There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true. —Soren Kierkegaard. "…truth is true even if nobody believes it, and falsehood is false even if everybody believes it. That is why truth does not yield to opinion, fashion, numbers, office, or sincerity–it is simply true and that is the end of it" – Os Guinness, Time for Truth, pg.39. “He that takes truth for his guide, and duty for his end, may safely trust to God’s providence to lead him aright.” – Blaise Pascal. "There is but one straight course, and that is to seek truth and pursue it steadily" – George Washington letter to Edmund Randolph — 1795. We live in a “post-truth” world. According to the dictionary, “post-truth” means, “relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.” Simply put, we now live in a culture that seems to value experience and emotion more than truth. Truth will never go away no matter how hard one might wish. Going beyond the MSM idealogical opinion/bias and their low information tabloid reality show news with a distractional superficial focus on entertainment, sensationalism, emotionalism and activist reporting – this blogs goal is to, in some small way, put a plug in the broken dam of truth and save as many as possible from the consequences—temporal and eternal. "The further a society drifts from truth, the more it will hate those who speak it." – George Orwell “There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.” ― Soren Kierkegaard
O God, be gracious to me and bless me and make your face to shine upon me; Psalm 67:1(ESV) yes, let God, my God, give me his blessing. Psalm 67:6(ESV)
May the LORD, he who made heaven and earth, bless me from Zion; Psalm 134:3(ESV) bless me with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Ephesians 1:3(ESV)
Let me receive blessing from the LORD, even righteousness from the God of my salvation. Psalm 24:5(ESV)
Have you but one blessing? Indeed, you have many blessings! Bless me, even me also, O my Father; Genesis 27:38(ESV) yes, let the blessing of Abraham come to me, which comes to the Gentiles through faith; Galatians 3:14(ESV) and the blessing of Jacob, for I will not let you go unless you bless me. Genesis 32:26(ESV)
O cast me not away from your presence, or ever take your Holy Spirit away from me; Psalm 51:11(ESV) but let me always dwell with the upright in your presence. Psalm 140:13(ESV)
6. Did God, then, create man so wicked and perverse?
No, on the contrary, God created man good1 and in His own image,2 that is, in true righteousness and holiness;3 that he might rightly know God his Creator,4 heartily love Him, and live with Him in eternal blessedness to praise and glorify Him.5
1 Gen 1:31; 2 Gen 1:26-27; 3 Eph 4:24; 4 Col 3:10; 5 Ps 8
7. From where, then, did man’s depraved nature come from?
From the fall and disobedience of our first parents, Adam and Eve, in Paradise,1 for there our nature became so corrupt2 that we are all conceived and born in sin.3
1 Gen 3; 2 Rom 5:12, 18-19; 3 Ps 51:5
8. But are we so depraved, that we are totally unable to do any good and inclined to all evil?
Yes;1 unless we are regenerated by the Spirit of God.2
Christians often say the Bible is the “Word of God,” but what does that mean? How did the words of human authors like Moses, David, Paul, and John become the very words of God? Q&A: What does it mean that the Bible is inspired by God?
The doctrine of inspiration answers this question.
Inspiration Defined
The word inspiration comes from the Greek term theopneustos, literally “God breathed.” Paul uses this word in 2 Timothy 3:16:
“All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.”
Inspiration means that God, by His Spirit, superintended the human authors so that what they wrote was His very Word. This does not mean the authors were passive or robotic. Each wrote with his own style, vocabulary, and personality. Yet in the mystery of God’s work, every word written was exactly what God intended, without error, and fully authoritative.
“No prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”
This shows that Scripture is not merely human opinion, it is divine revelation. The Spirit carried along the biblical writers so that their words are truly the words of God.
Why Inspiration Matters
If the Bible is inspired by God, then it carries His full authority. We are not free to pick and choose what we like, as though the Bible were simply good advice. It is God’s truth, binding on our beliefs and practices. Inspiration guarantees that the Bible is trustworthy, authoritative, and life giving.
Application
When you open the Bible to read it you are reading what God has said. When you read the Bible out loud to yourself you are hearing the very voice of God from the text of Scripture. Let that truth drive you to read it with reverence, study it with diligence, and obey it with joy. The Bible is not just ancient literature, it is the living Word of the living God, breathed out for your good and for His glory.
For more from Contending for the Word Q&A please visit our page at Servants of Grace or at our YouTube.
Ver. 14. I AM hath sent me unto you.—Immutable authority:— I. Moses on entering upon a great mission naturally inquires the CONDITIONS upon which he proceeds. II. In the REVELATION made to Moses, “I AM hath sent me unto you,” we have being distinguished from manifestation. “I AM” is the summary of Being. III. The ANSWER which Moses received from Almighty God was an immutable authority for the greatest of missions. Only let us be sure that we are doing God’s errand, and Pharaoh and Cæsar, and all names of material power, will fall before us, never again to rise. (J. Parker, D.D.) The great “I AM”:— I. God is the INCOMPREHENSIBLE One, and yet is revealed in His intercourse with men. The conviction of His unsearchableness lies at the root of all reverence and awe. Before the “I AM that I AM” our spirits lie in deepest adoration, and rise into loftiest aspiration. But we need equally the other side. We need a God revealed in the essential features of His character; and it is in His dealings with men who feared and loved Him that He has made Himself known. II. God is the INDEPENDENT AND ABSOLUTE. One, and yet He enters into covenant and most definite relationships with men. He is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. III. God is the ETERNAL One, and yet the God of dying men. Every moment that we have of fellowship with the Eternal God assures us that for us there is no death. IV. God is the UNCHANGEABLE One, yet the God of men of all different types and temperaments. The same Lord over all. Take these three patriarchs, so closely related in blood—Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. How different they were! Yet God was the God of all three, for they all agreed in being seekers of God. (J. Leckie, D.D.) The great “I AM”:— The first thought, perhaps, of all which lies wrapped in these two grand comprehensive words, “I AM,” is mystery. Our best worship is in silence, and our truest wisdom when we confess without confession. “It is too high for me, I cannot attain unto it.” The utmost conception of the most exalted intellect of the most heaven-taught man is only a faint approximation thereto. “I AM.” It still lies in the future of a far-off beatitude—“Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.” But where do these glimpses lie of the great I AM; and how can we now know Him at all? I believe, first, in nature. The wonderful organization and marvellous system of nature, in the world I live in. Next I look for it in the Holy Word which He has given to me with the impress of His mind and being. But more in that Spirit which dwells in me and which is the reflection of the nature and a very part of the life and the essence of God. Thirdly, and better still in Him, His own dear Son, “the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person,” and who claims to Himself that very name (John 8:58). No created thing could ever say with truth, “I am.” God alone has no other origin but Himself. He depends upon nothing; His life is essential life; all life, from all eternity past to all eternity yet to come. He is “I AM.” Therefore because He is the I AM, all is present time with God. It is the present tense ever. The consequences are tremendous. All our past sins, all our past mercies, all our past promises and vows, all our past life, and all the life that is yet to come, it is all the present moment with God, in all its freshness and clearness and distinctness at this moment—“I AM.” Hence the absolute and perfect unchangeableness! Or take another instance in that great name “I AM.” All life, which is life indeed, must emanate from Him. He is the life. And there is another view which we may take of these two grand words, “I AM.” God does not say what He is. He leaves that to us. We must fill in the blank. “I am whatever you make Me. If you disbelieve Me, if you think little of Me, I am a just God, a holy God, a jealous God, an avenging God, a strict God, a punishing God; I shall by no means spare the guilty, I am a consuming fire. If you are a penitent sinner, if you have left Me and are coming back to Me, if you are sorry for what you have done, if you have grieved Me, and now wish to please Me, I am a forgiving God, full of mercy and compassion, of great pity, passing by transgression and sin more than any one asketh. I am love. If you are really My child, poor, weak, unworthy, sinful though you are, yet still My child, striving to please Me, earnest to serve Me, desiring more and more to see Me and be with Me, telling Me everything in your little heart, trusting Me, loving Me, I am your own dear loving faithful Father; I am yours and you are Mine to the very end. I have loved you and chosen you from all eternity, and I never change. Though I do sometimes hide Myself, yet behind the cloud I am, I AM, I AM. I am thine, and thou art Mine, for ever and ever!” (J. Vaughan, M.A.) The Divine name:— I. AS ONLY REVEALED BY THE DIVINE BEING HIMSELF. II. AS ONLY PARTIALLY UNDERSTOOD BY THE GRANDEST INTELLECTS. III. AS SUFFICIENTLY COMPREHENDED FOR THE PRACTICAL SERVICE OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. We know enough of God to give strength, responsibility, hope, to our Christian work and life. (J. S. Exell, M.A.) The name of the Lord:— The answer is twofold. It repeats the idea that He is the God of their father; but it connects that with the idea that He is Jehovah. I. THE ETERNAL NAME. “God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM. Say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.” The word is that from which Jehovah comes. It expresses the idea of existence. In announcing Himself by this name the Divine Being excludes all notion of any commencement or termination of His existence, or that He is indebted for it to any other. It is self-existence, necessary existence; His non-existence is an impossibility and cannot be entertained. Jesus Christ “the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever.” “The Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last.” “He who was, and is, and is to come.” Perhaps the most helpful conception we have of permanence is given by the spectacle of the lofty mountains which stand unmoved and unchanged for centuries and millenniums. We call them the everlasting hills. But He was before the mountains, and will continue His undying existence when they have disappeared in the final dissolution. II. THE ABIDING RELATIONSHIP. “The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” The two names are closely connected, because He could not be the one God of successive generations if He were not Jehovah—the Everlasting.
You will mark that He is not only Jehovah, God in Himself, as He cannot but be; He is the God of the persons here mentioned. Think what a great thing it is that He should be the God of any one! Think what a blessedness and a glory it is to have His almightiness on your side; His love your resting-place; His throne your refuge in distress; His unchanging faithfulness your abiding confidence.
Next, observe that He was the God of each of the persons named. God knows how to be the God of all His people however they differ from each other in those subtle shades of character which, like the features of the face, distinguish one man from another.
Then observe, further, He was the God of their successive generations. This thought is valuable in connection with the idea that God still has a people. The spiritual seed of Abraham. Also that the children of godly parents should value the blessing of having their father’s God. Fear to forfeit it.
Nor must we overlook the important use the Great Teacher made of the statement in our text. Argument for resurrection and immortality in Matt. 22:24–32. III. THE PERMANENT NAME. God’s eternity contrasts with our brief life: warrants our confidence in Him: suggests the blessedness of those who are interested in Him. (John Rawlinson.) God’s name of Himself:— I. PERSONALITY—“I.”
We attach three ideas to personality. (1) Essential distinctness. (2) Individual consciousness. (3) Spontaneity.
God’s personality— (1) Explains the unity of the universe. (2) Meets the aspirations of human nature. II. SELF-EXISTENCE—“I AM.”
The independent amidst dependent beings.
The Unchangeable amidst a changing universe. III. Unsearchableness—“I AM that I AM.”
