The Death that Christ Died and its Purpose

The death Christ died is either a satisfaction for the sins of some men (Limited Atonement) or a satisfaction (in one sense or another) for the sins of all men without exception. It cannot be the former because the Scriptures say it was a satisfaction for the sins of the world:

1 John 2:2 "And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world."

John 1:29 "Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!"

Now this satisfaction for all must either be provisional or actual. Here it is to be noted that the 4 pt modified Dispensationalist Calvinists (those who do not believe in the L of TULIP) say that Christ's death was provisional for all men (the satisfaction contingent upon faith in Christ) and the 5 pter says that it was actual (yet limited only to the elect). I do not at all believe that his death was merely provisional, for then the passages that say it is a satisfaction must be qualified to mean it is only provisionally a satisfaction (which they DO NOT). Let us not jump too hastily into a false dilemma! There are not just these two options: provisional (for those who believe) or actual (but limited only for the elect).

The Calvinist believes that the death of Christ is an actual satisfaction but limited to the elect only.

I believe the Bible clearly teaches that the death of Christ is an actual satisfaction and this for the whole world, but it had a limited intent. The intent of Christ's death was to completely satisfy the justice of God in a limited and specific sense. Christ's death has freed God to unconditionally accept those who believe. It has completely taken sin out of the way as a barrier to His acceptance of the sinner. The purpose of Christ’s death was to remove all barriers to God's acceptance of the sinner. God's justice is now satisfied in the sense that He can now confer acceptance upon those sinners who believe.

The death of Christ was designed to satisfy the justice of God in the sense of freeing Him to unconditionally accept those who believe in Christ. God is not obligated by Christ's death to save anyone. He is freed by it to save whomever He pleases. And from what we read in 1 Cor 1:21, "it pleased God ... to save those who believe."

In John's well-known description of the Final Judgement, we do not even find a reference to sins. Instead we are told, "the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books" (Rev 20:12). To be sure the works of unsaved people contain innumerable sins, but it is still significant that sin per se is not referred to, as I intend to point out in a moment.

Yet even though unsaved people are judged on the basis of their works, they are not condemned to hell on that basis! On the contrary we read, "And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire" (Rev 20:15). People go to hell, therefore, because they do not have life!

This is precisely what we might have concluded from the theme statement of the Fourth Gospel: "but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name" (John 20:31). It is also evident in John 5:24 where our Lord states that the believer "shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life". We must conclude, therefore, that the possession of life is the critical issue between God and man in terms of eternal judgment. There is no final judgment to determine one’s eternal destiny if he already possesses life.

Sin is not the critical issue. Why not? John's own writings tell us why. Jesus is the "Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world". Jesus paid it all!

So marvelously complete and full is the sacrificial death of Christ for our sins that it satisfied fully God’s justice and no man is condemned to hell on the grounds of his sins. But by the same token, the cross of Christ does not automatically regenerate men and women. They still need to obtain life and this is available to them on one basis only: faith in Christ.

Thus one can see that the issue at the final judgment is not man’s sin, since Christ has atoned for that in its entirety. Instead, the issue is whether someone can make it into the kingdom of God on the basis of the works they did on earth, apart from the miracle of new birth that comes by faith alone. But as the Lord Jesus informed Nicodemus, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3).

It is true that men go to hell unforgiven. There is in no sense of my position that Christ’s death forgave the sins of the world. No. It took them out of the way as the barrier to God’s unconditional acceptance of the sinner. Eternal life and the reconciliation that it brings is the one and only critical issue between God and man.

This is going to be difficult for many to chew based upon 1) never hearing or thinking about it this way and 2) that my contention is that sin isn’t the reason that men are condemned to hell. You must remember. There is no double payment for sins or double jeopardy. Christ paid for the sins of the world. The person in hell is not paying for his sins! He is there because he has not been reconciled to God; he is there because he has not been accepted by God; he is there because he does not have the gift of God’s own life, whereby which he can be accepted in His presence.

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The Gospel of John is the only book in the whole biblical canon that has as its express, explicitly written purpose that of evangelism (John 20:30,31). The rest of the New Testament is written is written to believers (arguably, the synoptics were written to believers to teach them the history of their Savior and give them the principles of discipleship under Jesus). The epistles were written to the "saints" in the churches.

It is often overlooked that the Fourth Gospel is functionally silent about forgiveness. I say functionally, because there is one reference to forgiveness in John’s Gospel, and it is found in John 20:23. In the statement made there, Jesus is speaking to the apostles after His resurrection and
He says, "If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained." Obviously, whatever this text means, it does not plainly declare that forgiveness of sins is
received by faith alone. And since John 20:23 is the only reference, we may also say that nowhere in John’s Gospel is forgiveness of sins ever offered on the basis of faith alone. But by contrast, eternal life is offered on that basis over and over again!

Let us therefore restate what is obvious from these facts: 1) John is not interested in the subject of forgiveness in his Gospel apart from the one unusual passage referred to above. Of course, he was interested in this subject as such, but not for the purpose for which he wrote his Gospel. That purpose was to bring people to faith and eternal life (John 20:30, 31). We might therefore legitimately conclude from this that in terms of man’s eternal destiny, the real issue is not forgiveness but eternal life. This inference, again, is confirmed by John’s own description of the final judgment of the lost in Revelation 20:11–14, which we have already discussed above.

This post is not meant to belittle the forgiveness of sins. The positional and eternal forgiveness of sins is attendent with the many blessings that come to us when one appropriates the absolutely free gift of eternal life through faith alone in Christ alone. It is meant to show that the forgiveness of sins, per se, is not the critical issue between God and man. This, I have labored to show, is the issue of life.

Antonio

For more on this subject see Zane Hodges "Harmony with God: a Fresh Look at Repentance" (2001, Redencion Viva)