The Eternal Plan of Christ's Atoning Death | The Whole Counsel

Under that first point, let's run through his sub points there, and again, as Chuck said, they're so good we're just gonna have to hit them kind of quickly.

The first thing he says is that we know there's virtue in the blood of Christ to cleanse the sinner from sin because the

Father would not have put Christ to this service of bearing our sin on the cross if his death would not have purchased true pardon for sin.

And he quotes from Acts chapter 2 verse 23, where it makes it very clear that though men were the instruments for the crucifixion, it was by that predetermined plan, the foreknowledge of God, that his son was crucified.

He gives a great quote here. The second of these arguments is that God promised to Jesus that his death would be accepted for the doing away of sin, and within that promise, there is certainty.

There's no uncertainty there. I was thinking earlier about the various tasks that we take on, some of them very uncertain, some of them we think very certain, and yet how often do they not come to pass, but there's no wiggle room in this.

You know, God has promised this to the Son, and it will come about because God is who he is.

The third, he says, is that the virtue of Christ's blood has been illustrated in the sacrificial system.

All those sacrifices he lists, you know, the multitude of creatures throughout the old covenant that were put to death, their blood was shed, as a foreshadowing of Christ.

The only reason that the Father found pleasure in that was because they were a picture of the coming of his

Son, and the doing of that was an expression of faith. So, his argument is, why would

God have, for thousands of years, instructed us through this costly sacrificial system if, when the

Messiah himself comes, it does nothing, it guarantees nothing, or why would the

Father have had any pleasure in those Old Testament sacrifices if the actual sacrifice they foreshadowed could be ineffective?

The fourth, he argues that the sacraments of the New Testament teaches us to hope in the blood of Christ.

We see in baptism that we are united to Christ in his death, and what value would that be if his death didn't accomplish anything?

If it didn't do away with our old man, and the resurrection provide new life for us.

But also in the Lord's Supper, where Jesus tells us, this is the new covenant of my blood, he teaches us there clearly that that blood was shed for the remission of sin.

And so, why would God command us to continue observing that ordinance, particularly the continual observance of the

Lord's Supper, until he comes, if there were no value in it? The fifth argument, he says that God himself commands us to put all of our trust in the blood of Christ, in the cross of Christ alone.

And so, he just goes through the arguments that, how many invitations in scripture are there which tell us to hope in Christ for forgiveness?

He gives us a, that's the positive argument. The negative argument is, if the blood of Christ is not effective for every sinner that trusts in Christ, why would

God threaten us with such terrible punishment for not trusting in Christ?

So, listen to what he says. Would God require us to put an honor upon Christ that he is unworthy of?

Will he command us to trust in that which would not save us? And then on the negative side, if there is no safety in believing on Christ, there's no reason that we should be punished for not believing on Christ.

Will God damn men for not building their hopes of heaven upon the sand?

Would he cast you into hell for not trusting in a broken reed? So, you know, many of those,

I was thinking yesterday when looking over our notes again, you know, we could just stop and discuss which of these do we find most compelling, but I think really it's the cumulative weight.

You know, when you look at all of those, one after the next, even as a Christian, you know, we both have been

Christians for quite a few decades. 32 years I've been a believer, and after 32 years of being a believer, when

I read what Stoddard lays out here, I am amazed all over, you know, afresh at the solid confidence that the worst of sinners has in Christ.