Mystery is essential to Deity.
Mystery is a want of human nature. Stirs intellect, wakes wonder, inspires reverent awe of souls. (Homilist.) “I AM”:— I. THE HIGHEST INQUIRY OF MAN AS A MORAL AGENT.
This inquiry is most reasonable.
This inquiry is most urgent. II. THE HIGHEST REVELATION TO MAN AS A MORAL STUDENT. “I AM—“what? The Fountain of all life, the Foundation of all virtue, the Source of all blessedness, the Cause, the Means, and the End of all things in the universe but sin.
This is the revelation that man as a thinker craves for.
This is the revelation which the gospel gives. III. THE HIGHEST AUTHORITY OF MAN AS A MORAL WORKER. Lessons:
God is. The grandest fact in the universe.
God is an absolute personality.
God deals with individual men. “Hath sent me.”
God makes man His messenger to men. (Ibid.) The minister sent by God:— I. THE DIVINE EXISTENCE. “I AM.” He who is, and who will be what He is. II. THE MINISTRY A DIVINE INSTITUTION. “I AM hath sent me unto you.” This creates the relation of pastor and people. III. MUTUAL DUTIES OF PASTOR AND PEOPLE.
The duty of the pastor. (1) He must preach the gospel in its purity and simplicity. (2) He must administer the ordinances. (3) He must maintain a wholesome discipline in the Church.
The duty of the people. (1) Sympathy; (2) Love; (3) Obedience; (4) Co-operation; (5) Prayer for their minister. (J. W. Ray.) The immutability of God:— I. THAT JEHOVAH IS UNCHANGEABLE IS PROVED FROM WHAT WE KNOW OF HIS OTHER ATTRIBUTES. We are assured, for example, that He is infinite in goodness, infinite in knowledge, infinite in power. The simple inquiry before us is, Are these attributes subject to change? Now, change in any being implies increase, or diminution, or entire removal of certain properties. To suppose any attribute of God to cease entirely, is to suppose that He ceases to be God. Change, then, if it occurs at all, must imply either increase or diminution of His perfections. On this principle, it is easy to see that the least change in the degree of His power, for example, must make Him more than almighty, or less than almighty; the least change in His knowledge must make Him more than omniscient, or less than omniscient; in other words, the least change in a perfect and infinite being is inconceivable. II. THAT JEHOVAH IS UNCHANGEABLE IS PROVED FROM EXPLICIT AND REPEATED DECLARATIONS OF THE BIBLE. (See Mal. 3:6; Tit. 1:2; James 1:17; Psa. 102:27). The inferences resulting from the truth thus established are so important as to demand the remaining time that can be allotted to this discourse.
All conceptions of God which apply time and succession to His existence, are erroneous, “One day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” He is no older than He was from eternity. Age is a relative term: it implies beginning; but God is eternal. It implies change; but God is unchangeable. Time is the measure of created existence; but God is uncreated. Hence, the diversity of views which we have of the same thing at different times, results from the imperfection of our knowledge. Change of opinion implies liability to mistake. Increase of knowledge implies past ignorance; decrease of knowledge implies present ignorance. But neither of these can apply to Him whose “understanding is infinite.”
God has no new purposes. This follows, by unquestionable inference, from His immutability. Whatever was His purpose from eternity is His purpose now: and whatever is His purpose now, was His purpose from eternity. Two things then are certain. (1) That God is unchangeable. (2) That God has purposes. The inference is perfectly conclusive that these purposes are eternal. This argument cannot be evaded. It has the clearness of demonstration.
The certainty of final salvation to true believers is a reasonable doctrine, grounded on the immutable truth of God, as implied in the promises of the new covenant. These promises of the unchanging God must be fulfilled.
When God is said to repent, it implies no change in His character or purpose.
The immutability of God is no discouragement to prayer, but the best ground of encouragement. If Jehovah were fickle, like earthly monarchs, then, indeed, it would be vain to pray. The answer of prayer implies no change in the mind of God.
The unchangeable perfection of God is a doctrine full of comfort to His people. This world, with all its concerns, bears the stamp of mutability. Amid these scenes of fluctuation, is there no object then in heaven or earth that is unchanging? Yes, one; God is unchanging. Here is stability.
The immutability of God is a doctrine full of terror to His enemies. (E. Potter, D.D.) God, the great “I AM”:— If I say “I am,” I say what is not true of me. I must say “I am something—I am a man, I am bad, or I am good, or I am an Englishman, I am a soldier, I am a sailor, I am a clergyman.”—and then I shall say what is true of me. But God alone can say “I AM” without saying anything more. And why? Because God alone is. Everybody and everything else in the world becomes: but God is. We are all becoming something from our birth to our death—changing continually and becoming something different from what we were a minute before; first of all we were created and made, and so became men; and since that we have been every moment changing, becoming older, becoming wiser, or alas! foolisher; becoming stronger or weaker; becoming better or worse. Even our bodies are changing and becoming different day by day. But God never changes or becomes anything different from what He is now. What He is, that He was, and ever will be. Many heathen men have known that there was one eternal God, and that God is. But they did not know that God Himself had said so; and that made them anxious, puzzled, almost desperate, so that the wiser they were, the unhappier they were. For what use is it merely knowing that God is? The question for poor human creatures is, “But what sort of a being is God?’ Is He far off? Does He care nothing about us? Does He let the world go its own way, right or wrong? Is He proud and careless? A Self-glorifying Deity whose mercy is not over all His works, or even over any of them? And the glory of the Bible, the power of God revealed in the Bible, is, that it answers the question, and says, “God does care for men, God does see men, God is not far off from any one of us. Ay, God speaks to men—God spoke to Moses and said, not “God is,” but “I AM.” God in sundry times and divers manners spoke to our fathers by the prophets and said, “I AM.” But more—Moses said, “I AM hath sent me.” God does not merely love us, and yet leave us to ourselves. He sends after us. He sends to us. But again: “I AM hath sent me unto you.” Unto whom? Who was Moses sent to? To the Children of Israel in Egypt. And what sort of people were they? Were they wise and learned? On the contrary, they were stupid, ignorant, and brutish. Were they pious and godly? On the contrary, they were worshipping the foolish idols of the Egyptians—so fond of idolatry that they must needs make a golden calf and worship it. Then why did God take such trouble for them? Why did God care for them, and help them, and work wonders for them? Why? Exactly because they were so bad. Just because they were so bad, His goodness yearned over them all the more, and longed to make them good. Just because they were so unclean and brutish, His holiness longed all the more to cleanse them. Because they were so stupid and ignorant, His wisdom longed to make them wise. Because they were so miserable, His pity yearned over them, as a father over a child fallen into danger. Because they were sick, they had all the more need of a physician. Because they were lost, there was all the more reason for seeking and saving them. Because they were utterly weak, God desired all the more to put His strength into them, that His strength might be made perfect in weakness. (C. Kingsley, M.A.) God’s memorial name:— I. In this memorial name of God WE ARE TAUGHT HIS LOFTY EXISTENCE. “I AM that I AM “is a name synonymous in meaning with Jehovah. This name includes within its vast extent of signification all past, present and future existence and duration.
Self-existence is a Divine attribute.
Eternity necessarily follows from His self-existence.
His proprietorship springs from the fact of His existence. II. THE REVELATION OF THIS MEMORIAL NAME TO MOSES HAD PURPOSE, It was a crisis in the history of Moses, and also of that of Israel in Egypt.
One purpose it served was to strengthen Moses in executing his work.
Another purpose was to check idolatrous practices.
It taught Moses the safety of the people.
The revelation of this name in connection with the people’s ancestry shows that they were the heirs of immortality.
The revelation of this name indicated victory. (J. H. Hill.) The greatness and glory of God:— The creature is nothing in comparison with God; all the glory, perfection, and excellency of the whole world do not amount to the value of a unit in regard of God’s attributes; join ever so many of them together, they cannot make one in number; they are nothing in His regard, and less than nothing. All created beings must utterly vanish out of sight when we think of God. As the sun does not annihilate the stars, and make them nothing, yet it annihilates their appearances to our sight; some are of the first magnitude, some of the second, some of the third, but in the daytime all are alike, all are darkened by the sun’s glory: so it is here, there are degrees of perfection and excellency, if we compare one creature with another, but let once the glorious brightness of God shine upon the soul, and in that light all their differences are unobserved. Angels, men, worms, they are all nothing, less than nothing, to be set up against God. This magnificent title “I AM,” darkens all, as if nothing elsewhere. (T. Manton, D.D.)
Exell, J. S. (n.d.). The Biblical Illustrator: Exodus (pp. 79–83). Anson D. F. Randolph & Company.
Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.Matthew 11:28
We who are saved find rest in Jesus. Those who are not saved will receive rest if they come to Him, for here He promises to “give” it. Nothing can be freer than a gift; let us gladly accept what He gladly gives. You are not to buy it, nor to borrow it, but to receive it as a gift. You labor under the lash of ambition, covetousness, lust, or anxiety: He will set you free from this iron bondage and give you rest. You are “laden,” yes, “heavy laden” with sin, fear, care, remorse, fear of death; but if you come to Him He will unload you. He carried the crushing mass of our sin that we might no longer carry it. He made Himself the great Burden-bearer, that every laden one might cease from bowing down under the enormous pressure.
Jesus gives rest. It is so. Will you believe it? Will you put it to the test? Will you do so at once? Come to Jesus by quitting every other hope, by thinking of Him, believing God’s testimony about Him, and trusting everything with Him. If you thus come to Him the rest which He will give you will be deep, safe, holy, and everlasting. He gives a rest which develops into heaven, and He gives it this day to all who come to Him.
O God, early in the morning I cry to you. Help me to pray And to concentrate my thoughts on you: I cannot do this alone. In me there is darkness, But with you there is light; I am lonely, but you do not leave me; I am feeble in heart, but with you there is help; I am restless, but with you there is peace. In me there is bitterness, but with you there is patience; I do not understand your ways, But you know the way for me… Restore me to liberty, And enable me to live now That I may answer before you and before me. Lord, whatever this day may bring, Your name be praised. Amen
Be kind to Your little children, Lord; that is what we ask of You as their Tutor, You the Father, Israel’s guide; Son, yes, but Father as well. Grant that by doing what You told us to do, we may achieve a faithful likeness to the Image and, as far as is possible for us, may find in You a good God and a lenient Judge.
