Limited Atonement
Tom Shrader examines the doctrine of limited atonement, arguing that Christ's death actually saved His chosen people rather than merely making salvation possible for everyone. He addresses common objections by explaining that when Scripture uses terms like 'world' and 'all,' they don't always mean every person everywhere, but often refer to both Jews and Gentiles or large groups of people. The teaching emphasizes that salvation is entirely God's work from beginning to end.
“When Jesus died, did he actually atone for anybody's sin? Did he in reality save anyone, or did he simply make it a theoretical possibility?”
— Tom Shrader
Series: God's Plan for Salvation (2006)
Recorded: 2006
Duration: 52 min
Themes: salvation, grace, election, redemption, sovereignty, atonement, forgiveness, security, new believer, questioning salvation, struggling with assurance, doubting faith, seminary student, pastor, bible study leader, mature believer
Scripture: Matthew 1:18-21, Isaiah 53:8, Luke 1:68, John 10:11-15, Romans 3:23-24, Romans 5:8-9, 1 Corinthians 15, 2 Corinthians 5:18, Galatians 3:13, Ephesians 5:25, Titus 2:14, Acts 20:28, 1 Timothy 2:6, John 6:35-37, 2 Peter 3:9, 1 John 2:2, John 4:39-42, John 12:19, Mark 1:5
Theological Themes: limited atonement, particular redemption, soteriology, salvation doctrine, predestination, chosen people, effectual calling, perseverance
Full Transcript
and we're working our way through a series called God's Plan for Salvation. And what we're talking about is not necessarily how you became a Christian from your perspective, but from God's perspective. So if you got your Bibles and your study guides, why don't you grab those.
If you happen to be with us today for the very first time, you've kind of parachuted in to really a key part of this study. And I want you—it is entirely possible that if you're here as a guest, or you're here for the first time, or you've been around a couple times, but you're pretty new to this—it's entirely possible that we could somehow lose you in the midst of this. I will acknowledge that some of this gets a little technical, and that is not our intention. I wouldn't do it if it wasn't important.
Years ago, we used this phrase: We were saved by God, from God, for God. We were saved by God—His work beginning to end. From God—from His wrath, His anger at our sin. For God—for His good pleasure, for Him to work in our life. And that really is important to remember all through this series.
Your Story of Salvation
I may not know you personally, but I can—if you're a Christian—it may surprise you to know that I know your story. And that was, at some point in time, you became aware of the fact that you were a sinner and you were lost. Someone—maybe a friend, or a family member, or a Sunday school teacher, maybe it was a total stranger, or maybe it was a book, or an article, or a movie—some encounter, some chance encounter. Someone, at some point in time, somehow, God communicated to you the good news that Jesus died.
Your fundamental problem was not just that you had a problem with booze, or sex, or materialism, or gossip, or slander, or whatever. But your fundamental problem was that you're a sinner separated from God. All those other things are symptoms of that. You're a sinner separated from God, and Jesus came and lived and died so that you could have eternal life. And there was that moment in time when you believed.
That's your story, isn't it? Those of you who just took communion, that's what I'm talking about. Not everybody in the room, I know that. Those of us that are Christian—now there's variations of that, circumstances change—but substantially, that's your story, my story.
But Why Did You Believe?
We are, for at least this series, not interested in your story. We're not interested in establishing that you believed. Here's what we want to know: but why? What happened in there? What took place in all of that?
So as we've labored through this, we're in our fifth session today. We've established the Bible as our final authority. We are moving logically, trying to answer questions. You have questions—legitimate questions. They deserve legitimate answers. And I have observed that many of the questions you had two weeks ago got answered last week, and questions you have today will get answered next week. Not all of them. That's why we provide resources for you.
We've had books kind of out in the lobby the last two weeks, but now they're just in the bookstore areas. You can go and you can get books. I would recommend a couple of them. If I was only going to buy one, I would probably buy The Five Points of Calvinism by Steele and Thomas on this topic. There's other great books by Reichen and Boyce. There's a book on God's grace, Doctrines of Grace. The book that, for me, pulled all of these different things together was a book by R.C. Sproul titled Chosen by God.
There's great resources out there, and I understand, even if you're familiar with this, some of this can be confusing. I can only kind of fly over the tops here and whet your appetite, maybe answer some questions, but also hopefully I can prompt you to go. Many of you—we've said this to you before—are just $75 away from being a Calvinist. If you'll just go and buy those books, invest that money. And I guess I would add to that, you can't just buy them—you then have to read them. But you'll find great answers. You have great questions, and there's answers to them.
