Transcript

ANNOUNCER: What is the best way to present the gospel to an unbeliever? Must we believe in the substitutionary atonement to have everlasting life? What needs to be believed in order to gain eternal life? Well, we’re glad you’re listening today. Thank you for joining us. This is Grace in Focus, a ministry of the Grace Evangelical Society. Our website, FaithAlone.org. You’ll find hundreds of articles about our free grace position there that you can read and research. And our bookstore is always open. Bob Wilkin’s latest book, The Gospel Is Still Under Siege. You can find it there. And get details about our national annual conference coming up soon, May 18th through the 21st. That’s faithalone.org.

And now with our discussion of the day, here is Bob Wilkin, along with Ken Yates. 

KEN: What we’re doing in a series here is we are discussing some of the plenary sessions that we’re planning on having, Lord willing, at our upcoming national conference in May. Again, the plenary sessions. And one of them is the question, must we believe in substitutionary atonement in order to receive eternal life? 

BOB: Okay, that’s a good question. But first of all, you use some big language there. What does substitutionary atonement mean? 

KEN: I think the simplest way to say it is that what Christ died in my place. 

BOB: Okay, so He took our place. 

KEN: He was our substitute. So on the cross, He took my place. 

BOB: But now there’s a lot of confusion on what that means. Some people would say, okay, if He took my place, then this is universalism. Then everybody’s got eternal life.

KEN: “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” 

BOB: So does that mean everybody has eternal life? That’s not what it says. This says, He takes away the sin of the world. That’s John 1:29. So what does that verse mean?

KEN: That he took away the barrier of sin so that all who believe in Him could be given eternal life. 

BOB: Okay, so before a person believes in Him, sin is no longer a barrier, John 1:29. But the person is still spiritually dead. And spiritually dead means they lack everlasting life. So the question is, substitutionary atonement means Christ died for me, but it doesn’t mean that every benefit of Christ’s shed blood is received by everybody on the planet. I have an article called “The Benefit of Christ’s Blood: Restricted and Unrestricted.” You can check it out at faithalone.org. [See here.] And I talk about the fact that the forgiveness of sins, you don’t get that until you believe in Jesus. 

And on top of that, if you’re a believer, if you want ongoing forgiveness of sins, then 1 John 1:7, “If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, then the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin.” As a believer, if you’re not walking in the light, you’re not being cleansed, at 1 John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” So both forgiveness and cleansing, and we’ve talked about those, and the distinctions in previous shows, require that we’re both walking in the light and acknowledging our sins. 

KEN: Yeah, and so what we’re talking about here is, do we have to believe, let’s just put it in simple terms, does the unbeliever have to believe that Jesus died on the cross for him in order to receive eternal life? Because we hear the gospel presented that way, right? Jesus died on the cross for you. And if you believe that, then you’re saved. Sometimes you’ll hear the gospel presented that way. 

BOB: I heard a guy speaking at a conference called a grace conference, and he went to Galatians 1:6-9, Paul talking about the false gospel, that the Judaizers, unbelieving legalists, were preaching to the churches in Galatia. They were saying that in order to retain their salvation, they had to be circumcised and keep the law of Moses. Paul called that a false gospel, and I heard the speaker say, what does Paul mean by gospel? Well, let’s go over to 1 Corinthians 15:3-4. He didn’t stay within Galatians, because in Galatians, the good news is justification by faith, alone apart from works, Galatians 2:16. But he went over to 1 Corinthians 15, and the good news there is that because Jesus died and rose again, we know we are going to rise again with the result that our labor in the Lord is not in vain. 1 Corinthians 15:58. But the way this person took 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 is you need to believe that Jesus died, that he was buried, that he rose from the dead on the third day. And if you believe that, then you’re saved. Well, let me ask you this, Ken, if that were true, what percentage of people in Christianity would be born again? 

KEN: All of them, even cults. 

BOB: Even cults believe Jesus died on the cross and rose from the dead? 

KEN: Yeah, he died on the cross for me. 

BOB: And they would say he died in the cross for my sins. 

KEN: Exactly, they would say that. I mean, I was an army chap, and I worked with Mormon chaplains, and they told me that, because I believe Jesus died on the cross for my sins. 

BOB: And of course Catholics believe that, right? Sure. They believe he keeps on dying every time they take Mass. And you’ve got Orthodox, they believe that, and all of the works salvation Protestants and all of the lordship salvation Protestants. The problem with that is this. First of all, we’re going to take a look in a minute here at 1 Corinthians 15:1-4. But secondly, when you think of John 3:16, does he mention his death, burial and resurrection there? Not really. He does allude to his death in verses 14 and 15, when he talks about being lifted up. But it’s so obscure. 

KEN: Nicodemus would not have understood that. 

BOB: I mean, obviously the disciples didn’t, because when He later tells them He’s going to die, Peter in Matthew 16:22, says “God forbid it, Lord, this is never going to happen.” And so the disciples didn’t believe, and neither did Nicodemus, that Jesus was going to die. And you don’t find it anywhere in John’s gospel, does the Lord Jesus say, he who believes that I am going to die on the cross and rise from the dead has everlasting life? No, never says that. And there’s no verse anywhere that says that. 

