Today, we celebrate around the Lord’s table. Communion is a time of remembrance. In 1 Peter 3:18, God provides the divine perspective of Jesus’ death. This one verse is one of the most concise explanations of the Gospel in all of Scripture.

What makes the death of Christ so meaningful and worthy of our remembrance? In this passage, we find three distinct features of the death of our Lord Jesus Christ.

1. His death is unique in its power.
   • At the time of Christ’s death and through the generations of the Israel nation, they had a system of animal sacrifice.
   • There were three types of sacrifices:
     • Sin offerings/atonement
     • Guilt offerings
     • Burnt offerings
   • All three had one thing in common, none could take away the guilt of sin (Hebrews 10:4).
   • Christ died for sin, once for all time.
   • Nothing more is required for the forgiveness of sin.
2. His death was substitutionary in its nature.
   • His death for sinners was penial substitution.
   • Jesus Christ stands in place of sinners and receives the legal punishment due to sinners.
   • God will not compromise His justice. Thus, no sin will ever go unpunished.
   • Notice, “the just for the unjust”. The just = singular. The unjust = plural. This is a personal sacrifice for the unjust.
   • Jesus was “just”. He was righteous, holy, and separate.
   • The word “for” here means “in place of” or “instead of.” The innocent for the wicked (c.f. Romans 5, Mark 10).
   • Jesus was the spotless Lamb; thus, He had no penalty to pay. He paid our debt to the Father.
   • Having lived a perfect life, Jesus is the only innocent One who could pay for the sin of many.
3. His death was redemptive in its purpose
   • God’s word is clear (Ephesians 2), the natural man is spiritually dead, separate from God and without hope.
   • Back to 1 Peter 3:18, notice, Christ died for the purpose that Jesus Himself would bring the redeemed to God.
   • The verb bring explicitly states that Jesus provides the access to God by dying for us on the cross and satisfying the wrath of God.
   • The act of bringing allows a personal relationship of reconciliation and peace (Romans 5:1). We are rescued and adopted as a child of God.
   • Psalm 130:4 – There is forgiveness with God.

We cannot help but conclude that our Lord Jesus Christ is an all-powerful and all-sufficient Savior. And all God’s people said, “Amen!”