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What Did Christ Accomplish on His Cross?

The difference between the words a 'GIFT' and an 'OFFER' expose the difference the true Gospel and a false teaching; and can help you identify a teacher of sound doctrine.
 
The following article by Robert J. Wieland takes the reader along on his search for the meaning of what was accomplished on the Cross of Christ. 

Sabbath School Today | with the 1888 Message Dynamic

From the creation week, only the Sabbath remains untouched by sin, and its observance is to keep in mind the creative power of God. But creative power is the power of the Gospel, so that which celebrates creation also celebrates redemption. ... The power that saves men is but the power that created the heavens and the earth. He imparts His grace by the same mysterious and mighty power by which He created the earth.

He is the Creator and Redeemer

We have redemption through His blood; the preaching of the cross is the preaching of the power of God; and the power of God is the power that creates; therefore the cross of Christ has in it creative power.

Getting Rid of Self

It is quite generally recognized that “self” is the great thing that stands in the way of Christian progress, and that it must be denied and put away.

Sabbath School Today | with the 1888 Message Dynamic

It was the revelation of the cross to Saul that opened up to him the whole reason for Israel’s history of ups and downs in revival and reformation. The only true religion is the religion that derives from the self-denying love of God revealed at the cross. It alone produces new covenant faith.

Sabbath School Today | with the 1888 Message Dynamic

What is the solution to suffering, persecution, and affliction? The popularized Protestant version of righteous by faith is “the power of positive thinking.” However, the Lord Jesus has given us better good news than some psychological “trick” of looking within in order to overcome adversity. He has given us “much more abounding grace.”  Paul E. Penno

Sabbath School Today | with the 1888 Message Dynamic

"The vessel must be emptied of self—this is done by Christ, the only One that has ever held His will, the will of our flesh, in perfect subjection to the will of the Father."  Daniel H. Peters

Clear Definitions of Agape and Faith

 

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

Someone wrote asking for "a clear definition of faith and of 'agape' also." This was my answer:

(1) Agape is a different kind of love than any we know by nature. It never comes through the DNA; we're never born with it. One exception: Jesus, for "God is agape (1 John 4:8, and He was God in human flesh).
 
(2) It must be installed in the human heart like a radio is installed in a car (see Rom. 5:5).
 
(3) It's a love that is eternal, not fragile like our loves (1 Cor. 13:8).
 
(4) It's the love that would prefer to go to hell and be lost forever rather than let us perish (Heb. 2:9; that "death" He "tasted" is the second one; Rev. 2:11).
 
(5) The death that Christ died was the death under the "curse of God" (Gal. 3:13; compare Deut. 21:22, 23; that's why the Sanhedrin wanted Pilate to crucify Him, not merely stab Him with a sword or cut His head off).
 
(6) Therefore hell is the measure of agape; that's how far it went to save us.
 
(7) Popular "Christianity" cannot grasp this for they believe in natural immortality.
 
(8) Therefore God gives us a special mission: to proclaim what happened on the cross.
 
(9) When an honest heart "comprehends" this (see Eph. 3:14-21), one is moved by it, he appreciates what it cost the Son of God to save us. That heart-appreciation is the New Testament definition of faith (see Gal. 5:6; Luke 7:50). The stony heart is melted. (Read the hymn, "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross.")
 
(10) The agape of Christ motivates the believer to live "henceforth" not for self, but unto the One who died thus for us (2 Cor. 5:14, 15). No end to sacrifices gladly borne! It's the only remedy for self-love.
 
(11) That means a totally new motivation that replaces the popular fear or hope-of-reward motivation.
 
(12) Which means living now under the new covenant.
 
(13) This is the essence of "the everlasting gospel" of Rev. 14:6-12 and 18:1-4. Human hearts "receive the atonement," that is, total reconciliation with God (Rom. 5:11).
 
(14) And you can't be "reconciled to God" and not at the same time be reconciled to His holy law.
 
(15) So, at last one lives a life of true obedience to all of His commandments (Rev. 14:12).
Does this make sense?
Robert J. Wieland
 
 

Sabbath School Today

 With the 1888 Message Dynamic

Lesson 7: “Victory over Sin”

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"God was in Christ reconciling us to Himself, and in the cross it is that He gives us His life. Failure to realize this is the reason we have failed many times in the ‘crosses’ we have borne. We bore crosses separated from Christ, and therefore the power in the cross was only the power in our own lives. It was nothing."

Sabbath School Today

   With the 1888 Message Dynamic 

  

"The healing and health of the church can only come about by the restorative power of the cross. The integrity of the church lies in the pathway of Christ's gift of corporate repentance."  -- Paul E. Penno