Satisfaction

I wonder if we can imagine just how much God hates sin. Think of every act of cruel barbarism that twists your stomach into a knot. Think of every act of wickedness measured out against pure innocence by rampant, heartless perversion. Think of the sickening things happening in this moment that no one will ever know about except God. Also at this very second, see the totality of all this evil rising like it always has and will as an unceasing stench to the nostrils of God.
Some ask, why doesn't God do something about sin? Newsflash: He did. All God's righteous hatred of all that sin from all of human history (including your sin and mine) was poured out upon Christ as He hung on the cross. What is Jesus doing on that cross?--He was satisfying God's holy demands. A holy God poured out His wrath on His innocent Son so that we could be forgiven. When Jesus said, "It is finished," God said, "paid in full." Sin was put away. In ways we will not ever fully comprehend, the Cross of Jesus Christ satisfied the requirements of a holy God.
In the last three blogs we've observed the heavy cost of Jesus' suffering in our place. Now consider all that is offered to us in the phrase: He is risen!
What's Jesus Doing Up on the Cross? He's Satisfying.
If the cross of Jesus Christ is the central target that all the Bible points to, the bull's eye is of how His death satisfied the wrath of God. Until you get that piece, the gospel is only an impersonal concept.
At the moment of Jesus' death, something bigger and better happened than any Hollywood production could ever report. Matthew 27:51 tells us, "And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split." The Holy of Holies, in the back of the temple behind an impenetrable eight-inch curtain, was where God dwelled in unapproachable holiness. No one went behind that curtain except a priest--and that was only once a year. The curtain reminded everyone of the sin that separated man and God.
How awesome then to read in Matthew 27:50 that at the precise moment Jesus "cried out and yielded His spirit," immediately, "the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom." The moment Jesus died as an atoning sacrifice for sin, when He suffered and was substituted and He satisfied the wrath of a holy God against our sin, the way opened to God. In the instant Jesus died, the veil in the temple was torn in two from top to bottom as God Himself reached down and tore the symbol of His separation from each of us. Sin is now paid for. Come into My presence. Wrath is averted. My Son has paid the price for your sin. Evil sinful men can now approach holiness. Why? Because of the Cross.
In fact, God wanted us to know that something had changed for all time. Not only was the curtain torn, but God Himself reached down and shook the earth and said, I want people to know something is happening--pay attention! Look at this: "The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, (it's like the original thriller!) and coming out of the tombs after His resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many." The natural order of birth and death was reversed. It's unparalleled. It's unprecedented. Nothing like this will ever happen again. God was satisfied in the Cross of Jesus Christ.
So awesome and obviously supernatural was all of this that Scripture records: "When the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe and said, 'Truly this was the Son of God!'" (v. 54).
Consider this miracle of Jesus' resurrection as the pivit point of history. . . and that includes your history.
"God forbid that I should glory in anything other than the cross of Jesus Christ." (Gal 6:14)