The Cross Justifies the Existence of All Life
by Paul E. Penno

Now this teaching of the Apostle Paul was fundamental to his mission and message to the world. On his first missionary journey with Barnabas, they journeyed to Antioch of Pisidia, located in modern Turkey, about 100 miles inland from the Mediterranean Sea. He was invited to preach in the synagogue on the Sabbath day by the ruler of the congregation. His audience, we glean from Acts 13, was a widely diverse group; consisting not only of a large Jewish community, but god-fearers who converted to Judaism, Gentile sympathizers to the religion of Jehovah, and the elite aristocracy of the city. And to these he proclaimed “that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins” (Acts 13:38). This is the universal gift to every person. This is what legally justifies our life and existence on earth. The cross legitimizes our existence legally before the throne of God. This gift is to every individual: man, woman and child. “Through this man,” i.e., in [dia] Christ, we are all in Him. Thus, in this earliest of Pauline sermons recorded by Luke, we find “the forgiveness of sins” preached unto all “men and brethren.”

And then Paul makes the subjective appeal to every human heart listening. And his sermon did reach their hearts so that they had to make a decision. “And by Him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses.” Acts 13:39. To the one who believes that Christ “was raised again for our justification” (Rom. 4:25), he presently experiences what was legally declared by the Son’s resurrection, “Thou art my Son.”

There is a sense in which when we are born again, converted, and baptized and appreciate what it cost for our sins to be forgiven by the death of Jesus, that a legal declaration is made by God that we are pardoned; and that experience has a profound effect upon our assurance of salvation in Christ.

Next our attention is called to the Bible’s teaching about predestination. We read that “whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son.” Romans 8:29. Our Calvinist friends understand God’s predestination to mean that before the creation of intelligent beings on this earth, God chose to favor certain ones with salvation and others He chose for eternal hell fire. There is no Seventh-day Adventist who would follow such an interpretation of God’s predestination.

Nevertheless, we find that some understand the following words to pertain to believers only:4 “Moreover whom He did predestinate, them He also called: and whom He called, them He also justified: and whom He justified, them He also glorified.” Romans 8:30. If God’s predestination here pertains only to believers and not to unbelievers, then God has singled out only those who respond by faith to His offer of salvation as eligible for justification and glorification.