Transcript

ANNOUNCER: Hello, welcome to Grace in Focus. Today, Bob Wilkin and Sam Marr are answering a question about Old Testament believers. If Christ’s sacrifice for sin on the cross was sufficient for all people for all time, why did believers in the Old Testament economy still have to make sacrifices to restore fellowship? This is the Grace Evangelical Society. We come to you each weekday in this format and we thank you for listening. Our website is www.faithalone.org. Many resources on that site including hundreds of articles about our Free Grace position, some free ebooks and our bookstore, and don’t miss this: a free subscription to our magazine published six times a year, a full-length magazine, great articles, very attractive, and I did say free, you only have to request it. And if you live outside of the 48 contiguous United States, you do have to pay the postage. Otherwise, it is free. We want you to have it. Sign up for it at www.faithalone.org. 

Now with today’s question and answer discussion, here are Bob Wilkin and Sam Marr. 

BOB: So Sam, I believe you have a question from Hayden, something about the sacrificial system in the Old Testament. 

SAM: Yeah, the question is if Christ’s sacrifice on the cross was sufficient for all people for all time, then why did believers in the Old Testament still have to make sacrifices to restore fellowship? In theory, wouldn’t they have been cleansed by the blood of Jesus in his future sacrifice? 

BOB: Okay, that’s a good question, a real good question. Now Paul does say maybe you can look up the verse there, Sam. It’s around Romans 3:25, where Paul says that God passed over the sins previously committed. And some Arminians have understood that to mean when we come to faith, he passes over our pre-salvation sins, but not anything after it. But I think that’s clearly talking about the sins of people before Christ. Is it 3:25 or what verse is it? 

SAM: It’s 25, the second half, 25 starts with, “Whom God set forth to be a propitiation by His blood through faith, to demonstrate his righteousness, because in His forbearance, God had passed over the sins that were previously committed.” 

BOB: Okay, so the passing over the sins previously committed doesn’t mean that the sins didn’t exist, but like the Passover Lamb, where the blood is applied to the door post, in basically the sign of the cross, it made those people A) saveable and B) forgivable. But the question is, what did they need to do for forgiveness? Today, even though we have the blood of Christ, righteousness, recognize 1 John 1:7 says, “If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, then the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin.” If we’re walking in the darkness, the blood of Jesus does not cleanse us from all sin. And verse 9 says, “If we confess our sins, he’s faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 

So forgiveness and cleansing requires ongoing confession of our known sins. So that too is something required. So in a different dispensation, it really isn’t that different to say they had to acknowledge their sins by offering burnt offerings, bringing whole burnt offerings before the Lord, or once a year they would have the Passover meal. 

And keep in mind, by the way, that during the Millennium, it appears based on the book of Ezekiel that there’ll be a new temple and there’ll be animal sacrifices re-instituted during the Millennium. And I think the purpose of them will be a memorial like the Lord’s Supper. It will be a reminder of the death of Christ. And I think in the Old Testament, there were lots of different sacrifices. You read the book of Leviticus. There were grain sacrifices, lots of different ones. But the whole burnt offerings, those were types of Christ. They looked ahead to Christ. And the author of Hebrews tells us the blood of bulls and goats could never take away sins. That’s why we needed the perfect sacrifice of Christ. 

But I think Hayden needs to recognize that the issue here is not their eternal destiny. Their issue is their fellowship. That’s a different question. So the blood of Christ made them saveable. That’s the only way they could have everlasting life before the cross, or we can have it after the cross. 

SAM: Right. But even for us today in order to maintain a fellowship with God, we need to confess our sins, be forgiven, be cleansed. But it’s not for salvation. It’s for, that’s part of walking in the light. So for the Old Testament believer, for them to walk in the light, they need to make those sacrifices. 

BOB: I like that. Now, of course, David understood, and he said, ‘Sacrifices and burnt offerings, You have not desired, but a broken and contrite heart, You will not despise.” What David understood was, yes, God wanted sacrifices, but they weren’t the bulls eye. The bulls eye there was that I have a broken and contrite heart before the Lord. And David got that after he went through about a year of not confessing his sins with Bathsheba and then killing her husband Uriah. He then had that broken and contrite heart and God forgave him, although there were consequences in his life. So good question, Hayden. I think we have time for one or two more questions as well. 

ANNOUNCER: We will rejoin in just a moment, but years ago, Zane Hodges wrote The Gospel Under Siege. Sadly, this is still true, and G.E.S. President Bob Wilkin has recently written its sequel. Bob’s new book The Gospel is Still Under Siege is a book about theological clarity on the biblical teaching about eternal salvation. It is available now, secure yours today, at the Grace Evangelical Society’s Bookstore. Find it at faithalone.org/store, that’s faithalone.org/store. Now back to today’s content.

BOB: I think we have time for one or two more questions as well, so what else do you have there? 

