#DailyDevotion Jesus Is The Righteous One Sacrificed For Us
1 Peter 318Christ died once for our sins, the Righteous One for the guilty, to bring us to God. He was killed in His body but made alive in His spirit. 19In this spirit He also went and preached to the spirits kept in prison, 20who disobeyed long ago in the days of Noah when God waited patiently while the ark was being built,…
Well you can hardly get any more gospelier than that. Christ died once for our sins. Thanks be to God. Christ does not die again and again, he is not sacrificed again and again for our sins. No, his death was all sufficient to take away the sin of the world. As Hebrews tells us, 826 “Here is the High Priest we needed – holy, innocent, spotless, separated from sinners, and risen higher than the heavens, 27Who doesn’t need to bring sacrifices every day like those high priests, first for His own sins, then for the sins of the people. He did this only once when He sacrificed Himself. 28The Law appointed weak men to be high priests, but when God speaks with an oath later than the Law, He appoints the Son, Who was made perfect forever.”
Here were see what the sacrifice was, “the Righteous One for the guilty.” Jesus is the Righteous One. We are the guilty. As it is written in Isaiah 5311“Because of the toil of His soul, He will see the light and be satisfied. By His experience My righteous Servant justifies many by taking on Himself the heavy load of their guilt.” Jesus is the sacrifice the LORD provides on Mount Moriah. He is the Pascal Victim and Pascal Priest so the angel of death passes over us. Jesus is the goat that is sacrifice and the scapegoat led outside the sin upon whom the sins of the world is placed upon. Jesus is the morning and evening sacrifice, the peace offering and the sin offering. He died once for all as the atoning sacrifice for our sins.
Jesus did this to bring us to God. We were separated from God by our sins. Now that our sins have been atoned for by Jesus the Father no longer counts our trespasses against us and has reconciled himself to us. Now we approach the throne of God and his grace boldly and confidently as his children to receive whatever we need from him, whatever is our hearts’ desire. We are brought to God the Father holy, blameless, pure, without spot, stain or wrinkle. We are presented to as the bride of Christ, his holy church.
Jesus was killed in the body but made alive by the Spirit. It’s always interesting to see who is raising Jesus from the dead. Sometimes it is the Spirit, sometimes the Father and sometimes Jesus himself. It is a Trinitarian job. In the spirit Jesus goes and preaches to the spirits in prison. We believe this is the confessed descent into hell (or rather Hades, the abode of the dead). It is not part of his humiliation but his exaltation. He proclaims the victory over sin, death and the devil. Having descended to hell he ascends to the right hand of God the Father having all power, glory and might, for our sake. There he prepares a place for us for when he returns in glory and raises us from the dead to enter into his kingdom.
Heavenly Father, you provided what humanity needed, a sacrifice, spotless, sinless, without fault and holy so we may be brought to you and made one with you in Christ Jesus. Grant us faith to believe this so we may receive it at his revelation. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.