It is the sticking point when discussing Calvinism. It is the point folks get so hung up on, and so distressed over, but the Atonement is truly limited. I think the argument is not so much over it being limited, but rather over who limits it; us or God. For if the Atonement were unlimited, then it would have to be universalism. And if that is the case...well then we all owe Rob Bell a big fat apology.
"Atonement" has been the center of my study and a few discussions this week. We know that Christ died for the sins of the World, Christ died as a ransom for many, that ALL are commanded to come to repentance and faith, and that NO ONE may come to repentance and faith unless the Father who sent the Son through the work of the Holy Spirit draws us to Himself (regeneration/transformation/etc.).
Yet when we talk of Atonement (the act of making right or peace with God, or biblically rendered Christ's act which made right and peace with God the Church), the struggle becomes for whom and how.
Some argue passionately that the Atonement is for ALL mankind. If this were true, then universalism is true and all roads do in fact lead to God. Yet we know by the Word of God that universalism is not true. So while Jesus died for the sins of the world, He did not do so as to save ALL people.
Some argue passionately that the Atonement is for ALL who accept the gift. It is limited by us. It makes Christ a potential Savior, and the Atonement is applicable to only those who choose to believe. This would seem to indicated, then, that Christ died for all sin EXCEPT unbelief. And apparently that sin is made right by us through our act of belief. If this were true then not all of the righteousness which we bring before God is as filthy rags; there is something we could bring that is acceptable. The Bible contradicts this therefore it cannot be true.
Some, and I am of this party, say instead that the Atonement is for ALL for whom God intended it. Truly Christ is a complete and sufficient Savior completing the work of Salvation at the Cross. Christ died for the sins of the world, but also true, He died as a ransom for many. We cannot have faith unless it is given to us by God as a gift (Eph. 2), and we are unable to even approach Christ unless we are drawn by God (John 6). And we know this to be very true because Scripture is clear not only in this, but also in proclaiming that our wills are enslaved; enslaved either to sin and death or to God.
So before God shatters our chains and calls us by name out of death, our wills are tuned, ensared, and enslaved to our hearts which are incredibly deceitful and desperately sick. In this state we, like all unbelieving, not only do we love our sin, but also HATE God. We are uninterested in repenting and submitting to Christ.
And if, as Scripture proclaims, we have turned away and none seek God, then God seeks us. He calls those whom He has foreknown from the foundation of the world having predestined us to be conformed into the image of His Son.
So then if the Atonement is limited, and it is, then it is either we or God who limits the Atonement. Scripture not only indicates, but proclaims that Salvation is based upon God's will and not our own. Therefore it must be God who limits the Atonement, and truly He has completely and sufficiently completed what He has intended from the foundation of the world.
Showing posts with label Salvation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Salvation. Show all posts
23 July 2011
14 June 2011
I Hate Windows...(Beating Children for Jesus)
...Or rather I hate seeing my reflection in windows. Every time, without exaggeration, every time I see my reflection in a window or a glass door, I remember.
I remember being a young boy between the ages of six and eight. We lived on Wren Drive, and we had a big backyard where I would spend most of my outdoor time (because we weren't allowed in the front yard). I had dragged out all these toys and chairs and carefully arranged them to form the bridge of my star-ship.
I was the captain of the universe embarking on a quest to explore the galaxy. I was dodging torpedoes and lasers and destroying enemy warships. Often I would glance up at the glass door and admire my reflection as I stood as the proud captain of an indomitable crew.
At one point I saw my father's silhouette, only just, beyond my reflection. I waved and he waved back, or so I thought. What I didn't see was that he was actually motioning for me to come inside. I continued to play, look at the reflection of my set up, and embarked on the excitement of saving the universe, all the while my father was waving me to come inside.
He must have decided that I was ignoring him because he opened the glass door and calmly called me over as he did that "come here" thing people do with their index finger. Unaware of the rage boiling under the surface, I cheerfully walked over to him. He grabbed me by my shirt and threw me across the living room and onto the couch. He stormed over and all I can remember is trying to protect myself from a combination of open handed and clenched fist blows. When it was over he sent me out to put away my mess, and go to my room.
When my mother found me, she, though I didn't understand it at the time, greatly feared the thought of sending me to school. She was afraid that my teacher might see the bruises on my face and report it. I got a week's vacation from school, and all I understood was that I wasn't to show or tell anyone about my face because I would be taken away from my family; after all it was my fault for upsetting him anyway.
