Monday, August 29, 2011

The Need for Perseverance


Some musings on grace from Hebrews 3:1-4:11


God’s saving grace is sovereign grace.  God is free in giving his grace to those he chooses.  Yet his grace is also his power to overcome the effects of sin and rebellion that rise from our hearts and lead us always away from God and his glory.  Those who come to saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ do so because in his grace God called them to Christ and by the agency of the Holy Spirit working through the Gospel caused them to be born again so as to respond to that call by faith in Christ. 

Yet from our vantage point all we can determine is that a person who has heard the Gospel (maybe a person for whom we have been praying) is now definitely interested in Jesus Christ and confesses faith in Him as their savior and Lord.  We cannot see into that person’s heart and observe the operation of God’s grace.  All we can see are its effects or what seems to be the effect of a deeper work of grace in the heart of that person who is now responding. 

Yet whether or not this response to Christ is that of saving faith can only truly be made clear by the grace of persevering faith.  Those who God calls to Christ and grants by the Spirit life from above will indeed be kept by God to the end.   God’s keeping grace over the life of a true believer is worked out through a persevering faith coming out of the life of the believer.  God works to keep those who are in Christ by giving them His grace to work out their salvation with fear and trembling through persevering and enduring faith. 

So the New Testament is filled with texts that call the church, the people of God, professing believers and saints to be sure that they are vigilant and diligent in holding fast to the Gospel.  The Gospel that Christians believe is the promise not only of being reconciled to God now but of one day entering his presence with our senses and not merely by faith.  The Gospel is the promise that those who God has redeemed from the bondage of sin will enter his eternal rest in the new heavens and the new earth. 

The church’s place in redemptive history parallels that of the Children of Israel between the Exodus from Egyptian bondage and their entrance into the Promised Land.  In today’s Hebrews 3:1-4:11 the writer presents the Lord Jesus Christ as the true or new Moses.  As believers in Christ we have been brought out of slavery to sin by his once for all sacrifice.  He is now leading us through the present wilderness of this fallen age toward God’s promised rest.  Salvation therefore entails not only the initial rescue but also the hope of entering that promised rest and thus the need for perseverance for the journey.  Just like the Children of Israel, we will only truly enter that rest if we hold fast our confidence and the boasting of our hope, hold our original confidence to the end, strive to enter that rest, pay closer attention to what we have heard and hold fast our confession.  In other words we need to persevere. 

Hebrews 3:1-4:11 calls us to persevere and warns against not doing so.  Those warnings are issued by God’s grace to those of God’s house – the church, professing believers.  Here are the reasons that you need to persevere:
You need to persevere because you have not yet reached the promised rest.
You need to persevere because the journey to that promised rest is filled with challenges to your faith.  Faith needs to push back against the press that the journey presents to us.
You need to persevere because it is only through persevering faith that you will enter the promised rest.
You need to persevere because such perseverance is the truest evidence for the validity of your faith. 

Why was it that those who came out with Moses in the Exodus failed to reach the promised rest?  It was due to their unbelief and their disobedience.  They did not pay attention to what they heard, they did not listen to God’s voice, the message of the Gospel they heard but it was not truly believed.  They allowed an evil heart of unbelief to blind them and harden them so that rather than follow the living God from Egypt all the way to the promised rest they turned away from him.  They possessed only a temporary faith at best. They did not endure by faith.  
It wasn’t as though they had no experience with God’s grace and power.  They were beneficiaries of the miracles that redeemed them from slavery, yet their hearts were never truly changed.  They did not ever set their hearts on entering the promised rest.  They were too preoccupied with the struggles and trials on the way to set their hearts on where God was bringing them.  Rather than hold fast the means of grace God had given them of his presence, they kept their eyes only on their circumstances.  Rather than strive against their own sin, they strove against the Lord and thus never entered the promised rest.  This is why the writer here urges us:  “Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience” Hebrews 4:11.
Saving faith is a striving faith.  It strives against ingratitude.  It strives against idolatry.  It strives against immorality.  It strives against unbelief and indwelling sin.  It strives to enter that rest by cultivating endurance and this comes by looking always to Jesus the author and finisher of our faith. 
 
It is clear that if we indeed believe we will also heed the calls to persevere and the warnings against failing to do so.  We will make sure that we do not have evil unbelieving hearts that are deceived by sin, which lead us to turn away from the living God.  We will welcome the exhortations to self-examination.  We will seek the aid of the Lord Jesus Christ our great High Priest and take in that powerful penetrating exposing word of God so that we will not be fooled or lulled into a presumptuous attitude about the Gospel and our hold on it.   We will take heed if we think we stand lest we fall.  Such heart and life vigilant stewardship is not contrary to assurance and confidence of God’s grace but rather is the fruit of such assurance and confidence.  
There is a sense in which those who truly possess saving faith will also fear while the promise of entering his rests still stands lest they should seem to fail to reach it (Hebrews 4:1).   This frame of heart is not contrary to the peace and encouragement that you can have in believing the Gospel.  Yet persevering faith is not only rooted in the Gospel’s exodus of justification.  It also keeps its eye on the Gospel’s promised rest of glorification and it is this future perspective of saving faith that aids you in the work of persevering faith as you follow Jesus Christ your redeemer and present guide.  Remember the Exodus, no matter how glorious, needs to be secured by entering into the promised rest of Canaan.  For this you need perseverance on the journey of the Christian life.  As you continue to look the Jesus he will give you what you need to persevere.  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

Saturday, August 27, 2011

The Perseverance of the Saints


The Bible’s major narrative (what its content aims to communicate) is really about God who is Creator, Redeemer and Restorer of all that human beings have ruined due to our rebellion against him.  Our addiction to our own autonomy and independence from God (something we can never really realize but are deceived into thinking that we can) turns us away from our Creator and from life itself and has set us on the path toward death and utter loss.  Now for his own glory the Triune Creator God (even before human rebellion and the fall into sin) by grace established a plan to redeem from the mass of human rebels a people for his own possession.   It is for God’s own glory that he will not allow his creation to fall apart.  However, God did not create the cosmos and the earth and all that inhabits it out of any deficiency within his own being but rather it was out of the overflowing fullness of his being that he created and it is for his glory that He well rescue that fallen creation.

