Who did Christ die for on the cross? Was every sin atoned for? Stay tuned, Renewing Your Mind Weekend Edition is next. Welcome to this weekend edition of Renewing Your Mind with author and teacher Dr. R.C. Sproul. Dr. Sproul was also the Senior Minister of Preaching and Teaching at St. Andrew's, a Reformed congregation in Sanford, Florida. In a very real sense, the lowest point of Jesus' ministry was at the cross. Ironically, the cross was also a high point of His ministry. There, he experienced being forsaken by his father. Not only was every last vile and iniquitous sin of his people poured on him, he also bore the full wrath of God for each and every one of those sins. How can you know if Christ died for your sins? Today on Renewing Your Mind, as we continue our study of the Gospel of John, Dr. Sproul will teach us about the design, purpose, and scope of Christ's atonement, and how it was all for the glory of Christ. We're going to continue our study of the Gospel according to St. John this morning. We begin chapter 17, and I will be reading verses 1 through 5. Jesus spoke these words, lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may also glorify you. as you have given him authority over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I have glorified you on the earth I finish the work which you have given me to do, and now, O Father, glorify me together with yourself, with the glory that I had with you before the world was." And we come to the seventeenth chapter. The chapter is sometimes called the chapter of the high priestly prayer of Jesus, or alternately, the intercessory prayer of Jesus, where we from the distance of 2,000 years can eavesdrop, as it were, on this prayer that he makes for himself, for his disciples, and for his church. But properly speaking, what it is, is a farewell prayer. It concludes the farewell discourse that we have been studying. And notice how the prayer begins. Jesus spoke these words, lifted up his eyes to heaven, and he said, Father, the hour has come. Now, if you've been listening to these sermons throughout the Gospel of John, we've been going almost two years now through it, many, many times along the way we heard Jesus speak about His hour. And previous to this occasion in the upper room, He had been saying, My hour is not yet come. And I mentioned to you along the way that that hour had a double edge to it. It was both the hour of his abject humiliation and the hour of his exultation because his glory comes through his shame. His is what Luther called the Theologia Crucis, a theology of the cross. And now Jesus is staring at the cross. And the hour is not remote any longer. It's not held safely at a distance, but it's now looming right in front of Him. And He prays to the Father and He says, Father, the hour is here. The first thing He does is He prays for Himself. your Son, that your Son also may glorify you." See, Jesus understood what most of us don't understand. If we seek our glory, we seek our glory at the expense of the glory of God. But when Christ asks the Father to glorify Him, it's not at the expense of the Father. Because the glorification of the Son is the glorification of the Father. As Paul declared at the end of that canonic hymn in Philippians 2, that every knee would bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. What? To the glory of God the Father. So that when the Son is exalted, when the Son is honored, when the Son is restored to the fullness of glory that He enjoyed with the Father from all eternity, that honors the Father as well. Because the Father and the Son are one. And so when Jesus asks for His glory back, He's not asking selfishly for his own concern. But what he has in view is the completion of his mission that is at hand. He knows that he has to be lifted up on the cross for him to be lifted up in the sight of the angels. And so now he's saying as he faces the morrow, Father glorify me. And in doing that glorify, Here it comes, as you have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as you have given Him. Now again, if you've been listening carefully to the Gospel of John throughout, we see this idea manifesting itself, and it will come up again next week, God willing, if we make it to the next few verses, where Jesus frequently in the Gospel of John talks about those whom the Father has given Him. Now, before I comment on that, call attention to two signs or indicators. One is at the front of our church, when you make the bend around the corner from Orange Avenue onto the road here to enter into the church, we have a sign out there that says St. Andrew's Chapel. Are you familiar with that sign? It says on that sign, Reformed Congregation. But you also notice that in the bulletin each week, we include on the back page the solas of the Protestant Reformation. Sola Scriptura, Sola Fide, Sola Christus, Sola Grazia, Sola Deo Gloria. Well, this morning we're going to look briefly at Sola Grazia, the salvation is by grace alone. Now, also by way of preparation, let me point out to you that there are many rival theologies that coexist in the Christian world in the 21st century. Even among so-called evangelical Christians, there are various diverse and competing theologies, one of which is Reformed theology, which is, at the very best, a small minority report. Probably the overwhelming majority theology in the evangelical world today is a theology born in the 19th century and spread dramatically across this land at the end of the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th century