May we all live in the peace that comes from You. May we journey towards Your city, sailing through the waters of sin untouched by the waves, borne tranquilly along by the Holy Spirit, Your Wisdom beyond all telling. Night and day until the last day of all, may our praises give You thanks, our thanksgiving praise You: You who alone are both Father and Son, Son and Father, the Son who is our Tutor and our Teacher, together with the Holy Spirit. Amen
O Lord, who has mercy upon all, take away from me my sins, and mercifully kindle in me the fire of Your Holy Spirit. Take away from me the heart of stone, and give me a heart of flesh, a heart to love and adore You, a heart to delight in You, to follow and to enjoy You, for Christ’s sake. Amen
May the Lord walk beside you to comfort you. May the Lord walk above you to watch over you. May the Lord walk behind you to keep you safe. May the Lord walk before you to show you the way. Amen
The Already and the Not Yet – Pastor Patrick Hines Sermon (Hebrews 2:5-9)
[Hebrews 2:5-11 NASB20] 5 For He did not subject to angels the world to come, about which we are speaking. 6 But someone has testified somewhere, saying, “WHAT IS MAN, THAT YOU THINK OF HIM? OR A SON OF MAN, THAT YOU ARE CONCERNED ABOUT HIM? 7 “YOU HAVE MADE HIM FOR A LITTLE WHILE LOWER THAN ANGELS; YOU HAVE CROWNED HIM WITH GLORY AND HONOR; 8 YOU HAVE PUT EVERYTHING IN SUBJECTION UNDER HIS FEET.” For in subjecting all things to him, He left nothing that is not subject to him. But now we do not yet see all things subjected to him. 9 But we do see Him who was made for a little while lower than the angels, [namely,] Jesus, because of His suffering death crowned with glory and honor, so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone. 10 For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to perfect the originator of their salvation through sufferings. 11 For both He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one [Father;] for this reason He is not ashamed to call them brothers [and sisters,]
THE MANIFESTATION OF SUPERNATURAL KNOWLEDGE AND CONTROL
After this, Jesus, knowing that all things had already been accomplished, to fulfill the Scripture, said, “I am thirsty.” A jar full of sour wine was standing there; so they put a sponge full of the sour wine upon a branch of hyssop and brought it up to His mouth. Therefore when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit. (19:28–30)
After tenderly establishing His mother’s care, Jesus, knowing that all things had already been accomplished, to fulfill the Scripture, said, “I am thirsty.” In His omniscience, Jesus knew there was only one remaining prophecy to be fulfilled. In Psalm 69:21 David wrote, “They also gave me gall for my food and for my thirst they gave me vinegar (the Septuagint uses the same Greek word translated sour wine in v. 29) to drink.” Jesus knew that by saying “I am thirsty” He would prompt the soldiers to give Him a drink. They, of course, did not consciously do so to fulfill prophecy, still less to show compassion. Their goal was to increase the Lord’s torment by prolonging His life. From a jar full of sour wine that was standing nearby, one of the bystanders (probably one of the soldiers; or at least someone acting with their approval) put a sponge full of the sour wine upon a branch of hyssop (cf. Ex. 12:22) and brought it up to His mouth. This was the cheap, sour wine that the soldiers commonly consumed. It was not the same beverage that the Lord had earlier refused (Matt. 27:34). That beverage, which contained gall, was intended to help deaden His pain so He would not struggle as much while being nailed to His cross. Jesus had refused it, because He wanted to drink the cup of the Father’s wrath against sin in the fullest way His senses could experience it. Having received the sour wine, Jesus said, “It is finished!” (Gk. tetelestai). Actually, the Lord shouted those words with a loud cry (Matt. 27:50; Mark 15:37). It was a shout of triumph; the proclamation of a victor. The work of redemption that the Father had given Him was accomplished: sin was atoned for (Heb. 9:12; 10:12;), and Satan was defeated and rendered powerless (Heb. 2:14; cf. 1 Peter 1:18–20; 1 John 3:8). Every requirement of God’s righteous law had been satisfied; God’s holy wrath against sin had been appeased (Rom. 3:25; Heb. 2:17; 1 John 2:2; 4:10); every prophecy had been fulfilled. Christ’s completion of the work of redemption means that nothing needs to be nor can be added to it. Salvation is not a joint effort of God and man, but is entirely a work of God’s grace, appropriated solely by faith (Eph. 2:8–9). His mission accomplished, the time had come for Christ to surrender His life. Therefore, after “crying out with a loud voice … ‘Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit” (Luke 23:46), He bowed His head and gave up His spirit. Jesus voluntarily chose to surrender His life by a conscious act of His own sovereign will. “No one has taken it away from Me,” He declared, “but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father” (10:18). That He still had the strength to shout loudly shows that He was not physically at the point of death. That He died sooner than was normal for someone who had been crucified (Mark 15:43–45) also shows that He gave up His life of His own will. No human words, no matter how eloquent, can adequately express the meaning of Christ’s death. But the words of the familiar hymn “At Calvary” express the gratitude every believer feels:
Years I spent in vanity and pride,
Caring not my Lord was crucified,
Knowing not it was for me He died
On Calvary.
Mercy there was great, and grace was free;
Pardon there was multiplied to me;
There my burdened soul found liberty,
At Calvary.
By God’s Word at last my sin I learned,
Then I trembled at the law I’d spurned,
Till my guilty soul imploring turned
To Calvary.
Now I’ve giv’n to Jesus ev’rything;
Now I gladly own Him as my King;
Now my raptured soul can only sing
Of Calvary.
O, the love that drew salvation’s plan!
O, the grace that brought it down to man!
O, the mighty gulf that God did span
At Calvary!
MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (2008). John 12–21 (pp. 356–357). Moody Publishers.
No Death like Jesus’ Death
John 19:30
When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
If Christ is Christianity and if the final week of Christ’s life is its center, then the center of that week is certainly the moment of Christ’s death on Calvary. That moment is therefore the focal point of all history, and the words “It is finished” are an important expression of it. The importance of those words, the sixth in the series of seven spoken from the cross, is that they point to Christ’s death as an achievement. Elsewhere in the Gospels we are told that Jesus uttered a loud cry just before his death (Matt. 27:50; Mark 15:37; Luke 23:46); since two of the Gospels also tell us that Jesus had been given a drink just before this, it would seem that this was Christ’s cry. In other words, Christ’s words were not the final gasping sob of a defeated man or even the firm deliberate declaration of one who was resigned to his fate. They were a triumphant declaration that the turning point in history had been reached and that the work that Jesus had been sent into the world to do had been done. It is this that makes Christ’s death unique. As an example of patient endurance of abuse and suffering, it may perhaps be matched by other deaths. As a fitting end for One who, like the prophets, bore a faithful witness to God’s truth even when that truth was rejected, it may perhaps be paralleled. But Christ’s death cannot be matched in its fullest sense, because Jesus (and no other) achieved our salvation by his suffering. The apostle Paul speaks of it, saying, “But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons” (Gal. 4:4–5). Again he writes, “But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished—he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus” (Rom. 3:21–26). Because Christ’s atonement is so important, we need to consider it at some length. In this and the following studies we will look at the nature, necessity, perfection, and extent of the atonement.
Christ’s Death a Sacrifice
When we consider the nature of the atonement we immediately find ourselves in the midst of a world of biblical ideas and imagery without which its nature cannot really be understood. Central to this world of ideas and imagery is the notion of sacrifice and the accompanying thought of substitution. Sacrifice has to do with the death of an innocent victim, usually an animal. Substitution means that this death was in place of the death of someone else. The background of this concept lies in the truth that all who have ever lived are sinners, having broken God’s law, and that the penalty for sin is death. The Bible declares, “There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one” (Rom. 3:10–12). Moreover the Bible declares that the penalty for sin is death. It says, “The soul that sins will die” (Ezek. 18:4). This death is not merely physical death, though it is that. It is spiritual death as well. Death is separation. Physical death is the separation of the soul and spirit from the body. Spiritual death is the separation of the soul and the spirit from God. This is what we deserve as a consequence of our sin. But Jesus took that death to himself by his sacrifice. He became our substitute by experiencing both physical and spiritual death in our place. There is a very vivid illustration of this principle in the early chapters of Genesis. In these chapters Adam and Eve had sinned and were now in terror of the consequences. God had warned them. He had said, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of food and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die” (Gen. 2:16–17). At this point they probably did not have a very clear idea of what death was, but they knew it was serious. Consequently, when they had sinned through disobedience and then later had heard God walking toward them in the garden, they tried to hide. They could not hide from God. No one can. So we are told that God called them out of hiding and began to deal with their transgression. What should we expect to happen as a result of this confrontation? Here is God who has told our first parents that in the day they sinned they would die. Here also are Adam and Eve who have sinned. In this situation we should expect the immediate execution of the sentence. They had sinned. So if God had put them to death in that moment, both physically and spiritually, banishing them from his presence forever, it would have been just. But that is not what we find. Instead, we have God first rebuking the sin and then, wonder of wonders, performing a sacrifice as a result of which Adam and Eve were clothed with the skins of those animals. This was the first death that anyone had ever witnessed. It was enacted by God. As Adam and Eve looked on they must have been horrfied. “So this is death,” they must have said. “How horrible!” Yet even as they recoiled from the sacrifice, they must have marveled as well, for what God was showing was that although they themselves deserved to die it was possible for another, in this case two animals, to die in their place. The animals paid the price of their sin. Moreover, they were now clothed in the skins of the animals as a reminder of that fact. This is the meaning of sacrifice: substitution. It is the death of one on behalf of another. And yet we must say, as the Bible teaches, that the death of animals could never take away the penalty of sin (Heb. 10:4). These were a symbol of how sin was to be taken away, but they were only a symbol. The real and effective sacrifice was performed by Jesus Christ. We sometimes read in theological literature that the ideas of sacrifice and substitution are alien to our culture and therefore that we cannot use these terms to speak of the meaning of Christ’s death anymore, at least if we want to be understood. But we must not think that it was any easier for those who lived in earlier stages of the world’s history to understand them. These concepts have always been difficult; that is why God took so much time and such elaborate means to teach them.
