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Our topic is: "Did Jesus Die for Every Single Human Being?" Here's Rick and Jonathan.
[Rick] (0:21 - 0:29) Welcome, everyone. I'm Rick. I'm joined by Jonathan, my co-host for over twenty-five years.
Jonathan, what's our theme scripture for this episode?
[Jonathan] (0:29 - 0:38) Romans 6:23: "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."
[Rick] (0:38 - 1:49) As Christians, we deeply appreciate the price that Jesus paid for us to be released from the grip of Adamic sin. To say that this has given us a new opportunity for life is a dramatic understatement, and all we can really do is be profoundly thankful as we diligently follow in his footsteps. One question that many Christians find uncomfortable to face is the question of "everybody else."
According to the Bible, what really happens to them? What effect did Jesus' life, death and resurrection have on those who are atheist or Muslim or Hindu? If we say that they are essentially doomed, the question of true justice needs to be addressed.
How fair would it be to condemn people to eternal death, who in many cases never ever really knew the name of Jesus? Precisely what effect does Jesus' sacrifice have on these people? So again, the big question; did Jesus die for EVERY single human being?
Let's lay the scriptural groundwork. First of all, the Bible is clear that all of humanity was doomed to death through Adam. Let's look at Genesis 2:15-17:
[Jonathan] (1:49 - 2:25) "Then the LORD God took the man and put him into the Garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it. The LORD God commanded the man, saying, From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die." I also like the Young’s Literal Translation which reads: "...for in the day of thine eating of it— dying thou dost die." This really describes the dying process.
[Rick] (2:26 - 2:52) That's a key point. "Dying, thou dost die." It's a process.
It's not just, oh, you drop dead. There's a process that's introduced. We're going to watch that unfold. We know that Adam chose to sin after Eve was deceived by Satan.
The consequence of this direct disobedience by Adam was that dying process. This consequence was clear and just.
[Jonathan] (2:52 - 3:29) God describes the death sentence for Adam in Genesis 3:17-19: "Then to Adam He said, Because you...have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, You shall not eat from it; cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you;
and you will eat the plants of the field; By the sweat of your face you will eat bread, till you return to the ground, because from it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return."
[Rick] (3:29 - 4:43) You see that dying process. You're removed, and you go through all of these things, and you were taken from the dust of the ground. That's what creation said, and you're going to return to that which you were taken from.
This death penalty entailed removing Adam from his freely given, life-sustaining environment. God had set up the Garden and essentially created him and put him in that garden and said, here, this is yours. This is your place where you develop eternal life.
God proclaimed that he would be returned-- Adam would be returned--to the elements of the earth. Adam and Eve would die.
They would be no more. You look at this, Jonathan, and it all looks pretty sad and hopeless. Or does it?
Or does it? When God pronounced the judgment upon Satan--because remember, He brought Adam and Eve and Satan before Him, and there was a judgment upon each; you just talked about Adam's judgment--
when He pronounced the judgment upon Satan, He did it in a prophetic way, which actually brought great hope to a terminal situation. Listen carefully to what is said in this judgment upon Satan. Let's look at Genesis 3:15:
[Jonathan] (4:43 - 4:59) "And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel." You're right, Rick.
There's a little glimmer of hope here! The seed of the woman will take Satan out.
[Rick] (5:00 - 5:56) You have this sense that there's something more that's going to happen. So Satan's deception and then Adam's sin were not the end of everything. They were a step in a process.
That's what God is very quietly essentially showing us here. Satan here is represented as a serpent, and that serpent would suffer this fatal wound from the seed of the woman; the crushing of his head. Snake can't survive that.
You got this sense of there's a clear picture that something is going to change. What do we have? We have this pronouncement, but we have the death sentence.
The death sentence and the hope of deliverance are there. They're plain. They're simple.
They're unequivocal. You can't get around them. When we jump over to the New Testament, we can see that they're really clearly summed up in Romans.
Romans is a tremendous, tremendous book when it comes to helping us understand all these things. Let's look at Romans 6:23:
[Jonathan] (5:56 - 6:15) "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." Let me repeat that: "...the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."