The crown of God’s creation is the human race of image bearing men and women.  Yet as a race we are lost in sin and rebellion heading for the wrath of God.   Even God’s wrath will be for the display of his utter glory (Romans 9:14-23).  Yet in wrath God has also remembered mercy.  He has by grace determined to save a people – His people.  Before the creation of the world God knew them and purposed to give them to His Son who by grace came to purchase them as his own possession.  He did this by his incarnation, obedient life, sacrificial death and glorious resurrection. 

So God’s grace is sovereign in that he alone is its source and he is under no necessity outside of himself to give grace to sinful and fallen people.  Yet he as Lord has determined, based on his own will and good pleasure, to save those he chooses.  This is what is called unconditional election.  It is God choosing in eternity those whom he will save.  Those whom he foreknew he predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son (Romans 8:29).  This is all by His grace.  Then by that same grace God sent his Son to secure their redemption.  Jesus did this by his obedience.  His atonement was particular in that He died for the elect, for his sheep, for his church.   God’s grace is also at work when he irresistibly calls lost and rebellious sinners to Christ and by the Holy Spirit working through the Gospel causes them to be born again or raised spiritually so as to be joined to Christ by faith. 

Salvation is by God’s grace alone.  It includes not only the new birth and justification but the progression of our maturity in Christ through faith and obedience (sanctification) and our final glorification.  This saving grace of God doesn’t just bring us to saving faith while the rest of the Christian life is dependent upon our resolve and energy.  God’s grace is his power to keep us and bring us to glory.  This does not mean that we do not have a part to play in this journey.  We are called to endure and persevere.   Yet we work out our salvation with fear and trembling knowing that it is God who is working in us to will and to do according to his good purpose (Philippians 2:12-13). 

Some have taught that Christians due to their sin and neglect of the means of grace can lose the saving grace of God.  Others have taught what is called eternal security or once save always saved – maintaining that all one needs to be saved is to make a profession of faith in Christ and say a sinner’s prayer.  Once you do that you are saved and will not lose your salvation.   Both views misunderstand the Bible’s teaching.  The Bible never teaches that genuine saints can lose their salvation.  However, the Bible just as emphatically affirms that not everyone who merely professes faith in Christ is really saved.  

Rather the Bible teaches what is called the perseverance of the saints.  This doctrine means that all those who are truly called of God and born again and thus come to faith in Christ will by God’s grace continue to persevere by faith to the end. 

The other reality to this doctrine is the utter necessity of such persevering faith for only those who endure to the end are truly called of God and born again.  So such perseverance is the ultimate evidence of one being truly saved by grace. 

This doctrine does not mean that true believers cannot sin and at times even grievously.  Rather what it means is that God gives grace so that such saints are restored through repentance.  However, such sin will cause those who are indeed born again to grieve and to seek God’s promised forgiveness.  God will see to this.

The doctrine of perseverance of the saints if understood will not leave us lax but rather stir us to be sure that we grow in assurance of God’s grace by making our call and election sure and working out our salvation with fear and trembling.  Those who are indeed called of God and born again will persevere by faith because God gives this grace of persevering faith. (John 6:37-40; 10:27-30; Romans 5:8-10; 8:29-30; Colossians 3:3-4; 1 Corinthians 1:8-9; Philippians 1:6; Hebrews 7:25; 1 Peter 1:5-7).

Irresistible Grace - God's Effectual Call and the New Birth



God’s saving grace is truly amazing!  Apart from God working powerfully in the hearts and minds of men and women who are truly dead in trespasses and sins, no one would repent of sin and trust in Christ and his finished work for salvation.  We are just that incredibly lost.   It is the irresistible grace of God that brings the dead to spiritual life and enables us to respond to the Gospel offer.   The Bible’s teaching on the nature of God’s irresistible grace that overcomes the enslaving, deadening, blinding power of sin includes God’s effectual call of sinners to Christ and the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit.  

God the Father calls (draws, speaks to and teaches – see John 6:44-45) those he has given to his Son (the elect – see John 6:37, 39; 17:2).  This call is effectual in that no one can or will resist it and those who are captured by the gracious call of God will not want to resist.   The call of God to spiritually dead sinners results in their coming to life and being joined to Christ (Romans 1:6-7 and 1 Corinthians 1:9).  This effectual call is the first movement of God’s grace on behalf of those whom he has chosen and like election is not based on any virtue or quality within those called (1 Corinthians 1:26-29).  God’s call gives life to the dead and thus is so powerful that is brings into existence that which does not exist.  This includes our prior non-existent believing response to the Gospel (Romans 4:17).  As such this calling is a heavenly calling that moves us on the trajectory of the upward call of God making Jesus Christ the apostle and high priest of our confession (Philippians 3:14; Hebrews 3:1).