God's Orchestrated Plan of Salvation
Here's what we've really emphasized: these five points of Calvinism. But the basic truth we hung on last week is that God saves sinners. And when we talk about save, we mean redeemed—that we were lost and now we're found because of the work of the triune God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
God the Father chooses those that will be saved. He does that before the foundations of the earth. Jesus Christ comes and redeems those people, and the Holy Spirit then causes them to be born again. We've got to really hang in here—we've got to get this—that God had an orchestrated, preordained plan that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, in a collaborative effort, would come together, each doing exactly part of that plan that was their area of responsibility or privilege, function. The Father would elect, the Son would redeem, the Spirit would regenerate.
And this is really important: when we understand we're lost, our flinch is what? Religion. When we really understand we're in trouble, our flinch is religion. Kind of read through those early sermons of Peter—you'll see them in Paul's sermons as well. And they'll lay out this wonderful truth, and then here's the question: "What must I do to be saved? What do I have to do?" That's religion. That's what religion's all about—do. What do I have to do? It's about this do.
This comes along, and we see God's plan for salvation, it says there's nothing you have to do. It's all been done for you, to you, because we're saved by God, from God, for God. He did it all.
This morning, after the first hour, I ran into somebody who I respect, and I said, "Was that clear this morning?" And he said, "Yeah, it was pretty clear. I thought the introduction was a little too long," which is absolutely fair. I'm now in the process
The Importance of This Discussion
This discussion on the atonement is important because it reminds us yet again that salvation is utterly, completely, wholly, entirely a work of God. We talked last week about election—that's what the Father did. We'll talk next week about regeneration—that's what the Spirit does. Today we're going to talk about the work of the Son, of Jesus, of the atonement.
The reason that this discussion on limited atonement is important is because it reminds us that salvation is entirely done by Christ, by the Spirit, by the Father, by God. Because I'm saved by Him, from Him, for Him.
Understanding Your Struggles
I want to make sure I talk about some of these things, just so you know that I understand a lot of what you feel. If you're here and you're feeling a little odd about this, or this doesn't really fit, or this is difficult, I've been in your shoes. I hear you, I feel your pain, I really do.
If you're lost as a goose, or you're thinking this makes sense to me but I don't understand and I'm struggling, I got it. I feel that. I want you to know I feel that.
The first time I taught on limited atonement, one third of the church left and never came back. If you put it in the context we're in right now, that'd be like 1,700 people leaving today and never coming back. I think that was for a couple reasons. Number one, I taught it in an arrogant way. I was certain that it was true, but I had not taught it before, and I think my uncertainty and insecurity came out in a very arrogant, bold, hard-line way. So I don't want you to get that sense.
The other thing is, we were a way different church then than we are now. It was our first time going through this. So when you start to hear these things, you're thinking, "Oh my gosh, I've never heard that before. How can this possibly be? I've been in church all my life. I've been in churches where the guy had more degrees than a thermometer, and he's got all this education and seminary training. Who are you? You're a broken-down old real estate guy, and you're teaching me this." I'm with you. I feel your pain. I understand it. But what I'm saying to you is, hang in there, because this is really, really important.
The Four-Point Calvinist Problem
So often in our discussions with people, when we end up with the term Calvinist, you will hear from people, "Okay, I kind of see depravity, and I see election a little bit, and I see this grace thing, and I see perseverance of the saints." So often, here's what they'll say to you: "I'm a four-point Calvinist." We are thrilled that you got it 80% right. But we've got one more point that we've got to understand, and it's the idea of the atonement.
What We Mean by Limited Atonement
When we talk about the atonement, here's the term we use: limited atonement. When we say that term, oftentimes the criticism comes, "Who are you to limit God?"
Limited atonement, definite atonement, or particular redemption are the terms we use. The answer is, we are not in any way, shape, or form trying to limit God. What we're saying to you is that God has limited Himself. That God sent His Son to die for a definite purpose, a specific purpose, a particular group of people.
Here's a definition of atonement: Atonement is the work of God in Christ on the cross where He canceled the debt of our sin, appeased His wrath, and won for us all the benefits of salvation. So we have a debt to Him. Every person in this room has sinned. Nobody's the exception. So He cancels that debt, and He appeases His wrath. God's angry. And He won for us all the benefits of salvation. So He cancels our debt, God's wrath is satisfied, and now we're His. Now we're His people. We call Him Father. We're reconciled.
