ANNOUNCER: If Jesus is life, couldn’t He have imparted life to us without dying, to make us savable? What about propitiation and atonement? Thank you friend for tuning in. We’re glad you’re here today. This is Grace in Focus, a ministry of the Grace Evangelical Society. Our website is faithalone.org and you will find there information about an exciting event coming up shortly, July 19th through the 23rd. This is a regional conference and it will be held at the Grace Bible Church in Kamaiah, Idaho. Teaching about Free Grace theology and recreational times will be had and great fellowship by all. Get the information you need at our website, faithalone.org/events.

And now with today’s question and answer discussion, here are Ken Yates and Kathryn Wright. 

KEN: We are answering questions sent in by our listeners and we have one sent in by Eunice. What does Eunice ask us?

KATHRYN: Okay, she asks. If Jesus is life and can give life, why did he need to die to, quote, make us saveable? 

KEN: Yeah, I think that at the heart of this is sometimes when you hear people talk about God or the Lord, they’ll say things like, well, He’s love and He can just, He’s just full of grace. They forget the other part of it, which we’re going to talk about in a second, but He’s full of grace and He can certainly give eternal life or as Eunice asks, why not? Why can’t he, if he’s full of grace, why can’t he just give eternal life to everybody that he wants to? And if he’s full of grace, and by the way, you’ll even hear this sometimes, I’ve heard people say, God is love and I think in the end, matter of fact, I’m a retired chaplain. I remember years ago an Air Force chaplain telling me that he believed because of God’s grace, is full of grace that everyone’s going to be in the kingdom,

KATHRYN: Including unbelievers? 

KEN: Oh, yeah. Everybody. And the way he asked it was, Ken, what would you do if you stand before the Lord, you’re standing there and He says, okay, everybody gets to be in My kingdom? What would you say? How do you answer that question? Well, that’s not what Your word said. 

KATHRYN: Really. Well, and it’s also Christian universalists, right? You also have, as long as you have some sort of concept of Christ, then you’re good to go. 

KEN: Yeah. And so how do we answer this question here? Why can’t He just simply now, that’s not what Eunice is asking. She’s saying, well, why can’t He just give life? Why did he have to die? 

KATHRYN: Like it seems contradictory. If he’s life, why can’t he just give it? Why did he have to die in order to give life? 

KEN: And there’s probably a couple of things we could say to this. Number one, He can’t deny his character. You know, He’s perfectly holy. And He cannot deny His righteousness by giving eternal life to those who are unrighteous, right? And the verse that comes into play here is in Romans chapter three, while Paul’s talking about justification, being declared righteous by God. Now, being declared righteous by God is not the same thing as receiving eternal life. But for us, they happen at the same time we receive eternal life and God declares us righteous. So we could say it like this, he gives eternal life to those he has declared righteous. Well, how can he declare someone righteous? 

KATHRYN: Especially us who are not righteous is a whole point there in Romans. None is righteous. 

KEN: And, and he says in this context, I, I just read from verse, well, in verse 24, it says, He demonstrates at the present time His righteousness that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. Now, that’s verse 26, Romans 3:26. In verse 25, he talks about Jesus’s blood being our propitiation. So Jesus’s blood on the cross was our propitiation. And what does that word mean? Kathryn, why don’t you expand on that? 

KATHRYN: Well, easy job, thanks. Uh, propitiation, well, it’s also in second, I’m sorry, 1 John 2:2, the idea of propitiation is the the sacrifice, the atoning sacrifice, the appeasing of God’s wrath is in the sacrifice of Christ. 

KEN: He is the propitiation for our sins and for the sins of the world. 

KATHRYN: Yes. So the atonement is what we’re talking about here. 

KEN: And it is because of that sacrifice because that God was satisfied, if you will, with the sacrifice on the cross that He can justify those who have faith in Jesus and be just when He does it. 

KATHRYN: In other words, he doesn’t have to usurp His attribute as being holy and righteous and just for the sake of grace and mercy because the death of Christ satisfies that wrath. 

KEN: And so He is righteous when he declares the one who believes in Jesus, righteous, because Christ died on the cross to pay for His sins. In fact, He pays for the sins of the whole world. Right. We think, for example, of John chapter 1 verse 29, when John the Baptist sees Jesus and says, behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. And you already mentioned, 1 John 2:2 that He is the propitiation for not just our sins, but for the sins of the whole world. 

ANNOUNCER: We will return to our program content shortly, but we’re taking this break to let you know that Grace in Focus is shortly going to be transitioning to digital delivery only. We’ve appreciated this fine radio station and being part of its lineup has been a privilege indeed. But we’re going to say goodbye to this time slot and make room for another ministry right here. You can continue to listen to Grace in Focus, just pick the time of day, anytime 24/7, and find us on Spotify, Apple, and many other podcast outlets. 

