But although Christ’s death is more than enough to save
everyone who has ever lived, why is it that not everyone will be saved?
The common answer in the church today is that Jesus made
salvation available for anyone who
has faith in Him. He made people "savable, but what “limits” the effectiveness of the atonement is their response.
But is that what the Scripture actually teaches? As we have already seen, the profile of all of us before salvation is grim: spiritually dead. Dead people don’t believe, don’t seek for
God, don’t choose Christ.
Here’s what Jesus Himself said (with emphasis added): I am
the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays
down his life for the sheep… just as the Father knows me and I know the
Father; and I lay down my life for the
sheep (John 10:11, 15). Remember, “the sheep” are the ones the Father has given Him (John
6:37, 44; 17:1-2, 6). These are “the many” that Jesus was talking about in Mark 10:45: For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.
And these are the ones that God gives the gift of salvation - including even their faith (Ephesians 2:8-9).
And these are the ones that God gives the gift of salvation - including even their faith (Ephesians 2:8-9).
The Bible says that God in His grace, out of the multitude
of justly condemned sinners, chose to save some. To do that, He sent Jesus to
pay for their sins – the sins of His sheep. Like Hebrews 2:17 says, therefore
he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a
merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. Exactly the
message of Hebrews 9:28 – Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal
with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.
This is the truth of Ephesians 5:25: Husbands, love your
wives, as Christ loved the church and
gave himself up for her. Jesus loves everyone, but He loves His sheep, His
bride, in a special way. Christ’s death had value and blessing and benefit to
every person in the world. But there is a way that Jesus gave Himself for His
bride that He did not give Himself for every person. (I love all the women in my
congregation. But I love my wife with a covenant love that is only for her.)
But what about 1 John 2:2? He is the propitiation for our
sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. The truth
is, if “the whole world” must mean “everyone who has ever lived,” then we have
a serious problem: why does anyone ever go to hell? Propitiation is the turning
away of God’s wrath. If His wrath is turned away on behalf of everyone, then
why does it fall a second time on
people who don’t believe?
Think about Pharaoh, the Egyptian ruler who repeatedly
refused to “let My people go.” Pharaoh died and, most would assume, justly went
to eternal perdition about 1500 years before Christ’s atoning sacrifice. Did Jesus
really pay for that man’s sins when
Pharaoh was already paying for them himself? If Jesus actually, literally,
paid for the sins of everyone, and then they end up in hell, the same sins are
paid for a second time.
When John says “the world,” I think he means people who are scattered
throughout the world.* That’s how he speaks in Revelation 5:9: And they sang a
new song, saying, "Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for
you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people
and nation…"
Our great and mysterious God would have been just by simply
letting everyone slide into hell. Instead He chose to save some. Only the Lord
knows the names of those who are written in “the Lamb’s Book of Life,”
(Revelation 20:15) but what we do know is that Jesus bought and paid for each
one.
Like the hymn writer says,
The Church’s one foundation
Is Jesus Christ her Lord;
She is His new creation
By water and the Word:
From heav’n He came and sought her
To be His holy Bride;
With His own blood He bought her,
And for her life He died.
Is Jesus Christ her Lord;
She is His new creation
By water and the Word:
From heav’n He came and sought her
To be His holy Bride;
With His own blood He bought her,
And for her life He died.
For next time: His Way Is the Highway
* “World” is used in many
ways, not just “all people everywhere.” For example, John 12:19; 14:22; Romans
1:8
