We Are Saved By The Life Of Christ

Romans 5:8-11

May 18, 2024

This is the Fifth post in a series from Chapter 3 of Friends With God: “The Joy That Was Set Before Him”.

In the Fourth Post we showed that the idea of “Christ came to pay a death penalty on our behalf” is not in scripture, but was invented by Anselm of Canterbury in 11AD.

In this post we will examine what scripture tells us that the death of Christ actually achieved, as it was not to pay any penalty for sin on our behalf.

What Did The Death Of Christ Achieve?

What God tells us about Christ that saves us, and gives us eternal life, is the life of Christ, not his death:

But God commends His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.
And not only so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the reconciliation. (Rom 5:8-11)

The concept of Christ’s having to pay a death penalty for sin, invented by Anselm of Canterbury in 11AD, only confuses and clouds the real issues, while also contradicting the scriptures.

The problem is that once you start down the track of an unbiblical idea, (such as “we have an immortal soul that lives on after we die”, or that “Christ needs to pay the penalty for sin”) then to make the simple truth revealed in scripture fit these ideas, becomes ludicrous and nonsensical.

For example, we could reasonably ask “if the penalty for sin is death, then why did not Christ stay dead, in order to pay this penalty for us”?

While he did actually die, he was also resurrected. So, he did not “pay the death penalty by dying forever”, but just the “penalty” of being killed, after which he was raised to immortal life again, which he had before he was human. (Luke 22:69)

While his death may seem to be a significant “penalty” (if that’s how you want to look at it), his resurrection from death is certainly not unique to Christ. Jesus raised many people from the dead during his ministry, (Matt 9:24-26, 11:5, Luke 714-15, 8:53-54, John 11:39-44) and he also gave his disciples power to do so. (Matt 10:8)

This supposed death penalty, therefore, has already been paid by those who died and were similarly raised back to life- even before Jesus died. While their resurrections were to physical life rather than to eternal life, it doesn’t change the fact that they died and therefore have “paid the death penalty”.

Not only that, but we are also told of a great future resurrection of all people who have ever lived and died. (Luke 20:27-40, John 5:28-29, Acts 24:14-15) These people, too, will have “paid the penalty” of having died, and will have been raised back to life. So, if death is the penalty for sin, then most people will pay it, and will also, in some future time, be resurrected.

As you can see, it gets very confusing trying to create some kind of logical way to fit the supposed “penalty for sin” into the truth of scripture. And even more so because this concept of the penalty for sin is so enmeshed in Christian doctrine.

The plain truth of why Christ had to die is obscured by the confusion, contrivances and irrationality that accompany such doctrines. However, what scripture actually tells us is really very simple.

Mortality Is Not The Penalty For Sin

Perhaps you may think that mortality is the penalty for sin, as mortality obviously leads to our death? Yet, as God only is immortal, man must have been made mortal from the beginning. (1Tim 6:16) Also, if God only is immortal then nothing else, including the angels and demons and any living thing that God has made is immortal. No other created being is made to become one with God. (John 17:11-22)

We were made mortal for the simple reason that we would be able to die if we chose not to live the way of life. But humans were uniquely also made in such a way that we could be granted the gift of everlasting life by our Creator- if we chose to live his way of life.

Adam and Eve were not immortal before their sin, as they were told that if they ate of the tree of good and evil, then they would die. (Gen 2:17) The choice was theirs, to live or die. And that is our choice also. We can only become immortal if we choose to believe in Christ, because in doing so we will not perish but have everlasting life. (John 3:15-16)

Mortality is not added to us due to sin, as being mortal is how we are made. It’s immortality that is bestowed on us, when we accept the life of Christ as being the example we must follow. (1Cor 15:53-54) We don’t have anything immortal in us now.

There is no ‘death penalty for sin that Christ paid for us’, for the simple reason that God does not impose one, as it is completely unnecessary. The natural consequence for a mortal human who lives a life of sin, is death.

Why Did Jesus Die?

If we don’t choose to follow Christ’s way of life, then we have automatically chosen the alternative, which means we will die, because we are mortal.

We either choose to stay mortal and die, or choose to live God’s way of life, as modelled, taught and lived by Jesus, and be given the gift of eternal life.

Could God’s plan for humanity be any simpler to understand and implement?
Choose to follow him and live, choose not to and die.
When you grasp this very fundamental perspective, then you will see this simple choice constantly being reiterated throughout scripture.

Yet, if his physical example is all we need to follow, could he not have simply been taken up into a cloud, as happened after the resurrection? (Acts 1:9)

Because death is the only certainty that all people face, it was therefore necessary that Jesus also face death, and in doing so he was able to appreciate being human to its fullest extent and, most importantly, he was to demonstrate to us how to live and how to die.