SAM: Yeah, we’ve got maybe a short one. This is from D.C. 

BOB: The District of Columbia. 

SAM: Sure. They say it is popular among some to say Jesus is king, but is it proper to say He is king now before He sits on David’s throne on the new earth and Jerusalem, and is “Jesus is king” equivalent to “Jesus is Lord”? 

BOB: On the first question, this is part of, in eschatology study the last days, some people hold the view that’s called “already-not yet”. And in that view, it says the kingdom is already here and the kingdom is not yet here. And what I call that is malarkey. Either the kingdom’s here or the kingdom’s not here. Years ago, Stan Toussaint spoke at our conference, maybe 10 years ago, over in Fort Worth. And his message was the kingdom is not now and the kingdom is not now. 

And the same thing is true with Jesus’ kingship. Jesus is not king now. Jesus is not king now. Now it is true, of course, at the cross, remember, Pilate put above his head, “The king of the Jews”. So there is a sense in which while Jesus was on earth, you could rightly say He’s the king of the Jews, even though He wasn’t yet king. But that I think is proleptic, meaning it’s looking forward to His coming kingdom. Because remember, Jesus says before Pilate, “My kingdom is not of this world.” What He’s saying is it’s going to be the restored earth, that’s where His kingdom is going to take place. 

So there is some sense in which we can say Jesus is king, but not in the sense that he’s currently ruling as king. He’s not. He’s not sitting on the throne of David. According to Revelation 3:21, He says He’s sitting on the throne of His father. And He awaits sitting on the throne of David. So I like his question. And what was the second part of his question? 

SAM: Second part is, is saying “Jesus is king” equivalent to saying “Jesus is Lord”? 

BOB: No, I think that’s a little different. And I’ll tell you why, because the whole universe, we’re told by Paul is held together by Christ’s power. Christ is not only Lord of all believers. He’s also Lord of all unbelievers. He’s also Lord of every animal and every plant and every rock and every mountain and every stream. Everything on earth, He’s Lord of. And he’s Lord of every planet, every star, every asteroid, every comet. Everything in the universe, He’s in charge of. We can’t make him Lord of anything, because he is Lord. 

But in terms of His kingship, He is not currently ruling as king. He is, of course, currently manifesting His Lordship. Now it’s also true to say, and this is why all these questions are so complicated, Paul does say in 2 Corinthians 4 that Satan is the god of this world. So the Lord Jesus Christ allows Satan to have limited rulership over this earth. It’s not unfettered because the Holy Spirit is restraining evil and until the Holy Spirit’s restraining influence is withdrawn during the Tribulation, we see a lot of restraint of evil. If it weren’t, the planet would be much worse than it is. So those are two good questions, D.C. I like them. I think we still have time for a couple more. This can be a triple-decker session here. 

SAM: Yeah, we’ve got another one from Brian. I came across a set of Lewis Sperry Chafer’s Systematic Theology, and I was wondering if these would be a good read and study or do you recommend another. Thank you. 

BOB: Yeah, so Lewis Sperry Chafer was a Christian singer and traveling singer who also did some evangelistic work, and he ultimately founded what became known as Dallas Theological Seminary. I believe initially it was Dallas Theological College or College of the Bible, and that was 1924. It just celebrated its 100th year centennial last year. And he died the year I was born. He died in 1952. He had a wonderful heart for evangelism. He was what we might call an early Free Grace proponent in the middle of, the beginning part and middle or first half of the 20th century. 

Although he didn’t have all the aspects of Free Grace theology down pat, he believed in eternal rewards. He believed in the free gift of eternal life. He believed that faith was persuasion. He believed in the grace of God, both in terms of everlasting life and in terms of living the Christian life. So I highly recommend his eight volume systematic theology, which has been condensed by the way, Dr. Walvoord, who became president in 52 after Dr. Chafer died, Dr. Walvoord condensed the eight volumes into four, and so you can get the shorter version of it. But I have a set of them, and I think they’re very helpful. 

There’s a number of books by Dr. Ryrie, you might want to consider like Balancing the Christian Life and Basic Theology. We had a book we used by Thiessen on systematic theology that was very helpful and worth looking at. And there are quite a few good systematic theologies today. 

But yes, I would highly recommend Chafer’s Systematic Theology. Just keep in mind that it’s dated. So the English doesn’t read quite as smoothly as some things today. It’s a little more cumbersome. He’s a bit wordy. I mean, after all, it’s eight volumes. I don’t know how many total pages, but I’d say probably 5,000 pages or something in the 4,000 pages. But it’s a lot of pages. But anyway, I highly recommend it. 

So thank you Hayden and DC and Brian for all your questions. And for all of us, until Christ returns, let’s keep grace in focus. 

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On our next episode: will all believers reign during the Millennium? Please join us next time. And until then, let’s keep grace in focus.