The Central Question
Here's the whole thing. If you get only one thing today, you've got to get this point right here. When Jesus died, did He actually atone for anybody's sin? Did He in reality save anyone, or did He simply make it a theoretical possibility? That's the difference. That's the distinction.
Here's what we're saying: Jesus died on the cross. I don't know any reasonable person that would debate that. That's a historic fact. Jesus lived.
Here's what we're discussing. Why did Jesus die? Not that He died. Why did He die? And we learn pretty quickly, if we've been hanging around church for any length of time, that He died. First Corinthians 15 tells us He died for our sins according to the Scripture. That's what the Scripture tells us.
The Scripture paints this beautiful picture of the history of man, of our creation, of our sin, our separation from God, and then the story of God's redeeming His people. We head toward, in a sense, the epicenter in the history of mankind. Everything before it looks to it, everything after it looks back on it, and that's the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.
The Central Question: For Whom Did Jesus Die?
So we ask the question, for whom did He die? What did Jesus accomplish by His death? Here it is now, really important. Did Jesus' death merely make salvation possible for everyone because He died for all without actually saving any? Sounds wordy, doesn't it? Philosophical. Sounds kind of heady. Way more than words, though. When He died, did He save anybody or not?
We're going to come back to this again and again and again, because the debate about the atonement, and this idea of limited atonement, the Arminian view, the Calvinistic view, all center on this issue. Did Jesus Christ actually save anybody?
If I went down today and there were 100 Christians gathered there from a variety of churches, and I said to them, very first question we ask here, for whom did Jesus die? By far the majority would say He died for the whole world, not for everybody. We would come along and say, no, I don't think that's what the Bible teaches at all. I understand that, and I hope by the end of this next half hour or so, you're going to understand why people think this, but I hope that by the end of this half hour, you're going to see that even if you've held that belief for 50 years, you're going to see hopefully that it's wrong.
What the Bible Teaches About Christ's Death
Here's what we believe the Bible teaches. We believe that the Bible teaches that Jesus died for His people. Jesus died for a specific group of people, His people, and Jesus satisfied the wrath of God toward His people. Jesus reconciles His people to the Father, I want to come back to that in a minute, and Jesus redeems His people from bondage, and Jesus covers the guilt and wickedness of His people.
Now as you look down in your study guide on those five things that the Bible teaches, you see Jesus begins each of these sentences, and in the midst of these sentences are His people. Whether it's died or satisfied or reconciled or redeemed, covers guilt, whatever it is, the recipient of that are His people.
Look right in the middle, Jesus reconciles His people to the Father. If we were in a group today, and we're up in room 110, and we were there for some meeting, and I said, why don't you pray, and let's say there's 10 believers in the room, I can almost guarantee that the person would begin the prayer with one word. The person would begin by saying what? Father. Father we're here today, Father we come, Father.
Not All Are Children of God
Well the Bible teaches that that's not a term that's universally applied to all people in all places at all times. Though we may live in a country that says we're all children of God, the reality is that's not true at all. That may be our assessment, but that's not God's assessment.
There was no better picture of this than right after September 11th. Remember that? September 11th, horrific event. So what would you expect people to do, especially religious people? They gather together, they were at Yankee Stadium. Remember the event? It was an unbelievable event, huge platform with everything imaginable, every belief imaginable represented on that platform, and the MC or the priestess of the day, the high priestess of this event was Oprah. That's exactly right. Oprah presided over this.
And on that day for the next two and a half or three hours, they did everything but sacrifice a goat. They prayed to everything, every rock, every moon, every star. They prayed to everything there was. And it was all kind of this idea that we're all the people of God. And I cannot imagine how offensive that had to be to the one true God who would say, depart from me, I never knew you. I don't know who you are.
He is not the father of all people. We are not all His children. The Bible teaches really clearly that we in our natural condition are children of wrath and children and sons of disobedience.
The Reality of Reconciliation
But we have been reconciled. He satisfied God's wrath. He redeemed us. And as a result of this, we're reconciled. While we were yet sinners, while we were enemies of God, Christ died for us. We were reconciled. Those hostilities that existed now, they have ceased. We can in all honesty and fairness begin the prayer with the term Father because we're united with Him because we're saved by God, from God, for God. Isn't that a great truth?
