Church: Reformed Baptist Church of Franconia | Text: Revelation 5:9 | Date: April 21, 2013 | Speaker: Fred Zaspel

For Whom Did Christ Die? Or, The Doctrine of Limited Atonement

Turn your Bibles with me, please, to Revelation chapter 5. Revelation chapter 5. We come to our third in the series on the doctrines of grace. The title of the message today is “For Whom Did Christ Die? Or, The Doctrine of Limited Atonement.” For whom did Christ die for the doctrine of limited atonement? Again, we’ll be treating it in topical fashion, but I would like to begin here with Revelation chapter 5, and I’ll read the entire chapter.

Then I saw in the right hand of him who was seated on the throne a scroll written within and on the back, sealed with seven seals. And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, “Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?” No one in heaven or earth or under the sun was able to open the scroll or to look into it. I began to weep loudly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look into it. One of the elders said to me, “Weep no more. Behold, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has conquered so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.” And between the throne and the four living creatures among the elders, I saw a lamb standing as though it had been slain, with seven horns and with seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. He went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who was seated on the throne. And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the 24 elders fell down before the lamb, each holding a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. 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. And you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.” Then I looked and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders and the voice of many angels, numbering myriads and myriads and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, “Worthy is the lamb who was slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.” And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying, “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever.” And the four living creatures said, “Amen.” The elders fell down and worshipped.

Let’s bow for prayer. Our Father, we come this morning to deal with what lies at the very heart of who we are as Christians. We have sung this morning of the saving blood of Jesus. Here we come to what is at the heart of our salvation. Lord, we thank you for Christ. We thank you for his death in our place, bearing our sin. We ask that you will open our minds and our hearts to a clearer understanding and appreciation of it today, and make us, as we’ve read here in Revelation chapter 5, make us, through this realization, better worshipers of our great God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen.

Well, it would be difficult to overstate the importance of the theme of the death of Christ, whether we’re thinking in terms of Scripture itself or broadly in redemptive history or in terms of Christian worship. It is difficult to overstate the importance of this theme of the death of Christ. This is the focal point of previous revelation building up to the great event of Golgotha, and then everything else is simply an unpacking of it. In redemptive history, there was this looking forward to this great event and all the rest, and when we come to the end, we find the fruition of all of it.

And what we find, of course, and as we are familiar with here, is that it was an event in a many-layered significance. It was not only the act of injustice of men taking the only righteous man who ever lived and crucifying him. But it was the act of the righteous God laying punishment upon him as he stood in the place of sinners as our substitute and our representative. It was the place and the event of a great transaction where our sin was laid upon him. He took our punishment so that in exchange we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

And all through the Scriptures we find this in focus. We go to the Old Testament and almost endlessly we find prophecies, types, and symbols, and expectations or anticipations of various kinds leading us to the great event of the crucifixion of Christ. We have it first stated for us in Genesis chapter 3 where God promises to the fallen pair that He will crush the tempter. He will send this champion who at some cost to himself through the bruising of his heel will crush the head of the tempter. We move on in divine revelation and we see the prophecies of places like Psalm 22 where we hear the cry of the forsaken one that is echoed on the cross of Christ. We have explicit prophecies like we read this morning in Isaiah chapter 53. We have more explicit prophecies in Zechariah, places like that, where we read of the piercing of God’s Messiah, God’s sword unleashed against his fellow, and things like that.

All through the Old Testament, we find representations of it in Abraham offering his son Isaac. We find it in the Passover. We find it in the annual Day of Atonement and all of the sacrifices of the worship system of the Old Covenant. And then we come to the New Testament. We find the New Testament writers treating the death of Christ under those terms exactly, taking up the themes of Old Testament worship and sacrifice and relating them to the death of Jesus. And then we come, of course, to the Gospels, and we find an inordinate amount of attention and time in these that are, well, on the face of it, something of a life of Jesus, an inordinate amount of attention given to those last days of his life. Inordinate in terms of comparing to the rest of his life, but of course, most important, because this was the reason he had come. And so we have, I think, 20%, on average, 20% of the Gospels in their record of the life of Christ, 20% of it given to the last three days of His life. Something like 35% of the Gospel record given to the last week of Jesus’ life.

