"Now there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary, the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene. "When Jesus therefore saw his mother, and the disciple standing by, whom he loved, he saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son! "Then saith he to the disciple, Behold thy mother! And from that hour that disciple took her unto his own home. "After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, 1 thirst. "Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar: and they filled a sponge with vinegar, and put it upon hyssop, and put it to his mouth. "When Jesus therefore had receive the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost (or dismissed His Spirit)."—John 19:25-30.

"For the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did; by the which we draw nigh unto God. And inasmuch as not without an oath he was made a priest: (For those priests were made without an oath; but this with an oath by him that said unto him, The Lord sware and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec:) By so much was Jesus made a surety of a better testament."—Hebrews 7:19-22.

The discussion this morning is the subject, "The Covenant of Redemption," and the text is found in John 19:30. It is the cry of the Master: "It is FINISHED!"

We want to notice also in the Book of Hebrews 7:22 the word "surety," which means SPONSOR of a better covenant, but let us notice first the cry of the Master in John 19:30. This is NOT the cry of the defeated. It was a VICTORIOUS CRY, for He had accomplished that which He CAME to do. Christ had finished the redemptive work. In short, He had COMPLETED, He had FINISHED the work the Father gave Him to do. "It is FINISHED," saith the Master. Christ had finished the work.

Long before the morning stars sang together, long before the sons of God ever shouted for joy, the first Person, the second and third Persons of the Trinity formed a CONTRACT that we designate "The Covenant of Redemption." Over and over Jesus said, "I am COME to do the WORK the Father GAVE me to do."

In John 18:37, 38 when Jesus was brought before Pilate, Pilate said to Jesus, "Art thou a King then?" And Jesus answered, "Thou sayest that I am a king; to this end was I BORN, and for this CAUSE CAME I into the world, that I should bear WITNESS unto the TRUTH. Everyone that is of the TRUTH heareth my voice.

Jesus said, "For THIS cause I was BORN, and for this cause I CAME into the world."

I tell you, beloved, salvation is not a hit or miss affair; Christ did not come into the world as a by-product; nor did He pour out His blood on Calvary’s Hill by accident and just to satisfy blood-thirsty men. Christ died upon the cross to COMPLETE the Covenant of Redemption. This is a fact that cannot be successfully denied.

Jesus said in John 4:34 when He saved the woman at the well: "My meat is to do the will of him that SENT me, and to FINISH his WORK." Jesus said, "I came to finish the work of the Father," and He finished it; for in John 17:4 we read: "I HAVE finished the work which thou gayest me to do." And this was PRIOR to His crucifixion; nevertheless, Jesus said, "I have FINISHED the work."

Now this isn’t a contradiction of other texts in the Bible. In the RECKONING of God, Jesus has ALWAYS stood as the "Lamb slain from the foundation of the world" (Rev. 13:8). God, therefore, EVERMORE saw the cross upon which Jesus died, and in the reckoning of God the work had ALREADY been accomplished.

The text before us presents the age old question of sin. SIN is something that cannot be denied or shrugged away. Men CAN NOT get rid of sin themselves, because sin is a STATE, and the ugly, ungodly things men do, the unholy, ungodly acts of men’s lives are the RESULTS of his sinful state. It is his NATURE to do those things; they are the FRUITS of the STATE of man. Sin, therefore, is a state.

Here is a doctrine that cannot be denied, but it is a doctrine which is despised by the religionist; for this involves man’s totally inherent, lost, blinded condition: "ALL have SINNED, and come short of the glory of God" (Rom. 3:23).

You know, people talk about the tragedy at Calvary. Beloved, that was NO tragedy; that was a BLESSING. The TRAGEDY was when Adam partook of the FRUIT of the forbidden tree and thereby plunged mankind under the CONDEMNATION of God.

Romans 3:9: ..... For we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin."

When God said that He had proved both Jews and Gentiles alike to be under sin, then ALL mankind was under the CONDEMNATION of God. "ALL have sinned and come short of the glory of God" (Rom. 3:23). Everyone, EVERYONE has sinned in the sight of God.

Romans 3:19: "Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the WORLD may become guilty before God."

The world, therefore, is GUILTY before God, and the LAW stops the mouths of men; it points the finger of accusation at mankind and says, "You are GUILTY before God." You can not deny this fact. In Romans 5:12 the Apostle Paul said this:"

By one man sin entered into the world, and death by Sin; and so death passed upon ALL men, for that ALL have sinned."

