I affirm that Christ’s sacrifice paid the price for the sins of the world (John 1:29; 1 John 2:2, 4:14); further, not only is the Atonement of Christ unlimited in its value, but also in its provision; further, the benefit of His atonement is offered to everyone, not merely all people groups or nations, but rather individuals; therefore, the Holy Spirit is presently working to convict the world—all men (John 16:8,9) of sin whereby all men can believe and be saved as is God’s desire (2 Peter 3:9; 1 Tim. 2:4). Hence, the Father desires that every individual repent and be saved, and therefore the Son, whose desire is one with the Father, died for all so that they could be saved according to the Father’s desire; consequently, the Holy Spirit, whose desire is one with the Father and the Son, convicts all of sin thereby allowing every person to have a real chance to be saved by faith in Jesus Christ. Moreover, the mandate to the church to go and take the gospel into the entire world is not merely to provide the means of salvation to a select few and a good faith offer to everyone else,1 but rather a real offer that can either be accepted or rejected.
I disaffirm that God’s desire for everyone to experience eternal life, knowing that some will not trust Christ, in any way diminishes His sovereignty since He without constraint or coercion chose to grant man that opportunity; further, that people rejecting Christ’s death on the cross for them and His payment for their sin somehow makes Christ’s unused sacrifice wasted; it is not wasted since Christ’s death on the cross accomplished precisely what God desired, which is to provide every person, by mercy, an opportunity to be saved (2 Corinthians 5:14; 1 Timothy 2:6; Hebrews 2:9; 1 John 1:2, 4:14), and to save forever all who believe (John 3:16).
Next Topic: The Love of God
- As mentioned elsewhere, Calvinists sometimes use this to explain how and why they can in good conscience present the gospel to everyone. In other words, since they do not know who can and cannot believe, it is a good faith offer. However, theirs is still a different message than I think is presented in the Scripture. The Calvinist cannot, if true to Calvinism, look into the eyes of an individual, any individual, and say God loves you and Christ died for you, and God wants you to be saved, and you can be saved, if you will only trust Christ, and you can by the grace of God trust Christ if you will. If one is unwilling to accept that reality, along with a belief in irresistible grace resulting in regeneration prior to faith, he cannot be a Calvinist. [↩]
Responses to “Atonement for Sin”
October 19th, 2009 at 9:04 am
[...] The Sovereignty of God: Without the baggage of Calvinism Predestination and Foreknowledge; Without T… The Love of God: Calvinism does not measure up Grace World vs. Elect Faith and Regeneration Faith and Works Preaching of the Gospel I use the term “Major” Calvinist to include Five Point Calvinists regardless of other differences, .e.g. order of decrees, baptism…and refer to such in this paper simply as “Calvinists” or “Calvinism”. I use the term “minor” to include all other views which hold to one or more of the four points of Calvinism excluding limited atonement. Neither minor nor major Calvinists can be rightly classified as Arminian. The reason I am spending the time to address concerns with Calvinism and not Arminianism is because in Baptist life, questions regarding issues relating to theology are almost always related to whether one agrees or disagrees with Calvinism rather than Arminianism since Baptists, other than those like “Free Will” Baptists are not Arminian in their theology. Further, it is simply imprecise for a Calvinist to dismiss people like me by labeling us Arminian. [↩]Search my blog for Determinism, Free Will, Calvinism, Love of God, or listen to messages from 1 Peter 1:1-5, entitled Preservation of the Saints [↩]TULIP is an acronym for the five points of Calvinism 1.Total inability 2. Unconditional election 3. Limited atonement 4. Irresistible grace 5. Perseverance of the saints [↩]I was classified as a four-point Calvinist without any clarifications for many years, and have and still do respect and study countless Calvinist theologians including Calvin himself. [↩]While it is true that some “Reformational Arminians” have an understanding closer to Calvinsim regarding issues such as those mentioned as well as others than that of “popular” understandings, my beliefs are far closer to most Calvinists with regard to such [↩]An example of this is the work that is done by Calvinists in restricting terms like world, all people, all nations, everyone….in order to bolster support for limited atonement. [↩]This in no way implies that I am against “theological systems” or thinking systematically about theology, for my position is quite the contrary, and that is why my system has changed. [↩]No one verse can be read or understood apart from the complete revelation of God. Although all who maintain the inerrancy of Scripture would affirm this, our arguments surely seem to minimize it at times. An example would be Acts 2:47 that says, “The Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved.” Should we rightly conclude, from that single verse, that God is the only one who plays a part in the salvation of people and that man plays no part because that verse only speaks of God doing something? Or could we rightly conclude that no one repented or believed the gospel, because that single verse doesn’t say anyone did those things? Could we rightly conclude that no one preached the gospel to those the Lord added to the church, because that one verse says nothing about anyone preaching? The reality is that no single verse or passage explains everything, whether it is John 6:44, 2 Corinthians 4: 3-6 or… The same is true of Acts 2:47. Clearly, John did not believe that regeneration precedes faith. He wrote at the close of his gospel: “But these have been written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name” (John 20:31, italics added). [↩]This refers to the way some Calvinists use language that is inconsistent with the tenets of Calvinism in prayers, preaching, witnessing…or that tends to present Calvinism in a softer tone than it really is. This is particularly noticeable when they speak on the love of God, mercy, missions or when they pray…see blog “Faith And Regeneration” especially footnote on “new birth” in the disaffirmation. [↩]The section of theology that deals with salvation issues [↩] [...]
October 8th, 2009 at 8:52 am
[...] Topic: Atonement for Sin Over sixty times in the New Testament God says faith, belief, and trust in God is to be the basis [...]