Understanding the Atonement
So here's what we're talking about. We're talking about the atonement. Let me read you again the definition we used. The atonement is the work of God in Christ on the cross. And here's what He does. He cancels the debt of our sins and He appeases the wrath of God and He won all the benefits of salvation to us.
Yet we come along and we say we believe in limited atonement or definitive or definite atonement or particular redemption. And many would, and I can understand this because that was my first reaction. I hadn't been a Christian very long when I first heard the term. I said I don't buy this at all. So again, I feel your pain. I said no, no, no, we don't believe in limited atonement.
Here's what I would say to you today. Everyone who is a Christian believes in limited atonement. We believe the Bible teaches that God limits it. The Arminian view believes that man limits it. See that? Because none of us are universalists.
The Nature of the Atonement's Limitation
Every Christian believes the atonement is limited—not for a second assuming that everybody goes to heaven. We understand there are people who don't go to heaven. So the very fact that not everyone goes to heaven says that atonement is limited. We're saying that when Jesus said, "It is finished," He meant it's done, I'm done. The Father's done His work, I've done My work, and at that point in time, the Spirit will do His work, apply that to the heart of the men and women, and now they'll be regenerated.
So you have two very different views. When He says "It is finished," we believe He meant it's done. The Arminian view or the other view is—and I don't mean this at all to be disrespectful—but Jesus is saying, "All right, I did My part, now you got to do your thing. It's done in the sense that I'm finished, but now it's up to you." You see that?
Every Christian believes the atonement is limited. We believe God limits it. The Arminian view is that man limits it. We in no way, shape, or form are limiting God. We're saying God limits Himself. Christ died for His people—very specific.
Christ's Definite Accomplishment
Here's what Steele and Thomas write: "Christ's redeeming work was definite in design and accomplishment. It was intended to render complete satisfaction for certain sinners, and it actually secured salvation for these people, no one else. All for whom Christ sacrificed Himself will be saved. Redemption, therefore, was designed to bring to pass God's purpose of election."
If we go back to Matthew chapter 1, here's what happens. Matthew chapter 1, verse 18: "Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows. When His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit. And Joseph her husband, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her, planned to send her away secretly."
Now as you're reading this, you're thinking, "Wait, this is confusing. I thought they were engaged and now he's a husband." Well, engagement in that day and age meant something very different. The engagement was essentially as good as the marriage. They would act as though they were married in many ways except live together. Obviously there's not sexual contact. So formal was the engagement that to break the engagement required a decree of divorce.
Modern Engagement Versus Biblical Betrothal
Today, we don't handle engagement that way. So I'll meet couples all the time. Ladies, I'll get ladies that come and they'll say, "I'm engaged." I'll say, "That's cool, let me see your ring." "I don't have a ring." "Oh wow, when are you getting married? What's the date?" "We don't have a date."
Girls, let me tell you something: you ain't engaged. He's working you, my friend. He's after something. Don't trust that slimy little guy. If you don't have a ring and you don't have a date, you're not engaged, and don't play like it or act like it. He's a guy, he's thinking bad, so don't trust him. That's how that happens.
The Angel's Announcement
Now, Mary's pregnant. Joseph's taking biology. He understands that he hasn't been with her. This is confusing to him. So he wants to get away from her because he's thinking, "What kind of a girl are you?"
"When he had considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, 'Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.'"
Get that? He will save His people from their sins. That's what Jesus accomplished.
The Infinite Value of Christ's Sacrifice
Again, Steele and Thomas: "Christ's obedience and suffering were of infinite value. If indeed God wanted to save everybody, the sacrifice of Christ was sufficient to save more people. Christ's obedience and suffering was of infinite value, and if God had so willed, the satisfaction rendered by Christ would have saved every member of the human race. But He came into the world to represent and to save those given to Him by the Father."
Really important. Who did He die for? His people.
Again, let me just read a couple of passages to you. They're familiar—we'll be back to them even again—but let me just kind of interject them here so we can think about them a little bit.
The Shepherd and His Sheep
John chapter 10, verse 27: "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand."
Here are the sheep. I'm going to die for them. They've been given to Me by the Father. Nobody can sever this relationship. We'll spend a ton of time on that passage next week.
