Turning the page…
Turning the page…
Glory · Jesus Christ
The Bible answers by showing what His death actually accomplishes: the Good Shepherd lays down His life for His sheep, and the sheep are kept. Christ's death cannot fail to save those it was given to save, because He paid for sins, not merely for a possibility. At the same time the gospel offer goes out freely to all, and the worth of the sacrifice is more than enough for the whole world.
https://glorystudy.com/questions/for-whom-did-christ-die · Scripture quoted from the World English Bible
John 10:11-30
As you read: Jesus lays down His life for the sheep, and no one can snatch them from His hand.
11I am the good shepherd.The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
12He who is a hired hand, and not a shepherd, who doesn’t own the sheep, sees the wolf coming, leaves the sheep, and flees. The wolf snatches the sheep, and scatters them.
13The hired hand flees because he is a hired hand, and doesn’t care for the sheep.
14I am the good shepherd. I know my own, and I’m known by my own;
15even as the Father knows me, and I know the Father. I lay down my life for the sheep.
16I have other sheep, which are not of this fold.I must bring them also, and they will hear my voice. They will become one flock with one shepherd.
17Therefore the Father loves me, because I lay down my life, that I may take it again.
18No one takes it away from me, but I lay it down by myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. I received this commandment from my Father.”
19Therefore a division arose again among the Jews because of these words.
20Many of them said, “He has a demon, and is insane! Why do you listen to him?”
21Others said, “These are not the sayings of one possessed by a demon. It isn’t possible for a demon to open the eyes of the blind, is it?”
22It was the Feast of the Dedication at Jerusalem.
23It was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple, in Solomon’s porch.
24The Jews therefore came around him and said to him, “How long will you hold us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.”
25Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you don’t believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name, these testify about me.
26But you don’t believe, because you are not of my sheep, as I told you.
27My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.
28I give eternal life to them. They will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.
29My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all. No one is able to snatch them out of my Father’s hand.
30I and the Father are one.”
John 17:6-26
As you read: On the night before He died, Jesus prays for those the Father gave Him, and He does not pray for the world.
6I revealed your name to the people whom you have given me out of the world. They were yours, and you have given them to me. They have kept your word.
7Now they have known that all things whatever you have given me are from you,
8for the words which you have given me I have given to them, and they received them, and knew for sure that I came from you, and they have believed that you sent me.
9I pray for them. I don’t pray for the world, but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours.
10All things that are mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them.
11I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them through your name which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are.
12While I was with them in the world, I kept them in your name. Those whom you have given me I have kept. None of them is lost, except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.
13But now I come to you, and I say these things in the world, that they may have my joy made full in themselves.
14I have given them your word. The world hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
15I pray not that you would take them from the world, but that you would keep them from the evil one.
16They are not of the world even as I am not of the world.
17Sanctify them in your truth. Your word is truth.
18As you sent me into the world, even so I have sent them into the world.
19For their sakes I sanctify myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth.
20Not for these only do I pray, but for those also who believe in me through their word,
21that they may all be one; even as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be one in us; that the world may believe that you sent me.
22The glory which you have given me, I have given to them; that they may be one, even as we are one;
23I in them, and you in me, that they may be perfected into one; that the world may know that you sent me, and loved them, even as you loved me.
24Father, I desire that they also whom you have given me be with me where I am, that they may see my glory, which you have given me, for you loved me before the foundation of the world.
25Righteous Father, the world hasn’t known you, but I knew you; and these knew that you sent me.
26I made known to them your name, and will make it known; that the love with which you loved me may be in them, and I in them.”
Isaiah 53
As you read: The portrait written centuries before: He will justify many and bear their iniquities.
1Who has believed our message? To whom has the arm of Yahweh been revealed?
2For he grew up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground. He has no good looks or majesty. When we see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.
3He was despised, and rejected by men; a man of suffering, and acquainted with disease. He was despised as one from whom men hide their face; and we didn’t respect him.
4Surely he has borne our sickness, and carried our suffering; yet we considered him plagued, struck by God, and afflicted.
5But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought our peace was on him; and by his wounds we are healed.
6All we like sheep have gone astray. Everyone has turned to his own way; and Yahweh has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
7He was oppressed, yet when he was afflicted he didn’t open his mouth. As a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and as a sheep that before its shearers is mute, so he didn’t open his mouth.
8He was taken away by oppression and judgment; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living and stricken for the disobedience of my people?
9They made his grave with the wicked, and with a rich man in his death; although he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.
10Yet it pleased Yahweh to bruise him. He has caused him to suffer. When you make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed. He shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of Yahweh shall prosper in his hand.
11After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light and be satisfied. My righteous servant will justify many by the knowledge of himself; and he will bear their iniquities.
12Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the plunder with the strong; because he poured out his soul to death, and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
Hebrews 9:11-28
As you read: Christ entered heaven itself with His own blood, offered once to bear the sins of many.
11But Christ having come as a high priest of the coming good things, through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation,
12nor yet through the blood of goats and calves, but through his own blood, entered in once for all into the Holy Place, having obtained eternal redemption.
13For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled, sanctify to the cleanness of the flesh:
14how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without defect to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
15For this reason he is the mediator of a new covenant, since a death has occurred for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first covenant, that those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.
