Efforts have been made to establish and affirm one very important and straightforward concept that permeates Scripture, and the New Testament in particular. It is so straightforward and plain one should feel embarrassed not to acknowledge it. Christ died a substitutionary death for the sins of, and on behalf of, the entirety of the human race, past, present, and future. No exceptions. Insisting that Christ died for all does require the redemption of all humanity. This is because the sin of Adam resulted in the falleness of all humanity. No exceptions. Christ’s sacrificial death was equally effective in providing redemption for all humanity, as Adam’s sin was in producing ruination for all humanity. However, we again emphasize that the corporate redemption of humanity Christ provided does not render all of humanity saved, but did make all of humanity savable. While Christ’s corporate redemption reflects the love and grace of God for humanity, it deals only with God’s blanket provision for humanity. This is God’s part of the plan. But because we humans have been individually gifted by God with a personal volition, or will, man’s part of that plan is his responsibility for responding to God’s part. This human and personal response, activated by the individual will, is called “faith.” Faith is belief, trust, reliance, commitment to what God did through Christ. Man is saved by grace alone through faith alone. This is not faith in faith. Faith must have an object in which it is deposited, and, in Christianity, that object is a Person, and the Person is Jesus Christ.
All kinds of people have faith, or confidence, in all kinds of things…things they believe will make them acceptable to God. The Bible declares repeatedly that it is faith in Christ…who He was, why He came, what He did, and why He matters so very much…that alone saves. Human faith deposited in any other person or thing cannot and will not save anyone. Only Christ can save. That is why He and He alone is designated the “Savior”. He is “Savior” exclusively. He alone is qualified to own that title, and He paid ever so dearly for that right.
When John the Baptist saw Jesus coming toward Him, He uttered those electrifying words, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” It was a prophetic statement that was to be realized three and a half years from the time John declared it. The fulfillment would come when Jesus was being crucified and cried out from the Cross, “It is finished.” The great transaction was done. Christ, in His own Person, willingly took upon Himself that which His Father sent Him to do. He who knew no sin, was made to be sin so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. This singular, glorious truth is called “the Gospel”, and believing it is to the personal salvation of the soul. Christ’s gracious provision includes all.
CC 10-19
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