We have Jesus Himself telling us this is the reason He has come, that the Son of Man came, not to be served, but to serve and to give His life a ransom for many. The Apostle Paul picks that up: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. We find it in the book of Hebrews that He came in order to make sacrifice as a priest and to make propitiation for sin. And over and again, we find this is the reason. This is the reason the Lord Jesus came from heaven to earth. And then, of course, we find in the New Testament especially, this is the very heart of the heart of the Gospel. The Gospels can be summarized in this: Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures and was raised again according to the Scriptures. And as we find here in the book of Revelation, chapter 5, even in heaven itself, the theme of worship is the sacrificed lamb who has, by his death, redeemed his people. This is clearly woven into the fabric of the Scripture and of Christian experience itself. This is the focal point. This is the ground of our worship.

Now, in our studies in this series, we come then to the third point of what has been put in the acronym TULIP. We have seen total depravity, unconditional election, and now the L, limited atonement. And with this, we come to outside of these walls, what is the most controversial of the points that we will be looking at, certainly the most debated and the most emotionally debated as well, and sometimes with much heat and very little light. The question that we’re going to deal with specifically today is what’s called the extent of the atonement, or for whom did Christ die?

Now, virtually all sides agree that his death was a saving event. And so the question that comes next is, what was the intent of his death? Whom did Christ intend to save by his death? Or what was his death intended to accomplish? Or simply, for whom did Christ die? And there are, generally speaking, three answers we can give. There’s some breakdowns with this, but generally speaking, three answers that have been offered.

The one answer is the answer of the Universalist, and that is Christ died for the sins of all men, so that all, in fact, will be saved. Then there’s the answer of the Arminian, and by the way, though any of you who might be new to the discussion, we are not talking about the Armenians. We like the Armenians and the Germans and anybody else you’d like to throw into that. We’re talking about Arminianism—that is followers of the theology of Jacobus Arminius in the 16th century. The Arminian response is that Christ’s death has provided for the salvation of all men. He died for all men so that anyone and all may be saved if they will believe. So we have the Universalist that says Christ died for all men and so in fact all will be saved. We have the Arminian who says Christ died for all men and all may be saved if. And then there’s the Calvinistic response which simply says that by his death Christ accomplished and secured the salvation of his chosen people. He died with the intent, the design of saving his chosen people, and in fact that death, that salvation for them was accomplished in his death. This is the design or the intent of the atonement.

Now having said all of that, let me give some clarifications. This is very important up front so we don’t misunderstand as we go through in defining the question itself. We are not questioning whether Jesus’ death was sufficient for all. The question is not whether it was valuable enough to save all. I don’t know of anyone who would seriously question that. Very few would seriously question that, given the infinite value of the Son of God Himself and the infinite value of His Word. If God had chosen to save one more person, the Lord Jesus would not have had to suffer a little bit more in order to save him. If God had chosen ten more or twice as many among the number of the elect, the Lord Jesus would not have had to suffer that much more in order to accomplish it because there’s an infinite worth associated with the value of Jesus’ death. By the same token, if God had chosen to save only one person, the Lord Jesus would not have had to suffer less. There’s an infinite value associated, the sufficiency or infinite sufficiency of the death of the Lord Jesus.

And so the L in TULIP, the limited atonement, kind of puts us at a disadvantage that has to be explained in that sense. It’s otherwise a very descriptive term. But it does not mean to restrict the value of Jesus’ death. And so the language that has come up in theology for centuries now has been: His death was sufficient for all, but efficacious for the elect. That’s the language that’s been used and continues to be used. And it narrows the question, I think, very well for us. Sufficient for all, efficacious for the elect. John Calvin said that. It goes back to Augustine, who said that. John Owen said that. Even Francis Turretin, the prince of the reformed scholastics, said that. This is not one that’s seriously debated. In terms of its value, it is sufficient for all, but efficacious for the elect.

