Vicarious Atonement (5)
For Whom? (1)

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We will in the next few messages set forth the identity of those for whom Jesus Christ died as their substitute, and for whom He wrought vicarious atonement.

I. Many. Observe this word "many" in the following texts. In Isaiah 53:11f Jehovah prophesied, "By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, for He shall bear their iniquities. ... He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors." In Matthew 20:28 Christ confessed of Himself that "the Son of Man ... [came] to give His life a ransom for many." In Matthew 26:28 Christ declared, "My blood of the new covenant ... is shed for many for the remission of sins." In Hebrews 9:28 the writer of this epistle concurs with Jehovah and His Christ in declaring, "Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many."

1. The "many" quantified.

i. This "many" is less than all mankind, because it is taken "out of" all mankind (Revelation 5:9).

ii. But this "many" is more than a few, because it is "a great multitude which no one could number" (Revelation 7:9).

iii. The number of this "many" is unknown to man, but certainly known to God, and symbolically numbered at "one hundred and forty-four thousand" (Revelation 7:4).

2. The "many" identified.

i. The Son of God identified them as the "many" taken out of the world by His Father and given to the Son (John 17:2, 6, 9).

ii. The texts cited above identify the "many" for whom Christ died as all who through His death have been justified (Isaiah 53:11f), ransomed (Matthew 20:28), forgiven (Matthew 26:28) – "once for all" (Hebrews 9:28; cp. 7:27; 9:12; 10:10).

iii. The "many" for whom atonement was in eternity decreed will be in time manifested as the "as many as received Him, ... those who believe in His name" (John 1:12).

II. Jehovah's people – as in the declaration of Jehovah in Isaiah 53:8: "for the transgressions of My people He was stricken."

1. Jehovah's people are identified in the context of the present text as all who truthfully confess: "Surely He has borne our griefs" (v.4a); "He has ... carried our sorrows" (v.4b); "He was wounded for our transgressions" (v.5a); "And by His stripes we are healed" (v.4a). These will have the proper reply to question "Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?" (v.1).

2. Jehovah's people are also identified in Ephesians 1:3-14, in the context of "In Him [Christ] we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins [and therefore atonement], according to the riches of His grace" (v.7). The beneficiaries of this atonement are in the context identified as follows:

i. All whom the Father in Christ before the foundation of the world chose, predestined, and accepted (vv.3-6): "the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ ... has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He has made us accepted in the Beloved."

ii. All who in time believe and trust in the truth of God's eternal purpose in Christ (vv.8-14): "... In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory."

III. Christ's people – as in the declaration of Jehovah's angel in Matthew 1:21: "Jesus ... will save His people from their sins."

1. Jehovah's people are Christ's people by virtue of Christ's deity, for Christ is Jehovah (John 1:1).

2. Jehovah's people were acknowledged as Christ's people in His humanity, in His High Priestly prayer to His Father (John ch.17).

i. Christ to His Father referred to "the men whom You have given Me out of the world" seven times (vv.2, 6a, 6b, 9, 11, 12, 24) – the number of completion.

ii. Christ identified many blessings to His people resulting from His atonement for them:

1) Christ gives eternal life to His people (v.2): "You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him."

2) Christ's people will experientially know the Father and His Son (v.3): "And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent."

3) Christ manifests the Father to His people (v.6a): "I have manifested Your name to the men whom You have given Me out of the world."

4) Christ's people obey the Father (v.6b): "They were Yours, You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word."

5) Christ's people believe the truth regarding Christ (vv.7f): "Now they have known that all things which You have given Me are from You. For I have given to them the words which You have given Me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came forth from You; and they have believed that You sent Me."

6) Christ prays for His people, not for those who are not His people (v.9): "I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours."

7) Christ is glorified in His people (v.10): "And all Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine, and I am glorified in them."

8) Christ's people are kept in unity (v.11): "Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are."

9) Christ will keep secure all His people (v.12): "While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Your name. Those whom You gave Me I have kept; and none of them is lost."

10) Christ's people experience His joy (v.13): "they may have My joy fulfilled in themselves."

11) Christ reveals His Father's word to His people (v.14a): "I have given them Your word."

12) Christ's people are hated by the world that hates Him (v.14b): "the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world."

13) Christ's people are kept safe from Satan while in this world (v.15): "I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one."

14) Christ's people are as distinct from the world as He is (v.16): "They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world."

15) Christ's people are sanctified by His truth while in this world (vv.17-19): "Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth."

16) Christ's people believe in Christ through hearing His gospel (v.20): "I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word."

17) Christ's people will live in perfect, eternal, and indissoluble union with God and His Christ (vv.21-23): Christ prays "that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, ... that they may be one just as We are one: I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one."

18) Christ's people are glorified with Him (v.22): And the glory which You gave Me I have given them."

19) Christ's people are loved by the Father as He loves Christ (vv.23, 26): "You have ... loved them as You have loved Me. ... And I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them."

20) Christ's people will throughout eternity behold His eternal glory (v.24): "Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world."

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