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The Logic of Reconciliation
RO52-02© Berean Memorial Church of Irving, Texas, Inc. (1977)
We are studying Romans 5:9-11. This is the fourth segment on the subject of the assurance of reconciliation.
Benefits of Justification
Backing up for just a moment, to get our perspective on this passage that we are currently studying in Romans 5:1-11, the apostle Paul summarizes
the benefits to the believer of justification. As we have gone through these first 11 verses thus far, we have noted certain benefits.
Credited with Absolute Righteousness
Among these are that the believer is declared to be justified, or credited with absolute righteousness, so that he is qualified to live in heaven.
We have that in the first part of verse 1.
Peace
Then in the last part of verse 1, we have another benefit declared, which is that the believer has a state of peace in his soul relative to facing a
holy God someday because he is no longer under the wrath of God.
Eternal Security
Then at the first part of verse 2, another benefit is that the believer has a permanent standing in the grace gift of justification because the
justice of God has been satisfied. And so, the sinner cannot be lost again.
Glory
In the latter part of verse 2, we have a fourth benefit declared, and that is that the believer has the joyous hope (or the certain and sure
anticipation) of displaying the dazzling, visible, "Shekinah" glory of God in eternity.
Trials
Verses 3-4 give us another benefit. That is that the believer's daily life of trials now sets up a chain reaction which leads directly to the visible
display in him of God's glorious holiness in eternity.
The Indwelling Holy Spirit
Verse 5 gives another benefit. The believer has God's love functioning in his soul, directing his mentality through the power of the permanently
indwelling Holy Spirit.
Jesus Christ
Then, in verses 6-8 there is another benefit. The believer is under the love of God, as demonstrated by the fact that the Father sent Jesus Christ
to pay for the believers evil when a man was spiritually helpless and rebellious against God, in a sinful state, lacking absolute righteousness.
Secure from the Lake of Fire
Then in verse 9 we had another benefit describe for us, which is that the believer is kept eternally secure by God the Father from the divine wrath
of the Lake of fire once he has been justified on the basis of the sacrifice made by Jesus Christ on the cross to satisfy the Father's justice.
Reconciliation
Then a final benefit, up to this point, that we have observed is that the believer has been reconciled (or adjusted) to God's standard of absolute
righteousness by the death of Jesus Christ on the cross, so he is no longer an enemy of God. We have this in the first part of verse 10, which
brings us up to the point where we stopped last time.
All these marvelous benefits of justification are a great comfort to us as believers, because we must continue to live with an old sin nature. So,
it is obvious to us that in our daily lives there are a variety of expressions of evil, both mental and overt. The believer's spiritual weakness
(his moral fallibility) tends to make him uneasy as to his destiny in eternity. Most people who are not taught very much about the Word of God are
aware of the fact that they are sinners, even though they were born-again. They are aware of their spiritual weakness, even though they are in the
family of God. And these failures make them very uneasy relative to their eternal destiny. It makes them indeed wonder very naturally whether they
are lost again, and whether they need to be saved all over again.
Assurance
So, the believer needs the assurance that his lack of consistent daily righteousness does not again doom him to hell. That's what all these benefits,
that Paul is describing, all amount to. If you were going to summarize them, they all say that our lack of righteousness in our daily practice does
not again doom us to the lake of fire. It does not cause you again to be lost. These benefits of justification clearly remove any ground of
foreboding, or any ground of doubt, as to the believer's ultimate destiny in heaven.
The Guilt, Power, and Presence of Sine
We have been saved from the guilt of sin. That's past. We are currently being saved from the power of sin. That's present. We shall be saved from
the presence of sin. That's future. There will be a time when we are in the Lord's presence, where we will be physically perfect again, and we will
be spiritually perfect again in practice, and we will never sin again, mentally or overtly. So, our salvation is in process. It has a past aspect;
we have a presence factor; and, we have a future one.
God's Justice, Love, and Grace
Now that divine justice has been satisfied by the cross, relative to the sinner, God is free to pour out His love upon those who believe in Christ.
In other words, God can now grace us out without any limit. But it took the satisfaction of the justice of God before the love of God could do that.
