The Doctrines of Grace (Part Six)

The Doctrines of Grace

(Part Six)

Dr. Jay Worth Allen

There’s a popular notion in the Church today, that “God loves everybody.” The marketability of that notion aroused my suspicion. God’s love for all His creatures is the odds-on favorite tenet of Universalists, Unitarians, Christian Scientists, most Evangelicals, et cetera, and is held in highest regard on numerous Gospel Tracks. According to this warm-hearted Credence, no matter how much of a black-hearted, amoral reprobate you are - in open defiance of Heaven, with no concern whatsoever for your soul’s Eternal interests, still less for God’s glory, His Death, Resurrection and Glorification - it doesn’t matter . . . “God loves you.” So widely is this maxim proclaimed, and so comforting is it to the heart, which is at Enmity with God, that Truth has little hope of countermanding it’s delusion. Furthermore, the paternalism Mantra “God loves you” is a modern-day construct. If you search the writings of the early church Fathers, the Reformers, the Puritans, you’ll search in vain for any such concept. It was D. L. Moody, a cherished 19^th century saint, who did more than anyone else to popularize this concept.

Another of today’s recycled tag-lines is, “God loves the sinner though He hates his sin” - as evidenced by most Mass-Media Evangelists. But that’s a meaningless distinction. It’s a figure of speech, an oxymoron as in, faith unfaithful kept him falsely true. What is there in a sinner, but sin? Their “whole head is sick” and their “whole heart faint,” and that “from the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness” in them (Isaiah 1:5,6). Does God really love someone who is despising and rejecting His beloved Son? “God is Holy,” as well as “Love,” and therefore His love is a Holy love. To tell the Christ-Rejector that “God loves him” does nothing more than Cauterize his conscience and give him a false sense of security in his sins. “God is love.” True. But love to whom? To proclaim, “God is love!” to the enemies of God is to take the “children’s bread and cast it to the dogs.” With the exception of John 3:16, not once in the four Gospels do we read of the Lord Jesus telling sinners that God loves them. There, our Lord apprised Nicodemus, a man who believed that God’s mercies were confined to the Jews, that God’s love in giving His Son had a larger object in view and that love flowed beyond Palestine reaching out to “regions beyond.” In other words, God had a purpose of grace towards Gentiles, as well as Jews. “God so loved the world,” then, signifies God’s love is international in its scope. John 3:16 does not mean that God loves every individual, as evidenced by John 3:17: “that the world through Him might be saved” - all the “world” will not be saved. In the book of Acts, which records the Missionary work and the “Good News” preaching of the apostles, God’s love is never referred to. But when we come to the Epistles, which are addressed to His saints, we have a full presentation of this glorious truth: “God is love” - love for His own (1 John). That’s where the doctrine of Limited Atonement comes into play.

The doctrine of Limited Atonement is a bone of contention within the church. Yet, it is the focus of what the Father was doing in Christ Jesus on the cross. The purpose of the Father in the work of the cross, is the heart of Limited Atonement.

As I expound upon this doctrine of Limited Atonement, or more exactly, particular redemption, many of you may react harshly. The number one complaint is: “It’s not fair.” Some of us don't like the idea of the word “Limited” in relation to God’s atonement. But, “when you look at this doctrine in the light of the Word of God, you see God’s sovereignty manifested, instead of man-made conditions exerted upon the fact of God redeeming whom He will.” Diana Leigh Allen.

The people of God come from different backgrounds. God has been ever so faithful to bring us out of a multitude of experiences and environments to place us into His church body. But, if we were to encapsulate the essence of the last half of the 20^th century and the beginning of the 21^st, as we have dealt with conservative evangelical Christianity, the substance of what we, the church, have been teaching by and large for the past 50 or 60 years, is this: God loves everyone. But there’s a problem, we’re all sinners. God solved that problem when He sent His Son Jesus to die on the cross for all men. All you have to do is admit that you’re a sinner and accept Jesus as your Savior. That’s the bulk of the Gospel message preached in today’s church and it’s extremely offensive. Let me explain.

The crux of my offence is that the work of Christ on the cross has been diluted and glossed over. The church in this day and age has not, for the greater part, had the attitudes of the Bereans. We hear this gospel preached: “God loves everyone. Christ died for everyone,” and we believe every word without question. If you search the scriptures you will find that the “God loves everyone, just accept Jesus” gospel is not the testimony of the word of God.

The work of Christ on the cross is the focal point of God’s work of redemption. It is the great hinge of history. The cross is the most important event in the history of the world; the death of Jesus Christ upon the cross.

When the truth of the word of God concerning the teaching of the cross of Christ is illustrated, most Arminians and a lot of evangelicals, seek to depict God as “fair” by their standards. But the Bible teaches that God is Objective by His own standards, not Subjectively fair by the standards of man. God is objective, not subjective. A marked difference.

The first question we must ask and the main one, which must be answered is: For whom did Christ die? We will address that next week.

(See chapter 7, “The Counsel Of His Own Will” in: A Brief History of Redemption by Dr. Jay Worth Allen.)

The Doctrines of Grace (Part Six)
Published: 4 February 2011 on Freed In Christ! blogsite.
Published: 3 February 2011 in the FAITH Column of The County Journal.

Link goes to A Brief History of Redemption

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