Ezekiel 28:2 NASB“Son of man, say to the leader of Tyre, ‘Thus says the Lord God, “Because your heart is lifted up And you have said, ‘I am a god, I sit in the seat of gods In the heart of the seas’; Yet you are a man and not God, Although you make your heart like the heart of God—Ezekiel 28:9 NASB‘Will you still say, “I am a god,” In the presence of your slayer, Though you are a man and not God, In the hands of those who wound you?
Rather the
atonement of Jesus Christ forgives and cleanses from all degrees of the deep
sinfulness of sin (2 Cor. 5:19). The
misery of the sinner is enhanced through greater degrees of wicked doctrine
(Rom. 3:16). The only true God is the One who exists from
everlasting to everlasting (Ps. 41:13; 106:48).
That is, only God has the right to be worshiped because He alone is
scripturally self-existent (Rev. 4:8). Man
loves to elevate himself over God because this is the idolatry of the “master”
of sinners. Man’s sin is also thinking
he can be “over-righteous” to add to the perfect and unified righteousness of
Christ alone (Ecc. 7:16; Phil. 3:9). Indeed, it is a sin to be
over-righteous. That is, it is the extreme
sin of Orthodoxy is to add godhood to the gospel of atonement and it is the sin
of Romanism to even suggest that a totally corrupt sinner can do “extra merit.” The written Word excludes all “meritorious
righteousness” known as the Roman teaching of “supererogation.” The Bible’s teaching is that Christ alone (Gal. 2ff) is
how we are right with God (Rom 4ff).
Are you godlier than
Noah, Daniel and Job? They did not have
this teaching “extra merit.” For the
divine Word says:
Ezekiel 14:14 KJVThough these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they should deliver but their own souls by their righteousness, saith the Lord God.Ezekiel 14:20 KJVThough Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it, as I live, saith the Lord God, they shall deliver neither son nor daughter; they shall but deliver their own souls by their righteousness.
It was the
idolatry of Satan to rise above God (Is. 14:12-14) and those who want to be equal to Him
(Gen. 3:5). Every time we sin we exalt
ourselves over the absolute holiness of God.
Sin also includes false
doctrine! The written God-Breathed
Scriptures say that doctrine ought to be a good work (2 Tim. 3:16-17).
Furthermore, the atonement alone makes us spiritually clean (1 Jn 1:7) because
of our radical cosmic treason in the
furtherance of the wickedness of wickedness (1 Sam. 24:13; Rom. 3ff).
The atonement of
Jesus is typified by the paschal lamb (Ex. 12:5, 11, 14; Jn 1:29; 1 Cor. 5:7) and the Day of Atonement
(Lev. 16:30,
34; Heb. 9:7-28). The atonement of
Christ deals with mankind as a complete sinner (Rom. 5:8), completely alienated from God (Col.
1:21) and cosmic strangers (Eph. 2:12).
The atonement of Christ demonstrates God’s love toward sinners (Jn 3:16; Rom 5:8) and the Father sends Christ to
save the elect alone (Gal. 4:4, 5) because the Father spared not His own
Beloved Son for His people (Rom. 8:32).
The atonement is intended for the elect alone (Rom. 9:11; Jn 19:30).
The atonement of Christ is not intended for the non-elect (Acts
13:6). The non-elect are false teachers
(1 Jn 4:1) that have brought destructive heresies in the local church (2 Pet.
2:1). For example, I will further
demonstrate the false practice of indulgences in Romanism. It adds to the all-exclusive expiation of the
atonement of our Creator and Savior Jesus Christ! The Bible says not to add or take away. According to the Bible, the false gospel of
indulgences cannot take away sin. This is something that adds to the gospel of
the atonement of our Savior!
The atonement of
Jesus is what Christ accomplished historically.
