“How can one person die for the sins of the world?”

Steve Brown:
“How can one person die for the sins of the world?” The answer to that and other questions, on Key Life.

Matthew Porter:
If you think laughter isn’t spiritual or that faithfulness to God means conformity to Christian stereotypes, then this program probably isn’t for you. But if you’re looking for honest, Biblical answers to honest questions, welcome to Key Life. Here’s our host, author and seminary professor Steve Brown, along with Pete Alwinson from ForgeBibleStudy.com.

Steve Brown:
Hey Pete.

Pete Alwinson:
Hey man. Happy Friday.

Steve Brown:
Happy Friday to you too. We’ve said often that Fridays have not always in our lives, been the happiest day of the year because you’re moving into the hardest days of a year.

Pete Alwinson:
Well, you know, but the difference was I got my sermons done on Friday and you were just starting cause you were just flying into town.

Steve Brown:
You were quite intimidating. Now, he’ll deny it, but Pete wrote his sermons weeks in advance. He would go off on a retreat and plan his preaching for a year. And I used to hear that and think I’m going to commit suicide.

Pete Alwinson:
No way, man.

Steve Brown:
Anyway, that’s Pete Alwinson, as you know, he comes in every Friday and we’ve been doing that for over 25 years to answer your questions. We do that because we like each other, but we also like your questions. And you can, it’s easy to ask your a question. You can just pick up the phone, 24 7, dial 1-800-KEY-LIFE. Record your question. And sometimes we put your voice on the air. Or you can write to

Key Life Network
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or if you’re in Canada, write to

Key Life Canada
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or you can send your question to [email protected] and if you can help us financially, please do. And by the way, you can do it with those places I just mentioned, but you can do it on your phone. You can text Key Life at 28950 and follow instructions. And if you’re going to help us, I promise we’ll be faithful with your gift. If you can’t, we understand, pray for this ministry. And by the way, I forgot to say, if you haven’t checked out, we got to talking at the beginning. If you haven’t checked out the new podcast at ForgeTruth.com, you’ve got to go there, go there, and there’s a place where you can click and hear an absolutely outstanding and fun podcast. That’s ForgeTruth.com. Now, Pete.

Pete Alwinson:
All right.

Steve Brown:
Pray for us. And we’ll get to these questions.

Pete Alwinson:
All right. Let’s pray. Our great God, thank you for your goodness to us. On this Friday, we give you praise. We know that you are sovereign and in charge, and we’ve seen that this week. And in those ways that we wondered where you were, Lord right now in faith, we trust you. And Lord, you know our listeners, you know everyone who’s listening right now. And the needs that they have, you know, the, the financial issues, you know the relational ones, the job, the concerns about country and what’s going on in the world. So Father, we all come to you and ask that you would bring us to a trust in you that brings peace, that nobody can understand, but those who have it. We pray for our pastors and teachers and leaders and all those that are going to be bringing us into your presence this weekend. Be with our worship leaders, Lord. And we pray that you would use them to draw us into your presence. And now I pray you’d be with this broadcast and Steve and all those at Key Life. We just commit this to you as we pray in your strong and holy name, Lord Jesus. Amen.

Steve Brown:
Amen. Pete, this is an email. How can one person die for the sins of the whole world?

Pete Alwinson:
Yeah. I mean, you and I were talking about this before. We both came up with the same thing, you said it. I was thinking it.

Steve Brown:
Depends on who you are.

Pete Alwinson:
Depends on who that person is. That’s right.

Steve Brown:
If Gertrude does it, it’s not going to work, but if the son of God does, that’s different. Why is that?

Pete Alwinson:
It’s because he’s sinless and because he’s divine because he is God. And so Adam, the first Adam represented us, while he was sinless, but he was still mortal. He was still a human being, but Jesus as the eternal son of God is perfect and represents us, perfectly in every way.

Steve Brown:
You know, it’s amazing and it’s unique to the Christian faith. I mean, it’s just like, it’s one of those things that when it hits you for the first time you go, I can’t believe that. And it brings forth questions like this email question that we ask how that can do, if only he could have done it. And you know, what’s really interesting is how God prepared. And he did this on a thousand ways. The way God prepares the thought forms of the word to do his big thing in Jesus. Did you know there isn’t a single culture that we know of from primitive to modern to ever in the history of the world that doesn’t have a concept of sacrifice. Without the shedding of blood, there can be no remission of sins. And when Jesus came and when he died all over the world and every culture and every language and every race people could say, oh, that’s what that’s about because God had prepared the world for the death of his son.

Pete Alwinson:
Yep. That’s right.

Steve Brown:
Isn’t that wild?

Pete Alwinson:
It’s amazing. And truly that gives you the whole scope of Biblical revelation, right? Genesis to the book of Revelation.

Steve Brown:
It really does.

Pete Alwinson:
Creation, fall, promise, fulfillment. And then the final consummation, as it comes.