This call of the Father is answered by those who are dead in trespasses and sins because with this call the Holy Spirit uses the Word (the Bible and the Gospel) to bring new life into dead hearts.   This is the Bible’s teaching of regeneration, new birth or birth from above.  (Ezekiel 36:25-26; John 3:3-5)  The call of God is issued to us through the Gospel and the Holy Spirit uses that word like seed to plant eternal/resurrection life in spiritually dead hearts and minds.  This is the new birth – regeneration.   God the Father works through the Holy Spirit as His agent to grant this new birth to those he effectually calls and it is this new birth that enables dead sinners to come to life so as to hear the Gospel and respond in faith (John 3:8; 1:13; 1 Peter 1:3; Titus 3:4-6).   The Holy Spirit uses the word – the teaching of Scripture and the Gospel – like a seed to plant new life within dead hearts and this seed produces life (1 Peter 2:22-25 and James 1:18).

The results are that those who are born again respond in faith to the Gospel, are given spiritual perception so they can see the kingdom and are also given the capacity by faith to actually enter the kingdom because with the new birth there is a new creation.  Those who are born again are actually raised to new life by being joined to the risen, living and exalted Christ (1 Corinthians 2:14; 2 Corinthians 5:17 and Ephesians 2:4-5).  

We cannot hear God’s call in an audible sense or see this new birth happen.  These are secret and mysterious works of God’s grace.  Nevertheless, their realities do not remain a secret.  For example the new birth issues in new life.  It is important for us not to be fooled into thinking that we are born again when we are not.  The two most important doctrines of the Christian life are the new birth and justification.  It is so vital that we understand them both and realize that they are the pillars that support the Christian life.  They both are works of God’s grace and they both produce evidence in believers lives of their reality.  

John’s first letter gives several important evidences for the new birth in one’s life.  First, being born again results in saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. 

Regeneration is the cause of saving faith and not the result of it.  The new birth precedes a faith response.  The reason anyone responds to the Gospel in faith is because they have been born from above by the Holy Spirit using the Word of the Gospel (1 John 5:1).   This is further collaborated by the Bible’s teaching that faith and repentance (the flip side of faith) are gifts from God (Acts 5:31; 11:18; 18:27; Ephesians 2:8-9).  It is our faith and repentance.  God is not believing and repenting for us.  As such faith and repentance are what conversion entails.  Without them we will not take hold of Christ and know salvation.  Yet they are created within our hearts by this new birth.

The new birth breaks the power of sin over our lives, so that while we are still sinners and thus still sin, we resist sin’s influence so that we no longer practice sin but we actually seek to live lives that conform to God’s righteousness (1 John 3:9; 2:29; 5:18).
 

This new life of refraining from heart and life patterns of sin and the cultivation of heart and life patterns of righteousness also includes overcoming the influence of worldliness Those who are born again overcome the world by their faith.  (1 John 5:4 and 2:15-17).
 

Those who are born of God live a life of love.  This love must be understood in light of how the New Testament describes love.  It is motivated by faith in Christ.  It seeks the good of others by setting aside one’s own interests and to serve others for Christ’s sake.  This love aims at the glory of God in its acts and deeds.  Those who are born again love God the Father, love others who are born again and love the lost by praying for them, doing good deeds for them and sharing the good news of Jesus Christ with them (1 John 4:7 and 5:1).

O, how marvelous is this grace of God!  All of us who trust in Christ and his finished work have come to that place because, and only because, of God’s grace.  We were incredible lost and dead in our sin and addiction to our own autonomy.  Yet God’s grace reached us.  This must be our prayer for the lost who God brings our way.  We need to pray for the empowering of the Holy Spirit on the very word of the Gospel we share with them.  It is this power alone that makes the Gospel bear fruit.  Let us praise God for this irresistible grace and seek his mercy to pour it out on many others.   John Murray encouraged his readers to wholeheartedly affirm such grace with these words:

“Why should there be any reluctance to accept the truth of irresistible grace? It is God’s interposition to do for us what we cannot do of ourselves. It is God’s amazing grace to meet our hopeless impotence. Here is the gospel of sovereign mercy. In evangelism it is the only hope of its success unto the salvation of lost souls. The Holy Spirit accompanies the gospel proclamation with his sovereign demonstration and power. The lost are born of the Spirit and the fruit is unto holiness and the end everlasting life.

“When a sinner comes to Christ in the commitment of faith, when the rebellious will is renewed and tears of penitence begin to flow, it is because a mysterious transaction has been taking place between the persons of the Godhead. The Father has been making a presentation, a donation to his own Son. So perish the thought that coming to Christ finds its explanation in the autonomous determinations of the human will. It finds its cause in the sovereign will of God the Father. He has placed upon this person the constraint by which he has been captivated by the glory of the Redeemer and invests in him all his interests. Christ is made wisdom from God, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. Here is grace surpassing; and it is grace insurmountable.”

God's Irresistible Grace

"Sonne bricht durch"  by Chris



If we really grasp the Bible’s teaching on the nature of sin then we would understand how dire our situation truly is.  We, apart from God’s grace, are incredibly lost men and women.  We are not simply unable to change our preference for our own self-rule in favor of the created design of joyful submission and worship that we should give to our rightful Creator, we are unwilling to do so.   We are actually hostile to God.  We do not submit to God’s law, indeed we cannot.  (Romans 8:7).  We are darkened in our understanding.  We are alienated from the life of God due to our ignorance of Him and spiritual realities.  They make no sense to us whatsoever. (1 Corinthians 2:14).  This is due to the hardness of our hearts. (Ephesians 4:17-19). The heart is at the very core of who we are.  We live from out of our hearts.  The heart is also the sanctuary of the soul for it is with the heart that we worship (Matthew 6:21). We can’t help but worship – treasure realities from which we seek to draw meaning, happiness, fullness and life.  Yet our hearts are hardened.  This means that we do not worship the true and living God but other things which are simply idols or false gods.  Further our sin leaves us dead to God.  We are blinded by the god of this world who works in the sons of disobedience.  Hence we are by nature children of wrath. (2 Corinthians 4:3-4 and Ephesians 2:1-3).   We are truly lost in sin.  Our sinfulness infiltrates every facet of our personality and leaves us unable and unwilling to seek after God. 