Sin
Before Adam and Eve sinned, their point of contact with God was the love of God, with all of its consequent blessings, and all of the grace that
flowed to them. The only point of contact they had with God was His love. But once Adam and Eve fell into sin, they no longer had a point of contact
with the love of God. Their point of contact now was the justice of God. Thereafter came the consequences of the justice of God – death, and
all that followed with it.
Love vs. Justice
So, the whole picture changed. The person that you know who was outside the family of God today is not in contact with the love of God. He's in
contact with the justice of God. The love of God can never be exercised apart from the justice of God. If you do that, it is destructive. That's
destructive on the human plane as well.
A parent's love for a child, for example, cannot be expressed except that that love is based on justice
in dealing with the actions of a child. Love cannot permit a child to get away with wrongdoing. If you do that, you will destroy the character of
the child. So, while you may love your child, you cannot express your love for that child except in the context of justice. If you do not deal
in justice with the wrongdoings of that child; with the disobedience of that child; and, with the rebellion of the child, you do not express love
toward him. When the child who knows doctrine does wrong and, his parents do not punish him, automatically knows that: "My parents do not love me."
The parents think they love him because they say, "Well, I'm going to forgive you for what you did" instead of punishing him for what he did. This
child who knows doctrine knows that if his parents loved him, they would exercise justice toward him. Love cannot be exercised until justice has
been satisfied. You cannot do it on the human level, and you certainly cannot do it on the divine level. Love can only be free to function after
the child's wrongdoing has been punished and justice has been met.
Capital Punishment
You see, this is the problem with our society today. Our nation is destroying itself in what it considers acts of love toward evildoers instead of
acts of justice toward evildoers. You can imagine what these parents feel like whose children were murdered by the Son of Sam in New York when,
after all is said and done, and even full confession made, what's the result? Well, we're told that Berkowitz will get 25 to 100 years in jail.
And, knowing how our system works, he will get his 25 years, and then likely be paroled. Now here are seven, eight, or nine people who have been
slaughtered – just walked up and shot to death. And what does our justice say? Well, the state of New York said capital punishment is cruel
and inhuman. So, under the inspiration and guidance of such a brilliant American statesman as Nelson Rockefeller, as governor of the state, the
capital punishment was removed from the state. So now, New York State does not exercise the death penalty.
So, a bestial act such as was committed by Berkowitz goes, in fact, unpunished. The Bible is very clear what justice requires in this case. Justice
requires that this man be put to death. And every human emotion says that this is what justice requires. One reporter went up to a mother whose
daughter had been shot to death in one of those raids of Berkowitz's. She was asked, "How do you feel about this?" And her response was, "I think
he should burn," meaning that he should be electrocuted." Her sense of justice was indeed compatible with God's justice. And if we, as a society,
were to treat Berkowitz in love, the thing that would be done to him would be to execute him. But since we are not a society of love, but a society
of pseudo love, we do not exercise justice, and therefore we destroy ourselves in the process. It is easy enough to see what the implications of no
death penalty always means. It always means that justice, as per scriptural standards, can never again be executed, and thus we are automatically
restricted from exercising love as a society. And that is madness to the extreme.
Well, sweetness and light is an old sin nature love, and that's the sort of thing we give out even among us as Christians. And the whole principle
of the sweetness and light mentality is to bypass the realities of sin in people rather than dealing in justice with them.
So, today, my point is that a lost sinner's point of contact is with the justice of God, which places him under divine wrath. Everybody who is
outside of the family of God should understand that he is under God's anger. John 3:18 makes that clear when he says, "He that believes on him is
not condemned, but he that does not believe (that is, on Jesus Christ as Savior) is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of
the only begotten Son of God.
John 3:36 adds to that: "He that believes on Son has everlasting life. He that does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God
abides on him." So, everyone who is an unbeliever today stands under the wrath of God. Until the justice of God is satisfied in that person's
experience (which he can only do by accepting the price that Christ has paid for his sin to satisfy that justice) and until the sinner is related to
the justice of God in such a way that that justice is satisfied, that person is doomed. After a lost sinner believes in Christ as Savior, then he
comes under the love of God. Once a sinner is reconciled to God's justice, he has God's love functioning toward him because now he is no threat to
the integrity of God.
