What a mystery is found in the words of John: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us…” First, the fact of divine conception. The Lord takes to himself our humanity in all its frailty and weakness. True mortality. Second, He tabernacles with us. he lives his life before us. It is observable, real and complete proof that Immanuel was among us. May we see his glory – full of grace and truth.
For Whom Did Christ Die
Here is John Owen’s Argument for Particular Redemption. Still unanswerable!!!
The Father imposed His wrath due unto, and the Son underwent punishment for, either:
- All the sins of all men.
- All the sins of some men, or
- Some of the sins of all men.
In which case it may be said:
- That if the last be true, all men have some sins to answer for, and so, none are saved.
- That if the second be true, then Christ, in their stead suffered for all the sins of all the elect in the whole world, and this is the truth.
- But if the first be the case, why are not all men free from the punishment due unto their sins?
You answer, “Because of unbelief.”
I ask, Is this unbelief a sin, or is it not? If it be, then Christ suffered the punishment due unto it, or He did not. If He did, why must that hinder them more than their other sins for which He died? If He did not, He did not die for all their sins!”
The Downgrade of the Supernatural
The moment you exchange the supernatural for the natural – all faiths become the same and therefore are the product of a particular culture or people or person. This in turn forces you to accept all since they are the same and not supernatural. This has always been in existence and idolatry is the clearest example of this. Idolatry therefore is not distinguishing God alone as he has revealed himself supernaturally in the Scriptures. If you can bring all faiths to the same level then there is no one true faith. Yet Jesus made it abundantly clear that he alone is the Way, the Truth and the Life and therefore all other faiths are not faiths at all – they are perversions of Satan and the sinful human heart and mind. They are not therefore true. They are rivals to God – they are idolatrous. To exalt God above all is only his due since he alone is God. All others are gods, and therefore not gods at all, since an idol in any form whatsoever is not true or real. So always magnify God as he is and never seek to reduce him to any contemporary model or thought. That would be to downgrade the supernatural and you would have created a new idol for yourself.
The Wonder of Creation
All of creation declares the glory of God. In the beginning it pleased the Triune God to create – it was a demonstration of his glory, his wisdom, his power, & his goodness (refer to the LBCF 4.1)
Safe by Unalterable Decree
God’s Providence is by unalterable decree, so if he has the whole world in his hands – then that is unchangeable, and therefore we are safe in the Sovereign purposes of God. No better place to be, right?