One particularly peculiar moment I remember is that of a lady from our church, Calvary Chapel Hanford, who came over a day or so later while I was riding my bike in circles out back. I knew I wasn't supposed to let people see my face, so I awkwardly pulled my shirt up over the side with the worst bruising and kept riding as she and my mother talked outside. Some very deep part of me wanted her to see what I was doing as a flag being waived for help. I wanted the shirt to slip so she could see the bruises and ask me what happened.
She must have noticed something because my mom told her some story that allowed her to laugh off what she saw. I try often to remember her face, to remember who she was. I have a few suspicious, but all I know for certain is that she was slender, had a light complexion, and mid-shoulder length dark hair; and I think I remember her hair being curly. I hope to one day remember who she was that I might have the opportunity to ask her if she remembered that day.
Afterward, and I mean immediately afterward, whether my father was inside or not, anytime I was outside and I walked by the sliding glass door I would peer in out of fear. I would check to see if he was summoning me when I could not hear nor see. I did this up even until I moved out.
Over twenty years later and I still remember this moment clearly. I see my reflection in a window or a glass door and I am reminded. It used to bother me. It used to bring an overwhelming sense of shame to my heart. Not anymore.
The Lesson
My daughter is six years old now. She is the same age I was when my father was especially brutal towards his children. By remembering these things, no matter how much I would rather forget, I am reminded of the responsibilities the Lord charged me with as a father.
I am to lead my children in godly ways pointing them always to the Gospel. To be an example of Jesus for them. To love them -as short as I may fall- as God loves them and has shown mercy towards them in commanding all to come to repentance and faith.
I am to pray for them and watch over them. Correct and lead them along the path that they ought to go, so that when they grow older they will not soon depart that path.
I can do this, and I am enabled and empowered to do this through Christ. Though I look very much like my father, and though we share many similar traits and features, I am not my father. I could be him, but by the grace and mercy of God I am not him.
Confessedly, there are days when I fear that I may become that man because of the similarities between us. He has given to me for an inheritence his anger. But all that crap is bound up in the old man who is put to death in Christ. The chains that once enslaved me to sin are broken, and I have been brought from death to life.
In Christ I am a new creation, and the old things are gone, put out, and passed away. The new things are here; now. And I entrust to Christ Jesus the things of my past, for those things have been answered for at the cross. They have no power over me. They have no sway. And they certainly do not belong to me.
Our Lord, who died for the sins of the world as a ransom for many, called me to drink freely from his living waters. The wrath of the Father, Christ drank to the brine for me that I might be reconciled to Him.
It is these things that are my inheritence, and it is these things that I am to bring to my children.
I remember being a young boy between the ages of six and eight. We lived on Wren Drive, and we had a big backyard where I would spend most of my outdoor time (because we weren't allowed in the front yard). I had dragged out all these toys and chairs and carefully arranged them to form the bridge of my star-ship.
At one point I saw my father's silhouette, only just, beyond my reflection. I waved and he waved back, or so I thought. What I didn't see was that he was actually motioning for me to come inside. I continued to play, look at the reflection of my set up, and embarked on the excitement of saving the universe, all the while my father was waving me to come inside.
He must have decided that I was ignoring him because he opened the glass door and calmly called me over as he did that "come here" thing people do with their index finger. Unaware of the rage boiling under the surface, I cheerfully walked over to him. He grabbed me by my shirt and threw me across the living room and onto the couch. He stormed over and all I can remember is trying to protect myself from a combination of open handed and clenched fist blows. When it was over he sent me out to put away my mess, and go to my room.
One particularly peculiar moment I remember is that of a lady from our church, Calvary Chapel Hanford, who came over a day or so later while I was riding my bike in circles out back. I knew I wasn't supposed to let people see my face, so I awkwardly pulled my shirt up over the side with the worst bruising and kept riding as she and my mother talked outside. Some very deep part of me wanted her to see what I was doing as a flag being waived for help. I wanted the shirt to slip so she could see the bruises and ask me what happened.
She must have noticed something because my mom told her some story that allowed her to laugh off what she saw. I try often to remember her face, to remember who she was. I have a few suspicious, but all I know for certain is that she was slender, had a light complexion, and mid-shoulder length dark hair; and I think I remember her hair being curly. I hope to one day remember who she was that I might have the opportunity to ask her if she remembered that day.
