What Grace Cost God

Introduction

John the third chapter. We’ll be drawing our lesson from that chapter. For the most part this morning, we’ll be looking at a few other passages as well. But if you’ll turn to John chapter 3, you’ll have the place where we’ll begin here in just a moment. Again to our visitors, we thank you for joining us as we come together to worship our God. Pray that you’ll join us again. We’ll meet this Wednesday at 7 o’clock for Bible study. And then, of course, the next Lord’s Day. We’ll come together again at 9 a.m. in the morning to praise God, to study from his word, and to remember the great sacrifice of his son. Perhaps you’ve seen, or if not, you’ve at least known from being here before that our theme for this month has been grace.

And specifically, we’ve been titling this Grace Isn’t Cheap. We began that series of studies a few weeks ago by looking at John chapter 3 and in verse 16, a passage that most of you can probably quote. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. And we were using that passage as our definition for God’s grace. Grace, the word, is not found in that passage, but the whole passage is really about grace. We see the origin, and it is, of course, God. He’s the one that was gracious to us. We see in this passage why? The motive for God’s grace, and it is love. We see the object of his love.

It’s the whole, the entire world. We also see what the actual gift is, and that is his son. The purpose of the gift, that we could have eternal life, but we also noted the recipients of that gift. While the love of God is universal, the love of God is for all men. Those who will receive his gift are those who will believe in him. Last Sunday, our brother Harkrider brought to us a lesson on the propitiation. Christ, our propitiation. The point being that we needed saving. We needed atonement. We needed that propitiation for us, that sacrifice given for us because of our sin. That’s why we need the grace of God. This morning we want to look, begin looking at the costly nature of that grace.

And we’re emphasizing today what grace costs God. For after all, it is God who gave. He is the one who gives this wondrous gift. And so, what did it cost God to save us? And again in John chapter 3, I’m going to bring your attention back a few verses. Jesus has been speaking in Nicodemus, and he’s been telling him about why he should believe in him, that no one has ascended into heaven, verse 13, but he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And then he says in verse 14, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that whoever believes will in him have eternal life. Here is the Son that God gave.

1. Parallels Between the Serpent and the Son

And here is the purpose of God giving this Son. And Jesus here draws a parallel between the serpent that Moses lifted up in the wilderness. You may be familiar with the account in Numbers chapter 21, beginning about verse 5. For even though this is toward the end of Israel’s 40 year wandering in the wilderness, yet they are still murmuring, they are still complaining against God. They’re tired of the food which they had to eat. They complain against God. Why can’t we have something better? Why can’t we have something more? And you may remember on that occasion that God sent fiery serpents into the camp. Many died. And they recognize it was because of their own sinfulness. And so they come back to Moses, asking Moses, intercede for us.

And so God responds to Moses by telling him to erect a fiery serpent among the camp. So that whoever would come and look on it, verse 9 would be healed. And Jesus is saying now that just as Moses erected that serpent, so too he must be lifted up. There’s some parallels in that passage, the two passages rather. Some parallels between the serpent that Moses erected and the Son who God gave to be lifted up. The first parallel is the problem. Why is it that the serpents were coming into the camp? Because Israel continually sinned against their God. They are continually murmuring and complaining and bickering. And so they sinned. And so they were punished because of sin. Of course, we understand the reason why Christ came into this world.

It’s so that sins can be forgiven, as he himself said, so he could redeem us, so he could forgive us by his blood.

Of course, the other parallel is the consequence of sin. The consequence of Israel was many died because of their sin. The fiery serpents coming into the camp, many are bitten, many die. And it’s all attributed to the fact that they sinned against God. We understand from the very beginning of the Bible that as God had said to Adam in the garden, that in the day you eat of it, in the day that they transgressed against the commandment of God, they would die. We understand they were separated from God. That yes, physical death came into being. We also understand that each of us, when we sin, that we deserve the wages of that sin. Quite simply put, as Paul says, the wages of sin is death. The problem’s the same.

Sin in the camp. The consequences of the problem are the same. Death. And so God says, I will give a common solution. You are to lift up. A serpent to be lifted up among Israel so that whoever would look on it could be healed. And now the very Son of God lifted up, so that whoever would come to him and believe in him could in fact be saved. It’s an interesting parallel. What was causing man’s death back in Numbers 21? Well, of course, it was their sin, but the fiery serpents had come into the camp. And so a likeness of the serpent is erected. Well, what is causing our spiritual death? Us. We’re the ones causing our own spiritual death. And so what must be erected?