God the Son became man in Jesus Christ (Heb. 2:14) to become a ransom to the Father (Mt. 20:28) in order to die in the place of His
people (1 Pet. 3:18). He dies for the sin of God’s
people (1 Pet. 2:24) as a divine sacrifice and appeasing offering (Eph. 5:2). The Savior dies willingly for God’s people
(Jn 10:18)
and He alone had authority to take it up and lay it down (see again Jn 10:18).
God Incarnate reconciles us to God the Father (Rom. 5:10) and He alone has the supernatural
ability to bring us to God (1 Pet. 3:18).
Jesus restores the spiritual fellowship with God (1 Thess. 5:10).
The intention for
the atonement is for God’s elect alone (Mt 1:21) and atonement brings the sinner
forgiveness (Eph. 1:7). The atonement
also brings the complete wicked sinner peace with God (Rom. 5:1), reconciliation (2 Cor. 5:19), divine righteousness (2 Cor. 5:21), forensic justification (Rom. 3:24-26), complete access to God without a
sacramental priesthood (Eph. 2:18), divine cleansing (1 Jn 1:7), cosmic
liberty (Gal. 5:1), spiritual freedom from Satan (Heb. 2:14) and Christ’s
divine and all-trustworthy intercession (Heb. 2:17, 18).
The atonement of
Jesus Christ alone expiates sin, “As
far as the east is from the west, So far has He
removed our transgressions from
us” (Ps. 103:12 NASB). In reference to the Cross Spurgeon wrote,
"See how red your guilt is. Mark the scarlet stain. If you were to wash your soul in the Atlantic Ocean, you might incarnadine every wave that washes all its shores, and yet the crimson spots of your transgression would still remain. But plunge into the “fountain filled with blood, drawn from Immanuel’s veins,” and in an instant you are whiter than snow. Every speck, spot, and stain of sin is gone, and gone forever."
He again wrote,
"We are today accepted in the Beloved, today absolved from sin, today acquitted at the bar of God… We are now pardoned; even now are our sins put away; even now we stand in the sight of God accepted, as though we had never been guilty. “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.” There is not a sin in the Book of God, even now, against one of His people. Who dares to lay anything to their charge? There is neither speck, nor spot, nor wrinkle, nor any such thing remaining upon any one believer in the matter of justification in the sight of the Judge of all the earth."
John
Bunyan author of “Pilgrim’s Progress” wrote,
"No child of God sins to that degree as to make himself incapable of forgiveness."
We have seen the way God forgives
sin. Further John Chrysostom wrote, “By the cross we know the gravity of sin
and the greatness of God’s love toward us.” The
atonement is the exclusive center of true forgiveness and nothing else. Sinclair B. Ferguson author of “Grow in Grace”
wrote, “When Paul preached “the
cross” he preached a message which explained that this instrument of rejection
had been used by God as His instrument of reconciliation. Man’s means of bringing
death to Jesus was God’s means to bring life to the world. Man’s symbol of
rejecting Christ was God’s symbol of forgiveness for man. This is why Paul
boasted about the cross!” We dare not add works of satisfaction through
any spiritual practice. How is an
individual meritoriously purified? It is through the exclusive atonement of
Jesus Christ. For divine Scripture
says:
Hebrews 1:3 KJVWho being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high:Hebrews 9:22 KJVAnd almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.2 Peter 1:9 KJVBut he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.
Have you not seen that utter
agony of the Cross of Jesus? There is no
other crime as great as this cosmic offense.
Can you image an organization adding to the all-suffering, all-meritorious, all-expiating, all-necessary,
all-exclusive and all-agonizing death of Jesus Christ? JC Ryle wrote, “Take away the cross of Christ, and the Bible is a dark book.” For Rome denies that the Cross of Jesus Christ exclusively
expiates sin. For we read:
Christ’s redemptive activity finds its apogee in the death of sacrifice on the cross. On this account it is by excellence but not exclusively the efficient cause of our redemption....No one can be just to whom the merits of Christ’s passion have not been communicated. It is a fundamental doctrine of St. Paul that salvation can be acquired only by the grace merited by Christ (Ludwig Ott, Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma (Rockford: Tan, 1974), pp. 185, 190).