Integrity
Remember that that is the key thing with God. God does not think the way we think. With us, our integrity is not generally our key feature. Our
integrity is not the key concern of our life. We are willing to compromise our integrity when we think there are certain advantages at that point.
Then we will go back to integrity after that. We don't mind being dishonest at a certain point because we think it will give us advantages so that
we can be nice and honest later on. But God does not have any fluctuations in integrity, and His justice is never compromised.
Therefore, once God's integrity has been secured, so there's no threat to it, which can only be done when His justice is satisfied, then and only
then can His love be poured out. So, God can express love for the believer because God loves His own holiness, which He sees in the believer to
whom He has credited His own absolute righteousness. Until God can see absolute righteousness in you, He cannot love you. He cannot put forth His
love in action toward you. Until he can see His own perfections in you, He cannot love you. But once He sees what He has placed in you in His own
holiness, then, and only then, you come under the love of God.
So, the blessing which God's love would bestow on the sinner are restricted by God's justice in dealing with sin. The unbeliever's contact with God
must first, therefore, be the justice of God, and then and only then, with the love of God.
Eternal Security
One of the great expressions we have found in this passage of the love of God toward those reconciled is preserving them in their salvation. And
again, I want to remind you that this passage, particularly verses 9-11, is one of the greatest arguments for the eternal security of the believer
that you will find anywhere in the Bible. It is really hard to talk to somebody who comes up and says, "Well, I don't think that once you're saved,
you can always be saved," because those people are usually so shallow. First of all, they're so arrogant. Anybody who says, "I don't think a person,
once saved, can remain saved forever," is a terrifically arrogant person. You must understand that. Right away, you look at those eyeballs, and
you know that you're looking at arrogant eyeballs, because it takes a monumental arrogance to say that Almighty God could not come up with a
salvation system that precluded a person losing what God has said: "I'm going to give you forever." God says, "I'm going to give you everlasting
life, and you would end up with six months of it.
For you to be able to think that way, you have to be arrogant to the extreme, because you're a whole lot smarter than God. God thinks He has given
you eternal life, and you know that He has only given you life up to a certain point. But the problem with talking to people about this subject is
that it's not just a little proof text. It's not just a verse out of the Bible. Sure, we have verses like John 10:28 that clearly say that you cannot
be wrested out of the hand of God again. But to fully understand why you are secure in salvation, you have to understand a passage like we are
studying here, in Romans 5:9-11 particularly, as well as all of Romans 5:1-11. If you understand this, then your heart will go out and pity the
people. You will see how really ignorant they are, and how really spiritually backward they are to suggest that they can be lost again. They really just don't
know up from down. It is because they have no depth of instruction in the Word of God.
Here in Romans 5:9-11, you have the most powerful argument for personal assurance of preservation and salvation that you'll find anywhere in the
Bible. So, learn three verses and learn them well, and this issue will never be a problem for you.
Logic
Paul argues in these verses in this way: since God has satisfied His justice by the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus Christ, which has enable Him to
reconcile sinners to His absolute standard of righteousness, He will do the lesser thing of preserving believers in their salvation. Since God has
done the more difficult thing, logic dictates that He will do the easier thing. Logic dictates that God, who did the hardest thing (which is
providing a ground upon which we could be saved) will do much more certainly in the easier thing of keeping us saved.
Christianity is a logical system, and it is not unspiritual to use your mind in dealing with God. One of the things that you will learn about Paul,
and should learned as we you go through the book of Romans is that he's a brilliant logician. This was a man who knew how to use logic, and he knew
how to reason with people on the basis of the logic of doctrine. Christianity is not to live the spiritual life on the basis of feelings. You are to
live the Christian life on the basis of logic based upon doctrine. If you try to live the Christian life any other way, you are going to be
manipulated by Satan.
The whole charismatic movement has upon it the stamp of Satan by the sheer fact that it's a feeling movement. And by the sheer
fact that the charismatic movement does not base itself upon the logic of doctrine, is your primary indication that the whole thing is not of God.
Anything that is of God is always based on the logic of doctrine. Those poor people generally don't know a thimbleful of doctrine to be able to
exercise any logic relative to their lives, and relative to pursuing what is in the plan of God. All they know is what they feel, and how they are
manipulated.