Now that's a free gift that everyone will sign up for!
[Rick] (6:15 - 6:35) Yeah. I mean, who wouldn't want a gift of eternal life? And the wages of sin is death. Okay.
That means we're all earning those wages, but there's a free gift that's attached to this, all right? So wait, wait, how does this work?
How does this all happen? There're actually two big questions we want to focus on here.
[Jonathan] (6:36 - 6:40) First question: Who was saved from death and Adam by Jesus? And how do we know?
[Rick] (6:41 - 7:02) All right. WHO is saved? Who is saved? And how do we know? The Bible dramatically answers this question in several places and in several ways. We're just going to sum up a few of them here in this particular episode.
Let's begin with 1 Corinthians 15:20-22:
[Jonathan] (7:03 - 7:28) "But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep. For since by a man came death (that would be Adam), by a man also came the resurrection of the dead (that would be Jesus).
For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive." Rick, that sounds like everybody. How do we know that ALL are included and not just those who follow Jesus?
[Rick] (7:29 - 8:20) Now that is a core, core question. How do we know it's everybody? Because much of Christianity proclaims that no, everybody else is not included in this.
It's only those who end up following Jesus here and now. How do we know it's bigger than that? The way to figure out how to know is to...wait for it...go back to the Scriptures!
Go back to the Scriptures and see how they unfold. Let's go back to Genesis now, a little bit further on in Genesis. In Genesis, the gospel foundation was made plain through the faithful life of Abraham.
Everybody knows the account of Abraham, which was exemplified by his willingness to sacrifice his son Isaac. Here's what the angel of God relayed to Abraham; now the angel is speaking as God's mouthpiece here.
Genesis 22:17-18:
[Jonathan] (8:21 - 9:04) "Indeed I will greatly bless you, and I will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your seed shall possess the gate of their enemies. In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice." Rick, in hindsight we know this is a picture of God willingly offering His son Jesus for the recovery of humanity from sin.
Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. While God mercifully stopped Abraham from actually sacrificing his son Isaac, Abraham's loyalty was ultimately proven to receive the promise.
[Rick] (9:05 - 9:46) Yeah, that's an important factor in this. It is a picture. God set this up. God had no intention of Abraham killing his son.
He set up the faithfulness to show a picture of something that was so much larger we can barely comprehend it. God PROMISES that through Abraham, ALL of humanity will be blessed. ALL of humanity will be blessed.
Let's hang on to that. We've got that Genesis promise given to Abraham, the very, very, very well-known Abrahamic promise, and now let's jump to the New Testament. A dramatic hint of the fulfillment of this promise was given at the birth of Jesus,
scriptures that we all know. Luke 2:9-11:
[Jonathan] (9:47 - 10:13) "And an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them; and they were terribly frightened. But the angel said to them, Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; for today in the city of David there has been born for you a savior, who is Christ the Lord."
A savior of who?
[Rick] (10:13 - 10:16) Well, a savior of those who would follow Jesus.
[Jonathan] (10:16 - 10:18) That's not what it says.
[Rick] (10:18 - 10:22) Well, a savior of the Jews that would follow Jesus and the Gentiles?
[Jonathan] (10:23 - 10:26) No, keep trying. That's not what I read there, brother.
[Rick] (10:26 - 10:30) No, it's not what you read, because it says a savior for ALL the people.
[Jonathan] (10:31 - 10:31) That's right.
[Rick] (10:31 - 10:33) So, did I get it?
Okay.
[Jonathan] (10:33 - 10:34) You got it.
[Rick] (10:34 - 11:04) It's such a simple Scripture that we quote at Christmas time all the time, and we gloss right over that very powerful, powerful point.
A savior for ALL the people; hang onto that. ALL the families of the earth will be blessed.
Hang on to that. Now, let's go a little further. Jesus is further confirmed as the centerpiece of all this--the subject of this whole blessing process--when we look at Galatians.
Now, remember these two verses as we look at Galatians 3:16:
[Jonathan] (11:05 - 11:17) "Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say, and to seeds, as referring to many, but rather to one, and to your seed, that is, Christ."