Afterward, and I mean immediately afterward, whether my father was inside or not, anytime I was outside and I walked by the sliding glass door I would peer in out of fear. I would check to see if he was summoning me when I could not hear nor see. I did this up even until I moved out.
Over twenty years later and I still remember this moment clearly. I see my reflection in a window or a glass door and I am reminded. It used to bother me. It used to bring an overwhelming sense of shame to my heart. Not anymore.
The Lesson
My daughter is six years old now. She is the same age I was when my father was especially brutal towards his children. By remembering these things, no matter how much I would rather forget, I am reminded of the responsibilities the Lord charged me with as a father.
I am to lead my children in godly ways pointing them always to the Gospel. To be an example of Jesus for them. To love them -as short as I may fall- as God loves them and has shown mercy towards them in commanding all to come to repentance and faith.
I am to pray for them and watch over them. Correct and lead them along the path that they ought to go, so that when they grow older they will not soon depart that path.
Confessedly, there are days when I fear that I may become that man because of the similarities between us. He has given to me for an inheritence his anger. But all that crap is bound up in the old man who is put to death in Christ. The chains that once enslaved me to sin are broken, and I have been brought from death to life.
In Christ I am a new creation, and the old things are gone, put out, and passed away. The new things are here; now. And I entrust to Christ Jesus the things of my past, for those things have been answered for at the cross. They have no power over me. They have no sway. And they certainly do not belong to me.
Our Lord, who died for the sins of the world as a ransom for many, called me to drink freely from his living waters. The wrath of the Father, Christ drank to the brine for me that I might be reconciled to Him.
It is these things that are my inheritence, and it is these things that I am to bring to my children.
Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.
-Proverbs 22:6
13 June 2011
Even the Murderer, Rapist, and Pedophile!?
But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.Sin is handled in one of two ways.
~Romans 3:21-26
For those in Christ, their sin was dealt with at the Cross. It was answered for in Christ who drank to the brine the cup of the God's Wrath in our place. Our sin was answered for in the blood of Jesus Christ. Christ was the propitiation reconciling those who believe with God.
For those outside of Christ, they shall be brought low before God with the debt of their sin upon them, and they will be eternally undone in God's Wrath. They will be unable to stand before God, for even their greatest deeds and greatest acts of righteousness will be before God as filthy and stained garments.
The chiefest sinner among us, guilty of the most atrociously inhuman acts, may through faith and repentance in Christ, find forgiveness and a friend in God. Upon Christ was laid the sins of the world that those who believe in Christ, -that is trusting in Him, abiding in Him, following after Him- may be reconciled to God.
But you might say: What about the murderer!? What about the rapist!? What about the pedophile!?
Even him. For if it cannot work for them, how can it work for us? If God cannot forgive them through the work of Christ whom He raised from the dead, how can we rest assured that He will forgive any of us? Either God is true when He says to those who believe:
And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with [Christ], having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in [Christ]. (Colossians 2:13-15, emphasis added)Or He is not and completely untrustworthy.
Jesus said:
"...All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. For 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 I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day." (John 6:37-40, emphasis added)Everyone who looks upon Christ and believes, it is written, shall be rescued from wrath and reconciled to God. The death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ was sufficient for all sinners, and all are called to look upon the Son and believe. It is not solely those with acceptable sins that are called to repentance and faith, but all men are commanded to repent and believe.
Those in Christ are blessed because He was cursed for our sake. He took on our sin and shame and bled and died that we might be reconciled through grace by faith in Him. He bore our transgressions and by His stripes we are healed, yes even the murderer and the rapist.
There exists no sin so great that God cannot pass over in the work of Christ on the Cross. No transgression have you committed that would keep God from fulfilling His promise to you who believe.
But for those who reject the Gospel of Christ, and reject the message of reconciliation; those who are convinced to stand before God by their own merit; there exists no sin so minor that God, the Righteous Judge, can ever rightly turn a blind eye to. For the wages of sin, all sin, is death.
Mercy...
The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom. To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen.There are nights when I drop my teeth on the floor and pick them up to remember and relive a past I can't seem to forget. And I can't tell if this is my dark valley of death, or the thorn in my flesh to remind me that...
