Anne’s question - All The Good Seed Daily Devotionals for 2025

If anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And he himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.
1 John 2:1.

Anne's question
Anne has just come into contact with the gospel. She is well disposed towards it, but one question troubles her: "How could Christ expiate my sins on the cross before I ever committed them?"

Let us suppose that a school playground is built on the edge of a ravine. As the children lose the ball when it goes through the wire fencing, the teacher forbade playing on that side of the playground. Moreover, he orders the child who loses a ball to buy a new one. Now all the parents are fairly poor. But a friend of the head teacher hears of the matter and donates a sum to pay for all lost balls on condition that the child who loses one reports it to the head teacher.

In this way the head teacher's friend has provided sufficient money for any balls that were lost, but only those acknowledged as lost by one or other of the children will be replaced.

Similarly, Christ's sacrifice involves all the sins of the whole world, whether they were committed before or after His coming. But only those of persons are forgiven who come to God confessing that they are lost.

The head teacher's friend did not know in advance which children would benefit from his generosity, whereas the Lord Jesus, being God, knows everything in advance. Before the crucifixion He committed His disciples to His Father in prayer, stating precisely that He was also praying for those who would believe later (John 17:20). Then Jesus "gave himself a ransom for all" (1 Timothy 2:6).

Today's reading: Job 7:1-21 · Acts 7:35-50