In looking over the landscape of the church today, many people have noticed that the holiness of God has largely been forgotten, overlooked, and ignored.

The late J.I. Packer claimed that the contemporary Christian finds holiness to be outdated and irrelevant. Kevin DeYoung wrote, “Shouldn’t those most passionate about the gospel and God’s glory also be those most dedicated to the pursuit of godliness? I worry that there is an enthusiasm gap and no one seems to mind.” John MacArthur put it like this: “The doctrine of sanctification has become unpopular in our time. There has been much talk about the doctrine of election, of justification, of glorification… But the doctrine that has fallen into the greatest disuse is this doctrine of sanctification.”

MacArthur, Packer, and DeYoung all rightly point out that too few Christians seem to care about sanctification or about pursuing holiness in their personal lives; and too few churches seem to preach anything that resembles a call for believers to be holy.

The failure of the church and the Christian to pursue holiness has everything to do with the holiness of God. The chief reason why the church today fails to pursue holiness, is because the church has forgotten that our God is a holy God. Many churches fail to recognize that we serve a God who is absolutely, unchangeably, and eternally holy. Churches have trivialized God and ignored certain attributes of God that we don’t like or that seem out of step with the times. The evangelical church, in its never-ending quest to be cool, to be relevant, to be accessible, to be unoffensive, to be relatable, to be thought well of by the world, has jettisoned the holiness of God because it has no place in a church that wants a seat at the world’s table or a church that wants to be attractive to ungodly, unholy people.

Calling attention to this problem is vital because the failure to appreciate, love, and proclaim the holiness of God has disastrous consequences.

It results in worship that is frivolous and trivial.

When we walk into church, we should almost feel like we are leaving this present world and stepping into the presence of God in heaven. Heaven is a holy place, where God dwells and where His holiness is worshipped and adored. Heaven is not a place for trifles, for silliness, for trivialities. There should be a reverence and a fear and awe of God in worship.

The failure to appreciate, love, and proclaim the holiness of God has disastrous consequences.

Many churches have abandoned any sense of the holiness of God or any element of reverence or awe before God. These churches seem to have an overwhelming desire to minimize the holiness of God to ensure the comfort of the sinner. Attendees are left with the impression that it doesn’t really matter how they live, or maybe even what they believe – because “God loves them and so do we,” and “God accepts us all and isn’t really that concerned about holiness.”

This kind of worship service presents a god that is totally foreign to the God of the Bible. It takes what should be a transcendent, awe-inspiring encounter with a holy God who transforms us, turning it into something trivial and meaningless. It also centers worship on the felt needs of sinners instead of something that is supposed to be about the glory of God. This is the greatest crime in neglecting the holiness of God because such an approach robs God of the worship He rightly deserves from His people.

When we forget about the holiness of God, serious consequences result, and trivializing the worship of God is at the top of the list.

Another consequence of forgetting the holiness of God is having churches that have lost the Great Commission.

The goal of the Great Commission in Matthew 28:18-20 is the holiness of God’s people. We cannot fulfill the Great Commission unless Jesus’ disciples are being taught to obey all that He commanded us.

One of the key marks of a spiritually mature church is its obedience to Christ. In Romans 1:8, Paul highlights the faith of the Roman church and the fact they had turned from idols to trust in the living and holy God. Paul bookends that commendation in Romans 16:19, noting the Roman’s obedience and holiness due to their sincere faith in Christ. The Romans did not have a faith in name only, a nominal faith, a worldly faith, or a faith that made little difference. Their faith was so strong and sincere that, when people talked about the faith of the Romans, the report about their obedience and holiness accompanied it.

One of the key marks of a spiritually mature church is its obedience to Christ.

If we are not worshipping, serving, and trusting in the true God, who is the holy God, we will not be a Great Commission church because we will not lead people to holiness. And if holiness is distasteful, irrelevant, or offensive, we cannot fulfill the Great Commission.

A third consequence of forgetting the holiness of God is exhibiting lives that are worldly and ungodly.

In 1 Peter 1:15-16, Peter writes that what sets the standard of holiness in the life of the believer is his view of God and God’s holiness. We are to be holy as God is holy. However, if we have forgotten or neglected the holiness of God, what will our standard be? If we serve a god who accepts everyone, who is unconcerned about holiness, who is devoid of wrath and judgment against sin because his holiness is not offended by sin, we will become just like that unholy god.