Steve Brown:
So yes it did, but Gertrude can’t do it. Jesus can. And it’s an amazing, unique, astonishing thing. You don’t have to feel guilty. You’ve been covered by somebody’s sufficient and finished sacrifice. I love that. I love just saying that.

Pete Alwinson:
I know it’s just so profound and so deep.

Steve Brown:
After all these years, every time I think of it, I still almost speak in tongues.

Pete Alwinson:
I know. Right. And it’s more humbling. You would think that all these years, we wouldn’t be able to even be brought to tears, but actually the older I am in reflecting on that and the more I see my own sin, the more I realize what an incredible gift, humbling it is that he would’ve done that for me.

Steve Brown:
Oh man. In fact, why don’t we sing a hymn? This is an email too. In our request to God, how specific can we get in our prayers?

Pete Alwinson:
Oh yeah. And that just flows right out. If you’re his deeply beloved son or daughter, there’s no small stuff.

Steve Brown:
No, nothing small. G. Campbell Morgan, somebody asked him that question and he said, can you think of anything that isn’t small to God? You know, one of the great stories that I love about Billy Graham. Mr. Graham was in, and I have a friend who was there, in the New York crusade. They went on for all that time and made such a difference. They were in the hotel room praying just before they were going out to have the crusade, in the park. And just as they went, Mr. Graham stopped and he was looking around and he couldn’t find his hat. And he stopped right there and he said, Lord, would you find my hat for me? So, if Billy Graham can ask about his hat, you can ask Jesus about anything. How can I become freer in Christ?

Pete Alwinson:
That’s a really good question. And it’s a big question. It’s something that should be happening all, every week of our Christian life. Unfortunately, it’s not, this is what Key Life is about.

Steve Brown:
It really is.

Pete Alwinson:
It’s helping people get free and stay free.

Steve Brown:
Radical freedom. Getting you home with a radical freedom, infectious joy, and surprising faithfulness. You know, you get free if you really are, by being free. What would you be like if you were a free Christian? What would you do? How would you do it? How would you relate? Where would you go? And then do it. And then when you feel guilty because you did, and this is from Martin Luther, by the way, If you feel guilty because you’re doing it, tell the devil to leave you alone. So, you do it by doing it. And recognizing the guilt where it comes from, and it doesn’t come from God.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s right. Grace is the greatest energizing power toward for freedom because it reminds us that even though I’m feeling bad or insecure in the presence of somebody right now, I don’t need to. I am the most deeply beloved son. My status is higher than I could ever imagine. And so I can enjoy that person rather than feel condemned by them.

Steve Brown:
That is so good. And by the way, it’s not a great book, but it’s true. You can at Key Life or a good bookstore, you can still find, I think it’s still in print, a book I wrote called Scandalous Freedom.

Pete Alwinson:
Oh yeah. It’s still in print, sure.

Steve Brown:
And you might want to read it and you might find it a quite helpful.

Pete Alwinson:
Powerful book.

Steve Brown:
Will we recognize our loved ones and friends in heaven?

Pete Alwinson:
I might not recognize you right away cause you’ll have brown hair all over.

Steve Brown:
That’s right. I’ll be, I’ll be young and good looking and handsome.

Pete Alwinson:
I was talking about you the other day to someone.

Steve Brown:
I’m not Steve brown.

Pete Alwinson:
The voice sounds familiar. Absolutely. Absolutely. We will.

Steve Brown:
Last night we were having ice cream at this little ice cream shop and this guy came up to me and he said, you’re Steve Brown. And I said, yeah, I got a letter this morning. Then this guy said, I love your voice. And I said, did you notice how good looking I am? He didn’t know what to say. I said it gets old being a pretty voice, but yeah, we will we’ll know each other.

Pete Alwinson:
I think so. Why would there not be continuity? This life has a continuity with the life to come.

Steve Brown:
And there’s so much Scripture that affirms that, and so you know, I think heaven is gonna be so cool. And our relationships are going to be so much better. And so deeper. And so more, so much more authentic and real and fun, you know, I don’t know how to have fun. I really don’t. And I hate it. I’ve told God if he’d fix it, if he loved me, he’d fix it. But I don’t know how to party. I don’t know how to do that kind of thing, but I want to. And when I get to heaven, I’m going to do it. And I’m going to have fun with you. We’re going to get a motorcycle and we’re going to hike mountains.

Pete Alwinson:
There you go. We’re going to do it. Some fourteeners in the life to come. Right?

Steve Brown:
That’s right. Heaven is going to be a lot bigger and better than you think.

Eye have not seen, nor ear heard, nor mind of man conceived what God has prepared.

Pete Alwinson:
Amen.

Steve Brown:
That’s a good way to end.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s a great way.

Steve Brown:
We’ve gotta go. Key life is a listener supported production of Key Life Network.