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Benefits of the Cross
(Sin and Iniquity)
Isaiah 53:5: But He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for
our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes
we are healed. (NKJ)
The following are some of the benefits of the Cross that our Lord Jesus
Christ has provided for us through His death on Calvary:
a) Forgiveness of sin and eternal life;
b)
Freedom from our iniquities;
c)
Peace for our mind and heart;
d)
Healing for our bodies.
“Wounded for our transgressions”
In the book of Romans we are told, “As it is written, There is none
righteous, no, not one…For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of
God." (Romans 3:10,23)
"Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and
so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned…But God demonstrates
His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for
us… For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in
Christ." (Romans 5:12; 5:8; 6:23)
The law of God required the shedding of blood for the forgiveness of the
sins of man; therefore, each one of us should have died to pay for our own
sins, because death (spiritual death, eternal separation from God) is the
wages of sin. However, Jesus, the only one without sin, took our place and
died on the Cross of Calvary. He gave His LIFE as a sacrifice for us.
In Leviticus 17:11 God says “…For the life of the flesh is in the blood,
and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls;
for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul.”
“The life of the flesh is in the blood”. Medical science knows that this is
true. Without the blood, our bodies could not live and the person who looses
too much blood inevitably dies.
The Word of God also says: “…And according to the law almost all things are
purified with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no remission."
Heb 9:22.
During the times of the Old Testament, because no one is without sin, God
required the sacrifices of blood from innocent animals that became the
substitute for the sinner. God’s sentence on sin had not changed: the
penalty had to be paid by death. Then, in the fullness of time, Jesus came
to be the fulfillment of all the sacrifices of the Old Testament. His
sacrifice was the perfect one. For this reason, His precious blood purifies
and delivers from the penalty of sin everyone that receives Him, putting his
of her faith in Him. When we sincerely repent of our sins, we confess them
to God, and ask forgiveness for them, His Word tells us that He forgives us.
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and
to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." I John 1:9
What is Eternal Life? How can we have assurance of it?
The first answer that comes to mind is: eternal life is to live forever.
This is true. However, if we want to go deeper and be more accurate, we must
say that “eternal life” is not the life of the “physical body. We have this
life as long as the soul and the spirit remain in it. When they leave, the
body dies. Eternal life, therefore, does not refer to the carcass. When the
natural death takes place, which happens to everyone eventually, the inner
man separates from the earthly shell that housed him, alias his body. James
2:26 says: “…the body without the spirit is dead…”
There is another death however. It refers to the ‘spiritual death” which is
the separation from God– because of sin - of the spiritual man (the
internal, most intimate part of man).
Isa 59:2 … But your iniquities have separated you from your God; and your
sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear.
Accordingly, if “eternal death” is eternal separation from God, “eternal
life”, in opposition, is “eternal union with Him”. The Lord Jesus says: "And
this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus
Christ whom You have sent.” John 17:3.
In the garden of Eden, the Lord God told Adam: "…but of the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of
it you shall surely die." Genesis 2:17
Adam possessed eternal life until he sinned. If he had not sinned, he would
have lived forever. However, he did and he lost the life eternal. In Genesis
5:5 we read: “So all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty
years; and he died.” This tells us that Adam did not die physically the day
that he sinned, but he did spiritually.
The natural life of the human being can continue to exist even if the person
is a sinner and lives separated and far away from God. It is only in God and
in “the One that he sent, Jesus Christ”, that humanity can obtain Eternal
Life. On the other hand, if sin is the only thing that separates from God
and that brings eternal spiritual death, then sin (living in a continual
state of it) can make us loose Eternal Life, which is ours only when we
abide in Christ and in His Word.
Therefore let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning. If what
you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son
and in the Father. And this is the promise that He has promised us-- eternal
life. I John 2:24-25.
The Lord is our Life and we have it as long as we have Him and abide in Him.
Furthermore, the Bible tells us that man is considered dead to sin and Satan
as long he is separated from them both and lives in union with God. “...And
if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life
because of righteousness.” Rom 8:10.
In conclusion, Eternal Life is eternal union with God, not just in the sense
of eternal existence but also in eternal knowledge of God, in perfect
communion with Him. We find this Life only in the Son of God, our Lord Jesus
Christ.
And this is the record that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life
is in his Son.
He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not
life. I John 5:11-12
He was “…bruised for our iniquities…”
Before we can understand the meaning of that phrase, we must define the word
“iniquity”.
Iniquity is a condition of the heart...an internal tendency of man to cause
pain to the heart of God.