[Rick] (11:17 - 12:05) To your seed...
One seed... Christ. When the Apostle Paul is explaining, he's saying the promise given to Abraham is specifically, dynamically talking about Jesus. That's what he's saying.
Now, let's hang on to that, because now we're seeing this "all people" thing start to formulate in the Scriptures in a lot of different ways. Let's go a little further. The broad scope of this redemption work is detailed in many, many different ways scripturally.
First--and Jonathan, this is a point that we need to make very, very clearly-- first, it's the will of God. This is what God proclaimed is going to happen.
How do we know? 1 Timothy 2:3-4:
[Jonathan] (12:05 - 12:27) "For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior; who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth." The words "will have" or "desire" means "to be resolved or determined, to purpose."
The question is, since God desires all to be saved, is He capable of achieving His vision?
[Rick] (12:28 - 13:00) Okay. You're really asking the question, when God says it is My determination all men will be saved, the question is, is God capable of doing what He's determined to do by what He said?
Jonathan, the answer has got to be, this is the Creator of EVERYTHING that is so much bigger than us. Of course He's capable! How could we even for a millisecond doubt His capacity, His foresight, His knowledge, His power, His wisdom, His love, and His justice?
How could we even begin to doubt those things?
[Jonathan] (13:01 - 13:04) Like you said before, it's HIS WILL.
[Rick] (13:04 - 13:22) Yes, it's His will.
If it's His will, what do we need to do? Yes, sir. Thank you.
Let me get out of the way and just watch it unfold. I mean, really, that's what it comes down to. Let's go further into some more scripture that helps us understand this unfolding.
Colossians 1:19-20:
[Jonathan] (13:23 - 13:59) "For it was the Father's good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in him, and through him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of his cross; through him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven." A side note, Rick; do you know that the words "good pleasure" are the same as those found in Matthew 3:17 at Jesus' baptism?
"This is My beloved son in whom I am well pleased." God was pleased from the beginning of Jesus' ministry unto the end of his ministry at the cross.
[Rick] (14:00 - 15:03) No, I never knew that. I honestly never knew that. "It was the Father's good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in him," just as God was well pleased in His son at the beginning of his ministry.
In this verse, that being "well pleased" shows it's God's will--shows it's God's stamp of approval--and it's saying that he is making peace. It's through the blood of the cross that he makes peace. Now think about that.
The fact that Jesus' sacrifice makes peace tells us that God's justice therefore had to be completely satisfied; he could not have made peace. God is above all of our earthly compromises.
When His justice requires something to be fulfilled, it requires something to be fulfilled. Colossians is telling us that the blood of Jesus made peace in the reconciling of all things to Him. His justice is completely, utterly, totally, unequivocally satisfied.
That's a powerful statement of this ransom for ALL.
[Jonathan] (15:03 - 15:17) Let's repeat our first question: Who is saved from death in Adam by Jesus? Well, all these Scriptures show us that EVERYONE is included under the value of Jesus' sacrifice!
[Rick] (15:17 - 15:37) It says it so many different ways: ALL the nations of the earth shall be blessed; savior for ALL people;
it's God's will that ALL will be saved; that ALL will be reconciled to God through Jesus' blood. It says it's all these different ways, and they're all pointed to the exact same response; everyone is included.
[Jonathan] (15:38 - 15:45) On to our second question: When are the redeemed delivered from death in Adam, and again, how do we know?
[Rick] (15:46 - 16:32) When? When does this happen? The answer to this question actually has two parts.
The redeemed are delivered at different times. Faithful followers of Jesus, the footstep followers of Jesus, the true disciples of Jesus are delivered now, and everyone else is delivered later. Okay, you say, okay, wait a minute.
What are you doing? What are you doing? And the answer is, as we will unfold, we're following what the Scriptures teach us.
Understanding this requires us to pay attention to the details of scripture. Here's the first detail; why does saving those who are followers of Jesus come first?