If we understand this then we will marvel at the nature of God’s sovereign and saving grace.   We will understand that God’s grace is more than his favorable disposition toward the undeserving but it is also his power to bring us from sin’s death grip to life in Christ Jesus!   In order to be saved from our sin – from its guilt, pollution and enslaving power over us every aspect of God’s sovereign gracious saving work must be granted to us from election, to the obedience of Jesus Christ and the present life-giving and heart changing ministry of the Holy Spirit.  We are just that incredibly lost in our rebellion and addiction to our own wayward and cussed independence and self-rule. 

But as bleak and extreme the effects of sin are on our hearts, minds and wills God’s grace is greater.  His grace is greater than sin!   God’s grace is able to overcome in a superabundant way the death producing, hardening-of-the-heart power of our idolatrous bondage to our autonomy (independent self-rule).  God’s grace is able to do battle with the machinations of the prince of the power of the air and cast off his blinding influence over our minds so we can begin to see the truth.  God’s sovereign and saving grace is nothing short of the eternal life secured by the Lord Jesus Christ bursting into people’s hearts and minds with transforming power.   God’s grace saves us by making us alive with Christ by united us with him through faith.  (Ephesians 2:4-9).  Even the repentance and faith necessary for us to take hold of Christ and his saving virtue are God’s gifts of grace (See Acts 11:18; 13:48; 16:14; 18:27; Ephesians 2:9; Philippians 1:29; 2 Timothy 2:25-26). 

This irresistible saving grace of God for the elect turns that free offer of the Gospel into the effectual call of God.  Those whom the Father calls through the Gospel offer will indeed respond to that offer.   The offer goes out in the preaching of the Gospel to all who would hear - to the world.  It is issued to the entire human race.  Yet that free offer of the Gospel will only be effectual upon the hearts of those whom the Father calls (1 Corinthians 1:9, 23-24; 2 Timothy 1:9; Hebrews 9:15; 1 Peter 2:9; 5:10 and 2 Peter 1:3) and draws (John 6:44), who are taught by the Father and thus hear him and learn from him (John 6:45).  Those whom the Father effectually calls respond because with that calling the Holy Spirit works through the Gospel to regenerate their hearts or cause them to be born again (John 3:1-8; Titus 3:4-7; 1 Peter 1:3).  Paul also describes this work of the Holy Spirit upon the dead heart of an unbelieving rebel as resurrection – as being made alive together with Christ; being raised and seated with Christ (Ephesians 2:4-7; Colossians 2:12-13).  The Holy Spirit is the agent of this new life (new birth; spiritual resurrection) but he uses the Word as his instrument to bring this new life into dead hearts (1 Peter 2:23-25).

So one of the ways that you know that God is working his grace in your life is that you find Jesus attractive – you find this tug and pull taking place within your heart.  You see the bread and wine of Jesus and you begin to eat and drink.   If this is the case then you are being drawn by the Father.  This drawing is a powerful but not an oppressive work that the Father does in one’s soul.  He works by the agency of the Holy Spirit who uses the instrument of the Word of God – the Gospel message to issue a very clear and gracious call to your heart.  God the Father is not forcing you or violating what you want, rather He is divinely wooing you toward His Son and in so doing powerfully and graciously is changing what you want.  You begin to want Him and the salvation offered to you in Christ!

It is God speaking by his call.  The Gospel offer goes deeper than just the hearing of the ear.  It penetrates into that hard place in the soul and through the agency of the Holy Spirit using the word the Father calls and that call comes to you like a light going off inside.  You begin to see how much you need Christ.  It may entail a deep conviction of your sin, guilt and sinfulness.  You are grieved and you begin to acknowledge for the first time that you are indeed a sinner.  Your soul is famished.  You are hungry for true food and not simply the junk food options of this world.  You are learning from God – the darkness surrounding your thinking is leaving and you see with your entire heart how precious Jesus and his offer of salvation is

Simultaneous with this hearing and learning from the Father – this efficacious call of God on your soul – the Holy Spirit causes you to become born again and you likewise are given saving faith and repentance that unite you to Jesus Christ. 

Faith in Christ is your final and permanent move toward Him and this is not your doing but the work of God’s grace.  Saving faith sees the Bread of Life. Saving faith knows that this is true food for the soul.  Saving faith begins to actually trust in Christ, which is like eating the bread.  Saving faith tastes this bread and can’t get enough.  Saving faith exclaims that this is the best food of all.  This is where true life is found.  Saving faith keeps repenting and turning away from the junk food of this age and stays feasting on Christ and does so with joy.  Here is true life and saving faith clings to Christ and feasts upon Him. 

God’s grace is indeed irresistible and it is a good thing indeed! John Piper writes of this by saying, “irresistible grace refers to the sovereign work of God to overcome the rebellion of our heart and bring us to faith in Christ so that we can be saved. If our doctrine of total depravity is true, there can be no salvation without the reality of irresistible grace. If we are dead in our sins, totally unable to submit to God, then we will never believe in Christ unless God overcomes our rebellion.”  This is what God’s saving grace ultimately accomplishes in the heart of those he elects. By this irresistible grace God overcomes our hardness and rebellion against him and brings us to repentance and faith in Christ.  Marvelous grace of our loving Lord!      

