faith for faith

Yesterday, we spoke in length on how the death of Christ afforded mercy for the world. This mercy has been manifested and is presently manifested in the staying of God’s hand from striking down every human on the planet in immediate judgment. Because of this we said, repeating Scripture’s declarations, that one facet of Christ’s work on the cross was a propitiatory one, i.e. one that turns aside the wrath of God for a time. We looked at this particularly in God’s covenant with Noah following the Great Flood and how such a covenant necessitates a Propitiator and how Noah’s sacrifice was a foreshadowing and an anticipation of him who is the true Sacrifice and Offering for humanity.

This propitiatory work of Christ for humanity is indeed gracious and merciful on its own accord. The fact that God gives the children of Adam a reprieve from their deserved and ultimate damnation is a mercy that should be incomprehensible to any reasonable heart, and yet Christ’s work on the cross for humanity did not end with its propitiation for humanity.

To understand this second aspect of Christ’s work, we must understand the nature and desserts of all men. We learn in Scripture that all men have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and that no man is righteous on his own accord (Rom. 3:23, etc.). We are also told in Scripture that every person is guilty before God, not only for the evil deeds that flow from his evil heart, but because of the imputation of Adam’s sin to his children (cf. Rom. 5:12-21). All men therefore, because of their father’s deed and their own wicked deeds, are doubly guilty before God and deserve evil continually.

In spite of the wickedness of men, Scripture teaches that the rain of blessing falls on the just and the unjust from the hand of a loving and gracious God (cf. Matt. 5:45). All men, regardless of their self-righteousness or wickedness, enjoy an amount of blessings while they live upon the earth. All, despite their relationship to Christ, breathe the air that God has provided for the world, give and are given in marriage, enjoy children and grandchildren, are given food for their sustenance and shelter for their protection.

All of these good things that God grants to all people are a gift through Christ and his blood, for it is through his blood that the immediate wrath of God is removed from mankind so that they might live and it is through his blood that these aforementioned gifts are granted to men while they live. And because of his death, Christ has been granted the name above names and is exalted above all things so that in all things he is preeminent and in him all things, including the unregenerate and regenerate, are held together and sustained (cf. Col. 1:15-20).

This goodness of God in Christ in spite of humanity’s wickedness is revealed apart from Scripture in the testimony of Nature, and therefore all humanity is aware of the mercy and goodness of God. The Apostle writes concerning this general awareness in his Epistle to the Romans:

For what can be know about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him (vv. 1:19-21).

Though God has revealed his goodness to all men, they do not give thanks to him for it and thereby condemn themselves further for their ingratitude.

Therefore Christ is for the world the fount head of mercy and blessing, for in his death he temporarily withholds the Divine Judgment and also extends to all common blessings and enjoyments in this age. Tomorrow we will look at redemptive aspect of Christ’s work on the cross.

When we study the work of Christ on the cross, we are not studying a simple subject. The glorious transaction that took place in that sacred hour not only has implications for the elect but it has cosmological implications. Therefore, when we study the doctrine of Particular Redemption, we are not studying the essence of Christ’s work on the cross, but we are studying a single facet of Christ’s work on the cross.

Before we study the particular and redemptive aspect of Christ’s work on the cross, I believe that it would be helpful to look at the universal and propitiatory aspect of his work. But before we even begin this study, I would like to define some terms. “Universal” and “particular” are the adjectives that we will be using to define the scope of each of Christ’s works. “Redemption” is the act of redeeming a person out of bondage for a price. This term is used solely of the saints of God who have been freed from their slavery to sin and have been brought under the Lordship of Jesus Christ through his blood (cf. Romans 6). “Propitiation” is the act of turning aside wrath. With respect to God, this is a sacrifice that temporarily appeases the wrathful hand of the just Sovereign of the Universe. In other words, “redemption” is the complete satisfaction of God’s wrath, and “propitiation” is the temporal appeasement of God’s wrath.

One of the lessons that the Great Flood narrative of Genesis has taught us is that Yahweh is a God of immediate justice. That is, without a mediator, God exacts his sentence upon the guilty swiftly and without delay. As for the world during the time of Noah, its terrible wickedness had been presented before the Lord without a Propitiator. We know this because of the outcome of the story: “Yahweh saw the wickedness of man and . . . said, ‘I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens’” (Gen. 6:5, 7). And this he did. The glorious Justice of God manifested itself in the terrible downpour that destroyed the whole earth and all its life save the righteous Noah and his party.

