Sovereign Grace Bible Church
These are the sermons and teachings of Sovereign Grace Bible Church in Biggsville, Illinois. We exist to fulfill the Great Commission through the Great Commandment within Gospel Community.
Sovereign Grace Bible Church
The Complete Atonement
The doctrine of Complete Atonement addresses a profound theological question: How can God be both perfectly just in punishing sin and merciful in saving sinners? This exploration of Romans 3:21-28 reveals the heart of the gospel—Christ's sacrifice fully satisfies God's righteous requirements, providing believers with complete forgiveness.
Understanding atonement transforms our spiritual journey from anxious performance to grateful rest. When Jesus said, "It is finished," He meant it completely. His sacrifice wasn't just a down payment requiring our additional works to complete the transaction. Rather, believers are clothed in Christ's perfect righteousness, freed from the exhausting cycle of trying to maintain salvation through good behavior.
The message distinguishes between three views of atonement: universal (everyone will be saved), potential (Christ's death makes salvation possible), and complete (Christ's death definitively saves the elect). This third perspective doesn't limit the value of Christ's blood but acknowledges the biblical truth that Jesus laid down His life specifically "for the sheep."
This doctrine liberates us from shame-based religion. Like the pastor's personal story of losing patience with his son and feeling condemned, we all face moments where guilt threatens to define us. Complete atonement reminds us our identity isn't found in perfect performance but in Christ's perfect work applied to our imperfect lives.
Ready to experience the freedom of complete forgiveness? Join us as we explore how Christ's finished work transforms our relationship with God from fear to eager anticipation of His return.
We continue in what's called the Doctrines of Grace. This week we are in the sea for grace. So we began with God's sovereignty and election that he chose before the foundation of the earth who he would save. We then began with radical corruption after that and said there's a problem in each and every one of our hearts that makes us desperately desire that election that God chose us, because we are not worthy on our own. And then the last week we preached, we talked about accomplishing grace and that when God chooses someone, his grace accomplishes its goal. They are saved and not kicking, dragging, screaming into heaven, but rather he gives them a new heart that desires heaven, that desires Christ, that desires the things of God instead of the things of this world. And today we're at the C, which is complete atonement, and that is very important because this is going to answer the question of wait a second. If the R is correct and there is this radical corruption inside of me and the Bible says repeatedly that without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins, that without sacrifice there can be no reconciliation between us and Christ, how can God be both just and punish our sin and the justifier and allow us to come in. That is the question we will be wrestling with today. Is Jesus atonement? And then at the end here we'll talk about the completeness of it. Is it this potential Hopefully somebody will take an atonement or or is it specifically personally for you that he died?
Speaker 1:Go ahead and turn with me in your Bibles to Romans, chapter 3. We were in the radical corruption sermon. I'm sure you remember this portion because we went through a handful of verses about how the human is just. They have a throat that's an open grave. There's poison under their tongue. No one seeks after God. There's no one righteous, no, not one. There's no fear of God in their eyes. And what's cool to look at this and to see that Paul, directly after that, gives us this. But now, so we have this transition piece, like yeah, all humanity has dug themselves into the deepest pit you've ever done seen. Okay, but now let's read the good news together. This is God's holy word. Romans, chapter 3, verses 21 through 28.
Speaker 1: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. 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. Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith, for we hold that one is justified by faith, apart from works of the law.
Speaker 1:Now, this has been called the heart of the book of Romans, that if there's a most important part of Romans to understand, this is it. And Romans is considered the heart of the gospel, that within all of Romans you understand the entirety of the gospel. So we are within the most important book on the gospel and the most important section on the gospel. And if you're like me and you read that for the first time, you probably looked at that and said there's some big words and there's a lot of whoop-de-doos and I didn't follow the line. I didn't follow the line here. Okay, there was way too many run-on sentences, way too many commas. There's a dash in there somewhere, like I don't. I can't comprehend this easily, so we'll break it down, as we do, verse by verse through this text. So start with me in verse 21. We had this negativity in the beginning, this bad news, and we read now but now the righteousness of God has been manifested, apart from the law. So we'll stop there.
