It Is Finished part two
In part one we talked about God’s plan, judgment, purpose of the first advent of Christ, the Mosaic Law and man’s inability to live within its parameters. In part two we want to talk about how Christ is the only one worthy to fulfill the law for man and how that is accomplished.
Why did Christ have to fulfill the law for man? Remember God does not want anyone to perish, 2 Peter 3:9. But all the law did was condmen man. Just as was said earlier in part one Romans 3:20, we find that the “law” could not justify any flesh, all it could do was show that man was a sinner. The law had no power to help us abstain from sinning. Romans 8:3-4. Then how are we justified before God? Through God’s grace Christ was sent to be the perfect sacrifice. Romans 3:25, “who was delivered for our offenses, and was raised again for our justification.” Romans 8:3 “For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh God sending his own Son, in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh.”
Christ was the only one worthy to fulfill the law. Back in part one it showed how Christ was the perfect sacrifice. God demanded the law be fulfilled before the dispensation of grace could begin. In Mt. 5:17-18, Christ said in the Sermon on the Mount, “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets; I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. 18. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled.” So the law had to be completed.
The “law” is perfect from God’s viewpoint. Remember that the Godhead is perfect. The law is telling us what God is, this is His character. God is perfect and has no problem at all keeping the law, the law is really just a picture of what God is like. But man on the other hand, since the old Adam fell, man is not perfect. No man has been able to keep the law. Consequently no man has the ability to be justified or sanctified in the eyes of God. This is why Christ had to come as baby Jesus. This is why Christ had to die. He was the only perfect sacrifice that would be acceptable to God to justify or sanctify man in God’s eyes. The dispensation of law had to be fulfilled before the dispensation of grace could start.
Now how did Christ fulfilled the law. Now lets take a close look at Romans 3:23-26 and we can see how the new Gospel of Salvation works. “For all (men) have sinned, and come short of the glory of God, (consequence being death) 24. being justified (being pardoned of all charges) freely by his (God’s) grace through the redemption (the removing and freeing from bondage) that is in Christ Jesus, 25. Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation (the payment of the fine to gain the good will of God) through faith in his blood (which is our part of salvation), to declare his (Christ) righteousness for the remission (payment) of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; 26. To declare, I say, at this time his (Christ) righteousness, that he (God) might be just (fair), and the justifier (the one who declares freedom) of him (the Christian) who believeth in Jesus.” Here scripture tells that all men are sinners and deserve death, but God through His grace sent His Son to be the redeemer. Christ, using His own blood paints the sinner clean and righteous to God’s eyes. Now all one has to do is accept the gift and believe in what Jesus did at the cross. This is called the Gospel of Salvation.