This neglect of God’s holiness results in believers who have no real pursuit of holiness at all or who are unconcerned to be holy because they don’t understand the holiness of God; or in believers who think they are pursuing holiness but who are defining it by the world’s definition of holiness rather than by conforming themselves to God and His holiness. Both paths lead to ungodly living.

If we would live godly lives, if we would seek to be obedient to Christ, if we would put to death the deeds of the flesh and seek to walk in the Spirit, we must first understand the holiness of God.

One final consequence of forgetting the holiness of God is this: countless false believers who think they know God, but who serve an idol.

If we would put to death the deeds of the flesh and seek to walk in the Spirit, we must first understand the holiness of God.

In Luke 6:46, Jesus asked this powerful question: “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?”

To put Jesus’ words another way, all true believers and followers of Christ will pursue holiness and seek to obey Jesus’ commands. The reason why people call Jesus ‘Lord’ but do not do what He commands is because they don’t know Him. They miss that He is holy. They have trivialized Jesus; they have created a Jesus in their own image; they have invented their own savior and rejected the Jesus who is the Holy One of God.

This is a tragedy of monumental proportions because it results in eternal destruction. Many people on the final day will call Jesus ‘Lord, Lord,’ and yet they will be condemned because they did not do the will of the Father, but instead practiced wickedness. They had no regard for holiness, and that manifested the reality that they did not know God.

These are the disastrous consequences of forgetting the holiness of God.

There is a remedy, however, for us who live in a time when the holiness of God has been so neglected and forgotten. We will unpack that remedy over the course of this series as we uncover the holiness of God and discover what our response to that holiness should be in our lives and in our churches.

I love the month of June. It features the longest day of the year. It is hot but not the deathly hot of July and August, which means you can still enjoy some mornings and evenings outside and swimming is still refreshing. Baseball season is in full swing. Father’s Day lands on the third Sunday of the month. And my beautiful bride was born in the month of June.

Yet for all the highlights of the sixth month of the year, in the United States it brings a more sinister side. Our nation celebrates June as “Pride month.” Desecrated rainbows fill store displays and social media feeds. Sexual deviancy and perversion is celebrated as a virtue. Baseball teams host “Pride nights” at their stadiums. Government buildings are lit up with the colors of the rainbow. The US Navy joins in, changing their entire Twitter avatar and bio to boast in wickedness.

As Christians we might easily look at June as a month where the darkness has overtaken the light, where godless people brazenly mock God by taking His rainbow and use it to celebrate what He describes as an abomination. But we do well to remember that God in His sovereignty rules over the darkness, and that God is not mocked, no matter how vigorously men may try.

While the godless of society take this month to celebrate their ungodliness, we must acknowledge the sovereignty of God in that they label this celebration with a sin that is even worse than the one they are promoting: pride. Proverbs 6:16-17 says, “There are six things which the Lord hates, Yes, seven which are an abomination to Him; Haughty eyes…” Haughty eyes are the visible, outward manifestation of a heart of pride. The Lord hates pride. The Lord says that pride is an abomination to Him. Peter wrote, “God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (1 Peter 5:5).  To celebrate pride is to celebrate what God hates and to put yourself in a position where God is opposed to you. That includes all pride, not just pride in sexual immorality.

To celebrate pride is to celebrate what God hates and to put yourself in a position where God is opposed to you.

When our nation celebrates pride month, it is a manifest indication of God’s judgment against us. The reason it is such a clear indication of judgment is not because of the rejoicing in unrighteousness that occurs, although that in itself would qualify, but because this rejoicing in unrighteousness is done under the banner of another sin that God hates, the sin of pride. God’s judgment is manifest in taking those who love sin and doubling their guilt. They no longer are guilty before God for one sin – sexual immorality – but two sins that God hates, as pride becomes their adornment. The judgment of God is manifest when He not only condemns sinners in their sin but aggravates their condition so that they become even more guilty before Him.