It is interesting that people who, when they come into the presence of the logic of doctrine, and of the demand to learn doctrine or shut your mouth
until you have learned doctrine, and who are in a habit of emoting, are fantastically frustrated. I have heard people say, "I just feel that my
emotions are so squelched." Of course, a person who operates on old sin nature feelings is going to feel himself squelched. That's why charismatics
don't like to talk about doctrine. That's why they make snide remarks about not getting all mixed up with doctrine. That's why one of the greatest
of them on television was talking to Pat Boone one time, and sitting there holding hands with each other. He said to Pat Boone, "You know, before I
received the baptism of the Holy Spirit, all I had was doctrine." And Boone said, "Yes, and now we have so much more." You couldn't have anything
dumber than that.
Christianity is a logical system and it is based on reason. Then emotions flow that are real and genuine. We are not an emotionless people. We just
aren't a people who are enslaved to Satan's manipulation of our emotions, any more than we are enslaved to his manipulation of our mentality. But
without the Word of God, you're both of those things. So, God's plan for the Christian is to grasp the truth of Bible doctrine, and then to reason
from that to the divine viewpoint he needs in his daily life, and apply it to his daily situation.
In John 5:24, the Lord Jesus says, "Verily, verily I say unto you: he that hears My Word and believe on Him that sent Me has everlasting life, and
shall not come into judgment, but is passed from death unto life." Now you could not make a final declaration of the security of the believer in
his salvation than John 5:24: "Verily, verily, I say unto you: he that hears My Word." That means he gets the gospel information, and he hears it
with a positive volition response: "And believes on Him that sent Me." He believes what God the Father has said about God the Son as Savior: "Has
everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but is passed from death until life." This verse is saying that those who believe the Father
concerning His Son Jesus Christ now have everlasting life. They never will come into the condemnation of hell because they have already permanently
passed from eternal death into eternal life.
Reconciliation
The doctrine of reconciliation, which we have been studying, deals with the adjustment of a lost sinner to the standard of absolute righteousness.
The Greek words for "reconciliation" mean "to change." The change in view is man adjusting from his relative righteousness to the absolute
righteousness of God – from incompatibility to compatibility with God. Only man needs to be reconciled – not God.
The Wall that Separates Man from God
The problem in reconciliation is the removal of the wall which separates man from God. We will briefly review it. Man began, first of all, in
innocence, where he and God were friends. They held each other's hands in friendship and fellowship. The fall into sin, however, erected a wall
between God and man. Man turned his back on God because now he was the enemy of God; and, God turned His back upon man because God's wrath was now
directed against man. They were separated. They were at enmity. They were separated by a wall – a wall made up of several blocks.
There was the fact that sin was now present, and man was a slave to sin. There was the fact that man was spiritually dead. There was the fact that
man had an old sin nature which could only produce human good, and that human good has no merit relative to salvation. There was the fact of divine
justice having to be satisfied – that God could not permit sin to go unpunished. There was the fact that man was "in Adam," and "in Adam" is
the place of death. So, all of these various factors made up a wall that separated man completely.
The atonement of Jesus Christ came along, and across the wall was laid the cross of Christ. Now God turned and faced man once more, because God has
been propitiated. Man continues as the enemy of God. This is objective reconciliation. Reconciliation has now been made possible. Man is now savable.
Then you have reconciliation effected, where man now turns and faces God by faith in Jesus Christ. And again they grasp each other's hands on the
basis of the cross of Christ. They are now back in friendship. This is subjective reconciliation. Man is reconciled to God. God is propitiated
relative to man's sin. And the sinner has believed in Jesus Christ so that all is restored. That's the principle of the doctrine of reconciliation.
The change in view is man adjusting to God's standard. And the wall has been removed. It's now simply a matter of our being willing to turn to God
Who is propitiated.
Every Christian has been entrusted as a spokesman with this doctrine of reconciliation. We are to make available this fact of reconciliation
between a lost sinner and a Holy God to the unsaved world. We are to make available to them the information concerning reconciliation. Part of our
judgment, undoubtedly, at the Judgment Seat of Christ is going to be how faithful you were to your ambassadorship of the fact that you knew about
reconciliation; that you knew what was involved in it; and, that you do the disaster that would follow those who were not reconciled to God, and
you said nothing about it. You may be certain that part of the Judgment Seat of Christ will be an evaluation of what you did with the doctrine of
reconciliation. So, learn it well, but learn also the consequences of your responsibility to this doctrine having learned it. Do not give false
means of becoming, or false invitations to becoming reconciled to God. The means of becoming reconciled is: "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ."
That, and that alone, is scriptural.
"For if, when we were enemies, we were adjusted (reconciled) to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His
life. The word "much" looks like this in the Greek Bible: it is the word "polus." This means "much in terms of degree." The word "more" is the Greek
word "mallon.' This is an adverb. It's indicating a degree of comparison. This phrase together, "much more," declares the greater degree of
certainty of something in view of the fact of a related thing. It connotes, we might say, this: "It is obvious then," or "it will surely be that."
What it is doing is introducing the conclusion to the first part of verse 10.
Verse 10 began with "For if." You remember that we said that that was a
first class condition in the Greek, which means that it is a true situation: "For since, when we were just the enemies of God, He reconciled to
Himself by the death of His Son." When we were pure enemies with God, and when we were haters of God, He established a ground of reconciliation.
That's the condition part. Now the conclusion part of the sentence is: "Much more, this being true, we shall be saved by His life:" "Much more,
being reconciled.
Let's look at that word again. It's "katallasso" – the same word that we had before. "Katallasso" means that the believing
sinner has been adjusted to the standard of absolute righteousness demanded by divine justice. This is in the aorist tense, which means the point in
time when the person trusted in Jesus Christ at that point. Objective reconciliation became subject of reconciliation. What God had provided
potentially became real in his own life and his own experience. It's passive because reconciliation is provided for the believer by God. You cannot
reconcile yourself. Just this very passive voice is one of those marvelous little keys from the Greek language that tells us we cannot save
ourselves. Reconciliation has to be provided from outside of ourselves. It is in the participle form, which means it's a spiritual principle being
stated.
The major thing that God has provided for us is reconciliation. He changed us from hatred and hostility toward God to friendship and to submission.
It's purely a divine operation through the death of Jesus Christ.
So, the great, humanly unsolvable problem of adjusting a sinner to the divine justice has been achieved forever by God. That's what reconciliation
did. It finally provided a way to solve the absolutely seemingly impossible problem of adjusting a sinner to God's standard of absolute
righteousness. Man could not do it himself.
The other day, I went to wind my watch, and the stem snapped. The crown just snapped. The time was wrong, and I couldn't do a thing about it. I was
just ready to come over here for the morning service, and I needed to fix that watch and needed to set the hands? It was still running. There was
enough wind on it, but it was the wrong time. And that's man's condition. His stem is broken, and he can't adjust himself. There's no way to adjust
himself. Eventually the hand stopped, and twice a day my watch is right. And once in a while, a man hits it right. He happens to hit it what God
thinks. So, he happens to act upon it. But your stem is broken. There's no way for you to fix the hands to point to the right direction where they
should be. And that is the major problem that God has solved.
Saved
So, he says in verse 10: "Much more." Certainly it is obvious that this is going to be true. Appreciate those two words: "much more." It is God the
Holy Spirit's of way of telling you that something is absolutely certainly going to come to pass. And that "much more" is that being reconciled
(being in this state of having been adjusted to God), the consequence is going to b: "We shall be saved." The word "saved" is "sozo:" "We shall be
saved. The word "sozo" means "to restore to health," or "to heal." It refers to the avoidance of death.
Saved from the Lake of Fire
In verse 9, notice this phrase: "We shall be saved from wrath through Him." In verse 10, you have a parallel phrase: "We shall be saved by His life."
Verse 9 says, "We shall be saved from wrath through Him." What does that mean? It means you're going to be saved from – what's the wrath? The
lake of fire. You're going to be preserved from the lake of fire through the reconciliation to the Father that Christ has provided. Verse 10 talks
about the same thing, but in a little different way. It says, "We shall be saved by His life."
So, what do we mean here? Verse 9 refers to the lake of fire. What does verse 10 refer to? It means that we will be exercising salvation by the
living, resurrected Christ, which is also saving us from the lake of fire. In other words, "being saved by His life" means that we were saved from
the lake of fire through His death, and we will much more certainly be saved from the lake of fire now that we share His life – now that He
is alive. If he could do this for us by dying for us to reconcile us to God, what is he going to do for us now that He is alive and indwelling us?
So, "saved" here means preservation from eternal death in the lake of fire. It's future tense. It is at any time in the future, after becoming
born-again. It is passive again. The believer does not preserve himself in his reconciliation. God does. And it's indicative – a statement of
fact.
Now, here's a word you must correct. Verse 10 says, "Much more." It is obvious then (it is certainly true) that being in the status of subjective
reconciliation: "We shall be preserved by His life." That is not the word "by." The Greek word is "en," which means "in:" "We shall
be saved in." Specifically, we describe this as "in the sphere of:" "We shall be saved in the sphere of His life." What this means is that a dead
Jesus Christ could do very little for a sinner.
John 14:19 declares that principle to us when the Lord Jesus says, "Yet a little while, and the world will see Me no more. But you see Me. Because
I live, you shall live also." What the Lord Jesus is saying is that: "I, as a dead Savior could do very little for you. But now that I am alive in
a resurrected life, I can do everything for you. You are going to be saved in the sphere of My life," which means that the resurrection life of
Jesus Christ can do all that is necessary to bring us into heaven. The risen Savior has no lack of power to carry us through.
Colossians 3:3-4 says, "For you are dead, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, Who is our life, shall appear, then you shall
also appear with Him in glory:" "You are dead, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, Who is our life appears, then you shall
also appear with Him in glory." What could be more specific? Your life is Christ's life. The life you share is His resurrected life. The life that
reconciliation has brought you into is the life of Christ. And when He appears (when He returns), you're going to appear with Him. In other words,
you will continue to be saved. You cannot be separated from Him. You are going to continue sharing His life.
Life
The word "life" is the Greek word "zoe." This is the word for life as a principle in contrast to death – that which characterizes God, Who
is eternal life. That is spiritual life which is compatibility with the absolute righteousness of God. This word "zoe" here refers specifically
to the resurrection life of Jesus Christ – not merely to the fact of Christ's resurrection as such. It means the life of the glorified
person after resurrection, and that is the life in power or holiness.
So, where are you? You are in the life of Christ. You are positionally in Christ. 1 Corinthians 12:13 therefore says, "For by one Spirit we were
all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Greeks; whether we be fond of free. We are all made to drink into one Spirit."
Verse 27 says, "Now you are the body of Christ, and members in particular." What Paul is talking about here is that you share the life of Jesus
Christ – and that's a deathless life. You are in the sphere of His life. Therefore, you are in a place of absolute security.
Actually, the apostle Paul's brilliant mind is spinning wheels here. His mind is thinking ahead because the next great, dramatic subject He is
going to take up in this book is the consequences of the life of Christ working in your life as a believer. He is going to take up the fact of a
Christian living his life under the fabulous power of the resurrected Christ. He's already thinking ahead, and he just sort of brings that fact in
here, because it's already on his mind. It's going to come up in great detail. It's going to be one of the greatest portions of this book we're
going to study. But he touches upon it right here in connection with your security and salvation. He says, "There's a lot more to say, and I'm not
going to say more about this right now, but it's going to tell you that your life is in Christ. You are in Him. You dwell in His power.
So, the idea is this – that Jesus Christ has provided a basis for our reconciliation by means of His death, and will easily and logically,
therefore, preserve us in that salvation now that He is again alive in full power of his deity.
God has made great promises to us. I want you to notice that you are the beneficiaries of God's last will and testament. Think of it that way.
You are the beneficiaries of a will that God has made for you. You are the beneficiaries of fantastic inheritance. It is no good, obviously, to
be the beneficiary of somebody's will unless that person has something to leave you of value. God does.
Notice Romans 8:17-18: "If children, then heirs – heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ. If so be that we suffer with Him, that we may
be also glorified together. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be
revealed in us." That is part of the inheritance that God says that He has for us.
Notice 1 Timothy 6:7, which describes further this inheritance that God has willed to us: "Charge them that are rich in this age, that they be not
high-minded, nor trust in certain riches, but in the living God who gives us richly all things to enjoy."
Hebrews 9:15: "And for this cause, He is the mediator of the New Covenant; that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that
were under the first testament, they who are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance."
Ephesians 1:14: This is what God's will set aside for you: "Who is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the promised possession
unto the praise of His glory."
So, the Bible makes it very clear that God has made out a will to you of a great eternal heavenly inheritance. This is specifically described as
being made out by Jesus Christ to believers. Notice Hebrews 9:15-17: "And for this cause, He is the mediator of the New Testament that by means of
death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they who are called might receive the promise of eternal
inheritance. For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator. For a testament is a force after men are dead.
Otherwise, it is of no strength at all while the testator lives." What these sources are saying is simply this: that God has made out a will, a
fantastic inheritance, which is yours. He has something to give you. But the will is of no value, like any will is of no value until the person
who has made it dies. As long as the person lives, you're not going to benefit by all the things that are promised to you. Jesus Christ came along
as the mediator of that covenant. He is the testator, and He made your inheritance available by dying for the sins of the world.
Now the wealth of eternal life in heaven is available to us – riches of grace in the church age. Now, God has made a multitude of other
promises of one kind of another for time and for eternity. And the believer can have none of these except upon the death of the one who has
promised them – the Son of God. Now God says, "All of these spiritual assets are credited to your account. Jesus died on the cross.
Everything I have promised to do for you (summed up in the word 'reconciliation'), I have done. This is what I made out in My will to you. The
Son died, and the will has been now readied to be probated.
Now as you know, there is a question about keeping a vast inheritance. Many people have found that they inherited great wealth only to squander
it in one way or another. And this vast inheritance in heaven now is made eternally secure for us because there is one key role that Jesus Christ
played. He not only did the dying that now activated the will in our behalf, but He made Himself the executor of the estate. The executor of an
estate fulfills the details of the will, and He supervises the protection of the assets of the will, because that's what God the Father has
delegated to the Son to protect what He has provided for you spiritually.
Do you see what God is saying here? You cannot lose your salvation. Why? Because all the spiritual assets from reconciliation are not dependent
upon your preserving them. All your eternal values in heaven are not dependent upon you preserving them. The executor is Jesus Christ. He made
the will; He gave you the wealth; He died to activate the will; and then He was resurrected to fulfill the will and to preserve your inheritance.
Since He died to provide our eternal inheritance in heaven, and since He now lives, He will much more see to it that we are never defrauded of our
inheritance.
Notice Hebrews 7:22-25: "By so much was Jesus made a surety of a better testament. And they truly were many priests because they were not allowed
to continue by reason of death. But this man, because He continues ever, has an unchangeable priesthood. Therefore, He is able also to save them
to the uttermost that come onto God by Him, seeing He ever lives to make intercession for them." One of the things that God has willed to you upon
the death of His Son is eternal life. And that is one factor that you can never lose because it says, "Jesus Christ (unlike the Old Testament priests
who came and went through death) lives forever to make intercession for you." He acts as your executor forever, protecting your inheritance of
eternal life.
So, simple logic declares that having done the greater thing for sinners, God will not fail to do the lesser thing, and this is how He has done it.
He made His Son the executor of your inheritance. The principle is that those who are the beneficiaries of Jesus' death must also be the
beneficiaries of all that is entailed in His resurrection life, which includes no return to death again. John 14:19; Romans 8:11; Romans 8:32;
Romans 8:34; 1-2 Corinthians 15:23; Hebrews 7:25; Ephesians 1:19-22; and, Matthew 28:18 – all these verses indicate that you cannot return
to death.
So, if Jesus Christ had not paid for the sins of the world (past, present and future) in full, He would not have been raised from the dead. Since
He has been raised, the debt is paid. Justice is satisfied. He is the executor. He will preserve it.
In other words, you have reconciliation (that is a beautiful word) in perpetuity. Another way of saying it is: "I give you eternal life. And them
that come unto me shall in no way perish." That's what He means. He's the executor. He will not permit you to squander your spiritual assets again.
Dr. John E. Danish, 1977
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