2. Only the Son Was a Sacrifice

The likeness of us. And so he came, as Paul says in Romans chapter 8 and verse 3, he came in the likeness of sinful flesh. Christ erected just as the serpent had been erected back in Numbers chapter 21. This is the parallel that Jesus is drawing their attention to there in John chapter 3 and in verse 14. That just as a serpent was lifted up, so he too must also be lifted up. But of course, you and I also understand that this is not a complete parallel. There are some significant contrasts between Jesus and the serpent as well. And of course, the one that we would bring our attention to is that only the Son was a sacrifice. The serpent wasn’t a sacrifice at all. It was something that was constructed and lifted up among the people.

But Jesus, as he’s being lifted up, also serves that purpose of being the sacrifice for our sins. And as such, he had to be a perfect sacrifice. Going back to the law, of course, we understand that the principle of the sacrifice was of that which was perfect, that which was without blemish. As God instructed his people in Leviticus chapter 1 and verse 3, as they were bringing their offerings for their own sins, and they were bringing that lamb to offer that burnt offering from the herd, he shall offer it a male without defect. He shall offer it at the doorway of the tent of the meeting that he may be accepted before the Lord. Only that which was without defect could be accepted before God as a sacrifice.

And of course, throughout the scriptures, we understand, we recognize that Jesus came as that perfect sacrifice. Our brother John read for us this morning before partaking of the Lord’s Supper from 2 Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 21. He made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him. He is perfect in that he knew no sin. Was he tempted? Yes, and all manners of we are tempted. He was tempted, yet without sin. He who knew no sin became sin for us. Peter, of course, makes mention in reflecting on how we are redeemed, not with perishable things like silver and gold. But Peter proclaims in 1 Peter 1 and in verse 19 that we were redeemed with the precious blood as of a lamb, unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.

Here is that perfect sacrifice that all those Old Testament sacrifices could only typify. The Son of God. And so Peter could later say in verse 24 of chapter 2 that he himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness, for by his wounds we are healed. The serpent on the pole that Moses erected was not a sacrifice. But Jesus, as he was lifted up, was.

3. Why Must Jesus Be Lifted Up on a Cross?

In fact, he would even say, You will lift me up. It is clear what Jesus is referencing. He is referencing his crucifixion. The being lifted up, the Son of Man being lifted up, is pointing to the very fact that Jesus would suffer and die on the cross. We read the other accounts of Jesus’ life, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, in all three of those accounts. Jesus would tell his disciples on at least three occasions that they were making their way to Jerusalem so that he would suffer and ultimately be crucified on a cross. Why, though, must Jesus die on a cross? Why couldn’t he just die in his sleep? Well, he might respond, Well, blood has to be shed. For him to be a real sacrifice, his blood has to be shed.

Okay, then why couldn’t you do something more humane like behead him? Doesn’t sound very humane to us. Let me tell you, if he had the options from the Romans, you want to be crucified, or you want to be beheaded, you would take beheading every time. End it quick. Why not something like that? Or if you want to be a little more gruesome, why not just poke them through with a bunch of spears or swords or something? Why a cross? Why are the most gruesome instrument of torture that man had ever devised? Why a slow, painful death rather than dying quickly. I submit to you that that goes all the way back to the very beginning of scriptures as to why Jesus had to be lifted up.

Going back and look back in Genesis chapter 3. You’re familiar with the story, no doubt, but look back in Genesis chapter 3. We understand again that because of transgression, God had said, then the day you eat of it, you will surely die. We understand it from Genesis chapter 3 that man and woman did in fact eat. And so God pronounced their punishment. We’ve stated this before, and I’ll submit again, all this punishment, I believe, is a natural course of their being separated from their God. But he says, Here are the results. Here is what happens when you are going to be separated from me to the woman, he says in verse 16, I will greatly multiply your pain and childbirth birth. In pain you will bring forth children, yet your desire will be for your husband, he will rule over you.

Then to Adam, he said in verse 17, Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, You shall not eat from it. Cursed is the ground because of you, and toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you will eat bread till you return to the ground, because from it you were taken, for you are dust, and to dust you shall return. And then going to the end of the chapter, we see where a man and woman were cast out from the presence of God. What is God saying to man?

Yes, you’re gonna die. And it’s gonna be a painful, arduous process and finally reaching that death. You are now facing an existence separated from me, and that is an existence of pain and suffering. Whether speaking to the woman or speaking to the man, he is telling them, here’s what’s in store for you. Because you’ll be separated from me, you will have pain, suffering, sorrow throughout your days. And isn’t it significant? When we begin reading the prophecies of the one who was to come, so many of those prophecies also focus on the fact that it would be suffering that the chosen one would come and experience. Even staying here in Genesis chapter 3. The very first prophecy, the very first promise of the one whom God would send.

