The Great, Redemptive Multi-Tasker
Meditating on all that the Scriptures teach about what Jesus accomplished on the cross leads us to conclude that Jesus was the great, redemptive multi-tasker. On the cross, Jesus conquered Satan (Gen. 3:15; John 12:31 and Col. 2:15) , atoned for our sin (Heb. 1:3 and Rom. 4:7-8), overcame the world (John 12:31 and 16:33), propitiated the wrath of God (Rom. 3:25; Heb. 2:7; 1 John 2:2 and 4:10), became the example of self-sacrificial living (Rom. 15:2-3; 1 Peter 2:21) and secured the New Heavens and New Earth (Heb. 2:5-11). We sometimes mistakenly reduce what He accomplished in His death merely down to the work of atonement–since that is what we feel comes most closely to our experience with sin in our lives. While His work of atonement certainly comes to the forefront in the teaching about His death in the Scriptures, it does not stand out as being more significance than His work of conquering the devil and the world. Additionally, as Geerhardus Vos has explained, “Underneath the service rendered by Jesus to men lay a service rendered to God. He gave his life for men, but he gave it to God.” This makes His work of propitiating the wrath of God stand at the head together with His work of atoning for our sin.
Many years ago, William Still preached a sermon series on the “Three Dimensions of the Cross.” In that series, Still dealt with the way in which Jesus conquered Satan on the cross, atoned for our sin and overcame the world. They are the most impacting and formative sermons on the cross that I’ve heard. You can listen to his three messages below:
The First Dimension of the Cross
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