Dennis Tuuri

was born to save. Jesus Christ was born for this to open heaven’s door to redeem a people. Please stand for the scripture reading. We’ll be reading from Matthew 1:18-25. Matthew chapter 1 beginning at verse 18.

Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise. When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost. Then Joseph her husband being a just man and not willing to make her a public example was minded to put her away privy.

But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto Mary thy wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost, and she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. Now all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, “Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is God with us.” Then Joseph being raised from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him and took unto him his wife and knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son. And he called his name Jesus.

Let’s pray. Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for the incarnate word. And we pray, Lord God, you would open this word to us that you might indeed take this bread of life and minister it to us in the power of the Lord Jesus Christ. And may your spirit write these things upon our hearts as we consider the advent of the Lord Jesus Christ, his incarnation, that he came as Jesus to save people. In his name we pray. Amen.

I love this time of year. It is a marvelous and joyful season that God in his providence has provided for us in December each year. It’s a time of joy, great joy. It’s a time of gift giving. Our season sort of begins with Thanksgiving being the predecessor for it, but then we also at our family celebrate St. Nicholas day. And Nicholas was a young man who received a large inheritance, became a bishop in the church, gave away goods to help other people. It’s a picture of gift-giving and service to others and humility before Christ to serve others with the resources he gives us. We got these trees around us, and while some may refer to them as nimrod bushes—I guess I did last week—it’s a beautiful picture of the tree of life, the Lord Jesus Christ. It’s a picture to us that we’re also the planting of God and we grow up and mature.

I was even thinking this last week that these balls on these trees are like stylized fruit. That was the origin of them. The tree that we are to be as well is to have fruit in our lives pictured by that fruit. And we have lights on our trees and bells and stuff. And the tree you can sort of think of it as going from wood to shiny gold—that transformation thing. Wood, stubble burned up, silver and gold being refined. And we’re those trees as we’re moving from being wood to being metal, shiny things in the glory of God. And we’re surrounded by all these kinds of pictures of the redemptive work of the Lord Jesus Christ and the blessings that come to us on the basis of that work.

We all become little mini evangelists during Christmas time. Probably never thought of it that way, have you? It’s interesting. I was walking out to my mailbox taking out some Christmas cards and I thought about this. Cards—you know, what are we doing? We’re proclaiming the advent of the Lord Jesus Christ either directly or indirectly. Maybe you don’t have cards that are specifically religious. Maybe they’re just seasonal greetings. But still, it’s by inference. The season is based upon the advent of the Lord Jesus Christ. We all become little mini evangelists. We send out, you know, maybe a dozen, maybe some people a couple hundred, evangelistic pamphlets. You can look at it that way as we send these Christmas cards to evangelize people. And not just to evangelize people, but to rejoice in the fellowship of faith with our Christian friends, to rejoice and remind them and encourage them to rejoice at this time of year based upon what our Savior has done.

We proclaim these greetings with our songs. We proclaim the truths of the season through the things we surround ourselves with in our house, properly understood from a Christian perspective. We proclaim this wonderful message of the Lord Jesus Christ’s advent and incarnation through these cards.

This is a time of year that’s a real hustle and bustle of activity and yet it’s a relaxing time of year too. It’s kind of an odd mixture of the two. On one of the email lists I’m on, they had a series of email posts about holiday reading. Some of these guys are professors and stuff, so they have more time off during this time of year. But you know, some people make it a little habit in their life. They have particular books they put off all year. They read them at Christmas time because there’s a little more relaxed time, time off from work, whatever it is. So it’s kind of a relaxed time, but it’s also a time of hustle and bustle.

You know, it’s not just enjoyment for ourselves. It’s desiring to give presents to people or make them happy or make special food to rejoice in this time of year. It’s a time of life—you know, life just builds up and kind of blows out when we have a good holiday season, so to speak. My girls were like Santa’s helpers last night. I mean, the sense of St. Nicholas and trying to give gifts and bring joy to people’s lives. And my girls were kind of bustling away last night till pretty late, getting cards and cookies and candy ready for little kids and presents for their friends and to bring to church today and share this joy of the season. And my boys are trying to earn extra money early in the year so they could have gifts to give to people. And so there’s this focus of activity to bring joy to other people based upon the season.

