What is interesting about the apostle’s clarification is that he does not say, “What shall separate us from the love of Christ,” but he says, “Who shall separate us,” indicating that the tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, and sword are not things that Christians will endure, but persons. And the language that the apostle uses is not arbitrary, but he is referencing what he had written elsewhere. Earlier in the epistle, the apostle writes, “For those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury; there will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek” (vv. 2:8,9). Taking this tribulation and distress defined by Paul earlier in the letter and applying it to those whom Christians must endure, is then the apostle saying that these who incur tribulation and distress from God, namely the unrighteous, are not only unable to separate us from the love of Christ but are also in some way working to the good of the saints? In other words, is Paul saying that the damned in their damnation are working to the good of those who love God?

Though this indeed is a difficult thought, I believe that this is precisely what the apostle is saying. For in his discourse that follows this in Romans 9 on the freedom of God’s mercy and wrath, he writes:

So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills. You will say to 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 has prepared beforehand for glory? (vv. 9:18-23).

What we see is this section of the apostle’s discourse are two groups of people, with one group serving as a demonstration to another group. The first group are those who are prepared for wrath and destruction, and the second group are those who are prepared for mercy and glory. The first group exists for the sake of the second group, namely to demonstrate the wrath and power of God for the purpose of elucidating the glory and mercy of God to the second group. In other words, those who are damned to destruction exist to make known the wrath and power of God so as, by contrast, to magnify the mercy and glory of God to those who were chosen to receive mercy.

Therefore, when the apostle writes, “All things work together for the good of those who love God,” he emphatically means all things, for even the most terrible thing that we as humans can imagine, namely the eternal torment of a soul apart from God, works to the good of the saints of God in that it demonstrates to them his glory and mercy in glory.

This indeed is a hard teaching, and it inevitably evokes one of two responses. The first is a man-centered response that declares, “The God I serve would not act in this way.” It is a rebellious response that leans upon human understanding and rails against the clear declarations of God. It is a response based upon the philosophies of men rather than upon the wisdom of God, and many who profess that the Scriptures are the very Word of God deny this teaching. These stand haughtily against the notion that “[Salvation] depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who has mercy” (v. 9:16), and defy the question, “Who are you, O man, to answer back to God?” (v. 9:20). They instead see themselves fit to put God in the dock and to question the justice of their very Molder.

The second response is a God-centered response that declares, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You [alone] have the words of eternal life” (Jn. 6:68). It is a response that is rooted in godly humility and that recognizes that man is a creature and God is the Creator. It is a response that understands the damnable state of all men, and deeply loves that God has given mercy where none was merited. It is these who know the depths of the grace of God, and it is these who therefore adore Christ and his work the most. For mercy that is free is a glorious mercy, and its receipt is a call to the Gates of Praise (cf. Is. 60.18).

Taken in its context, we who are Gentiles who have believed upon Christ have all the more reason to glorify God for his mercy. For God in his sovereignty and freedom could have chosen to give mercy to Israel alone, yet:

Those who were not my people I will call “my people,”
….and her who was not beloved I will call “beloved.”
And in the very place where it was said to them, “You are not my people,”
….there they will be called “sons of the living God” (vv. 9:25,26).

And as such, this doctrine exists, not for Gospel apathy or for boasting in doctrinal understanding (for which many have used this doctrine), but for worship of the God of grace. For God in his infinite wisdom has chosen to make known the greatness of his mercy to his children by pouring out his wrath on others.

Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!

“For who has known the mind of the Lord,
….or who has been his counselor?”
Or who has given a gift to him
….that he might be repaid?”

For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen (Rm. 11:33-36).

]]> http://faithforfaith.org/2009/10/11/how-the-damnation-of-the-unrighteous-works-to-the-good-of-the-saints/feed/ 2 http://faithforfaith.org/2009/09/15/to-my-calvinist-brothers-your-calvinism-may-not-be-the-gospel/ http://faithforfaith.org/2009/09/15/to-my-calvinist-brothers-your-calvinism-may-not-be-the-gospel/#comments Tue, 15 Sep 2009 05:02:41 +0000 D. Matthew Brown http://faithforfaith.org/?p=2464 ]]> “Calvinism is not the Gospel.” I must admit that it is rather bold of me to contradict the quote of so great a man as Charles Spurgeon, especially granting that I myself unabashedly hold to what are known as the “Five Points of Calvinism.” I do profess to believe that each of those points are biblical, even that one from which many who call themselves “four-pointers” shy, viz. limited atonement–a doctrine upon which I have written quite extensively (see On Particular Redemption).