And so we have terminology. Just a little bit more here before we get into the exposition of it, a little more of the terminology to help understand the question. So we call it limited atonement. He died only for the elect. Or the Arminian: unlimited atonement. Now on that playing field, we have a little bit of a disadvantage because it sounds and feels nicer just on the face of it to say, we believe in an unlimited atonement. Who in the world wants a limited atonement? And so we have other language that’s been brought in to define the question a little bit more in our favor. And so we say: particular atonement, or particular redemption versus general redemption. Or my personal favorite, let’s call it definite atonement, and then just dare the Arminian to say that he believes in an indefinite atonement. And now we have the upper hand.

Well, all of that is simply the emotion of the thing. But the point here is to say that we’re not bringing into question the value of Christ’s death. The question here is, what did he intend to accomplish? And in fact, what did he accomplish in his death? What we affirm here is that it was designed, that the death of Christ was designed to accomplish, and in fact did accomplish, infallibly, the salvation of his chosen people. Now again, I hope you’ll be able to see by the time we’re done today that this is not, even though I’ve had to work at some definition here, this is not mere theological hair-splitting. I hope to show you by the end that this is something that is extremely important for us to understand in terms of appreciating the doctrine of the atonement itself.

As I say again, we’re going to approach this in a topical fashion. The Bible approaches this question in several different ways, and I’m going to have to hurry through each of them. Keep in mind that next month, I’m taking one Sunday morning for each of these points, and then next month we’ll take some Sunday evenings to finish out some of the discussion. If you have questions about it, if you have particular passages of Scripture that you have questions about in regard to these things, please let me know. I’ll be glad to pick them up in our Sunday evening series next month. And we’ll take that series as long as you want to go with it. That will be up to you. The Bible approaches this question now in several different ways.

1. Some Direct Biblical Statements

Some plain statements of Scripture that Christ died for his chosen people. And this is the reason I started here in Revelation chapter 5. Notice the point of the praise that is offered to the Lamb in Revelation 5 verse 9. They sang a new song saying, “You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals for you were slain and by your blood you have ransomed.” Okay, we have the redeeming work of Christ through his blood. “By your blood you have ransomed people for God from,” the Greek term here, I could really push it, “out from.” It is selective redemption. “You have ransomed people by your blood out from every tribe and language and people and nation.” The statement in praise very simply is that of selective redemption by blood, that what has made the difference with these standing there in glory is that Christ has stood between them and judgment and by his blood rescued them from the judgment of their sins. Ransomed them out of the mass of fallen humanity. Selective redemption.

Now, we have that kind of language. That one is one of the most specific, I think, that we find. But there’s lots of it like that throughout the Scriptures. And we’ll look at just a couple. Revelation chapter 1. Go back just a couple of pages. Chapter 1 and verse 5: “Grace to you and peace from him who is and was and who is to come, from the seven spirits who are before his throne, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth, to him who loves us and freed us from our sins by His blood.” There’s always this point of worship, not that He has offered some general atonement that has done maybe something for all equally and left the difference for me, but the difference is Christ has interceded in my behalf and offered His blood for me specifically, and His blood specifically has freed us from our sins.

So there’s this particular reference. I won’t take time to run more here on this regard. I’ll give you a couple for those of you who are taking notes. John chapter 10, verse 11: He gave his life for the sheep. We saw this last time that the sheep are those given him by the Father whom he was sent to save. And Jesus says specifically, “I’ve come as the good shepherd to lay down my life for the sheep.” John 17, verse 19. It’s a wonderful verse in this regard. John 17:19: In His high priestly prayer, Jesus says, “For them, for those You’ve given Me, I sanctify Myself.” Speaking of His going to the cross on the next day. “For them, I sanctify Myself.” And then verses like Matthew 20:28: “The Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give His life a ransom for many.” We have lots of passages like that through the Scriptures. And we can pick those up again on Sunday nights if you would like. So the Bible approaches this, first of all, just some direct statements like that.

