The Doctrines of Grace
Part Seven
by
Dr. Jay Worth Allen
For whom did Christ die?
The collective response is: “God loved the world. Christ died for the sins of the world. God is not willing for any to perish. But there are those for whom Christ died to redeem, who simply chose not to be saved.” In other words, Christ died, not only for those who’ll go to heaven, but also for those who’ll wind up in Hell. His atoning blood was wasted on those whom He could not save because they simply wouldn’t let Him.
The Bible’s position is very different: “And you shall have a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). Christ’s saving Atonement is Limited to “His people” and that’s what raises the hair on the neck of the masses.
The proper noun, Jesus, (from the Hebrew, Joshua, Jehovah is salvation) itself, implies a limited area (Jonah 2:9). “I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own . . . I lay down My life for the sheep” (John 10:14-15). Not for the goats, pigs or dogs, but for “the sheep.” “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her” (Ephesians 5:25) – Christ gave His life for His Church — His Elect. That’s for whom Christ died. That’s Limited Atonement.
In the light of Election, Redemption and Calling, both the Arminian and the Calvinist agree that the Father elects, the Son redeems and the Holy Spirit calls. Both use similar terminology, yet the Arminian advocates an entirely different proposition.
In Arminianism, election is Conditional on man’s response to the Spirit’s call. But an election that’s Conditional on something man does, decides, believes, or performs, is not election. That’s simply God seconding a motion man has first put into existence. We don’t get to Heaven by a show of hands. Conditional election is, at best, a paradox: it is not an election at all, because it occurs after the fact.
In Arminianism, Christ died to redeem all men to God through Christ Jesus. But the Spirit of God calls with such resistible grace, that man, of his own Free Will, can and very often does, refuse the call of the Spirit of God to be redeemed. Some will accept, some will not. Christ is successful in making atonement for all, but the Holy Spirit is successful only in those, who exercise their Free Will to choose Christ and be saved.
If a Calvinist says, “The Grace of God is Irresistible!” The Arminian rebuttal is, “No, the grace of God is resistible! You can stiff-arm God on the playing field of life, and go your own way. God implores you because He doesn’t want anyone to perish, and He’ll be really upset if you wind up going to hell. But it’s up to you. You have to exercise your own Free Will, if you want to stay in His grace and get into His heaven.”
The problem arises from the noun, Choice. God is sovereign. So logically, the Limited choice in election, predestination, foreknowledge or foreordination originates in Him alone — logically, not chronologically. We do not choose God and then He is obligated to accept us. Election is wholly by the foreknowledge, foreordination and grace of God, apart from any human merit or decision. “You have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that you should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain” (John 15:16). But, we would rather earn grace than receive it. We feel the need to earn the right to God’s goodness, even though He gives His goodness freely. We have an appetite for what speaks to our own ability. We want to feel as if we have obtained Salvation by something of our own merit.
But any Grace which can be resisted to the point of eternal damnation is not Grace at all. God’s Grace is not earned — it is received. “According as He has chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love having predestinated us unto the adoption of sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, through which He has made us accepted in the Beloved” (Ephesians 1:4-6).
If Christ’s Atonement is unlimited — i.e. Christ died for everyone, for all men — then you can’t believe in an eternal hell. If you once admit that there will be those who wind up in the Lake of Fire, and still hold to the Freedom of the Will of man to choose God or reject Him, then there is something lacking in your Atonement. How could Christ have fully atoned for all sin in hopes of redeeming all men to God, and yet, have failed in that Atonement to the point that some men will wind up in hell. That’s an Atonement limited in it’s power to “seek and to save, that which is lost.”
“I am the good Shepherd. The good Shepherd gives His life for the sheep . . I know My sheep, and am known by My own . . . I lay down My life for the sheep . . . there was a division again among the Jews because of these sayings . . . and said to Him, ‘How long do You keep us in doubt? If You are the Christ, tell us plainly.’ Jesus answered them, ‘I told you, and you do not believe.”
Why didn’t they believe? “Because you are not of My sheep . . . My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone 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 My Father’s hand. I and the Father are one” (John 10:11,14,15,19-30).
Where are His sheep? In the hand of the Father and the hand the Son. That’s an Eternally Secure place. Those who are not His sheep, “do not believe.” He didn’t say they choose not to believe, they simply, “do not believe.” They’re not His sheep! He laid down His life for His sheep. And that’s Limited Atonement. Limited in scope, not in power.
Next we’ll look further into, God’s Irresistible Grace.
written 1 January 2011. / published The County Journal 10 Feb. 2011
© dr. jay & miss diana ministries, inc
