14 Reasons Christ Sovereignly Redeems (b)

The ultimate purposes of the Lord Jesus Christ shedding His blood on the cross was outlined in 14 Reasons Christ Sovereignly Redeems (a).  Before the foundation of the world, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit made an everlasting covenant to redeem a chosen people out of the fallen human race.  This chosen people was the treasured possession of Christ even before God said “Let there be light.”

At the appointed time, Christ would come to fulfill this eternal plan of redemption by giving His life specifically for those whom the Father had chosen. Everything that God does and purposes in Himself is to bring glory to Himself, and the work of Christ on the cross 2,000 years ago was to accomplish just that.

Let’s now take a deeper look at what Jesus did for His people.  While examining these Scriptures, consider each one with this question in mind,

What was the intent of Christ’s sacrificial death on the cross?

While all of mankind benefits from the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, He died specifically and in a special way for the elect.  Christ came to be substitutionary atonement for His people in order to satisfy the wrath of God specifically for them and take away their sins.

Here are the concluding points for “limited atonement”:

7. Christ sovereignly redeems to atone for the sins of His people

Matthew 26:28 for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.

Hebrews 9:12-14 he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. 13 For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, 14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.

Hebrews 10:10-14 And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. 11 And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. 12 But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God, 13 from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool. 14 For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.

Hebrews 9:28 so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.

8. Christ sovereignly redeems to deliver His people from the curse of the Law

Galatians 3:13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”—

Galatians 4:5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.

Romans 10:4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.

Acts 13:39 and by him everyone who believes is freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses.

Romans 3:20 For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.

1 Corinthians 15:56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.

Colossians 2:14 by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.

9.  Christ sovereignly redeems to save His people from their sins (both Jew and Gentile)

Matthew 1:21 She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.

1 Peter 2:24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.

Acts 5:30-31 The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you killed by hanging him on a tree. 31 God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins.

1 Timothy 4:10 For to this end we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe.

Isaiah 53:5 But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed.

1 Corinthians 15:3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures,

Revelation 1:5 and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood

1 John 3:5 You know that he appeared to take away sins, and in him there is no sin.

Romans 6:22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.

10. Christ sovereignly redeems to justify His people

Romans 5:9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.

Romans 4:25 who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.

Romans 3:24-26 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus…26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

Romans 5:18 Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men.

2 Corinthians 5:21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

11. Christ sovereignly redeems to deliver His people from evil

Galatians 1:3-5  Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, 4 who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, 5 to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

Colossians 1:13-14 He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.1 John 3:8 Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.

12. Christ sovereignly redeems to be a ransom for His people

Matthew 20:28 even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.

1 Timothy 2:6 who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.

1 Corinthians 6:20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

1 Corinthians 7:23 You were bought with a price; do not become slaves of men.

1 Peter 1:18-19 knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.

Revelation 5:9 And they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation,

13. Christ sovereignly redeems to reconcile His people to God

Romans 5:10-11 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. 11 More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

2 Corinthians 5:18-19 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.

Ephesians 2:16 and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.

Colossians 1:22 he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him,

1 Peter 3:18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit,

Ephesians 3:12 in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in him.

Romans 5:2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

14. Christ sovereignly redeems to lay His life down for His sheep to give them eternal life

1 John 3:16 By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.

John 15:13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.

John 10:14-16 I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. 16 And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.

John 15:16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.

John 10:28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.

John 17:2 since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him.

What, then, was Christ’s intent in His death on the cross?

I believe the Scripture clearly shows that Christ did not come to make people savable, but that He actually came to save His people from their sins.

Christ did not pour out His blood of infinite worth to just make His people forgivable, He shed His blood to actually forgive them.

Christ did not become a curse to make us deliverable from the curse of Law, He actually delivered us from the curse of the Law.

Christ did not bear our iniquities to potentially free us from the bondage of sin, He became sin to actually free us from the bondage of sin.

Christ did not become sin to possibly deliver us from this evil age, He became sin to actually free us from the power of Satan and to destroy the works of the devil.

Christ did not suffer God’s wrath for our sin to make us justifiable, He bore God’s wrath and was raised from the dead to actually justify us.

Christ did not give His life as a ransom to make us purchasable, He gave His life to actually purchase our freedom from our slavery to sin.

Christ did give His body in hopes to give us access to God, He gave His body to actually reconcile us to God.

Christ did not lay His life down for goats hoping they would become sheep, He laid His life down specifically for His sheep, who actually hear His voice when called by name, and actually follow Him.

To this end, we can now understand that all the Father gave to the Son was actually purchased by His own blood on the cross.  Not one sheep will be lost by the Son, for when He said “It is finished”, Jesus actually secured the salvation of His sheep at that moment.  Furthermore, not one sheep given to the Son will the Holy Spirit fail to draw to salvation. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are in perfect harmony in the salvation of men.

This leads us into the next part of this series as we take a look at what is known as “irresistible grace”, or effectual grace, letter “I” of the acronym TULIP.  Please continue to 10 Reasons the Holy Spirit Sovereignly Draws Men to Salvation

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