It’s a season of life, a season where prime rib roast comes on sale every year at Christmas time. And things that are good and tasty to eat are made. You can walk down the aisles of the store, you know, and they got the wall of values, and they got the marshmallow cream and they got the yams and the olives and the snacks and piles of wonderful food to rejoice in the goodness of the man that came down from heaven. That’s how I think of these things.

It’s a time of life. It’s a time of music. Our house has been filled with Christmas music this last week. TV not on very much, music playing to remind us of the great spiritual truths that undergird this season. I love this time of year. I love this time of year. It’s a good time of year. And we come today in the providence of God in the midst of this hustle and bustle and life and joy and Thanksgiving to God.

We come to a consideration of the providence of God in the death of Christ. We’re moving through the Canons of Dort. And as we move through them, we’ve finished up with the first head of doctrine, the divine election and reprobation. And we’ve come to the second head of doctrine, which is the death of Christ and the redemption of men thereby. So that’s what we start today in the providence of God.

Now, the death of Christ and the redemption of men thereby is what some have become known as limited atonement in the TULIP acronym of the five points of Calvinism based upon the Canons of Dort. Limited atonement. Now, well, this truth that Christ died for a particular people—a couple of other terms you might want to use instead of limited atonement is particular redemption or definite redemption—that there’s a redemption of a definite number, particular number of people.

This truth is clearly taught in scripture. In John 10, for instance, in verse 11, the good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep. He laid down his life. He died for the sheep. And in 10:15, it says, “I laid down my life for the sheep.” He identifies the sheep as the people that he is dying for. Not all the world, the sheep. A particular definite group of people.

In Ephesians 5, Paul admonishes husbands to love their wives even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself up for her. For her. The death of the Lord Jesus Christ was for a particular group of people, a particular group of people in mind.

Let me read you a summary quotation from—I believe this is from Loraine Boettner—a summary quotation of particular redemption. He says this: “Particular redemption or limited atonement. Christ’s redeeming work was intended to save the elect only and actually secured salvation for them. His death was the substitutionary endurance of the penalty of sin in the place of certain specified sinners. In addition to putting away the sins of his people, Christ’s redemption secured everything necessary for their salvation, including faith, which unites them to him. The gift of faith is infallibly applied by the Spirit to all for whom Christ died, therefore guaranteeing their salvation.”

Now, when we talk about limited atonement, we ought to use that terminology carefully. It doesn’t mean limited in its value. The Canons of Dort themselves—I’m not going to talk much about the Canons today. We’ll talk about that next week. What I want to do today is to draw the death of Christ into our Christmas celebration and help us see that at the base of the joy and life and activity we have at this particular time of year—Christmas, the advent of the Lord Jesus Christ, his birth—that he came and was born to affect redemption for his people. And he has affected it once for all.

He did not come to give a possibility of atonement. He didn’t come to give a possibility of redemption. He didn’t come to make it possible for people to be reconciled. He didn’t come to make it possible for people to be saved. He came, the scriptures say, and the angel told Joseph to name him Jesus because he came to save his people, to save the church, to save the elect of God—not to make it possible, but to do it once for all, a historical act on the cross.

Okay, that’s what I want to focus on. But let me just say this: that one quote from the Canons of Dort—when we talk about limited atonement, we’re talking about the atonement is limited as to its design, for whom it would be given. The atonement, the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, was not for all men. It was for the elect. But it is not limited in the sense of its value. The value of the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ shed on the cross—the Lord says this: “The death of the Son of God is the only and most perfect sacrifice and satisfaction for sin and is of infinite worth and value, abundantly sufficient to expiate the sins of the whole world.”

