Be Gone Unbelief! — Don Fortner
(Tune: #400 — Jesus, and Shall it Ever Be? —LM)

1. Be gone my fears, for Christ is near,
And for my soul He will appear:
His work my Savior will perform,
So let me smile at every storm.

2. Though dark my way, Christ is my Guide,
(Jehovah-jireh will provide!)
Though cisterns break and creatures fail,
His promised grace shall yet prevail.

3. His mercy, love and grace I know
Will never, never let me go!
The many Ebenezers past
Assure me that free grace will last.

4. Preserved by grace, He watched my path,
While I rebelled and courted death,
And He will keep me through all strife
With sins and falls to endless life!

5. He Who taught me to trust His Name,
Said “You shall not be put to shame.”
I’m saved, I’m saved by grace alone
In Jesus Christ, God’s darling Son!

“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” — Yes, salvation is to be obtained by faith in Christ. If you trust Christ, salvation is yours. — “And thy house!” — If any in your household believe on the Lord Jesus, they, too, shall be saved. Salvation is the free gift of God to all who trust Christ. There are no prerequisites, conditions, or qualifications of any kind to be met. Believe on the Son of God, and eternal life is yours!

For whom did Christ die?
Revelation 14:3-4

The objects of redemption, those for whom Christ died, for whom he made atonement by the shedding of his blood, for whom he obtained eternal redemption, are a special and distinct people. The Scriptures declare that they are “redeemed from the earth” (Revelation 14:3), from among all the other inhabitants of the earth. As explained in the very next verse, they are “redeemed from among men” (Revelation 14:4).

The inspired writers seem to delight in using the pronoun “us”, when speaking of the death of Christ and our redemption by it. Thus the objects of redemption are identified as a distinct, particular people called “us.” “Christ died for us.” God “delivered him up for us all.” Christ “gave himself for us.” He did so “that he might redeem us.” The saints around his throne sing unto the Lamb, “Thou hast redeemed us unto God by thy blood.” The Scriptures everywhere teach limited atonement, particular, effectual redemption accomplished and obtained for God’s elect by the sin-atoning death of Christ as our Substitute.

There is not a hint, suggestion, or implication of universal atonement anywhere in the Word of God. Not only does the Bible teach the blessed doctrine of effectual, limited atonement, the Word of God also tells us specifically and clearly who those sinners are for whom Christ died.

The Lord Jesus Christ died for every sinner in this world loved of God with an everlasting love. The objects of Christ’s redemption and the objects of God’s love are the same. Redemption flows from the love of God and Christ (John 3:16; Romans 5:8; 1 John 3:16; 4:10). This love from which redemption flows is much more than some imaginary, universal benevolence, and much more than that general kindness shown in providence to all men, as the creatures of God. This is a special and discriminating love. It is the special, saving favor which God bears to his own people alone, as distinct from others. The Lord God declares, “Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.” This is a hard pill for some to swallow. They would rather compromise the character of God and make for themselves a god like themselves (mutable, unfaithful, and untrustworthy) than acknowledge the plainly revealed fact that God’s love, his sovereign purpose of grace, his providence and all his saving operations are toward his elect alone. I defy anyone who denies this fact to give a sane interpretation of Isaiah 43:3-4.

This special, redeeming love is most highly expressed and clearly revealed by our all glorious Savior. When we see him hanging on the cursed tree, bearing in his own body all the sins of all his people, and suffering all the horrid wrath of almighty God as our Substitute, we begin to understand the meaning of John’s words, “Having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end” (John 13:1). All who are thus loved by Christ were redeemed by Christ. They are “his” people, “his” sheep, “his” Church. To suggest, or imply that Christ died for reprobate sinners, who are the objects of his just wrath and contempt, such as Esau, is utter nonsense. Those who say that Christ loved Esau enough to die for him, when Christ himself says, “Esau have I hated”, would make the Son of God a liar! They would rather declare that God is a liar than acknowledge that salvation truly is of the Lord in its entirety!

“Made Sin”

“For he hath made him [to be] sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” (2 Corinthians 5:21)

The Spirit of God does not here tell us merely that our Lord Jesus Christ was made a “sin offering,” though he certainly was made an “offering for sin” and a “sacrifice for sin” (Isaiah 53:10; Hebrews 10:12). Sin offerings were made to God for sins committed against him in the typical Mosaic age. The priests in the Old Testament received sin offerings from the transgressors, and offered them to God upon the altar of the tabernacle to make atonement for them. The priests first made sin offerings for themselves and then, after making sacrifice for their own sins, they could offer sacrifices for the sins of the people (Leviticus 4:1-5:13; 6:24-30; 16:6, 11-15, 24).

Our dear Savior certainly was not made a sinner. On Calvary’s cursed tree “he was numbered with the transgressors” (Isaiah 53:12). Our Lord Jesus Christ, God’s darling Son, was numbered with murderers, adulterers, blasphemers, and thieves and robbers, and died as the chief of them. The Holy One of God died on Calvary as the sinner’s Substitute. He died on the cross that had Barabbas’ name written on it. He died on the cross that had my name written on it. Hanging before God in the place of chosen sinners, the Lord Jesus Christ died for our sins, under the wrath of God.

Dying as our Substitute, he spoke in the words of a sinner, crying, “My God, my God, Why hast thou forsaken me? Why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?” (Psalm 22:1). Being made sin, our all-glorious Christ was treated by God as a sinner. — “Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he [was] wounded for our transgressions, [he was] bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace [was] upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:4-6).

Our Savior was treated as a sinner, but never was he a sinner actually or morally. Rather, he was made to be something worse. He was made to be sin itself. All that sin is, in all its ugly, hideous, obnoxious vileness, everything that is the exact and complete antithesis of righteousness he was made to be, when he “bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed” (1 Peter 2:24). What a change! The righteous became, was made, unrighteous. The Holy One was “made sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him!” Sin is what Christ was made to be because of his union with God’s elect, being put to death for us. Righteous is what God’s elect are made to be because of our union with Christ, who conquered death, hell and the grave by his death upon the cursed tree as our Substitute.