Posted by deangonzales on February 22, 2010
Reformed Baptist Seminary will host a summer theological module on Christology or the Doctrine of Christ from Saturday through Friday, August 21-27 at its new facilities at Grace Baptist Church in Taylors, South Carolina. The module will serve to fulfill the lecture requirements for the seminary’s three-credit course ST 701 Christ. The course instructor, Pastor Greg Nichols, is a graduate and former professor of Trinity Ministerial Academy, Montville, New Jersey. He’s the author of What Does the Bible Say about God? The Biblical Doctrine of God (Truth For Eternity) and “The Emotivity of God,” Reformed Baptist Theological Review 1:2 (July 2004): 95-143. He is currently a pastor of Grace Immanuel Reformed Baptist Church, Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he and his wife, Ginger, reside. The course covers much more than the person and work of Christ. First, it reaches back into eternity and considers God’s predestined plan for a Redeemer and a people. Second, traces the development of the God’s redemptive promise through the historical covenants of Scripture–covenant theology from a Reformed and Baptist perspective! Third, the course systematically explores the revelation of the Person and Work of Jesus the Messiah. Professor Nichols has provide the following abstract, which summarizes the three major segments of the course material:
Part 1: The Eternal Plan of Salvation: Predestination
Before the creation of the world God resolved how he would embark on the greatest rescue mission conceivable. This plan includes his predestination of the redeemed, “he chose us in him before the foundation of the world” (Eph. 1:4), and of the Redeemer, “Christ foreknown indeed before the foundation of the world” (1 Pet. 1:19). Thus we begin with eternal election and reprobation and the eternal counsel of redemption.
Part 2: The Solemn Promise of Salvation: God’s Covenants
Immediately after the fall God solemnly declared war on Satan. He pledged to send a Redeemer to rescue sinners and crush the devil thoroughly (Gen. 3:15). This pledge to apply and accomplish salvation is his covenant of grace. He fulfills his pledge to apply salvation through his gospel; to accomplish salvation through his covenants. Over some four thousand years of redemptive history he sets up a tapestry of pledges that frame the Person and work of the Redeemer. These are: the two Noahic covenants, the Abrahamic, Mosaic, and Davidic covenants, and the Messianic and New covenants. Thus, we study the covenant of grace and God’s covenants.
Part 3: The Accomplishment of Salvation: Christ’s Person and Work
In the fullness of time God sent his Son into the world to accomplish salvation from sin. God the Son became flesh and entered the world as Jesus of Nazareth: “you shall call his name Jesus, for he it is that shall save his people from their sins” (Matt. 1:21). Thus, we first study his Person, his deity and humanity. In his work Christ fulfills God’s solemn promises. As the promised Redeemer, Christ crushes Satan by his perfect life and atoning death. As Abraham’s heir, Christ blesses believers from every nation with every spiritual blessing through the gospel. As David’s heir, the theocratic king, Christ rules God’s people, builds his temple, and subdues his enemies. As high priest, in keeping with the Messianic covenant, Christ makes atonement for his people, intercedes for them, and eradicates their sin. As prophet and mediator of the new covenant, Christ reforms God’s people and reveals his Word. This course concludes with the profound impact of Christ’s Person and work: “neither is there salvation in any other; for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).
Don’t miss out on this important module! Auditors are also welcome. The module fee is $70 for students and $100 for auditors. The members of Grace Baptist Church will provide lodging for those who register early and meals will be provided. The deadline for registration is August 6. To download the PDF module flier, registration form, or lecture schedule, click on the links below:
If you tentatively plan to attend, please send an email letting us know so that we can begin to formulate a headcount. You can also contact us if you have more specific questions about the module (email: info@rbseminary.org/phone: 864-322-4633).
Bob Gonzales, Dean
Reformed Baptist Seminary
Posted by jsmithebc on December 7, 2009
Having defined “particular redemption” (Part 1) and looked at its implications with respect to our understanding of Christ and his work (Part 2) as well as evangelism and missions (Part 3), I want to highlight two more practical implications of particular redemption in the final entry in this series.