Speaker 1:The first thing I want you to see is that the law is good, that God's law is righteous. You see, you and I I grew up, at least in like the typical everyday common American church where, like the Ten Commandments were like your bad list, like God is holding this over you and you've got to perform at this level. We have to understand that God's law is perfect, that his righteous requirements are for our good and it's not restraining us from something enjoyable. Rather, it's like a parent telling a child to not touch a burning oven, saying don't touch that and the child being like you're withholding me from fun and what I want to do, and you're like okay, and that's us with our sin. When we say no to God's law, we're the nincompoop touching the burning stove and a lot of us have very dense skin and so it takes a lot of burns before we get the point of oh, that's why you don't do that. It takes quite a while and by God's grace it's shown to us. But the righteousness of God is manifested, it's shown, it's proved in his law, so it's not bad. God's rules and regulations for life are life-giving, not life-taking.
Speaker 1:Now we see that there's a split off here, that in the beginning, here God's law shows that God is holy, that he is good. But now there's something else that's branched off. What is that? Well, it says, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it that is proving a point here that the entire Old Testament points to Jesus, that when Jesus is walking with the disciples after he rose again and he's teaching them all about himself in the Old Testament, that wasn't a fluke. He wasn't having to work really hard to find a couple of verses that the entirety of the Old Testament bears witness. Specifically now to this aspect of God's righteousness Verse 22,. They bore witness to the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. That is good news, that the gospel is not this new news where, like in the old testament, it was like man, like you're really just stuck, I'm sorry, just keep sacrificing animals. And hopefully it'll kind of work out a little bit that throughout the entirety of humanity's existence, before the beginning of time, even the gospel was prepared in advance. Now that it's being proclaimed we can see this and say the righteousness of God is found in Jesus Christ, but it is applied through faith to all who believe.
Speaker 1:And what's, what is what is faith? What is believing? We say there's three tiers. Right, you gotta do all three. The beginning of faith is just knowing something. It's just intellectually knowing it right. One of my favorite questions to ask anyone that's a Christian, non-christian, anything is just what is the gospel? If you've hung out with me at all, you know that's true. I say, hey, can you just tell me what the gospel is? And I will tell you that 90% of people they're going to have a hard time. The gospel can be known intellectually and that's just the beginning. The next stage of faith, the complete faith, is to agree with it, is to say you know what. That is right. I am not worthy of heaven on my own. I do sin, I do fall short of the glory of God. I need a Savior, and that Savior is Jesus Christ. That's the second stage, and the third stage of faith. Where it is complete and it's saving faith is when we put our trust in it atonement. What we're talking about now that last stage.
Speaker 1:I always compare to a chair. You had a child that like we've had their first carpentry project. They're like mom dad, look, I made you a chair, it's their first wood project. They're like Mom Dad, look, I made you a chair, it's their first wood project. They're like my teacher checked it out and it's all good to go. There is a portion of you that can know my child made that and it was approved by a teacher and they can say it's safe, go ahead and sit in it. And there's a part where you can say I agree with you, it's probably safe. There's a whole different level here to sitting down without kind of making sure I don't die on the way down. In the same way, faith is like that. It doesn't. You don't just need to know, you don't need to just agree, you need to go as far as actually trusting, sitting in the chair, wholeheartedly, unequivocally, unchangeably, just sitting and trusting.
Speaker 1:Now, the righteousness of God is shown through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. Why is that important? Continue Four there is no distinction. There's no special people. There are no holier than thou's. There's not the churchy people and the non-churchy people. There's not the pretty people and the ugly people. There's no distinction.
Speaker 1:Why Verse 23,? For all have sinned. Okay, I'm going to ask you a question how many sinned? That's right. All have sinned. Every single body, nobody, nobody is excluded. Everybody has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
Speaker 1:And again, when we have this immature view, we say, okay, god's glory, I get it, he's shining up there, he's got the lights going on and he's just awesome. You're like no, no, no. What you don't understand is again that connection that God's glory is your ultimate good, that falling short of God's glory hurts you and it doesn't hurt God at all. Like God's good, you can fall short of his glory and he is not hurt by that. And yet your life is in ruins because of it. Living for God's glory is your ultimate good, is your purpose in life. As I ask my children on a regular basis. What is your purpose in life? And they will say it is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever. That is, if I was three and someone had taught me that, that would have been helpful, I think later on in life, when I went on my journey through life and indulged in every sin, you can think of. My purpose is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever, verse 24,.
