A Living Hope Of The Hereafter by D. Martyn Lloyd Jones

What is happening at the Cross? According to the Scriptures, as Peter puts it in his second chapter here, God was laying our sins on Him, “who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree” (I Peter 2:24a). Or as Paul puts it, God “hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (2 Cor. 5:21). What does this mean? It means that there on the Cross of Calvary’s hill all that the Law has to say against sin was said. All the punishment that the Law metes out upon sin and guilt, evil and shame, was poured out upon Him.

That is what was happening at the Cross. All the righteous demands of God’s Law were being fulfilled. All the consequences of sin were being poured out upon Him. That was what He was doing, what He had come to earth to do. Sin led to His death. Sin was the cause of His crucifixion. ‘Without shedding of blood there is no remission” of sins (Heb. 9:22b). And so He died. His body was taken down and buried in the grave. Then came the momentous fact of the Resurrection. This is the truth, says Peter, in effect that thrills me and grips me, moving me to cry out in wonder and adoration. Christ did not remain in the grave. He was brought out of it, unscathed and conquering. He appeared to His chosen followers, ascended into heaven, and again took His seat in the everlasting glory.