called dispensational theology. And dispensationalists have a habit of calling themselves four-point Calvinists. You know, reformed people call themselves Calvinists, but dispensationalists say, we're four-pointers. Now, what are they saying when they say that? Well, they're referring back to the five points that were in such serious dispute early on in Holland. in Reformed theology that called forth the Synod of Dordrecht in which the remonstrants were repudiated and the so-called five points of Calvinism were reaffirmed by the Reformed Church. And those five points were then crystallized by the famous popular acrostic TULIP, T-U-L-I-P, Total Depravity, Unconditional Election, Limited Atonement, Irresistible Grace, Perseverance of the Saints. That differs from the Arminian flower, which is the daisy. He loves me, he loves me not. In any case, the devil made me say that. But in any case, the one point out of the five that dispensationalists struggle so seriously with is the L in TULIP. And the L in the acrostic stands for limited atonement, which is so controversial, and I think part of the reason it's so controversial is because it is so widely misunderstood. I, for one, can't understand how anybody could hold to the other four points and deny the L. But limited atonement says this, that the atonement of Christ is limited to the elect. That Jesus did not atone for the sins of everybody in the world. Now sometimes it's called definite atonement or particular redemption. Now here's what the doctrine does not teach. It does not mean simply that not everybody gains the benefits of the death of Christ. We have examinations for young men going into the ministry at the presbytery level and invariably During these ordination exams, somebody will ask a student, do you believe in limited atonement? And the student will respond by saying, yes, I believe that the atonement of Christ is sufficient for all and efficient for some. Meaning, the value of Christ's death on the cross was valuable enough to cover all of the sins of every person that ever lived. It is sufficient to cover your sins. But it is efficient, that is, it only works or it only applies to those who put their faith in Jesus Christ. That is, that the cross works only for believers. Now, that definition only defines what we would call particularism rather than universalism. It doesn't get at all to the heart of this controversy because the controversy of limited atonement or definite atonement has to do with God's purpose in the cross. It has to do with His eternal plan. And there are basically two different ways in which this is understood. One way is that from all eternity God had a desire to save as many people as possible out of a fallen human race. And so he conceived of a plan of redemption by which he would send his son into the world as the sin bearer for fallen people. He would go to the cross, die on the cross for all who would at some point put their trust in him. So that the plan was a provisional plan. That is, God was providing atonement for all who would take advantage of it, for all who indeed would believe. Am I going too fast? And so the idea was that Jesus died potentially for everybody. But theoretically, it was possible that the whole thing would be in vain. Because it was theoretically possible that people who were dead in sin and trespasses, who wanted nothing to do with God, who weren't looking for a Redeemer, that one in all of these fallen people from this world of sin would reject the work of Jesus, and God's plan would be frustrated because nobody would take advantage of it. But this is the prevailing view in the church today. that Jesus died for everybody provisionally, that is, provided they have faith, and in the final analysis, whether it works depends on you or on me. Whereas the Reformed view comes at it a little differently. It says that God from all eternity devised a plan that was not a provisional plan, It was not a contingency plan. It was a plan A with no plan B to follow if it didn't work. And God decreed from all eternity to save a certain number of people out of fallen humanity whom the Bible over and over again calls the elect, who were chosen in Christ from the foundation of the world. And that from that plan of election, to work that plan out in history, he sent his son into the world with the specific aim and the specific design to accomplish redemption for the elect. and that that is accomplished perfectly without a drop of the blood of Christ ever being wasted. The conclusion from that is that everyone whom the Father designed the atonement to affect their salvation is in fact saved through the atonement. Now is that really that hard? I mean, the alternative to that is that God doesn't know who's going to be saved, He crosses His fingers, and you have theologians today saying God saves as many people as He possibly can. Think about that. How many people can God save? How many people does He have the power to save? All of them. How many people does He have the authority to save? cannot God intervene in everybody's life like He did in the Apostle Paul, like He did in Abraham's life, and in everybody else's life, slay them in the Spirit, bring them, kicking and screaming if necessary, into a saving relationship with Him. He certainly has the right to do that, and He has the power to do that, but He doesn't do that. Now there's a certain sense in which Jesus dies for more than the Jewish nation, he dies for the world, but there's a specific perspective here that the New Testament gives that Jesus