111 - Christ Died for All [C]

Christ Died for All; Rev. 5:9

Revelation 5:9 ^NASB "And they sang a new song, saying, "Worthy are You to take the book and to break its seals; for You were slain, and purchased for God with Your blood {men} from every tribe and tongue and people and nation."

The blood of Christ (cont.)

5)  The substitutionary death if Christ was to pay the penalty for sin. The penalty was not physical death, it was spiritual death. The was the penalty that was enacted in the garden of Eden. Adam was separated from God; Adam and Eve could not have a relationship with God, they ran and hid and that indicated that something had happened in their relationship; they were spiritually dead. Physical death was not the penalty for sin for they did not die for another 900 years. Physical death was the consequence of spiritual death, not the penalty.

6)  Since it was not His physical death or physical bleeding that was efficacious for salvation, but His spiritual death, then the physical blood does not save.

7)  We have to remember that the imagery here derives from the Old Testament sacrifices. In the Old Testament sacrifices the animal's throat was cut on the altar and there was a literal bleeding, but as we are told in Hebrews 9:22, "according to the Law, {one may} almost {say,} all things are cleansed with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness." But we are also told that the blood of bulls and goats could not take away sin. It wasn't the physical bleeding of the animals that solved their sin problem, it was simply a picture of what would happen in the future related to the death of the Messiah on the cross.

8)  The physical death of the Messiah signified the completion of His spiritual, substitutionary work, and it was necessary for His resurrection and to indicate the Father's acceptance of His sacrifice, that He had conquered sin and death. For Jesus Christ to be resurrected demonstrated that His spiritual substitutionary death on the cross gave us victory over physical death, and His resurrection was the first or the down payment, called the firstfruits in Scripture of all other resurrections. So on the basis of His physical, bodily resurrection we have confidence that we, too, will have a future physical, bodily resurrection when the Lord comes at the Rapture.

Another point is the extent of that death. The solution for the sin problem is known as unlimited atonement.

The doctrine of unlimited atonement

1)  Did Jesus die for all? Did He only die for the elect?

2)  A high Calvinist will hold to a five-point Calvinism but he will believe that you should make an offer of the gospel and evangelise those who are lost; a hyper-Calvinist is someone who doesn't believe you should ever give the gospel to anybody, that if God wants them to be saved He will do it without any help from you or me.

3)  The problem that really under girds this whole subject is the question: In what sense did Christ die for you? Was it a substitution? The problem that high Calvinists come across is that if Christ really died for you then why aren't you saved? He paid the penalty so you ought to be going to heaven. But it isn't enough to have the sin penalty paid, there has to be an imputation of righteousness and a regeneration. The limited atonement people would say that that it is a real substitution but they can't get past the fact that it would indicate in their minds that everybody would be saved, so their solution is that was only a real substitute for those who are saved. Then there is the classic flour-point position unlimited position which holds that the payment for sin is unlimited but it was conditional or hypothetical. In other words, he paid for the sins of everybody but it is only theirs actually if they trust in Christ. That is how most people express unlimited atonement. But then there is a problem which the high Calvinists have pointed out which is that that renders the language of the Scripture a little bit nebulous because the language of Scripture has a real substitution—Christ paid for our sins; truly, not hypothetically. Our position is that it is an unlimited atonement but with a real substitution, that Christ paid for the sins of all so that sin is no longer the issue. John 3:18 ^NASB "He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." The issue isn't sin anymore because Christ paid for the sin. The issue is belief in Christ.

4)  Scripture clearly teaches that the atonement of Christ was unlimited; it was for all. Isaiah 53:6 ^NASB "All [every human being] of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all [everyone] To fall on Him." John Calvin, who did not believe in limited atonement, wrote: "I approve of the ordinary reading that he alone bore the punishment on many, because on Him was laid the guilt of the whole world. It is evident from other passages, and especially from the fifth chapter of the epistle to the Romans that many sometimes denotes all." He died for all, for everyone without exception. In Isaiah 53: 6 the same group of people must be included in the all that begins the verse as the all the all ends the verse. This is the same meaning as we have when we come to the New Testament in 1 Timothy 2:4 ^NASB "who [God] desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth." Jesus says the same kind of thing when He is weeping for Jerusalem in Matthew 23:37 ^NASB "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling." Jesus wants all those unbelieving rebellious Jews to be gathered to Him. He has a plan that is inclusive of all, but the reason not all are saved is not because He only died for some but because they are not willing to trust Him. They have rejected Him; they have not believed in Him. John 3:17 ^NASB "For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him." 

Illustrations