We absolutely must get past the mistaken view of the Cross which sees Jesus as having fulfilled an impersonal duty. It’s this same view that gets lodged in our heads that tells us that Christ went to the Cross with no specific names or faces on his heart, just hoping that in the next several thousand years, people might take Him up on His offer of eternal life.
This is the idea of Jesus and of the Gospel that I have held for a long, long time and am still trying to let go of. I’ve never really thought of myself as a Calvinist, but there are some inconvenient truths inherent in the Gospel that, taken away, leave us with a pretty watered down version of the Gospel.
Isaiah 43 – But now, this is what the LORD says – he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: ‘Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze. For I am the LORD, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior; I give Egypt for your ransom, Cush and Seba in your stead.
Since you are precious and honored in my sight, and because I love you, I will give men in exchange for you, and people in exchange for your life.’
And eventually, just One Man would be given in exchange for life.
But the greatest truth of the Gospel is not simply salvation, or being rescued from Hell so that we can go to Heaven.
It’s adoption.
Think about the adoption process. Most times, parents adopting have the choice of what child they want to adopt. They decide if they want to adopt a child from America, Africa, China, Romania, or India. Sometimes they even go to an orphanage, stand over a bed or mat on the floor and decide, “This one. We want this one.”
There is planning, forethought, and selection.
And when we take these elements away, while there may be some resemblance of love still involved, it’s certainly not the same kind of costly love that chooses, and at great expense to the parent, goes to rescue the child and adopt them as their own son.
So when I think of salvation as something of my own doing, where “I came to the Lord,” and accepted Him into my life, I’m distorting the true Gospel and completely destroying the greatest, most important and significant thing that could ever be said about me.
For he CHOSE US in him before the creation of the world to be HOLY and BLAMELESS in his sight. In love he predestined us to be ADOPTED AS HIS SONS through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will – to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.
Ephesians 1:4-6
-CK