Friday, August 26, 2011

Christ's Particular Atonement and the Free Offer of the Gospel


God’s salvation of sinners was graciously accomplished by the obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ.  By his active obedience he perfectly and fully obeyed all of the commands of God’s holy law.  By his passive obedience he endured the penalty of the curse of the law, which is “cursed is everyone who does not abide by everything that is written in the law to do them” (Galatians 3-10 and Deut. 27:26).  Of course Christ himself obeyed everything that is written in the law.  Nevertheless, he becomes the substitute penalty bearer of the law’s curse and therein actually secured salvation for all who would come to believe on him as their Savior and Lord. 

In the previous post the stress was on how his obedience actually secured salvation.  The culmination of his obedience was in his willingly taking upon himself the sins of his people.  In doing this he did more than make salvation possible.  Rather, he actually accomplished salvation.  So when the Gospel is offered to sinners the full power and virtue of Christ finished work comes with that offer.  It is not that Christ might save you but rather Christ will save you if you turn from your sins and believe on him.  It isn’t that this Christ makes salvation possible but rather he accomplished full and complete salvation and he comes in all his saving virtue and you are invited, yes even commanded by the love of God in that invitation to flee to Christ.  The promise is that Christ will welcome you and not turn you away. 

This post examines the definitive or particular nature of his saving obedience.   The question that we need to consider is this: For whom did Christ die?  For whom did Christ by his obedience secure forgiveness and everlasting life?  Most evangelical Christians today would say that he died for the human race.  He died for the world.  After all God so loved the world that he gave his only Son and this must mean that his Son died for the whole human race.  Other texts besides John 3:16 seem to say this (see 2 Cor. 5:14-15; 1 Tim. 2:3-6; 1 John 2:2 and Hebrews 2:9).  It is vital that we not only understand what these texts say but what they mean. 

Take Hebrews 2:9: “But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.”    This text seems fairly straight forward.  Christ tasted death for everyone. 

Now if what these texts teach or mean is that Christ died for the sins of every human being that ever lived without exception then we need to think about what this says concerning the effectualness of his obedience and death or the effectualness of the penalty he actually secured for sins.  What it means is that there are now or one day will be (depending on your theological understanding about hell) people in hell for whose sins Christ suffered and died to pay the penalty who are lost.  Why are they suffering for their sins if Christ has secured the penalty for their transgressions? 

Well, the answer that is often given is that Christ made salvation possible or he provides the ticket for salvation but people need to respond and take it.  Now it is very true that people need to respond to the Gospel’s invitation.  It is very true that only those who repent and believe on Christ will be saved but what Christ died to secure was not a ticket but the payment of the penalty for sin.  What Christ died to secure was not a possible way to glory but the definite place in glory.  So if there are or will be people in hell for whom Christ died then his atonement is AT LEAST PARTIALLY ineffectual.  Yet what we have seen from Scripture is that his atonement is by no means ineffectual.  It is fully effectual.

We need to look at what these verses mean when for example in Hebrews 2:9 it says that Christ tasted death for everyone.  I would argue that in this verse the phrase everyone has to be understood as a reference to a particular group.  For example if you were having a family reunion and grandpa stood up before the meal and said: “Is everyone here?” you would automatically understand that “everyone” refers to everyone in the family. 

Now let’s scan down through the context of this verse.  Who is the “everyone” for whom Christ tasted death?  The “everyone” refers to the many sons that God determines to bring to glory through the founder of their salvation (vs. 10).  It refers to those who are sanctified (vs.11). It is inclusive of those whom Christ is not ashamed to call brothers (vs. 12).  It is the children who God has given to the Son (vs. 13) and with whom the Son has shared flesh and blood (vs. 14). It is those brothers whom he had to be made like (vs. 17).  He had to become like these sons, sanctified ones, brothers for they are the people for whom Christ became a merciful and faithful high priest to make propitiation for their sins (vs. 17).  Do you see the definiteness or particularity of this?

The Father has those he gives his Son.  Jesus speaks this way in John 6:37. In his High Priestly prayer in John 17 Jesus states very clearly that he is not praying for the world but rather he is praying to the Father for all those he has given Him out of the world. “I am praying for them.  I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me for they are yours.” This included those believing disciples who were with him in the upper room and all from that time to the end of the world who would come to believe on him through their word – i.e. the NT scriptures (vs20).  It is for these very ones whom the Father gave him that Jesus not only prays but offers his life as a ransom.  It was for these whom the Father gave him out of the world that Christ secured salvation by his obedience. Christ tasted death for everyone of the elect. He laid down his life for his sheep.  Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.  His priestly intercession and his once for all sacrificial death were for those whom God in love elected and hence we can say that Christ’s atonement or satisfaction of Divine justice was particular or definite.    

Yet there is also a sense in which God does love the world.  There is a sense in which God sends his son for the world.  The love of God for the world in all its bigness and badness is seen in this free offer of the Gospel.  Because Christ actually secured salvation for the elect and not simply made salvation possible and because who those elect are is known only to God and since the appointed means of gathering in the elect is this free offer of the Gospel to the human race then such an offer goes out not to the elect but to the human race.  Robert Murray McCheyne put it this way:

"No one ever came to Christ because they knew themselves to be of the elect. It is quite true that God has of his mere good pleasure elected some to everlasting life, but they never knew it until they came to Christ. Christ nowhere invites the elect to come to Him. The question for you is not, Am I one of the elect? But, Am I one of the human race?"    
                 