However, the reason that I am making such a statement is not so much based upon a disagreement with Spurgeon and his sympathizers, but is more of a reaction to an attitude of many that seems to have come about from it. For it is one thing to say, “Calvinism is the Gospel,” and mean by it that Calvinism is the proper understanding of what God has accomplished for men through his Son Jesus Christ, and it is another to say, “Calvinism is the Gospel,” and by that declaration attack every Christian that does not hold to Calvinism as defined by Dordt. For the former is a humble and mature assent to God’s revelation of himself in Scripture, and the latter is a proud and immature conquest to quell every non-Calvinist dissenter. The former comes from a heart-felt realization of unmerited grace received and creates in a person a heart of mercy and love, and the latter comes solely from an intellectual understanding of God’s revelation and creates in a person a heart of arrogance and disunity. The former understands the Gospel; the latter, despite theological precision, misunderstands the Gospel.

For what is the Gospel? It is the Good News that God has taken those who were once his enemies and has reconciled them to himself through the work of his Son by faith in him. In the believer, it is the recognition wrought by the Holy Spirit that he has fallen short of the glory of God and needs a Righteousness that is not his own. It is the Good News that God has loved us and has brought us to himself in order that we might bear the fruit of loving him and loving others in return. Therefore, the Gospel from beginning to end is the love of God for sinners, having its foundation in the foreknowledge of Eternity Past and its fulfillment in the adoption of Eternity Future. Hence, “God is love,” for he has so enveloped all things so that the greatest expression of himself to his people is love.

Therefore, when anyone claims anything to be the Gospel, that person who claims such must be saturated with love. And since the Gospel flows from the love of God, it must be a love that is likened to God’s love–a love that is compassionate, merciful, patient, and self-sacrificing. Thus if anyone claims to understand the Gospel who is not compassionate, merciful, patient, and self-sacrificing, he lies and does not practice the truth.

In the case of the statement, “Calvinism is the Gospel,” the Calvinist must be one who is a lover of men’s souls. He must be one who is compassionate, understanding that he once was misinformed and bore the burden of his own wicked philosophies. He must be one who is merciful, understanding the great mercy that he has received from God without merit. He must be patient, understanding that God has endured him with great patience in his own sins and heterodoxy. And he must be one who is self-sacrificing, understanding that God sacrificed himself, coming to serve others and to die for them.

Therefore when a person claims that “Calvinism is the Gospel,” and he himself is not compassionate, merciful, patient, and self-sacrificial, that person’s Calvinism is not the Gospel. For while he might understand the Ordo Salutis and might have read Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion, he, like the Pharisees of old, has neglected the weightier matters of the Law–justice, mercy, and faithfulness (cf. Mt. 23:23), and by his neglect has distorted the Gospel. For a gospel without love is no gospel at all, and a gospel that does not transform a man’s heart is a powerless gospel.

Therefore, my question to you who call yourself a Calvinist is not, “How many points do you adhere to?” but it is, “How is your heart?” Do you by your doctrinal understanding love God and people, or do you by your doctrinal understanding flaunt your supposed superior knowledge and seek to destroy all who disagree with you? Do you endure with much patience and love those who disagree with you as God has endured and loved you, or do you loathe and despise those whom God has called you to love? For if you do not love and are not gracious and merciful, you have misunderstood the doctrines to which you so fiercely hold, and, ironically, you are not a Calvinist.

]]> http://faithforfaith.org/2009/09/15/to-my-calvinist-brothers-your-calvinism-may-not-be-the-gospel/feed/ 1 http://faithforfaith.org/2009/06/11/our-reasonable-service-as-priests-under-the-mercies-of-god/ http://faithforfaith.org/2009/06/11/our-reasonable-service-as-priests-under-the-mercies-of-god/#comments Thu, 11 Jun 2009 11:01:45 +0000 D. Matthew Brown http://faithforfaith.org/?p=2207 ]]>

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship (Rm. 12:1).

