Effectual Atonement for the Elect Is Not the Icing on the Gospel, by David Bishop
I had a emotionally transcendent experience about twenty years ago that led me to believe for a long time that I was a child of God, and would most certainly be saved on the day Christ returned to judge the living and the dead. I believed this was true because I’d had the experience. I had responded to the experience in a way I thought appropriate. I did not know at the time that my appeal to this experience was nothing more than an attempt to establish my own righteousness.
Back then, if you had challenged me to prove I was a true Christian, I would have described my experience and my response to it. However, I now see that my experience was the evidence that I was self-righteous. I was no different than the Pharisee who believed himself just because he fasted twice a week and tithed a tenth of all that he had. I believed lots of things about myself back then, but the one thing I did not believe was that I am an unrighteous sinner in need of God’s righteousness to save me.
There is only one person who has ever and will ever stand righteous before God’s sight based upon his own merit. That person is Christ Jesus. The God-man was righteous before God even before He obtained righteousness for the elect, by living a life of absolute perfect obedience to God even to the point of dying on a cross. Challenge me today to prove that I am truly a Christian, and I will not respond wan explanation of my response to my experience. I will respond instead with an explanation of what Christ accomplished for His people. I will explain that Christ obtained this righteousness by living a perfectly obedient life even to the point of obediently dying on a cross to satisfy His wrath for His people’s sins.
I am not made just by my act of explaining this. Rather, I am declared just by God’s work of imputing to my account the righteousness that Christ obtained. The fact that I can explain this as being the object of my faith reveals only that it is the object of my faith. The fact that it is the object of my faith proves that the Spirit has done a work in my heart based upon Christ’s righteousness to my account. Romans 8:10 “But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.”
The object of my faith is no longer my experience, the response to my experience, or even my response to hearing the true gospel. The object of my faith is THE Christ Jesus who secured the salvation of His people by obtaining the righteousness that alone saves them. What reason then could I possibly have for NOT explaining the doctrines of predestination and effectual atonement for the elect alone to someone when proclaiming the gospel for the first time to a person?
If Christ died for everyone, but not everyone will be saved, then it would be true that the righteousness that Christ obtained cannot save anyone until it is first mixed with my experience, my response, my choice, my good deeds, etc.
If, on the other hand, it is true that only some people will be saved because Christ only died for some people, then the doctrine of effectual atonement is absolutely paramount to the gospel.
If it is true that only some people will be saved because Christ only died for some people, then why would I not tell people this? Why instead would I let them continue to think that Christ died for everyone, thereby nullifying the news of the saving power of the righteousness that Christ obtained?
People who believe that the doctrines of particular atonement and predestination are just optional extras, or even that they are just the icing on the cake, are the very fulfillment of Christ’s warning in Mark 8:38. “If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.” They are ashamed of THE Christ who secured the salvation of His people by obtaining the righteousness that alone saves them.
People with the false gospel are however NOT ashamed of A “christ” who failed to secure anyone’s salvation. They are not ashamed of A “christ” whose righteousness is not capable enough by itself to save a person. They love this “christ”, because this “christ” honors their attempts to establish their own righteousness. They can say yeah, Jesus had to die for me, but it was my choice to believe him, to obey him, to turn my life over to him that finally saved me.
There is no true gospel apart from particular atonement. particular atonement is not the icing on the cake. Particular atonement is the cake.
The Scriptures tell us that Satan masquerades as an angel of light (2 Cor. 11:4). This is not an exaggeration. Lies about God do not glorify God. They do however, honor Satan. If Satan can inflict even God’s people with disease and sickness (see Job), is there any doubt that he can inflict lost people with lovely emotions that lead them to glorify their flesh and believe lies about God?
Romans 6:20 “For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 21 But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are NOW ASHAMED? For the end of those things is death. 22 But now that you have been set free from sin and ahave become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
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Tags: David Bishop, experiences, the gospel
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January 23, 2012 at 6:44 pm
“Particular atonement is not the icing on the cake. Particular atonement is the cake.” Exactly. It’s grievous to see how many ‘Calvinists’ treat the nature of the atonement as irrelevant.