We read more on the blasphemy
of Rome’s teaching on the insufficiency of the atonement of
Jesus Christ by a convert to Catholicism,
What did Christ's suffering and death actually accomplish that allowed the Father to provide the human race with salvation? Did Christ take within himself the sin and guilt of mankind and suffer the specific punishment for that sin and guilt, as Protestants contend? The answer is no...Christ did not take upon himself the entire punishment required of man for sin. Rather, Scripture teaches only that Christ became a 'propitiation,' a 'sin offering,' or a 'sacrifice' for sins...Essentially, this means that Christ, because he was guiltless, sin-free and in favor with God, could offer himself up as a means of persuading God to relent of his angry wrath against the sins of mankind. Sin destroys God's creation. God, who is a passionate and sensitive being, is angry against man for harming the creation. Anger against sin shows the personal side of God, for sin is a personal offense against him. We must not picture God as an unemotional courtroom judge who is personally unharmed by the sin of the offender brought before him. God is personally offended by sin and thus he needs to be personally appeased in order to offer a personal forgiveness. In keeping with his divine principles, his personal nature, and the magnitude of the sins of man, the only thing that God would allow to appease him was the suffering and death of the sinless representative of mankind, namely, Christ (Robert Sungenis, Not By Faith Alone (Santa Barbara: Queenship, 1997), pp. 107-108).
Rome teaches that the Roman practice of indulgences can
expiate or atone for sin (see the papal encyclical Indulgentiarum
Doctrina). This contradicts
the biblical and scriptural understanding of the written Word. Anything added to the person and work of
Jesus Christ demonstrates a clueless position.
We can say with great confidence, “Now
unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be
honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen” (1 Tim. 1:7 KJV). This is why we give God glory: that is,
His Cross is the only way for atonement.
Jesus said His satisfaction for sins is completely paid (Jn 19:30). If it is
completely paid, there is no need for spiritual additions to the Cross. We need only dwell on the perfect life and
death of Jesus Christ for how someone is right with God. The all-sufficiency of the Cross is enough to
totally expiate sin.
I suggest to you that the way
the Cross is described in the written Word is the exclusion of all things that
could be added to it (see Is. 53ff). Can
you imagine standing before Jesus and telling Him at the Last Day that His
suffering passion was not enough to be right with God? Really?
Are you serious? For His utmost agony
was completely superabundant; His utter misery was totally overwhelming; His extreme
punishment was utterly hyper-magnified; His abundant grief was super-suffering
through extraordinary efficacious pain; His super-pain was overly enhanced; His
profound misery was the deep depths of darknesses of the deepest pit of hell;
and His unmistakable super-extreme cruse-load (in His greatest act of cosmic obedience)
was because He became the utmost enemy of God so His people would be set completely
free through cosmic and radical treason
implied to Him alone so we might become the righteousness of God in Him alone
(2 Cor. 5:21) by faith alone (Eph. 2:8-9).
The Bible calls us to expose
the works of darkness, “Take no part in the unfruitful works of
darkness, but instead expose
them” (Eph. 5:11 KJV). We are all accountable to Him who sees everything
(Heb. 4:13). The Bible
calls us to repentance where we have gone wrong (Mk 1:15). JC Ryle
wrote on the need for repentance,
We need to be straitly warned, that it is no light matter whether we repent or not. We need to be reminded, that there is a hell as well as a heaven, and an everlasting punishment for the wicked, as well as everlasting life for the godly. We are fearfully apt to forget this. We talk of the love and mercy of God, and we do not remember sufficiently His justness and holiness. Let us be very careful on this point. It is no real kindness to keep back the terrors of the Lord. It is good for us all to be taught that it is possible to be lost forever, and that all unconverted people are hanging over the brink of the pit.
I conclude with Luther in 95
Theses:
Our Lord and Master Jesus Christ, in saying, Repent Ye, intended that the whole of the life of believers should be repentance.
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