When Jesus died on the cross whom did he die for?
It is an interesting question mainly because our first response to it is to reply: everyone. And such a reply seems so right but at the same time we must evaluate it in light of the revelation of Scripture. So who does the Bible say Jesus died for? “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her” Ephesians 5 v 25 In his letter to the Ephesians then Paul commands husbands to love their wives to the extent of being willing to die for them. But notice that Christ gave himself up (i.e. died) for the church. Christ did not die for everyone as our initial response would suggest but for his elect. “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep.” John 10 v 14 – 15
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“For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not simply with words, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction.”
1 Thessalonians 1 v 4 -5 The doctrine of Unconditional Election can be arrived at logically from the truth of Total Depravity. As we know that man is spiritual dead and cannot come to God, seek God, desire God or love God in any way, shape or form and we also know that Christians exist then God must work in some people through the Holy Spirit to bring them to him. Christians are only Christians because of God’s doing. Yet there are people who do not come to Christ therefore God must not work in them. For any work God chooses to do he will see to completion. Therefore there must be an elect, that is, a group of people God has chosen to bring to him. And there must be an unelected: a group of people God passes by. “As it is written: ‘There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.’”
Romans 3 v 10 – 12 The above verse is the foundation for the doctrine of total depravity. Simply put it means that man has a total inability to anything good or spiritual. Man in his fallen and sinful state neither understands nor seeks God. And in his natural state this will never change. Sin affects every single part of a man’s life including his ability to come to God. The curse of sin was a total curse that meant that man would never willing come to God. I've decided to let Mark Driscoll do the introduction to the basics of Calvinism & Arminianism. As he says both sides are Christians and our differences should not divide us but rather that we can discuss them which is what I plan to do. I'm now officially on my Easter Holidays and I thought I'd do something a little bit different with my blog and use my copious free time to write a series of posts on a particular subject.
So without further ado I announce my first holiday series on… Calvinism For the next three weeks I’ll be looking at the five doctrines of grace summarised by the mnemonic TULIP. For those that don’t know that means:
Of course writing about Calvinism inevitable means dealing with its opposite number: Arminianism. Happily enough this system also has five points:
Arminianism is almost completely different to Calvinism so I’ll be looking at Biblical evidence for Calvinism and the flaws within Arminianism. Why are you so immediately biased? I don’t see any point in pretending to be neutral on this subject. Arminianism is too man centred for me to ever accept. Calvinism is wonderfully God centred as I hope you’ll come to see over the next few posts. Again, as you read my posts you’ll see why I am so biased. I’m an Arminian Excellent, then I hope you’ll not feel put off and still read my posts. I encourage you to Biblically challenge what I have to say if you feel as though I’ve gone wrong. I’d also ask that you challenge yourself by reading my posts because we’re going to disagree quite a bit. I also encourage you to invite your friends to read my posts and feel free to email me with any questions. Why should I read you’re posts? Good question. There are definitely books out there that will explain it better. There are books out there that will give real in-depth discussions about Calvinism. The advantage my posts will have is that a) they’re free and b) they’re reasonably concise. Why is Calvinism so important? Calvinism is merely a theological system but it’s so important because it is a starting point to understanding the whole of Scripture, God’s plan for salvation and the world we live in today. Err on the doctrines of grace and we can err in our Christian lives. Getting Biblical truths clear in our minds is a vital part of growing spiritually. Therefore even if it is the holidays and you don’t feel like reading about theology I urge you to still do so. The Holiday Series starts on Wednesday with a post entitled: “Total Depravity – is it God who saves or me? |
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