70 Weeks Prophecy (Part 02) - Dan 9:24 (Part B)

---

 

A. To finish the transgression. i. Finish v. - 1. a. trans. To bring to an end; to come to the end of, go through the last period or stage of. Often with gerund (formerly with inf.) as object: To ‘make an end of’, cease (doing something). †Also, rarely, To put an end to, cause to cease. ii. The transgression of Israel was their rebellion against the law of God given by His prophets (Dan 9:9-11). iii. Earlier in their history "the transgression" of Judah ended in their being carried away to Babylon (Ezr 9:4; 2Ch 36:16-17). iv. God measures the iniquity of a nation, and when their cup is full judgment comes (Gen 15:16). v. The Lord had warned Israel that just as the land spewed out the Canaanites for their sin, so would He cause it to spew them out too if they kept not His statutes and judgments and committed abominations (Lev 18:24-28). vi. For over 400 years after returning to the land Israel would continue to fill up the cup of their iniquity. a. The culmination of their sin against their God was when they crucified their Messiah (Act 7:51-53). b. They were the children of those that had killed the prophets (Mat 23:31). c. Jesus told them to "fill ye up then the measure of your fathers" (Mat 23:32). d. In other words, they were to finish the transgression. e. After they crucified their Messiah, they would kill, crucify, scourge, and persecute the apostles and prophets that Jesus sent unto them (Mat 23:34). f. All of the wrath that God had reserved for the nation of Israel for all of the blood shed of His prophets would be poured out on that last generation of Jews at the end of the 70 weeks (Mat 23:35-36). g. Their house would be left unto them desolate (Mat 23:38). h. Israel continued to "fill up their sins alway" right up to the end of their national existence (1Th 2:14-16). i. When Israel's cup of iniquity was full, God expelled them from the land. j. The transgression of the nation of Israel was finished in 70 AD because the nation was finished at that time. vii. Let this be a warning to each of us to "break off thy sins by righteousness...if it may be a lengthening of thy tranquility" (Dan 4:27), because once the cup of our iniquity is full, irremediable judgment will come without mercy (Pro 29:1; 2Ch 36:14-17). B. To make an end of sins. i. Jesus Christ made an end of sins for His people. a. This was His purpose in coming to this earth (Mat 1:21; Joh 1:29; 1Jo 3:5). b. To "make an end" of a man is to cut him off (kill him) (Isa 38:10, 12-13). c. To "make an end" of something is to destroy it (Eze 20:17). d. When Christ was crucified He destroyed sin (Rom 6:6). (i) He condemned sin in the flesh (Rom 8:3). (ii) Christ put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself (Heb 9:26). ii. In Jesus Christ there "is no sin" (1Jo 3:5). a. Christ was made sin for us (2Co 5:21), and He bore our sins in His body to the cross (1Pe 2:24). b. By His death on the cross He made an end of sins and therefore now "in him is no sin." c. Christ is risen from the dead to die no more (Rom 6:9-10). (i) The wages of sin is death (Rom 6:23). (ii) The fact that Christ died for our sins (1Co 15:3) and is risen again is proof that He made an end of sins. iii. The sacrifices under the law of Moses never took away sins (Heb 10:1-4, 11). iv. Christ made one sacrifice for sins forever thereby making an end of sins (Heb 10:12). v. Not only did Christ make a legal end of sins on the cross, but He also made an end of them eternally which we will experience when we are glorified at His second coming (Mat 13:41-42; 1Jo 3:2-5). vi. In the new heaven and new earth the presence of sin (Rev 21:8, 27) and its effects (Rev 21:4) will be entirely gone. vii. Since Christ has made a legal end of our sins, we should strive to make an end of them in practice in order to glorify God (Rom 6:11-13).