If Jesus had never died, but was just take up into a cloud, he would not be able to empathise with us, and be able to appreciate what we go through, nor set the example of enduring unjust persecution. (Heb 2:14-18, 4:15)

Jesus as a human being knew what it was like to face a terrible death, and he did not like the idea one bit! We see this in his prayers in the Garden of Gethsemane. (Luke 22:39-46, Mark 14:32-42)

If he had not died, then his entire life of being born as a human baby, and living as a child, and experiencing human life to its fullest, would have been wasted.
He needed to appreciate the real human experience of having death as the end point of his life, in order to be able to fully empathise with us, and thus be able to honestly demonstrate to us how we should live in the face of this reality.

Choose To Follow Christ

The critical point is what we choose to do with our life. We need to choose to follow Jesus, and how he lived, and turn our heart toward him, in order to become his friends. In being his friends, we must also be willing to lay down our lives for others as he did for us. (John 15:12-14) Presenting ourselves as a living sacrifice every day is what we need to do, as is discussed in more detail in this previous post.

When we choose to act like his friends, then God will want to live with us forever. Then God will choose to change our physical, corruptible, mortal, short term life, into an eternal life akin to his.

Indeed, we actually become his children- his very kin. (Rom 8:13-15) No longer just in God’s image, as was Adam, but in mind also, as was the second Adam, Christ. (1Cor 15:22-45)

The point of Christ’s death is that because he was resurrected to immortal spiritual life, we too can be resurrected to the same immortal spiritual life.
However, this will happen only if we choose to follow his physical life’s example and be his friends- such that we are willing to lay down our life for him.

If we choose the way of sin, which is the way of death, then God could let us die, and that would be the end of our lives forever. No death penalty for sin is required for us to never live again. Letting us die naturally would not be imposing any penalty upon us, it would simply be the result of our being mortal- which is how God created us.

However, God does not wish that anyone perish eternally, so he has made the way open to eternal life. (2Peter 3:9, John 3:15-16) That way is following the example of Christ. All people will be given the chance to understand and follow Christ, either in this life or in the second resurrection- as will be explained in detail in the final post in this series, called The Resurrections Of The Dead.

God has provided in Jesus’ life example, a way of living that can save us from the inevitable result of being mortal. If we follow his way, we are promised that we shall be granted the gift of eternal life, as he was.

Our relationship with God is based on loving God and loving our neighbour- which is the same thing as choosing to follow Christ’s way of life, by agreeing to love one another as I have loved you.

Yet it is not what we do that gives us eternal life, for we have no power to give ourselves eternal life. It’s not our works that save us, but by having a meaningful relationship with God that results in our being granted eternal life by the creator of life.

It is only God who has the power to change our mortal bodies into immortal bodies like his: And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. (1Co 15:49)

Jesus inspired many scriptures that spoke of his death. (Dan 9:24-26, Zec 13:7, Psalm 31:5, 22:18, Acts 13:27, Matt 26:54-56) He, therefore, knew he was eventually going to have an unnatural death.

Christ also said that we, who follow him, would also suffer persecution. (Matt 5:10-12, John 15:20) And there have been many Christian martyrs who have followed him, being murdered for their faith in Christ. (Col 1:24, Heb 11:36-40) Without Jesus’ being killed, such martyrs would have had no example of how to behave.

We must be willing to die for the truth, if required, as did Jesus- and in doing so we will reflect His life in us by doing the will of God, as He did. And, importantly, in following his example we will also have his joy in us through the indwelling Holy Spirit, to help us endure as he did. (John 15:8-12)

God made you mortal, so that he can test you, to determine if he wants to live with you forever as his friend, or destroy you in the lake of fire as one of his enemies. (Rev 20:15, 21:8, Matt 3:1-12, Mal 4:1-3) God works with you, to help you and to test you and to see if you are willing to choose to change and overcome.

This is our partnership of friendship with God, in making us more like God.

When he has finished with his work, and is happy with your response, then he will give you the gift of eternal life. This is what the scriptures tell us.

There is absolutely no need to add the ideas of an ‘immortal soul’, or of a ‘death penalty for sin’, into the equation. Yet, no matter how hard you search, you will never actually find any kind of spiritual, mathematical equation within scripture!

Instead, God has instituted a logical, natural, simple process of conversion, involving growth and change- which God directs over the period of our entire lives. This truth is totally opposite to the idea of Christ paying the penalty for sin to God to somehow appease God’s anger at sin. Such simplistic balancing of the ‘spiritual accounting books’ is a total fabrication.

The creator of all life, the Earth, and the stars, is also a God of mercy, who is willing to forgive us our sins- but he is only willing to do so if we turn away from our sins and accept his way of life, and then continue to live his way of life to the end of our days.

No balancing of the books, with someone paying an imaginary, legalistic penalty on our behalf, is required.