Sufficient for all, efficient for some. That’s what Calvin said in commenting on 1 John chapter 2. Calvin said that Christ died sufficiently for all but effectively for the elect only. And that is the doctrine that we believe that scriptures teach. It’s the doctrine that the Canons of Dort assert in the second head of doctrine of the death of Christ and the redemption of men thereby.

Now, there is a progression here. I don’t know if they planned it this way, but we talked about divine election and reprobation, right? We talked about election. But to elect somebody isn’t to complete the work. One of the examples from one of the books I read said it’s kind of like electing a president. He’s not really president until he’s inaugurated. So, your election by God—there is a sense in which you can say that everything that God decides to do is an accomplished fact. But there’s another way that is proper to say that God’s election of you based on his love, his foreknowledge, his forelove of you from all time for his good pleasure—that election of you doesn’t accomplish salvation. It chooses you out for salvation. But salvation is actually accomplished then through the means of the death of Christ.

You see, so it moves. The Canons move from divine election, okay, to the choice and then to God making that choice a reality, to bringing salvation into your life through the redemptive work of Christ on the cross, the death of Christ and the redemption of men thereby. Then the next couple heads of doctrine talk about how God draws the sinner to himself, and the final head is perseverance. So you see this logical progression: there’s this election of God in eternity. He sends his son in time to die and affect redemption once for all. Then he draws the church to himself through time via irresistible grace. And then finally he will cause the Christian to persevere. God will preserve his people in all times.

There’s a historical progression that’s proper to point out. But our discussion today is the death of Christ and the redemption of men thereby. It’s not a death that is limited in its value. It’s limited in its effect because God intended it only for a particular group of people.

Now, one way to look at this—I want to just talk and I don’t want to spend a lot of time either talking about Arminianism. But I do want to say just a couple of very brief things about it: that everyone limits the atonement. Everybody believes in a limited atonement. We believe it’s limited in who Christ atoned for, not in its value. They believe that Christ died for everyone, but that no one really, no single person, is effectively saved by that work on the cross alone. There requires a second act, the belief on the part of the person, to affect salvation.

So we’ll get into this more in the next couple of weeks, but the theory of the atonement that the scriptures place forward—which is no theory, the fact of Christ’s atonement—that it accomplished redemption for his people, which will be our thrust of the verses we’ll look at today, is denied by the Arminian theology as it works its way out. It says the atonement is something else. Atonement doesn’t effectively do anything. It provides a possibility for salvation, a possibility for redemption, a possibility for reconciliation. But we think the scriptures teach, and I’ll show you here in a couple of minutes that they do, that the scriptures teach that the atonement didn’t provide a possibility. It saved us and it redeemed us and it reconciled us and it justified us and it propitiated the wrath of God for us effectively.

See, Boettner gave a little illustration. He said that for the Calvinist, the doctrine of the atonement is like a very narrow bridge that goes all the way across the stream. For the Arminian, it’s a great wide bridge, but it only goes halfway across the stream. See, that’s the difference. We believe it goes all the way across. It isn’t some kind of possibility. It’s an accomplished fact.

In the book, The Five Points of Calvinism, we read this: “Because the Arminian believes in an atonement that is unlimited in extent, it is necessarily a vague, indefinite, poverty-stricken atonement that does not actually save anyone. If on the other hand, the atonement is unlimited as to its efficacy, its saving power as the Bible indicates, then it must be limited in its scope. Unless a person believes in universalism—that is that all people will be saved—the atonement cannot be unlimited in both its nature and its extent. You understand? Its nature and its extent can’t both be unlimited, otherwise everybody’s saved. If the atonement actually secures redemption, reconciliation, justification, propitiation, salvation, and if it’s unlimited, then everybody’s saved.

You see? But it isn’t. God says that there are still children of wrath today. We were children of wrath. We are no longer the children of wrath.”