We see this throughout all of Scripture. Pharaoh hardened his heart before God, and God hardened Pharaoh’s heart as well. When Pharaoh refused to repent, God hardened his heart to such an extreme that Pharaoh drove his army to their death in the sea (Exodus 14). We see this with Herod in Acts 12. Herod was guilty before God for executing the Apostle James. His unrepentant heart became so hardened that he exalted himself over God, and God executed him for it. When Eli rebuked his sons for their godless behavior, including sexual immorality, “they would not listen to the voice of their father, for the Lord desired to put them to death” (1 Samuel 2:25).

Besides the judgment of God, we also see the sovereign providence of God over all of these events. God is no mere bystander, watching helplessly or disinterestedly as His creatures defy His authority and flout His law. God is intimately involved in ruling His world and reigning over His creation. Part of that sovereign providence is bringing specific and terrifying judgment from which there is no escape. From that vantage point, we can say as Christians that pride month is not merely a manifestation of the wicked heart of man but an indication of the righteous judgment of God. That means as Christians we realize that God is sovereign over pride month and that He has a good purpose in what man means for evil.

Pride month is not merely a manifestation of the wicked heart of man but an indication of the righteous judgment of God.

A heart of pride might be the most terrifying judgment of all, because it is the judgment from which there is no path of escape. The necessary element for salvation is the opposite of pride. God delights in a broken and contrite heart, not a proud countenance. Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted” (Matthew 5:3-4). The poor in spirit are those who recognize their spiritual poverty, and they are connected with those who mourn because they grieve over their sins. They are not proud, and they do not celebrate what God condemns. Their hearts are broken over their sins, and they are humbled to the dust before a holy and righteous God who judges everyone impartially.

The only way anyone can be saved is by abandoning their pride, their self-reliance, their delight in disobedience to God’s Word, and humbling themselves before the cross of Christ, seeking mercy through faith in His sacrifice for sinners.

God’s judgment becomes clear when the Lord begins to aggravate people’s sinful condition, so that one sin begins to pile on top of another. That is what is happening during pride month, and that is why June is for judgment. And yet in this present age, every act of judgment points us to the cross, where Jesus bore the penalty of the sins of all who would believe in Him for salvation. For those who repent and find their only boast in the cross of Christ, June – like every other month – is for Jesus.

As marvelous as Jesus’ resurrection is, Christians often forget much of its significance. We often assume the resurrection, failing to think on it as deeply as we ought or to teach it as frequently as we should. That is why we must reflect on the significance of Jesus’ resurrection, not just on Easter, but all year long, for a consistent, maturing faith. 

In 1 Corinthians 15:12-20, the Apostle Paul rebukes the church because some have denied the possibility of bodily resurrection, and others have spiritualized resurrection. Paul shows how inconsistent that is with the Christian faith because Christianity teaches that Jesus bodily rose from the dead. Here, Paul gives six results of the Corinthians’ false understanding of Jesus Christ’s resurrection, which, in turn, helps believers to appreciate its great significance.

First, if Jesus had not been raised, then Gospel preaching would be worthless.

Paul unfolds the significance of Jesus’ resurrection in verse 14. “If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain.” If Christ had not been raised from the dead, all evangelism and Gospel preaching would be worthless. All efforts to tell friends, family, and neighbors about Jesus would be a complete waste.

But notice verse 20. “But now Christ has been raised from the dead.” All evangelistic work IS worth the effort, time, toil, energy, and finances put into it! All ministries aimed at reaching out to the lost ARE worthy of prayer, support, and time. Christ’s resurrection turns this implication on its head. If Gospel preaching is vain apart from Jesus’ resurrection, then it is significant because He has been raised. 

Second, if Jesus had not been raised, then faith in Christ would be worthless and meaningless.

In our culture, people say things like, “You just have to believe. You need to have faith.” This wasn’t the Apostle Paul’s take on faith, though. Paul’s view in verses 14 and 17 was that, apart from Jesus’ resurrection, faith is a complete waste of time. Some have said, “Even if they proved Jesus never bodily rose from the dead, I wouldn’t give up on faith. I’d still have my faith.” Paul’s response would have been, “Why would you have your faith? It would be utterly meaningless!” 

But because Christ has been raised from the dead, faith is not meaningless, if, it is in the resurrected Savior. Our faith is worthwhile because we believe, not in a dead savior, but in a Risen Lord! When we have faith in Jesus, we are trusting the One who died, rose again, and lives forever as the Triumphant Lord!