16For where a last will and testament is, there must of necessity be the death of him who made it.
17For a will is in force where there has been death, for it is never in force while he who made it lives.
18Therefore even the first covenant has not been dedicated without blood.
19For when every commandment had been spoken by Moses to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of the calves and the goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people,
20saying, “This is the blood of the covenant which God has commanded you.”
21Moreover he sprinkled the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry in the same way with the blood.
22According to the law, nearly everything is cleansed with blood, and apart from shedding of blood there is no remission.
23It was necessary therefore that the copies of the things in the heavens should be cleansed with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.
24For Christ hasn’t entered into holy places made with hands, which are representations of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us;
25nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest enters into the holy place year by year with blood not his own,
26or else he must have suffered often since the foundation of the world. But now once at the end of the ages, he has been revealed to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.
27Inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once, and after this, judgment,
28so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, without sin, to those who are eagerly waiting for him for salvation.
2 Corinthians 5:14-21
As you read: The love of Christ compels us: one died for all, and God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself.
14For the love of Christ constrains us; because we judge thus, that one died for all, therefore all died.
15He died for all, that those who live should no longer live to themselves, but to him who for their sakes died and rose again.
16Therefore we know no one after the flesh from now on. Even though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now we know him so no more.
17Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new.
18But all things are of God, who reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ, and gave to us the ministry of reconciliation;
19namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not reckoning to them their trespasses, and having committed to us the word of reconciliation.
20We are therefore ambassadors on behalf of Christ, as though God were entreating by us: we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
21For him who knew no sin he made to be sin on our behalf; so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Jesus defines the circle of His death from the inside: 'I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.' He knows His sheep, He calls them, He gives them eternal life, and 'they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.' The Shepherd's death is not a wish expressed generally; it is the price paid for the sheep, and because it was paid, they are kept. The same chapter adds, 'I have other sheep, which are not of this fold': the flock is not yet complete, but it is known to Him.
“I am the good shepherd.The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.”John 10:11
“even as the Father knows me, and I know the Father. I lay down my life for the sheep.”John 10:15
“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give eternal life to them. They will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.”John 10:27-28
“I have other sheep, which are not of this fold.I must bring them also, and they will hear my voice. They will become one flock with one shepherd.”John 10:16
The angel's announcement at the very beginning is definite, not conditional: 'it is he who shall save his people from their sins.' Hebrews adds what the offering accomplishes: 'Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, without sin, to those who are eagerly waiting for him for salvation.' If He bore their sins, those sins are truly carried away, and Paul can ask the triumphant question: 'Who could bring a charge against God's chosen ones?' and answer with the death itself.
“She shall give birth to a son. You shall call his name Jesus, for it is he who shall save his people from their sins.””Matthew 1:21
“so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, without sin, to those who are eagerly waiting for him for salvation.”Hebrews 9:28
“Who could bring a charge against God’s chosen ones? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, yes rather, who was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.”Romans 8:33-34
The night before He died, Jesus prayed: 'I pray for them. I don't pray for the world, but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours.' The same boundary appears in the prayer as in the death: He gives eternal life 'to all whom you have given him,' and He prays for and keeps the ones He also dies for. The One who died for them is the One who intercedes for them, so His death and His prayers do not point at different people.
“even as you gave him authority over all flesh, he will give eternal life to all whom you have given him.”John 17:2
“I pray for them. I don’t pray for the world, but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours.”John 17:9
“Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, yes rather, who was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.”Romans 8:34
None of this narrows the gospel. The call is preached through the whole world, and 'whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.' John says Jesus 'is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the whole world.' Scripture holds both together: the sacrifice is sufficient for all and freely offered to all, while its saving possession belongs to those who believe. That is why Paul can say 'one died for all, therefore all died... that those who live should no longer live to themselves' as the ground of the mission, not the sign of a ledger of names.
“And he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the whole world.”1 John 2:2
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.”John 3:16
“He said to them, “Go into all the world, and preach the Good News to the whole creation.”Mark 16:15
“For the love of Christ constrains us; because we judge thus, that one died for all, therefore all died. He died for all, that those who live should no longer live to themselves, but to him who for their sakes died and rose again.”2 Corinthians 5:14-15
“namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not reckoning to them their trespasses, and having committed to us the word of reconciliation.”2 Corinthians 5:19
The question 'Did He die for me?' is never answered by guesswork about a hidden list; it is answered by coming. To believers Paul writes that God who 'didn't spare his own Son, but delivered him up for us all' will 'freely give us all things': the cross is the proof of God's love for His own. To everyone who hears, Jesus says, 'He who comes to me I will in no way throw out,' and the Bible's last chapter adds the open invitation: 'He who is thirsty, let him come.' If you come, you are not outside His death, because the One who died for the sheep is the One who welcomes every comer.
“He who didn’t spare his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how would he not also with him freely give us all things?”Romans 8:32
“All those whom the Father gives me will come to me. He who comes to me I will in no way throw out.”John 6:37
“Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will not be hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.”John 6:35
“The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” He who hears, let him say, “Come!” He who is thirsty, let him come. He who desires, let him take the water of life freely.”Revelation 22:17