You Don’t Need a Second Chance

The Substitutionary Atonement of Jesus Christ is a completely Twoist act of our personal Creator who is distinct from creation. Our sovereign, transcendent God stepped into history to redeem us in our helpless estate. By His grace, we freely receive the full benefit of what He has done for us. We can do nothing but rely wholly on Christ, receiving the riches of His grace by faith. Through His revealed Word, we grow in grace by our knowledge of Him and worship the God outside ourselves.

In stark contrast, pagan Oneism attempts to finally get it right through some sort of spiritual self-improvement project, hoping mystical techniques will evolve consciousness into divinity to be absorbed into Universal Spirituality (impersonal force). Maybe if one stores up enough good karma through good works, or performs enough ascetic self-purgation, or awakens a sense of mystical enlightenment to inner divinity through yoga and meditation one might finally hope to earn his or her way to Nirvana and escape the effects of sin, suffering, and death. But Oneism relies on self-righteous, self-justifying works and has no power to deliver from eternal death in the end. And there really are no more second chances through reincarnation to finally get it right in another life.

In Twoism, we understand that God is not the God of second chances; He’s the God of Substitutionary Atonement. We do not need more chances to finally get it right. Jesus was right (righteous, without sin) from all eternity, and in His incarnation He lived the perfect life we could never attain. He died in our place on the cross to propitiate (satisfy) God’s wrath against our sin. He rose from the dead because He was sinless, and, therefore, death had no authority to hold Him, demonstrating that the sting of death no longer has power over those He has redeemed. Because of His new life in us, we also will be raised bodily from the dead in the resurrection. In Jesus, we have real eternal hope beyond the grave.

We don’t need more chances to get it right, as Oneism teaches. What we need is to receive all the riches God lavishes on us in His Beloved Son and to learn to walk by faith as recipients of His unfathomable treasures in Christ. In Oneism, it’s all about what human beings can try to do for themselves based on the belief that there’s hidden divinity in there somewhere, if one could only find the right mantra or yoga pose. In Twoism, it’s all about the God outside of creation who came down to do for us what we could never have done for ourselves.

Oneism is about self-realization earned by one’s own efforts toward righteousness. Twoism is about God’s grace and righteousness freely given and imputed through Jesus Christ. Oneism says, “I can do it myself,” Twoism says, “Jesus did it all for me.” Oneism promises the bliss of Nirvana for the enlightened but it has no power to deliver anyone from eternal death because it leaves people dead in their trespasses and sins. Twoism delivers from sin by the blood of Jesus and its promise of Heaven is not in vain.

God is not the God of second chances; He’s the God of Substitutionary Atonement. This is where real hope is found. This is the place of real peace and rest at the feet of Jesus.