1. The Doctrine of Particular Redemption Safeguards the Message of Evangelism
Preaching the gospel or witnessing to sinners is not going around to unconverted men and telling them that Christ died for them in particular. That was not the message that the Apostles preached to the unconverted in the book of Acts. Read the evangelistic messages in the book of Acts and not once do the Apostles say to unconverted men, “Christ died for you.” They preached Christ crucified, raised and exalted to the right hand of the Father, and they call upon sinners to repent and to put their trust in Him for salvation. But they never tell unconverted men that Christ died specifically for you and we can’t do that for the simple reason that we can’t know that, unless or until they repent. Yet some people think that the essence of the message of the gospel to lost men is, “Christ died for you.” They say that’s the message we are to proclaim to the lost. But never once is the gospel proclaimed to the lost in that way in the entire N.T.
Now, am I saying that we should never point lost sinners to the cross? Of course not, that’s exactly what we must do, but we must do so in a Biblical manner. Am I trying to say that we should never preach about the love of God, or that God has no love for all men indiscriminately? No, I’m simply pointing out that the gospel proclaimed to sinners in the N.T. is not “Christ died for you.” We are not to go to an unconverted man and say, “I’ve come to tell you that Christ has loved you from eternity with an everlasting love, and He came to give His life specifically for you and if you’ll only believe that Christ loves you so much as to do that all will be well” as though that’s the message. No, in fact it’s preaching like this to sinners that tend to lead to the kind of irreverent, cocky, unconcern, that we see so much of in our churches and in our nation. But the doctrine of particular redemption will guard us from such an imbalanced distorted message which ministers to a false security in sinners.
What am I authorized to proclaim to the unconverted? First, I am authorized to tell them the good news that God has sent His Son into the world to save sinners. Christ was crucified for sinners, raised from the dead and is exalted to the right hand of the Father as Lord of all. Second, I am to tell them that Christ is a perfect and all-sufficient savior for sinners like you, even the worst sinner on the way to hell. So we must tell them the truth about their sinnership, and the desperateness of their lost condition. And then we must point them to Christ in all of the glory of His saving work as a perfect, available, all-powerful Savior for sinners and as their only hope. Third, I am authorized to tell sinners that God has promised that all who know themselves to be a sinner, and who turn from their sin, and put their utter confidence in Christ alone shall be received into favor; and shall not perish but have everlasting life. All who repent and put their trust in Christ are promised all of the benefits that His death has secured for His people. Christ died for those who would believe, Christ died for those who do believe. Any sinner, whoever it is who will face the fact that He is lost and cannot save himself; will face the fact that only Christ can save Him and that Christ is a perfect Savior for sinners; and who will lay down His arms of rebellion against Him and look away to Him alone for deliverance, shall be saved. Finally, I must tell them that God doesn’t leave it at that. Having set Christ and salvation before you, He graciously pleads with you and invites you and indeed, out of sincere desire for your salvation, He commands you to turn to Christ in repentance and faith now without delay.
Let not conscience make you linger, nor of fitness fondly dream;
all the fitness He requireth is to feel your need of Him.
Today is the day of salvation and there may not be another day. Hesitate no longer. “Turn, Turn from your evil way for why will you die”; and cast yourself upon the Lord Jesus Christ for mercy. Look to Him, cry to Him. Even if you feel that your heart is so hard that you can’t repent, or if you can’t seem to find out what it is to believe or bring yourself to do so, look to Christ, cling to Christ. Every grace that brings you nigh is in Him. Lie down at His feet as a helpless sinner and give Him no rest until you know that you have passed from death unto life. The Lord Jesus has never and will never, turn away any sinner who truly comes to Him for mercy. He is mighty to save. But if you refuse God’s gracious offer of mercy and thereby trample under foot the precious blood of the Lord Jesus, the very fact that you have heard this gospel will only aggravate the intensity of your misery on the Day of Judgment when God casts you into hell.