Third, if Jesus had not been raised, then the Bible would be a false witness about God.

Paul and his fellow apostles would be liars about God if Jesus had not been raised because their message was that God had raised Jesus from the dead. This is serious. What Paul is saying in verse 15 is that the New Testament is a book of lies if Jesus is not alive today. 

But because Christ has been raised from the dead, the apostles and the New Testament are true witnesses of God and His redemptive acts! Jesus’ resurrection means that our Bibles are completely faithful and worthy of our trust. Whenever we have the privilege to share the Gospel, we are telling the truth about God.

Fourth, if Christ had not been raised, our sins would still rule over us.

There are two implications presented in verse 17. 

First, we would be under the power of sin. In Romans 6:11, Paul said, “Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.” If the resurrection did not happen, then the power of sin would rule over our lives. Not only this, but we would remain under the penalty of sin. In Romans 5:10, Paul wrote, For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. We would still be under the wrath of God if Jesus did not rise from the dead. 

But because Christ has been raised, sin’s power has been broken in believers, who are also free from sin’s penalty. Romans 8:1 is true for us who are in Christ through faith: “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” The significance of Jesus’ resurrection is that we are alive to God in Christ and dead to sin. 

Fifth, if Jesus had not been raised, Christians would suffer divine judgment at death.

Paul’s argument in verse 18 is that deceased believers would be under divine judgment, as would all future Christians at death, if Jesus had not been raised from the dead. If Jesus had remained dead, then the apostles, missionaries who died for the cause of Christ, and believers throughout church history, are in hell. And someday if Christ had not been raised, we would be, too. 

But now Christ has been raised from the dead. God’s judgment has been satisfied through Christ’s death and resurrection! There is hope for forgiveness, salvation, and sinners beyond the grave! All saints who have gone before are rejoicing in Jesus’ presence because He has been raised from the dead. And, someday, when we face death, these words can comfort our souls.

Sixth, if Christ had not been raised, Christians would be the most pathetic people in the world.

“If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied.” Verse 19, perhaps, just doesn’t ring true in our American culture of peace, joy, prosperity, happiness, and heaven as the cherry on top of it all. So, if Christ has not been raised, and we will not be raised, so what? At least we had a good life, right?

Here’s how Paul saw the Christian life, however: It’s a war against sin, unbelief, and false teachers; and it’s a war for the souls of peoples of every tribe, tongue, and nation. If I’m fighting this war and giving my life for it, and at the end, I’m not raised from the dead, I’m a fool!

The real question is not, Why did Paul think the Christian life was not worth it apart from resurrection? but, Why do we think it is? Jesus’ resurrection should be moving us to make choices and sacrifices that are absurd in the world’s eyes.

But because Christ has been raised from the dead, Christians are the most blessed people on the planet. In the end, we give up nothing, and we get everything by being raised from the dead. Anything we sacrificed will be returned to us a thousand-fold. The solution to self-centered living that says, “I don’t want to die every day and I don’t want following Jesus to cost me,” is to remember the significance of Jesus’ resurrection. 

Has, perhaps, Jesus’ resurrection become nothing more than a slogan to us? If Christ had not been raised, evangelism and faith would be worthless, the New Testament would be a book of lies; everyone would still be in sin, facing condemnation at death, and our lives would be the most pathetic on earth. But now Christ has been raised from the dead. Now, evangelism is worthwhile, our faith is significant, the New Testament is absolutely true, we are free from our sins, we have hope beyond the grave, and giving our lives for the kingdom of Christ is the wisest decision we can make – all because of the all-significant, all-glorious resurrection of Jesus Christ our Lord.

In this world, there are different types of people who believe they have a relationship with Jesus.

There are those who have had some “encounter” with Jesus, and they wrongly feel there is a connection  because they are deceived..

There are other people who genuinely do have a relationship with Jesus, but they have been taught that authentic relationship with Jesus consists of a certain experience or emotion, so they doubt the reality of their salvation.

Then there are Christians who have authentic fellowship with Jesus and are certain of it, but they know they can excel still more.

And then there are people who simply do not know Jesus at all.

Every person is in one of these four groups. But how does one know for certain if he or she has a genuine relationship with the Lord and Savior?