The appeal by the apostle rendered, “I appeal to you therefore, brothers,” is a translation of the word “parakalo” which is the verb form of the noun “paraklete,” which is used elsewhere in Scripture to describe the office of the Son as our Advocate and Comforter–as one who, literally, is “called along side” a soul (“para” beside, “kal” call) (cf. Jn. 14:16, 25, 15:26, 16:7). That being said, the point of the apostle in employing the term is not to call to memory the office of Jesus Christ (though he does do that at times in his previous discourse, viz. Rm. 5:1; 8:35, etc.), but to issue a call to those who are in Christ to live in a particular fashion beside or in light of what the apostle has already taught, put simply as “mercies of God.”

There is little doubt that the apostle is calling to mind everything that he has taught up to this point (viz. Rm. 1-11), for in it is the exposition of the Gospel which is the revelation of the “mercies” of God to men. For from the beginning of the apostle’s discourse, we see him proclaiming without shame the Gospel, which is the revelation of the righteousness of God from faith for faith, viz. “the righteousness of God through the faith of Jesus Christ for all who believe” (cf. Rm. 1:16, 17; Rm. 3:22). For in it, we see the dire state of all of humanity in that no one, neither Jew nor Greek, is better off than the other, for all are under sin and therefore “fall short of the glory of God” (cf. 3:9; 3:23). However, justification has come to men through Christ’s righteousness, which is received by faith (cf. 3:24; 4:24, 25), so that no one may boast in his state of righteousness and subsequent salvation (cf. 3:27; 6:20-23).

However, these “mercies” are not merely future and eschatological, but they are active from the moment of our new birth. For the work of Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit has caused all those who are in Christ to be baptized with Christ into his death thereby destroying their body of sin and releasing them from their bondage to the law and to sin (cf. 6:3-7; 7:4), and has enslaved them to righteousness, obedience, even God, which is true freedom unto life (cf. 6:17; 19; 22) so that, through the emancipating work of the Spirit alone (cf. 8:2), one can now put to death the deeds of the body and now fulfill the righteous requirement of the law, (cf. 8:13; 8:4) when they formerly, according their own power and volition, could not (cf. 7:14-20).

And since this work of salvation is from its foundation to its completion the work of God toward his elect (cf. 8:29, 30, 33), we can be confident that since all things work to the glory of God and are designed to make known the riches of God’s mercy to his elect vessels of mercy (cf. 9:23, 24), that for those who love God, all things work together for good which is the manifestation of his glory to them. Therefore, nothing in the whole of creation, be it death, demons, rulers, or what have you, is able to separate us who are in Christ from his love (cf. 8:38, 39). And even though it may appear on the surface that God is inconsistent in keeping his promises (as it appears so in the case of unbelieving Israel, cf. 9:1-5), God’s word does not fail and neither does his love (cf. 9:6). And though the Providence of God is a great mystery (cf. 11:25), we can be confident of this–that God is merciful, and in his great wisdom and mercy he has consigned all to disobedience so that he may have mercy on all (cf. 11:32). To him be glory forever! (cf. 11:36).

It is “along side” this that the apostle exhorts us who are in Christ to “present [our] bodies as a living sacrifice.” And the language is inescapable. We who are in Christ, because of his great mercy toward us, are called into priestly service, but rather than offering up lambs and goats as the priests of the Old Covenant did, we are to offer up our own bodies. For if Christ did not spare his own life, but gave up his life for us all, why then should we expect or desire not to do the same? Therefore, because of the mercies of God, this is, as the text is rendered literally, our “reasonable service” as priests of God. Is reasonable because Christ has done so much for us, and it is our service because we are his royal priesthood (cf. 1Pet. 2:9). May we remember this all the days of our lives. Amen.