is laying down his life for his sheep, not just for people indiscriminately. And the way he describes that in John's gospel is that he is laying down his life for the ones whom the Father gave him. this is what he is praying about. Do you remember back in John 6? I mean you are survivors from the sixth chapter of John. If you were in the congregation when we went through that strong teaching that John gave us back in the sixth chapter of this letter where Jesus said, no one can come to me unless it's given to him by the Father. No one can come to me unless the Father and the Word there is compels him. And then he also said, all that the Father has given me do what? They come to me. So the point is that everyone whom the Father designs to come to His Son, they come and no one else. And so your salvation from start to finish rests upon the sovereign glory of God, who in His grace decided to have mercy on you, not because of anything He saw in you that demanded it, but for the love of the Son, the Father gives gifts to Him. The only reason I can give under heaven why I'm a Christian is because I'm the gift of the Father to the Son. Not because anything I've ever done or could do. So again, we're asking the question, what was God's purpose? And God's purpose was to ensure the salvation of those whom He gives to His Son. That's why our election must always be understood biblically to be in Christ. I'm not elected as an isolated American preacher. I'm elected in Christ Jesus as one that the Father gave to Him. And he makes it even more clear a little later on in the text when he says, he's praying for those whom the Father has given him out of the world. He's not praying for everybody else. But you see, that goes so counter to the all-inclusive spirit and mentality of American Christianity. It's not fair. that God doesn't include everyone in the purview. Well, let's think for a moment that Christ did in fact give an atonement for all people and every sin that every person has ever committed. Would that cover the sin of unbelief? Yes. And so a person remains an unbeliever all their lives, a person never submits to Christ, dies in sin as the Bible says, Now could God, with any justice, possibly punish that person? Not if their sins have already been paid for. Not if their sins have already been satisfied by the atonement of Christ. And so here's where this rubber meets the road. You come to me and say, well, R.C., did Jesus die for me? You ask me that. Here's what I'm going to tell you. I don't know. I hope so. Are you a believer? Well, yes, I'm a believer. I said, well, then he died for you. And you say, but I don't know. I'm not a believer. And I say, well, I still don't know that he didn't die for you, because you may become a believer tomorrow. I know this, that he only dies for those who put their trust in him. Now if you want to argue about the eternal decrees of God and how this works out in the mind of God from all eternity, we can talk about that. That's what I've been doing this morning. But if you want to cut the Gordian knot and get down, put the cookies on the lowest shelf, the question is this. Do you or do you not put your trust in Christ and in Christ alone? If you can say yes to that, then you can sleep easy tonight knowing that Christ died for you. And that what that means is that that atonement that he has made was perfect, complete and absolute. that has covered every single sin you have ever committed or ever will commit in this world. That's the benefit of having been given to Jesus by the Father. You're listening to Renewing Your Mind, Weekend Edition, with R. C. Sproul, teaching us about the design, purpose, and scope of the atonement of the cross and how you can know your sins are forgiven. What is Reform Theology? Is it just another variation of Christianity? Many people simply dismiss Reformed theology because of its doctrine of predestination. But is there more to know? If you're looking for a resource that gives a fair and accurate explanation of Reformed theology and its biblical foundation, then let Dr. Sproul take you step-by-step through the 12-part CD teaching series entitled, What is Reformed Theology? Call now to get your copy for a donation of any amount. Our toll free number 1-800-435-4343. Again that's 800-435-4343. Or visit rymoffer.com. That's R-Y-M as in renewing your mind and the word offer dot com. That web address is for this week's special offer only. In the What Is Reform Theology series, Dr. Sproul offers an introduction to Reform Theology, the heart of historical evangelicalism. Too often, people reduce Reform Theology to the five points of Calvinism. As true and biblical as they are, they don't tell the whole story. Don't settle for simplistic caricatures. Get the whole picture. Charles Haddon Spurgeon once said that Reformed theology is nothing other than biblical Christianity. Again, this 12-part CD series, What Is Reformed Theology?, is available for your donation of any amount today. To get your copy, give us a call at 1-800-435-4343. Again, that's 800-435-4343. Or visit rymoffer.com. That's R-Y-M as in renewing your mind, and the word offer.com. That will wrap up this Weekend Edition of Renewing Your Mind. Thank you for listening. Join us again next weekend as Dr. Sproul continues to take us through the Gospel of John. Until then, you can keep up with us at our Facebook page at facebook.com slash Ligonier. You're listening to Renewing Your Mind Weekend Edition, the listener-supported radio outreach of Ligonier Ministries in Orlando, Florida.