In John 12:20-26, some Gentiles make a request – “We wish to see Jesus” – that prompts Jesus to address the question all people should ask: How can someone have real, authentic fellowship with Him?

Jesus’ response is puzzling at first glance. Most commentators admit difficulty with understanding how Jesus’ answer relates to the request. The link, while on the surface enigmatic, is very powerful. Jesus knows these Gentiles desire fellowship with Him, but His response goes beyond their inquiry. He wants to know them personally.

John includes this episode because he wants to assure his readers that though we have not seen Jesus in person, much like the Greeks at the time they made this request, Jesus wants authentic fellowship with everyone who will come to Him in faith.

In the rest of the text, verses 23-26, Jesus highlights three keys to authentic fellowship with Him.

First, we experience authentic fellowship with Jesus through His saving work.

The Lord begins his response to the Greeks by referring to His saving work: His death on the cross, His burial, and His resurrection from the dead. 

Jesus calls His saving work, His glorification. He does this for two reasons. First, because the cross is where God’s attributes in Christ are most clearly put on display. At the cross, we most clearly see God’s love, wrath, grace, mercy, justice, and Law – in all its demands and its penalty on transgressors. The cross instantly brings together all these glorious and perfect attributes, that always seem opposed: law and grace, mercy and justice, love and wrath.

Jesus is also glorified at the cross because of the results of His work. Through Christ’s death, He would bear much fruit. The Greeks coming to see Him were a precursor to that. They were the first installment, as it were, of the multitude of fruit to come. 

The only way the Greeks can have any meaningful fellowship with Jesus is if He first dies on the cross. Yes, they could interview Him. However, if they really want to know Jesus, it can only happen by means of His death. Jesus must provide the mercy of God by satisfying the justice of God and open the floodgates of the love of God by bearing the wrath of God.

The cross is where God’s attributes in Christ are most clearly put on display.

Our fellowship with Christ does not depend on a feeling or an experience, but on a crucified Savior who died on a wooden, bloody, Roman cross. It’s crucial we come to understand that because of Jesus’ death and through faith in Him, our relationship with Him is objective reality. We experience authentic fellowship with Jesus through His saving work. 

Second, we have authentic fellowship with Jesus through denying ourselves.

Jesus presents the concept of self-denial in a paradox. The person who loves his life loses it, but the person who hates his life keeps it. The first part is the person who loves his life. What does that mean? After all, who doesn’t hang on to the things of this life? That is exactly the question Jesus means to raise in our minds.

The word “lose” is a violent word that signifies destruction. One writer described this word as “definitive destruction, not merely in the sense of the extinction of physical existence, but rather of an eternal plunge into Hades and a hopeless destiny of death.” Those who are living for this life are actively and systematically destroying themselves.

If we want to inherit life and have authentic fellowship with Jesus, we will hate our lives in this world. We will take the eternal perspective and realize that living for the here and now is to waste our lives and to ruin them. The way we protect our lives, odd as it seems, is to let go of it for life eternal. We reject instant gratification and self-centered living, and we wait for eternal life and live a life of self-denial. The goal is life of authentic fellowship with Jesus in His presence forever! 

Finally, we experience authentic fellowship with Jesus through following Him.

The person who knows Jesus through His death and resurrection is marked by a life of denying self and following Him. One commentator helpfully noted, “True discipleship involves not only denial of self but also the recognition of the importance of Christ.”

We follow Jesus by following His example. In 1 John 2:3, John wrote, “By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments.” Then he adds in verse 6, “The one who says He abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.” The people who have real, continual, authentic fellowship with Christ live after His pattern.

Our fellowship with Christ does not depend on a feeling or an experience, but on a crucified Savior who died on a wooden, bloody, Roman cross.

So, for example, that means we love one another. Paul wrote in Ephesians 5:1-2, “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you.” Jesus Himself illustrated this in John 13. He washed His disciples’ feet, and then He said to them, “If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I gave you an example that you also should do as I did to you.” Following Jesus, then, means living a life of humble service to one another. It also means forgiving each other. Colossians 3:13 says that we should forgive one another, “just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you.”

Those who follow Jesus will be where He is. This is the heart of the message to the Greeks. Jesus responds, “Do you want to see Me? Do you want to be where I am? Then follow Me. Serve Me. And if you are My servant, you will be in my presence.”

