What Is Reformed Theology? (Part 6)

by R. Scott Clark on November 3, 2025 | Comment

There are Christian traditions that speak of Jesus’ death as primarily an example and there are those that speak exclusively of Jesus’ death relative to his victory over death but the most basic choice we must make is whether he died as a substitute for his people in order to accomplish their redemption or whether he died to make salvation possible. Jesus did conquer sin and death in his atonement (John 16:33; Rom 16:20; Rev 5:5; 12:11) but he did so as our substitute. His death is an example for us. Hebrews 13:12–13 says, “So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured.” This is a call to imitate Christ. Jesus’ call to his followers to deny themselves and to “take up” their (figurative) cross and follow him is plainly a call to imitate Christ (Matt 16:24). Nevertheless, Christ’s death was not primarily an example. Unless he satisfied justice for and turned away wrath from the people whom the Father, from all eternity, gave to him (John 17:6–8), his example and his victory are of little value to us since we are still in our sins and under wrath.

Our Good Shepherd

The good news is that Jesus did not merely set an example, announce his victory to Satan, or make salvation possible for those who do their part. Rather, he came as the Lamb of God to turn away the wrath of God from sinners: “But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom 5:8). That little phrase for us means everything. It means that Christ died for our advantage and in our place, as our substitute. This is why he said to Nicodemus, “For God so loved sinners that he gave his only begotten Son in order that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).1 We may be sure that Jesus actually accomplished our redemption. He declared it so from the cross when he said, “it is finished” (John 19:30). Further, we know that his death was in our place—that is, in the place of all who believe, because he said “the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” (John 10:11).2 When a wolf attacks the flock, the good shepherd, unlike a hired man (John 10:12), does not run away but places himself between the wolf and the flock and, when necessary, fights the wolf to the death in order to save the flock. In this case, Jesus is both the Good Shepherd and the Lamb of God. This is why John the Baptizer said: “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29, 36).3

Lambs, Goats, Bulls, and Birds

For most of 1,500 years before Jesus came, until the Old Covenant church was dispersed into exile, the Old Covenant priest laid his hands on the head of a live goat, confessed over it the sins of all the people in the church, and he “put them on the head of the goat” and sent it away into the wilderness (Lev 16:21; ESV). That goat was a substitute for the people. The goat was not actually sinful but the sins of the people were imputed or credited to the goat and sent away in order to symbolize what God has done for us in Christ.

At the Exodus, each family in the Old Covenant church was to kill a lamb at twilight, on the Passover, on the fourteenth day of Nisan, and paint the doorposts of his house with that blood. Those in the houses, who were covered by the blood of the lamb, were saved from the wrath of God (Ex 12:1–32). The lamb died in place of each of those families. Lambs were killed for peace offerings (Lev 3). Lambs, bulls, and even turtledoves and pigeons were offered as sin offerings (Lev 4–5). All those were substitutes for the people.

The Reality Comes

All this was a long-running, bloody illustration and shadow of the coming death of Jesus (Heb 10:1). Just as the sins of the Old Covenant church were ritually imputed to goats, lambs, bulls, and birds and as those animals were offered in place of the church, Jesus came as the lamb and as the priest. His priesthood is not like that of the Levites, who had to offer sacrifices for themselves (Heb 7:27–28). The Levitical priests all died (Heb 7:23). Jesus’ priesthood, however, is on a different order. He has an eternal priesthood (Heb 7). His death was “once for all” (Rom 6:10; Heb 7:27; 10:10).