The Bread of Life
John chapter 6, verse 35: What had happened here is the Jews had kind of come to Him and said, "What do You do? Show us a work." And He said, "I don't need to show you a work." And they said, "Well, Moses did and there was manna." And Jesus now comes and says, "You want to talk bread? I'll talk bread with you."
"I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen Me, and yet do not believe." That was their problem. "All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out."
I'll die for them. I'll embrace them. I'll love them, care for them.
Actual Versus Theoretical Salvation
Here's what we're saying: Jesus' death on the cross made salvation actually real for God's chosen people, not theoretically possible. So what happens at this point is words become important.
The Legal Declaration of Justification
Chapter 3, Romans chapter 3, verse 23, Paul has issued this blanket indictment of all mankind. It's the case he's made all through the first three chapters to this point, and he said this: "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by grace through the redemption which is in Christ, whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation."
A whole bunch of terms in there, but they're really important terms: justified, redemption, propitiation. We would add to that list reconciled—that God has reconciled us to Himself through Christ.
The word justified means a legal declaration. Though we had sinned, Christ died in our place, and now we are positionally before God justified, legally declared innocent. Innocent in the sense that we were guilty and Christ has died for us. We have legal standing before God.
Understanding Redemption
We have been redeemed. The word redeemed means to loosen. If I were in trouble and needed some dough, I would go down to the pawn shop, give them my watch, and they would say, "Here's your tag, and you come back before such and such a date with such and such money, and we'll give you that watch back."
So if indeed I wanted to do that, I would go back down to the pawn shop, give them the tag, give them the money, and I would redeem that watch. I'd buy it back, I'd loosen it, I'd have that watch back.
God's Wrath and Propitiation
Propitiation is probably the term we're most unfamiliar with. It means to satisfy or quench the wrath of God. You and I live at a time when if you were going to play word association with somebody, if you said God, they'd say love. And indeed God is a God of love, but if all we talk about is God's love, we've edited who God really is. You don't have a full understanding of Him.
If you talk about Tom Schrader as a teacher, and you say Tom Schrader the teacher, and that's all you talk about is Tom Schrader the teacher, that is a fair statement—Tom Schrader is a teacher. We're not talking about good, bad, or indifferent. Tom Schrader is a teacher, but if that's all you talk about, you fail to understand me as a father, or a father-in-law, or as a husband, as a friend, or whatever role I may play.
So when we say God is a God of love, indeed He is a God of love, but that is but one of His attributes. Because He's a God of love, He's also a God of hate, and we lose that sometimes. Because He's a God of love who loves righteousness, He hates sin, and He must judge sin.
God's Anger Against Sin
As we look at the very beginning of the book of Romans, we see that God is angry. "The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth." God is angry. God wants to judge sin, will judge sin. Man has a debt—you and I have sinned.
Again, this is tough stuff for us in the time in which we live, because we have found it seems like a thousand ways to try to explain away our sin. We try to do away with truth. Indeed, there's something that we do that might be inappropriate. We try to figure out why did that happen? What was lacking? If we just get more education?
We do it individually. We do it corporately. We've got a problem in this country. We've got anger in this country. What do we need? Well, counseling and training and education and sophistication. We need to understand the arts. We need to raise everybody's ship to a certain level. We need economic reform. The reality is our problem is sin.
Isn't that the cry in our culture? Man is always a victim, never a villain. Always a victim. Always something happened to me.
The Work of Christ
Propitiation means to satisfy God's wrath. God in His mercy sends His Son Jesus to die, and Jesus in that death satisfies God's wrath. That's propitiation—He redeems His people. God then justifies those of us who are followers of Christ. God then justifies us.
And then the fourth term is reconciliation. Second Corinthians 5:18: "God reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the message of reconciliation."
The Logical Problem
Now think with me. If Jesus actually did and accomplished these things at the cross, then it makes total sense that all men everywhere would be redeemed and justified, because Christ would have died and satisfied God's wrath and every person at every place would be reconciled to the Father and there would be no fight. We couldn't be reconciled and still be fighting, right? That's at the core of what we're talking about.
Here it is again. Did Jesus' death actually atone for the sins of anyone? Did Jesus' death actually propitiate or satisfy God's wrath? Did Jesus' death actually reconcile God and any sinner? Did Jesus' death actually redeem anyone?
You see it again? It's really important to me that you see this. You've got to get this. This is at the core of this. Did Jesus actually accomplish this or did He make it possible?
