Jesus' eternal appointment for a sacrifice | The Whole Counsel

Jesus Was Appointed by the Father for the Sacrifice

The fourth argument that he gives is that Jesus was appointed by the Father in eternity past for this sacrifice. This is why there's such virtue in Christ's blood, because the Father appointed Him toward this end.

This is the payment that is acceptable, because it's the payment that the Father demands. So even if we could bring something to the Father that was worthy, that was good, and that we might stack somehow against our sin, it's not equal to the stain and guilt of our sin.

There's no—the scales don't balance. But Christ's sacrifice is not only sufficient to pay the actual debt, it is exactly what the Father has requested.

It's legal tender for this. Yeah, and he talks about it later in the applications, but let's hit that more here. If we could, as you mentioned, if we could actually bring some kind of obedience that was pure, obedience that was equal to the sin somehow, could we pay for it?

And the answer is no. The law that's offended does not call for that kind of payment. The God that was offended does not call for that payment. So it would be like us paying a $750 house payment every month by bringing $750 worth of vegetables from our garden and saying to the bank owner, well, this is worth $750.

And he might say, I agree, it really is worth $750, but we can't accept that tender. The only thing, God says, that can pay for sin is death, and the death must be the death of an infinite and pure sacrifice, and it must be the sacrifice he chose.

One theological explanation for that we find in the book of Hebrews where it says that even Christ did not take it upon himself to be the priest, to be the sacrifice. That was what the Father assigned him.

And so, you know, there's a great deal of comfort for the believer to realize that the very sacrifice that Jesus Christ perfectly gave was the sacrifice in eternity past that the Father requested.

I think it's also helpful to remember, we've talked about these truths in the right order, and there's a danger in getting them out of order so that we don't see them in their proper proportions. There's also a danger in stopping too soon.

So we've seen sin and the character of God, but when we fear sin is too great, what do we do? We come and we look here again and again.