September 24 Sermon: Intentional Atonement

Consider these questions from this week’s message:

1. How does the doctrine of limited atonement, or "definite atonement," challenge common misconceptions about the extent of Jesus' saving work?

2. What is the significance of understanding Jesus as both the good shepherd and the door for the sheep in relation to the doctrine of limited atonement?

3. How does the concept of intentional atonement offer believers confidence and assurance in their salvation, as opposed to a view that suggests Jesus merely made salvation possible?

Transcript:

We have all been in positions where we are experimenting with something and we find ourselves unsure whether what we have been laboring over has been worthwhile or not. This could be something like substituting an ingredient or a recipe or it could be trying a part that you aren’t sure is compatible in something you are fixing. It comes to the point where you say “I sure hope this works” and give it a try. There is a lot of satisfaction when what you have gambled on works but at the same time you aren’t surprised when it doesn’t work out exactly as you had hoped because you were taking a shot in the dark anyway.

‌We are right in the middle of our five week series on the doctrines of grace and we find ourselves at the L in the TULIP acronym that we have been looking at the last several weeks. As we are looking at these five points I hope you are getting a grasp on how these pillars of the Reformed faith are really practical because they allow us to live in confidence before the face of God. The primary reason that these doctrines do this is because they point us to God and his work for his people in salvation. We find ourselves having confidence and peace in the salvation we have in Christ because it was not us laboring to make our way to God but instead the doctrines of grace make it very clear that what we have in Jesus is a divine rescue that is the work of God.

‌As we land on arguable the most difficult point of the doctrines of grace this morning, this is still the case. We hear about things like this and we automatically assume that these things are impractical. We imagine that these are the discussions of students and professors in seminary lounges while they smoke their pipes. That is not the case with the doctrines of grace. These five points we are looking at provide hope, peace, and confidence to us as believers.

‌And this is the case even as we arrive at the doctrine of limited atonement this morning. Before we consider this doctrine today I’m going to give us a quick refresher of the five points we are looking at in this series where we are gaining a greater understanding of grace. The five points we are looking at come from the synod of Dort in the Netherlands in the early 1600s. The Reformation exploded through Europe in the 16th century and the main focus was how we are saved by grace through faith and not by works of our own doing. As the 1500s game to a close and the 17th century began there was a lot of questioning of what this meant and a group known as the Remonstrants had come up with five points against the teachings of the majority of Reformed churches. They taught a synergism between God and man in salvation and so this synod of Dort made up of Reformed churches from both the continent and England came together to determine what scripture had to say. Was there a synergism or did God work alone in salvation? The result was what we know as the Canons of Dort, one of the three forms of Unity of the continental Reformed churches and the teachings in that document have become known as the Five Points of Calvinism.

‌Here’s a quick refresher of the five points that we have put to the acronym TULIP. Total Depravity, Unconditional Election, Limited Atonement, Irresistible Grace, and Perseverance of the Saints. In the first week in this series we considered the doctrine of Total Depravity and we saw that humanity is fallen and in sin and we are completely incapable of saving ourselves. Last week we talked about unconditional election and we saw that because we are dead in sin and unable to bring ourselves to life we need God to do that work and so he elects his people to salvation. This week we are at L. Limited atonement.

‌If you’ve ever tried to come up with an acronym to help you remember something you know that at times you have to sort of pick words that maybe don’t say exactly what you want them to say because you are a stuck with trying to shoehorn all the different ideas into one word. Honestly, this is the case with the TULIP acronym and the idea of limited atonement. People will naturally balk at this one just because they aren’t fans of the idea of putting a limit on what God can do and especially with the idea of the atoning work of Jesus but that isn’t what the doctrine is about. Just to be sure we are on the same page I want to express what the word atonement means. It is the idea of reconciliation betwen God and man. This was achieved by the work of Jesus for us in his perfect life and sacrificial death on the cross. The Christian idea of the atonement is that this is the complete and perfect payment for our sins and it satisfied the justice of God because Jesus took on the wrath you and I deserved for our sin. And so, you can understand why the word limited causes so many to shrink back.