Stilling God’s Wrath
A second word for understanding the meaning of Christ’s death is propitiation (Rom. 3:25). Propitiation also relates to the world of sacrifices. But unlike substitution, which refers primarily to what Jesus did in reference to us (he died in our place), propitiation describes that death in terms of its bearing upon God. The background for this term is the wrath of God which is directed against all sin. Propitiation refers to the work of the Lord Jesus Christ in which the justified wrath of God against the sinner was stilled or turned aside and the love of God was enabled to go out to save him. An Old Testament illustration is helpful. It is the ark of the covenant and the sacrifice which involved it. The ark of the covenant was one of the pieces of furniture for Israel’s wilderness tabernacle. It was a chest about a yard long, covered with gold and closed by a solid gold covering known as the mercy seat. The mercy seat had two figures of cherubim standing on either end looking inward. The cherubim had wings which stretched out over the ends of the ark and then came together over the top. The stone tables of the law of Moses were kept within this ark, and the ark itself was kept within the Holy of Holies, the most sacred part of the tabernacle. The most significant thing about the ark of the covenant is that it was thought of symbolically as being the earthly dwelling place of God. God was thought to dwell in the space between the outstretched wings of the cherubim above the mercy seat. And of course, this is why no one but the high priest was ever to enter the Holy of Holies, and even he was to enter only once a year on the Day of Atonement. God was holy, and sinful men and women who came into his presence would be consumed. The picture of that ark is a terrible picture, as it was meant to be. There we see God dwelling between the outstretched wings of the cherubim. There we see the law, which we have broken. As God looks down upon the affairs of men this is what he sees—the broken law. So the picture tells us that God in his holiness must judge sin and that sinners are subject to his judicial wrath. But that is not all, for now the Day of Atonement comes, and on that day the high priest takes the blood of a sacrifice and, bearing it carefully according to all the regulations for this ceremony (for violation of these regulations entailed death), enters the Holy of Holies where it is now sprinkled upon the mercy seat between the presence of God and the law. What is symbolized now? Gloriously, the picture is now no longer of wrath directed against the violators of God’s law but rather a picture of mercy in which the wrath of God against sin is satisfied and the sinner is spared. Now when God looks down from between the wings of the cherubim he sees, not the law we have broken, but the blood of the sacrifice. An innocent has died. He has borne our penalty. Thus, we can live. In discussing sacrifice, I pointed out that the blood of animals could not actually take away sin but that these pointed forward pedagogically to the work of Christ on Calvary. That also applies here. The blood of the sacrifice sprinkled upon the mercy seat by the high priest did not remove sin, but it pointed forward to the One whose death would remove it: Jesus Christ. When he died God’s wrath against sin was literally propitiated, which God himself demonstrated by tearing the veil of the temple, separating the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies, in two from top to bottom. Thus did God show that the way into his presence was now open for all who should believe in Jesus. An interesting sidelight on this meaning of God’s death is the speed with which blood sacrifices disappeared in the ancient world once the gospel of Christ was proclaimed. At the time of Christ’s death sacrifices were performed everywhere—in the Roman and barbarian worlds as well as within Judaism. But, as Adolf Harnack once pointed out in a striking passage, “Wherever the Christian message … penetrated, the sacrificial altars were deserted and dealers in sacrificial beasts found no more purchasers.… The death of Christ put an end to all blood-sacrifices.” Why did this happen? Harnack explains, “His death [Christ’s] had the value of an expiatory sacrifice, for otherwise it would not have had strength to penetrate into that inner world in which the blood-sacrifices originated.” Sacrifices ceased because the death of Christ alone met the need they were supposed to satisfy.
Reconciliation
A third word used for describing the effects of Christ’s death is reconciliation. Second Corinthians 5:18–19 provides us with a key passage: “All this if from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.” Reconciliation means “to make one,” so the background for this term is the broken relationship between ourselves and God because of sin. We have already seen one example of this in Genesis, for when Adam and Eve sinned and God came to them in the Garden, our first parents hid from God. This had not been the case before their disobedience. Before there had been openness. They had talked with God joyously. Now the relationship that they had enjoyed was broken, and they showed their deep psychological awareness of this by hiding. In a sense men and women have been hiding ever since. We hide through a self-imposed ignorance of spiritual things, through our supposed sophistication or culture, or even (strange as it may seem) through religion—for many religious experiences are attempts to get away from God rather than attempts to find him. But God comes to us; that is the glory of the gospel. Moreover, when he comes he does what is necessary to heal the broken relationship and bridge the gap. In Eden it was the inauguration of sacrifices. On Calvary it was the ultimate bridge to which the earlier sacrifices pointed. Paul writes, “For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Tim. 2:5). He means that it is on the basis of Christ’s death that the reconciliation takes place.
Bought with a Price
The final word of those most significant for describing the death of Christ is “redemption.” “Redemption” is derived from two Latin words: re, meaning “again,” and emere, meaning “to buy.” So redemption means “buying again” or “buying back,” as in redeeming something that has been pawned or mortgaged. We use the word of material things. The Bible uses the word to signify that we are God’s, but have nevertheless fallen into bondage as a result of our sin and now must be purchased out of that bondage by Christ’s sacrifice. Our bondage is to sin’s penalty and power. Christ’s death frees us from both. On this subject John Murray writes, “Just as sacrifice is directed to the need created by our guilt, propitiation to the need that arises from the wrath of God, and reconciliation to the need arising from our alienation from God, so redemption is directed to the bondage to which our sin has consigned us. This bondage is, of course, multiform. Consequently redemption as purchase or ransom receives a wide variety of reference and application. Redemption applies to every respect in which we are bound, and it releases us unto a liberty that is nothing less than the liberty of the glory of the children of God.” Paul speaks of that redemption in Romans: “justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus” (Rom. 3:24). Peter speaks of it in even more explicit terms: “For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect” (1 Peter 1:18–19). “It is finished,” Christ’s declaration from the cross, is particularly appropriate for understanding his death as redemption; for one of the meanings of the Greek word tetelestai, which underlies it, is “Paid in full!” The word was used in this way in secular business transactions. Here we come back to the point with which we began. What makes the death of Christ so unique and indeed marks it out as the focal point of history is that it accomplished precisely what needed to be accomplished in regard to our salvation. We deserved to die for sin; Christ died for us. We were under the just wrath of God by reason of our transgressions; Christ bore that wrath in our place. We were alienated from God; Christ reconciled us to him. We were sold under sin; Christ bought our freedom by paying sin’s price. From one perspective all this is spiritual. It has to do both with moral matters and with spiritual relationships. But from another point of view, this is as concrete and historical as the birth of Julius Caesar or the death of Socrates.
Why Did Jesus Die?
John 19:30
When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
Those who know anything at all about Christianity know that Jesus died to save us from sin, and they know that the source of the decision to save us from sin was God’s love. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). But why was it necessary for the love of God to achieve its end in this way? Why Jesus? And why the cross? This was the question raised by Anselm of Canterbury in his famous essay Cur Deus Homo? (“Why God Became Man”), in which he asked, “For what reason or necessity did God become man and, as we believe and confess, by his death restore life to the world, when he could have done this through another person (angelic or human), or even by a sheer act of will?” Was the cross necessary, or could God have saved the human race through another person or even by a sheer act of will? One writer puts it like this: “If we say that he could not, do we not impugn his power? If we say that he could but would not, do we not impugn his wisdom? Such questions are not scholastic subtleties or vain curiosities. To evade them is to miss something that is central in the interpretation of the redeeming work of Christ and to miss the vision of some of its essential glory. Why did God become man? Why, having become man, did he die? Why, having died, did he die the accursed death of the cross?”
Two Necessities
In the history of Christian doctrine there have traditionally been two ways in which the necessity of the death of Jesus has been spoken of. One is what we might call circumstantial necessity. The other is absolute necessity. Let me explain. The view that we call circumstantial necessity maintains that God, being free and infinite, always has an infinite number of possibilities open to him. Consequently, although he chose to save men and women by the death of Christ, he did not need to do so and could actually have saved them in an infinite number of other ways. If we ask at that point how we can then speak of a “necessity” in the atonement at all, the answer is that because of the circumstances under which God operated, this was the way (chosen out of many ways) that the greatest number of advantages would occur, including the greatest possible glory being given to God. God could have saved us without Christ’s having died. But he could not have done so and yet have showed the greatest measure of wisdom and love in the circumstances. When we read that “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness” of sins (Heb. 9:22), that is indeed true. But it is true only because God has chosen to do things that way. He could have saved us without blood shedding. The other way to talk about the necessity of Jesus’ death is to see it as an absolute necessity. This means literally that, having elected to save some of Adam’s fallen race, God had no other means at his disposal than the sacrifice of his beloved Son. This does not mean that God had to send Jesus. He could have elected not to save anyone. But having elected to save them, he was under the necessity of accomplishing this by the death of his Son, a necessity arising out of the perfections of his own nature. At first glance it might be thought presumptuous for us to speak thus of something being absolutely necessary for God. “After all,” someone might object, “who are we to tell God what he can or must do?” But this is not the way in which this statement is made. Obviously we cannot tell God to be or do anything. Yet he has revealed something of his nature in Scripture, and it is not impudent or improper to inquire on the basis of that revelation whether God can or cannot do a thing, particularly when it is as central to the Christian faith as the atonement. For example, is it possible for God to lie or speak falsehood? If we answer no, as we should, we are not limiting God by telling what he can or cannot do. We are simply acknowledging that deceit is impossible for one who is characterized by utter truth, as God declares himself to be. Far from dishonoring him in this, we actually honor him. Moreover, we are led to a valuable conclusion; for, on the basis of God’s inability to lie, we perceive that he can always be trusted. It is not improper or even impractical to conclude that God was under an absolute necessity in the matter of Christ’s death. He may not have been. But the answer to whether he was or not is to be determined solely by the teaching of the Scripture and not by any prior conclusions as to what is required by our understanding of God’s freedom.
The Divine Necessities
When we turn to the Bible we find a number of necessities pertaining to God which bear upon our subject. They are like the necessity for God to speak truth, being Truth, but they relate primarily to the matter of salvation. The first of these necessities is the hatred of God for sin, which we may express by saying that God must hate sin if he is to be as he declares himself to be in Scripture. The background for this necessity is the holiness of God. In Scripture God is more often called holy than anything else. This is the epithet most often affixed to his name, for instance. We do not often read of his “loving name,” “mighty name,” or “eternal name.” But we are often reminded of his “holy name.” Moreover, this is the attribute of God which is invariably mentioned in any vision men have of him. Isaiah, in his great vision of the Lord “high and lifted up,” stressed the holiness of God more than any other attribute. “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty,” cry the seraphim. Isaiah’s immediate reaction was to bemoan his own sinful condition: “Woe is me! I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty” (Isa. 6:5; cf. vv. 1–6). The holiness of God lies at the core of his being, then, and the dismay of Isaiah was the recognition that in his holiness God cannot be indifferent to anything which opposes it. Holiness involves the elements of majesty and will. When we ask, “What is that will primarily set on?” the answer is: God’s majesty. Thus, God’s will is inevitably directed against anything which would attempt to diminish that majesty or flaunt it. That is what sin tries to do. So God is against sin; he is wrath toward it. Many people today do not like the idea of wrath. But like it or not, Scripture teaches that it is a necessary aspect of God’s nature in relation to sin. The Old Testament alone has nearly six hundred important passages concerning God’s wrath. His wrath is directed against injustice, corruption, and offenses against his own glory and majesty. The New Testament has equally important passages. Romans 1, for example, speaks of God’s wrath revealed “against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness” (v. 18). Other passages speak boldly of “the wrath to come” (1 Thess. 1:10; 2:16; cf. 5:9; Rom. 2:5). The teaching of these passages is that God will not and cannot look with indifference upon the unrighteous. A second necessity of the divine nature relating to the matter of salvation is the obligation of God to do right. This obligation is based upon God’s role as ruler and judge of creation. “Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?” asked Abraham rhetorically on the occasion of God’s revelation to him of the pending judgment of Sodom (Gen. 18:25). The answer was obvious: the Sovereign must do right. In fact, Abraham used this necessity to plead for the salvation of Sodom. God had told Abraham that he would destroy Sodom, and Abraham remonstrated, “Will you destroy the righteous with the wicked? Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city: will you also destroy and not spare the place for the fifty righteous that are in it? Far be it from you to do this, to slay the righteous with the wicked. Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?” Here are two divine necessities pertaining to salvation: first, that God must hate sin, and second, that the Judge of the earth must do right. What is right where sin is concerned? The answer is judgment, as the destruction of Sodom indicates. True, we do not see the fullness of that judgment now, for God has largely withheld his judgment. Yet it must come. It must come later if not sooner; and when it comes, it must result in the eternal destruction of the sinner.
