A Calvinist post on a most Calvinist of themes: The supreme sovereignty of God in the offering of his own Son. Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.
Posted on 03/20/2008 2:23:23 PM PDT by Lord_Calvinus
II. A VIVID PICTURE OF THE SON OF GOD.
When you see that his hand is stayed, you perceive at once that the portrait is not complete. A ram is caught in the thicket; this ram is caught, laid hold on, dragged out, and put into the place of Isaac. So far the delineation is accurate, for the ram dies; it is really slain, even as Christ was sacrificed for us. But the vision changes its form. Isaac goes free; not so the ram. Isaac’s blood still flows in his veins; not so that of the poor ram, the knife sternly severs his arteries, and the blood flows out. There he is laid upon the wood, which forthwith begins to glow and smoke for a burnt offering. Isaac gazes on himself in a figure burning he owes his life to the victim that was presented as a substitute. Look earnestly, gaze intently, linger fondly on the picture, for it represents your own salvation. Let us take the place of Isaac; it is ours. We are children according to promise. If we, beloved, have “fled for refuge to the hope set before us,” we are saved.
How we are saved ye know. Because our Lord Jesus Christ, the ram of God’s burnt-offering, did burn upon the altar for us, we are spared. It would baffle me to tell how Isaac felt when cords were unbound, and he saw how narrowly he had escaped from death. Nor can I tell you how I felt when standing at the foot of the cross.
WHO ULTIMATELY CLAIMED RESPONSIBILITY FOR KILLING THE SON: THE FATHER.
While Abraham was spared the sacrifice of his son, The Father did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all.
Acts 4:27 “For truly against Your holy Servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose determined before to be done.”
Zechariah 13:7 “ Awake, O sword, against My Shepherd, Against the Man who is My Companion,” says the LORD of hosts.
What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written:
A Calvinist post on a most Calvinist of themes: The supreme sovereignty of God in the offering of his own Son. Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.
Passover begins the evening of April 19, 2008 through the evening of April 20, 2008
b'SHEM Yah'shua ( YHvH is my salvation )
Not as I will, but as thou wilt (Matt.26:39)
Funny. For a moment, I though you were joking. NOT as I WILL....
Could Christ have chosen differently?
He went a little farther and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.”
Correct, Christ freely submitted His own will to that of the Father, something which He had always done.
Christ had free will since He was born without sin.
The fact is that Christ could have chosen differently and that is why He had to freely go to the Cross.
It was a decision He had to make as well as the Father, hence the willingness to subject His own will to that of the Father.
Remember Christ had two natures, and two wills, a human one and a Divine one.
The very meaning of the word die is trumped by Christ..
Is it possible that WE cannot die either.. That WE will live forever somewhere?.. and that death is merely a metaphor?.. That could be good news for some, bad news for others.. That THEY CANNOT DIE...
Yes, I agree with that.
After we are saved we have two natures and have the choice to submit to either the Old sin nature or the Holy Spirit (Rom.6).
Before that, our free will is limited to responding or rejecting the Gospel.
??
While Abraham was spared the sacrifice of his son, The Father did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all.
This is so profound, and it's right and good that we all understand this today of all days.
Recently several Roman Catholics were telling of their time in church this week when the congregation all spoke up in unison, "Crucify Him." And when the priest asked who killed Christ, the congregation answered, "I killed Christ."
And this felt very foreign to me. I've never been taught that I killed Christ. And I thought through the Scriptures and couldn't find any evidence of believers' culpability in killing Christ.
We are guilty of sin; but we are not guilty of killing Christ.
And along this line, Spurgeon reminds us God intentionally gave His Son to pay for our sins; Christ the "Lamb slain from the foundation of the world."
"Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God." -- Hebrews 12:2
AMEN! "...for the joy that was set before Him..."
Someone is a bit lacking in Trinitarian theology.
Or maybe it was a suicide.
Sheesh.
I think that someone might be.... you.
Thanks for the ping
“But we all have free will. Of course we chose to sin and became slaves to sin. But we still had free will. It’s just that our sin nature manifested.”
I beg to differ with ya’ll on this point. A man born of the flesh has only the will to sin. Sin is not a function of his exercise of free will. It’s the outworking of his spiritual death.
When a spiritually dead man is born of the Spirit of God, he now has an apparent free will (we know not the edges) and can choose righteousness (having been made free from the power of sin) or sin (not being fully confirmed to the image of Christ).
Romans 6:11 Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.
13 Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.
14 For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.
15 What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.
16 Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?
17 But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you.
18 Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.
19 I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness.
20 For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness.
That's certainly always possible. But doesn't this thread seem, in addition to all over the lot, a bit polytheistic to you?
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