The Bible teaches that man is totally depraved, lost, blinded, ungodly, unholy and guilty before God. "We all have sinned IN Adam" (Rom. 5:12), not so much BECAUSE of Adam, but we sinned IN Adam. In the original, in I Corinthians 15, it says that we sinned IN Adam, DIED in Adam. Death came as a result of sin.

You know, the man, woman, boy or girl who denies the total depravity of mankind can’t answer the question: why do babies and irresponsible persons die? Why do they die anyway? Because of the STATE of mankind, that is, SIN. Then if babies and irresponsible persons go to Heaven just because they are babies and irresponsible, then they ought to be killed in infancy.

"Why," you may say, "what an awful thing to say!"

But I repeat, if babies and irresponsible persons go to Heaven because they ARE babies, then they ought to be killed in infancy, BECAUSE some of them might grow up and go to Hell. Now don’t you go away this morning and say that Brother Cox preached babies into Hell; I didn’t say that. But I tell you one thing: babies go to Heaven to be sure; but NOT because the y are babies; they go there because of the BLOOD of Christ. That is the REASON and the only reason they go there.

In Romans 5:13, 14 the Apostle Paul goes a step further and says, "For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come.

You know these religionists say that man could not have sinned when there was no law, but the BIBLE doesn’t say that. Here is what the Bible does say: "Until the law, SIN was in the world, but sin is not IMPUTED when there is no law" (Rom.5:13).

Personal sins were not CHARGED when there was no law existing. Paul tells us: "Nevertheless, DEATH reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of ADAM’s transgression . . ." (Rom. 5:14).

WHY do you DIE? You died SPIRITUALLY because of Adam’s transgression, and you die PHYSICALLY because of the STATE of mankind. This old earth is under the curse of God.

I haven’t tried this, but I have been told by men who farm that you can go out to a place where nothing will grow, clear and plant something, and the first thing that will come up will be thorns, weeds and thistles. WHY? Read Genesis 3:17, 19. God said to Adam because he had eaten of the fruit, ". . . cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken; for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return."

This is WHY you have thorns and thistles; this is WHY you have to chop the grass from cotton and corn, and other things you try to grow. The CURSE of God, the earth is cursed of God.

You stand in the silent city of the dead and read the markers on the tombstones. A man was born on a certain date and died on a certain date: these are the marks of sin. SIN has left its mark upon every man and age in the world. Sin MARKS can be seen everywhere, not just somewhere, mind you, but EVERYWHERE. The marks of sin are stamped everywhere. Every cemetery that has ever been, every jail and penitentiary, all have been built by sin. I repeat, sin has built them all. Every ungodly act that men perform is the result of his sinful nature, and it has left its imprint upon the hearts, souls and minds of men. Lo, for these six thousand years of earth’s existence, it has been so.

You may say then, "Brother Cox, were they not all lost before Moses, for Christ had not yet come and died? How could they have been saved?"

If I believed like most religious bodies today, I would have to say, ‘Yes, they were all lost, and they all went to Hell."

But many of them were saved, and I’ll tell you HOW they were saved. I told this at a meeting one time, and a few of the men said, "Amen," but some of them looked at me with consternation written all over their faces. I said, "The Old Testament saints were saved on CREDIT; the NOTE was signed by JESUS, and they were saved on credit; for Christ had not come and died upon the cross for men s sins.

Romans 3:24-25 used to worry me to death. I would read it over and over seeking the meaning. It says, "Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forebearance of God."

How in the name of common sense could they have been saved any other way, but saved on the CREDIT of Christ: Jesus signed their note; hence, they were saved. That is what Paul meant in Hebrews 7:22, "By so much was Jesus made a SURETY of a better testament."

He was their SPONSOR because He put His name on the note. He signed the note for the Old Testament saints. Let me illustrate the meaning. You may have heard this before, but please listen quietly for the next five minutes. I thought this was the greatest piece of literature I had ever read, and it blessed my heart as I read it. It is an illustration in which old Christmas Evans demonstrated how Old Testament saints were saved.