Why? In Galatians--remember we talked about Galatians 3:16--you are Abraham's seed, Jesus is Abraham's seed, and they are according to the promise. In Galatians, we saw Jesus identified as Abraham's seed who blesses all mankind. A few verses later in Galatians, we see that his disciples are also included in that blessing. Galatians 3:29:
[Jonathan] (16:32 - 17:01) "And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's descendants, heirs according to the promise." This reminds me of Hebrews 12:23, which says: "...to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven." The "church of the firstborn" are judged in advance of the world.
[Rick] (17:02 - 17:37) They're firstborn; they're older and taking care of the younger. You've got, you are also heirs of this promise. You inherit the blessing of blessing others.
We as Jesus' disciples are privileged to work with him to bless all the families of the earth. Hold on to that thought and let's expand it, because we're made right by Jesus' sacrifice here and now, footstep followers here and now. What that means is Jesus is by our side, helping us in this process.
1 John 2:1-2:
[Jonathan] (17:37 - 18:09) "My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and he himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world."
First point: An advocate is someone who sits with you on your side and pleads your case before a judge. Second point: Jesus is the propitiation (or satisfaction) for the sins of the whole world.
[Rick] (18:10 - 19:18) Okay, so it's broken into two pieces. There's the advocate, Jesus, working with those who follow him. Then it adds as an addendum to that, yes, that's what's happening in the here and now.
But he's also--like you said--"the propitiation," the satisfaction for the sins of the whole world. Now, when you say of the whole world, that's a pretty broad statement, right? It's everything, everybody.
That's the point. That is the big point. This is a really important understanding, and we want to focus on this advocate piece because it ends up playing a much bigger role a little bit later as we will unfold.
We've got this dual application showing, like you said in that Hebrew Scripture, the "church of the firstborn." They come first in this process. Let's go a little bit further.
Let's look at the second detail; the saving of all men comes later. Okay, it comes later.
Back to 1 Timothy. Remember we read 1 Timothy 2:3-4. Okay, we're going to repeat verse 4, and now we're going to add verses 5 and 6.
Jonathan, there's a bunch of details in these few verses that really make this clear.
[Jonathan] (19:18 - 19:47) "Who will have (in other words, God is determined) all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time." Two observations:
First, all men will be able to understand and have complete knowledge or full discernment.
[Rick] (19:47 - 21:33) You've got that understanding, they'll have full discernment. You understand the impact of having full discernment? When somebody explains something to you...have you ever had this happen where somebody's explaining something to you and it's a little bit over your head and you're going, I've done this, and you're smiling going, yeah, and you have no idea what they're talking about?
JONATHAN: Yeah, that's happened to me. RICK: Okay, all right, me too. See, full discernment is you're smiling going, uh-huh, and you're getting it, and you're understanding it.
This is not just lip service; this is mind comprehension. It says all men will be able to understand the truth. That's important.
The second point is, Jesus as mankind's savior will mediate--because it talked about him mediating in this verse, just like Moses mediated with the Jewish people--to give ALL an absolutely true and real opportunity. With the rest of the world, you have Jesus being shown as a mediator so they can learn to have full discernment. With those who follow Jesus now, he's their advocate because God's spirit is helping them discern.
You see the difference? They're coming from a different place, but they're all receiving the benefit of Christ's sacrifice, whether they're following now or not. Let's go a little further.
I mean, I don't know about you, but I'm starting to get like, I don't want to sit down anymore! This is such an exciting perspective to see the Scriptures unfold. The world in all of its mess and all of its madness, all of its being lost, is waiting for the faithfulness of the followers of Jesus to be completed.
They just don't know it. Here's how we know, Romans 8:19-21:
[Jonathan] (21:34 - 22:09) "For the anxious longing of the creation (mankind) waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God." We certainly live in an anxious time longing for answers and solutions to the fragile society we live in with fear, death, disease, and war. Why don't we continue?
"For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God."
[Rick] (22:09 - 23:07) Now, I want to start with the very end of that verse, "...the freedom of the glory of the children of God." Those are the called-out ones, right? "The freedom of the glory of the children of God."
Those are the ones that Jesus called to follow him first, and it says the creation itself will also be set free from its slavery and corruption. That little word "also" is telling us that every single human being is going to have the same freedom that has been given to those that Jesus advocates for right now. Their turn is coming later, and it's going to provide them a freedom that they never knew, they never understood before.