So this is a summary of the message that we are to preach to lost sinners. The message is not, “Jesus died for you, now all you need to do is believe that and let Jesus into your heart.”
2. The Doctrine of Particular Redemption Contributes to a Proper Biblical Understanding of the Nature of Saving Faith.
Just as the message of the gospel to the unconverted is not Christ died for you, likewise, contrary to what some believe, saving faith is not believing that Christ died for you. The idea has become common in evangelical Christianity that the essence of being saved is to believe that Christ died for me. If I can be persuaded that is true, and be persuaded to acknowledge and testify to it, I am saved. But a person might persuade himself that Jesus died for him, and yet never actually be brought to the place of repentance and self-abandoning trust in Christ. You see, if the doctrine of general atonement is true, then it is simply a matter of fact that Christ died for every single person in the world without exception. Therefore, it would be entirely possible to persuade a person to believe that “truth” and have them acknowledge, “Yes, I believe that Christ died for me” and yet that belief and acknowledgement be nothing but a mental acceptance of “facts” totally devoid of repentance and trust in Christ. A man might be persuaded to believe that “fact” in just the same way that he might be persuaded to believe that the Bible taught that the one God exists in three persons. But that is not saving faith.
The doctrine of particular redemption makes that very clear. It makes it clear that no man can know whether Christ died particularly for him or not in saving way, unless, or until, he actually comes to Christ in repentance and faith. And faith is not merely the acceptance of certain facts as true. Saving faith is self-abandoning trust in Christ to save me from my sin as my only hope. The sinner who trusts in Christ for salvation is bound to surrender and rely unreservedly upon the sovereign mercy of God in Christ as His only hope and the certainty that Christ died specifically for me is a matter of assurance that can only be mine upon conversion.
I close these blogs with a quote from Charles Spurgeon commenting on this. He said:
I have sometimes thought when I have heard addresses from some revival brethren who kept on saying, ‘believe, believe, believe’, that I should like to have known for myself what it were to believe in order to our salvation. There is I fear a great deal of vagueness and crudeness about this matter. I have heard it often asserted that if you believe that Jesus Christ died for you then you will be saved. My dear hearer, do not be deluded by such an idea. You may believe that Jesus Christ died for you, and may believe what is not true; you may believe that which will bring you no sort of good whatsoever. That is not saving faith. The man who has saving faith afterward attains to the conviction that Christ died for him, but it is not of the essence of saving faith. Do not get that into your head or it will ruin you. Do not say, “I believe that Jesus Christ died for me”, and because of that feel you are saved. I pray you to remember that the genuine faith that saves the soul has for its main element trust, absolute rest of the whole soul on the Lord Jesus Christ to save me, whether He died in particular or in special to save me or not, and relying, as I am, wholly and alone on Him, I am saved. Afterward I come to perceive that I have a special interest in the Savior’s blood; but if I think I have perceived that before I have believed in Christ, then I have inverted the Scriptural order of things, and I have taken as a fruit of my faith that which is only to be obtained by rights, by the man who absolutely trusts in Christ and Christ alone to save.