Men and women who have this fellowship with Jesus will be honored by the Father, who will reward the servants of His Son. This promise also strengthens Jesus’ call to self-denial and following Him down the Calvary Road. It is not those striving after honor in this world who receive honor from God, but it is those seeking humility, obedience, and fellowship with Jesus in His sufferings and death and resurrection, who are honored by the Father. 

Jesus’ message to the Greeks who wanted to see Him was that the way they could truly see Him was through His cross as they denied themselves and followed Him. Then they would be where He is when He came for His own. Then they would see the glory He had with the Father before the world began. Then the Father Himself would reward them. The only ones who get to see Jesus are those who are dying to see Him by dying daily to themselves and following Him.

The question for each of us is this: Do we, like the Greeks, want to see Jesus?  

Trusting others presents massive challenges in our fallen world. Everyone has been corrupted by sin, and therefore fails to be fully faithful or trustworthy. As Proverbs 20:6 says, “Many a man proclaims his own loyalty, but who can find a trustworthy man?”

While humans prove to be both distrustful and untrustworthy, God presents Himself as the One we can supremely trust for everything in this life and beyond the grave. We see an intentional emphasis in Scripture on the trustworthiness of God, but Scripture does not command us to have a blind faith. The Lord instructs us to trust Him, and then He demonstrates He is worthy of our trust. God never speaks, then fails to act. He always proves Himself faithful. 

Despite this truth, we often struggle to trust God, which manifests itself when we give in to sin in times of various trials and temptations. So how do we grow our trust of our Lord and His power over our sin? 

We find a helpful answer to this question in Isaiah 53. Here, God reveals His Suffering Servant, the Lord Jesus as eminently trustworthy. Whether we suffer because of trials or temptations, Jesus can be trusted to see us through and bring God’s covenant promises to fruition. 

There are four ways Isaiah shows Jesus’ trustworthiness in this passage.

First, Jesus humbled Himself when we were proud.

At the start of this chapter, Isaiah laments Israel’s unbelief. Just before, in Isaiah 52, we learn that the Gentiles would marvel at the exalted Servant. Yet when the scene flips to Isaiah 53, regardless of the magnificent salvific promises of the previous passage, we observe the ongoing disbelief of people who have had a front-row seat to God’s work. What makes God’s promises so difficult to trust? Isaiah answers by showing us the Servant’s humility alongside the pride of sinners who reject God’s word. 

Whether we suffer because of trials or temptations, Jesus can be trusted to see us through and bring God’s covenant promises to fruition.

Isaiah gives a description of the Servant’s humility, using agricultural pictures to convey Jesus’ outward appearance as useless and unfruitful. The Servant came in the humblest of ways, and His circumstances and appearance made Him look dispensable. People would have contempt for God’s Messiah and suffering Servant.

Thus, we see both the humiliation of the Servant and the pride of man. God in human flesh descends to us, and we despise Him because He does not meet our ideals. God, however, sees us in our pride, knows how we will respond, and still comes to save us from sin. 

Jesus proves Himself trustworthy in His willing humiliation for prideful sinners. Isaiah includes himself in those who thought little of the Servant, saying, “We did not esteem Him.” We must include ourselves in that we. Apart from God’s grace, we rejected Him. Christ, though, condescended to save us, showing He is trustworthy. 

Second, Jesus was faithful when we were not.

Isaiah paints a rather ugly picture of us. The Servant was carrying our griefs and sorrows, but we saw His suffering and said, “God has rightly stricken Him for His sins.” We were unfaithful hypocrites, thinking we stood blameless before God’s law as we cast condemnation on His very own Christ! 

The reality is Jesus was pierced and crushed for our transgressions, our iniquities, and our acts of ungodliness! He took the punishment we deserved so we might have peace, wholeness, and well-being. He healed us of our sins by enduring the scourging. We thought we could condemn God’s Servant, but we were actually under God’s curse.

This, though, was God’s purpose and plan, according to Isaiah. That plan involved Christ suffering and dying for us. God Himself caused our unrighteousness, sins, and disobedience to fall on Jesus. God imputed our sins to Jesus on the cross. Jesus stood in our place, took our sins and the wrath of God, and bore our punishment so we could have shalom with God.