‌But we need to understand how limited is used here. The word limit isn’t being used to say that there is a limit to the power of God or to the effectiveness of the atonement. The word limit here is about the scope of what Jesus accomplished. That is why when we talk about what we are looking at today many people, myself included prefer to use different words to describe what we are talking about. Words that more accurately describe what this is driving at but don’t fit the TULIP acronym are intentional atonement or definite atonement. These words convey the idea of the extent of the work of Jesus. And the question that we’re asking is “Who did Jesus die to save?”. Well, the answer is that he died for his people.

‌Now, I may have really gotten your attention with that answer and you might be thinking but the Bible says that Jesus died for the whole world. Well, we’ll get to that but first we have to look at what our scripture passages had to say this morning. We read from a very familiar passage. It is a passage that we get when we get around Good Friday every year. It is a prophetic word from Isaiah about the messiah.

‌We read here about how the Messiah is going to suffer and how he is despised and rejected. We read that in his work he bears our griefs and carries our sorrows. We get some important language here about what the Messiah does . Not only does he bear grief and carry sorrows but he is stricken and smitten by God. And the language here immediately gives you and I imagery of the cross when we read that he is pierced for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities. His chastisement brings us peace and with his wounds we are healed. Right there we get a deep insight into the atonement. We see that this is what the Messiah is going to accomplish.

‌And as we jump down to verse 11 we are going to see something that helps us to understand what we are talking about with the extent of this saving work of Jesus.

‌But before we consider the extent I want to point out how this passage points to the great exchange that we always talk about that is at the heart of the gospel. We talk about us having no righteousness of our own and we are unable to be righteous before God on our own. Here we see that the people that the Messiah saves is going to be the one who will cause his people to be accounted as righteous. The work of Jesus causes you and I to be seen as righteous before God. He makes us righteous. So, again, we get the idea of what the atonement does for us but who is it for. Notice what it says here. Many are accounted righteous. It doesn’t say that everyone, ever is made righteous.

‌At the end of the day this makes sense when we stop and think about it though. If the work of the Messiah in the atonement is for every person ever then we would have to say that everyone is righteous. That lands us in universalism. If the everyone is regarded righteous then everyone ends up in heaven but we know that there are those who are judged and receive everlasting punishment in hell. The lake of fire would be unnecessary if every person was accounted righteous.

‌Universalism, where every person ever is saved, has never been taught by Christians who are faithful to the witness of scripture. The disciples called people to repentance and the New Testament makes it clear that there is a place of eternal punishment.

‌And so, clearly, the extent of the atonement is for the people of God and we see this spelled out for us very clearly in the gospel of John that we read from this morning.

‌In this passage we have Jesus telling us that he is the good shepherd and what do we see here? That Jesus is the shepherd and his sheep hear his voice. These are the ones who follow Jesus. It is those to whom he speaks and they hear his voice. If you are one of his sheep you follow his voice because you know he is the shepherd.

‌This calls us back to the idea of election that we looked at last week. We understand that being dead in our sin and unbelief we can’t hear the word of the Lord and follow him. We need the Holy Spirit to quicken faith in our hearts and give us ears to hear. We need to be made sheep and we need to have the Spirit so that we can hear his voice.

‌This is really beautiful imagery for us to help us understand how Jesus calls his people. He goes before us and we follow him where he calls us to go. Why? Because we know his voice. We know the truth of his word and we do not follow the stranger because that isn’t a voice we know. In fact, it goes even deeper than that. It tells us here that we will flee from the stranger. We follow Jesus only because he is the shepherd we know.

‌This is powerful imagery but Jesus takes the whole thing even further as John 10 continues and it is well known, powerful words that we see here.

‌When he continues here notice what he says. Truly, truly. It is important that we understand how this is used. The repetition of word shows us an emphasis is being made. Saying truly, truly is like drawing out a spotlight on what Jesus is about to say. We are meant to really pay attention.

‌He wants the disciples to understand that he is the good shepherd but he is also the door for the sheep. The sheep know the shepherd and he is also the one who gives them abundant life. He is the only way that they can find pasture. The imagery being used here is that the sheep are in the sheepfold and Jesus is the one who protects his sheep. There are those who would come and snatch the sheep but he keeps his sheep safe.

‌How does he do that?

‌And this is the line we have been working up to in order to have an understand of who the atonement is for. In order to keep his sheep the good shepherd lays down his life. Who does he lay down his life for? For the goats? Nope. He lays down his life for the sheep. That is who he is willing to die for. He isn’t dying for the goats. Jesus suffered and died for his people.