Let's go to another part of Romans. Let's go to Romans 5. In Romans 5, it tells the whole story, beginning with the necessity for justice first so grace could be applied. It just lays it out piece-by-piece.
It's a beautiful set of verses. We're going to really look at Romans 5:12-19, but we're going to start now with Romans 5:12-14:
[Jonathan] (23:13 - 23:17) "Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned..."
[Rick] (23:18 - 23:27) Okay, pause there. Sin and death are an inevitable inheritance from Adam. That's what Paul is reiterating here. He's just stating what we've already seen in many other Scriptures.
[Jonathan] (23:34 - 23:48) "...for until the Law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam, who was a type of him who was to come." Before the Law and after the Law, sin still reigned.
[Rick] (23:48 - 24:56) Yes, no matter when you lived as a human being, you were under the reign of sin because you inherited that from Adam. Death reigned from the very beginning, even before the Law was given. This is what Paul's describing.
The Law was God's tool for identifying how deeply humanity had fallen to the sin's depths. All were doomed, and that's why He gave the Law. Humanity couldn't live up to it, but it identified, this is where God is, and this is where we are, and there's such a void between us.
We need to be looking upward. It's interesting, Jonathan, the Law required so many sacrifices. Why?
Because it was a picture of what was required to right the scales of justice, and we're going to get into that shortly. Let's continue. What has Paul done so far?
He's just established that sin and death are inevitable to all and are clearly identified by the Law. That was in Romans 5:12-14. Now the solution will be presented that fulfills the need for justice.
You've got a problem, now we have a solution. Romans 5:15-16:
[Jonathan] (24:57 - 25:04) "But the free gift is not like the transgression. For if by the transgression of the one the many died..."
[Rick] (25:04 - 25:14) Okay, now pause. "The many" refers to all of humanity according to the previous context. He hasn't changed his subject. It's the ALL of humanity. Go ahead.
[Jonathan] (25:15 - 25:23) "...much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many."
[Rick] (25:23 - 25:26) It's the same "many." It's ALL of humanity. Okay.
[Jonathan] (25:27 - 25:44) "The gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned; for on the one hand the judgment arose from one transgression resulting in condemnation, but on the other hand, the free gift arose from many transgressions resulting in justification."
[Rick] (25:44 - 27:01) You look at this, you say, okay, one transgression and all sinned and all are stuck, and they're called "the many." Then you say, this free gift arose from many transgressions, resulting in justification. You say, well wait, that doesn't sound fair.
One transgression, but Jesus pays for ALL transgressions? How is that possible? That is just.
The reason it's just is because every human being inherited sin. Therefore, all of their transgressions were inherited from the one sin of Adam. The one sin produced death and all and transgressions and all, and Jesus canceled all of it out.
That's how you see this incredible justice unfolding right before us in Romans 5:15-16. We have the free gift of Jesus as the ransom pictured on one end as a balancing force for the transgression of Adam pictured on the other end. Picture the scales of justice.
When Adam sinned, the scales were way out of whack. Jesus came and he evened them up exactly the way they needed to be in God's mind. What happened to all in Adam would therefore be counteracted by the balance of Jesus as the ransom.
This was God's plan right from the start!
[Jonathan] (27:01 - 27:11) A perfect man, Adam, for a perfect man, Jesus. Justice was satisfied. If Jesus wasn't a perfect man, there would be no justice.
[Rick] (27:12 - 27:53) That is the exact precise point. God's justice is precise and it's complete and it's overreaching. It covers everything.
Paul in Romans 5 is taking us step-by-step through how it actually works and how it actually unfolds. Remember in that Colossians 1:20 scripture we read before, where all things were reconciled to Himself, having made peace through the blood of his sacrifice. This is what the Apostle is talking about here.
Let's go further. Paul next brings out the difference in salvation's application. Remember the true followers of Jesus get it first and the rest come later.
Paul explains that here; Romans 5:17:
[Jonathan] (27:53 - 28:09) "For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one (again, who did death reign over? Everyone! The many!), much more those who receive the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the one, Jesus Christ."
