Tom Whedbee

God’s simplicity is seen in salvation. God is not fragmented. God has no needs. God’s salvation offered to man only requires a change in the man, and not a change in God. A cooperating man needs to be transformed into a new creation indwelled by Jesus Christ. Being transformed into a new creation is what justifies God in giving eternal life. Regeneration is not a transaction on God’s part, Regeneration  is a transformation within the cooperating believer in Jesus Christ. All accountable men are convicted by the Holy Spirit of sin, the need for right standing with God, and the fact of judgment to come. Free-will requires cooperation with Holy Spirit conviction. No one comes to Christ without cooperation with the Holy Spirit. 

The substitutionary work of Jesus at the cross was not a transaction. Jesus paying a ransom was not Jesus paying a debt. Jesus paying a ransom was Jesus paying the price to rescue humanity from sin. The work of the cross was to defeat sin, Satan, and ultimately death through His resurrection. Jesus did one act of righteousness at the cross and this one act defeated sin and Satan. Jesus died sinless. To die sinless, Jesus had to live sinless. But His final physical breath in sinlessness is what paid the ransom. Jesus shed His blood. Jesus died a physical death only. God was in Christ on the cross not counting our sins against us. God freely gave provisional forgiveness to all humanity. God holds no one  back from cooperating with Holy Spirit conviction and coming to salvation in Christ. God always freely forgives. No changes in God or “needs in God” are necessary for Him to forgive. All changes must focus on the cooperating sinner. Forgiveness is all about our rescue from sin.

Since God always freely forgives, the cross was not a payment to God to make Him able to forgive. So Jesus was not being punished by God in our place. Punishment by God would indicate that God needed something to satisfy Himself. Nor does God need anything personally to satisfy His Justice. God is justified in giving the believer eternal life because God ultimately makes the new creation totally sinless and totally righteous to the glory of God. The change is in the believer, not in God. The cross was not Jesus paying the penalty for our sin. Believers continue paying the penalty for sin in this life and even in the life to come. Believers can lose their reward because of sin.

At the cross, Jesus allowed sin to kill His sinless physical body. Jesus arose with all power and authority to take away sin. Sin is defeated and will ultimately be removed from all heaven and earth.

When salvation is viewed from the false transactional narrative, even if transformational regeneration happens with this false view in mind, the believer may be misled and stunted in his spiritual maturity. Believers are saved by the resurrected life of Jesus entering the new creation. We are saved by His life. The cross of Jesus makes salvation possible because Jesus defeated sin and rose from the dead to give us life. The indwelling life of Christ in the believer makes salvation a reality. 

The substitutionary work of Christ was His becoming human, the Second Adam, and reversing what Adam brought upon humanity by His one sin. Jesus’ one act of righteousness defeated sin. Therefore, Jesus is humanity’s God-given substitute for Adam. Lost men are solely in Adam. Saved men are not solely in Adam, but also “in Christ”. God has made a way for believers to have eternal life “in Christ”.

Being “in Christ” and Christ being in the believer is transformational. We are transformed (regenerated), we are being transformed by the renewing of our mind, and we will be transformed into a glorious new body made in heaven.      2 Corinthians 5:1-10

Romans 5:10,18; 8:1-3             2 Corinthians 5:19  

JESUS IS OUR RANSOM   tomwhedbee.com  January 26, 2025 for further study

Jesus did not pay our ransom to God, nor to Satan. The ransom was not a transaction among persons. 

When people declare that they have made themselves “right with God” and have  prayed to the god of the transactional narrative, they likely were not regenerated.

Humble prayer of conviction over personal sin to a merciful and gracious God who is willing and able to transform into a new creation and rescue from sin through Jesus Christ results in salvation.