A gracEmail subscriber has heard someone say that if God required his sinless Son to die in order to forgive our sins that would be both unjust and "cosmic child abuse." What does Scripture say about this? * * * The atonement made by Jesus Christ involves holy mystery. We should therefore speak about it with both reverence and humility. When we have said all that the Bible tells us on the subject we will still have some unanswered questions. This is a controversial topic and there are extreme statements on both sides. It is an unbiblical extreme, for example, to deny that Jesus' death … [Read more...]
Archives for February 2013
ACTUAL ATONEMENT
A gracEmail subscriber writes: "How do you view the issue of man's choice or God's decree with regard to our salvation? Is limited atonement true or did Christ die for all?" * * * The biblical point is not "limited" atonement, which sounds like God intentionally excluded some people from salvation. It is rather "particular" or actual atonement, which means that Jesus actually saved real people with names and faces. He did not merely make salvation theoretically possible without really saving anyone. By his faithful doing and dying, Jesus actually saved everyone who will finally be saved. … [Read more...]
IS GOD ‘JUST’ TO FORGIVE?
A West Texas reader responds to my comment that God forgives repentant people who do not conform precisely to his commands. "Is that really just?" he asked. * * * Yours is a most perceptive question which takes us to the very heart of the gospel. For without considering what God has done in Jesus Christ, the answer must be an emphatic "No!" We do not deserve God's kindness and we never will. No one who is finally saved will receive "justice" based on his or her own performance. Yet the "good news" of the gospel is that God gives us sinners what we do not deserve. He treats us in a way that … [Read more...]
JESUS AND OUR SIN
A gracEmail subscriber writes: "You said that Jesus was without sin. But didn't he become a sinner by taking on our sins? Isn't this why he was forsaken by God on the cross?" * * * Indeed, Jesus was the "lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world" (John 1:29). He "bore our sins in his own body on the tree" (1 Peter 2:24). God made him "who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf" (2 Cor. 5:21). He "became a curse for us" (Gal. 3:13). It is as if the cross of Jesus was a cosmic lightning rod planted squarely in the middle of the universal storm of divine judgment, a judgment that built in … [Read more...]
WAS THE CROSS NECESSARY?
A gracEmail reader asks, "Was the cross necessary in order for God to forgive our sins? Did Jesus have to die in order for God to love us sinners?" Part 1 Jesus considered it imperative that he be murdered (Matt. 16:21) by crucifixion (Luke 24:7) and that he be "counted with the transgressors" (Luke 22:37). These things were "necessary" because the Father's own love and holiness made it so, not because of something external to God himself which God was bound to obey. Nor were these things imposed on an unwilling Jesus by a determined Father, for Jesus "gave himself" (Gal. 2:20). Jesus' … [Read more...]
HE MADE THE CHOICE
For our sake Jesus "suffered" (Heb. 13:12) the "suffering of death" (Heb. 2:9). He experienced physical pain we cannot imagine. There is a reason the root of "excruciating" is the Latin word for "cross." It began with a bloody scourging followed by savage pummeling. A crown of thorns, pressed down, punctured his scalp. Metal spikes impaled his wrists, securing him to the wooden cross-beam. Then he hung suspended for hours while every muscle cramped and every nerve was set on edge, until finally, mercifully, death ended it all. Yet the Bible focuses more on the suffering of shame and … [Read more...]
ANIMAL SACRIFICES: WHY & WHY NOT?
A gracEmail subscriber asks, "Why did God command the Israelites to bring animal sacrifices as sin-offerings, and why did those sin-offerings stop after Jesus died and rose again?" * * * Those animal sacrifices reminded the Israelites of God’s greatest desire—that they love him with all their hearts, and show their love by keeping his commandments. The sacrifices also reminded them of their own failure ever to do that. And they pointed to a future Messiah who would give God what he had always wanted. To say it a different way, God asked from every Israelite the living sacrifice of a … [Read more...]