The Centrality Of The Cross Psalm 32:1-2 (day 8)

For this lent season, I am doing a forty-day study in the Psalms looking for aspects of the atonement that will end around Easter. My hope is to generate a newfound awe of what Christ did on the cross.

Psalm 32:1-2

[32:1] Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. [2] Blessed is the man against whom the LORD counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit.

This Psalm hits the centrality of the cross. What is the centrality of the Cross? Sin has been dealt with. The whole point of our great Saviors–death on the cross is the forgiveness of sin. Paul recites this Psalm in Romans 8 and 2 Corinthians 5.

Romans 4:7-8

[7] “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; [8] blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.”

2 Corinthians 5:17-19

[17] Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. [18] All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; [19] that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.

We have to understand how huge, immense and vast the cross is and what was actually accomplished through the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. Saint Anselm was a Benedictine monk and philosopher who wrote a book called “Why God Became Man” and this is Sam Storms interpretation of that book:

What is sin?

Sin is defined as the withholding by the creature from God the honor that is due him. Therefore, sin is debt, or the failure to render to God full and proper obedience.

"One who does not render this honor [i.e., obedience in every act of will] to God takes away from God what belongs to Him, and dishonors God, and to do this is to sin".

"So then, everyone who sins ought to pay back the honor of which he has robbed God; and this is the satisfaction which every sinner owes to God".

Under what obligation does sin place mankind?

Mankind is under a three-fold obligation:

-        - We must immediately render to God full and proper obedience in everything;

-        - We must pay back the honor due unto God of which, by our sin, we deprived him; and

-        -  We must pay back more (reparation) than we have taken away; this is because of the 
  infinite degree of the insult we inflicted on God by dishonoring him. Hence, total
  obedience, repayment, and reparation are required of all humanity.

What are the possible options left to mankind?

There are only two: either we must be punished or we must make the required satisfaction. Punishment is less than desirable for all concerned, for God's plan to bring eternal happiness to his creation would suffer. Satisfaction for sin is the only viable alternative.

Is mankind able to make the required satisfaction for sin?

No, and for two reasons. First, we already owe God complete obedience and thus have nothing to offer to make satisfaction that is not already rightfully his. Second, sin is infinitely heinous because God, against whom it was committed, is infinitely holy. Thus, whatever satisfaction we make would be eternal in duration, for our sin offended an eternally righteous God.

Why cannot God, in love and mercy, simply dismiss the offense and forgive us our sins?

There are two reasons. First, if sin is not punished, it is not subject to any law or regulation. The sinner and saint would thus have equal standing before God, the former being regarded no differently than the latter. Secondly, God could not save anyone and still be a good and just God. What humans deserve is that death from a just God. So God accepted the perfect sacrifice of His Son, our Savior, Jesus, to pay that debt we owed. Therefore, the justice of God has no less a right for expression than do his love and mercy. So the bottom line is that man should have paid for sin, but Jesus is the only one who could have paid for sin.

How, then, can satisfaction be made?

"Satisfaction cannot be made unless there be some One able to pay God for man's sin something greater than all that is beside God. . . . Now nothing is greater than all that is beside God except God Himself. None therefore can make this satisfaction except God. And none ought to make it except man. . . . If, then, it be necessary that the kingdom of heaven be completed by man's admission, and if man cannot be admitted unless the aforesaid satisfaction for sin be first made, and if God only can, and man only ought to make this satisfaction, then necessarily One must make it who is both God and man".

In other words, only we owe the debt, but we cannot pay it. Only God can pay the debt, but he does not owe it. Therefore, only a God-man, i.e., Jesus Christ, can both bear the guilt of human sin and pay the debt incurred by it. This is Cur Deus Homo . . . this is why God became man!

How could the death of Christ honor God and sufficiently outweigh the sins of men?

There are three answers.

1.      Since the God-man offered to God a gift he did not owe, the gift is adequate to pay for our sins. 

2.      The God-man did not deserve to die. His death was entirely voluntary. Thus his death, unlike that of all other men, was meritorious in God's sight.

3.      The assault on Christ is the greatest sin imaginable. Therefore, since he willed to endure this greatest of all injustices, the merit of his death is itself the greatest imaginable and more than suffices to outweigh the sins of mankind.