LITTLE WORDS MEAN A LOT

There was a popular song called, "Little Words Mean a Lot." In the song was this sentiment:

Send me the warmth of a secret smile
To show me you haven't forgot
Now and forever , that always and ever
Little things mean a lot

Consider the nearly fatal fall of an Eastern Airlines jumbo jet over the Atlantic Ocean in May of 1983. The airplane with 172 people aboard plunged 12,000 feet to within 3,900 feet of the ocean. All three of the L-1011’s Rolls-Royce RB-211 engines overheated and stalled at the same time in mid-air. Why? Two careless mechanics had failed to install six tiny rubber seals on the engines’ oil plugs in routine maintenance--the O-rings. Because they were left off, the oil leaked out of the jet engines once they were cranked up. Little things mean a lot.

The Yankees lost the 7th game because on a sure double-play ball hit to shortstop Tony Kubek, the ball, the ball hit a pebble on the ground, took a wicked hop, hit Kubek in the throat, necessitating him to have to leave the game and be hospitalized, and the runners were safe. ALL because of a little pebble.

Speaking of ALL, that's a little word, but, as the song says, "Little things mean a lot." Let's go back in history to the 16th century, to a man named Theodore Beza. He came up with something new, something no one in church history, no one in the history of man and the world ever heard of. He came up with the idea that Christ died only for a relatively few people called "the elect." But this is an unbalanced view of what the Bible says.

First of ALL (there's that word again), there is no verse in the Bible which says, "Christ died for the elect." The Bible does sometimes focus on Christ's death only for those who trust Him as Savior. For example, Christ said that He came to give his life a ransom for many;" He said, "I lay down my life for the sheep." Paul said that Christ purchased the church by His blood; he wrote that "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law;" also he wrote that Christ "loved the church and gave himself for it:" Peter reported that Christ "died for our sins once for all."

It's granted that the Bible sometimes focuses on the death of Christ as being for those who believe in Him. But, that's not all (that word again) the Bible says about Christ's death. On many, many other times, the Bible relates the glorious truth that the atonement was unlimited, that Christ died for all the world. How about John the Baptist's statement introducing the Messiah as, "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world"?

We could turn to the most famous text in the Bible, John 3:16 which speaks of God's sending His son because of His love for "the world." Or we could remember the angel's birth announcement of the Savior when he said, "I bring you good news of great joy which will be for ALL the people;" then there's I John 2:2--"and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world." In John 4:4, the Samaritans say that this One the woman who came to the well discovered "really is the Savior of the world."In II Corinthians 5:14-15, we learn that "one died for ALL." Paul told Timothy, speaking of God, "who would have ALL men to be saved."

When we go into the Old Testament, we read that ALL of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned his own way; bu the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us ALL." Not leaving it at that, Paul writes, "So then as through one transgression there resuted condemnation to ALL men, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to ALL men. 

We could go on and on, but let's leave ALL of the texts which focus on Christ's death for the sins of the whole world and look at some of the results of denying it.

If a person believes that Christ died only for a pre-chosen few then that means that God has created billions and billions of people only for the purpose of sending them to hell. If a person believes that Christ died only for the relative few, and it's therefore impossible for the billions to be delivered from a fate decided before they were ever born.what does that do the love of God? If a person believes that Christ died only for a limited few, he could never, in all honesty teach his children to sing, "Jesus love the little children, ALL the children of the world."

If a person believes that Christ died only for a limited number, what does that do to the Great Commission? Such a person can't honestly tell another, "Christ died for your sins," because he has no idea if He did or didn't.