‌Again, this there is a logical element to this. If we are saved because of the gift of righteousness given to us then only those who are saved will have that righteousness. If we are united to Christ in his life, death, resurrection, and ascension and we can have confidence that we are saved from sin, death, and hell because of this, then we have to say that not every person ever has been united to Christ. It is his people who are his sheep. It is his people who are united to him.

‌Now, lets be very clear. We don’t deny the power of the blood of Jesus to save when we say this. The blood of Jesus is sufficient to save every sin ever but scripture is clear that not everyone has the forgiveness of sins because of the work of Jesus. And so, while there is power in the blood, that power is applied only to those who are united to him by faith as a gift of grace from God.

‌And, as promised, before I discuss how powerfully practical this doctrine is for us, I need to address the primary objection to this idea. The bible uses the language of Jesus being the savior of all people.

‌So what do we do with statements like this? It is important that we consider the whole of scripture. The first thing that we need to remember is that there are those who are appointed to wrath. We read about this last week in Romans 9 when Paul talked about how God used wickedness of Pharaoh in the Exodus to bring glory to himself. As I mentioned a few moments ago there are those who are not saved and Paul himself is not going to contradict himself between statements like we see in Romans 9 and here in 1 Timothy. So what does he mean by all people?

‌We can get some insight into this by moving back two chapters in 1 Timothy.

‌He encourages Timothy to pray for all people. Surely Paul is not speaking here about every individual. It is impossible for Timothy to do this. So what is Paul mean here? We get the logical answer as he continues.

‌All people here are those in different stations of life. Pray for all people. Kings and peasants. Men and women. Jews and Greeks. And notice that Paul here also says that God desires all people to be saved. This does not mean that God will sovereignly elect everyone to salvation. Again, we know this isn’t the case from other areas of scripture and the apostle Paul. What is being expressed here is God’s grace bestowed upon not one group of people but that he brings in people from any social class and ethnicity.

‌The same holds true when the Bible speaks of Jesus being the savior of the world. We have to understand the separation that existed for the Hebrew people. They were the people of God, set apart to God’s glory. It was essentially them versus the world in their minds. They were clean and Gentiles were unclean. When the New Testament speaks of the whole world it isn’t speaking about every person who lived ever or every individual who is alive at the moment. It is speaking of every ethnicity and people group. Think to that beautiful language in the book of Revelation where we read that in the new covenant the people of God consists of those from every tribe, tongue, and nation.

‌Here we see that the work of Jesus makes a new people group. The one ransomed. They aren’t just Jewish folk they made up of all people from the whole world who are now a new kingdom of people. A people who are identified not by ethnic markers but by the truth that they have been ransomed by the blood of their savior. This is what intentional atonement is about and, as I said, this is more than just a doctrine for people to argue about. It is extremely practical for you and I as it gives us confidence in salvation and in the work of Jesus to save his people.

‌As this idea comes up I ask the question what did Jesus do on the cross? Did he die to save you or did he die to make you saveable? Was he on the cross dying for his people or was he there making it possible for us to save ourselves?

‌Let’s tie this to the first two points we looked at real quick. We are born dead in sin, totally depraved and incapable of saving ourselves. We are in need of a divine rescue and so we need God’s unconditional election to bring you to saving faith. Because of these two truths we know that we need the atoning work of Jesus and we know we can’t do this and so we need a definite and intentional work of God that saves his people.

‌Jesus was not on the cross wondering if it was going to work. He was there for his people and his people hear his voice and follow him.

‌The reason this is so practical is because it reminds us that our salvation does not rest on us. If Jesus died to merely make me saveable then the onus is on us. We are ultimately the ones who decide our fate and in our heart of hearts we know how that would work out. We would mess it up. We would never turn to God on our own and even if we did we would turn away. But because the work of Jesus is definite and intentional we know that it works. Because we have faith we know that we are his people. We have confidence in the salvation that was promised because Jesus died to make us his people and because we have been given this gift we know it is effective for us. His grace is amazing and astounding and it does what God promises it to do for his sheep. He laid down his life for us and so may you and I lay down our lives for him. May we have confidence in our salvation. His death absolutely won victory for us. May this great truth give us confidence in him each day and motivate us to live in holiness to the honor and glory of his name. That his definite and intentional saving work might be proclaimed by his particular people to the ends of the earth.