2. The Unity Of God’s Saving Purpose

The unity of God’s saving purpose. And here I’m going to just review a little bit and then look ahead just a little bit of what we’ll see in this series. We’ve already seen that humanity is lost universally, every person bound in sin and lost. And so because of man’s natural depravity, and because of that natural depravity, none seek after God, as we saw, the choice had to originate on God’s side. And so we have unconditional election. God has chosen those whom he will save. Looking ahead a little bit, we’ll see irresistible grace. That is to say, God will move in such a way as effectually to bring those to faith in Christ. Those whom he has chosen will come to faith in Christ and be saved. And those very people will persevere and be preserved to the end.

Now, in the middle of all of that, we have limited atonement. And all we’re saying here is that this fits into that necessarily, that those whom God has chosen to save, those whom he will bring to faith in Christ so that they will [be] save[d], and those who will persevere to the end are those for whom Jesus died so as to secure those blessings. Now, there are several passages we can look at in this regard, but let me look at just one quickly. Look at Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter 8. A very familiar verse, 28, and we’ll start there. “We know that for those who love God, all things work together for good. For those who are called according to his purpose.” All right, there’s the divine initiative, divine election. Those who are called according to his purpose. Now he’s going to give a brief exposition of what that purpose is.

Verse 29: “For those whom he foreknew, he predestined to be conformed to the image of his son in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called. And those whom he called, he also justified. And those whom he justified, he glorified.” Now notice the big terms there: foreknew, predestined, called, justified, and glorified. Now we can work this a couple of different ways. Who are the ones whom God foreknew? Answer, it’s the ones he predestined. Well, who are the ones he predestined? Well, it’s the ones he called. Well, who are the ones whom God has called? Well, you can know because they’re the ones who are justified. Well, who are the ones who are justified? Well, it’s those who’ll be glorified. Or we can work the other direction. Who are the ones who are glorified in the end? Answer, it’s those who are justified. Well, who’s justified? Well, it’s those whom God has called. Well, who are those whom God has called? It’s those whom he predestined. And whom did he predestine? Those whom he foreknew. And you have this same focus throughout.

And all we’re saying here is that this holds true consistently in the New Testament description of God’s purpose, that God chose a people whom he would save, sent his son on an errand to save them, and he came and gave his life with the purpose of saving those people, and in fact, their salvation was accomplished by him. If you want to jot down, we’re going to spend more time on some other things, so I just have to give you a few verses here. John chapter 10: At length here we have some exposition of this where Jesus deals with it specifically in terms of the atonement. You have these sheep, those who were given Him by the Father, and He came to give His life for, in place of, the sheep. Now He has other sheep besides Israel. He has other sheep that He must bring. And these were brought in by His laying down His life for them. John 6, we find the same thing in verses 35 and following. For those given him by the Father are the ones he came to save, and it’s their salvation he will not fail to achieve. And then, perhaps best of all, John chapter 17. We may be able to get there a little bit later today. But there, Jesus speaks of those who are given me to the Father, those whom you have given me. I’ve given them your word. For them, I sanctify myself. I pray for them. I do not pray for the world. And all through this, Jesus looking forward to his death the next day and fulfilling the function of the high priest, offering up intercession for those for whom the sacrifice is made.

3. The Unity Of The Trinity

Now, very closely associated to this is—these first few points are a little bit more precise and technical than the others, but I do want to work through these—very closely associated with the second point, the unity of God’s saving purpose, is the unity of the Trinity. And here I think the question involves some theological problems for the Arminian that I think are inescapable. Under the Arminian view, Christ died in order to save all, if. And the difficulty I’m dealing with here in that regard is that what we have then is dissonance in the Trinity. We have the Father setting out to save a chosen people. We have the Spirit effectually working to save those people. And we have the Son somehow off on his own trying to save a larger number. And it’s the kind of dissonance in the Trinity that I think even good Arminians would never allow in any other case. But we have the Father, the Son, and the Spirit working in sync and in tandem to accomplish the very same goals. And so again, John 6 and John 10, those given me by the Father are the ones whom I’ve come to save. They are those for whom I’ve laid down my life. Those are the ones whom I call. And there’s always this particular focus throughout that God has a people whom he has chosen, and the Son as one of the Trinity has come to do his part in accomplishing their salvation. Well, we could explore that for hours. I’ll let it go at that.