God created humanity in order to have a reciprocal love relation with each
of us. He wanted to have it at His terms and at His conditions. After all,
He is God! Therefore He made us free to decide and choose whether to engage
in this kind of relationship or to live according to our thoughts and our
ways, far from Him. When, in the garden of Eden, Adam and Eve, instead of
obeying God’s command (better yet, the advice of God), they chose to follow
their own desire and they partook of the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil. So they sinned of disobedience (or rebellion). From that moment on
this “tendency” to rebellion has been with us. In Jeremiah 17:9-10 it is
written: The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked:
who can know it? I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give
every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.
Sin has its root in the condition of iniquity/rebellion of the heart.
Therefore we can say that iniquity is the tendency to sin in a particular
area of our life and it started in us as the result of the sins of our
ancestors.
In the iniquity we can find:
- Lawlessness (to be outside the law).
- Wickedness (malice, depravity, moral wickedness causing problems and/or
pain)
- Unrighteousness (contrary to the right way, lacking a right position before
God)
- Transgression (contravention, going over set boundaries, to walk outside
God’s law)
- Perversion (distortion, falsification, oppose or pervert God’s ways)
Iniquity obstructs the receiving from God and robs of blessings and
redemptive gifts, they put a block between us and our Lord.
“Behold, the LORD'S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; nor His ear
heavy, that it cannot hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your
God; and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear."
Isa 59:1-2 emphasis added
There are models of iniquitous behaviour that tend to appear generation
after generation, within members of the same family, like alcoholism, drug,
divorce, sexual problems of all kinds, occultism, witchcraft and so forth.
These make people sick, unhappy and incapable to enjoy the full life that
God wants to give to His children.
What we have mentioned here constitutes only a small part of the possible
iniquities that can negatively influence people’s lives. It would require a
deeper study, much more detailed than what we can present here, due to the
importance and the vastness of the subject. What we would like to stress
instead is that every believer can appropriate the power and the blessings of
God to break every curse in the personal generational blood line.
The Bible says that Jesus was “...bruised for our iniquities”. This implies
the Jesus endured the physical pain caused by the weight of our iniquities.
He did it to set us free from the curse of having the same weakness
(tendency) toward specific sins that has been passed down to us from our
ancestors.
It is interesting that when the Scriptures use the word “fathers” (like in
Exodus 20:5: “you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the
LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the
children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me)", its
meaning embraces not only the actual father, but also the mother, the
grandparents, the great grandparents and the entire family line. All of
these people could have contributed to the iniquity and to its passing down
to their descendants.
One example of “sins of the fathers”, whose consequences have passed down to
the next generations, is found in Genesis, from chapter 15 to 21. In chapter
15, God appears to Abram and tells him: "Know certainly that your
descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve
them, and they will afflict them four hundred years. And also the nation
whom they serve I will judge; afterward they shall come out with great
possessions. Now as for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you
shall be buried at a good old age. But in the fourth generation they shall
return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete."
Gen
15:13-16
As we continue to read, chapter 16:1-2 tells us: “Now Sarai, Abram's wife,
had borne him no children. And she had an Egyptian maidservant whose name
was Hagar. So Sarai said to Abram, "See now, the LORD has restrained me from
bearing children. Please, go in to my maid; perhaps I shall obtain children
by her." And Abram heeded the voice of Sarai.
Here we notice that while in chapter 15 God announces that Abram’s
descendants will be slaves for 400 years, immediately after that, we read of
Hagar, the Egyptian servant who – when unkindly treated by Sarai – ran away
from them. (Genesis 16:5-6) the Bible tells us that God sent an angel to
minister to Hagar. He also convinced her to return to her mistress Sarai.
Ishmael – the son of Hagar by Abram – was born when Abram was 86 years old.
Thirteen years later, God made a covenant with Abram and told him that Sarai
would have a son. That son, not Ishmael, would be the heir of God’s promises
(Genesis 17:15-21). Now we know, as we read in chapter 16, that there was
much strain between Sarah and Hagar. Abraham had told Sarah to do whatever
she wanted with her Egyptian maid, so we have good reason to believe that
Sarah had hurtfully treated Hagar all through the following thirteen years.
Is it surprising then, that God permitted the Egyptians to oppress the
Israelites for 400 years?
When a year later Sarah gave birth to Isaac, the promised son, the tension
between her and Hagar, over their respective offspring, increased a great
deal.
Now Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had
borne to Abraham, mocking. Therefore, she said to Abraham, "Drive
out this maid and her son, for the son of this maid shall not be an
heir with my son Isaac. And the matter distressed Abraham greatly
because of his son… So Abraham rose early in the morning, and took
bread and a skin of water, and gave {them} to Hagar, putting {them}
on her shoulder, and {gave her} the boy, and sent her away. And she
departed, and wandered about in the wilderness of Beersheba."
Genesis 21:9-11, 14 (NAS).
Hagar and the young lad almost died in the desert. However, God intervened.