Let me read from one more little pamphlet. The doctrines of grace say this: “Many Christians believe the former—that is that the cross has limited power. The cross according to them did not save anyone but only made salvation possible, if. The if is man’s part. Thus the cross did not guarantee anyone’s salvation. We believe the cross has unlimited power and therefore limited design, while others believe the cross had unlimited design to save all without exception and therefore limited power, didn’t save anybody definitively. Thus, all Christians limit the atonement. Some limiting the power and others the design of it.”

Now, the scriptures assert—and now this is what we’re going to turn to—what has the death of Christ affected?

Jesus Christ came to earth, became incarnate in the womb of Mary and then was born for the purpose—for the purpose of saving people from sin. That’s why he came. Of the Father’s love begotten, we could say of the Father’s love incarnate, of the Father’s love for us. The great source for the Father sending the Son is his love for his elect. And in that love he sent his son to definitively save his people.

In Luke 19, we read the Son of Man has come to seek and save that which is lost. Doesn’t say the Son of Man came to seek and make possible the salvation of those who are lost. No, it says the Son of Man came to seek and save that which is lost. He did it. That’s why he came. It’s an accomplished reality that the elect in Jesus Christ are now saved on the basis of his work.

What did the angel tell Joseph? “You shall call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins.” Not he shall make it possible through his death on the cross that some might be saved. No, he came to save his people from their sins.

The scriptures assert that we are saved through the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and his death on the cross. In Galatians 1:3-4: “Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age according to the will of God our Father.” The death of Jesus Christ—he gave himself for our sins—affected us. It was not to make it possible but to deliver us from this present evil age. Our sins had bound us. We needed salvation. We needed to be rescued. We needed to be delivered from the present evil age and from our sinfulness and our participation in the sinfulness of our wicked age. And so the scriptures say that Jesus Christ accomplished this—not made it possible—but that he did save his people from their sins.

So let’s look now at one other thing before we get to the delineation of these truths that the scriptures talk about the death of Christ. Christ accomplishes this definitive salvation of his people through the method of substitution. The scriptures say that Jesus was a substitute for us in two senses. He is a covenantal representation of the elect, but he is also a personal substitute for you in his death on the cross.

Okay, it’s very important. We believe the scriptures teach a vicarious substitutionary atonement—that it’s not an example to us, a moral example. It definitively saves particular people and it definitively saves us. It has saved us because he does this as a substitution for us, as a covenantal representative and also as an actual one-for-one substitute for you in his suffering on the cross for our sakes.

For instance, we read in 1 Peter 3:18: “For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust.” The word there means as a substitute, okay? The emphasis is on substitution here and representation. Jesus died for sins once for all—the just for the unjust—covenantally representing and actually substituting for the unjust in order that he might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit.

Again, in 2 Corinthians 5:14: “For the love of Christ controls us. Having concluded this that one died for all—representation and substitution is intended by that word for—all, therefore, all died.” Jesus didn’t merely die on our behalf. That’s true. He died on our behalf. But more than that, he died in our place. That’s what the scriptures teach in these verses.

Again, Matthew 20:28: “Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many”—in our place specifically, as a substitute, not just representing us but as a one-for-one substitute for you on the cross. The Lord Jesus Christ through his atonement affected a reality, a salvation of his people, because he became our substitute representatively and also in our place.

Okay. Now notice, by the way, the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. Who’s he serving? He’s not serving us. Jesus comes as the servant of God the Father. He comes to do his will. And he serves the Father by becoming our representatives and our substitutes in his vicarious atonement on the cross.

And now we’ll talk about this more in later weeks, but really what I’m going to talk about now—how Christ has affected definitively things by his death—is based upon the fact that the Son came. Remember that everlasting covenant that the scriptures speak of and we talked about several months ago? The Son came in obedience to the Father’s will to save a particular people in relationship to that covenant between the members of the Trinity, and we’ll talk about that in days to come. But he comes as a servant of God the Father, and in that servant role he dies on the cross for us—not just on our behalf but in place of us—vicarious, substitutionary atonement is what the scriptures speak.