4. The Unity Of Christ’s Priestly Work

One more of this kind of argument that’s, I think, important enough that we should mention, and that is the unity of Christ’s priestly work. The unity of Christ’s priestly work. One of the great subjects of Scripture is the offices of Christ, that he is prophet, priest, and king. These institutions in the Old Testament were anticipatory of an office fulfilled in Christ in a greater way, so that he is the great prophet, the prophet par excellence, who brings us the revelation of God in fullness. He is the king who conquers our enemies and conquers our sin. But he’s also our priest who makes intercession to God for us. And in that priestly work, he offers sacrifice. Now in this case, the priest offers sacrifice. The sacrifice is not some animal. The sacrifice is himself. So in his priestly work, he offers himself in sacrifice to God.

And then we find those several passages in the New Testament that speak of Christ’s continuing priestly work where he makes intercession for us. So if we sin, be encouraged. We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He makes intercession for us. Hebrews 7 explains that at great length. Christ, our never-dying high priest who has risen from the dead, ever lives to make intercession for us, so that even though the Christian sins, there is an advocate, a defense attorney, as it were, standing before the throne of God, pleading our cause, saying, “These are the wounds that prove I have died in his place and taken his sin. He cannot be condemned.” The priestly or intercessory work of Christ. Marvelous theme in Scripture.

Now, all I’m arguing here is that we all understand that those for whom Christ makes intercession in heaven obviously are those who are saved. All we’re doing is taking this next step and say those for whom he makes intercession in heaven are the very ones for whom he died. Now, just trying to decide here which passages to take our time with, you could jot down John 17. Again, he makes exclusive statements there: “I do not pray for the world. I pray for those whom you’ve given me out of the world,” fulfilling his function as high priest. Let’s take Hebrews chapter 9 for just one. Hebrews chapter 9, where the apostle here takes up that theme. Hebrews 9 verse 24: “For Christ has entered not into the holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself.” Now this is an interesting statement, by the way. Christ didn’t go into the old tabernacle, the one that was made with hands. But then notice what he says about that old tabernacle. That one’s the copy. Isn’t that interesting? There’s a real tabernacle, a real temple somewhere else. Where’s that? In heaven. So it’s graphic imagery where the high priest here, now Jesus, goes into the real temple, in heaven, sprinkling the blood. So here’s the priest who’s offered himself in sacrifice, and notice then what it says. He enters into the holy place made with hands, which are copies of the true things, not into the one made with hands, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on behalf of everyone in the entire world so that they may be saved. No. But this one who has offered his blood now, as it were, takes that blood and offers it into the temple of heaven and makes intercession for them for whom he died so that they will be saved. And this is the background of all of those intercession, intercessory work of Christ passages in the New Testament. He pleads on our behalf on the basis of the blood that was shed for us. And so he makes intercession for us. So in other words then, Jesus is not so confused as to try in his death to save all, and then in his intercessory work restrict his pray. There’s a consistency and a unity to his priestly work.

5. The Nature Of The Atonement

Now, this next point I’m going to spend a few minutes on, because this, I think, gets to the very heart of it. Just to review, the Bible approaches this question of for whom did Christ die from a few standpoints. Number one, some direct statements. Number two, the unity of God’s saving purpose. Number three, the unity of the Trinity. Number four, the unity of Christ’s priestly work. And now number five, the nature of the atonement. The nature of the atonement. My question here is simply, what is the meaning of Jesus’ death? And the answer that must come back is his death was the death of a substitute. This is the heart of the heart of the heart of the Gospel. Christ died in place of sinners. Our whole hope rests on this fact that we have someone who has stood in our room, in our place, and taking our place has borne our curse and our punishment. And so the Apostle says, He has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having been made a curse for us. God has made him who knew no sin to be made sin for us. He bore our sins in his body on the tree. He suffered the just in place of the unjust. Everywhere we find this emphasis that Jesus died as a substitute for sinners. And because he died bearing our curse, we go free.