[Rick] (28:09 - 28:31) Those who would "receive the abundance of grace" and "reign in life through the one, Jesus Christ"--those are the called-out ones. He's saying it's all even; it's all made even, it's all made even. These come first, but it's still all made even.
Paul again shows the called-out ones reigning with Jesus and being given authority alongside of him.
[Jonathan] (28:32 - 28:44) This group of called-out ones will be the blessers of the world! It's hard to put your mind around that; that if we are faithful in our Christian walk, we can be a blesser.
[Rick] (28:44 - 29:08) It's an incredible gift. See all the gifts that were being given here? It's just like they get piled one on top of another and it gets better and better and bigger and bigger.
Let's go to the two verses in Romans because it makes it even better. Because it makes it simple, it's clear. Jesus came and fulfilled the Law and gave himself as a fair price for Adam.
A life, like you said, for a life, balancing the scales. Romans 5:18-19:
[Jonathan] (29:09 - 29:38) "So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men. For as through the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the one the many will be made righteous." Everyone benefits from Jesus' sacrifice!
So what part of the word "ALL" do we not understand?
[Rick] (29:38 - 30:01) I know, it's so plain. It's so simple. It's so straightforward.
Folks, for those of you don't know this concept of the ransom--Jonathan, this drives you more than anything I've ever seen anybody driven by. It's just like in your core, of what part of "all" aren't we getting? Please, let's let God's grace be God's grace!
[Jonathan] (30:01 - 30:12) It is perfect justice. God's got this! He's got everyone covered because of His son's dedication and loyalty.
What a perfect plan! I'm in awe of His plan.
[Rick] (30:13 - 30:49) Amen.
Amen. Absolutely. Now let's begin to wrap this up. The following verses we're going to read...we're going to read two verses from Psalm 22.
They're from this Psalm. Psalm 22 is the Psalm that details the suffering of Jesus on the cross. It starts out, "My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?"
It goes through all the horrific details of the cross. Many times we read those verses and say, look at how it details what happened on the cross, but we forget to read the end of the Psalm because these verses at the end represent the victory that follows the cross. Listen to what it says.
Psalm 22:27-28:
[Jonathan] (30:50 - 31:02) "All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the LORD, and all the families of the nations will worship before You. For the kingdom is the LORD's and He rules over the nations."
[Rick] (31:02 - 31:06) I don't know, Jonathan, it said "all" quite a few times in those verses, didn't it?
[Jonathan] (31:06 - 31:07) I love that verse.
[Rick] (31:08 - 31:26) The fact that it comes after the pain and suffering of the cross, that's what it's showing us.
It's showing us the glory of God's plan because of the dedication and focus of Jesus' sacrifice, recognizing the reality of the ransom.
[Jonathan] (31:26 - 31:31) We can sum up the plan of redemption for all of humanity in three statements.
[Rick] (31:32 - 31:37) First, it's simple: Restore the harmony between God and mankind that was lost.
[Jonathan] (31:38 - 31:46) Second, it is just: All those lost because of Adam's sin will be given a full and fair opportunity to live.
[Rick] (31:47 - 31:58) Third, it's eternal: As Adam was designed to live eternally under God's care, so will all of humanity be granted that same privilege and opportunity.
[Jonathan] (31:59 - 32:00) Thank you, Jesus!
[Rick] (32:01 - 32:56) Really, Jonathan, that's what this all comes down to. It is a "thank you, Jesus" moment as we look at how these Scriptures come together and show us this incredible plan that God had determined would happen and how Jesus came and made it happen. And it covers every single human being without exception.
Now, when they're resurrected later, they're going to have to prove themselves to be righteous, to walk in the footsteps of what righteousness requires. That's a subject for another podcast, but here we see the beauty of the ransom.
What a wonderful, wonderful story and opportunity for all of humanity! Think about it. Folks, we love hearing from our listeners.
We welcome your feedback and questions on this episode and other episodes at ChristianQuestions.com. Coming up in our next episode: "Does Our Preaching Really Save Those Who Hear?"
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