The Crucial Question
If what you want to say is that Jesus did this—He actually saved and atoned and propitiated sin for everyone, reconciled everyone—then heaven should be overcrowded and hell should be empty. If Jesus died for all the world, all people, all places, all time, then God being a just God could not possibly send one person to hell. If Jesus actually redeemed everybody, actually satisfied God's wrath against everyone, then God by just His nature and His attributes would demand—His character would demand—that everyone is justified and all of us are reconciled.
Yet we know that's not the case. Why? Because Jesus did those specific acts for a specific group of people.
Here's the problem you have. If you say Jesus died for the whole world, Jesus died for all men, then what you have to come to grips with is obviously not all people are in heaven, not all people are reconciled. So what you have to say—do you see this now—is that Jesus simply made these things possible.
The reason this is so important is because one of these views is going to leave us in a man-centered position where I still have to do something. God's done a whole bunch of stuff, but there's still something I have to do. The other position—the biblical position, the right position, the correct position—is that God's done it all. Because I'm saved by God, from God, for God.
That comes to life now because the wrath of God—I'm saved from Him. He's the one who's judging me. That's the jeopardy I have: God is the one who's out to punish me. God's the one who'll punish me, and now I'm saved for God. By God, from God, for God.
Scripture's Clear Teaching on Particular Redemption
Let me just read you these verses to show you that Scripture tells us this through and through, Old and New Testament. Isaiah 53:8: "For the transgressions of my people He was stricken." Matthew 1:21, which we looked at earlier: "He will save His people from their sin." Luke 1:68: "He has come and has redeemed His people." John 10:11: "The Good Shepherd lays down His life for"—who? The sheep. Titus 2:14: "He gave Himself for us to redeem us." Second Corinthians 5:18: "God reconciled us to Himself"—personal pronoun. Ephesians 5:25: "Christ loved the church and gave His life for her." Galatians 3:13: "Christ redeemed us."
Let me stay on this. John 10:11: "I'm the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd gives His life for the sheep." John 10:14: "I'm the Good Shepherd and I know my sheep and I'm known by my own. They know me." There's a relationship. John 10:15: "As the Father knows me, even so I know the Father and I lay down my life for the sheep."
Romans 5:8-9: "God demonstrated His love"—what's His demonstration of His love? It's Christ. It's the cross. "God demonstrated His love toward us, and while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him." There's the propitiation. There's the redemption. There's the justification. There's the reconciliation—between God and His people, between God and the ones that He's chosen to save.
The Infinite Value of Christ's Blood
Jesus Christ goes to the cross and He sheds His blood of infinite value—limited not by man but by God—so that He at that moment genuinely redeems His people. Genuinely satisfies the wrath of God toward His people. Genuinely reconciles His people with the Father.
Acts 20:28: "Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood." Ephesians 5:25: "Husbands love your wives just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her."
The Divine Plan of Salvation
Here's what we're saying: man had sinned and he was helpless and hopeless in his sin. He's impotent. He can't solve it. There's nothing he can do. The man is dead and it demanded something outside of him. If man is going to be born again, regenerated, be saved, understand his sin, be broken over his sin—I think it's one thing to say, "Yeah, I understand I sinned, whatever, boys will be boys, not as bad as them, better than them, no big deal." But now there's a brokenness over it. Something has to happen. The Holy Spirit changes a life.
God could have saved everyone. He could have saved no one. He saved some. He did this in this divinely orchestrated plan in which this collaborative effort of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit come together. Jesus comes, becomes flesh, lives amongst us, dies, rises from the dead—evidence of God's satisfaction that Jesus had accomplished all that He'd done. Father chooses, the Son dies, the Spirit applies. It's really clear, isn't it? Can't hardly miss it, can you?
Why This Truth Is Often Rejected
Then why did I begin by saying the vast majority of people who would say they're Christians don't believe this today? Well, there'd be a couple of reasons. One, we live in a time where people really are not familiar with the historic truths of Scripture as well as church history. There are people all the time who will tell me there is no way that you can take forty-five or fifty minutes on a Sunday morning and talk about limited atonement—there's no way that people are going to come, pay attention, listen, and get it.
There are people who would say—I get this all the time from pastors—"We believe this but we'd never teach it. We'd never teach it. People can't handle it. They're not accustomed to it." I have to tell you personally, I do not have a file for that answer. I don't know how you can say "I really believe this but we'd never teach it"—I don't get that.