In spite of this and in spite of the millions upon millions of “humane” abortions, we find that God is still true to his Word and he is still just and merciful. God’s Truth is in this way validated in his proclamations concerning the wickedness of men. For Paul writes in his letter to the Romans:

None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one. Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive. The venom of asps is under their lips. Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes.¹

We find today that the state of men, despite public education, social programs, etc. is the same as it has ever been, it is simply more technologically sophisticated. We shed blood, but we do it “sterilely” and “humanely”, and in such a way that does not taint our beloved environment. We do it and explain it away with our naturalistic philosophies, suppressing the fact that the wrath of God is being stored up against such ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.

People jabber, “If there is a good and omnipotent God, why does he allow such evil to happen?” The question that each of them should be asking instead is: “Why has God, being just and omnipotent, been so merciful to me thus far, and what measure of wrath have I stored up for myself for the evil that I have done?” Calvin puts it this way:

When any one crime calls forth visible manifestations of [God's] anger, it must be because he hates all crimes; and, on the other hand, his leaving many crimes unpunished, only proves that there is a Judgment in reserve, when the punishment now delayed shall be inflicted. In like manner, how richly does he supply us with the means of contemplating his mercy when, as frequently happens, he continues to visit miserable sinners with unwearied kindness, until he subdues their depravity, and woos them back with more than a parent’s fondness?²

The present inaction of God should not therefore be seen as a proof against God’s existence (as many foolishly make it out to be), but it is a proof that God is a merciful God.

Though there is indeed this great, general mercy that presently withholds the full blow of the hand of God from murderers and the like, there is an even greater, special mercy that is manifested in abortions. While the sad fact remains that millions of babies have been murdered at the hands of evil men by the bidding of selfish parents, the same number of those murdered have thus increased the population of the redeemed in Glory. For we see in fifth chapter of the epistle to the Romans that everyone who is born of the lineage of Adam (which is everyone) has been born with his guilt imputed to him and therefore deserves death and damnation, but Christ has come into the world as the Second Adam, bringing life to all men.³ Thus the speaker of the narrative of Romans chapter seven is able to say, “I was once alive apart from the law,” for sin, through Christ, is not imputed where there is no comprehension of the law.⁴ Therefore every aborted child, every stillborn baby, and every child who dies apart from the comprehension of the law and its consequent rebellion is proven elect and redeemed by the blood and work of Jesus Christ.⁵

While we should never relent from our pursuit for justice for those who cannot defend themselves, we should not despair knowing that the wrath of God is being stored up for those who murder the helpless and that the helpless who are murdered by the wicked are presently safe in the loving arms of him who foreknew them in Jesus Christ before the foundation of the world.⁶

¹Romans 3:10-18
² Institutes of the Christian Religion, I.v.7
³ cf. Romans 5:18
⁴ Romans 7:9 ; cf. Romans 5:13
⁵ For a further treatment on this subject, feel free to read my On the Scope of Adam’s Universal Condemnation and Its Implications on the Doctrine of “The Age of Accountability”
⁶ cf. Romans 8:29; Ephesians 1:4

Ten years ago, Haley and I began dating in high school. At that time, neither of us sought the Lord (evidenced by the way we consistently lived our lives), though you could find us in a church almost every week. We were both foolish, typical teenagers and believed that our lives were defined by high school, being cool, and each other. We, being the petty American adolescents that we were, dated off and on during those years, to suit whatever particular moods we were in or whatever fancies we had, and never truly established what one might called a meaningful and intimate relationship.

Upon our graduation from high school, we were together but found ourselves heading in different directions. Haley began taking classes at Meredith College, and I, after a semester off after high school, began my first and last semester at Wake Tech. It was at that time that the Lord started working on my heart, using the things that I thought I had ignored from my parents and at church to convict me of my sin and to reveal to me my hopelessness without God. It was also at that time when I was perhaps the most attached to Haley that I had ever been, and, if I recall correctly, she was quite the opposite. Upon those feelings of her heart, we broke off and went our separate ways—she to her particular path, and I to mine.

My grief at that time shaped me profoundly, and at times brought me closer to Christ and at times had me shaking my fist at him. And though I had discarded the secular path in which I was heading and began going to school at Southeastern Baptist Seminary and working at the sacred bookstore called LifeWay, my life was far from stable. In retrospect, I know now that my life was founded on religiosity instead on the Rock who is Jesus Christ, and that foundation, as it should have, crumbled from underneath me.

