|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| CHRIST SAVES ONLY HIS PEOPLE | |||||||||||||||
| Consider the story of "Joe" and "Fred". God chose Joe to be saved and enjoy eternity in Heaven, but He left Fred in his sins, and ultimately damned Fred to Hell forevermore. Consider the Bible's teaching that God chooses, or "elects" people not because of what they do, but solely out of His sovereign good pleasure. | |||||||||||||||
| Many folks who cling to false, works-oriented gospels protest this Biblical teaching, arguing, "Didn't Christ die for everybody? How then could God only choose some to be saved?" | |||||||||||||||
| This argument's fatal flaw is that Christ did not die for everyone. The Bible says Christ's atonement was only for His elect, that is, those whom God had chosen to be recipients of His salvation. We see this in Matthew 1:21, which says Jesus shall "save His people from their sins."Christ did not pay for everyone's sins. He paid for the sins of His people only. | |||||||||||||||
| Let's think this through a little further. If Christ had paid for the sins of every single human being, then absolutely no one could go to Hell. But the Bible insists that billions of people will be thrown into Hell on Judgment Day. God says in Revelation 20:12-15, "And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: . . . and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works . . . And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire." This passage and many others plainly teach that Hell will be full of the damned, who will be eternally paying for their own sins there. | |||||||||||||||
| Some argue that Christ paid for the sins of all yet sends some to Hell anyway. This is impossible, because then God would be an unjust Judge. He would be subjecting people to double-jeopardy. God's justice cannot require that sin be paid for twice -- once by Christ, and then a second time by the sinner. | |||||||||||||||
| Most importantly, if Christ had died for the sins of every single person, the fact that billions of people will end up in Hell would mean that Christ's sacrifice on the Cross was a dismal failure. If Christ had set out to save everyone, but failed and lost billions of souls to sin and Hell, then Christ would not be much of a Savior. | |||||||||||||||
| But Christ is the perfect Savior. Throughout history He has successfully saved every person He has intended to save. And He will yet save everyone He intends to save before He comes again. Isaiah writes of Christ, "He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities." Christ shall be satisfied because no one for whom His soul travailed will fail to become saved. If some were in Hell for whom He had died to save, he certainly would not be satisfied, would He? | |||||||||||||||
| "All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out." John 6:37. | |||||||||||||||