In addition the Gospel’s content never in all the Scripture includes a particular claim regarding the number for whom Christ died.  The Gospel is not the declaration that Christ died for the elect or that Christ died for every human being or that “Christ died for you”  while you point to the particular hearer or hearers of the Gospel.  Rather the Gospel is that God sent his Son who lived, died and rose again for sinners.  This is complete salvation for the worst of sinners.  The promise is “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved.”  Whoever comes to Christ he will not turn away.   In this free offer of the Gospel Christ in all his saving virtue is pressed upon those who hear.  Full and complete salvation is freely offered and not merely the possibility of salvation.  

Summary
By his obedience Jesus Christ accomplished an effectual and definite atonement for those the Father gave to him.  The “everyone” or “all” for whom Christ tasted death is those whom the Father has given to him.  They are those who in love God predestined for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ.  They are those for whom Christ prayed and for whom he intercedes as their High Priest.  

From our perspective we do not know who those elect are. The number of the elect is known only to God.  It cannot be ascertained apart from coming to Christ.  

Yet it is also true that God so loved the world that he gave his Son.  The offer of the Gospel is an expression of God’s love for the world.  This free offer of the Gospel is an offer of Christ in all his saving power and virtue for sinners.  The invitation and command is to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.  The promise is that all who come to Jesus Christ he will not turn away.   The free offer of the Gospel is not for the elect but for the human race.  

The offer of the Gospel is not the offer of a possible salvation but a definite and effectual salvation.  To say anything less about Christ’s saving work is to limit its power and hence its glory.  To say that there are those who are paying the penalty for their sins in hell for whom Christ died and paid the penalty is to at least say that Christ partially failed and this for the sake of his name must never be conceded!  Jesus fails to save none for whom he died and he fails to save none who through repentance and faith call on him for his mercy, deliverance and pardon. 

Thursday, August 25, 2011

Christ By His Obedience Accomplished Salvation


Adrian van Leen


We often, and rightly so, see that Christ accomplished salvation by his death on the cross.  Yet there is a sense in which his death on the cross was the pinnacle of his saving work.  In fact Christ accomplished salvation by his obedience.  That is right.  It was by the obedience of the Son of God incarnate that this glorious and gracious work of salvation was secured. 

First, the Son’s obedience is his willing and loving submission to the mission that the Father gave to him.  In this sense the Son is the ultimate missionary sent from the Father to rescue sinners.  He came not to do his will but the will of the Father who sent him (John 4:34; 6:38; 14:31).  

Second, the Son’s obedience as the incarnate God-man to his Father’s mission of saving sinners was through his obedience to the law of God.  He who gave the law fully submitted to the Law.  He did this in two ways: 1. He obeyed the law’s commands, (Gal. 4:5; Matt. 5:17; Rom. 5:9; Heb. 2:10 and 5:8) 2. He endured the law’s penalty (Phil. 2:8; Matt. 26:39; John 10:17-18; Gal. 3:13).

In obeying the commands of the law he secured a perfect life of obedience.  He did this not for himself but for all those who would come to believe on him and it is for these that he prayed (17:20-21 and 20:29).   So in obeying the commandments of the law perfectly he lived the life you could not live and secured a positive record of righteousness for all who would trust in Him.  Yet he also obeyed in offering his life up to death to satisfy the demands of the law’s penalty or curse.  In doing so he died the death that you deserve and secured the gift of forgiveness of all your sins. So by his obedience Christ accomplished salvation from sin and its horrible effects for his for his people. 

Sin brings to our lives guilt, Divine judgment or wrath, alienation from God and captivity or bondage.  While Christ’s entire life of obedience was necessary to save us from sin and its effects, his rescue of us was particularly accomplished by his death on the cross.  The Bible uses four key ideas when it sets before us how his death as obedience is that which secures the rescue or salvation of his people.  Much of the following I have taken from John Murray’s classic work Redemption Accomplished and Applied.

Christ death was a SACRIFICE that has the guilt of our sin in view                            

His death on the cross is God’s gracious way of dealing with the guilt of our sin.  Guilt is a legal reality.  To be guilty is to deserve the penal consequences of the law as one who has broken the law. The Law demands death for guilt means that one deserves condemnation. Christ’s death was a substitutionary penal death in that He was paying the penalty for the transgressions of others and therein offered perfect satisfaction to Divine justice so that the guilt of sin might be taken away.  (Heb. 9:26; 10:16-18; Is. 53:4-6, 10-12; 1 Peter 2:23-25)

Christ death was a PROPITIATION that has the just wrath of God against sin in view                           

Christ’s death on the cross was God gracious way of satisfying the demands of His just wrath.  The word that is used in the Bible to describe this aspect of Christ’s death is propitiation.   To propitiate is to appease, satisfy or alleviate so as to enable one to be conciliatory.  We must not see this as Christ winning over the favor and forgiveness of a reluctant Father.  The propitiation that Christ secured did not make God willing to extend pardon to sinners but rather made it consistent with his character and government now to do so.  Rather it is the love of God the Father that was the moving cause of Christ securing this propitiation.  What love this is!!! God was willing to do what was necessary to remain consistent in his righteous nature so as to forgive sins and accept sinners and this cost him the humiliation and death of his obedient Son.  (Rom. 3:25-26; Heb. 2:17; 1 Jo. 2:2 and 4:10).