-2 Timothy 4:18
If not by the sweet mercy of our Lord, Jesus Christ, who through the Cross has made heirs of the Father all who repent and believe, I would be the very same monster who raised me. And I see in all that God has seen me safely through the affirmation of Romans 8:28-29 in that truly ALL THINGS -for those of us who Love God- work together for our good; namely being we conformed into the likeness of Christ.
10 June 2011
We Need Jesus...
...The Scriptures; yeah they bloody hurt when we compare ourselves to them. They tell us that everything we bring to the table of God is dirty. That is why we need Jesus. He took that filth from us, bore the Wrath for us, with His blood cleansed us, and acceptable to God's table brought us...
06 June 2011
Psalm 8 -Initial Reading and Notes
Psalm 8
"O LORD, our Lord..."
The Lord of all creation is our Lord. He is unquestionably the King of kings and Lord of Lords whether we will to acknowledge Him or not. His glory and His majesty are displayed for all to see (Romans 1); and yet, many refuse to honor Him as God, nor are they thankful for the great steadfast mercy and kindness He has lavished upon us.
Each breath we (all people) take is a gift from Him who upholds and sustains all things (Hebrews 1:3). Even the blasphemer who blasphemes His most HOLY name is only able to do so by the grace of Christ who is longsuffering, calling all to repentance and faith.
"Out of the mouths of babes..."
He silences all by displaying His glory through the weakest of vessels; demonstrating and confirming that nothing is impossible with God (Luke 1:37). All are without excuse; and all will one day confess Jesus as Lord (Psalm 2).
In our brokenness, and in our fallen state, the Lord has still kept us as the stewards of His creation (Genesis 1:26). He has shown us mercy and kindness. And though guilty before Him, deserving of His wrath, He has provided His righteousness to those who believe and place their faith in Jesus Christ; who died and was resurrected for our Salvation (Romans 1:16-17).
"What is man..."
Who are we that the Lord would be mindful of us? Who are we that He would call us gently to repentance and faith; and profoundly remind us in the birth pains of creation that He is God and we must look to Him for our eternal hope? We are without hope in and of ourselves, for our own righteousness is an illusion and worthless before God (Isaiah 64:6).
How short is our time on this earth. We are as the grass and flower of the field; here today and called into eternity tomorrow (1 Peter 1:24; Psalm 103:15-18). As we look at the wonders of His hands, let us fall to our knees in prayer, praise, and exultation of God most high. While today is still today, let us repent and turn to the Lord Jesus Christ; the God of our Salvation (Isaiah 55:6-9); for there is no other name “under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).
"O LORD, our Lord..."
The Lord of all creation is our Lord. He is unquestionably the King of kings and Lord of Lords whether we will to acknowledge Him or not. His glory and His majesty are displayed for all to see (Romans 1); and yet, many refuse to honor Him as God, nor are they thankful for the great steadfast mercy and kindness He has lavished upon us.
Each breath we (all people) take is a gift from Him who upholds and sustains all things (Hebrews 1:3). Even the blasphemer who blasphemes His most HOLY name is only able to do so by the grace of Christ who is longsuffering, calling all to repentance and faith.
"Out of the mouths of babes..."
He silences all by displaying His glory through the weakest of vessels; demonstrating and confirming that nothing is impossible with God (Luke 1:37). All are without excuse; and all will one day confess Jesus as Lord (Psalm 2).
In our brokenness, and in our fallen state, the Lord has still kept us as the stewards of His creation (Genesis 1:26). He has shown us mercy and kindness. And though guilty before Him, deserving of His wrath, He has provided His righteousness to those who believe and place their faith in Jesus Christ; who died and was resurrected for our Salvation (Romans 1:16-17).
"What is man..."
Who are we that the Lord would be mindful of us? Who are we that He would call us gently to repentance and faith; and profoundly remind us in the birth pains of creation that He is God and we must look to Him for our eternal hope? We are without hope in and of ourselves, for our own righteousness is an illusion and worthless before God (Isaiah 64:6).
How short is our time on this earth. We are as the grass and flower of the field; here today and called into eternity tomorrow (1 Peter 1:24; Psalm 103:15-18). As we look at the wonders of His hands, let us fall to our knees in prayer, praise, and exultation of God most high. While today is still today, let us repent and turn to the Lord Jesus Christ; the God of our Salvation (Isaiah 55:6-9); for there is no other name “under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).
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