“But he is in one mind, and who can turn him? and what his soul desireth, even that he doeth.”
(Job 23:13)

Some think they do God a favor or make Him more palatable to unregenerate men by setting forth the redeeming work of Christ as both universal and particular. They say things like, “His death was sufficient for all but efficient for the elect.” The design of the redemptive work of Christ is defined by scripture and required by our just God as only particular. By that I mean that Christ died for a particular people chosen of God and given to Him. He states this truth the clearest of all, “I lay down my life for the sheep.” There is nothing randomly done by God and His designs in all things are governed only by His desires! Thus, Job tells us, “he is in one mind… and what his soul desires, even that he does.” Can we hear that? What He will have done in all things, especially the redemptive work of Christ, will be just exactly what He desired! He desired to redeem His elect and He redeemed them. He desired to save His people from their sins and He saved them. The issue is not the worth of the blood of Jesus Christ but God’s purpose and grace given to His elect in Christ before the world began. While men speak of sufficiency, Paul speaks only of efficiency, saying that it is the “church of God which he hath purchased with his own blood.” (Acts 20:28) To the Ephesians he says, “Christ loved the church and gave himself for it.” (Eph. 5:25) Christ’s work was a sure work, designed of God to save His covenant people and this is where His glory lies. These definite statements of God’s word are designed to shut sinners up to the reality that it is God’s will and God’s work that save us and nothing of ourselves! Like Jonah of old, we must be brought to an end of ourselves and acknowledge that “salvation is of the LORD.” There is no preaching of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ without a clear and open declaration of the design of His death. He is not glorified by being a “sufficient” saviour for all, His glory lies in His being the “efficient” Saviour of all His elect. When men seek to make God to be something He isn’t or try to make the redemptive work of Christ to be something it isn’t, it reveals that they neither know, believe or love Christ as He is or for what He has done! Hear Him, “I give my life for the sheep.” What He desired, that He did!

G. Shepard