He says to the serpent in Genesis 3 and in verse 15, I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your seed and her seed. He shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel. And it’s that picture you may remember from the Passion of the Christ, that movie that came out several years ago, and Mel Gibson having a little poetic license, but there in the garden is Jesus, and here is that serpent crawling towards Jesus. And what is Jesus doing? He is using his heel and crushing the serpent’s head. But the point is, as he’s doing that, what is the serpent doing? He’s lashing out. He’s striking his heel. Jesus and coming to put an end to Satan’s power is suffering himself.

You go to the psalmist in Psalm 22, and David reflecting on his own suffering, and yet he’s giving this picture of one who’s forsaken by God. And he looks at those bones and they’re wasting away, and he’s saying, This is what’s happening to me, but it’s only a foreshadowing of what would happen to the Savior to come. And of course, all of us remember and recognize Isaiah 53, the suffering servant. As Israel, the nation, is suffering because of their sinfulness. The picture of hope is one who would come and not Israel or the world suffer for their own sins, but the one who would come and suffer for them. And so the prophet says, Surely our griefs he himself bore, and our sorrows he carried. Yet we ourselves esteemed him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted.

But he was pierced through for our transgressions.

The chastening for our well-being fell upon him, and by his scourging we are healed. Again, later on in verse 6, the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on him. It’s a picture of suffering. And so I submit, and I believe it’s consistent with the biblical text. That when Jesus is saying that not only was the serpent lifted up, but he too must be lifted up, it is pointing to the fact that not only must Jesus die, he must suffer. And I think we could agree in reading about the life of Jesus, that suffering didn’t begin just when he came to the cross. The very notion of leaving the glories of heaven is itself a type of suffering. Being born in this sinful world and experiencing all the temptations that are common to man as a suffering day after day of seeing the needs of his people and having compassion for them is itself a manner of suffering with his people.

4. Picture After Picture of Suffering

If you were reading in Mark this week, along with the daily Bible reading, and on Friday, or one of the days this week, it was Friday for me, you read Mark 15. Mark perhaps has the briefest account of Jesus’ crucifixion, or one of the briefer accounts, but it’s still a very detailed account. And you just read through that account, and you see picture after picture of suffering. We had Brother Max Dawson here with us, and I’m not going to try and do what he did for us back in 2004. However, I will tell you, if you’ll visit our website, Bumby.org, and you’ll follow the links to our theme for this month, you’ll find a lesson that Brother Max preached for us entitled The Truth About the Passion of Christ.

It was a lesson detailing the horrors of the cross. I invite you to go back and listen to that. Because what Mark is giving us and what Matthew gave us and what Luke gave us and what John gave us are tame accounts of the suffering of Jesus. But when you read these horrible accounts of what Jesus did, you read about all the different types of suffering that he experienced. Going back to the 14th chapter, you would see the emotional distress and the sorrow that he experienced in Mark chapter 14 and beginning in verse 33, as he’s brought his disciples into the garden to pray, and he takes with him Peter and James and John, and he began to be very distressed and troubled. And he said to them, My soul is deeply grieved to the point of death.

Remain here and keep watch. And he goes on and begins to pray. He falls down to the ground, and he prays that if it were possible, the hour might pass by him. And he was saying, Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me, yet not what I will, but what you will. Continue on the 14th chapter, you will see the suffering of abandonment, as in the 50th verse. Not only had Judas departed earlier, not only would Peter later deny the Lord three times, but in Mark chapter 14 and verse 50, we read that all left him and fled, every last one of his disciples, and so he must stand his trials alone. And speaking of those trials, how unjust could a trial be.

But Jesus experienced not one trial, but as many as six trials, each and every time a picture of injustice. First by his countrymen, the Jews, and then by Pilate. Other accounts let us know of a trial before Herod, and then by Pilate again, but over and over again, here is the innocent, and yet unjustly accused and condemned. Then there’s the physical abuse, the physical abuse that began from the very moment that they apprehended Jesus, and that perhaps culminates with his scourging by the hands of the Romans. And then there’s the very fact that he’s crucified in Mark chapter 15 and verses 22 through 24. And all Mark simply says about that is that they crucified him. And yet the horrors of hanging on that cross, of having the nails pierce him, of struggling for every breath.

And while he is hanging, suspended in air, the Son of Man lifted up for us, he is mocked. Mocked by the very ones that he came to save. Verse 29 of Mark 15, those passing by were hurling abuse at him, wagging their heads and saying, Ha, you who are going to destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself and come down from the cross. In the same way the chief priest also, along with the scribes, were mocking him among themselves and saying, He saved others. He cannot save himself. Let this Christ, the king of Israel, now come down from the cross that we may believe. Those who were crucified with him were also insulting him. And then as Mark records for us, the climax of the suffering, perhaps, is what occurs as he’s about to die.

