PS before we begin. Due to the fact that I was not leaving the program running long enough for 180 SMS’s to file through the portal some have been missing out. Easy fix: change the number on the https://smlr.nu/footsteps-2XX  Link and it will give you the missing link.    

  ^“ He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.”  Romans 4:25 NIV 

Footsteps #286 Jesus was “put to death for our sins”(4:25RSV). Peter makes a similar declaration at Pentecost: see Acts.2:23. As we look at those similar passages, we should note that Christ’s death was part of God’s plan. V25 tells us that Jesus didn’t merely die but that He was “delivered over” to death. Who handed Him over? The NT implicates both the Jews and the Romans. But the focus in the text is that it was part of God’s plan. Rom.8:32 is quite explicit in claiming that God “did not spare His Own Son, but delivered Him over for us all” (NASB). It was part of His plan to accomplish human salvation through the death of Christ. That is why Rev.13:8 refers to Jesus as “the Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world” (NIV). The death of Christ was no accident. It had been in God’s plan from the beginning. 

Death is the penalty for sin (Gen.2:17; Rom.6:23). But Christ had not sinned and therefore did not deserve death. Rather, we find in v25 that He died “for our sins” – He died in our place.  

The good news all through the NT is that Jesus triumphed over death. That is the reason Paul combines both the death and the resurrection in his “definition” of the gospel in 1Cor.15:1-3. 

He not only died for our sin but He “was raised for our justification.” Christ’s death had indeed taken care of the sin problem, with its penalty of death. He had died in our place, and His cry from the cross, “It is finished”, signified the completion of His work as the Lamb slain from the foundation of the earth. When you look at the cross you can know that reconciliation (atonement) has been made for your sins. Before God, you have no case to answer if you are in Christ. When you look at the open sepulcher and the risen and ascended Lord, you can know that Jesus’ atonement has been accepted. Though your sins be as high as a mountain, the resurrection atonement is as high as heaven. Though your sins be as deep as the ocean, the resurrection atonement that swallows them up is as deep as eternity. Christ’s victory on our behalf is celebrated in Rev.4 & 5.