GRACE BAPTIST CHURCH of DANVILLE
February 6, 2011

When thinking about or discussing the atonement, the question of importance is not — “For whom did Christ die?” The only question of importance is — “Who died?” Is Jesus Christ God? If He is, all for whom He died are redeemed, and all He intended to accomplish in His death He accomplished. To think or say otherwise is both a denial of the blessed Gospel doctrine of Limited Atonement and the utter repudiation of our Savior’s very Godhead!

Christ, the Anointed One — Don Fortner

(Tune: #380 — Rise Up, O Men of God —SM)

1. Christ, the Anointed One,
Our Prophet, Priest, and King;
Exalted, reigns upon his throne,
God’s Son, the King of kings!

2. Anointed as the Head,
Of all the chosen race:
For them He lived, for them He bled,
And gives to them His grace.

3. Anointed to atone,
He took away my guilt!
Now He’s my Priest upon His throne,
And bids my soul be still.

4. Anointed for my sake,
My Sur’ty bears my name;
His solemn oath He’ll never break,
Nor put my soul to shame!

“It is the blood that maketh atonement.” — Leviticus 17:11

The 17th chapter of Leviticus has nothing to do with the imaginary sanctity of animal life. It has nothing to do with the health risks involved in eating red meat, or even with eating red meat rare. Leviticus 17, like all the rest of this Inspired Volume, is all about the gospel. It is all about Christ. There are two things revealed in this chapter. They are lessons of tremendous importance. We must learn them. Without the knowledge of these two things, we will never understand the Book of God, the Gospel of God, or the work of God. These two lessons are vital.

Christ the Way — All worship except the worship of God through the blood atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ is idolatry; and all idolatry is the worship of devils (Leviticus 17:1-10). Christ is the Way. There is no other. Christ is the Truth. There is no other. Christ is the Life. There is no other. Will we ever learn this? Christ is the Door. There is no other. All who attempt to come in some other way are thieves and robbers, thieves who would rob God of his glory. God will not tolerate them. After giving the law regarding the Day of Atonement, the Lord God gave commandment to the children of Israel, requiring that they bring their sacrifices to Him at the door of the Tabernacle, that they offer sacrifices nowhere else except at His altar. It was a commandment which He required every Israelite to observe and a commandment He required every stranger who sojourned among them to observe. Any who refused to do so were to be cut off from among the people of God, put out of the camp, banished from the Church. Remember the context. The Lord had just finished declaring to Israel that they were to observe the Day of Atonement every year on the tenth day of the seventh month. This was made as an everlasting statute (Leviticus 16:29-34). Of course, everything required in this statute portrayed our Lord Jesus Christ in His great work of redemption. The high priest made atonement for the holy sanctuary, the tabernacle of the congregation, the altar, himself, the priests, and for all the people of the congregation of the Lord. That is a picture of particular redemption. By the sin-atoning blood of Christ, God’s Israel has been cleansed, made clean from all sin before the Lord (1 John 3:5). That great and glorious day, when Israel saw redemption ceremonially accomplished and sin put away by God’s sacrifice, was “a sabbath of rest…by a statute forever.” That is a picture of the blessed rest of faith. Not only do we cease from our works, we rest in Him who has done all for us.

Blood Atonement — The Lord God says, “I have given the blood to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls” (Leviticus 17:11). The blood of our Lord Jesus Christ was shed at Calvary for one specific purpose: — “To make atonement for your souls.” Will it do the job? Is it enough? What does God say? — “for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.” Yes, the blood of Christ poured out upon the cursed tree accomplished precisely what God intended. His blood made atonement for His people! Just as the blood of the paschal lamb made atonement for the whole congregation of Israel, so the blood of Christ our Passover, who was sacrificed for us, made atonement for all God’s Israel (Romans 5:6-11). It is not the blood and something else. The word is most explicit. It attributes atonement exclusively to the blood. “Without shedding of blood there is no remission” (Hebrews 9: 22). Only in this way can God be both “a just God and a Savior.” Only by the blood can he be both Just and the Justifier of all who believe.

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“It shall be perfect to be accepted.” — Leviticus 22:21

How good does a person have to be to get to heaven? He has to be perfectly good, as good as God himself. That which man looks upon as his “personal righteousness” he calls good; but is of absolutely no value in the sight of God. God calls all your thoughts and deeds of righteousness, and mine, “filthy rags.” They are an abomination to Him (Isaiah 64:6). Man’s definition of righteousness depends entirely upon his definition and understanding of God. The problem is most have never seen God in His glorious holiness. Once a sinner sees God in His holiness, he will cease forever to speak of his own goodness, personal holiness, and self-righteousness. With Isaiah, he will cry, “Woe is me! I am undone” (Isaiah 6:1-6). Who can stand in the presence of the holy Lord God?

No son of Adam can ever stand in the presence of the holy Lord God, because we are all cursed (Galatians 3:10). God is so infinitely holy that He charges the angels with folly, so holy that the heavens are not clean in His sight, so holy that when He found sin upon His own dear Son He forsook Him and killed Him! Are we better than the angels? Are we purer than the heavens? Dare we imagine that God will accept us, with our polluted works, when He killed His own Son for sin? Only one who is himself equal to God can stand in the presence of God and please Him (Psalm 24:3-5; Matthew 17:5). That righteousness which God requires, only God can give. Yet, it must be the work of a man, or it is of no value to men. Blessed be God! There is a Man who is himself God, who has magnified the law and made it honorable. He has brought in an everlasting righteousness by His perfect obedience to the law as a man, even the very righteousness of God. He has satisfied the law’s justice, by dying under its curse. And He lives forever to give righteousness and eternal life to sinners. That Man-God is Jesus Christ the Lord.

The Word of God plainly declares that no one shall enter into the glory of heaven who is not worthy to do so (Revelation 21:27; 22:11; 1 Corinthians 6:9). And all are by nature unrighteous (Ecclesiastes 7:20). We are all sinners. We all deserve the wrath of God. Yet, God the Holy Spirit tells us that there are some who have been made worthy to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints (Colossians 1:12). How can that be? How can a sinner be made worthy of heaven? Only God can do it! Grace alone can make us worthy of heaven’s glory. Every believer, every sinner saved by grace, everyone who trusts Christ alone as his Savior and Lord has been made worthy of heaven by three mighty works of God: — By Blood Atonement — The believer’s sins have been fully paid for by Christ, so justice cannot require further payment. — By Imputed Righteousness — The righteous obedience of Christ has been imputed to all who trust Him, so that the believer stands before God as one who is perfectly righteous, having fulfilled all His holy law in the Person of Christ, our Substitute. — By Regeneration — In the new birth God the Holy Spirit gives every chosen, ransomed sinner a holy nature. By these three works of grace, sinners are transformed into saints and made worthy of heaven, — “perfect in Christ Jesus!”