It is the providential will of God to provide salvation to the whole world of guilty sinners who are made sinners as a result of their physical and natural births. There is not one sinner who is more condemned to be separated from God for all eternity than another sinner because of his sin. It was one sin by Adam that introduced sin into the world and death was the result for him and all his offspring. All of his family are born with his fallen image and are like him.
One sinner is not more dead than another sinner. A son of Adam is guilty of sin when he becomes intellectually conscious of good and evil and with knowledge and understanding and will and forethought chooses to do evil when the circumstance of choice presents itself. The first sin he ever commits will condemn him to eternal separation from God unless God makes a way for the sin to be forgotten by God.Certainly the sinner cannot provide a solution for his sin and God being omniscient and omnipresent and seeing all things at all times at the same time must find a way to remove sin from the sinner so he will not see it again if he is motivated to save the sinner. The fact that Adam was condemned to death by one sin should be convincing enough of this truth. That sin for him resulted in immediate separation from the personal fellowship of God's presence in him and his eventual physical death when his soul departed his body, his body going back to the dust from whence it came and his eternal soul being dispensed by God to a place prepared for it. All created things require a place.
If a man is not "in Christ" who has paid the sin debt for all men in a once for all time sacrifice in his own body on a tree where the omnipresent and omniscient God can no longer see his sins because of the righteousness of Christ, God can see that pencil you stole from a classmate when you were in the second grade and you are condemned by God for it because you knew in your heart that it was wrong and you did it anyways.If this sin is not put away somehow then God will never cease seeing it. It will always be between God and you as something that separates you.
So, here is what God did and the effacacy of his action is denied by almost every poster that contributes to this forum, especially by the Reformed believers. God took away sin! I am not guessing about that. It is what God said. If God took away sin it means that he is reconciled to sinners. But God is just. He is the judge of all the earth. He reconciled sinners to himself, not by hocus - pocus, because he cannot violate his own righteous character, but by providing a substitute for sinners that is not guilty of any sin. The sentence against sin must be realized in order for him to do this. Sin has the penalty of death, both spiritual and physical. So God looked down on the earth and found that there was not a man in all the earth that doeth good and sinneth not (remember that God is omnipresent and omniscient and can see all things at one time), so he decided to come himself in the person of a man, even in the weakness of men, to live as he did and never sin and so provide redemption for all men who will receive it.
What is the evidence that God has reconciled himself to ALL sinners and not just a few? The evidence is the result of the ministry of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, whose first coming was like any man who occupied one place at one time and was limited in what he could do for the whole world. Therefore he ministered in the geographical location of Israel only and to the Jews. But God says the reason he came into the world was to save sinners and until his ministry God was angry with sinners every day. But through his sinless life and then his sacrifice on the cross where he died spiritually by being separated from God (my God, my God, why hath thou forsaken me) and then by giving up the soul from the body, he finished paying the penalty of sin, which is death. According to 2 Cor 5:21 Jesus Christ on that cross became the personification of sin and God punished him as if he was in all men.
What was next after Jesus was raised bodily from the dead? His body was raised by the Spirit of God, who had indwelt his mortal body while he ministered on the earth. The Spirit raised and glorified his body and indwelt it along with his soul which returned from paradise where he had been for three days. He then ascended back to heaven where he sits now on the right hand of the Father on his thone awaiting his return to earth.
The reconciliation of the whole world because on his death, burial, and resurrection is witnessed by the fact that, because of the effacacy of this sacrifice, God sent his Spirit from heaven in such abundance that the whole world was "baptized" by the Spirit. By baptism is meant that the whole world is immersed by the spirit. This is reconciliation. So now God is among us in the person of the omnipresent Spirit of God and of Christ. He says in one place in Acts 17 that all may come to him because he is not far from every one of us. God has established the doctrine of baptism in order to symbolize this truth of the work of the Spirit during this time on the earth. He is like rain water that falls from heaven at the will of the Father to give life to all the world and it falls all over the world and in such abundance that all may drink and live.There is no restriction of who may drink but drinking must be accomplished by the individual. No one can drink for another. The life giving water must be in the body in order to give life to the individual. Without it he will die after a time. No individual or group of individuals can capitalize on it and charge for it because of the abundance. It is free for all and without charge.
God sent the Spirit, first to his people Israel because of his promise in the old times to them, and then ten years later he baptized the whole world by the Spirit. All the world is invited to come to God through Jesus Christ and drink of the water of life. Whosoever will drink will live. The way to drink is to believe in Jesus Christ as the only way to God and it completes the reconciliation. The sinner is now reconciled to God when he drinks.
We are warned that just as the Spirit was given at a particular period in time at the beginning of this age, so shall he be taken away at the end of this age when sinners will no longer believe and drink and then sinful men will no longer have an advocate and the world will return as it was before the sacrifice of Christ and the pouring out of the Spirit of God and God will again be angry with sinners every day.until all the sinners are destroyed from the earth, every one of them and God can begin anew for the third time over an earth without sinners in it.
Acts 2:14 But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and said unto them, Ye men of Judaea, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken to my words:
15 For these are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day.
16 But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel;
17 And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams:
18 And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy:
Acts 10:43 To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins.
44 While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word.
45 And they of the circumcision which believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost.
.
Acts 11:1 And the apostles and brethren that were in Judaea heard that the Gentiles had also received the word of God.
2 And when Peter was come up to Jerusalem, they that were of the circumcision contended with him,
3 Saying, Thou wentest in to men uncircumcised, and didst eat with them.
4 But Peter rehearsed the matter from the beginning, and expounded it by order unto them, saying,
Acts 11:12 And the Spirit bade me go with them, nothing doubting. Moreover these six brethren accompanied me, and we entered into the man's house:
13 And he shewed us how he had seen an angel in his house, which stood and said unto him, Send men to Joppa, and call for Simon, whose surname is Peter;
14 Who shall tell thee words, whereby thou and all thy house shall be saved.
15 And as I began to speak, the Holy Ghost fell on them, as on us at the beginning.
16 Then remembered I the word of the Lord, how that he said, John indeed baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost.
17 Forasmuch then as God gave them the like gift as he did unto us, who believed on the Lord Jesus Christ; what was I, that I could withstand God?
18 When they heard these things, they held their peace, and glorified God, saying, Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life.
This is a baptism of the whole world with the Holy Ghost, and God the Father did it. This shows for a fact that God really was reconciled to the world because Jesus Christ by his death put sin away and their individual sins are no longer imputed to sinners while they live in the body but they may drink the water that God has abundantly provided through Jesus Christ.
He 9:27 And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:
The message from God and the churches:
Re 22:17 And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.
Do not allow false teachers to keep you from drinking of the living fountain.