The Divine Solution
We know from the biblical record that God elected not to destroy every sinner. Out of his great love he decided to elect a great company to salvation. But the question arises: How can he do this without violating these two necessities of his very nature? How can he save those who actually deserve his just judgment? There is only one way: another must suffer the judgment in place of those who stand condemned. We hear that answer, and we are momentarily relieved. But then we ask, “Who?” and despair settles on us once again. Who is equal to such a task? Who is willing to do it? The answer is: God’s own Son; the only One both able and willing to become man and to die for sinners. Anselm, whom we mentioned earlier, put it like this: First, he said, salvation had to be achieved by God, for no one else could achieve it. Certainly men and women could not achieve it, for we are the ones who have gotten ourselves into trouble in the first place. We have done so by our rebellion against God’s just law and decrees. Moreover, we have suffered from the effects of sin to such a degree that even our will is bound, and therefore we cannot even choose to please God, let alone actually please him. Our only hope is God, who alone has both the will and power to save. Second, said Anselm, apparently contradicting this first point, salvation must also be achieved by man, for man is the one who has wronged God and must therefore make the wrong right. Given this situation, salvation can be achieved only by one who is both God and man, that is, Jesus. Anselm put the argument in these words: “It would not have been right for the restoration of human nature to be left undone, and … it could not have been done unless man paid what was owing to God for sin. But the debt was so great that, while man alone owed it, only God could pay it, so that the same person must be both man and God. Thus it was necessary for God to take manhood into the unity of his person, so that he who in his own nature ought to pay and could not should be in a person who could.… The life of this man was so sublime, so precious, that it can suffice to pay what is owing for the sins of the whole world, and infinitely more.” Only thus was it possible for God to be both “just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus” (Rom. 3:26). This is the ultimate necessity indicated in those well-known verses in John’s Gospel. “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him” (3:14–17). These verses say that apart from the death of Christ and faith in him, the race is lost. Given the desire of God to save us, there was just no other option.
Curse of the Cross
Yet there is still one matter. At the start of this chapter we asked, “Why was it necessary for the love of God to achieve its end in this way? Why Jesus? And why the cross?” Thus far we have answered the first half of that question; we have seen why it was necessary for the price of our salvation to be paid by Jesus. But we still have not answered why that sacrifice had to be made on Calvary. Why this death? Why this particularly horrible form of suffering? The answer to that question is given in the Book of Galatians, in which Paul says, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us; for it is written: ‘Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree’ ” (Gal. 3:13). What does this mean? Well, it is the Bible’s answer to an objection to God’s way of salvation that we might still make even after we have understood the nature and necessity of the atonement. We might understand that Jesus was the innocent Son of God and that he was therefore the only One who could take our place on Calvary, the just for the unjust. We might understand that God judged him in our place. “But that is still not right,” we might argue. “Even if Jesus died willingly, it was still not right for God to punish one who was innocent of all wrongdoing.” At this point Paul’s answer comes in, for he points out that in the Old Testament there is a verse (Deut. 21:23) that pronounces a curse on anyone hanged on a tree as a means of execution. This may not have meant much to those who lived in that day, but it was part of the law of Israel. Thus, when the Lord Jesus Christ was taken and hanged on a tree, he thereby became a technical violator of the whole law (though through no fault of his own) and could be justly punished. In this way God remained just in his execution of Christ, and Christ remained innocent.
God’s Love Commended
The conclusion to this study is that the achievement of our salvation at such cost flows from the love of God and that the love of God is thereby commended to us so that we might believe on Jesus. To save us it was necessary to pay this cost. Yet God did not hesitate to provide the sacrifice of his Son, so great was his love for us. Can we despise that love? Can we ignore it? The Bible says, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8). This, of course, is the bottom line of the entire discussion, and it is this that makes it meaningful. Our discussion of the necessity of the atonement has involved us in some careful theological distinctions, and some of this is admittedly difficult for some people, for not all are theologians. Yet the bottom line is not difficult at all. Let me put it like this. The week before I first preached this material in my regular exposition of John on Sunday mornings at Tenth Presbyterian Church, I was discussing these themes at the dinner table to see how the people who were there would react to them. They did very well. But at the end a ten-year-old friend of one of my daughters asked, “What is the main point of your sermon?” It was a question her parents had been teaching her to ask so she could follow the messages better, and (I think) she wanted to get a head start. I replied that the answer was a simple one; for although the theology is difficult, the point itself is not. It is simply this:
There was no other good enough
To pay the price of sin;
He only could unlock the gate
Of heav’n and let us in.
O dearly, dearly has He loved!
And we must love Him too,
And trust in His redeeming blood,
And try His works to do.
Christ has loved us so much that he did not hold back from doing what needed to be done. Because of this we, on our part, should serve him without reservation.
“It Is Finished”
John 19:30
When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
One of the goals of Greek oratory, to which the Greek language generally lends itself, is to say much in few words—“to give a sea of matter in a drop of language.” That goal is reached in the sixth of Christ’s sayings from the cross: “It is finished!” In English this is only three words, in Greek just one. Yet this word sums up the greatest work that has ever been done. Spurgeon said, “It would need all the other words that ever were spoken, or ever can be spoken, to explain this one word. It is altogether immeasurable. It is high; I cannot attain to it. It is deep; I cannot fathom it.” We have been trying to study it, however, and to that end we have looked at, first, the nature and, second, the necessity of the atonement. In this chapter we deal with its perfection, the aspect of Christ’s death that is perhaps more directly suggested by this word than any other. Pink writes, “This was not the despairing cry of a helpless martyr; it was not an expression of satisfaction that the termination of his sufferings was now reached; it was not the last gasp of a worn-out life. No, rather was it the declaration on the part of the Divine Redeemer that all for which he came from heaven to earth to do, was now done; that all that was needed to reveal the full character of God had now been accomplished; that all that was required by the law before sinners could be saved had now been performed; that the full price of our redemption was now paid.” To be sure, as Jesus spoke these words he was not yet dead. But his death was only moments away, and in any case he here speaks anticipatively of the work now done. What did this dying utterance of the Lord mean? What was finished? How does this relate to us and our salvation?
Christ’s Work Done
There are a number of things we can point to as having been finished in the moment of Christ’s death. The first and most obvious one is Christ’s sufferings. These had not taken him by surprise. Long before this the Lord had said, “I have a baptism to undergo, and how distressed I am until it is completed!” (Luke 12:50). Centuries before, Isaiah had written of him, “He is despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief” (Isa. 53:3). Suffering marked Christ’s life. He had thirsted and hungered. He had ministered for three years without even a place to lay his head. He was scorned, accused, beaten, and now subjected to the horror and indignities of the cross. No one ever suffered as Jesus did. Yet now it is finished. No snarling enemies will spit in his face again. No soldiers will ever scourge him again. No priests will mock him. It is finished; he sits on heaven’s throne, waiting until all his enemies are made his footstool. Spurgeon wrote: “Now Judas, come and betray him with a kiss! What, man, dare you not do it? Come, Pilate, and wash your hands in pretended innocency, and say now that you are guiltless of his blood! Come, ye scribes and Pharisees, and accuse him; and oh, ye Jewish mob and Gentile rabble, newly-risen from the grave, shout now, ‘Away with him! Crucify him!’ But see! they flee from him; they cry to the mountains and rocks, ‘Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne!’ Yet that is the face that was more marred than any man’s, the face of him whom they once despised and rejected.”
The head that once was crowned with thorns
Is crowned with glory now;
A royal diadem adorns
The mighty Victor’s brow.
The highest place that heav’n affords
Is his, is his by right,
The King of kings, and Lord of lords,
And heav’n’s eternal Light.
How glad we must be that none can despise him, that the sufferings of which the Savior’s life were once full are finished. The second thing we can point to as finished in the moment of our Lord’s death was his work, that which he had been sent into the world to do. This work centered in the atonement, which we will come to in a moment, but it was more than this. It was also his entire life, undergirded by his utter obedience to the Father and filled with teachings and good works. This work was before him constantly. We are told by the author of Hebrews that on the occasion of his coming into the world he said, “Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me; with burnt offerings and sin offerings you were not pleased. Then I said, ‘Here I am—it is written about me in the scroll—I have come to do your will, O God’ ” (Heb. 10:5–7). In John 4:34 we read, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.” He spoke of the works that God had given him to do (John 5:36) and of the words that God had given him to speak (John 8:26; 14:24). He said, “The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work” (John 14:10). Then, in his great high priestly prayer recorded in John 17, he said, “I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do” (v. 4). Throughout his lifetime Jesus had this work in mind, and he devoted himself to doing it. Now it is done, and he points with satisfaction: “It is finished!” None of us can say that fully of our work, but Jesus said it of his. His work was done perfectly. The third area to which these words apply is the prophecies of his first coming. We cannot say that all the prophecies concerning the Lord are finished, for some pertain to work he is yet to do—at his second coming. But those that refer to his Gospel ministry are finished. In fact, it is in direct connection with one such prophecy that these words were spoken. Psalm 69:21 speaks of vinegar being given to the dying Messiah in his thirst. So Jesus, noticing that this had not been fulfilled, said, “I thirst,” and thus provoked its fulfillment as soldiers rushed to offer him a vinegar-wine solution. Immediately afterward we read, “When he had received the drink, Jesus said, ‘It is finished’ ” (John 19:30). It had been prophesied that the Messiah was to be born of a woman without benefit of a human father (Isa. 7:14; Gal. 4:4). This was completed. It had been foretold that he was to be the seed of Abraham and of the line of David (Gen. 22:18; 2 Sam. 7:12–13), that he should be born in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2), and he was so born. Old Testament writers had spoken of his flight into Egypt and a subsequent return to his own land (Hosea 11:1; cf. Isa. 49:3, 6). It so happened. Christ’s appearance was to be preceded by that of one like Elijah (Mal. 3:1). John the Baptist filled this role. Christ’s miracles were foretold—that “the eyes of the blind” should be opened, “the ears of the deaf” unstopped, “the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing” (Isa. 35:5–6). Jesus performed all these miracles. His triumphal entry into Jerusalem had been foretold (Zech. 9:9). He was to be hated (Ps. 69:4) and rejected by his own people (Isa. 8:14). A friend would betray him (Ps. 41:9). He was to be numbered with the transgressors (Isa. 53:12), pierced through hands and feet (Ps. 22:16). Soldiers were to divide his garments and cast lots for his outer cloak (Ps. 22:18). All this had been completed. There was nothing of all that had been written of him that was left undone. Moreover, this is not just a conclusion based on our own imperfect knowledge of the Old Testament texts. This is the teaching of Scripture itself. Three times in Scripture the very word that is used in John 19:30, translated “it is finished” (teleō), is used of this fulfillment. Luke 18:31—“Jesus took the Twelve aside and told them, ‘We are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written by the prophets about the Son of Man will be fulfilled.’ ” Luke 22:37—“I tell you that this must be fulfilled in me.” Acts 13:29—“When they had carried out all that was written about him, they took him down from the tree and laid him in a tomb. But God raised him from the dead.” Certainly, nothing that was to be fulfilled in the life and ministry of the Messiah was left lacking in Jesus.