The irony here is stark. The prophet says we looked at Jesus and thought, “God punished Him because of His sin,” but God did this to Him because of our sin. Jesus faithfully submitted so we could be forgiven, stand righteous before God, and be made whole again. Jesus’ faithfulness, even while we were faithless and lost, inspires confidence and trust in Him.

Third, Jesus submitted to death when we deserved it.

Verses 7-9 are remarkable in portraying our Savior’s substitutionary death on the cross.

Jesus was treated with contempt, but He was silent like a sheep before shearers.  He suffered horrifically, received no justice, was humiliated, and died childless, a sure sign to that culture that God’s displeasure rested upon Him. His separation from sinners, even though He identified with them, was made clear in His burial.

Isaiah then inserts the phrase, to whom the stroke was due, referring to the utter condemnation God brings down upon sinners. This is another reminder of Jesus’ faithfulness. We should have suffered the wrath of God, but Jesus absorbed the condemnation we deserved.

Jesus’ victory over sin is assured in His success in justifying sinners.

Think about the ways we are tempted not to trust Jesus, Christian. Jesus took our place and bore in His own body our sins, sorrows, griefs, and condemnation; and He went to this extreme to bring us peace, to free us from the guilt of sin, and to save us from eternal punishment. The question is never, “Is Jesus going to provide everything we need to live before Him and attain salvation on the last day?” The question is always, “Do we trust Him?” He died for us when we deserved death. We have every reason to trust Him. 

Finally, Jesus gained the victory over sin when we were the transgressors.

The resounding theme of verses 10-12 is the Suffering Servant, though crushed and stricken, was ultimately victorious. 

We see Jesus’ victory over sin in His resurrection in verse 10. The Lord was pleased with the Servant’s suffering because Christ’s death was an offering to remove our guilt.

God was pleased because the cross was not the Servant’s end. Through His death, Jesus was fruitful, and the things that please God would flourish through Christ’s work. He would live forever, even though He died a horrific death. 

Jesus’ victory over sin is assured in His success in justifying sinners. The result of Jesus’ anguish would be satisfaction for Him, and justification for us who trust in Him. Jesus was victorious over sin, not in some abstract sense, but in the very real sense that our sins are forgiven, cast into the depths of the sea, as far as the east is from the west; and we are now one with the Righteous One, so that His righteousness has become ours. 

We also see Christ’s victory in His exaltation. He, who appeared to be nothing more than a cast off, was the mighty warrior who leads the conquerors in celebration over their enemies. Why? Because He bore our sin and interceded for us, the transgressors, which is the strongest word Isaiah could have used to picture someone’s wickedness.

Jesus showed Himself trustworthy by gaining the victory over sin when we were the transgressors. Through His resurrection, justifying work, and exaltation, Christ is worthy of our trust and confidence. When the apostle Peter read Isaiah 53 and saw what Jesus had done for His people, his response was to see Jesus’ suffering as a model of His faithfulness, so that no matter what we are experiencing or facing, we can trust ourselves to Him. 

This month we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord, Jesus Christ. Over the next several posts, we will look at different passages of Scripture relating to the purpose of Jesus’ death and resurrection.

The first is Genesis 3, which is the account of humanity’s fall into sin through Adam’s transgression and the place where redemption and salvation became necessary. Prior to Genesis 3, we did not need a crucified and risen Savior because there was no sin. 

When sin entered the world, though, everything changed, and it required radical action from God if humanity was to be rescued from destruction and death. The only solution to the problem of sin was a crucified and risen Savior. 

The key verse in the passage is Genesis 3:15. God said to the serpent, “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel.”

Here we have, what theologians call, the first Gospel proclamation. Immediately after Adam sinned, God promised there would be warfare between the offspring of the devil and the offspring of the woman, and the offspring of the woman would prevail. 

We know the offspring of the woman ultimately refers to Jesus Christ. One of the surest evidences of this fact is the battle Jesus waged against Satan throughout His earthly ministry, culminating with the cross. The crucifixion, then, was not merely a work of men against Jesus, but an epic battle between Satan and Jesus. Satan, the serpent of old, sought to crush Jesus but only bruised His heel. Jesus, though, on the cross and through the resurrection, crushed Satan’s head.

