For today, I have a few brief quotations from some of Augustine’s sermons.

Christ came and found us lying in guilt and under a penalty; he took up the penalty only and thus removed both the guilt and the penalty.

He lived without sin; He did not die because of His own sin; He shared with us our punishment, but not our sin.  Death is the punishment of sin.  The Lord Jesus Christ came to die; He did not come to sin. By sharing with us the penalty without the sin, He cancelled both the penalty and the sin.  What penalty did He cancel?  That which was destined for us after this life.

But, since we were committed to these punishments to which we are subject because of our sins, our Lord Jesus Christ wished to be involved in our punishments without any sin on His part. By enduring the penalty without any guilt, He cancelled both the guilt and the penalty. He cancelled the guilt by forgiving sins; the penalty, by rising  from the dead.

Jerry Shepherd
Lent
March 20, 2015