We read in verse 34 that at the ninth hour, Jesus now having been on the cross for six hours. At the ninth hour, Jesus cried out with a loud voice, Eloh, Elohim Lama Sabactani, which is translated, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why must he be lifted up? Because sin brought about not just death, but all of the suffering that goes along with death. And for Jesus now to heal us, for the grace of God to be truly manifest in us, it wasn’t enough for him just to come and to die. He would have to suffer all the horrors, all the anguish, all the pain, all the humiliation that would go with it. And this is why we proclaim that the grace of God is not cheap.

5. God Gave His Son; Jesus Gave His Life

When we say in John 3 and in verse 16, that God gave his son, then this is what we are saying. We are saying that the one who we read back in the first chapter in verse 18, the one who had been in the very bosom of the Father, that close, intimate relationship with the Father, the two being one, unified, that God gave him to come and to suffer like none other had suffered or would ever suffer.

This is why Peter can say in 1 Peter chapter 5 and in verse 10 that he is the God of all grace. When we talk about the expense of the God of the cross, the expense of the gift of God’s grace, we are saying that God gave the greatest and the most costly gift that could ever be given. And furthermore, Jesus gave.

And yet, this is not an injust gift. This is not taking the life of someone not willing to give it. But this is someone who is willing to give his life. John chapter 10 and verses 17 and 18. For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life so that I may take it again. No one has taken it away from me, but I lay it down on my own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from the Father. Again, if he were forced to give his life, then it’s an unjust act. But he willingly gave it. And as such, it is a sacrifice. Perhaps some of you have heard this.

Maybe others have not. There was a Swiss theologian by the name of Carl Barth. I have I’ll not confess that I’ve read any of his works. I’ve not. He may be writing at a level far above me. But he was famed for a series of volumes in the English, about 13 volumes and about six million words called church dogmatics. Just examining every particular doctrine that has existed within the church. Millions and millions of words. And he was on one occasion asked to summarize what he thought the whole point of the church dogmatics was. A whole point of his theology, if you will. And the summary was Jesus loves me. This I know. For the Bible tells me so. God gave his son. Jesus gave his life.

6. Whoever Believes Will Have Eternal Life

And nothing more costly has ever been given. Grace is not cheap. But in going back to our passage in John 3 and verse 14 of that parallel with the serpent, there’s one final parallel. That Moses erecting that fiery serpent among the people required something of the people. It was those who would come and look on him. Look on that serpent. They would be healed. Indicating that you could reject it. I don’t know why any of Israel would have, but they could have. They didn’t have to go and to look and to gaze on that which Moses had erected. But if they would look, then they would be healed. Jesus says in John 3, 14 and 15, that so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that whoever believes will in him have eternal life.

Just as God gave his son so that whoever would believe in him would have eternal life.

Conclusion

To be drawn to Jesus. To be drawn to the grace of God that is spared no expense for your salvation. To be drawn to him with a believing heart. That you recognize in this God, in this Savior, that He has given all for you, and you will believe in turn. That you will put your utmost faith, confidence, and trust in Him, that you would even be saved from your sins. Coming to Him in full faith, confessing that, yes, Jesus is in fact the Son of God, the very one who is lifted up for you. Come, repenting of your wrongdoings, knowing that your sin is what separated you from God, your sin, my sins, were the ones that required Jesus being lifted up. And then even being baptized, as our Lord Himself says, that he who believes and is baptized will be saved.

Come to this God, come to this Father, come to this sacrifice, this Savior, this one who is lifted up. Be drawn to him in full faith. And how we long to help you this morning. Be drawn to him as Peter says in 1 Peter chapter 1 and verses 17 through 19, with reverence, with holy fear, recognizing that God gave this for you. That you are redeemed not by any means of your own, but only with the precious blood of Christ. Can we aid some this morning? Would you accept the greatest gift that could ever be given to you? The very grace of God. Pictured with your Savior suspended in air, lifted up on a cross, so that you could be forgiven. Can we aid you? Won’t you come as we stand and as we sing?

Let the Bible speak is presented by the South Bumblebee Church of Christ in Orlando, Florida. And we want to invite you to join us for our services. You will find our assemblies to be refreshing, built upon the instructions of Jesus when he said that true worshipers must worship the Father in spirit and truth. Thus, we strive to be both scriptural and spiritual in our worship. You can be sure that as a visitor of South Bumbi, you will never be put on the spot or embarrassed in any way. Nor will there be any pleas for your money. We simply want you to bring an open mind and an open Bible. So why not make plans to visit us this week?