Speaker 1:But those that have sinned. There's no distinction in them. Why? Because they are and are justified by his grace as a gift. So there's not like the really good Christians who worked really hard and they got a better salvation than you got. And there's not like the scraping by Christians who like I don't know, man, that guy's a little rough, like he's just barely in. I think Like, if salvation's a door, he like made it in by a hair. No, there is no distinction. Everyone's fallen all the way down and God has picked everyone up perfectly. There is no distinction and it is a gift. What do you do to receive a gift? Do you work harder than the next person? Because we see gift and we think like reward, trophy. We're like, yeah, I get salvation as a gift, so I'm going to work for this thing. I'm going to make it happen.
Speaker 1:Salvation is a gift, and to be justified that word justified means to be declared righteous. It's a legal term that means that you were declared guilty and now you're declared scot-free. There is nothing more you need to do no payment, no guilt, no shame, no requirements. Declared righteous the way. We always remember that too, like the three stages of salvation here justification, sanctification and glorification Big words. Justification is just the freedom from the penalty of sin. Sanctification is the ongoing freedom from the power of sin. Sanctification is the ongoing freedom from the power of sin in your life. And glorification is one day when you and I are in heaven and we're free from even the very presence of sin. Those are good markers to help remind us of this journey that we're on Now.
Speaker 1:This gift, how is it given? It is given continuing in verse 24, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, to redeem something. The only way we know that is coupons. Redeem your coupon. What does that mean? It means to cash this in so you give me something. The redemption in Christ is to cash in on faith and to get your soul for eternity with Christ in heaven. That's a good coupon, that's a real good coupon.
Speaker 1:The redemption in Christ is the gift through which grace, unearned favor, is given to us and we are justified, declared righteous. When we are guilty and have nothing to give, god out of pure love, he saves us and declares us not what we are in ourselves, but what we are in Christ. Now, verse 25, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood. That word's built in the big word there. I didn't add that one, that one's there Propitiation.
Speaker 1:The easiest way to understand that is the satisfaction of God's wrath, that God has a judgment that is looming over sin and that, as Christ's redemption is applied to the believer, there is now a satisfaction of that penalty and no longer is judgment hovering over them, which is really good, because you and I I don't know if you were taught this or not I actually, for my own shame, taught my wife this when she was first a believer, because I didn't know any better. I used to tell her don't worry, one day in heaven, god Jesus paid for everything. So you'll have this moment of judgment where, like, there's like a pile of your sin all in front of you and it's ugly and it's stinky and you're just like crushed under the weight of it almost. But then Jesus will come over and he'll just wipe the slate clean and you'll be good to go. I'll never forget her asking why do I have to see the pile after I'm saved Like whoo? And I was like that's just how it works. Okay, someone told me when I was like probably 10, that that was the truth and since then it has been truth. Okay, that is not the truth. My dear friends, when you die, when you go to heaven, when Christ returns, whatever happens first, you are already clean, you are already closed in the righteousness of Christ.
Speaker 1:In 2 Corinthians 5, verse 21,. It says that God made Jesus to be sin so that we might become the righteousness of God in him, in Christ. What does it mean for Jesus to be made sin? He didn't actually become alcoholism or something on the cross. He didn't become alcoholism. He wasn't Hitler on the cross. What happened? It means that when Jesus was on the cross, god treated him as every sin that you and I have ever and will ever commit, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him, so that you and I were not treated as all of the sins you committed yesterday or on your way to church today but are rather always, perfectly, unchangeably treated as Christ's perfect life.