A Perfect Atonement
Having said all this, we must nevertheless add that the primary reference of these words is to the atonement. This was the acme of his sufferings, the chief of his works, and the primary focus of the prophecies. Moreover, this has major doctrinal significance; for if the work of the atonement is finished, then salvation is secured for us by God and there is nothing that we can add or hope to add to it. Indeed, we dare not attempt to add anything if we would be saved. This is the point of the atonement that has always figured prominently in Protestant presentations of the meaning of the death of Christ, as over against Roman Catholic theology. The Roman church (and many unsound protestant churches too, for that matter) maintains that the death of Christ does not relieve the believer in Christ of making satisfaction for sins he has committed. More precisely, it distinguishes between sins committed before and after baptism, and between temporal and eternal punishment for those sins. So far as sins committed before baptism are concerned, both the temporal and eternal punishment are blotted out through the application of the benefits of Christ’s death to the individual through the baptismal rite. So far as sins committed after baptism are concerned, the eternal punishments are blotted out. But the temporal punishments require the making of satisfaction by the individual himself either in this life (through a faithful use of the sacraments and by a meritorious life) or else in purgatory. While this system of salvation allows the greater part of the work to be God’s and even acknowledges that the faithfulness and merit of the believer are attained only through the prevenient grace of God, it nevertheless requires the individual to contribute to his own salvation in some measure. So it is not possible to say that the work of Christ is finished. More is needed. This outlook is evident in the Mass, in which the sacrifice of Christ is reenacted constantly. Thus, Protestant thought has always contended rightly that “the satisfaction of Christ is the only satisfaction for sin and is so perfect and final that it leaves no penal liability for any sin of the believer.” True, the believer often experiences chastisement for sins done in this life (though never in full measure to what he has deserved). But this is not satisfaction. It is discipline only; it is given to help us grow. Even in times of severe chastisement it is still true that “there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:1). This is the burden of the Book of Hebrews, to give just one other biblical example. For, having demonstrated the uniqueness of Christ’s person, office, and mission, the author of that book states, “But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God. Since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool, because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy” (Heb. 10:12–14). What can be clearer than that? What can be greater? “From whatever angle we look upon his sacrifice we find its uniqueness to be as inviolable as the uniqueness of his person, of his mission, and of his office. Who is God-man but he alone? Who is great high priest to offer such sacrifice but he alone? Who shed such vicarious blood but he alone? Who entered in once for all into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption, but he alone?” In light of those qualities and achievement it is arrogant to think that we can add anything.
Jesus paid it all,
All to him I owe;
Sin had left a crimson stain;
He washed it white as snow.
“But then, what is left for us to do?” someone asks. Nothing but to believe in God’s Word and trust Jesus! Jesus himself said it. When some of the Galileans asked him on the occasion of his multiplication of the loaves and fish, “What must we do to do works of God?” Jesus replied, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent” (John 6:28–29). Pink tells a story that may be helpful in this regard. A Christian farmer, deeply concerned over an unsaved neighbor, who was a carpenter, was trying to explain the gospel, especially the sufficiency of the finished work of Christ. But the carpenter persisted in believing that he had to do something himself. One day the farmer asked his friend to make a gate for him, and when it was finished he came for it and carried it away in his wagon. He hung it on a fence in his field and then arranged for the carpenter to stop by and see that it was hung properly. The carpenter came. But when he arrived he was surprised to see the farmer standing by with a sharp axe in his hand. “What is that for?” he asked. “I’m going to add a few strokes to your work,” was the answer. “But there’s no need to do that,” the carpenter protested. “The gate is perfect as it is. I did everything that was necessary.” The farmer took his axe and began to strike the gate anyway, keeping at it until in a short while it was ruined. “Look what you’ve done,” cried the carpenter. “You’ve ruined my work!” “Yes,” said his friend. “And that is exactly what you are trying to do. You are trying to ruin the work of Christ by your own miserable additions to it.” God used this lesson to show the carpenter his mistake, and he was led to cast himself upon what Christ had done for him.
What Work for Jesus?
Yet I must not leave the impression that, having believed on Christ, there is then nothing for the Christian to do or that his conduct after he has become a believer in Christ does not matter. Let us say clearly that nothing we have done or ever will do can enter into the satisfaction that Christ made on the cross. His work is perfect; the atonement is done. But what do we say in that case? Do we say, “Well, if Christ has finished it, I will fold my hands and do nothing”? Not at all! Rather do we say, “If Jesus has finished such a great work for me, tell me quickly what work I can do for him.” Do we need a biblical example? We find one in Saul of Tarsus. When he was struck down on the road to Damascus, his first question concerned the identity of the One who was revealing himself to him. He asked, “Who are you, Lord?” But as soon as he had learned the answer—“I am Jesus, whom you persecute”—and had believed on the One who spoke, Paul’s next question was: “Lord, what do you want me to do?” (Acts 9:5–6). Christ had a work for him to do. He was to be an apostle to bear the name of Christ “before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel” (v. 15). This will not necessarily be your task. You are not an apostle, nor am I. But we each have a work to do. If we have been put in this world by Jesus and have not yet been taken home to be with him, we may be certain that we have not yet finished that work. So get on with it. Did he finish his work? Then you and I must finish our work too. Of course, there are discouragements. Of course, there is suffering and weakness and disappointment. But we must not give in to these. We must keep on until that moment when we, upon our deathbed, can say as did Paul, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing” (2 Tim. 4:7–8). I leave you this challenge from the pen of Spurgeon: “As long as there is breath in our bodies, let us serve Christ; as long as we can think, as long as we can speak, as long as we can work, let us serve him, let us serve him with our last gasp; and, if it be possible, let us try to set some work going that will glorify him when we are dead and gone.”
For Whom Did Christ Die?
John 19:30
When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
For whom did Christ die? Did he die for all human beings, and thus all will be saved (the view of universalism)? Did he die for all, but, for whatever reason, not all will be saved (the view of Arminianism)? Or did he die only for certain individuals, all of whom will be saved (the view of Calvinism)? Each of these views involves problems, so that many people would rather not deal with the question. But we cannot avoid it, at least in this series of studies. It is an area of the atonement with which theology has always dealt. Besides, it is suggested by our text and by the gospel. Our text contains Christ’s sixth cry from the cross, “It is finished.” But what was finished? In our last study we answered that it was, above all, the atonement. But what was the atonement? Was it the actual payment of the price for the sins of some or of all people, as the result of which they are saved? Or was it potential atonement only, that is, something that makes it possible for people to be saved but that in itself saves no one? The Gospel of John gives us the most difficult answer, for it (perhaps more than any other Gospel) presents that view of Christ’s work generally known as “limited atonement.” We think of John 10, in which Jesus says, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives his life for the sheep” (v. 11). A few verses later he explicitly excludes certain of his hearers from that number—“You are not my sheep” (v. 26). Similarly, in John 17 the Lord explicitly prays for those “you have given me,” a phrase repeated six times with only slight variations. This phrase does not include everyone because those who have been given to Christ are carefully distinguished from “the world” (vv. 6, 9, 11–18). It would be easier to skip this subject; but as in the matter of the necessity of the atonement, we would do so to our own hurt. Actually the subject is important and profitable; for what is at stake is nothing other than the nature of the atonement itself, as we will see when we study it.
“The World” and “All Men”
But first we must deal with a primary matter. This is the view that the whole discussion is wrongheaded simply because, so it is said, the Bible gives a clear answer to the question. Is it not true, one might ask, that the Bible often uses universal terms when speaking of Jesus’ death? Take Isaiah 53:6. It says, “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” Does this not say that all have sinned and that it is for these, all of them, that Christ died? Again, there is Hebrews 2:9, “But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.” Or perhaps 1 John 2:2, which seems even more unmistakable. “He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.” Do these verses not teach unambiguously that Jesus died for everyone? Not necessarily. The reason this is not necessarily the case is that the Bible habitually uses these terms in less than an inclusivistic sense. For instance, the word “world” is sometimes used of the whole fabric of heaven and earth (Job 34:13). Sometimes it refers only to the earth (Ps. 24:1; 98:7), or only to the heavens (Ps. 90:2). There are texts in which it does mean every single human being (Rom. 3:6, 19). But again, it sometimes refers only to one large group (Matt. 18:7; John 4:42; 1 Cor. 4:9; Rev. 13:3). This last is probably the dominant meaning, just as it is in our use of the same word in English. To give an example, when the Pharisees say among themselves, “Look how the world has gone after him” (John 12:19), meaning Christ, they do not mean every person on earth or even every person in Israel. They only mean a very large group of the citizens of Jerusalem. If we insist that “world” always means “every human being,” we are going to have trouble explaining how under Caesar Augustus “all the world” went to be taxed. Did everyone go—barbarians, prisoners, slaves, or others outside the Roman sphere of influence? The point we are making is that the use of words like “all men,” “the whole world,” and “us all” does not in itself settle the matter. Rather, the meaning of each phrase must be determined from the context. Thus, in the case of Isaiah 53:6, it can be argued very cogently that the passage is written of God’s people, all of whom certainly have gone astray (which is also true of those who are not God’s people) and have been redeemed (which is not true of those who are not God’s people). Similarly, in Hebrews 2:9, the reference is to the “many sons” who shall be brought to glory, as specified in the very next verse. Believers in particular redemption have usually explained 1 John 2:2 in terms of John’s emphasis in writing. He is trying to show that the propitiation Christ made was not for Jews only, which might be expected, but for Gentiles as well. The point here is not whether this particular interpretation of these verses is the correct one, though I believe it is. The point is only that they may be so interpreted. Consequently, the matter of limited versus unlimited atonement must be resolved on other grounds.
The Central Question
The central question in this entire discussion is not how many verses may be lined up on one side or the other or even whether or not Christ’s death has sufficient value to atone for the sins of the world. The answer to the last question is obvious: Christ’s death has sufficient value to atone not only for a million worlds such as ours but more besides. The question is only: Did Christ’s death actually atone for the sins of anyone? Did it actually propitiate the wrath of God toward any specific group of individuals? Did it actually reconcile any single person to God? Did it redeem anyone? If it did, whom? When the question is asked in this way we can see that there are only three possible answers:
1. Christ’s death was not an actual atonement but rather that which makes atonement possible. It becomes actual when the sinner repents of sin and believes on Jesus.
