77 Questions about the Atonement (Q&A #64)

64.     Doesn’t God predestine some people to be saved and others to be lost?

Good heavens, no!  God desires everyone to change their minds about Him and start trusting His Son Jesus.  He destines that all who acquiesce in faith and keep trusting the abundant testimonies and proofs He furnishes in Scripture and personal experience will happily end up as adopted sons and daughters, hence heirs of allotments in His impending Kingdom.  That’s His intended destiny for all who keep believing; that’s where the train’s goin’.  If anyone decides to pry open a safety door and jump from the train of God’s amazing deeds rumbling down the track toward His Kingdom, coupled to the thundering locomotive of His superabundant graciousness, fueled by the Holy Spirit’s inspired testimonies to the Cross-Resurrection-Pentecost events, it’s most certainly not God’s intention.  For in that sorrowful case a tragic destiny does regrettably commence activation and is to be avoided strenuously at all costs!  Why should we defect when God is offering free passage, all expenses paid?  We’re just along for the ride…if we care to stay instead of falling out.  God’s proposal in His resurrected Son Jesus Christ to our otherwise doomed species is just too good to be false!  This accounts for the apostle Paul’s urgently sensible plea to the whole human race:  “For Christ’s sake be conciliated to God!”

77 Questions about the Atonement (Q&A #49)

49.     Weren’t our sins forgiven at the Cross?

By no means.  Our sins are released as we trust the Savior—officially appointed so by resurrection from the dead—and then declare him Lord.  The Cross, in connection with its resurrectionary sequel, proves to humanity God’s willingness to pardon even our most heinous wrongs, and to lay aside punishment, provided we change our minds and turn back to Him in order to be legitimated as His royal daughters and sons.  Without learning about this Cross-Resurrection-Pentecost history, we would scarcely have the courage to approach the Almighty for the heartfelt forgiveness He has perennially been so eager to extend us.  We had not because we asked not, in our dark ignorance of the Most High.  Who says ignorance is bliss?!

77 Questions about the Atonement (Q&A #42)

42.     Does the atonement have a primarily Godward or manward focus?

The Levitical sin-offerings foreshadowed the terminating atrocity of the ancient nation of Israel, namely, the slaughter of the flawless, blameless Lamb of God.  This episode rightly evoked God’s virtually immediate response from heaven, i.e., restitution for the divine Victim with life immortal and surpassing honors.  Moreover, this cosmic overpayment, in truest fulfillment of the Mosaic Law concerning compensation to victims of offenses (miraculously extending its stipulation, for the occasion, even into the sphere of capital crime!), freely benefits all who merely accept it by faith.  This is how the cleansing that’s necessary to forestall God’s indignation gets accomplished in tangible terms.  But what would that be worth in practical terms unless, upon hearing the Proclamation of God’s graciousness in Christ, people are moved by the intrinsic potency of its Storyline to change their minds (repentance) and attitudes (conciliation) toward God, make a turnabout from their sins, and then get baptized to receive his gratuitous gift of Holy Spirit to wash them all away, down the drain of cosmic forgetfulness?  That’s the humanward trajectory of the Explanation-of-the-Cross = the Resurrection-from-the-dead.  Yet how could either of these have been emergent without the genuinely menacing role of the Adversary’s forces plying their black arts against the Light?  Still, they were no match for the martial art of the Cross.  So the atonement was not narrowly focused but radiated shock waves in all directions like a cosmic nebula.