Christ death was a RECONCILIATION that has the alienation of God due to our sin in view                        

Reconciliation has been accomplished.  Indeed, God was working in Christ reconciling the world to himself. The phrase “reconciling...to himself” points to the fact that God was the offended party.  He has no need to be reconciled to us rather we have a need to be reconciled to him, because our sin is an affront to his holiness and majesty.  Our sin has put us in the category of being God’s enemies. So to be reconciled to God is to have our sin, which is the cause of this enmity on God’s holy part removed, and to be restored to Him in peace.  Another way of stating this is that God has no need for us to forgive him.  Yet we have a huge need for him to forgive us.  So we are reconciled to him not him to us (2 Cor. 5:18-20; Rom. 5:6-11; Eph. 2:16; Col. 1:21).

The death of Christ was REDEMPTION that has our bondage to captivity in view

The idea of redemption is that of deliverance that is secured by a cost or price.  Our sin results in a multiform kind of bondage.  We are not truly free.  Jesus said that: If the Son sets you free you will be free indeed.  John 8:36

The price or cost paid to deliver us from the captivity sin carries with it over our lives was the sacrificial death of Christ. In doing this he secured redemption for his people.  Matt. 20:29


 Christ by his death redeemed his people from the curse of the Law (Gal. 3:10-13)  

 Christ redeemed his people from the obligation to keep the ceremonial law (Gal. 4:4-5; 325-26).

 Christ by his death redeemed his people from the works of the law. He redeemed us from the necessity of keeping the law as a condition of justification with God.  We do not have to keep the law to secure a righteous record before God (Gal. 2:21; Rom. 3:20-24).  

 Christ by his death redeemed his people from sin.  By his death as a ransom price paid he redeemed us from the guilt of sin.   Certainly if Christ by his sacrifice satisfied the justice of God and thus paid the penalty of our sin, his sacrifice has freed us or redeemed us from the guilt of sin.  This is closely connected with his freeing us from the necessity of keeping the law to secure acceptance with God.  This comes to us in the gift of forgiveness of our sins (the removal of our guilt) and justification by faith (Eph. 1:7; Col. 1:14; Heb. 9:15)

  By Christ’s death as a ransom paid he delivers his people from the power of sin. In Christ we have been set free from the dominion or kingdom of sin.  When Christ died on the cross there is a sense in which all those he represented died with him.  In so doing he freed his people from the enslaving power of sin.  (1 Pet. 2:24; 2 Cor. 5:14-15; 1 Pet. 1:18-19; Tit. 2:14)   

 By Christ’s death as ransom paid he delivers his people from captivity to the devil.  This did not happen by Christ paying a ransom price to the devil.  God owed the devil nothing.  Rather Christ’s death broke the hold that death and the devil had on the human race (John 12:31; Col. 2:14-15; 1Joh. 3:8; Heb. 2:14-15).  At the cross God indeed judges the world and as such the devil loses his hold on the world.  He still roams about to tempt and accuse believers and to blind the lost but his power over those who flee to Christ trusting in his obedient life and death has been broken.  We are now engaged in conflict against him and are no longer subjects of his rule for Christ by the ransom price he paid to satisfy divine justice redeemed us from the dark powers of the devil. 
           
Christ’s obedience actually accomplished salvation.  There is something definitive about His saving work.  He did more than make salvation possible.  By his obedient life and obedient death he made a definite sacrifice for sinners and paid the penalty in full and thereby satisfied Divine justice.  In doing this Christ definitively propitiated the wrath of God aimed at sin.  It was God the Father that put Christ forward as this propitiatory sacrifice.  God in Christ definitely appeased and removed his just wrath against sin.  Thus God reconciled the world to himself in the death of His Son.  This was actually accomplished and now the offer of reconciliation is freely made to all who would respond in faith.  Finally, Christ’s death was a definite ransom priced paid to secure deliverance from the multiform captivity that sin places us under: the curse of the law, the ceremonial law, the works of the law, the bondage to sin’s guilt, the bondage to sin’s power and the captivity to the devil. 

Of course Christ’s obedience reaches its fullness in his death on the cross.  Yet, without his obedient life his death would not be effectual in securing our salvation.  The Power of the Cross is the power of the virtue of the God-man’s obedient life climaxing in his obedience to the point of death, even death on a cross!  Oh, how precious should his obedience to the Father be to us and oh, how glorious is his cross!  The obedient life and death of Jesus Christ is the historical work of God’s sovereign grace in the salvation of sinners. Finally, Christ has secured salvation by his obedient life and death in his glorious resurrection.  His resurrection was his vindication by the Father and hence the believers justification (Romans 5:25) and without his resurrection there would be no secured forgiveness and hence eternal life (1 Corinthians 15:12-17).


Unconditional Election by Grace


 
In considering the depths of God’s grace we come face to face with the Bible’s teaching on God’s election and predestination to eternal life of undeserving sinners.   All without exception are lost in the guilt and bondage to sin.  The deepest sin beneath all our sins, flaws and mess-ups is our addiction to our own autonomy or self-rule.  This is the taproot sin of which all the others are just the fruit.  We are helplessly guilty before a holy God and helplessly enslaved to our waywardness and we prefer it this way although at times the consequences of our rebellion break into our lives with devastating effects. 