KEN: As many grace people have taught, the first person I’ve ever heard was Lewis Sperry Chafer. Christ’s death took away the barrier of sin. Okay, so His death took away the barrier of sin. Therefore, God can give eternal life to everyone who believes in Him for it. He doesn’t just overlook it. He doesn’t say, oh, well, I’ll just, I’ll forget that I’m the righteous God. I’m just going to just give people eternal life. That would be a denial of his character. 

KATHRYN: So to Eunice’s question about that it makes us saveable. Same idea with the barrier here, right, that sin leads to death, sin, bring both physically, you know, we’re talking physically here in a second as well, but that in Christ’s atonement, every sin that has ever been committed or will ever be committed was paid for. And therefore, that is no longer what prevents somebody from receiving eternal life. 

KEN: Yeah. How did it, how was it that Lewis Sperry Chafer said it, he goes, the unbeliever does not have a sin problem. He has a Son problem. Another way to word that is, because of Christ’s death, the issue is no longer your sin. It is that you don’t have life.  And that was part of her question. Why can’t he just give life? Well, now He can because of His sacrifice. And so we, 

KATHRYN: Which allows his justice to still, he can still be the just and the justifier. 

KEN: Yeah. We were talking about a plenary session at one of the GES conferences where Bob Bryant was talking about Jesus being full of grace and full of truth, from the Gospel of John. He was full of grace and full of truth. You know, what does that mean? Well, yeah, He’s gracious. 

KATHRYN: I remember Bob Bryant describing it, like, He’s full. Every single thing that Christ ever says or does is full of grace 

KEN: And full of truth. 

KATHRYN: But also every single thing he ever says is full to the tippity top. Right. You think of it like a cup. Every single thing is truthful. And so, right, kind of going back to the beginning of this discussion. I think, you know, with your example of your buddy in the army, it’s like, okay, you’re full of grace, but you’re kind of of skipping out on that truth bit. 

KEN: Exactly. Yeah. So the question is, why can’t he just give you eternal life? That would be full of grace. Full of grace. Just give eternal life to whoever and again, my chaplain friend who said that. But He’s also full of truth, which is, I can’t deny Myself. I can’t deny My character. And so when He spoke, for example, to the woman if the well, He told her the truth. You need eternal life. That’s what he said to Nicodemus. Unless you’re born again, you won’t see the kingdom. Unless you’re born from above, that’s the truth. But He was also full of grace, when he said, for God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 

KATHRYN: It’s also the idea that there can be no grace without truth. I mean, I don’t know. I just, there was, we were talking about before we started recording to that there’s the, the old hymn “Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus.” And there’s a new version of that, like a modern version, and they’ve added different lyrics to it. And I remember, I don’t remember all the lyrics to it, but in the second or third stanza, it talks about Calvary, it talks about the cross. And the line is that with Calvary, that’s where mercy and grace embraced, that the two can meet there in Christ’s death. And I think that’s a good kind of summary of what we’re trying to say that that if He just gave eternal life, then he would, to everyone, then His justice, His attribute, His character would be flawed in some way however you want to word that. 

KEN: And the other thing that we would say on this is that the wages of sin is death. And we were talking about that too, before we started, that’s talking about physical death. It’s not talking about it in the lake of fire, right? And in the Garden of Eden, when Adam and Eve sinned, the curse was they were going to die physically. So if we’re going to live forever, death has got to be conquered. 

KATHRYN: That’s right. Because the impact of sin on our physical flesh was death. 

KEN: Sin brought physical death into the world. And I know it’s very common here. Well, no, that’s spiritual death. But that’s not what’s going on. When you read Romans, for example, and he says the wages of sin is death, it’s talking about physical death. And so when Jesus died upon the cross, he took care of the penalty for sin, which was physical death, which we have to conquer physical death if we’re going to live forever. And so that’s why He had to die. 

KATHRYN: Yeah, because theoretically, right? I mean, if you’re thinking, well, if I’m God, why couldn’t it just be, why did it have to be that way? Why did the Lord have to come in the flesh like this? And yeah, there’s a lot of things. There was like, yeah, why did He do it the way that he did it? But obviously, Christ coming in the flesh was the firstfruits of the resurrection, right? That we too will receive resurrected bodies one day because Christ rose. 

KEN: That’s right. Well, Paul says that 1 Corinthians 15, if Christ rose and He’s the firstfruits then we’re going to rise with Him. 

Well, you know, that was a great question. Obviously, a number of issues, number of passages we bring in. We hope this helped. And in the meantime, keep grace in focus. 

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On our next episode: Nahum 1:7, is trust synonymous with faith and believing? Join us. We’ll talk about it. And until then, let’s keep grace in focus.