{"id":3096,"date":"2018-04-23T16:22:53","date_gmt":"2018-04-23T16:22:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/?p=3096"},"modified":"2022-02-17T20:56:48","modified_gmt":"2022-02-17T20:56:48","slug":"did-jesus-die-in-vain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/?p=3096","title":{"rendered":"Did Jesus Die in Vain?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Views: 0<\/p><p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif;\">[<strong>Note: <\/strong>This MS is available in larger font on our <strong>Brief Articles 1<\/strong> page.]<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif;\">The entire Christian system centers around the death of Jesus on the cross. He \u201cdied for the ungodly\u201d (Rom. 5:6, 8). He \u201claid down his life for us\u201d (1 John 3:16). In spite of numerous like statements of Scripture, certain things, if true, would mean that Christ died in vain.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif;\"><strong>If one can be saved by Law of Moses: <\/strong>Paul argued: \u201cIf righteousness is through the law, then Christ died for nought\u201d (Gal. 2: 21b). The Galatians had fallen victim to Jewish Christians who sought to bind at least parts of the law (i.e., circumcision, 5:2\u20134) upon the church. If Moses\u2019 law could have saved, the Word need never have become flesh (John 1:14), for men had had that law for 1,500 years by the time of Jesus\u2019 birth. The law was only a \u201ctutor\u201d that pointed to the Christ (Gal. 3:24. Its sacrifices were merely typical of the \u201cLamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world\u201d (John 1:29). Jesus slew the authority of Moses\u2019 law on Calvary (Col. 2:14). All who justify their religious practices by it (e.g., sabbath keeping, a priesthood, instrumental music in worship, et al.) render the death of Jesus worthless.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif;\"><strong>If Jesus approves of religious division: <\/strong>Though such diversity is applauded by the masses, the Bible condemns it. Jesus built only one church (Mat. 16:18), and He prayed that His followers be one, as He and the Father are one (which includes doctrinal unity) (John 17:20\u201323). He died to establish this one body (Eph. 2:16; 5:25). If Jesus is as pleased with the monstrosity of denominationalism as with the one church He established, then He died for nought in that regard.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif;\"><strong>If the church is non-essential: <\/strong>Jesus \u201cbought\u201d His church with His blood (Acts 20:28). <em>Jesus yes, the church no <\/em>is a common, albeit grossly mistaken, concept. If one is speaking of man-made counterfeits of Jesus\u2019 church, it is true; He died for none of them. However, to include His church in this concept implies that Christ paid the price for it in vain. His church consists of those who have been saved through His death upon their obedience to Him (Rom. 5:10; cf. Acts 2:37\u201338, 41, 47).<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif;\"><strong>If I am lost:<\/strong> Jesus\u2019 death will have been wasted, as far as I am concerned, if I am lost. This will not be the case for others, of course. He \u201cgave himself a ransom for all\u201d (1 Tim. 2:6), so all have the opportunity to be saved, but if I am lost, He may as well have spared Himself the misery of the cross. His death will have been wasted on me.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif;\">It behooves each of us to obey His plan of salvation (Acts 2: 37\u201338), whereupon He will add us to His church (v. 47). We thereby accept the salvation He offers. Only obeying Him and faithfully serving Him may we personally attribute fitting value to His death.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif;\">[<span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\"><strong>Note:<\/strong> I wrote this article for and it appeared in the <em>Denton Record-Chronicle, <\/em>Denton, TX, July 25, 2014.]<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif;\"><strong>Attribution: <\/strong>From <em>TheScripturecache.com<\/em>, owned and administered by Dub McClish.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Views: 0[Note: This MS is available in larger font on our Brief Articles 1 page.] The entire Christian system centers around the death of Jesus on the cross. He \u201cdied for the ungodly\u201d (Rom. 5:6, 8). He \u201claid down his life for us\u201d (1 John&#8230;<\/p>\n<div class=\"easywp-readmore\"><a class=\"read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/?p=3096\">Continue Reading&#8230;<span class=\"easywp-sr-only\">  Did Jesus Die in Vain?<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73,134,84,107,129,124,75,141,83,40,175,72,125],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3096","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blood-of-christ","category-cross-of","category-the","category-creeds-of-men","category-denominationalism","category-division","category-instrumental-music-in-worship","category-kingdom","category-law-of-moses","category-plan-of","category-sabbath-observance","category-salvation","category-unity","wpcat-73-id","wpcat-134-id","wpcat-84-id","wpcat-107-id","wpcat-129-id","wpcat-124-id","wpcat-75-id","wpcat-141-id","wpcat-83-id","wpcat-40-id","wpcat-175-id","wpcat-72-id","wpcat-125-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3096","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3096"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3096\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18921,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3096\/revisions\/18921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}