2. It was an actual atonement for the sins of God’s elect, with the result that these are saved.
3. It was an actual atonement for the sins of all human beings, so that all are saved.
We can dismiss the third possibility immediately, for the Bible clearly teaches that not all human beings are saved and conversely that some specifically are lost. Pharaoh is an example. So is Judas. So is the rich man in Christ’s parable of the rich man and Lazarus. In Revelation we have descriptions of God’s final judgment on such persons. With this possibility eliminated, the choice is between numbers one and two—an actual atonement for the specific sins of the elect and an indefinite atonement for no sins in particular. What, then, is the way in which the Bible speaks of Christ’s sacrifice? The answer has already been given in our earlier studies. We talked of sacrifice and substitution, and the point was that Christ actually became a sacrifice and substitute on the basis of which those who were appointed to salvation were saved. We talked of propitiation, reconciliation, and redemption. Each of these points to a specific aspect of that which Christ accomplished. Christ did not come to make propitiation possible; he came to propitiate God’s wrath against sin. He did not come to make reconciliation possible; he came to make reconciliation. He did not come to make redemption possible; his shed blood was the price of redemption. John Murray poses the issue like this: “The very nature of Christ’s mission and accomplishment is involved in this question. Did Christ come to make the salvation of all men possible, to remove obstacles that stood in the way of salvation, and merely to make provision for salvation? Or did he come to secure the salvation of all those who are ordained to eternal life? Did he come to make men redeemable? Or did he come effectually and infallibly to redeem? The doctrine of the Atonement must be radically revised if, as atonement, it applies to those who finally perish as well as to those who are the heirs of eternal life. In that event we should have to dilute the grand categories in terms of which the Scripture defines the Atonement and deprive them of their most precious import and glory. This we cannot do. The saving efficacy of expiation, propitiation, reconciliation, and redemption is too deeply embedded in these concepts, and we dare not eliminate this efficacy. We do well to ponder the words of our Lord himself: ‘I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that of everything which he hath given to me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up in the last day’ (John 6:38–39). Security inheres in Christ’s redemptive accomplishment. And this means that, in respect of the persons contemplated, design and accomplishment and final realization have all the same extent.” This is called “limited atonement.” But this is not a good designation, for all theologians limit it in one way or another. The Calvinist limits its scope. The Arminian limits its power. The question is rather: How does the Bible portray Christ’s sacrifice? The answer is that it is portrayed as actually accomplishing that for which God ordained it. It is because it was actual that Christ looked upon “the suffering of his soul” and was “satisfied” (Isa. 53:11).
Belief and Unbelief
I can see only one possible way of avoiding this conclusion, and even that is not actually a possibility when it is once examined. It may be argued by someone that the atonement is actual and also for the sins of the whole world but that all are not saved, not because their sins are not atoned for, but because they do not believe in Christ and hence will not accept the gospel. “It is like a gift,” the person might say. “It has been selected and paid for, but no one can be forced to take a gift. The world has been saved, but many persons will not be saved simply because they do not believe in Jesus.” Does that sound reasonable? It does until you ask about the nature of unbelief. Is it merely the morally neutral choice of deciding not to accept salvation? Or is it a sin? The answer is: a sin. In fact, it is the most damning of all sins. And this means simply that if Christ died for all sin and if this includes even the sin of unbelief (as it must if he truly died for all sin), then all are saved whether they respond to the gospel or not. Pharaoh, Judas, Muslims, Hindus, pagans will all be in heaven. John Owen, the greatest of the Puritan theologians, who did for this doctrine what Anselm did for the necessity of the atonement, wrote: “You will say, ‘Because of their unbelief; they will not believe.’ But this unbelief, is it a sin, or not? If not, why should they be punished for it? If it be, then Christ underwent the punishment due to it, or not. If so, then why must that hinder them more than their other sins for which he died from partaking of the fruit of his death? If he did not, then did he not die for all their sins. Let them choose which part they will.” If Jesus died for all the sin of the whole human race, unbelief included, then all are saved, which the Bible denies. If he died for all the sin of the race, unbelief excluded, then he did not die for all the sins of anyone and all must be condemned. The only viable position is that he died for the sin of the elect only. And, of course, this is what the Bible teaches.
Matthew 1:21—“You are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”
Matthew 20:28—“The Son of man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.”
John 13:1—“It was just before the Passover Feast. Jesus knew that the time had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his love.”
Galatians 3:13—“Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.”
Ephesians 5:25—“Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.”
Romans 8:28–32—“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified. What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?”
Repent and Believe the Gospel
Some will argue that if Christ did not take away the sins of all the world, then it is not possible for Christians to offer salvation to all indiscriminately. In fact, it is not possible to offer salvation to anyone, since we do not know whether the person is one for whom Christ died. There are two answers. First, we are to offer salvation to everyone because we are told to do it and because we have ample biblical examples to that effect. We must say as Ezekiel, “As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! Why will you die, O house of Israel?” (Ezek. 33:11). Or as Isaiah, “Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat” (Isa. 55:1). Or as Jesus, “Come to me, all you who are weary and are burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28). This is our great commandment and pattern. The second answer is that, strictly speaking, the gospel is not so much an offer that people may politely accept or refuse according to their own pleasure as it is a command to turn from sin to Jesus. We have gotten into the habit of making the gospel into an offer because this is more socially acceptable in our culture, and God clearly uses our culturally conditioned efforts. But strictly speaking, the gospel is not something lying around for people to take or leave as they choose. They are called to repent. We are to call them. Only after they repent and turn to Christ can we know that they are those for whom Christ died. Spurgeon was a great Calvinist. He believed in limited atonement. But it did not stop him from being one of the most effective evangelists of his age. He did not lie; he did not say, “Because you all are elect, Christ died for you.” It was enough to say, “You are a sinner, and Jesus died for sinners just like you and me. If you would be saved, repent and believe the gospel.” God honors truth. Therefore, we will speak the truth. And what a wonderful truth this is! We proclaim not a mere possibility of salvation, but salvation itself. We preach that Jesus died for his people. He actually died in their place. He propitiated the wrath of God for them. He reconciled them to God. He redeemed them from the terrible bondage of their own guilt and wickedness. He is therefore a sufficient and suitable Savior. If he is your Savior, you will certainly come to him. Will you not come now? Do not say, “But I am not one of the elect.” You do not know that. Just come to Jesus. Jesus has done everything necessary to save sinners. Are you a sinner? Then come to Jesus. He is the Savior. Come!
Boice, J. M. (2005). The Gospel of John: an expositional commentary (pp. 1525–1548). Baker Books.
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Portland’s dystopia delusion coming to a city near all of us The most amazing thing about Portland isn’t actually how far left-wing it is. Everyone has seen episodes or clips from the TV show “Portlandia.” It’s how sure the people there are that everything is fine, that occasionally walking past dead bodies on the sidewalk is a normal American experience. “At a Portland concert last night, I heard a guy give the ‘every city is like that, bro’ to an out-of-town couple who had a rough experience in our city,” she began, adding, “The wife was like, ‘No, I work in downtown Detroit, and it’s not like that.’ I was there this year and agree. It’s much cleaner.”
Leftists And Globalists Have Merged Into The Same Horrific Entity America is thoroughly divided. It has been divided and polarized for many years. Anyone who thinks they can stop it or fix it is fooling themselves. Anyone who thinks that conflict is avoidable is delusional. Anyone who thinks the division is “artificial” or a “false left/right paradigm” is naive. It is very real, tangible and undeniable. Leftists WANT the power to destroy conservatives. They want control and they want to see blood. It’s the thing that subconsciously drives every political decision they make.
Immortal Monkeys? Not Quite, But Scientists Just Reversed Aging With ‘Super’ Stem Cells In a discovery that may have profound impacts on aging, scientists in Beijing have taken a dramatic step toward what once seemed impossible: making old animals biologically young again. The study was published last month in the journal Cell. By fortifying human stem cells with a gene long linked to longevity, they rejuvenated aged monkeys – improving memory, protecting bones, calming inflammation, and restoring youthful activity across dozens of organs.
Drug cartel member admits Trump’s border crackdown is working An alleged senior leader of the Sinaloa Cartel recently admitted that President Donald Trump’s border policies and operations targeting drug cartels have made cartel operations more difficult. A video shared on X, formerly Twitter, shows an alleged senior member of the Sinaloa Cartel engaging in an interview with David Culver, a CNN correspondent. The Sinaloa Cartel member, who admitted to having killed people and engaged in multiple illegal cartel activities, can be seen wearing a black mask, a black baseball hat, and dark goggles to prevent his identity from being revealed.
Strong M6.0 earthquake hits near the east coast of Honshu, Japan A strong earthquake registered by the USGS as M6.0 hit near the east coast of Honshu, Japan, at 15:21 UTC on October 4, 2025 (00:21 LT, October 5). The agency is reporting a depth of 46.8 km (29 miles). EMSC is reporting M6.0 at a depth of 47 km.
Why Did Dozens Of U.S. Military Aircraft Recently Fly To The Middle East? (Hint: It Had Nothing To Do With Hamas) Now that it appears that the war in Gaza is ending, all eyes are on Iran. The Israeli government believes that lasting peace in the Middle East will not be possible until the threat that Iran poses is completely neutralized, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has made it exceedingly clear that the Iranians will not be permitted to rebuild their nuclear program. Unfortunately, that is precisely what the Iranians are attempting to do, and the Iranian government has indicated that there will be no negotiations with the United States as long as Trump’s campaign of “maximum pressure” remains in place. So the clock is ticking, and many expect Iran to get bombed again sooner rather than later. But once missiles start flying back and forth, events may unfold a lot differently than a lot of the experts were anticipating.
Providence Baptist Church on RSBN featuring Pastor Dr Rusty Sowell live from Providence Baptist Church in Beauregard, AL Sunday Morning Worship 10/5/25
his latest analysis points to a grounded estimate of 57,400 war-related deaths due to IDF action, consisting of about 24,000 combatants and 33,400 civilians (plus additional deaths caused by Hamas). Civilian casualties are tragic and the large number of minors killed cannot be dismissed; but they are overwhelmingly the result of Hamas’ human shield strategy whereby it places its military assets where civilians are present
The civilian-to-combatant ratio of 1.4 to 1 is remarkably low by historical standards of urban warfare in Iraq or Afghanistan, and it demonstrates that the IDF has waged a highly targeted campaign against Hamas under extraordinarily difficult conditions. Claims that large numbers of civilian deaths remain unreported do not hold up: families have had nearly two years to submit fatalities even without a body and via a phone call or Google form, and many “rubble” deaths were already added to the lists.
The evidence shows that Hamas’ headline fatality toll is a distortion, and that the true picture is of a war where Israel has inflicted massive losses on Hamas’ fighters while conducting one of the most targeted urban campaigns in modern history.
President Donald Trump delivers the keynote address at “America’s Navy 250: Titans of the Sea – A Salute to the Fleet” at Naval Station Norfolk in Virginia on Sunday, honoring the U.S. Navy’s 250-year history and its vital role in American defense and global security.
A US senator thought that it was akin to being a fundamentalist Muslim to think that human rights come from God. They come from the state, he insisted. But if they come from the state, how could the state ever violate them? How could we ever complain about any state abusing human rights?