Speaker 1:And there's freedom in that, because you and I, we fail daily and we're taught a works-based righteousness where you and I are to look at our lives and say I'm feeling pretty good right now, but if I commit a really bad sin, then I go down on the graph and I need to do some prayers or some exercises or some works, I need to go serve the homeless and then I'll be back up where I need to be and that is exhausting. No one can keep up with. Trying to keep up their salvation. You will fail, falter and fall short. You will fail, falter and fall short.
Speaker 1:That is why the word propitiation even though it's big and sounds weird and we don't I mean like the first time you read that, you're like propel water, like I got nothing, man, that word is so comforting because the payment has been satisfied. I don't owe a bill in heaven. God doesn't look at me like well, it's time to pay up. You better hope Jesus comes through at the end. It has already been paid by his blood and it is received by faith. Okay, what is this satisfaction received by? It's received by faith. Let's try it again. What is this satisfaction received by? It's received by faith. That's right, that was better. It is received by faith. That is how we are saved. It's not through this giant journey, it's not through attending church, it's not through being a good person. It's through believing that Jesus was the only perfect person and that he died for you when you did nothing for him, and he satisfied God's righteous requirement for your life.
Speaker 1:Now, why did this happen? Continue in verse 25. This was to show God's righteousness. That doesn't make any sense. Continue Because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. So what we see in this text is that you and I will read the Old Testament sometimes, or we've heard people talk about the Old Testament and they'll say things like man, the God of the Old Testament's mean, he's aggressive, he just hellfire and brimstones people. And if you actually look at it logically and read from the beginning to the end of the Old Testament, you'll see that, like over 90% of the time when someone should die, they don't. God just passes over again and again and again. And Jesus hasn't come yet. And so it's looking forward to the gospel that God overlooks these sins in the Old Testament as his people fail again and again and he doesn't give them what they deserve, what he said. He't give them what they deserve. What he said he would give them. It's because he knew what was going to happen His son would die in our place, and that is what shows his righteousness at the present time. Is that God overlooked in the past what was done. Looking forward to the cross and in the same way, but much better, you and I get to look backwards and say, oh, I see the whole picture Back. Then they're like I think this guy's coming, he's going to be a Messiah, he's going to die or something. I'm not sure, but somehow this is going to work out and I'm going to trust you and I get to just look at it and say, oh, no, no, no, I know the guy. His name's Jesus. I know what he did because it tells me and I can have security in that, knowing that God was gracious to me and knew I was probably too weak to be born before the cross and that I needed to know like, no, there really was a cross. Jesus already paid the penalty. You're good to go.
Speaker 1:Verse 27,. Paul asks his questions and says then what becomes of our boasting Right, being proud of our lives, saying lots of good things about ourselves. What becomes of that if the only reason that we are good, the only reason that we're saved, the only reason that we're not paying the ultimate penalty, is because Jesus died and then gave it to us for free? What do you have to boast in? And the answer is nothing. It's like the person that wins the lottery and buys a brand new car and is like look what I did. You're like you received free money and then bought a car with that free money. Do you want a clap? Do you want a pat on the back? Like I'm confused? I'm confused. You're talking to me like you built a business over decades and you're like I'm going to retire now. Why are you proud of what you did not earn? And that's the answer that we cannot be proud of that.
Speaker 1:Now Paul says it is excluded. There's no boasting, none. By what kind of law? Right? Where does the boasting go? Why does it go away? Is it because of a law of works? No, it is the law of faith. What does that mean? Verse 28. For we hold that one is justified by faith, apart from works of the law. So anytime someone says to you you need to do more works, you need to do more prayers, you need to serve more so that you can be secure in your salvation, so that you can know you're saved, so that you can appease God. You can just take them to Romans 3 and say God says I can't work enough, but that Jesus already paid the penalty.
