The Perfect Death of Jesus Christ

The centrality and supremacy of the death of Jesus Christ should be the essence of faith for us.  It should be there when we stand, sit or sleep.  It should be there in every part of the day.  There is no escaping the divine reality of the divinely true and spiritually historic death of Jesus Christ!

Romans 5:17 NASB

For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.

 

Romans 6:3 NASB

Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? 

 

Romans 6:4 NASB 

Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. 

 

Romans 6:23 NASB

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 8:2 NASB

For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.

2 Corinthians 11:23 NASB

Are they servants of Christ?—I speak as if insane—I more so; in far more labors, in far more imprisonments, beaten times without number, often in danger of death.

Philippians 2:30 NASB

because he came close to death for the work of Christ, risking his life to complete what was deficient in your service to me.

2 Timothy 1:10 NASB

but now has been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel,

Revelation 20:6 NASB

Blessed and holy is the one who has a part in the first resurrection; over these the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with Him for a thousand years.

A.W. Pink on the Cross of Jesus

Pink wrote on the Cross of Jesus,

The supreme example of controlling, directing influence which God exerts upon the wicked is the Cross of Christ with all its attendant circumstances.  If ever the superintending providence of God was witnessed, it was there. From all eternity God had predestined every detail of that event of all events. Nothing was left to chance or the caprice of man. God had decreed when and where and how His blessed Son was to die… Not a thing occurred except as God had ordained, and all that He had ordained took place exactly as He purposed. 

Who Makes Us Without Spot or Wrinkle? Christ or Indulgences?

^{It is Christ alone that presents us without spot or wrinkle not indulgences:}

^{Ephesians 5
26} That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,
²⁷ That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.

Rome says in the papal document Indulgentiarum Doctrina,

The salutary institution of indulgences therefore contributes in its own way to bringing it about that the Church appear before Christ without blemish or defect, but holy and immaculate,⁴⁵ admirably united with Christ in the supernatural bond of charity. Since in fact by means of indulgences members of the Church who are undergoing purification are united more speedily to those of the Church in heaven, the kingdom of Christ is through these same indulgences established more extensively and more speedily "until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the deep knowledge of the Son of God, to perfect manhood, to the mature measure of the fullness of Christ."⁴⁶

Is it Christ alone that presents us to the Father as "without blemish and defect" or is it indulgences?  Christ purged our sins at the Cross not through indulgences (see Hebrews 1:3).  It says He sat down at the right hand of God.  That is, His redemptive work and meritorious worth has been completed for His people through the Cross where He paid the spiritual debt in full.  Christians should add nothing to Christ and His matchless unified merit in the life of Christ (that earned salvation for us) and the death of Christ (that set us free concerning purification of deep sins).  Concerning chastening of the Father's fatherly displeasure, it adds to nothing to the unified merit of Christ alone in light of the Bible's teaching.