God is under no moral obligation to remedy our sinful guilt or bondage.  Yet the only way anyone is rescued from the total depravity and the total inability due to sin is by the sovereign grace of God.  In fact if we have any degree of sensitivity to just how lost we are as slaves to our passions and pride we would yearn for God’s mercy.  Yet even such a yearning comes only as God graciously brings us to the end of ourselves and convicts us of our guilt and bondage to sin.  So the question we need to consider is a simple one: who saves sinners?  Is salvation a joint work where God does his part by sending his Son to die on the cross to make salvation possible and we do our part by responding in faith?  Many sincere Christians hold this view but it begs these questions.  How can those in bondage to sin liberate themselves?  How can those who are dead in trespasses and sins make themselves come to life?  How can those who are blind make themselves see, or deaf make themselves hear or lame make themselves walk?

The Bible teaches that salvation is wholly and solely the work of the Triune God and that this work of salvation is from start to finish accomplished by his powerful and unmerited grace and it has its origin in the eternal purpose of God to elect a people in Christ and predestine them to become his adopted sons and daughters thus delivering them from the guilt and bondage of sin.   We see this in the two major texts that teach this doctrine: Ephesians 1:3-14 and Romans 9:1-24. 

The Bible’s teaching on election has been called unconditional election.  What this means is that God’s choice of who of Adam’s fallen race he would save is not conditioned by anything within the them.  The elect are just as lost in their sin as the non-elect.  They are just as deserving of condemnation and just as enslaved to their addiction to their own autonomy.  In fact many of the elect are, at least on a human level, worse sinners apart from grace than the non-elect.   God’s choice on whom he will have mercy and who he will harden – i.e. let them stay in their bondage to sin and its guilt – is rooted in God’s sovereign purpose to bring glory to his name in both the vessels of mercy and in the vessels of wrath (Romans 9:19-24). 

Now some would affirm that the Bible does teach the doctrine of election but deny that the Bible teaches unconditional election.  Based on a passage like Romans 8:29 – “Those whom God foreknew, he also predestined” – they would stress that God’s work of election is based on God foreknowing who would respond in faith to the Gospel.  God elects to salvation those who accept the Gospel.  

Yet what God is said to “foreknow” is not the response of those he predestined but the persons he predestined.  It is not the action of the person but the person that God foreknew.  Certainly God foreknows what a person will do or not do.  Yet this is not what “foreknew” means in this text.    Based on texts like Galatians 4:9; Psalm 1:6; Jeremiah 1:5 and others, the Bible’s teaching on the concept of God’s foreknowledge when applied to people is a synonym for election.  The idea really is that of God fore-loving or loving beforehand those he predestines to eternal life.  This is reflected well in a passage like Ephesians 1:4-5, “In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ.” 

God’s election is unconditional.  It is based in his free and sovereign grace and not upon anything that comes from us.  God’s election is not based on his foreknowledge of our faith in Christ.  Certainly, his election is not based on anyone’s moral goodness or intellectual prowess.  We are all lost in our sins – enslaved to our passions and pride.  So election is unconditional and rests solely upon God’s own purpose and grace.
Having stated the doctrine it must also be said that many have taken a wrong turn with it.  This doctrine must never be separated from the Gospel.  Here is what this means.

1.       The Bible’s teaching on election by grace must never be used to undermine the Bible’s clear teaching on passionate evangelism or prayer for the lost.  Rather when understood it gives us every incentive to be deliberate in sharing the gospel and confident that by God’s grace there will indeed be fruit from our prayers and labors. 
2.       The Bible’s teaching on election by grace must always be set side by side with the Bible’s teaching on the free offer of the Gospel.  Since the number of the elect and non-elect is kept from us and God does not place a mark on people’s foreheads, we are called to freely offer the Gospel to all without respect to election or non election.   
3.   The warrant or reason to believe the Gospel is not based on one having to ascertain his or her election.  Rather the warrant to believe the Gospel is everyone’s need for the Gospel.  The Gospel invitation (Isaiah 55; Matthew 11:28; John 3:16; 5:35-37; Acts 16:20) is made to sinners.  It is for those who need Christ and all without exception do.  In fact all are commanded to repent and to believe the Gospel. 
4.       This means that if you are convicted of your need for Christ and want him to be your savior you may indeed come to Christ and he will not turn you away.  All you need do is see your sin, confess such to him and tell him that you believe that his word is true and that he came for sinners and he will not turn sinners who come to him away.  This is the only way you will discover your election!
5.    The caricature of election by opponents of the teaching, as well as, the way some who accept the doctrine have mishandled it give the impression that there are many who want to come to Christ but cannot because they are not of the elect and there are others who don’t want to come to Christ but since they are elect they will come even against their wishes.  This is not the case at all.  All those who indeed want to come to Christ may.  He will not cast anyone away from him who wants to come.  Likewise those who don’t want to come to Christ will not be forced against their will to come. 

Those of you who have believed on Jesus Christ as your redeemer from the guilt and bondage of sin – continue to look to Christ.  Hold fast your faith in him and make every effort to make your calling and election sure by a life of faithful obedience and endurance.  Genuine saving faith holds Christ continually precious to the soul and grows in assurance and in obedience.  This is how we make our calling and election sure.  Don’t presume that you possess Christ based on a mere decision but rather make sure your faith is alive in you and that Christ is most precious to you – give evidence of this in humble obedience to His Word.
For you who have not yielded to Jesus.  I urge to hear the offer He makes to you even now.  Jesus came not for the well-adjusted or those who wrongly think they are okay and have no need of God.  Jesus came for those who know they are damaged goods (and everyone truly is).  If you are convicted of the deeper sin of your addiction to your own self-rule and are troubled by this as the root cause of all your other flaws and sins – the good news is that Christ welcomes you and will indeed rescue you from the guilt of your sins and your bondage to sin.   He said “Whoever comes to me I will never cast out.”