Speaker 1:And when we look at the word atonement there, the word atonement is not explicitly in this text, but this entire text is speaking of it, christ's atonement. The best way I like to describe this is just to break down the word at-one-ment. So what it does is it takes two parties that are separated by some sort of disagreement, pain whatever, and it takes them and it brings them back together. So an atonement pays a penalty that was separating two people in order that they might be back in right standing with each other, in a perfect relationship with each other. And what we see in this text is that Christ has perfectly atoned for our sins, that there's not a question mark of Christ. Did most of the work Now you need to do some of it. Did most of the work now you need to do some of it. That there's not a lasting penalty that you and I got to work towards, but that Christ has fulfilled it all and we are justified, declared righteous, by faith and by faith alone, which is why we say, with the old age of church history, that we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone in Jesus, christ alone, according to scripture, alone for the glory of God alone. Now, with this, we can look at this text and we need to transition over to Hebrews, chapter 9. If you want to flip there, you can, or you have a slide in your binder and it speaks of Christ, where he currently is.
Speaker 1:Verse 24 of chapter nine in Hebrews, going through 28, says for Christ has entered not into holy places made with hands which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own, for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all, at the end of the ages, to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself, and just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment. So Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin, but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him. That's us, that's us. We are eagerly waiting for him.
Speaker 1:Christ has entered into heaven. He's not in some limbo, he's not in a church building, he's not in the temple in Jerusalem. He is in heaven already. He doesn't have to continually pay our debts. His blood was worth so much. It already paid for everything in full. Now, where is that? Verse 27 says just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes a judgment.
Speaker 1:So, christ, so again, pause there, you and I. It is guaranteed right. A hundred people out of a hundred people die eventually. Okay, once they die, what happens? Judgment, right. And so that's my terrible counseling with Bree back in the day. I stopped there, I was like you die. And then judgment, like what are you going to do? Look at the comfort. I stopped there. I was like you die. And then judgment, like what are you going to do? Look at the comfort here, verse 28.
Speaker 1:So Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time. He's coming back not to deal with sin, Not to do with you on your worst day, right? We don't have to fear that when he comes back, it's like, man, if I had a bad day on the day that jesus comes back, like that's gonna be embarrassing, like no, no, no, no, he's not coming back to deal with sin. He's coming back to save those who are eagerly waiting for him. They're not anxiously waiting for him. They're not scared, like, oh, he's gonna come back. And I'm in a really bad spot. Lately I've been really angry with my kids. Lately I've been having a hard time, and you and I again, we need to look at this, the entirety, from Romans chapter three to Hebrews nine, and we need to renew our minds in this.
Speaker 1:I'll share a story with you that happened this last week. It was sanctifying. I'll share a story with you that happened this last week. It was sanctifying. I took my three children. Bree was at home. I took my three children to Chick-fil-A, as all good parents do from time to time. We went through the drive-thru because there's no way we're all getting out of the car and getting back into it, and so we went through the drive-thru and we parked in the parking lot and I opened the doors and I start handing out food to kids.
Speaker 1:While I'm doing that, these two women pull up with a little baby and they're giving me like a weird eye and I'm like, hi, I'm gonna keep feeding my kids now, and my son is built like me, and so what that means is I gave him a water cup with ice in it, the whole thing thing and said, bob, be careful. And he looked at me and very honorably said okay, dada, I was like good job, buddy, I'm reaching over him to hand something else. And right when I do that, he just bare paws the water and the ice and the water go flying up over me and him and it's. It wasn't fun. So I yell, I'm like, ah, bob, what are you doing?
Speaker 1:At that exact moment the two women were walking away, but now they're turning around to investigate the angry dad. So I look at bob and I didn't see that. Yet I look at bob and I'm like bob, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have yelled like that. It was cold, I wasn't expecting it, but that I was probably frustrated too. That was wrong. Will you please forgive me, my son. He said I forgive you. I'm like okay, we're good At that point we're good.
Speaker 1:But now I'm not good with these ladies staring into my van coming back out of Chick-fil-A to look into our van and I'm like maybe they're not coming to like check on me, maybe they're going back to their car. And I realized they're coming straight for our van slowly, kind of like looking in the window, and I realized I need to talk to them. So I stand up over the van. I'm like can I help you? Like what's going on? And they said we just heard you yelling at your son and we wanted to make sure everyone was okay. And I was like, oh, I'm an abusive parent, okay, should I tell her I have a church plant now. Is this a good time to say, like a softball pitch, like hey, do you want to go to church tomorrow? So you can imagine I'm like disdaining the moment and I'm like look me and my son. We already made things right, okay, and you're acting like you don't yell sometimes. And I'm getting defensive in my heart. They already left and I had to sit in the front seat of my van for like five minutes and deal with myself, cause I'm like I'm a terrible father.
