Restricted
Redemption
Elder
O. B. Mink
Pastor
- Sovereign Grace Baptist Church
Texarkana,
Texas
"I
pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which Thou hast given
me; for they are Thine." (John 17:9)
It is unequivocally clear from the words of Christ in the above text and
context that there is a people for whom He did not and would not pray.
John seventeen (17) is the priestly or mediatorial prayer of Jesus whereby
He intercedes for the "many" whom the Father had given Him in the covenant
of eternal redemption (Vs. 2).
In His sinless humanity or as the perfect man, Jesus prayed for His enemies,
but all the functions of His mediatorial office were restricted to only
those whom He substitutively represented on the cross. Speaking of His
redemptive blood, Christ said: It "...is shed for many for the remission
of sins" (Matthew 26:28). Quantitatively, the "many" whose sins
Jesus bore in His body on the tree is not the Adamic family, and only by
forcing the term ("many") and obliterating its restrictive significance
can it be made to accommodate the general atonement theory.
Christ said, "...The scripture cannot be broken" (John 10:35). However,
He did not say they could not be wrested, twisted, or distorted. Peter
said, the "unlearned and unstable" wrest the scriptures to their own destruction
(II
Peter 3:16). The natural man, to whom all scripture is utter foolishness
(I
Corinthians 2:14), has not only perverted God's word in making the
sacrificial blood of Christ to be the indiscriminate offering for all mankind,
but from his desperately wicked heart he has compounded his foolishness
by teaching that mans' eternal destiny is determined by his own volitional
power.
The salvational efficacy theory of the will of fallen man is exceedingly
pleasing to his intellectual palate, yea, it is his most relished doctrine,
but in the end it will be more bitter than gall, and he will in vain try
to spew it out of his mouth. "Bread of deceit is sweet to a man, but afterwards
his mouth shall be filled with gravel" (Proverbs 20:17).
The unrestricted redemptionists are long on believeism, but are fatally
short on Bible. Their error is satan's dye by which he attempts to bedim
the color of God's plenary and inspired fabric of truth, and thereby keep
his dupes confused and use them to confound others and compound their own
guilt. Yet, the word of God remains untainted, and that inerrent and immutable
word, says: "...The good Shepherd giveth His life for the sheep" (John
10:11).
Metephorically speaking, Christ died for His sheep and for His wheat. Realistically
speaking, Christ died for His "many sons". Goats never become sheep, tares
never become wheat, and the children of the devil never become the children
of God (John 8:44; 10:11; Heb. 2:10). Christ said to the self salvationists
of His day: "Ye believe not because ye are not of My sheep" (John 10:26).
They
were perfectly content with their supposed scheme of redemption, and Christ
knowing the irreconcilable and absolute depravity of their hearts said
unto them: "Ye will not come to Me that ye might have life" (John 5:40).
THE
UNRESTRICTIONISTS CHARGE GOD
WITH
JUDICIAL DISPARITY
They who have cast off the restrictive character of Christ's atonement
teach that Christ died for all the sins of all men, and at the same time
own the truth that some people are already in hell and that others are
going there daily. This is not merely a glaring inconsistency on their
part, but it is to charge the infinitely holy God with injustice. God does
not exact payment for sin twice, once at the bleeding hand of His beloved
Son, and then again at the hands of those for whom Christ paid the full
ransom price.
God does not punish sin twice, once in Christ, and then again in the burning
woes of hell: "Payment God cannot twice demand, first at my bleeding Surety's
hand, and then again at mine" (Toplady).
All for whom Christ vicariously suffered are no longer under the condemning
power of sin or the curse of the law (Romans 8:1), and Christ stands
as their sin scarred and eternal Surety in the perjureless court of the
just and almighty God.
The infinite counsel of God in the salvation of His elect has never been
less than absolutely sure, and it is gross ignorance for man to try and
arraign Omniscience before the bar of human reason. God did not give His
Son, in Whom He is eternally well pleased, to make salvation possible,
nor even probable, nor did He give Him to put mankind in a redeemable state,
but He gave Him to make salvation sure in the experience of all whom He
had become Bondsman in the covenant of redemption (Hebrews 7:22). It
would be the ultimate violation of justice for God to exact payment for
sin from a person whom God Himself had made Christ that person's sin bearer.
Perish the thought!
TWO
DIVERSE COMPANIES OF PEOPLE
Regarding mans everlasting destiny it is declared in holy writ that there
are two distinct classes of people, and two diverse destinies. From the
very onset of time the redemptive and reprobative distinctions are clearly
delineated and manifested in God's word. In Genesis 3:15, God, the
sovereign pre-determiner of all beginnings and endings, not only sets the
two companies within the family of man in juxtaposition, but emphasises
the distinction and alienation between them. Speaking to the serpent and
indirectly to the devil, God says: "And I will put enmity between thee
and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it (He) shall bruise
thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." In these words we see two distinct
and variant seeds.
Speaking of the "works of the devil" the apostle John writes, "In this
the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil..." (I
John
3:8-10).
Those to whom the righteousness of Christ has been imputed
cry out: "God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord
Jesus Christ" (Galatians 6:14). Contrariwise, those who hate the
Divine nobleman's cross bearing Son, cry out: "We will not have this man
to reign over us" (Luke 19:14). From the early dawn of human history
the world has had its Cains and its Ables, its Esaus and its Jacobs, its
Pharoahs and its Moses', its Judas Iscariots and its Pauls, its Popes and
its God fearing martyrs. In this the children of light and the children
of darkness are manifest. Notwithstanding, it is the glorious gospel of
Christ that separates between the wheat and the tares, and shall succeed
in making the distinction between them apparent in spite of the devil's
loathsome birds sent forth to pluck it up (Matthew 13:4,8; Romans 1:16;
10:16,17; II Thessalonians 2:13,14).
It is incontrovertible, if Christ died, as the Arminians claim for all
men unrestrictively, then all men would be reconciled to God, for their
penal judgment was suffered by Christ, in their room and in their stead.
Then too, Christ's death being the cause in the removal of the sin of mankind,
the effect following the cause would be universal salvation, for where
there is no sin, there is no condemnation, and hell is left without a reason
for existing. The general atonement argument is an impossible hypothesis,
glaringly absurd, void of intellectual merit, and can never be a part of
the faith of God's elect. It is a satanic device to rob God of His glory
in the salvation of His people, and to stir up the spiritual idiocy inherent
in the natural heart. But thank God, His blood bought people are not ignorant
of this God dishonoring and soul damning device (II Corinthians 2:11).
In the final and awesome separation of the vessels of mercy from the vessels
of wrath, the elect stand on the right hand of Christ, the place of infinite
mercy and favor, and He says to them: "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit
the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world" (Matthew
25:34). In the final and fearful assize, Christ will say to that "world
which knew Him not" in the days of His humilitation: "...I never knew you:
depart from Me, ye that work iniquity" (Matthew 7:23). Christ never
knew them as His elect, and consequently, He never knew them with covenant
love.
The natural man sees no merit or value in the blood of Christ, and in his
inceasant rebellion against God, tramples that precious blood underfoot.
Without the sovereign intervention of God in the life of the natural man
he will go on and on in the way that seemeth right unto him, and will at
last enter the wide gates that leadeth to everlasting destruction. But
the beneficiaries of atoning and restrictive grace are pilgrims on the
straight and narrow way, from whence there is nothing to turn back to,
and which leads through the shining and everlasting gates of Glory.
"The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve
the unjust unto the day of judgement to be punished." A merited damnation,
and a merciful deliverance.(II Peter 2:9 )
(The
Baptist Herald - February, 1990)
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