And all I’m arguing here, and I think all the Scriptures argue, as you’ll see in just a minute, is if Jesus Christ is our substitute, if he genuinely took our place and took our punishment, then those for whom he died must, must be saved if he really is our substitute. What sense would it be to say he is a substitute for someone who perishes? What kind of substitution is that? Now, that argument has been given for centuries. And one of the responses that’s often given is, “Well, that’s you Calvinists trying to be logical again.” And I have a couple of responses I’d like to give to that. Thank you for the compliment. And I don’t want to back away from that. I don’t want to say that all of my theology is simply and only logically driven. But I do want to say, very emphatically, that everything that God does is eminently logical. And more importantly, what I want to say is that this is exactly the logic of the inspired writers.

Look at Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter 8. Romans 8. And here we have toward the end of the chapter this long litany of questions that the apostle raises just to emphasize in his answer the safety, the security, and the blessedness that is given to all of God’s chosen people who are included in this grand saving purpose that we saw a few minutes ago. But notice the question he asks in verse 34: “Who is to condemn?” Who can condemn us? And notice how he answers: “Christ Jesus is the one who died, more than that, who was raised and is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.” You see his logic? What’s the presumption in all of this? How could I possibly be condemned if Christ died for me? You see that? The very fact that Jesus died for me is guaranteed that I cannot be condemned because the meaning of his death is that he took my condemnation. Payment God cannot twice demand, once at my Redeemer’s hand and then again at mine. We call it double jeopardy in modern courts. And that’s exactly the argument of the apostle here. I don’t see any way of escaping it. If Jesus died for me, then I cannot be condemned. The whole point of his statement here is those for whom Jesus died, by very definition, cannot be condemned.

And so you find this kind of reasoning lying sometimes explicitly and sometimes implicitly behind statements all through the New Testament. For example, Romans 5 and verse 6: “For while we were still weak at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly.” He did what was necessary to be done. Or verse 8: “God shows His love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” He took the penalty so that we would not. We find the same in John 10, which I’ve mentioned several times. John 10, verse 11. There Jesus draws out the analogy of the sheep. You remember the wolf, the big bad wolf coming to the sheep. And you have the hired hand who’s saying, “You know, I make six bucks an hour. I’m fighting off that wolf. This isn’t worth it. I’m out of here.” That’s the hireling, Jesus says. “But I’m the good shepherd. And the good shepherd shows his goodness in this way: I lay down my life for the sheep.” Now in that little parable, clearly the wolf is the wolf of divine judgment. And Jesus is saying explicitly that these sheep will not endure condemnation precisely because I’ve stood between them and condemnation and taken it myself. And for this, he is the good shepherd.

Well, I think this is very important to the point that we’re making. If people for whom Christ died perish, then what’s the meaning of his death after all? And this is why sometimes you find Calvinists becoming a little bit too triumphalistic in their language about Arminians, because the implications, the implications of Arminian theology here are just awful. The implication of universal atonement, if you’re going to believe that people perish, the implication of universal atonement is that he did not die as a substitute for sinners after all. But if we are going to understand his death as a substitute for sinners, we’re left with this: that he died in our place so that those for whom he died would be saved.

Now, once in a while, you’ll hear objections raised about this doctrine of limited atonement to the effect that this is a doctrine that is squeezed out of some obscure corner of the Bible, and it’s really kind of tentative because of that. A couple of answers I want to give to that. I want to say, well, one, you got five, six hours? I’ll take you through a whole list of verses that teach it. On another level, I just want to respond by saying, how many verses do you think there are in the Bible that speak of substitution? The substitutionary death of Jesus? I’ve not counted them. Hundreds? Hundreds, surely? Of verses that speak of the substitutionary death of Jesus? I want to say every one of those belongs to us. There we have it affirmed again and again and again and again and again that Jesus took the place of sinners, took their wrath, bore their judgment, so that they cannot be condemned.

And this brings us to the famous conundrum from John Owen, the prince of the Puritans, who worked this subject out more than anyone in history, I’m sure. We have three alternatives. Either Christ died for all of the sins of all men—say it again—either Christ died for all of the sins of all men, in which case all will be saved. Or he died for some of the sins of all men, in which case no one will be saved. Or he died for all of the sins of some men, in which case they will certainly be saved. And I think that is exactly the affirmation of the apostle here in Romans 8:34. None for whom Christ died by that very fact can ever be condemned because they had one who was condemned in their place. You can see where this comes to impinge on the very heart of the gospel itself.