During this time which spanned several years, passions between Haley and me were on and off—seeming at times as though high school had never ended. At some points, Haley would terribly miss me and seek me out while I was practically apathetic, and at others, I would terribly miss Haley and seek her out while she was practically apathetic. This time of fickleness was continually hit and miss and is perhaps best summed up in three words: two broken engagements.

It was after all these things that it seemed as though our lives had finally and permanently separated. I was particularly bitter and hostile toward the thought of us getting back together, and we managed not to talk or to cross our paths for at least two years. During this time, the Lord finally began to make himself the foundation of my life, and I, after a wicked sabbatical, was back in school at Southeastern and was dangerously close to finishing my degree. Meanwhile, Haley was at Montreat College doing her thing, which I found out later was the same thing that God was doing in my life.

After these two years of avoidance, I received an invitation to attend Haley’s brother and sister-in-law’s renewing of their vows ceremony in February 2006. I was quite reluctant and hesitant to go and still a bit bitter and hostile, but I loved Haley’s family deeply and did wish to see them again.

Upon the arrival of that fateful day, I suited up in the pants, shirt, and tie that I had bought at Kohl’s the day before and drove, with a Yankee Candle air freshener dangling from my rearview mirror, from Raleigh to somewhere in the greater Zebulon area off of NC 96 to the church where the ceremony was to be held. I sat myself on the left side of the church, and gazed at Haley, who was standing up at the front, and was struck by a beauty robed in the dress of a bridesmaid—a beauty that somehow had all but faded from my memory.

Long story short: third engagement’s a charm.:)

Sometimes I regret not having the simple relationship with Haley that I see others have—where they meet, date for a short time, and get married and know little apart from that. From start to present, our journey to arrive at our second anniversary has taken over ten years and is laden with struggles and strife, and grief and happiness. Yet, on the other hand, I am extremely grateful for the way in which our marriage has come about, for while others who are married in the more common way can affirm God as sovereign and might seem glimpses of his Providence here and there in their relationships, Haley and I cannot look at our relationship apart from the Providence of God. Every time that I look into her beautiful face and every time that I kiss her lips, I cannot do so rightly without thinking about my sovereign and merciful God.

But if Paul’s illustration utilizing the Pharaoh was not enough to convince us of the universality of this text, the apostle makes this point crystal clear at the end of his most difficult passage concerning the sovereignty of God, viz. vv. 9:19-23, writing, “What if God [did these things] … to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory—even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles?” (vv. 9:22-24). Paul demonstrates in these verses that not only are the Gentiles included in his election, but that God had deemed it that some Gentiles, just like some Jews, would be vessels of mercy and some would be vessels of wrath beforehand, i.e. before the foundation of the world (cf. Eph. 1:4).

Then there are others who object, “This is hypothetical; the apostle makes this so by using ‘what if’ at the beginning of his declaration.” This objection is ridiculous as well, for it is obvious that, one, the form of the question is a rhetorical response to the haughty who think themselves wise enough to question God in v. 9:19, two, the previous context of vv. 9:6-18 drives us to the apostle’s present conclusion, and three, the apostle’s quotation from Hosea serves to demonstrate the point that he had just made in vv. 9:19-24. He writes:

As indeed he says in Hosea, “Those who were not my people I will call ‘my people,’ and her who was not beloved I will call ‘beloved.’ And in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ there they will be called ‘sons of the living God’” (vv. 9:25, 26; cf. Hos. 2:23).

In this, Paul demonstrates, not only that God calls Gentiles to be his children, but that it has always been the intention of his Promise to call out a people that consisted of both Jews and Gentiles to himself.

This calling of both the Jew and Gentile to sonship has nothing to do with the disobedience of Israel or with the worthiness of the Gentiles, but it has everything to do with the good and sovereign pleasure of God. Before we as Gentiles boast over Israel and before we ridicule them for their Old Testament follies and their murder of the Messiah, we must behold and accept the silencing doctrine of God’s election. Were is not for God’s grace and his sustaining power, we who are the called would certainly become like Sodom and Gomorrah (cf. 9:29). Praise him!

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.