Subject 12 : The Faith of the Apostles Creed
● Sermon on the Holy Son 3 : Why Did Christ Die Vicariously for Many?
It
was because Jesus was baptized by John, through which He accepted the
sins of the world passed onto Him. In Matthew 3:15, we see Jesus taking
all the sins of the world upon Himself by receiving His baptism from
John. The reason why Jesus was baptized by John was because He had to
shoulder the sins of the world through this baptism. It was because this
was God’s own desire, as stated in Isaiah 53:10, “Yet it pleased the
LORD to bruise Him….” Therefore, the purpose of God in sending Christ to
this earth was to “bruise Him” because of His bearing of our sins and
death.
Realizing
this love, the Apostle John said, “In this is love, not that we loved
God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for
our sins” (1 John 4:10). In obeying the will of God, Christ therefore
discarded at once the comfortable way, which He was more than capable of
taking with His majesty and power, and did not hesitate to eschew the
compassion of His disciples and the great welcome of the people. Put
differently, because He had accepted all the sins of the world by being
baptized, He could die for us who have gone astray like sheep, and has
thereby opened “a new and living way” to us (Hebrews 10:20). Jesus, in
other words, had to embrace His baptism by John to satisfy the
righteousness of God, regardless of whether people would recognize it or
not, for this was the very desire of the Father. This is why He faced
the accursed and terrifying death of the Cross.
Because
His sufferings were the will of God, He remained completely silent even
as He suffered. As Isaiah 53:7 states, “He was oppressed and He was
afflicted, Yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the
slaughter, And as a sheep before its shearers is silent, So He opened
not His mouth.” Like this, even as He was falsely accused, harshly
beaten, plucked of his beard, and spat at, because He had accepted the
sins of mankind passed onto Him from John through His baptism, He
remained silent.
Not
only this but furthermore, because it was the will of the Father for
Him to be baptized and thus die, He died for the sake of those who
believe. Only after being baptized by John at the age of 30 and thereby
taking upon Him the sins of the world, our Lord was crucified at the age
of 33 and shed His blood. He then rose from the dead, and has become
the eternal Savior for those of us who believe in this truth.
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