So what we’re saying is that the death of Jesus Christ has affected the redemption of men. Their salvation. Because he is our substitute.

I want to just briefly now read several verses to show first of all that he has definitively accomplished our justification. Secondly, our propitiation. Thirdly, redemption. And fourth, reconciliation. Okay. So Jesus Christ’s death on the cross affected justification, affected propitiation, affected redemption, and reconciliation.

In 2 Corinthians 5:21, we read: “He made him who knew no sin”—that is Jesus—”to be sin on our behalf.” See, not just as our representative but on our behalf specifically, “that we might become the righteousness of God in him.” It ties us being the righteousness of God in Christ to Jesus’s acts on the cross. His becoming sin on our behalf, both representationally and as our substitute on the cross. Our justification then is tied to the assuming to himself the sin of the elect.

Isaiah 53:11 says, “My servant will justify the many as he will bear their iniquities.” The justification of the elect is accomplished by the Savior bearing the iniquities. And that happened 2,000 years ago on the cross. Now, it happens eternally in the goodwill of God the Father, but it happens definitively in terms of the means that he chooses to use—the death of the Savior on the cross for us—definitively 2,000 years ago is when he bore those sins. And when he who had no sin took our sins upon him on the cross, he definitively ushered in justification, right standing with God on our behalf.

Justify means it relates to our right standing with God in relationship to his commandments. The Lord Jesus Christ accomplishes that in his incarnation and specifically in his work on the cross.

Romans 3:24-25: “They are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.” Our justification is accomplished through the redemption made in Christ Jesus when God put him forward as a propitiation by his blood. He takes the penalty for our sins by his blood, and as a result of that historical act we are then justified in the sight of God definitively. They are justified by his grace.

Romans 5:8-9: “But God shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Since therefore we are now justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.” The justification of the believer, his right standing with God based on his justification, is a definitive act that is tied in scripture to the atonement and the redemption of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross.

Christ didn’t come, didn’t die on the cross to make justification a possibility for you. No. If that’s true, then something other than his death on the cross affected your justification—your personal act of believing. That’s not what the scriptures teach. These verses teach over and over that justification—he didn’t come just to make it possible. He came to affect it on the cross 2,000 years ago. Hallelujah. The done deal. We’re justified in the sight of God now through the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Not a condition placed upon it.

Secondly, we are, we have been propitiated for. We have received propitiation through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. In Romans 3:25, Hebrews 2:17, 1 John 2:2, lots of verses talk about the Lord Jesus Christ propitiating for the sins of his people.

Now, propitiation—in Romans let me just read this. Romans 3:24-25, we read this. We just read it actually. “Being justified as a gift of grace through the redemption which is Christ Jesus whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in his blood, through faith.” To propitiate assumes that we have a need for something. It’s a big word, I know, but God is wrathful. We are children of wrath in our natural state. God is angry and justly so with our sin, and God’s wrath needs to be made propitiated, appeased. And we need to be put in a right relationship with God.

There’s a technical difference between expiation for our guilt and propitiation, which means we’re brought into a favorable relationship with the one whom we had been alienated from before because of our sins and the just wrath of God against sin. So propitiation speaks of that putting away of that poor relationship, and that propitiation is accomplished through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. At least, this is what Romans 3:24-25 tells us: the propitiation for believers, the right standing we have, no longer being the children of wrath, no longer having God’s wrath abiding upon us, is directly tied again to the death of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross.

Reading from the Christian Encyclopedia: “To propitiate means to pacify, to conciliate, to make propitious or have a good relationship. It presupposes the person propitiated is angry and needs to be pacified. If Christ propitiates, it must be God whom he propitiates for us. And that’s what the scriptures teach. It was Christ to deal with the wrath so that those loved would no longer be the objects of wrath and love would achieve its aim of making the children of wrath the children of God’s good pleasure.”

