By Sonny Hernandez
According to Scripture, God gave Adam a commandment (Gen. 2:16-17). Yet Adam—the representative of all humanity—disobeyed God's law (Gen. 3:6). God's holy law, reflecting His divine nature, requires perfect obedience, and the penalty for disobedience is death.
Because of Adam's sin—all created beings, without exception, are born into this world—desperately wicked as can be (Rom. 5:12). No created being can meet God's perfect demands or pay the strict penalty for disobedience, explaining why looking to the perfect righteousness of another, Christ alone, is essential.
So, the garden demonstrates Adam's sin and rebellion. But, the gospel declares the Savior's righteousness because He accomplished what Adam could not (Rom. 5:18-19). This gospel is not an offer but a proclamation of Christ's finished and saving work alone (John 19:30).
Christ's righteousness alone refers to His law-keeping and death in the place of His elect. Having never sinned, Jesus satisfied the demands of the law because it reflects His divine nature. As the Savior, He died for the sheep (John 10:11), not the goats (John 10:26), and His blood is sufficient for the elect, not the reprobate.
Christ clothed the elect in His righteousness (Is. 61:10); washed all of their sins away with His blood (Rev. 1:5); redeemed them from the power of Satan, sin, death, and the curse of the law (Eph. 1:7; Gal. 3:13); reconciled them to God (Rom. 5:10); appeased the Father's wrath in their place (1 John 4:10); and resurrected for their justification (Rom. 4:25).
God credited the sins of the elect to the Son and credited Christ's righteousness to the elect (2 Cor. 5:21). This perfect righteousness, excluding works, is the only ground of justification and assurance of salvation.
Bottom line: God does not love everyone. God does not desire the salvation of all men. God did not passively choose the wicked for hell because He foresaw they would reject him. Christ did not die for all men without exception. His blood is not sufficient for all men. And the gospel of Christ is not an offer.
Before the world's creation, God actively and unconditionally predestined the elect for heaven and the non-elect for eternal conscious torment (active and unconditional, double predestination). Therefore, God loves the sheep for whom Christ died (Rom. 5:8) and has an unremitting hatred towards the goats (John 10:26).
Hirelings will not proclaim the gospel truths above. Instead, they will use inclusive language to describe Christ's death. Their so-called "Christ alone" messages make salvation sound like it is conditional on the sinner, not the Savior. They do not teach about God's hatred of the goats—without unbiblical disclaimers ("hate means to love less")—and will never teach biblical election (active and unconditional, double predestination).
But the elect of the Father for whom Christ died will unashamedly proclaim God’s absolute sovereignty and what Christ accomplished (justification, redemption, reconciliation, propitiation) and for whom (the elect) because they are not ashamed of the offense of the cross.
Praise the one true God that the Holy Ghost seals the elect of the Father for whom Christ died. "For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen" (Rom. 11:36).
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