6. The Efficacy Of The Atonement

And that brings us to one last point. The Bible approaches this in one more way, and that is the efficacy of the atonement, the efficacy of the atonement. What we want to affirm emphatically is that in Jesus’ death, he effected and secured the salvation of all of his people. He did not, he most emphatically did not die so as to render anyone savable. He died to secure the salvation of his people, the efficacy of the atonement. I’ve got just lists of verses here. Let me just choose a couple. We’re here in Romans. Let’s look at Romans chapter 8 again, verse 32. Notice again Paul’s thinking: “He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things?” Say it again: “He who did not spare His Son gave Him up for us all.” That’s atonement. “How shall He not also with Him freely give us all things?”

Now his reasoning here, his logic is from the greater to the lesser. If He gave us His Son, oh my soul, what is there he wouldn’t give you? My kids were little. We bought them musical instruments: piano, guitar. If I go to that kind of expense, do you think I’m going to say, “Uh-uh, draw the line there. I’m not paying for your lessons. Need a music book? Forget it. I’ve spent enough money.” No, you know, when you do something like that, the rest of it just comes with it, right? You argue from the greater to the lesser. And Paul is reasoning like that here. If you can imagine, God gave up His own Son to the cross. If He would do that, do you think He would withhold forgiveness? If He gave you His Son, do you think He would withhold justification? If He gave you His Son, do you think He would withhold regeneration? If He gave you that, would He withhold sanctification? Do you think He would withhold, having given you that, perseverance? Glorification? If He gave you His Son, what is there He wouldn’t give you? Do you see the logic of it then? You see where He’s driving you? All for whom Christ died receive all of the attending benefits. The efficacy of the atonement. Those for whom He died necessarily by that fact are saved.

There’s one more that I just have to turn to. I know it’s getting late. Hebrews 7. I love this expression of it. Hebrews 7. Here he’s speaking of Jesus’ superior priesthood. He is a priest after the order of Melchizedek. You remember the passage. He mentions his priesthood in verse 21, citing Psalm 110. And then notice verse 22: “This makes Jesus the…” Now, you may have it translated a couple of different ways. I’m fine with every one of them. Surety? Remember that old word? Some of you have that translation. Guarantor, or some of you may have in your—I think the NIV translates it simply—guarantee. What’s a surety? Have any of you ever—don’t raise your hand, you might be embarrassed, I don’t know—have any of you ever had someone co-sign a note for you? This often happens with young couples. They want to buy their first house. They don’t quite qualify for the loan. And so the old man steps in and says, “I’ll co-sign.” I’m not recommending it. What? You know, that’s what dads do. We do that kind of thing when you can. You co-sign the note. What does that mean? That means if they default, I’ll pay the debt, right? Surety. Guarantor. That’s the word here. Jesus steps in and says, “I’ll pay the debt.” And he says he’s a surety. So we have to add this to the meaning of Christ’s death. And the question now becomes, for whom was Jesus surety in his death? Here it says that he has placed himself in the place of other people, guaranteeing the payment of the debt. That is to say, the efficacy of the atonement. He’s guaranteed the payment of the price. Debt is paid in full on his behalf.

Well, you find other passages that mention this sort of by the way: justified by the blood of Christ, reconciled by the blood of Christ. You find this language everywhere in the New Testament to the efficacy of the atonement of Christ, of the atoning work of Christ. There’s so many more. We’ll have to do them another time. But again, you can see why this is so important. The real significance of it all, it changes. To teach otherwise would change the very meaning of Christ’s death. And you have to see it this way to understand the question. You are left either limiting the scope of Christ’s death—for whom did he die—or you have to limit the efficacy of Christ’s death. It didn’t quite save them, and you’ve got to do something else to make it happen. And at that point, we’ve changed the meaning of the atonement entirely. And that’s what makes this such a vitally significant doctrine.

