The Why of the What

[Anthony Pritchard]

The Why Of The What

The Long Road Of Understanding​

There are many believers who can tell you what they believe. Fewer can tell you why. The what is simple to recite. The why is costly. It is shaped by years of reading, wrestling, praying, and returning again and again to the Scriptures until the words settle into the bones. This is the difference between a position and a conviction. A position can be borrowed. A conviction must be lived.

When I speak about the atonement, the love of God, the scope of Christ’s death, or the nature of salvation, I am not repeating a system that someone handed to me. I am speaking from years of walking through the text itself. The why of the what is written in the margins of my Bible, in the questions I have carried, and in the passages that refused to bend to any system that tried to contain them.

One of those passages is Hebrews 2:9. It says, “But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour, that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.” The words are simple. They are not technical. They are not coded. They do not require a theological key to unlock them. Christ tasted death for every man. That is the what. The why is found in the character of God and the witness of Scripture.

Another passage that shaped me is 1 John 2:2. It says, “And he is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.” John does not shrink the scope. He expands it. He does not say Christ is the propitiation for the elect scattered throughout the world. He says the whole world. That is the what. The why is found in the heart of God who sent His Son.

John 3:16 speaks the same truth in the same plain way. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” The world is the world. Whosoever is whosoever. The what is clear. The why is love.

Paul speaks with the same voice in 1 Timothy 2:6. He says Christ “gave himself a ransom for all.” The ransom is for all. The invitation is for all. The call is for all. The what is universal. The why is the desire of God that all should be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. "Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth." 1Timothy 2:4

These verses did not shape me because they fit a system. They shaped me because they refused to be narrowed by one. They stood in the way of any attempt to shrink the love of God to a smaller circle. They stood in the way of any attempt to redefine simple words like all, world, and every man. They stood in the way of any attempt to make the gospel less than what God declared it to be.

The why of the what is this. God is good. God is generous. God is not willing that any should perish 2 Peter 3:9. God has no pleasure in the death of the wicked Ezekiel 33:11. God sent His Son for the world John 3:16. God tasted death for every man Hebrews 2:9 . God calls all to repentance Acts 17:30. God commands all men everywhere to believe 1 John 3:23. God opens the door wide and says, “Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.” Revelation 22:17

I believe what I believe because the Scriptures speak this way. I believe what I believe because the words of God are plain. I believe what I believe because the gospel is as wide as the heart of God. I believe what I believe because the text itself has shaped me more than any system ever could.

This is the why of the what. It is not borrowed. It is not inherited. It is not secondhand. It is the fruit of years spent listening to the voice of Scripture until it became the voice that guided me.

Colophon

This article was written as the fruit of many years spent searching the Scriptures, testing every doctrine by the plain words of God, and refusing to let any system speak louder than the text itself. It reflects a conviction shaped not by borrowed categories, but by the long work of reading, questioning, and listening until the voice of Scripture became the guide. It is offered to those who care about truth, language, and the weight of words, and who believe that the gospel is as wide as the heart of God.

Veritas liberabit vos - The truth shall make you free.

~Tony

© A.K. Pritchard 1979 -

Free to use with proper attribution.