THE ATONEMENT AS THE CENTRAL ASPECT 0F REVELATION
It is through His work that God mainly reveals Himself, and we must firstly come to an understanding and an appreciation of His work, purpose, cost, humility and effectiveness, so that we can see it as God's revelation of Himself.
Jesus was no doubt aware that people would not fully understand His life or ministry even when He paid the price for our sins as He 'was lifted' on the cross (John 3:14). In the course of His ministry His own brothers did not believe Him, and could not see in Him what He claimed to be. They pressed Him to go to Jerusalem and to show to all who He really was, and what He had come to do. "Show yourself to the world" He was challenged. Jesus replied, "My time has not yet come". Only on Calvary would people begin to see what that ward really meant and cost. It was later that Philip asked Him to make what He was talking about clear. The hour of revelation had come "He who has seen me has seen the Father" (John 14:9). Jesus challenged Philip to pray for the eyes to see what he should have already seen. He was soon to see Jesus go to Gethsemane to pray to the Father for strength and for mercy for others, he was to be there when Jesus was crucified, giving Himself into His Father's hands, and to look beyond the horror, the darkness, the treachery, the cynicism, the apparent defeat, the silence and the empty tomb. The full-completed work on that awful cross teaches us that the death of Christ is supremely the revelation of God's love. It has been suggested that Paul may have been thinking of the actual geometrical extension of the cross when he wrote his prayer to the Ephesians, that they might come to comprehend the "breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge" (Eph. 3:18-19). God shows His love, in the only way He can, especially in a hostile world, where it beams out in a wondrous light even if no one around either wants it or deserves it, because all are enemies (Rom. 5:8). It is to John that we owe the text "For God so loved the world" (John 3:16) and it is in his Epistle that we see more clearly what Leon Morris calls the 'revelatory function' of the cross. By this we know love that He laid down His life for us. In this the love of God was made manifest amongst us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world that we might live through Him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins (1 John 3:16, 4:9-10).
How can we understand what love really is? In order to evaluate this love it must be brought into line with the love that John here brings to us. Our so-called love is judged and condemned by what we find here. John tells us that this love that he writes about is universal. I see no ground as far as reading the New Testament, to suggest that God limited His love for the elect only. "Christ died for the sins of the whole world (John 3:16) Christ's love was for all mankind.
Salvation - future hopes and present reality
The word salvation comes from the Old Testament. It is used in tandem with redemption, to fully describe the miracle that Cod did in bringing His own people out of Egypt. It is also recorded in the great deliverance from Babylon. The prophets of the Old Testament remembering these events looked forward to the final salvation when Cod would bring His people fully into the Messianic age. It was Paul when he wanted a word that would describe what Christ had done, what He can do, for us and in us, who used the word salvation.
It is quite true that Jesus Himself referred to the consummation of His work as 'regeneration' or 'all things made new' and He saw this as taking place when He comes again in His Glory (Matt. 19:28). Isn't this exactly what Paul meant when he spoke of our salvation? It will only be seen and experienced in its fulness when having been justified and sanctified in Christ, we shall finally be glorified with Him. In the meantime we are to wait for our salvation to be revealed and to move as quickly as we can towards it (Rom. 8:30), 1 Thes. 5:8. Rom, 5:10). Something of the glory and newness of the age has been given to us here and now. P1 number of times Paul refers to the Holy Spirit as already being given to us as a pledge or down payment of our future inheritance. The age to come, it seems, actually overlaps the present age. Paul indeed speaks of the gift of the Holy Spirit as being 'the first fruits of the spirit' (Ron. 8:23). Paul was overjoyed when he saw the wondrous signs taking place in many of the churches that he was able to preach, and his joy was due to the fact that for him the Holy Spirit, who produced such signs, was 'the spirit of promise' ([ph. 1:13). The Holy Spirit does not just precede the coming age but actually bears it. In the New Testament, salvation is spoken of as being a powerful ongoing process, which is already at work within us, preparing us for glory. Paul greets his readers in [ph.1 with such thrilling confidence and joy in the glory and wealth of our possessions in Christ Jesus that we are left feeling that perhaps little awaits us in the future except the revelation what we already have. If Christians are being saved here and now then they must give evidence of this in their transformed life. Now is the day of salvation said Paul to the Corinthians with the emphasis on the now (2 Cor. 6:2). This was not an evangelistic appeal to those outside the faith, but an exhortation to those who were within to show that the saving power was already altering their way of life. To Paul the fact that 'we are now justified by the blood of Christ' meant that we must be saved now by His life. Since there is now 'no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus' we must expect the law of the spirit of life to free us from all bondage (Rom. 8:1-2). Yet of course while we are basically free, we are still hampered in the realisation of our salvation. We are still subject to sin, weakness and decay. The 'flesh' can be so strong, even in a Christian as to thwart the impulses of the spirit and bring defeat where there has been victory. The children of God must continue to wait, sigh and groan.