Jeffery Smith
Pastor of Emmanuel Baptist Church, Coconut Creek, FL
Professor of Reformed Baptist Seminary, Easley, SC
Posted by jsmithebc on November 23, 2009
As we consider the practical implications of particular redemption, let’s consider first how it effects, or should affect, our concept of Christ and of the Triune God. First, it produces in the heart a proper conception of the divine majesty and power of Christ. The popular gospel of modern evangelicalism has conditioned the minds of men to think of the cross as a redemption which does less than redeem and of Christ as a Savior who does less than save, without necessarily intending to do so. In fact, the gospel of a general atonement depicts Christ as a pathetic, baffled, would-be Savior who is frustrated, in what He hoped to do in His death, by human unbelief. Salvation is no longer viewed as a work of free grace, because faith is no longer viewed as a gift from God flowing to us from Calvary. Instead, faith is the human help that Christ needs in order to save sinners. Rather than save anyone by His death, Christ in effect, only offered Himself up for election, and the cross becomes nothing more than an expression of impotent desire. J. I. Packer commenting on this very point in His introduction to John Owen’s work, The Death of Death in the Death of Christ writes,
When we come to preach the gospel, our false misconceptions make us say just the opposite of what we intend. We want (rightly) to proclaim Christ as Savior; yet we end up saying that Christ, having made salvation possible, has left us to become our own saviors. It comes about in this way. We want to magnify the saving grace of God and the saving power of Christ. So we declare that God’s redeeming love extends to every man, and that Christ has died to save every man, and we proclaim that the glory of divine mercy is to be measured by these facts. And then, in order to avoid universalism, we have to depreciate all that we were previously extolling, and to explain that, after all, nothing that God and Christ has done can save us unless we add something to it; the decisive factor which actually saves us is our own believing. What we say comes to this – that Christ saves us with our help; and what that means, when one thinks it out, is this – that we save ourselves with Christ’s help. This is a hollow anti-climax.
So, you see, the preaching of a general atonement cheapens the cross, and it conveys the idea of a weak Savior whose death does not, after all, make certain the salvation of anyone. But the gospel of particular redemption gives a proper conception of the Divine majesty and power of Christ, and it declares that Christ’s death was not a failure. It was not a defeat. It is not the expression of a helpless wish. Christ’s death was victorious. It was an act of divine power by which God secured the salvation of His people. Christ accomplished on the cross exactly what he came to do and now He sits enthroned in glory. And by the power of the Holy Spirit, and through the preaching of the gospel, He effectually calls in His elect to the enjoyment of the salvation that He has already procured. The old gospel tells us that Jesus paid it all, and all to Him I owe. The cross saved, and the cross saves, it does not simply make it possible for men to save themselves. Its saving power does not depend on faith being added to it. Its saving power is such that faith flows from it. Only because of a particular definite atonement can any man sing with confidence the last verse of that old hymn, “There is a Fountain Filled with Blood.” The last verse goes like this, “Dear dying Lamb, Thy precious blood shall never lose its power/Till all the ransomed Church of God be saved to sin no more.”
Second, the doctrine of particular redemption magnifies the love of the triune God for His people. What, according to the Bible, is the highest manifestation of God’s love to sinners? Well the Bible is very clear, and I think all would agree, that the greatest act and manifestation of God’s love was the sending of His Son to die upon the cross. “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” (1 Jn. 4:10). First John 3:16: “By this we know love, because He laid down his life for us”. Rom. 5:8, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
So the Bible is very clear that the highest manifestation of God’s love to sinners is the death of Christ. But which understanding of that death, particular atonement or general atonement, truly magnifies the greatness of that love to the heart of the child of God? At first glance some might say the concept of a general atonement does, because it teaches that God’s greatest act of love was done on behalf of each and every man. But, in fact, if you take the time to reflect upon it, such a concept depreciates the love of God. How is that? Well, it does so in at least two ways.
First of all it depreciates the love of God because it teaches, in effect, that God loves each and every man enough to have Christ die for them but He loves none enough to make salvation certain for them. In other words, the theory of a general atonement tells me that God’s highest expression of love in the giving up of His Son goes no further than making salvation possible for all men, but not certain for anyone. That’s as far as God’s love goes and no further, because the death of Christ is the highest expression of God’s love. Furthermore, if Christ died in the same way for each and every man who has ever lived and that death is the highest expression of God’s love that also tells me that, while loving each and every man enough to send Christ to die for them, God does not love many of those men enough to send the gospel to them to acquaint them with what Christ has done. Instead many for whom Christ died never hear the gospel. Now I know that someone may come back, and say, “But that’s the church’s fault not God’s fault.” But that’s not 100% accurate. I’m not denying the church’s responsibility to take the gospel to all nations, but the fact is there were parts of the world that were not even known to Christians until hundreds of years after Christ died. So the advocate of general atonement is telling me that God’s highest expression of love was the giving of His Son but that with respect to those who lived in America, for instance, before it was discovered by Christians, God loved all of those people enough to send Christ to die for them, but not enough to send them the gospel to tell them about it. So do you see what I’m saying? The doctrine of a general atonement depreciates the highest expression of God’s love in the giving of His Son by teaching, in effect, that that love goes no further than making salvation possible for all men, but not certain for anyone. In fact, it doesn’t even make it possible for all men, because many for whom Christ died never had the gospel sent to them. So according to the theory of a general atonement God’s greatest act of love wasn’t all that great. It didn’t really do all that much for those who are the objects of that love.
