Nature and Scope of the Atonement part 2

Heb 7:25 Therefore He is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.
Heb 7:26 For it was fitting for us to have such a high priest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens;
Heb 7:27 who does not need daily, like those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the sins of the people, because this He did once for all when He offered up Himself.
Heb 7:28 For the Law appoints men as high priests who are weak, but the word of the oath, which came after the Law, appoints a Son, made perfect forever.

and again

Heb 10:14 For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.

Tonight was the night when Jesus went to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray. It was the night He was betrayed. It was the night when He was arrested. But none of that is the atoning work itself.

The Bible says He bore our sins in His body on the tree. It was there He propitiated the sins of His people. It was there where He who knew no sin became sin in our behalf. It was there that the Blessed man has his sin imputed to Christ. It was there where Christ said, "The debt is paid."

Jesus died once for all. What confuses many people is the word "all". It has been shown over and over again that the word "all" does not always mean every person ever. In fact, most of the time it doesn’t.

But this shouldn’t be the key to understanding the text. What is overlooked is the High Priestly office that Jesus has. In John Owen’s work, The Death of Death In the Death of Christ, Owen argues that Jesus is a Perfect Savior because He is a perfect mediator and intercessor.

Think through the argument of the writer of Hebrews. Since Jesus is a perfect priest, since He offers Himself as a perfect sacrifice, since the Father always hears His prayers, Jesus is able to perfect those who draw near to God.

This is not some hypothetical atonement, as Geisler would call it. This is a real vicarious substitutionary work. The reformed position is the only consistent position on this doctrine. I would go so far as to say the substitutionary atonement is a reformed doctrine.

Everyone says that Jesus died for you or us or me. The question has always been, “What does dying for us mean?” Sadly, for many evangelicals, it simply means that if we just do our best, Jesus takes care of the rest. Listen to the White Horse Inn’s questioning booksellers at a Christian booksellers convention.

I am thankful that I serve a risen Savior who has died in my place and has perfected forever all those who draw near to Him. I leave you with the promise of John 6:

Joh 6:37 "All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out.
Joh 6:38 "For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.
Joh 6:39 "This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day.
Joh 6:40 "For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day."