1)Since Jesus completely suffered the full penalty for the sins of everyone, why didn't He experience eternal torment? He is not still suffering, is He?
This is a false notion about how Jesus saves from sin. It is not that Jesus had to take the exact punishment for sin. Under the Law, some sins require death by stoning and other sins require death by fire. Did Jesus die by stoning? No! Did Jesus die by fire? No! Jesus' death was not a vicarius
execution but a vicarius
sacrifice. There's a big difference between the two, which Protestantism, especially Calvinism misses. Calvinists try to say that Jesus was punished in their place, so they can never be punished and explain it like "If the state executes one person for a crime they can't then execute another for the same crime." That's the worst analogy ever! Salvation is not "boom! Jesus took my execution for me so I can never be lost no matter what I do!" Rather, salvation is cleansing by the blood of Christ. AND continual cleansing is necessary (there is no Once Saved Always Saved) as seen in 1 John 1:7 "But
if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and
the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin." Hebrews 10:26 explains what John said again (only from the negative perspective) "For
if we persist in wilfull sin after that we have received the knowledge of the truth,
there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins," -- As long as a Christian repents and confess his sins and tries to live up to God's word, the blood of Christ continually cleanses him, but if he says "I am going to sin even though I know I shouldn't" and thus persists in willfull sin, Jesus' blood stops cleansing him, and since there is no other sacrifice for sin, he goes to hell.
2)Since Adam had the power to mess everything up for everyone else and get us kicked out of the Garden of Eden, then doesn't Jesus have the power to fix everything up for everyone else? Who has more power - Adam or Jesus?
Adam brought physical death to all men, and Jesus brought the resurrection to all men, "for since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead." (1 Cor 15:21) So, Jesus fixed everything that Adam messed up. Even so, we have the power to bring spiritual death upon ourselves: Ezekiel 18:20 "
The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him." -- All men, after death, are raised back to life. But then, some of those who are raised go to hell and others to heaven. Those who go to hell do not go because Adam sinned but because they sinned - the son does not bear the iniquity of the father, but the soul that sinneth dies! Of course, all souls sin; therefore, all souls would die [go to hell], if it weren't for Christ! Because of Christ's sacrifice, however, sin can be cleansed and removed, thus the soul that sinned is viewed as if it didn't, because the very sin it committed is washed away by His blood. This, of course, is only true of those that accept Christ on Christ's terms. Peter stated Christ's terms quite well in Acts 2:38 "Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost." And, Paul explained baptism quite well when he said (in Colossians 2:11) In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, {12}
buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. {13}
And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, - Those who were dead in sin were made alive where??? In baptism!
[ June 08, 2003, 04:15 PM: Message edited by: SolaScriptura in 2003 ]