Present salvation through the death of Christ
History is full of certain events, but none is more crucial to the world than the death of Christ. Yet to Paul the cross and resurrection were much more than a crucial event belonging to the past, they were so important that they had to be proclaimed and represented to the minds of men and women freshly and powerfully time and time again, day after day, week after week, generation after generation as long as history lasted. In this way men and women can continually re-experience their first witness and sustain unaltered the same faith, repentance and assurance, and both the church and the world can take heart because of what Christ did in bringing salvation. Paul believed that as long as history lasted and the cross of Christ was preached it would always represent the 'power of God' unto salvation (Rom. 1:16). We can therefore understand why Paul insisted that the churches of his day must always experience in their personal and community life the transforming, spiritual power of salvation. If not, without such signs of salvation - were they not telling the world that the cross had lost its power and that Christ had died in vain?
There is a tremendous picture given to us in Revelation 5. It shows more clearly than elsewhere in the New Testament the relationship between the death of Christ and the ongoing work of salvation, which is to find its climax in the second coming of Christ. John admitted to heaven, sees the throne of God. He takes his place in the crowd and sees at the right hand of God a book with seven seals, but it is closed and there is no-one found worthy to break the seals. John weeps bitterly, for it is the breaking of these seals that is to set in motion the history of salvation on earth, and will lead to the final coming of the Kingdom. Until the book is opened earth's history will be left to course aimlessly. Suddenly in the midst of the throne stood A Lamb as it had been slain (Rev. 5:6) with seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God. A new song rings out, as seal after seal is opened and History is set in its true motion; the Kingdom comes. History is ruled and the destiny of mankind is controlled by The Lamb. It is the cross that gives Him the right to exercise His rule. "Worthy art thou to take the scroll and open its seals, for thou wast slain" (Rev. 5:9). Moreover, because He was slain He has the power of the seven spirits of God, which go into all the earth to make manifest and relevant throughout history what He has done for mankind in His death and resurrection. ("Dear dying lamb, thy precious blood shall never lose its power" - Cowper). So the cross continually injects into the course of human affairs the momentum that will carry history to its final destiny. The crucifixion is not regarded simply as a happening that took place and is all over. While there is a "once for all" aspect to it, there is also an aspect which sees it as of Permanent validity and continuing effect.
The Cross-, Salvation and the Wrath of God
It is when discussing salvation or redemption that Paul speaks most about the wrath of God, and our being delivered from it. The effects of His wrath are often seen in catastrophes, devastating defeats, or plagues, which visit those who deliberately go against His will. However, these phenomena are only signs, restrained signs - that God has anger. Nothing of earth or mankind could remain if God vented His anger. Whenever we see signs on earth that remind us of our frailty, of our deeply tragic existence, we are meant to realise that behind the manifestation of Cods judgment there is Cods own inward reaction and hatred of our sin that we cannot begin to realise. It is only because He restrains this, within Himself that we are not consumed. God's wrath is always exercised alongside His mercy and grace. It has to be said that the wrath of God does not represent the intemperate outburst of an uncontrolled character. It is rather the temperature of God's love. In the New Testament we read no more of God's struggle with His anger. The emphasis is on grace. We are meant to understand that He has dealt with His wrath fully and finally in Jesus Christ. He has passed His righteous judgment against sin, and put wrath away.