That we don’t pay for healthcare directly doesn’t mean we don’t pay for healthcare. It means, at the very least, that tax dollars that go for that care aren’t used for anything else. And the hidden costs of our socialized healthcare system also mean it is really hard for us to tell if we’re getting value for our money.
“Hatred is a real sin. But government and law enforcement cannot discern the degree of hatred in one’s heart, though they can judge and punish the things they do.
“That’s why existing prohibitions in the Criminal Code focus on prohibiting particular actions, not emotions or motivations. While Christians should condemn hateful thoughts, words, and gestures, the government cannot regulate the heart.”
“If right and wrong are things outside of ourselves which we can’t change, we need to align our behavior with what’s right. But if it’s the other way around, and morality is just a thing I get to make up, well, I can act however I want.”
“Huh… that’s basically the same as not having a moral system…”
****
This video is worth watching for what it gets right, like the above. But where it falls short is in what it settles for – that agreeing there is some sort of objective moral standard outside ourselves is all that’s really important. The problem is, ideologies and religions can hold to an objective truth that includes the notion that “conversion by the sword” is a legitimate means of persuasion. So, for example, it isn’t enough that an ISIS jihadist thinks a moral standard exists outside himself, he isn’t about debate and dialogue.
This sort of short-sightedness is what happens when we appeal to the fruits of Christianity without actually holding to the Root of it, Christ Himself. Civil discourse is a fruit of the only real objective standard that exists, God’s morality, which teaches us:
God has no interest in merely outward observance (Is. 1:13), discouraging any attempts at compelled belief.
to treat others as we would like to be treated (Matt. 7:12), prompting civil discourse.
to love our enemies (Matthew 5:43-4), prompting civil discourse.
it is good to hear both sides (Prov. 18:17), which encourages hearing out things you might disagree with.
we are all made in the Image of God (Gen. 9:6), and that hate is the equivalent of murder (Matt. 5:21-22), which both, again, encourage civil discourse.
So not just any objective moral standard will do. Civil discourse is a fruit of Christianity, and as we are seeing, a nation that turns from Him will slowly but surely start losing the fruit of the Christian faith, including civility.
Evil isn’t just history, it’s here and now. Bill O’Reilly dives deep into history’s darkest figures and today’s rising threats, from Putin to drug cartels. Why do we keep turning away? Confront the truth before it’s too late.
Senator John Kennedy (R-LA) on the shutdown – Screencap of YouTube video.
Throughout the government shutdown fight, the issue everyone has been talking about is funding for healthcare for illegal aliens, but there are other things that are holding up the process.
Republican Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana recently listed a bunch of items that AOC and other far left Democrats are pushing for and they’re all completely crazy.
Somehow, the media has completely missed all of this.
Louisiana Sen. Kennedy Shreds Dems’ Shutdown Demands: ‘Cooking And Dance Workshops’ In Haiti
The federal government shutdown has taken a dramatic turn, with Louisiana Republican Sen. John Kennedy seizing the Senate floor Friday to lay bare a list of what he calls “wasteful” and “ridiculous” foreign aid projects he claims Democrats are demanding be reinstated before they agree to reopen the government.
Kennedy accused Senate Democrats of holding the country “hostage” after they blocked a bipartisan stopgap funding bill, prolonging the shutdown into next week.
He argued that the provisions, which Republicans had previously stripped from the budget, are now being weaponized by the party’s left flank to keep the government closed.
“We just eliminated money for all forms of media in the Affordable Care Act. Now those are the demands. I’ll mention one more. Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez got very, very upset, as did the socialist wing of the party, when the president sent over what’s called a rescission package. Basically, President Trump just said we want you to take some stuff out of the budget that we think is wasteful, and we did,” Kennedy said. “And that upset the congresswoman. She’s entitled to be upset if she wants to, but that really upset the socialist wing of the party. And so we took out, and here’s what they want us to put back in.”
These are the items that Kennedy lists specifically:
– $3.6 million for cooking and dance workshops for male prostitutes in Haiti. – Over $4.2 million for LGBTQ projects in the Western Balkans and Uganda. – $6 million to subsidize Palestinian media outlets. – $3 million for circumcision and vasectomies in Zambia. – More than $833,000 for transgender people in Nepal. – $500,000 to purchase electric buses in Rwanda. – $300,000 to sponsor a pride parade in Lesotho.
Watch the video below:
OMG.. you cannot make this up..
These are some of the things the Democrats are demanding we fund:
– $3 million for circumcisions and vasectomies in Zambia – $833k for transgender people in Nepal – $4.2 million for lgbtq people in the Western Balkans and Uganda – $3.6 million… pic.twitter.com/maGvy3mLvC
8:10–12. So he waited still another seven days. And he again sent out the dove from the ark. And the dove came to him at the time of evening, and, behold, a freshly plucked olive leaf in her mouth. Thus Noah knew that the waters had receded from on the earth. So he waited again another seven days, and he sent out the dove. But she did not again return to him.
Noah demonstrates great patience in the story. He waits another week. Then he sends the dove a second time to see if there is any indication that the water has abated enough to free the animals from the ark. The dove returns to him ‘at the time of evening’—this may indicate that the bird had been gone all day and, therefore, had found many resting-places. In addition, the dove returns carrying a ‘freshly plucked olive leaf’ in its mouth. The term ‘freshly plucked’ obviously means that it is a new growth from an olive tree. In the Old Testament the olive tree is a symbol of peace and happiness (Hosea 14:6) and it may symbolize those ideas in the present episode. The flood has ended and it is replaced with tranquillity and a new beginning.
Currid, J. D. (n.d.). A Study Commentary on Genesis: Genesis 1:1–25:18 (Vol. 1, p. 206). Evangelical Press.
8:11 in the evening. Delayed return indicated dry ground on which the dove could land. freshly plucked olive leaf. The dove brought a new leaf from a species that prefers lower altitudes. (Olive seeds would have had a few months to sprout after the waters began to recede.) This was God’s sign that the land could welcome and sustain Noah and the animals.
Engelbrecht, E. A. (2009). The Lutheran Study Bible (p. 27). Concordia Publishing House.
8:10–11 When the dove returned to Noah from its second foray with an olive leaf, this confirmed that the lower elevations (where olive trees grow) were now above water. Inspired by this passage, the image of a dove with an olive branch in its mouth has become a universal symbol of peace.
Bergen, R. D. (2017). Genesis. In E. A. Blum & T. Wax (Eds.), CSB Study Bible: Notes (p. 19). Holman Bible Publishers.
Old Testament Habakkuk 1:1–4, 2:1–4
Psalm Psalm 62
Epistle 2 Timothy 1:1–14
Gospel Luke 17:1–10
Index of Readings
OLD TESTAMENT Habakkuk 1:1–4, 2:1–4
1 The oracle which Habakkuk the prophet beheld.
2 How long, O Yahweh, will I call for help,
And You will not hear?
I cry out to You, “Violence!”
Yet You do not save.
3 Why do You make me see wickedness
And cause me to look on trouble?
Indeed, devastation and violence are before me;
And there is strife, and contention is lifted up.
4 Therefore the law is ignored,
And justice never comes forth.
For the wicked surround the righteous;
Therefore justice comes forth perverted.
1 I will stand on my guard post
And station myself on the fortification;
And I will keep watch to see what He will speak to me
And how I may respond when I am reproved.
2 Then Yahweh answered me and said,
“Write down the vision
And write it on tablets distinctly,
That the one who reads it may run.
3 “For the vision is yet for the appointed time;
It pants toward its end, and it will not lie.
Though it tarries, wait for it;
For it will certainly come; it will not delay.
4 “Behold, as for the proud one,
His soul is not right within him;
But the righteous will live by his faith.
PSALM Psalm 62
PSALM 62
For the choir director. According to Jeduthun. A Psalm of David.
1 Surely my soul waits in silence for God;
From Him is my salvation.
2 Surely He is my rock and my salvation,
My stronghold; I shall not be greatly shaken.
3 How long will you assail a man,
That you may murder him, all of you,
Like a leaning wall, like a fence thrust down?
4 Surely they have counseled to thrust him down from his high position;
They find pleasure in falsehood;
They bless with their mouth,
But inwardly they curse. Selah.
5 Surely wait in silence for God, O my soul,
For my hope is from Him.
6 Surely He is my rock and my salvation,
My stronghold; I shall not be shaken.
7 On God my salvation and my glory rest;
The rock of my strength, my refuge is in God.
8 Trust in Him at all times, O people;
Pour out your heart before Him;
God is a refuge for us. Selah.
9 Surely men of low degree are merely vanity and men of rank are a lie;
In the balances they go up;
They are together lighter than a breath of vanity.
10 Do not trust in oppression
And do not put vain hope in robbery;
If riches increase, do not set your heart upon them.
11 Once God has spoken;
Twice I have heard this:
That strength belongs to God;
12 And that to You, O Lord, belongs lovingkindness,
For You repay a man according to his work.
EPISTLE 2 Timothy 1:1–14
1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, according to the promise of life in Christ Jesus,
2 To Timothy, my beloved child: Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.
3 I am grateful to God, whom I serve with a clear conscience the way my forefathers did, as I unceasingly remember you in my prayers night and day,
4 longing to see you, having remembered your tears, so that I may be filled with joy,
5 being reminded of the unhypocritical faith within you, which first dwelt in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am convinced that it is in you as well.
6 For this reason I remind you to kindle afresh the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands.
7 For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and self-discipline.
8 Therefore do not be ashamed of either the witness about our Lord or me His prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel according to the power of God,
9 who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus from all eternity,
10 but now has been manifested by the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel,
11 for which I was appointed a preacher and an apostle and a teacher.
12 For this reason I also suffer these things, but I am not ashamed; for I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day.
13 Hold to the standard of sound words which you have heard from me, in the faith and love which are in Christ Jesus.
14 Guard, through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, the treasure which has been entrusted to you.
GOSPEL Luke 17:1–10
1 Now He said to His disciples, “It is 1inevitable that 2stumbling blocks come, but woe to him through whom they come!
2 “It 1would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea, than that he would cause one of these little ones to stumble.
3 “1Be on your guard! If your brother sins, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him.
4 “And if he sins against you seven times a day, and returns to you seven times, saying, ‘I repent,’ 1forgive him.”
5 And the apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!”
6 And the Lord said, “If you have faith like a mustard seed, you would say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and be planted in the sea’; and it would 1obey you.
7 “But which of you, having a slave plowing or tending sheep, will say to him when he has come in from the field, ‘Come immediately and 1sit down to eat’?
8 “But will he not say to him, ‘Prepare something for me to eat, and, 1clothing yourself properly, serve me while I eat and drink; and 2afterward you 3may eat and drink’?
9 “Is he grateful to the slave because he did the things which were commanded?
10 “In this way, you also, when you do all the things which are commanded of you, say, ‘We are unworthy slaves; we have done only that which we ought to have done.’”
Lutheran Service Book Three Year Lectionary. (2009). Concordia Publishing House.
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