Okay? So Christ came to affect propitiation. And he doesn’t come to make it possible for us to be propitiated for in relationship to our relationship to God. Romans 3 says that he displayed him publicly as propitiation in his blood. In his work on the cross, in his giving of his precious blood, his atonement, he accomplishes the propitiation between the elect and God. He pacifies, appeases, conciliates God through the giving of his shedding of his blood. He has satisfied all of God’s demands. He has made expiation for sin and he has propitiated God’s holy wrath against sinners.

He did not potentially appease God’s wrath. He definitively once for all and historically appeased God’s wrath at his death on the cross. He doesn’t provide a potential justification and propitiation. He provides an actual one through his work on the cross.

Third, the scriptures teach that we have been redeemed. Again, not made possible through the cross, but specifically related to Christ’s work, specifically at Christ’s work on the cross, redemption has been accomplished.

Let me read you some verses. Titus 2:14: “He gave himself for us that he might redeem us from every lawless deed and to purify for himself a people for his own possession, zealous for good deeds.” He gave himself for us. It’s talking about his death on the cross. Then he might redeem us. So the redemption of who we are is tied specifically to his work on the cross.

Galatians 3:13: “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us. For it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who hangs from the tree.’” So when did Christ accomplish the redemption of us? Not now. Not when you believe. Christ accomplishes the redemption of us 2,000 years ago when he became a curse for us. “Cursed is everyone that hangs on the tree.” On the cross is where redemption was accomplished.

1 Corinthians 1:30: “In him we have redemption, not we shall have redemption in the future. We have redemption. How? Through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace.”

You see, if Christ died for all men, these verses teach that all men would be justified. All men would have God’s wrath, their sins propitiated for, and all men would have been redeemed by the Lord Jesus Christ. But that isn’t true. See, what I’m saying is that God says that the atonement was not somehow limited as to what it accomplished. It accomplished everything for our salvation. Its limitation is that it is particular or definite as to its objects. And we’re those objects.

When we rejoice in the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ at this season, we rejoice because he has accomplished all things for our salvation. We needed justification. He did it 2,000 years ago. We needed God’s wrath propitiated. He did it 2,000 years ago. We needed release from bondage to sin and death and Satan. And he accomplished it 2,000 years ago. Now, that’s worth celebrating. That’s worth rejoicing.

Acts 20:28: “Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock. This is, of course, Paul talking to elders among whom the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which he purchased with his own blood.” Didn’t say whom he made possible the purchase of with his blood. Whom he purchased with his blood.

Luke 1:68: “He has visited us and accomplished redemption for his people.” The great cry goes out with the incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ in the first chapter of Luke. “He has visited us and accomplished redemption for his people.” That redemption is definitively accomplished and tied to the work of Christ in his incarnation and specifically the cross.

We have been set free from the payment of a price. The scriptures say the wages of sin are death. We have been bondservants and slaves to death and Satan and to the lust of the flesh. But God purchases us for himself through the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. So that redemption is not made possible but rather it is affected by the work of Jesus Christ.

1 Corinthians 6:20: “You have been bought with a price.” We are the church of Jesus Christ which he has bought. And how did he buy it? Acts 20:28 told us that he does it through his work on the cross. He purchased us with his blood.

Colossians 1:13-14: “He has delivered us from the dominion of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved son in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”

Hebrews 9:12: “He entered once for all into the holy place, taking not the blood of goats and calves, but his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.” Not a temporary one, not one far off in the future conditioned upon if we do this, but he secured once for all 2,000 years ago in his historical acts—coming to earth and dying and offering his blood on the altar of God’s throne—he secured eternal redemption for us.

The death of the Lord Jesus Christ was efficacious. It did something real. It accomplished justification. It accomplished propitiation. It accomplished redemption. And finally, it accomplished reconciliation.

He reconciliates between us and God. And again, the presupposition is we needed it. We were alienated, cut off from God because of our sins. God wasn’t happy with us. And why? Because we hated him.

