His Dying Breath Has Brought Me Life--I Know That It Is Finished

The doctrine of penal substitution proclaims that God gave himself in the person of his Son to suffer instead of us the death, punishment and curse due to fallen humanity as the penalty for sin.  This understanding of the cross of Christ is the very core of the gospel.  There is a wondrous beauty in the sacrificial love of a God who gave himself for his people.  It is this that first drew me to the Lord Jesus Christ, and this that will draw us to him when he returns on the last day to vindicate his name and welcome his people into his eternal kingdom--no wonder every knee will bow and tongue confess. Can you imagine what you will do when you see him?   That the Lord Jesus Christ died for us--a shameful death, bearing our curse, enduring our pain, suffering the wrath of his own Father in our place--has been the wellspring of the hope of countless Christians throughout the ages.  Although he was fully God, he accomplished this all as a man, in reliance upon the Holy Spirit.  Every month I drive up to Seattle for re-train.  My favorite moments  have been our worship times together.  We sang How Deep The Father's Love For Us, and as we sang the words "his dying breath has brought me life, I know that it is finished" all the men in the room began to hoop and holler--you can't help but praise him when you begin to understand the atonement.  When the gospel is preached, worship will rise.  

C.H. Spurgeon preached these words with all his heart,

 "Would you have me silence the blood of sprinkling?  Would anyone of you attempt so horrible a deed?  Shall we be censured if we proclaim the heaven-sent message of the blood of Jesus?  Shall we speak with bated breath because some affected person shutters at the sound of the word blood? or some 'cultured' individual rebels at the old-fashioned thought of sacrifice?  Nay, verily, we shall sooner have our tongue cut out than cease to speak of the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ."