What Didn’t Christ Accomplish?
00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)
00:00:02.580 | - Welcome back to the podcast on this fine Monday.
00:00:07.880 | We start the week with a question that reached us
00:00:09.760 | from 10,000 miles away, from Port Elizabeth, South Africa,
00:00:14.080 | and from a listener named Kyle.
00:00:15.920 | Hello, Pastor John, I've enjoyed listening to APJ
00:00:18.080 | for a few months now.
00:00:18.980 | My question is this.
00:00:21.020 | What did Jesus actually accomplish?
00:00:23.360 | Every time I ask this question, fellow believers,
00:00:25.200 | the answer is always an enthusiastic everything.
00:00:28.860 | And while that answer is nice,
00:00:31.260 | it always felt like the equivalent of asking a chef
00:00:33.740 | after having eaten an exquisite dish,
00:00:36.960 | what the ingredients are,
00:00:38.480 | and his emphatic response being everything.
00:00:42.800 | And are there a core group of Christ's accomplishments
00:00:45.840 | that we should focus on more than others?
00:00:47.840 | On the flip side, is there anything
00:00:49.080 | that Christ didn't accomplish
00:00:50.620 | that we have somehow tricked ourselves
00:00:52.120 | into believing he did?
00:00:53.400 | I'm thinking of wealth, comfort, and the good life today.
00:00:57.080 | Can we go too far by promising things
00:00:59.420 | Christ did not accomplish for us today?
00:01:03.220 | - As with many questions we are asked,
00:01:06.580 | the first task is to clarify terms.
00:01:12.460 | - Yeah, right.
00:01:13.580 | - So crucial.
00:01:14.620 | In fact, most questions answer themselves
00:01:16.860 | once you understand the terms.
00:01:18.660 | Until we do this, we can't even know what is being asked.
00:01:22.240 | And this question in particular
00:01:24.780 | is fraught with ambiguities.
00:01:27.980 | First, the ambiguity of definition.
00:01:30.700 | What does the word accomplish mean?
00:01:34.260 | And then the ambiguity of timing, accomplished by when?
00:01:39.180 | And then the ambiguity of beneficiaries,
00:01:41.520 | accomplished for whom?
00:01:43.260 | And then the ambiguity of act,
00:01:46.440 | like which act of Jesus are you asking about?
00:01:49.900 | Accomplished by his miracles,
00:01:52.060 | accomplished by his sinless obedience,
00:01:54.300 | accomplished by his death,
00:01:55.380 | accomplished by his resurrection,
00:01:56.580 | accomplished by his intercession, oh my.
00:01:59.900 | So we've got lots of work to do.
00:02:02.300 | So let me suggest four clarifications.
00:02:07.300 | And I think in the very clarifying,
00:02:11.260 | we'll address every one of Kyle's questions.
00:02:14.060 | So number one, I'm going to assume
00:02:17.900 | that the act of Jesus that Kyle has in mind
00:02:22.320 | when he asks this is his death and resurrection.
00:02:26.340 | That is, what did Jesus accomplish
00:02:29.660 | in dying for us and rising again?
00:02:34.260 | That's my assumption as I answer this question.
00:02:37.620 | Number two, when I use the word accomplish
00:02:42.460 | in relation to Jesus' saving work on the cross
00:02:46.660 | and in the resurrection,
00:02:48.260 | the meaning I give to the word is this.
00:02:52.640 | Accomplish something means cause it to happen
00:02:57.640 | in that very hour or make certain
00:03:03.800 | that it will happen at some time in the future.
00:03:07.000 | That's what I mean by accomplished.
00:03:08.640 | And I get that meaning from Isaiah 46.10.
00:03:12.800 | Here's what God says there.
00:03:14.800 | I am God and there is no other.
00:03:18.400 | I am God and there is none like me.
00:03:22.380 | My counsel shall stand
00:03:25.920 | and I will accomplish all my purpose.
00:03:30.920 | Now, the point of the word accomplish in that verse,
00:03:36.460 | Isaiah 46.10, is to emphasize that it cannot fail.
00:03:43.500 | I am God and this is what it means to be God.
00:03:47.640 | I speak and I accomplish what I speak.
00:03:51.980 | Accomplish means do whatever it takes
00:03:56.140 | to make something certain, start to finish.
00:04:00.880 | Now, that's important to emphasize
00:04:03.540 | because there are a lot of people
00:04:04.660 | who emphatically disagree with this meaning of accomplish
00:04:11.220 | when it comes to what Jesus did on the cross
00:04:15.660 | and in the resurrection.
00:04:17.740 | For them, the death of Jesus did not accomplish in this way.
00:04:22.740 | It did not bring about certainties.
00:04:27.160 | It brought about possibilities.
00:04:30.080 | So in my definition, Jesus, they would say,
00:04:33.660 | didn't accomplish any salvation.
00:04:36.340 | He didn't make it certain for anybody in particular.
00:04:41.340 | They would say that what Jesus accomplished
00:04:45.220 | was to make salvation possible for all people to obtain.
00:04:50.220 | That's it, that's what he accomplished, a possibility.
00:04:54.440 | But he did not accomplish their salvation
00:04:59.100 | in the sense of making it certain, start to finish.
00:05:03.300 | But that's what I think he did.
00:05:05.700 | So if you ask me, what did Jesus accomplish?
00:05:08.540 | I would say by his death and resurrection,
00:05:11.580 | Christ accomplished the full salvation
00:05:16.580 | for his elect, the people he chose
00:05:19.720 | before the foundation of the world.
00:05:22.360 | Jesus said that his blood was the blood
00:05:26.380 | of the new covenant, Luke 22 20,
00:05:29.860 | which means that his blood secured,
00:05:34.900 | guaranteed, purchased, obtained the new covenant.
00:05:39.900 | And what the new covenant promised
00:05:43.300 | is that God would take out the heart of stone,
00:05:47.100 | put in the heart of flesh,
00:05:49.580 | cause his people to walk in his ways.
00:05:53.180 | In other words, the new covenant was not just
00:05:56.620 | that God would make faith and forgiveness possible,
00:06:01.980 | but that he would make it certain for his people.
00:06:05.620 | In fact, that's what makes the new covenant,
00:06:09.380 | the new covenant, that's what makes it new
00:06:11.820 | and different from the old covenant.
00:06:14.680 | It cannot fail because God accomplishes it,
00:06:19.680 | makes it certain, start to finish.
00:06:24.060 | So by his death and resurrection,
00:06:27.580 | Christ secured, he accomplished,
00:06:30.700 | he made certain that all God's wrath
00:06:35.700 | would be turned away from all God's elect,
00:06:39.060 | that they would all be redeemed,
00:06:41.780 | that they would all come to faith,
00:06:44.260 | that they would all be justified, forgiven,
00:06:47.000 | receive the Holy Spirit, be sanctified,
00:06:49.020 | be raised from the dead, be glorified
00:06:51.160 | in God's presence with eternal joy forever.
00:06:54.080 | That is the accomplishment of the cross.
00:06:58.060 | And it is certain, he purchased it, he bought it,
00:07:01.620 | he guaranteed it by his blood and resurrection,
00:07:05.300 | a total great salvation for all God's elect,
00:07:10.260 | start to finish, this is what we offer to the world.
00:07:15.260 | We don't say to the world in our evangelism,
00:07:18.340 | in our world missions, we don't say,
00:07:20.980 | Christ did not accomplish anything but a possibility.
00:07:24.780 | We say Christ accomplished a great,
00:07:28.500 | certain, complete salvation and anyone,
00:07:33.500 | absolutely anyone who has Christ has all of it.
00:07:38.740 | Receive him, oh, receive him.
00:07:42.260 | I can picture my dad, Tony, just,
00:07:44.700 | he was a great evangelist and I sat as a little boy
00:07:47.980 | watching him plead with sinners at the front of the church
00:07:51.580 | after he preached his heart out
00:07:52.940 | for a week of evangelistic meetings.
00:07:55.180 | Oh, come, come, believe in him
00:07:57.700 | with tears running down his face.
00:07:59.940 | Embrace him as your savior, your Lord,
00:08:03.060 | your greatest treasure in the universe
00:08:05.540 | and everything, everything, absolutely everything
00:08:08.940 | he accomplished is yours.
00:08:12.100 | That's my understanding of what he accomplished.
00:08:16.760 | Number two, number three, clarification number three, timing.
00:08:22.420 | When we say that Christ accomplished something,
00:08:26.340 | we don't necessarily mean it happened already
00:08:30.180 | or that it will happen in our lifetime on earth.
00:08:34.420 | So for example, Christ accomplished the satisfaction
00:08:37.220 | of God's wrath against our sin.
00:08:39.660 | Well, that's over, that's past, done, once for all,
00:08:42.940 | never repeated, he accomplished our justification.
00:08:47.940 | Now that happened at the moment,
00:08:50.580 | the propitiation, the satisfaction of God's wrath,
00:08:54.060 | that happened 33 AD and it will never be repeated.
00:08:59.060 | Once for all, when he died,
00:09:00.980 | he bore our judgment and God's wrath.
00:09:04.620 | Justification happened at the instant that we believed
00:09:09.620 | and he accomplished our perfection,
00:09:13.840 | but that will be experienced only in the future
00:09:17.340 | at the resurrection of the body.
00:09:20.740 | This is important because some people say,
00:09:23.660 | and I think this is what was being asked,
00:09:26.540 | healing is in the atonement.
00:09:28.700 | And since Christ accomplished healing and prosperity
00:09:32.660 | and wealth for his people,
00:09:35.140 | Christians will be healed and prosperous,
00:09:37.860 | healed of all our diseases now in this life
00:09:40.900 | if we just have enough faith.
00:09:42.520 | Well, it's true that Jesus applied Isaiah 53, 4
00:09:47.520 | to his healing ministry.
00:09:50.640 | This was to fulfill that which was spoken
00:09:52.920 | by the prophet Isaiah.
00:09:54.080 | He took our illnesses and bore our diseases, Matthew 8, 17.
00:09:58.960 | And Peter says by his wounds,
00:10:01.240 | you have been healed in referring
00:10:03.080 | to the forgiveness of sins.
00:10:05.080 | But neither of those passages say that the fullness
00:10:12.080 | of healing will happen in this life.
00:10:15.720 | In fact, Paul makes it plain that we will be groaning
00:10:20.320 | in this fallen world until all things are made new
00:10:24.720 | in Romans 8.
00:10:26.120 | So yes, Jesus accomplished perfect healing
00:10:30.700 | by his death and resurrection.
00:10:32.840 | Perfect health was made certain by the death of Jesus
00:10:38.000 | for all his people, but not all of it in this life.
00:10:43.000 | One last clarification.
00:10:44.420 | There is one amazing promise that connects the death
00:10:49.040 | of Jesus to the certainty of everything good
00:10:54.040 | that saved sinners ever experience now and forever.
00:10:59.520 | And that's Romans 8, 32.
00:11:01.720 | He who did not spare his own son,
00:11:04.700 | but gave him up for us all.
00:11:06.840 | Now you could ask, as soon as he says that,
00:11:08.760 | what's he going to say now?
00:11:10.080 | What did that accomplish?
00:11:12.680 | What did not sparing his own son accomplish for us?
00:11:16.200 | He answers like this.
00:11:17.800 | How will he not also with him graciously give us all things?
00:11:22.800 | So the logic is staggeringly strong, staggeringly vast,
00:11:30.300 | because God did not spare his Christ, his son.
00:11:35.800 | It is absolutely certain that all of his elect
00:11:40.800 | will be given, quote, all things,
00:11:45.000 | which means in the context where we can be killed,
00:11:49.080 | verse 35 of Romans 8, which means everything we need
00:11:54.080 | in order to do God's will and to glorify his name
00:11:58.640 | and to be happy in him for all eternity,
00:12:01.040 | everything we need will be given
00:12:04.920 | because he accomplished that.
00:12:07.280 | So if I were to say, going back to the question now,
00:12:10.800 | Jesus accomplished everything, like the chef,
00:12:15.240 | I put everything, I put everything in the meal.
00:12:17.960 | Well, here's what I would mean by that.
00:12:19.560 | By his death and resurrection,
00:12:22.520 | he made certain that all his people
00:12:26.720 | would have absolutely everything we need
00:12:31.480 | to glorify God by being eternally happy in him.
00:12:36.040 | - Yeah, amen.
00:12:36.880 | That's what it's all about,
00:12:37.760 | glorifying God by enjoying him forever.
00:12:41.160 | A spiritual feast for us made possible in Christ.
00:12:44.680 | Thank you, Pastor John, and thank you for listening today.
00:12:46.560 | You can ask a question of your own,
00:12:48.040 | search through or browse all 1,600 of our past episodes,
00:12:51.200 | or subscribe to the podcast.
00:12:52.400 | You can do all that at desiringgod.org/askpastor.
00:12:56.280 | Well, the world says we need self-confidence
00:13:00.400 | more than anything else.
00:13:02.800 | Well, no, there are things more important
00:13:04.800 | to our lives than self-confidence.
00:13:07.000 | So what are those things?
00:13:08.560 | Pastor John will explain next time on Wednesday.
00:13:11.120 | I am your host, Tony Renke, and we'll see you then.
00:13:14.200 | (upbeat music)
00:13:16.780 | (upbeat music)
00:13:19.360 | [BLANK_AUDIO]