Now, our Arminian brothers, they’re our brothers in all of that. And thankfully, thankfully, they’re not entire—oh, this is very condescending—they are not entirely consistent with their theology, because they will affirm substitution. And they’ll affirm that Christ’s death is that which saved me. But you see how it’s entirely contradictory to it to turn around and say, he did this for everybody in the same way. To say Christ died for all in the same way, and then to affirm that some will perish in hell, is to say that the death of Christ, after all, is not what saves us, but there’s something else we must do. The New Testament everywhere affirms not that Christ rendered me savable, but that he saved me, and all by himself. He paid all that God required at my hands, and He secured my eternal redemption. In fact, that’s the language of Hebrews 9:12 [speaker cited 9:22]. He secured eternal redemption for us.

Now, is it necessary, then, for a man to believe in order to be saved? If Christ secured my salvation in His death, is it necessary for me, after all, to believe in order to be saved? Yes, of course it is. We’re justified by faith. Is it necessary in order to come to faith to be born again? To have spiritual life to enable? Yes, of course it is. Is it required of those who go to heaven that they show transformation of life in salvation? Yes, of course it is. But you see, none of that was left to uncertainty. All of that was purchased for us in the death of Christ. He gave us His Son, and because of that would never withhold any other thing. In fact, we could look at this in terms of the new covenant that promises justification and transformation. And that covenant sealed in the death of Christ, which was given, blood given for many.

Particular Redemption As The Heart Of Christian Worship

Well, we have to move on quickly then. Let me just, just a couple of words about particular redemption as the heart of Christian worship. Particular redemption as the heart of Christian worship. The language of Christian worship since the writing of the Scriptures to this day has been shaped by statements like, “to him who loved us and gave himself for us,” or “him who loved me and gave himself for me,” “to him who loved us and washed us with his blood.” There’s a particularity in the language of Christian worship always, and I’ve always wondered how some universal understanding of Jesus’ death could ever evoke any kind of, any sense of worship. Imagine, your wife asks you, “Do you love me?” And you answer, “Of course I love you, I love everybody.”

At the heart of what we are as Christians is a sense of particular rescue. That we were lost, we were deserving of wrath, on our way to hell and given our own choice, that’s what we’d have taken. And now we’re accepted before God. And what made the change, what made the difference, was that we have a Redeemer who has stood in our place and borne our punishment and taken our curse. Yes, there was God in eternity past who chose. And yes, I believed. And yes, the Spirit drew me to faith in Christ and all of that. But the act by which I am saved, the act, the work by which I am rescued is a Redeemer stood in my place and bore the curse of my sin. And by that, I have been rescued.

And this is at the heart of our worship. At no point in our worship can we ever reach back and pat ourselves on the back, something we did or something. But at the heart of our worship always is this notion: to Him who loves us and washed us from our sins and in His blood.

Jesus sought me when a stranger,
wandering from the fold of God,
he to rescue me from danger,
interposed his precious blood.

Front and center in our minds when we bow to pray is not—I hope it’s not in your—front and center in our minds when we bow to pray is not, “Well, I’ve performed well this week,” or “I’ve avoided the bad ones and I’ve done most of the good ones.” Front and center in our minds when we come to pray is, “I have a Redeemer who has stood in my place and has bought me the right to come boldly into God’s presence.” And so I come in Jesus’ name. And this is not some formula I tack on to the end, but I consciously, when I pray, think: I am coming in Jesus’ name, who has stood in my place and has bought my right and secured my standing before God. This is at the heart of who we are as Christians.

And once again, in Revelation chapter 5, we have this as the center of the praise offered to the Lamb in heaven itself. Humanity fallen in sin and now redeemed. But God sent his son to purchase for himself by his blood out of men and women, out of every nation and kindred and tribe and tongue. And so we sing, “The Lamb is worthy.” Or as we sang this morning, when before the throne we stand in him complete. The words our lips will still repeat are, what? Jesus died my soul to save. Amen.

Our Father, we thank you for Christ, how lost we would be without him. We thank you for his death on our behalf and we rejoice and we praise and worship you today for what you’ve given us in him and accomplished for us by him. Make this shape our thinking this week. Give us this sense of glory that our God has chosen us and he has sent his son for us. In his name we pray. Amen.