He opened her eyes and she saw a well of water; and she went and filled the
skin with water, and gave the lad a drink. (21:19) (NAS).
Are we beginning to see the progressing similarities? In chapter 15, God
prophesies to Abram that Egypt would enslave and oppress his descendants for
400 years. Soon after that, Abram allows the oppression and ill treatment of
his Egyptian slave. Hundreds of years later, just before the end of Israel’s
slavery, the Egyptians tried to kill all of Israel babies, just like Hagar’s
son almost lost his life in the desert. Then, Abraham’s descendants left
Egypt and wondered in the wilderness for a long time, just as Hagar did when
Abram sent her away in the desert. The sons of Israel had to relive for
generations, the abuses that Hagar suffered.
I am convinced that this is one of those cases where the “sins of the
fathers” gave Satan a legal right to torment Abraham’s descendant for 400
years (or 10 generations). If the Lord has allowed this spiritual principle
to operate in the lives of His chosen people, chances are He will also allow
it to work in our life.
However, here is the good news: God moved mightily in His people favor, to
set them free from the oppression caused by the iniquities of their fathers
and – in the same way – God moves in our families even today..
We can appropriate the benefits of the Cross having access to the blood of
the King (the blood was shed for the remission of sins) and the curse can be
broken through the power of the Cross.
It was on the Cross that Jesus “…was bruised for our iniquities”. He
completely satisfied the demands of the justice of God, thus providing
freedom from our iniquities and from the curses that originate from the sins
of the fathers. In Isaiah 53 the prophet, referring to Jesus – said that He
“…was bruised for out iniquities” (vs.5), … the LORD has laid on Him the
iniquity of us all. (Vs.6)
and “…He shall bear their iniquities” (vs.11).
The Lord Jesus took upon Himself our punishment and has liberated us from
that. We don’t need to carry that which He has carried upon Himself. He is
our perfect substitute.
The Apostle Peter reminds us that Jesus has paid the price so that we could
be free from the generational sins, transmitted by our ancestors.
As a matter of fact, in 1 Peter 1:17-19 it is written: “… conduct yourselves
throughout the time of your stay here in fear; knowing that you were not
redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless
conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood
of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot." (Emphasis added).
The atoning work of Christ on the Cross has no meaning if we refuse His
liberation or if we continue to live voluntarily in a state of sin.
Through the shedding of His precious blood, we can exchange our curses with
His blessings: our sickness with His health, our grief with His joy, our
poverty with His riches, our lack with His sufficiency, and every area of
death with His Life.
As already mentioned, God Himself decided that the sinless blood of Jesus
should be given in exchange for ours stained by sin. Since the law required
that all things should be purified by blood, He provided the sinless blood
of His Son for the purification of all mankind. He was crucified and
experienced death on His entire body, soul and spirit to entirely redeem
every human being under the curse of the law. He became the complete answer
to the demands of God’s justice and to our inability to satisfy them. He is
the only One that can set us free.
So then what should we do? Chuck Pierce, in his teaching on breaking curses,
has given some important guidelines that will help the believer to
appropriate – through faith – the benefits of what Jesus provided in the
Cross.
- Repent of every specific sin that has been committed.
- Identify with the generational sin
- Forgive our ancestors for bringing the sin in the family line.
The principle of God’s forgiveness, just as His legal right to forgive us,
was established through the Cross. However, even though God’s desire to
forgive is central to the Cross, He requires that we first forgive those who
have mistreated and wounded us. If we don’t forgive others, we have no legal
right to expect His forgiveness toward us. Although this may be difficult,
we will receive strength and grace as we look at the Cross.
Jesus said: "If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you
retain the sins of any, they are retained." (John 20:23). This indicates
that the strength of that particular sin will not be broken unless we
forgive from the heart.
- Repent of having committed the same sin in our generation. (We appropriate
the power of the blood of Christ in our bloodline where that sin has been
committed and we break the strength of that sin in our generation)
- Finally, from the heart, we renounce that sin in our family line to remove
from Satan his legal power.
If we have been set free from our iniquities, will punishment for them come
on our children?
No. From the moment God forgives our iniquities, He forgets them and He will
not hold them against us or our progeny.
I John 1:9: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us
our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
Jeremiah 31:33-34: “…But this is the covenant that I will make with the
house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My law in their
minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall
be My people. No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his
brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' for they all shall know Me, from the least
of them to the greatest of them, says the LORD. For I will forgive their
iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more."
Micah 7:18-19: “Who is a God like You, pardoning iniquity and passing over
the transgression of the remnant of His heritage? He does not retain His
anger forever, because He delights in mercy. He will again have compassion
on us, and will subdue our iniquities. You will cast all our sins into the
depths of the sea.”
Mario Persichetti
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