It is claimed by many that one must believe that Jesus died as the replacement for our sins in order to be saved. In other words, they are saying that we must believe in one theory of atonement-- the Penal Substitution Theory-- above all others to be saved.
As I posted yesterday, this statement is difficult, for it claims that all those who could not have known about the theory, even though they lived lives of following Jesus, were not actually saved.
What does the Scripture say about "What we must do to be saved"?
The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.“ Mark 1:15
"This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.“ John 6:29
“Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” Acts 2:38
"Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.“ Acts 16:31
There are many other passages I could quote, but these are representative. First of all, the Scripture says we must repent. That means that we must admit that we have messed up our relationship with God and that it is our fault. It means that we must ask God for forgiveness and invite Him to lead us out of our sin.
It also means we must believe. Jesus said that we must believe "the gospel" in Mark 1. Especially in the parable of the sower in Mark 4, we can see that "the gospel" is specifically the teaching of Jesus, not just the theological assumptions of human reasoning.
But most importantly, the Scripture says again and again that we must believe in Jesus. Not ABOUT Jesus-- as if belief is some intellectual achievement, but IN Jesus. We must believe, as Nathaniel in John 1:49-50, that Jesus is not just a King, but OUR King. We must put Jesus first in our lives as our Lord and our sole government. This is what is repeated again and again in the New Testament. Nothing less than having Jesus as our Lord will save us. Not belief in any part of theology, but the surrender of our sovereignty to Jesus.
Another time I'd like to talk about the implications of this theology, but it is enough to say that it is not belief in any theory of atonement that saves us, not according to Scripture. It does say in I Corinthians 15:3-4 that we need to believe that Jesus "died for our sins", but that word "for" doesn't imply substitution, but rather causation (as we will see next time). And Paul's emphasis (as it is throughout his writings) is faith in Jesus' resurrection as the basis for our resurrection.
Jesus' death is certainly important in the mechanics of HOW we are saved. But the mechanics of how atonement works is not the object of faith-- only Jesus is. It used to be when I was in school that they would give us computer classes. Today, if you take classes they teach you how to run programs so you can practically use a computer. In that day they taught programming, which did nothing for us trying to write reports or do accounting on a computer. Even as learning programming or the mechanics of a motherboard isn't necessary to use a computer, so is understanding the atonement unnecessary to follow Jesus or to live in the Spirit.
The Bible makes it clear that Jesus' death, resurrection, and atonement do more than take our place on the cross. It would be wrong to limit the atonement to this accomplishment. He obviously heals us, sent the Holy Spirit, and gives us the ability to recognize truth and recognize Him as God by giving "sight to the blind". And He accomplished more.
ReplyDeleteQuestions -
I'm curious: guessing you'd agree that: God can reveal truths about Himself, -Jesus, in special revelation to people who will respond if they had no other way of knowing. -I rreason this from the fact that we have general revelation, and special revelation, and the Holy Spirit can reveal whatever He wants when He wants. -And also that for salvation, we need to believe that Jesus is God.
What to do with these verses?
Hebrews 9:24-28
But now he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. 27Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, 28so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people...
Hebrews 10:10
10And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
Hebrews 10:12
12But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God. -the OT sacrifices were to take sin away, and they pointed to Jesus.
Hebrews 10:14
14because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.
Hebrews 10:12
12But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God.
** 1 Peter 3:18
18For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit,
** Isaiah 53
6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way;
and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
Be patient, Leeann. Remember that I said that this would take a long time? Well, we're only at the beginning. We'll get to the verses.
ReplyDeleteAs far as Jesus being God, that is an important aspect of theology, but that particular fact isn't necessary for salvation. Salvation is primarily a relationship, and it is a relationship of submission to Jesus. Whether a person understands Jesus with the concept of God doesn't necessarily prove or disprove the relationship. See my post on the Trinity in this blog.
It isn't the idea of "limiting" salvation to the atonement. Rather, it is saying that one theory of the atonement is the gospel that is unbiblical.
I'm not sure what your point of "special" revelation is. Theologically, "general" revelation is creation and "special" revelation is Scripture. So I don't know what distinction you're making.
re: "limiting" the atonement, and Jesus death and resurrection, i'm agreeing: it does many things.
ReplyDeletemy reference to special revelation addresses your statement in the previous blog that "Thus, it cannot be held that one particular view of atonement must be the one that must be believed in for salvation, unless we are going to hold that the majority of believers in the past and a strong minority in the present didn’t have salvation because they didn’t hold to one theory of atonement." it would seem that a lack of "Bible" type special revelation would not stop God from revealing that Jesus *is* God to people who otherwise could not know. then and today.
Okay, now I understand what you mean by "special" revelation. You mean that which is revealed personally.
ReplyDeleteEveryone has things that are revealed to them personally. But they cannot be requirements of salvation generally. That has to be limited to Scripture. Scripture gives us the general requirements we all must live by. The Holy Spirit gives us the specific revelation that we personally must hear. But we cannot take our personal revelation and say that everyone must adhere to it. The Spirit's revelation to us is for us. We cannot require that of others. Romans 14.