Speaker 1:I can't even like get my son a water and he spills something and I freak out so bad that the public's like is your children safe? That's who I am and I'm supposed to go over and be a Mr Pastor man and go preach Like you gotta be kidding me. And I had to counsel myself on Christ's perfect atonement and then he paid for this sinner's failure to love his son and to use self-control. It took probably more than five minutes, if we're being honest, because I wanted to beat myself up. I wanted to sit there in a cage of my own shame and guilt and say what's wrong with you? At this age, at this maturity, with the children you have, you would fail like this. And I was forgetting to apply the gospel to this sinful life and to say my identity is not found in making sure those women don't think I'm an abusive parent. My identity is found in the fact that Christ has adopted me. And I said you are my son, in whom I am well pleased. And you're like no, that's what he said to Jesus. And you're like no, no, no, you are now in Christ and your life pleases God, even when you fail. And you don't come and listen to a pastor who's above you and better than you. I'll tell you all the stories of my life as I learn these lessons and share with you how God is sanctifying me, degree by degree, and together we'll continue on this journey, looking to Christ as Savior, and not this man or the other man, or any other man you can replace man with Dan, if you'd like, that's fine too or any other man. You can replace man with Dan, if you'd like. That's fine too.
Speaker 1:Now, when we look at the atonement, there are three views. You have slides for these. We have universal, potential and complete. So the first one is universal atonement. This is the idea that Jesus' death was an actual atonement for the sin of all people, with the result that all people will be saved. This is called a heresy. You cannot believe this and be saved.
Speaker 1:Christ's atonement does not save everybody because somebody goes to hell. We know this for a fact. People go to hell, and to claim that Jesus paid for the sins of somebody in hell is a lot like you going to your buddy who's in jail, paying his bail and then them saying he's got to stay. You're like that's not. No, that's not. That's not how the law works. So if he has bail and I pay it, you let him go. That's the rule.
Speaker 1:So to look at Christ's atonement, his payment of the penalty of sin, and to say everybody's, you get salvation and you get salvation everybody's got it is foolish and unbiblical. People do die and go to hell. Otherwise there would be no urgency of the gospel, there'd be no reason to tell your kids the truth. Anybody let them hang out, go indulge in sin, have a terrible life, because who cares? We're all going to die and go to heaven Makes no sense. Universal atonement is a lie. It is false.
Speaker 1:Next is potential atonement. So this says that Jesus's death was not an actual atonement, but only something that makes atonement possible. The atonement becomes actual when the sinner repents and believes in Jesus. All right, so we're gonna look at those two stages there. Okay, this viewpoint says that Jesus' death was not an actual payment. It's like a promissory note of like I will pay for whoever comes and grabs this promissory note. Who does the work then? Right, if the atonement is not complete? Right, if the atonement is not complete, it's not actually paid until you go and grab it. Has Christ done all of the work, or did he do 95% and you're doing five? What kind of gift do you have to work 5% for Not a true gift. So potential atonement, we would say, is an error.
Speaker 1:So many people believe in this concept of the atonement. But you can believe this and still be saved and everything's okay. This is not a reason to disagree with somebody and be like you're getting the spiritual elbow. I don't know where that came from. Don't repeat that Now. Jesus' death was not an actual atonement, but only makes it possible. Is the second idea.
Speaker 1:The third idea is what we're calling complete atonement, and that's the idea that Jesus' death was an actual atonement for the sins of God's elect people, with the result that only God's elect are delivered from the penalty of sin. So let's break that down real quick. What this means is that we believe that Jesus paid a penalty. He paid it for those who were elected, who were chosen before the foundation of the world and them, only For us to say that the whole world's going to be saved, or the whole world could be saved, and go back to that potential atonement, which is way more comfortable. By the way, potential atonement is like way easier. You're like yeah, it's cool, it's great, like take it, don't take it, it's all good.
