Billy Graham

[Aquila]

God knows angles on things that we've never imagined. Angles on things that our petty human theologies have yet to even discover, or admit.

For example, most of us realize that Christ is our righteousness. We realize that His righteousness is imputed to us by faith. And standing justified before God, we stand as though we never sinned. Why? Christ's righteous life is counted as our own. He lived sinlessly so that on the cross He might become sin, and that we might become the very righteousness of God through His imputed righteousness.

Now... was Christ's baptism perfect? Yes. He was baptized to fulfill all righteousness, correct? Yes. But... for whom? Might He have been water baptized for all the sincere souls that would come to Him in the shadows of oppressive human religion and interpretation, with all the squabbling regarding "formula"??? You see, God can look at any aspect of Christ's life and say, "I'll count that in your favor." Is God required to do so? Nope. God is sovereign. But God can see angles in the Scripture that we can't or might not have seen yet? We might be surprised to see some Christian souls in Heaven we'd have never imagined would have made it. And when we converse with them, they might very well testify that they wouldn't have made it... if God hadn't judged the thoughts and intents of their heart, and had mercy by counting Christ's work on their own behalf.