Second, and most importantly, the theory of a general atonement depreciates the love of God by teaching, in effect, that God’s love for His people is no different and no greater than his love for the damned in hell. Think about it! The Bible is clear that God’s highest expression of love was the giving up of His Son to the cross. Most, if not all, who hold to a general atonement, would agree that that’s what the Bible teaches. Well, if that’s so, and it is, and if God gave up His Son equally, and in the same way for each and every man, then that means that God’s love for His people, for believers, is no different and no greater than His love for unbelievers or even for the damned in hell. In fact, it means, therefore, that throughout the endless ages of eternity God will have no greater love for the saints in heaven than He has for the multitudes in hell. For they all were the objects of God’s highest expression of love.
Now if that’s so, what comfort is it to me as a Christian to say as the Apostle Paul did, with a sense of wonder and amazement, in Gal. 2:20, “The Son of God loved me and gave Himself for me”. What comfort is that to me as a Christian? Why should that be any great cause of wonder and amazement, if Christ loved Judas and gave Himself up for him in just the same way? So which understanding of the atonement truly magnifies the love of God for His people? A gospel of general atonement, which says that God’s love for His people is no different and no greater than His love for each and every man, even the damned in hell, or the gospel of particular atonement which says, that while God has a common love for all men, in that He does good to them and causes the rain to fall and the sun to shine on the just and upon the unjust, and in that he sincerely offers Christ to them in the gospel, yet God’s highest expression of love, His peculiar redeeming love in the giving up of His Son, is a love that has exclusive reference to His people. Or which is the same, to those who believe! Which concept truly magnifies the love of God to His people and which concept cheapens and depreciates it?
The answer should be obvious. General atonement depreciates and cheapens God’s love while it’s the gospel of particular atonement that reveals to me as a Christian the depth of God’s love for me. There is no more stunning message of the love of God to us, than the message of particular redemption. To know that Jesus died literally for me; that His atonement was not just a vague general “something” that was done for everyone in general but for none in particular but that I was on His heart from eternity; and I was on His heart when He suffered and bled and died upon Calvary’s cross. That, my dear friends, is a shattering revelation that brings the soul down low before the cross in wonder and awe and inflames our hearts with love to Him like nothing else can; that love for Him which is the mainspring of every other grace and of sacrificial service to His name. Christ Jesus was not potentially a substitute for all, but for none in reality. He was literally a real substitute for me. He really and literally stood in my place and bore the guilt of my sins and endured the wrath that I deserve. As a husband is to love His wife with a peculiar and special love that He has for none other, so also, the Bible says, “Christ loved the church and gave Himself for her”. Christ is not like the sweet-talking ladies man who tells all the girls the same thing. No, the redeeming love of Christ is reserved for His bride, the church, and for every individual member of it.
You see, it is the doctrine of particular redemption that magnifies the love of Christ, and indeed the love of the Triune God for His people. And why is this important? It is love for God and for Christ that is the mainspring of every other spiritual grace. It is the mainspring of the entire Christian life, and it’s only to the degree that I as a Christian understand the love that Christ has toward me, that I will be constrained; to the degree I ought, by love to him to serve Him and to live to His glory. In our next installment (Part 3), we’ll consider how this doctrine should encourage us in the work of evangelism and missions.
Jeffery Smith,
Pastor of Emmanuel Baptist Church, Coconut Creek, Florida,
Professor for Reformed Baptist Seminary, Easley, SC
