There is an increase in the number of contacts we have had with people who believe that Jesus indeed lived and who assume that he died as well. We all die, don’t we? Jesus was a human, after all, and he was a good man and led an exemplary life and so on. You know all the other niceties that are accredited to him. But still, they say, don’t go looking for more meaning behind all these things. Jesus died and that was the end of his life. Someone who suffered that much and showed what it is to love deserves our respect. Jesus was quite an exemplary man.

To Die for Others⤒🔗

Thankfully there are also people who see more in the person of Jesus. They are convinced that Jesus came on earth to atone for sins, to make things right between God and mankind. They speak about atonement very earnestly, while that aspect appears to slowly disappear from the radar with those mentioned first. They see atonement more in the light of a thing between people rather than atonement being a matter between holy God and sinful man. They want to quote Scripture, such as: he is the atonement for our sins, and not only ours but for those of the whole world. They assume that Jesus died for everyone, and they feel supported in this by what they think the Word of God says.

They are convinced that all people are reconciled with God. Everyone will be all right because when the two murderers were crucified together with Jesus, both did all right because Jesus was placed between them, even though the one murderer asked for salvation and the other did not.

They believe that God in Christ was reconciling the world to himself, not imputing their sins to them.

Therefore, so they say, every person is reconciled with God. Also those who don’t yet know this. In principle, mission work is not needed because all people will be saved. But it’s very nice for people to know it now.

Based on God’s Word we have to say that the above is a heresy and that it is not true that God is reconciled with everyone. Then faith in the Lord Jesus Christ would not matter. What do we read in the Bible? “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him” (John 3:36).

Jesus Died for Everyone←⤒🔗

You can hear it all around you, in meetings, in the media, and during discussions with people who are busy bringing others to faith in Jesus. In printed material and magazines you will read this more and more; people are firmly convinced of it.

You run into those people increasingly often who proclaim with conviction: Jesus died for every person. You have to accept this. As some also claim: God loves everyone, but you have to accept this.

More often than not people don’t know what they are saying and they also don’t understand that their speaking is not as biblical as it seems. You will have to spend time explaining to them that Scripture does not speak like that. I wish that this was only true of those who live outside the Reformed world! Yet we have come to realize that more and more this “message” is heard in our own circles. And not only in the context of evangelism. Gradually it becomes accepted not only by young people but by those whom you would expect would reason in biblical terms. Remember, they promised earnestly to adhere to the Reformed confessions!

But what is then the biblical message? Imagine that Jesus died for every person but that no one believes this. In that case the Lord’s death would have been in vain. Totally in vain. That’s hard to believe.

You know, when the apostles traveled around you never heard them say: people, you should believe that Jesus died for every person. They had a different, biblical message: believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. That is the complete gospel. Even today we are not allowed to bring a different gospel. We have to stay as close as possible to the language that God uses in his Word. 

Jesus himself says that he has come for those who are his, the ones the Father gave him. Jesus says that he came as the good Shepherd. He gave his life for his sheep. Only for his sheep and completely for his sheep. They shall not be lost. Nobody can snatch them from his hand. He will forever hold on to them.

There are others, he says in the same context, who do not believe. Because they are not sheep of the good Shepherd. He knows his sheep and they know him. For them he died, for them he gave his blood, his life.

How Do You Know That?←⤒🔗

How do you know that Christ died for you? How can you find this out? Or is that maybe only for a privileged few?

Some people think so and assume that no one knows whether or not he is saved. They doubt that anyone will ever know for sure. And when they meet Christians who know for sure that Jesus has died for them and their guilt has been atoned for, they think that these people are overly simple and are too quick to believe anything.

While the Scriptures are full of believers who know for sure that Jesus died for them, who know with certainty that all is good between God and themselves, and who are glad to witness that they are righteous before God, because of their faith in Jesus Christ. 

How do you reach the point at which you can confess with certainty and gladness that you are reconciled with God? You only get there through faith. The Holy Spirit works this faith in your heart so that you may learn about the Lord Jesus and learn to trust in him alone. You get to know him as the good Shepherd who gave his life for you. That’s such a great miracle, it’s hard to believe.

The Holy Spirit continues to strengthen this weak faith so that you cannot but believe and trust the Word of God that this is for you too. And so your faith becomes stronger and you see more and more who Christ is and what he has done.

In 2 Corinthians 5:21 Paul writes: “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” A strange and unimaginable exchange has taken place: he gets my sins and I get his righteousness. Luther was so taken by this that for the rest of his life he gave witness of this. Then it is no longer about me but about the Lord Jesus. The only thing that counts is Christ’s complete sacrifice on the cross. For that reason you can sing from the heart: in the cross shall I delight, and no law shall condemn me because Christ took away my curse.

Taking all this into account, believers will more readily speak about Jesus Christ who died on the cross, and not as easily about their own faith. That is characteristic of them. That typifies their lives. They enjoy, and long for, preaching that places Christ in the centre.  How glorious it is to know Christ through his work of atoning for our sins. That is the same glorious message that we hear every time the Lord’s Supper is celebrated.