Because he was a merciful and faithful high priest he propitiated or turned away the wrath of God for his people (Heb 2:17). That is why we speak of his death as turning away God’s wrath. We see this idea in Exodus 32:30, when, upon seeing the sin of the church, Moses says, “But now I will go up to Yahweh, perhaps I can propitiate for your sin.”4 We see also this idea in other places in life of the Old Covenant church. In Numbers 16, in the episode of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, the Lord says: “Get away from this assembly so I can put an end to them” (Num 16:45). In response Moses instructs Aaron, “Take your censer, put fire on it from the altar, lay incense on it, and carry it quickly to the congregation and make propitiation for them because wrath has gone out from Yahweh; the plague has started” (Num 16:46).5 Aaron did propitiate for the people and turned away the wrath of Yahweh (Num 16:47). He stood between the dead and the living, and the plague stopped (Num 16:48). This is what Jesus did for all his people: On the cross he stood in our place, between the living and the dead, as it were, and turned away God’s wrath.

The New Testament Scriptures pick up these themes and apply them to Christ’s cross work for us. In 1 John 4:10, Scripture declares, “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” The Apostle Paul says,

God presented Him Jesus as the place of propitiation, through faith in His blood, for a demonstration of his righteousness, because of the passing over of the sins committed beforehand, in the forbearance of God, for a demonstration of his righteousness now in this season in order that he might be just and the one declaring righteous him who has faith in Jesus (Rom 3:25–26).6

In context, the question that Paul is pursuing is how we are declared righteous by God. The blood of bulls, goats, lambs, and birds did not turn away wrath, but Christ’s blood, his righteousness and death, is truly wrath turning for us. Those types and shadows under the Old Covenant participated in the reality of the cross, but Christ actually, once for all, accomplished real righteousness, which was manifested on the cross, and that real righteousness is imputed to all those who believe. Thus, in 1 John 4:10 Scripture says that God loved us and “sent his Son to be a propitiation for our sins.” He turned away God’s wrath for us.7

The writer to the Hebrews appeals directly to the Old Covenant types and shadows. Christ is the “high priest of the good things that have come” (Heb 9:11). For us he has entered into the holy of holies, “not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption” (Heb 9:12). His is “the blood of the covenant” (Heb 9:20).

For His People, For Sinners

He did all this for those whom the Father gave him:

Everyone whom the Father gives to me will come to me and the one coming to me I will not cast out . . . this is the will of the One who sent me, that I shall lose none of everyone whom he has given me, but, I will raise him up on the last day (John 6:37–39).8

Jesus did his Father’s will. He obeyed and died for the people whom the Father gave him. The redemption of Christ’s people is so secure “no one can snatch them out of my hand” (John 10:28).9

It is against this background that we should understand the word world in John’s writings. We already saw that Christ is the Lamb of God, but the Baptizer added, “who takes away the sin of the world.” If we track all the uses of world (κόσμος) in John, we see that it is not a reference to the extent of the atonement as much as it is a characterization of the kind of people for whom Christ died. If we substitute sinners for world we get John’s sense. God so loved sinners that he gave his only begotten Son (John 3:16). The light came to sinners, but sinners loved darkness rather than light (John 3:19; cf. John 8:2). World can mean other things in John (e.g., humans, or needy creatures), but nowhere does it signify “everyone who ever lived.” This appears even in 1 John 2:2, where John contrasts the church to whom he wrote with sinners in other places.

The wonderful doctrine of Christ’s death for his people is an inexhaustible fountain but the fact that Jesus did not merely make it possible for us to be saved but rather that he actually accomplished redemption specifically for those whom he loved from all eternity, gives us great comfort. This is the truth to which the Reformed churches have turned time and again as a source of comfort. Our sins are not greater than Christ’s death. Those of us who believe are not under wrath but under grace (Rom 5:9). Once we were under wrath,

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them (Eph 2:4–10).

Believer, because of Christ’s death for you, by God’s immeasurable grace, you have been saved and you are being recreated in the image of Christ Jesus for a new life of joyous service to the Savior who loved us and gave himself for us (Eph 5:2).

notes

  1. My translation.
  2. My translation. Cf., Mark 10:45 “the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and give his life a ransom for many” (my translation).
  3. My translation.
  4. My translation.
  5. My translation.
  6. My translation.
  7. My translation.
  8. My translation.
  9. My translation.

©R. Scott Clark. All Rights Reserved.

Read the whole series so far.

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