Addressing Challenging Passages
Having said all of that, there has to be some reason, right? And the reason is that there are passages in Scripture that would lead you to believe that perhaps Christ did indeed die for everyone. So I don't want you sitting out there going, "Well, how dumb is this guy? He doesn't even know some of these obvious passages." So let's go through some of them pretty quickly here.
John the Baptist sees Jesus and says, "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." John 3:16: "For God so loved the world." First Timothy 2:6, speaking of Jesus "who gave Himself a ransom for all." So we have two words that come into play regularly, and those two words are "world" and "all." And they can clearly begin to confuse things for us.
We need to work at this. We need to understand that we have a responsibility here to be students of the Word. When we're studying, we need context.
So we need to understand who is Jesus speaking to? What's the context around it? You don't need to turn there, but I'm going to give you a Bible verse. Let me just read this to you. It's Ecclesiastes 10:19: "Wine makes life merry, and money is the answer to everything."
That was so funny. That was cute right there. All of a sudden, she's grabbing and turning. I'll just read it to you again. "Wine makes life merry, and money is the answer to everything." That's what it says right here. The Bible's the Word of God, my friend, you going to argue with this? Some of you have a new life verse. Here's what we know. Wine may make you merry to a point, but money is not the answer to everything, is it?
What's going on there? We need to know the context. Who's talking to who? What's the backdrop? What's being said? What are the words that are being used? Then we have to take, even when we get all that, we have to take what we have, and we have to balance it with the rest of Scripture.
Understanding "World" in Scripture
So when we hear words like "world," "all," "the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world," what does that mean? "For God so loved the world." When we see in Scripture the word "world," it's used in at least five different ways.
One, Job 34:13 speaks of heaven, earth, universe, planet, stars. Two, Psalm 24, verse 1 speaks of just the planet, so when it says "world," it means just this planet we're on. Three, it's used as only the heavens, Psalm 90, verse 2. In John 12:19, it's used to speak of a large group of people. There's a whole bunch of people out there. And the fifth way that it's used is frequently by the authors to demonstrate to the Jew and Gentile alike that when He talks about "world," He's speaking of both groups, not just exclusively a Jewish group.
Examples of "World" Meaning Large Groups
In John chapter 12, Jesus has had the triumphal entry into the city, Lazarus has been raised from the dead. "Hosanna, Hosanna, Hosanna, Hosanna, Hosanna." And the Pharisees are there talking to one another, and they say this: "You see that you are accomplishing nothing. Look, the world has gone after Him."
Now, do they mean every person, every place, every time? No. Look at this, there's a whole bunch of people going after Him. Just like you say, "Everybody was at the game," "Everybody was at the party," "Everybody does it," "The whole world was there."
Or in 1 Corinthians chapter 4, verse 9, Paul writes, "I think that God has displayed us, the apostles last, as men condemned to death, for we have been made a spectacle to the world." Every person, every place? No, there's a whole bunch of people who see what's going on.
Examples of "All" Not Meaning Every Single Person
Or the word "all." John the Baptist has been preaching, and Mark writes in Mark chapter 1, verse 5, "Then all the land of Judea and those from Jerusalem went out and all were baptized by him in the Jordan." Every person, every place, all, everybody? No.
Turn to John chapter 4, verse 39. When you hear John chapter 4, immediately think woman at the well, Samaritans. Samaritans at war with the Jews, Jews hated the Samaritans vice versa. This woman has had an encounter with the living God. Many of the Samaritans of that city believed in Him, verse 39, because of the word the woman had testified. What I'm trying to demonstrate here is that in this passage, both words, "all" and "world" are there, not in the sense of every person, every place.
So here's what they say. They have believed the woman testified, and here's what she said: "He told me all that I ever did." Everything, every time? You brushed your teeth this morning, you got up, you went to the bathroom, you ate prunes, you did this, you came over here, you did... No. He told me a whole bunch of stuff. He told me "all."
So when the Samaritans come to Him, He urged them to stay with Him. They stayed two days. Many believed because of His own words, and they said to the woman, "Now we believe, not because of what you've said, for we ourselves have heard Him, and we know that He is indeed the Savior of the whole world." What they were saying here is that we thought He'd just been a Jewish Savior, but He's the Savior of Jew, Greek, Gentile - all the world.
The Key Interpretive Principle
My point is really simple. So often the misunderstanding comes when we look at a passage, problem passage, and we take the word "all" or "world" to represent every person, every place, ever live, ever has, ever will.