We must think about this when we think about Jesus and what He went through on the cross. We are not told directly that Christ bore 'the wrath of God' but Paul says that Christ bore our curse. Yet the New Testament while it ceases to speak further of God's feelings of wrath, often speaks of the tempered restrained expressions of God's wrath that feature so prominently in the Old Testament. In the first chapter of Romans, Paul describes how God 'gives up' those who practice evil to fearful processes of moral degeneration. While they remain alive, increasing criminality and cruelty, the unnatural and perverse, a hardening heart and even self-annihilation is their lot. (Rom. 1:18-32). Tyrannies of civil governments are sometimes the instruments of this wrath. This form of 'wrath' threatens Christians too while they live as part of a human society that is under it. However in their case God tempers the processes. Even His wrath may be expressed graciously and quietly in a Fatherly way, so that it becomes a chastening rather than a punishment (Heb. 12:6). In this way they are saved from wrath and since there is no restraint on God's love towards them there need never be any restraint in the boldness of their approach to Him. In the last days however the restraint on God's love towards them there need never be any restraint in the boldness of their approach to Him. In the last days however the restraints at present exercised over the expressions of evil and the wrath of God will be removed - we have a picture in the book of Revelation of the seven cups full of wrath of God being poured out on the nations who reject God's salvation and mercy.
Yet at this second point of desperate need, those who trust in the mercy of God are still 'saved from the wrath to come' (Rev. 15-16: 1 Thes. 1:10; 5-9).
New Testament Sanctification
Sanctification is an aspect of the application of redemption. In redemption there is an order of progression until it reaches its fulness in the liberty of the children of God (Rom. 8), When we speak of Sanctification as a goal we have to realise that there are steps towards it i.e. regeneration, justification and adoption. Regeneration is an act of God through what His own Son Jesus did on the cross and has its immediate effect on us. Sanctification is a continuing work in us day by day. The act of regeneration is a renewal, which responds to the exercising of faith and repentance. It is by this calling to faith and repentance that we are united to Christ, and it is this union with Christ which binds the people of God the efficacy and virtue by which they are sanctified. Regeneration is applied by the Holy Spirit (John 3:5-6), and it is by this act that one is indwelt by the Holy Spirit. Sanctification is specifically the work of this indwelling and directing Holy Spirit.
One of the most important considerations of being called by God to regeneration is that sin is effectively dealt with in our lives. A person that is so called is united to Christ through the virtue of His death on the cross and the power of His resurrection, he is then dead in sin, the old life is gone and sin no longer has dominion over him (Rom. 6:2-6). Paul in Rom. 6:14 is giving a clear demonstration that the effect of sin will not have power or dominion over a person who is under grace. If we look at this question from the point of regeneration we reach the same conclusion. The Holy Spirit then is the one who controls and directs each one who is regenerated. So the very character and disposition of a regenerate person is one of holiness and delights in the law of the Lord. John speaks of the regenerate person as 'not doing sin1 and as unable to sin (1 John 1:8, 1:1). He is saying that a regenerate person cannot commit the sin that is unto death (1 John 5:16).
He cannot deny that Jesus is the Son of God and has come in the flesh (1 John: 1-4) and cannot turn again in a deliberate way to iniquity. This deliverance from the power of sin is secured in Christ, but this regeneration does not eliminate from the heart and life of the believer. The believer is as yet not conformed to the image of Christ so that he is holy, undefiled and separate from sinners. Sanctification is concerned with this fact that it aims to deal with all sin and to conform us to the image of New Testament Sanctification
Sanctification is an aspect of the application of redemption. In redemption there is an order of progression until it reaches its fulness in the liberty of the children of God (Rom. 8), When we speak of Sanctification as a goal we have to realise that there are steps towards it i.e. regeneration, justification and adoption. Regeneration is an act of God through what His own Son Jesus did on the cross and has its immediate effect on us. Sanctification is a continuing work in us day by day. The act of regeneration is a renewal, which responds to the exercising of faith and repentance. It is by this calling to faith and repentance that we are united to Christ, and it is this union with Christ which binds the people of God the efficacy and virtue by which they are sanctified. Regeneration is applied by the Holy Spirit (John 3:5-6), and it is by this act that one is indwelt by the Holy Spirit. Sanctification is specifically the work of this indwelling and directing Holy Spirit.
