Easter: Atonement - Consequent Absolute Necessity

Easter is almost here. Think about Easter; go ahead and think about the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Why did Christ die? Was it necessary for him to die in order to redeem sinners, or could God have redeemed men by an alternative method? Some Christians have said, ‘Yes, God could have saved men by alternative methods.’ Other Christians, however, have argued for the necessity of the atonement. John Murray, for example, argued for the ‘consequent absolute necessity’ of the Atonement: ‘The only righteousness conceivable that will meet the requirements of our situation as sinners and meet the requirements of a full and irrevocable justification is the righteousness of Christ. This implies his obedience and therefore his incarnation, death, and resurrection. In a word, the necessity of the atonement is inherent in and essential to justification. A salvation from sin divorced from justification is an impossibility and justification of sinners without the God-righteousness of the Redeemer is unthinkable. We can hardly escape the relevance of Paul’s word: “For if a law had been given which could make alive, verily righteousness would have been by the law” (Gal. 3:21). What Paul is insisting upon is that if justification could have been secured by any other method than faith in Christ, by that method it would have been’ (Redemption - Accomplished and Applied, pp. 16-17).

Easter is almost here. Think about Easter; go ahead and think about the necessity of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

It was necessary. It occurred. Sinners, therefore, were redeemed.

P & Q

The old adage “mind your own P’s and Q’s” originated in European pubs. Occasionally when the congregants of those joyful establishments gathered they became unruly, and in such cases, the bartender would then tell the patrons to “mind their own pints and quarts.”

Now, there is a little lesson to be learned from the words of the wise bartender, who was acting as a cleric of sorts, and that lesson is this: though man and all of creation surrounding and within which man inhabits was created by God, it is oftentimes the case that man becomes unruly, for he is a fallen man.

Unfortunately the type of unruliness that plagues man most often is in regard to his treatment of leisure. It is not sinful for a man to enjoy a strong and aged drink, just as it is not sinful for mankind to enjoy the entertainment provided by that sport originally called “football.” The drink and the competitive spirits are both commendable. In and of themselves they are good, but a virtue is always mirrored by a vice, and this situation is without exception. We live well when we honor God through the participation and enjoyment of His blessings of leisure, a category in which strong drink and sport consist. The vice of such enjoyments occurs when we become unruly, and in so doing, we fail to mind our own P’s and Q’s.

Oftentimes we have witnessed a man at our favorite pub that provokes others into an intoxicated brawl. Likewise, when athletes become unruly, they perform deeds by which they display unsportsmanlike conduct. In both scenarios men have failed to mind their own P’s and Q’s. Mankind can either thank God for strong drink by not drinking too much, or he can drink too much and rob God of thanks and honor. An athlete can either thank God for sport and competition, or he can conduct himself in an unsportsmanlike fashion, much to the dismay of robbing the Sovereign Lord of praise and honor. If we have failed to mind the P’s and Q’s of leisure, then we have failed to honor God appropriately and reverently.

The advent season is a time in which Christians celebrate the human birth of the Son of God, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who was a gift to creation from the Master of the Universe (John 3:16). We ought to celebrate well during this season, but in order to do so we must ensure that we mind our own P’s and Q’s. We will accomplish this by not allowing the other gifts of God, especially the gift of entertainment and leisure, to replace the greatest gift of God, the gift of Jesus Christ!