Speaker 1:The problem with that versus this is, if we believe in complete atonement, we say Jesus only printed 10 million stickers and those that get the 10 million that he already chose and knew and loved will be saved. If we believe in the other one of potential atonement, what we have to come to terms with is we agree with the fact that it was possible for Jesus to die and for no one to be saved? I want you to imagine that, that God himself who controls everything and knows everything. If the atonement's only potential, you have to agree that it's possible that no one could be saved. Now, imagine a world like that. That is why we believe in a big God at this church, a God that is in control and we don't mix the two right. We talked about that a couple weeks ago like human responsibility and God's sovereignty. We don't mix the two right. These are like oil and vinegar that are supposed to stay in separate jars, but they both exist and they're supposed to be together, like right next to each other. Christ's atonement was complete. There's nothing to be added to it, and he paid specifically for you. So here's a sentence that's been popular since I don't know, 1, 1500 years ago or something like that, that christ's death is sufficient for the whole world but is efficient for the elect only. It's the idea that god we don't limit the the value of christ's blood in his death. We say, if god wanted to, that blood is worth everybody and everything. But we say that the payment is only effective for those whom God has chosen to save. When you look at Jesus' specific language here at the end, this might help a little bit with understanding the centrality of the atonement that it's specifically, intentionally, personally for a group of people.
Speaker 1:John, chapter 10, verses 11 and 26,. Jesus says I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays his life down, his life for the sheep Verse 26,. But you do not believe because you are not among my sheep. The common picture in the Bible is that of sheep and goats and the idea being that goats are those that are not saved and sheep are those that are saved. Right, if you have like goats out in a pasture and you try to hurt them like sheep, it ain't going to work well for you. They are jumpy, they're good, they will get away from you Good Sheep a lot easier. So Jesus is saying a distinction here. The shepherd lays his life down specifically for the sheep.
Speaker 1:John 17 is the greatest prayer that's ever been prayed. Jesus is talking to God and says since you have given him Jesus authority over all flesh to give eternal life to all whom you have given him, the idea being, there's a specific transaction that's happening where, as a love gift, god is giving Christ a people, a church and that's why, in Ephesians 5, it refers to the church as a bride that one day you and I will be in heaven and this perfect, healthy relationship with Christ, where he will hold us and take care of us and we will never have any concerns or worries. But then again, there's this distinction on the outside. Verse nine Jesus is talking to God in the greatest prayer ever prayed. He says I am praying for them, the sheep. I am not praying for the world, but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours.
Speaker 1:You'll see a quote on the front of your packet for this week. It's an old quote, so it has like a Dolph in there. That means, doesn't the idea being very clearly here? Christ's ministry is to intercede currently on our behalf? It means he prays for us in heaven to God, the Father, and says no, no, no, father. I know what that's like. I understand, I know that pain and he intercedes for us. What Jesus is saying here I don't pray for the world Now it doesn't mean that Jesus isn't praying for people's salvation. It doesn't mean that anything like that.
Speaker 1:What this is trying to prove a point of is that his ministry is specifically at this moment to those who are saved, that you and I have been given the keys to the kingdom, which is the gospel, the good news to go forth and to tell people about Jesus, to tell people the good news, but that Jesus prays only for his sheep.
Speaker 1:They are his chosen, beloved people, and if you have many questions on all of this, we'd love to see you tonight. Let's go ahead and pray. Father, thank you so much for your perfect sacrifice. Thank you that you have been so kind and gracious and patient with us, that, even when we didn't understand, even when we didn't agree, that you gave us a new heart, that you paid the penalty, that you laid down your life as the good shepherd. Lord, help us to live a life of gratitude and thankfulness for your sacrifice, to walk around with open hands, holding our homes, our lives, our work, our relationships, our things, especially our things and to say God things, especially our things, and to say God, if you give, that's amazing, and if you take away, that's amazing too. Help us to live a life of sacrifice in your honor, for your glory and for our good. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