One of the most important considerations of being called by God to regeneration is that sin is effectively dealt with in our lives. A person that is so called is united to Christ through the virtue of His death on the cross and the power of His resurrection, he is then dead in sin, the old life is gone and sin no longer has dominion over him (Rom. 6:2-6). Paul in Rom. 6:14 is giving a clear demonstration that the effect of sin will not have power or dominion over a person who is under grace. If we look at this question from the point of regeneration we reach the same conclusion. The Holy Spirit then is the one who controls and directs each one who is regenerated. So the very character and disposition of a regenerate person is one of holiness and delights in the law of the Lord. John speaks of the regenerate person as 'not doing sin1 and as unable to sin (1 John 1:8, 1:1). He is saying that a regenerate person cannot commit the sin that is unto death (1 John 5:16).
He cannot deny that Jesus is the Son of God and has come in the flesh (1 John: 1-4) and cannot turn again in a deliberate way to iniquity. This deliverance from the power of sin is secured in Christ, but this regeneration does not eliminate from the heart and life of the believer. The believer is as yet not conformed to the image of Christ so that he is holy, undefiled and separate from sinners. Sanctification is concerned with this fact that it aims to deal with all sin and to conform us to the image of His own dear Son, to be holy as He is holy. We have to realise that until we are transformed into His likeness then sin will still be prevalent to the believer. All sin in the believer is the contradiction of God's holiness. Sin does not change its character as sin because the person in whom it dwells and by whom it is committed is a believer. There is no judicial condemnation for Him and the judicial wrath of God does not rest on Him (Rom. 8:1). God is His Father and He is Gods Son. The Holy Spirit dwells in Him and He is His advocate. Christ is the believer's advocate with the Father, but the sin, which resides in the believer and which he commits is of such a character that it deserves the wrath of God and the fatherly displeasure of God is evoked by his sin. Remaining indwelling sin is therefore the contradiction of all that he is as a regenerate person and Son of God. It is a contradiction of God Himself. After whose image He was created. The presence of sin in the life of the believer brings conflict with his new nature. If there is still sin to any degree in one who is indwelt with the Spirit of God there is tension and contradiction in that persons life. It would be true to say that the more a person grows in sanctification the more one grows to be like Jesus. The deeper one is aware of sin the more his desire is to love the holiness and Majesty of God and that love grows in its intensity. Paul knew this when he cried "0 wretched man that I am" (Rom. 7:24), Is this not the case when God reveals His holiness to man. "Woe is me! for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts" (Is. 6:5). It is a fact that true Biblical sanctification has no dealings with that, which ignores or fails to take into account all that does not conform to the image of the one who is holy, righteous and undefiled. "Ye shall be perfect therefore as your heavenly Father is perfect" (Matt. 5:8), There must be a constant awareness that sin is still present within us. "Now then it is no more I that doeth it but sin that dwelleth in me". (Rom. 7:17), Paul here is saying that although sin is still there it does not have the mastery over him. There is a total difference between surviving sin and reigning sin. It is to be sure that sin does not have dominion over us (Rom. 6:14) because the redeeming, regenerative sanctifying grace has been given and has transformed that which is central to his moral and spiritual being, and that God the Holy Spirit lives in him.
He is now alive unto God 'Born again' now dead unto sin. "It is by grace you are saved through faith (Eph. 2:8). Therefore, let not sin reign in your mortal body, to the end that ye should obey its lusts neither present ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God" (Rom. 6:12-13), We must look for help in the one who is the agent of sanctification, the Holy Spirit. We do not and cannot be, the way or means to sanctify ourselves. It is God who does (1 Thes. 5:23) through the Holy Spirit. We do not know or understand how He works on the hearts and minds and wills to cleanse from the defilement of sin, or of how He indwells and makes man more like Christ, it is a mystery. His continuing work in the life of the believer comes within the scope of our consciousness in understanding, feeling and sill. We must not suppose that the measure of our understanding or experience is the measure of the Spirit's working within our lives.