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BOB: Let’s look at 1 Corinthians 15:1-4. Briefly, so many people get this so wrong. The issue in 1 Corinthians 15:1-4 is sanctification, not regeneration.

KEN: And it’s clear because Paul says, “if you hold fast.” 

BOB: Read verses 1 and 2, would you? 

KEN: In 1 Corinthians 15:1, it says, “Moreover brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preach to you, which also you received, and in which you stand.” 

BOB: Okay, now before we go, the gospel which I preach to you, I think he’s talking here, not about the gospel he proclaimed to them when they came to faith, the gospel he preached to them as believers.

KEN: Right, he calls them brethren here, and also gospel just means a good news.

BOB: Right. In fact, Paul’s whole ministry was gospel ministry. It was good news ministry. Okay, so look at 2. 

KEN: He says in verse 2, “by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain.”

BOB: Now, “unless you believe in vain is,” and he goes on to talk about this in verses 16 through 20, if Christ is not risen from the dead, then your faith is futile. It’s worthless. We’re of all men most pitiable. So that’s what he means at the end there. But when he says, if you hold fast the word, which I preached to you, his point is that you are going to be spiritually healthy. That’s what “saved” means here. Remember in Ephesians 2:8-9, what’s the verb tense there? By grace you have been saved through faith. 

KEN: Perfect.

BOB: It’s a perfect tense, something that happened in the past with an abiding result. What’s the verb tense here “by which you are being saved?”

KEN: That’s a present tense. 

BOB: Yeah. Now both are passive. You have been saved, and this is you are being saved. But the difference is this doesn’t say by which you have been saved, if you hold fast, by which you are being saved. 

KEN: Which by the way, that’s what the lordship people would say, right? By which you have been saved, if you’re truly saved and you keep holding on. 

BOB: Or you have been saved and you’ve got to hold fast to keep it. But the salvation here is being spiritually healthy. 

KEN: The word saved or the verbs to be saved and salvation the noun is very flexible.

BOB: Now let’s go to three. 

KEN: “For I delivered to you first of all, that which I also received,” and again, this is where people bring in, well, you got to believe in the substitutionary atonement, “that Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures, that He was buried and that He rose again the third day, according to the Scriptures.” 

BOB: Okay. So notice we got a lot of problems with this passage, if this is evangelistic. Where is the promise that you’ll never perish? 

KEN: It’s not there.

BOB: You’ll never hunger. You’ll never thirst. In fact, it’s contradicted. If you hold fast. But secondly, you’ve got the whole issue of if this is how a person is born again, then where does He talk about the blood of Christ? There’s nothing here about the blood. Where is the cross of Christ mentioned? In other words, is it okay to believe that Jesus died by electrocution? Would that be okay? Did He died, let’s say, by being drowned? Well, no, of course, Biblically, He’s the Lamb of God, and He’s got to be the Lamb who dies by the shedding of blood. Jesus did die by the shedding of His blood. But none of that’s here, and there’s nothing here about if you believe this, then you’re secure forever. So the question, what was the original question? 

KEN: The question is, do you have to believe in substitutionary atonement, which is true. He did die on the cross for us. Do you have to believe in that in order to receive eternal life? And one of the main issues here is that people believe you’re saved because your sins have been forgiven. That’s the connection here. People say, well, you have to believe that He died on the cross because you have to believe that your sins are forgiven in order to make it into the kingdom of God. And that’s not true. 

BOB: No, what you need to believe is that by faith in Jesus, you’ve gone from death to life. 

KEN: He’s given you eternal life. 

BOB: He’s given you eternal life. You can’t lose it. That’s the bullseye. The problem with this understanding of 1 Corinthians 15:1-4, it’s totally contrary to the context because the whole good news here is we’re going to rise and we’re going to be glorified. Read the rest of chapter 15, that’s why this is called the resurrection chapter. 

KEN: And our works matter. It is dealing with rewards. 

BOB: Yeah, it is. And the other part of it is we need to recognize that the death of Christ counts for us whether we believe in it or not. A lot of people falsely teach based on this passage that you’ve got to believe He died on the cross in order for your sins to be taken away. No, the good news is they’re already taken away. What you need to do is believe in Him for everlasting life. And by the way, the cross of Christ is a terrific way to explain why John 3:16 is true. We’re not suggesting, don’t tell people about substitutionary atonement. Tell them about it. But what you need to do is make sure they get the promise of everlasting life. That’s the bullseye. 

KEN: Because He died on the cross, he can give eternal life to, he does give eternal life to everyone who believes in it. He can and does to all who believe in it. 

Well, thanks Bob. Again, for those interested, you want to hear more, come to the National Conference. It’ll be one of the plenary sessions. And until then, remember, keep grace in focus. 

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Now we thank you, friend, for joining us all this week. We hope you have a great weekend with some time to rest and enjoy life and some fellowship with God and other believers at a Bible-teaching, Bible-believing church. And we hope to see you here again next week on Grace in Focus.