Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

Intervarsity Press publishes these two complementary books, Why I Am Not a Calvinist, and Why I am Not an Arminian.

Both Calvin and Arminius were honest men living up to the light they had for their day, and the Wesleys, too. And their respective followers today we believe to be sincere. But what is “the truth of the gospel” that so fired the apostle Paul to write Romans, Galatians (2:5), Ephesians, etc.? The love of Christ, agape, which constrained him to follow the Lord Jesus in total devotion. What he knew was beyond both Calvinism and Arminianism.

Neither can grasp that agape, because both even today hold the non-biblical idea of natural immortality. The Bible is clear: Christ died for us! Yes, the Son of God, the Savior of the world, died! When He “tasted death for every man” (Heb. 2:9), the death He “tasted” was what the Bible calls the second death.

This profound truth opens up a new world of gospel understanding—what Paul means when he says that Christ “emptied Himself”(Phil. 2:7). He “tasted,” that is, experienced the horror of soul that the lost will know as they face those at-last opened “books” and the lake of fire. He was “made to be sin for us who knew no sin” (2 Cor. 5:21), endured the most dreadful “curse of God” (Matt. 27:46; Deut. 21:22, 23), “poured out His soul unto death” (Isa. 53:12). “Herein is love [agape], not that we loved God but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10). Oh, joy!

When Christ died for the world, He died the world’s second death and therefore achieved a “verdict of acquittal” for every sinner on earth. At the same time He achieved, purchased, won, secured, obtained, a real justification for every sinner—real but not recognized by the world as real. That “verdict of acquittal” satisfies the broken law of God because Christ died as the last or second Adam, the new Head of the human race; it was a perfectly valid legal “verdict of acquittal.” It ought to stun you: the Father looks upon you as though you have never sinned! But you cannot, forever cannot, continue living in sin (Rom. 6:1-14)!

Therefore, it’s the same as saying that Christ has given every human being the gift of salvation “in Himself.” It’s time to appreciate what He has done for us. Isn’t it a sin to remain babes in understanding forever? May His love constrain us to live “henceforth” for the One who died for us and rose again (2 Cor. 5:14, 15), so we can have some little part in crowning Him King of kings and Lord of lords. It’s a joy to forget self.

Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.