After the Flood, God blessed Noah and gave his covenant promise to him and his descendants that he would never destroy the world by water again as he had done with the Great Flood. This covenant that God initiated with Noah does not demonstrate a shift in the nature of God, but it demonstrates the arrival of a Propitiator, for God does not change and neither does his ways. Thus God, when he smells the burnt offering given by Noah after the Floor subsides, gives his covenant to Noah, not because of the sufficiency of the burnt offering, but because of the Great Offering that Noah’s offering foreshadowed.

The Apostle demonstrates this point in his letter to the Romans:

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 (vv. 3:23-25).

Later in his letter, the Apostle reveals the Father’s glorious plan behind his Son’s propitiation of the sins of the world and the Father’s passing over them:

So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills. You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?” But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory? (vv. 9:18-23).

Therefore, when we look at the universal aspect of Christ’s work on the cross, we must look at it as the temporal turning aside of the wrath of God so that God could manifest the riches of his glory to those whom he had chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world.

How do we know that this universal propitiation is temporal? We know this because Scripture clearly teaches that all men will be judged and, apart from Christ, condemned according to their deeds, be they public or private (cf. Romans 2:16; Rev. 20:12, 13). Therefore, when Christ turns aside the wrath of the Father toward the world, its wrath-bearing effect finds its end on Judgment Day and not beyond.

Tomorrow, we will take a look at the temporal mercy and gifts that the work of Christ has brought to all of mankind.

There are many controversial doctrines of the Christian faith, but there are few that kindle such emotion as does the teaching concerning the particular nature of the atonement of Christ. It is this doctrine coupled with the teachings concerning the bondage of the will that make most who despise Calvinists despise them. It is a doctrine refused by most who call themselves Christians, and yet it is a doctrine that is understood by few.

The doctrine of particular redemption, simply put, is the teaching that the sins that Christ bore on the cross are only the sins of the elect–i.e. those who were chosen in love before the foundation of the world to have faith in Christ. This doctrine has been more popularly labeled in the past as “limited atonement” in small part to place emphasis on the scope of Christ’s work on the cross and in larger part to force fit the doctrine into the middle of the “TULIP” acrostic that was born out of the Synod at Dordt in response to the Arminian heresy.

The popular term “limited atonement” has sparked enough debate by its semantics alone, and perhaps rightly so in a way. Many have interpreted the use of the word “limited” as one that places a cap on the value on Christ’s death, and others have had a problem with describing anything that God does as “limited,” especially the giving up of himself on the cross. These objections bring up some healthy concerns of those who have them, though their concerns are based upon their ignorance not fact. The doctrine of the limited atonement of Christ (henceforth “particular redemption”) has never taught that there is a definite value on the work of Christ. Quite the contrary, the doctrine teaches that the death of the Infinite by necessity has an infinite value, and therefore could atone for an infinite number of souls if it were God’s good pleasure for it to do so. For these reasons, “particular redemption” is a much more accurate name for the doctrine and a less offensive one.

Many object to the divisive nature of the doctrine and wonder what benefit such a teaching has for the Church. I acknowledge the doctrine’s tendency to divide, and I also sympathize dearly with the desire for a unified Church. However, I do believe that Scripture teaches a particular redemption in its pages and that God in his benevolent wisdom has placed it there for our mutual edification. I will make note of particular benefits of the doctrine in a forthcoming post, but till then know that the doctrine helps us understand the ways of God and will cause the saint to adore and to glorify his Maker and his Redeemer rightly and in greater degree and truth.

Allow me to offer a word of warning before we engage in this study: this doctrine is only fit to be explored by him who is a child of God and does not neglect the weightier matters of God’s law. It is very easy to be fascinated with such teachings and for those teachings to become a snare and a stumbling block to the petrified heart. If you find that studying such doctrines does not make you a more humble, gracious, and loving person toward your siblings in Christ and toward your neighbors, you have no business with this meat until you have grown past your spiritual infancy. Studying this doctrine apart from a desire to wholeheartedly glorify God in Christ and to love his Church will make you a callous, intellectual elitist in your church and will make you a glorifier of yourself rather than of Christ.