said in John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

The story of the boy receiving ten million dollars seemed to resonate with Marcus, but it was obvious that he was not convinced. “It sounds way too easy,” he complained. I replied that it was not too easy for Jesus, who unselfishly gave up everything to provide salvation to those trusting in Him. Second Corinthians 8:9 states, “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake, he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.”

The cost was great, but the reward for His children is priceless.