Interesting, you know, in the scriptures it says that if you, though a brother has ought against you, before you come to worship go and be reconciled to him. Now have you ever—that’s an interesting thought, isn’t it? I mean, it’s obvious that if we have done something to somebody else and sinned against them we should go and try, you know, confess our sin and make repentance. But this says that if someone has ought against us, we’re supposed to go and be reconciled to them. Well, I don’t know—you apply it to your life. It’s broader than this. But let me draw the theological core of what this is all about.

The core of what this is all about is this: what God did. We hated him. We had ought against him. And God didn’t wait for us to come to our senses. He came to us and he reconciled us to himself through the death of the Lord Jesus Christ through his atonement. You see the picture there? That is the theological picture—that God takes the initiative in these things. And we become then image-bearers of him and also going out and seeking to affect reconciliation with people that have ought against us. And there’s a practical, very useful practical application of that. But the theological truth is that God is the one who sought us out when we hated him. Christ died for us while we were yet enemies.

See, he doesn’t die to then bring us to a position of being reconciled to him at some later date. In Romans 5, it talks about justification and it talks about reconciliation. And in Romans 5, the justification doesn’t represent an internal change in you. It represents a forensic truth that God has justified you definitively through the work of Christ. And the reconciliation is parallel to that in Romans 5. Your reconciliation is not that eventually God will make your heart nice and soft to him. No, the reconciliation is a forensic objective reconciliation of us to him, not tied to anything in us but tied strictly to the work of Christ on the cross.

We were reconciled. Christ died for us while we were yet sinners. It can’t mean that something changed in us, because it happened, the reconciliation happened while we were yet sinners. The scriptures say, you see, so God has reconciled us definitively through the work of Christ on the cross.

Let me read a few verses. Romans 5:10: “If while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son.” See—enemies. So reconciliation doesn’t mean a change in us. Reconciliation means that God has affected a change from his initiative. We are reconciled while we were yet enemies. And how were we reconciled? What does it tie it to then if it’s not a change in our hearts? It ties it to the death of Christ. It says that we were enemies. We were reconciled to God by the death of his Son. And much more so now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.

2 Corinthians 5:18: “All this is from God who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.” God was in Christ on the cross, reconciling us to himself through the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, dealing with sin, not counting their trespasses. Why? Because his justice was satisfied through the work of the Savior.

Ephesians 2:15-16: “He abolishes in the flesh the law of commandments and ordinances that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two. So making peace and might reconcile us both to God.” We’re brought into that reconciliation.

Colossians 1:21-22: “And you who once were estranged and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death in order to present you holy and blameless.” See, he accomplishes this on the cross.

Again, in Romans 5, God demonstrates his own love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. For while we were yet enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son. I said Romans 8 earlier. I meant Romans 5.

Scriptures teach us that redemption has been accomplished. Reconciliation is the result. It’s all—my point today is a real simple one. It’s a wonderful time of year. And it’s wonderful not because we’re relying on something in us to affect these things, but because we look back on the incarnation of the Savior who came for a particular purpose. And that purpose was to save sinners. And that purpose was fulfilled on the cross through his death—the death of Christ and the benefits, the redemption of men thereby.

Let me read from John Owen. “If the death of Christ actually obtains redemption, cleansing, purification, bearing away of sins, reconciliation, eternal life, and citizenship in the kingdom, then he must have died only for those who do get those things. It is not true that all men have these things as it’s very clear, the salvation of all men, therefore, cannot have been the purpose of the death of Christ.”

Owen goes on to say: “Christ then by his death purchased for all whom he died and all those things which the Bible says were the effects of his death. The value of his death purchased deliverance from the power of sin and God’s wrath, from death and the power of the devil, from the curse of the law and the guilt of sin. The value of his death obtained reconciliation with God, peace and eternal redemption. These things are now God’s free gifts because Christ purchased them. If Christ died for all men, why do not all men have these things? Is the value of his death not enough? Is God unjust not to give us what Christ bought for us? It must be immediately obvious that Christ cannot have died to purchase these things for all men, but only for those who actually enjoy them.”