Examining 2 Peter 3:9
So let's look at two of those difficult passages. We just have a couple of minutes, but we'll look at them very quickly. Second Peter chapter 3 verse 9. These are probably the two most frequent, if you will, problem passages or critical passages we would get to this idea of limited atonement.
Second Peter chapter 3 verse 9: "The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance." Here's what we have to do. The study is going to bring us to this pretty quickly. When He speaks of "you," He speaks in the context. The context all around this passage is dealing with the elect. He's not willing that any of you, any of the elect should perish. He is waiting, He is marking time, He is patient so that all those that have been chosen before the foundation of the earth will come to that point in time to understand who He is.
I got a wonderful email this week and I do not have the permission to use it, so I need to use it with caution. Yet I'm almost positive by using it, although I wouldn't know the specifics here, some of you will, and once it comes to me, it's fair game.
Change some of your emails, won't it? And it's a couple that have been praying, they've had their 90-year-old father come and live with them. They brought him to church, and here's a quote: they were surprised he wanted to continue to come when he heard your teaching on the doctrines of grace, so I understand that. I'm saying, just some of you, I'm sure will, when you leave, you go, that's just, no thanks.
Last Sunday after church, they went to breakfast after the service. All of a sudden, here's this 90-year-old man burst into tears and sobbed for five minutes. When he stopped crying, they asked him what was wrong, and he said, "I'm chosen. I can't believe God chose me." He told them that he believed God had allowed him to live this long just to experience that day so he could know that truth.
That's what He's talking about right here. God's not waiting around for every person, every place. That isn't going to happen—we're way past that. He's speaking about the elect. Isn't that a wonderful truth?
Understanding 1 John 2:2
Here's the second passage, and many of you would be familiar with it. It's 1 John 2:2: "that He, Jesus, made Himself the propitiation for our sins, not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world." That certainly looks to be a problem. It's as though he's saying, "Listen, Jesus died for our sins, but not only just us, but also the whole world."
I'd suggest to you what that term cannot possibly mean is every person, every place, every time. How do we know that? How do we know that this does not mean every person, every place, every time—that Jesus was the propitiation for the sin of every person, every place, every time? If it meant that, then hell would be empty. If Jesus satisfied the wrath of God for every person, every place, every time, reconciled everyone, then that would be it.
So what does it mean? Well, there's some options here. Some suggest that it means all the children of God, the elect that He has scattered through the world. Others think that what's being done here is to broaden our thinking to understand that He is the Savior, not just of the Jew, but Gentile as well. I understand on the surface how we could get there, but you can't possibly get there after you study what we looked at this morning.
We may look at it and say, "Okay, that's got some problems to it." I would say to you I'm comfortable with either one of those answers. What I'm not comfortable saying is that Jesus died for every person, every place, every time.
What's at Stake
Here's what's at stake here. If He died for every person, every place, every time, then His death didn't mean anything at all. It didn't accomplish anything. He didn't save anyone. He simply made it possible. That's the difference.
And why is it important? Because I'm saved by God, from God, for God. It's important to see this, because we understand that Jesus Christ came as part of God's divine plan. Salvation—your salvation and mine—from beginning to end, is utterly, entirely, wholly, completely a work of God. And you had nothing to do with it.
He saved you in spite of you, not because of you. Nothing you did, nothing you're doing, nothing you will do. And it's God who limits that atonement. And it's God who says, "This atonement is real, and genuine, and I died for a specific group of people—My people." Jesus' life wasn't wasted. He came to save His people from their sin, and He said, "It's done," and it was.
Questions Ahead
Well, that raises some questions. If Jesus did all that, am I still able to resist that? Can I still push that away? And if He's done it, and indeed saved me, can I undo that? Take a look at that next time.
Let's pray together. Father, thank You for this truth. It is a wonderful truth. I pray for those of us who know the reality of it, that it would be something in which we would place great joy and comfort. And for those that are here, and maybe their head is spinning, and they're saying, "I don't even get this at all," or they're saying, "I have questions, God," really, I pray that You would quiet their hearts to read Your Word, to understand this truth.
Jesus either saved people, or He didn't. And if He did, He didn't save everyone. He saved His people—us. And that's not a source of arrogance and pride for us, because we didn't do anything to earn it. We are saved by God, from God, for God. Father, thank You for that truth. We pray it to You. In Christ's name.