Let us look, then, at four problems caused by sin that are presented in Genesis 3 and consider why Jesus had to die and rise again to resolve them. 

First, when sin entered the world, humanity believed Satan’s lies.

Satan’s strategy in the garden was to distort the Word of God and to call God a liar. Eve believed this lie, and she was deceived disobeying God. Paul wrote in Romans 1:25 that mankind has “exchanged the truth of God for a lie.” When sin entered the world, humanity fell into deception, no longer believing God’s Word, but Satan, the father of lies. 

The good news of the gospel, though, is that Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil – his lies and deceit! The world is hostile to God because people believe the devil’s lie that God is out to suppress, harm, oppress, and stifle humanity. At Calvary and the empty tomb, however, this lie is completely undone. 

When sin entered the world, all humanity fell into the devil’s deception; but Jesus died and rose again to overcome Satan’s lies.

In 2 Peter 1:4, Peter writes, “For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature.” Satan says, “God doesn’t want any rivals, so He is suppressing you.” God’s gospel promise, however, is that in the resurrection we will be made like Jesus in every way possible for a creature to be like his Creator. We will be perfectly conformed to the image of Christ (Romans 8:29); and God in Christ will give us all things. When sin entered the world, all humanity fell into the devil’s deception; but Jesus died and rose again to overcome Satan’s lies.

Second, when sin entered the world, humanity became alienated from God.

When Adam and Eve sinned against God, shame entered into their experience, and intimacy with one another was broken. Adam’s first response to God was to hide out of guilt and fear. Adam also compounds his first transgression with the sin of lying about why he will not come before his Creator. Later, Adam blames God, saying Eve, whom God had created, was the source of the problem. This is how sinners always relate to God apart from Christ. Option one: Hide. Option two: Lie. Option three: Make excuses to shift blame.

God, however, didn’t accept any of Adam’s tactics. Instead, God promises to redeem Adam through Eve’s offspring by defeating and condemning the serpent. God promises reconciliation. How do we know God promises reconciliation? Because the offspring of Eve and her children are going to be enemies of Satan, not of God.

In 1 Peter 3:18, Peter writes, “For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit.” We were alienated from and hostile toward God because of sin; but God gave His Son for us, and Jesus rose from the dead to end the hostility and bring us to Himself. 

Third, when sin entered the world, humanity incurred guilt before God for sin.

After Adam’s transgression, sin became a barrier between man and God. The problem sinners have with a holy God is not a psychological problem, or something internal we merely need to convince ourselves to get over. Rather, the problem is sin and the guilt we incur because of sin. God is so holy that He cannot even look upon evil.

Christ’s death and resurrection guarantees our future resurrection.

To reconcile us to God, Jesus had to deal with the problem of sin. He took our guilt and very sin upon Himself and paid its penalty so we could be reconciled to God.

In Galatians 3:13, Paul writes, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us – for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.’”  The curse we deserve was borne by Jesus when He hung on the cross and dealt with our objective guilt before a holy God.

Finally, when sin entered the world, humanity became subject to death.

With guilt incurred because of sin and with alienation from the life of God came death. As Romans 6:23 says, “The wages of sin is death.” When Adam sinned, the entire human race was subjected to death.

But the curse doesn’t end with death; Jesus died and rose again to give eternal life! Incredibly, Adam somehow knew this was the meaning of God’s promise in Genesis 3:15. When God vowed to defeat Satan through a man, Adam knew it meant life for his posterity. That’s why after God pronounces the sentence of death on Adam and all humanity, Adam names his wife Eve “because she was the mother of all the living.” Even in the face of death, Adam had hope that God promised life. 

This is why we need a crucified and risen Savior. Sin created problems that human nature could not solve. Adam’s response was not to solve the sin problem, but to hide from it. The only one who can solve the problem of sin is God, and He has done so through His Son. Christ’s death and resurrection guarantees our future resurrection.

This month as we reflect on Jesus’ death and resurrection, we should remember what He accomplished for us. Consider how hopelessly condemned we were without Christ. Rejoice that He loved us and gave Himself for us, so we might have life and a real relationship with the Lord, that we might even know God Himself. This reality should cause us to live even more for Him who died and rose again on our behalf.