The atonement, the scriptures teach, accomplishes the redemption of all God’s elect. The atonement accomplishes the forgiveness of all of God’s elect. The atonement affects and accomplishes the reconciliation of the elect of God, their justification, their adoption and their receipt of eternal life. That’s the wonderful thing that we celebrate with the incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ.

A. A. Hodge said that specifically Christ’s design was to obtain the actual salvation of his own people in all means, conditions, and stages of it and render it infallibly certain. Christ died not to make salvation possible, but to make salvation sure for the elect.

The Westminster Confession of Faith says this: “As God hath appointed the elect unto glory, so hath he by the eternal and most free purpose of his will foreordained all the means thereunto. Wherefore they who are elected, being fallen in Adam, are redeemed by Christ, are effectually called into faith in Christ by his spirit working in due season, are justified, adopted, sanctified, and kept by his power through faith unto salvation. Neither are any other redeemed by Christ, effectually called, justified, adopted, sanctified, and saved, but the elect only.”

And again, a quote from John Owen: “The death and bloodshedding of Jesus Christ hath wrought and doth effectually procure for all those that are concerned in it, eternal redemption, consisting in grace here, and glory hereafter.”

Of the Father’s love begotten, of the Father’s love incarnate.

Calvin says in his commentary on the knowledge of God the redeemer that the sole purpose of Christ’s incarnation was our redemption. Let me quote from Calvin’s Institutes here. He says: “Finally, Paul’s statement is this: that to make satisfaction in our behalf, God has sent his own son, the likeness of sinful flesh, something the law could not do. Romans 8:3-4. This was the purpose of sending of the son—to make satisfaction in our behalf. Paul teaches in another place this: the goodness of God and his boundless love appeared to men when Christ was given as our redeemer. Titus 2:11.” And Calvin says: “In short, the only reason given in scripture that the Son of God will to take on flesh and accepted this commandment for the Father is that he would be a sacrifice to appease the Father on our behalf. Thus it is written that the Christ should suffer and that repentance should be preached in his name. For this reason the Father loves me because I laid down my life for my sheep. This commandment he gave me.” Our Savior says, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up.”

Christ came specifically then, clearly indicating that he came to affect the redemption and the salvation of his people. His incarnation, which brings us such joy at this particular time of year, does not produce some possible salvation, but has accomplished all things for our salvation and has wrought an effectual justification, propitiation, reconciliation, and redemption.

Now, the purpose of this is that we might be sanctified. The purpose of this redemption is not just so we can enjoy these things, but that our joy might be made full, that our joy might grow as we sanctify ourselves and purify ourselves. And this is the purpose for which God has called us.

It may be that you come here today not having such a joyous Christmas season, not bubbling over with Christmas—you’ve got the old tide of blessings and you’ve got difficulties in your life. But the scriptures here as well point you, if that’s your case, to the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ. We read in the scriptures: “If he didn’t spare his own son, but delivered him up for all of us, won’t he also with him freely give us all things?”

God points to this particular effective redemption that he gave up his son for us to obtain salvation for us as the means whereby we’re to comfort ourselves when we doubt the small ways that life works its way out in our lives or the lack of joy in them. It points us back to that particular redemption that is effectual salvation, and says look what God has accomplished for you today. And if you’re feeling bad today and feeling kind of depressed—as some people I guess do get depressed at Christmas time—focus upon what is behind all of the glitter, what’s behind all the pictures of joy and blessing and good food and good friends and many proclamations of seasonal greetings.

At the core of all that is life, and it’s the life that God has effectively, definitively for you Christian as you exhibit your saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. As you come here today and make use of the secondary means, you acknowledge that Christ has come and paid the price for your sins. It’s you particularly on the cross that he was not just a representative of but a substitute for. And you come then to life.

That’s the core of this hustling and bustling and joy of life that we have—it’s founded. It must be founded for our joy to be full at this time of year on the acknowledgement that the death of Christ has not just made possible but accomplished your redemption, your justification, your salvation, your deliverance, your