You may cringe at this blog's title; there's not one cozy word in it. It represents, however, a theological priority. If people claim the Christ of Scripture for salvation, my opinion is that they must hold one of these views and reject the other. John Murray's famous book on the Atonement, Redemption Accomplished and Applied, presents this most powerfully. Consequent Absolute Necessity is the view that God, once He decided, for His own purpose and pleasure only, to save some people, had to do it exactly as Scripture describes it via the Cross. Based on what God has revealed about Himself via Scripture, there were no other options. Hypothetical Necessity says, to sum it up, that God could have done whatever He wanted. He could have waved His God-wand and declared us all saved if He wanted to and avoided the cross altogether, even though He didn't. The problems with this are many, and it is a very popular belief. It trivializes both Scripture and the Cross. The Bible sets up what must be the one way to salvation; it had to be a suffering Savior dying on a cross. It was not possible for the Father to let this cup pass. The sacrifices of the Old Testament are copies of the one sacrifice God required of His Son.
What does this mean for normal people? It means that anything that lessens or upstages the Cross of Christ is deadly to our souls. It wasn't just "how things turned out in this crazy world." It was the will of the Father to crush His Son as it says in Isaiah 53:10. Forget "prosperity" Christianity, the kind where we earn credit and blessings for our faith and decisions. It's not Christianity at all. It won't save anyone. Nothing that diminishes the cross of Christ can be of Christ. Faith in Him is not about anything we do or anything else but the cross. Credit and blessings are His to give by grace, not ours to take by effort. The cross is not a starting point from which we move on and up to greater spiritual heights. There are no greater spiritual heights; His resurrection confirms and seals this. The cross is the only point. Without the cross of Christ the Bible is gibberish, the gospel is empty, and the church is doomed. With the cross of Christ we have, by faith in Him alone, the Christ who died on the cross for us; we have everything we need and want forever.
"When I survey the wondrous cross,
On which the Prince of Glory died.
My richest gain I count but loss.
And pour contempt on all my pride."
"Without the cross of Christ the Bible is gibberish."
ReplyDeleteI've tried to avoid this fact for many reasons (none of which I will enumerate here). It is the wisdom of God, faithfulness too wonderful for me to comprehend. Trying to attain, I fall way short and am shamed by my pride to think otherwise (back to thanks for His patience and mercy).