Sin's Double Cure

This morning in worship at Redeemer Presbyterian Church, we sang that great old Augustus Toplady hymn of the faith, Rock of Ages. Very familiar words, but part of the first verse caught my attention.

Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
let me hide myself in thee;
let the water and the blood,
from thy wounded side which flowed,
be of sin the double cure;
save from wrath and make me pure.

What does "double cure" for sin mean? At first it made me think of the complete and absolute sufficiency of the death of Jesus Christ, that is able to save to the uttermost. But then I read the next line, which explains that the cure for sin found in Christ is actually twofold. And that double cure for sin is absolutely necessary, as both aspects mentioned here are required to put us in right standing before God. Christ provides both, in full measure.

First, the salvation from wrath. This is the aspect of the benefit of Christ's death that we most often focus on, and rightly so. The substitutionary sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, as a payment for the sins of all people who will come to Him in faith and repentance, pays the awful debt that sin has earned all of us - the just and righteous wrath of God against sinners. For those in Christ, we stand fully and forever forgiven as a gift of God's grace, as our sin was placed on Christ and He became the object of God's wrath for us, in our place. Theologians call this Christ's penal substitutionary atonement. We call it incredible mercy, pouring out the judgment we justly deserve for our sin onto God the Son.

But consider that if all Christ's sacrifice did for us is to remove the debt of our sins, we would still be in a terrible position. We would at best be in the same situation as Adam in the garden, in a neutral state with a clean slate, but still under the requirements of the covenant of works. In other words, fully forgiven but still with no righteousness to be able to stand before God. Our first thought or act of rebellion against God (which would probably happen within seconds) would put us under the condemnation of God and His wrath again. As fallen sinners, we need more that to just be forgiven, to have the debt of our sins removed by Christ. We need a positive righteousness that changes both our standing before a holy and righteous God, and that changes our disposition towards Him and towards sin. And this is found in the double cure provided in the gospel and only in Jesus.

This double cure for sin is most clearly seen in 2 Corinthians 5:21, where the Apostle Paul describes the conversion transaction in these terms: "For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." This is the great exchange that occurs when a person places saving faith in Jesus. We've seen the first part, that God the Father placed our sin onto Christ, literally made Him to be that sin on our behalf and in our place, to take the full punishment for it. Jesus could do this because He had no sin of His own to pay for.

And here's where the second part of the cure for sin comes in. Because Jesus perfectly fulfilled the Law of God during His life on earth as a human, He earned a perfect, infinite righteousness. And as we see here, when we are in Him, that is in Christ by having trusted Him for eternal life, we receive as a gift of God's grace that perfect righteousness, the very righteousness of Christ Himself, credited to us. In exchange for our sin, God grants us His own righteousness.

As believers in Jesus Christ we stand both fully forgiven for sin, and fully righteous in the sight of God. As Toplady says, we are saved from wrath and made pure in positive righteousness before God. And the Scriptures are clear that the imputed righteousness of Christ changes our disposition so that we will seek to live a pure life that glorifies God by displaying the fruits of His righteousness within us, because the ruling power of sin in our lives has been destroyed.

So yes, be thankful for the forgiveness at the cross found only in Jesus Christ. But also be thankful that God's gospel of salvation provided the needed double cure for our sin and unrighteousness. Faith in Christ, and in Christ alone, is fully sufficient.  "Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them." Hebrews 7:25