Old Christmas Evans (talking about the Old Testament saints) said, "The whole world, guilty before God, is like a cemetery, a graveyard with a great iron fence built around the whole earth, and they are on the inside and cannot get outside, and no one can get inside. There was a great iron gate, and the Sword of Justice stood there guarding the gate and no one could get in. The angel stood with the flaming Sword of Justice raised, and Mercy said, ‘May I enter and relieve them?’"

"Justice said, ‘Thou may NOT!’ The Sword of God’s inexorable Justice said, "Thou may not enter lest thou be struck down." The inflexible justice and judgment of God keeps the tree of life: "So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the Garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life" (Gen. 3:24).

And after awhile angels came, and Justice was standing there. The angels said, "May we go in and relieve them?"

Justice said, "Thou may NOT!"

Then the angels stood back and cried, "Is there no HOPE?"

Then came the answer: "There is NONE; there is NO hope.

Then one of the Cherubims of God, the angels so holy they burned in their own righteousness, came, but the Sword of Justice was still drawn and said, "Thou may NOT enter."

There is no HOPE; man is left hopeless, helpless, without hope in the world; there is NONE to help.

After awhile the Son of God came, stood and looked, but the angel with the drawn sword said, "Thou may NOT enter."

The Son of God said, "I will be their SPONSOR; I will be their PROPITIATION; I’ll sign their NOTE, and I will PAY their DEBT."

The angel said, "When?"

The answer came: "Four thousand years hence."

"Where?"

"On Golgotha’s Hill."

There was a lapse of four thousand years, and one day Mercy and Justice were conversing. Justice said, "Where is the ONE who is to PAY the DEBT? Where is the ONE who signed the NOTE?"

And Mercy said, "Look! Look yonder coming up Golgotha’s Hill! see the One bent beneath the weight of the cross: THAT is He, that is the One who signed the note, the One who will pay the DEBT!"

On and on He came, step by weary step, until He finally reached the top of Golgotha’s Hill. Mercy and Justice watched as evil men prepared to nail Him to the tree, and as the spikes were being driven into His hands and feet, Mercy cried, "There must, there MUST be another way to settle the debt!"

But Justice said, "There IS no other WAY."

The Cherubims said, "Surely, SURELY there MUST be another way! Surely God will not stand by and see the sword plunged into the heart of Jesus. Surely, there must be another way!"

But there WAS no other WAY: and Justice plunged the sword into the heart of Jesus; the flaming sword that kept the way of the tree of life was plunged into and killed the Son of God: and Justice was SATISFIED.

"He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be SATISFlED; by his knowledge shall my righteous servant fustify many; for he shall bear their iniquities."—Isaiah 53:11.

Christ had paid the debt; He had settled the account on Calvary’s tree. When the Son of God lifted those languishing eyes heavenward, when He lifted His blood-streaked, blood-stained face—the blood that was poured out for you and for me—He said, "It is FINISHED, it is finished!" (John 19:30). He had COMPLETED the WORK He came to do, the work of REDEMPTION. It was finished; the inexorable sword of Justice fell on the Son of God, who took OUR place, died under OUR sins to pay OUR sin debt. You hear me now: JESUS paid the debt that WE might go free.

You may ask me this morning, "Brother Pastor, how may I go free?"

God’s answer to you is: "In Jesus; for there is no OTHER way. Acts 4:12 says, "Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved."

Acts 10:43: "To him (Jesus) give all the prophets witness, that through his name, whosoever believeth in him shall RECElVE remission of sins.

John 14:6: "1 am the WAY, the TRUTH and the LIFE: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me."

Thus, He settled the debt and we can go free.

If you are here without Christ, that is the TRAGEDY. There isn’t any tragedy worse than being without Christ, without life, without hope in the worl4, lost, world without end—LOST. I know of no other word in the English language like the word "lost, lost, LOST." My God, brethren, there is no word like it—LOST! Men are lost; men are lost, men are LOST. It is a terrible thing to be lost. Christ DIED because of THAT. He PAID the debt and you may go free. HOW? By FAITH in Jesus Christ, the Lord, that’s how. Just trust in Christ and go FREE.

Mercy is never given at the expense of God’s justice; justice has to be met. Jesus paid OUR sin debt by dying under the inexorable justice of God—the flaming sword of justice pierced the side of Jesus for our sins. You may become the recipient of this sin payment by FAITH in the shed blood of Christ (Rom. 5:1). Come to Christ and be SAVED. Amen.