God has His SAVING GRACE. It means a great deal to us. We have a vested interest in it. Yet the Bible presents the main vested interest in our salvation as God's own. He has His SAVING PURPOSE. As much as our salvation means to us, the Bible presents salvation more from the angle of God's design than from the angle of our benefit.

God's saving grace is part of His "eternal purpose" (Eph 3:11). His eternal purpose embraces His sovereign control of all creation and circumstances.

His working toward it covers every bit and niche of time. Time serves God's "eternal purpose." Time is always timely for God. Everything and everyone in time always occupy their post in the overall governing decree of God. Big things and little things, high people and low people, major events and minor events, all without exception serve God as a means to His purposed end.

God's purpose spells the ultimate "good" He has for us. That is, our glorification, our conformity to Christ. In getting us to that ultimate purpose God controls all things (Rom 8:28-30). Neither anything nor anyone can alter His fixed intention. He has set His heart on what He wants to reach, and He will reach it.

I'm inviting you to launch out with me into the majestic sea of eternal water. Beyond the horizon lie the secret things of the LORD. There we may not and cannot go. On this side of the horizon lie the revealed things of the LORD. Here we may go, can go and ought to go (Deut 29:29).

"The secret things belong to the LORD our God." Thus He reserves the right of holy hush. A lot of things He must keep to Himself or else He would not be God. Of necessity He must retain in the Godhead, under seal of secrecy, the most sacred whys and wherefores.

"But the things that are revealed belong to us." We have a Revelation, Holy Spirit breathed and Bible sent. While the reasons of God's purpose belong to Him alone, the Revelation of His purpose belongs to us. So then, there are the secret things about God's purpose, and there are the revealed things about His purpose. Why He has purposed the way He has lies entirely and rightly with the Trinity. That He has purposed the way He has, and what He has told us about His purpose in His Word, are ours to absorb as our own. They belong to us.

As we consider GOD'S SAVING PURPOSE AND GRACE may we sense the radiance of His holy presence and praise Him continually for securing our salvation "in Christ Jesus before the ages began" (2 Tim 1:8-9).

In 1954 God's saving grace lovingly laid hold of me. I had received a Gospel tract from a man in a park. He was part of a group holding an open-air meeting. I took the 29-page tract home and put it away in a drawer. A couple of months later I got it out to read. At that time I had a delivery job that had me walking from place to place. I read that tract as I walked. As I ended my reading while walking down a certain street, the message registered with me that I was a sinner needing to believe in Jesus Christ as my Savior. I closed the tract, looked up into the sky, and said in an audible voice, "I do believe."

As I recall that time when the Holy Spirit brought me to the Lord Jesus, a text comes to mind that shows what really happened to me on that precious day. According to Eph 2:8-10 I received "the gift of God."

With a brief yet significant grammar lesson on the Greek original text we find out what this gift of God is. In that language pronouns match their related nouns by gender. But in this verse the gender of the pronoun "this" (referring to the gift) doesn't match the gender of either the noun "grace" or the noun "faith." So "the gift of God" cannot refer singly to the noun "grace," or singly to the noun "faith." And if the noun "salvation" had been used instead of the verb "saved" the genders of the pronoun and noun still wouldn't have matched.

Therefore, the "the gift of God" must refer to the whole matter of our being saved. It includes the grace, the faith and the saving. It is our being saved by grace through faith--the entire transaction. As for God Himself, in this three-fold endowment "we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus." He gives us the grace, the faith and the salvation. It's all in His gift. All of it! PTL!

On the day we received Christ as our personal Savior from sin we believed "through grace" (Acts 18:27). That's when we "obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand" (Rom 5:2). And this transaction took place because God gave us grace in Christ before the world began (2 Tim 1:8-9)

On the day we received Christ as our personal Savior from sin we believed because we had been "appointed for eternal life" (Acts 13:48). God is the ELECTOR. His people are the ELECT. The election of God's people was part of His eternal purpose before the world began. And since God will surely bring about what He has eternally purposed, the salvation of His elect is sure. (Rom 9:11; Rom 11:5).

The word for election in the New Testament Greek carries the idea of "picking out." The biblical Revelation of Divine election presents God as picking out before time the people He intends to save in time. God's people as sinners come to saving faith in Christ because they have been elected by God in advance.

English biblical texts use either election or chosen. God is the CHOOSER. His people are the CHOSEN. In Eph 1:4 we read that "he chose us." In the Greek it is in the middle voice showing that God has picked us out for Himself. God has picked us out as His chosen people for Himself according to His own purpose and grace which was given us before the beginning of time.

God's electing grace is UNCONDITIONAL. Neither the works nor faith of men has anything to do with influencing Divine election. Unconditional election is TO faith, NOT BECAUSE of it. In fact, it insures the impartation of saving faith to the elect. Divine election is God's absolute sovereign choice, depending solely on His own executive and exclusive decree. Thus the sovereign God guarantees to Himself that every one of His elect will someday believe the Gospel and be saved.

An unbiblical theory portrays God looking ahead down the corridor of time to come, seeing who would believe and choosing them on that basis. This CONDITIONAL election, instead of being TO faith, is BY faith. Conditional election foresees faith and grants those who will believe a place among the elect.

Oh, how God's Word puts such grace-degrading error to blush! Paul wanted his colleagues to join him in celebrating the election of the Thessalonians: (2 Thess 2:13). Here the power of the Holy Spirit is at work, saving us "through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth." Here is God's grace operating powerfully.

Here we have God's electing grace. (I usually plug the ESV as the translation I wish would become the popular one because of its close adherence to the original languages. But here it misses an important point when it opts for "God chose you as the firstfruits to be saved." As Greek scholars Eadie and Robertson assure us, it should read: "...from the beginning he chose you to be saved.") It matches Paul's teaching that "this grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the ages began " (2 Tim 1:9).

Here we have God's irresistible grace, that is, the operating of God's eternal electing grace, imparting faith to us in time. When the time comes for our application of the Gospel, God's irresistible grace operates in our hearts effectually, causing us to receive Christ as our Savior. For some this might require an comment on resisting the Holy Spirit Acts 7:51). The answer is simply that the preaching of the Holy Spirit can be resisted but the power of the Holy Spirit cannot be resisted.

Paul told the Thessalonians: "For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not only in word [preaching], but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction." (1 Thess 1:4-5), and "And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God [preaching], which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God [power], which is at work in you believers." (1 Thess 2:13). Thus 1 Thess 2:13 joins 2 Thess 2:13 in showing that God is to be thanked for His effectual work in the application of salvation to the Thessalonian believers.

In order to be saved we ourselves must do the believing. God does not believe for us. But the powerful work of His Spirit causes us to make that response. We believe in our heart because "the Word of Christ" becomes "the Word of faith" in our heart (Rom 10:17;, 8). Said Paul: "...and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus." He also wished the Ephesians "love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Tim 1:14; Eph 6:23).

God's choice of us and His grace to us were settled in His timeless past. We were "chosen by grace" (Rom 11:5), chosen "to be saved" (2 Thess 2:13), and thus certain to "obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus"(2 Tim 2:10). How precious to see that God's choice of us and His giving both saving faith and grace to us were in Christ "gracing" us to God before the ages began(2 Tim 1:9).

Jesus prayed to His Father: ""I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word....I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours" (Jn 17:6, 9).

Of the glorified Christ and His glorified people we read: "Behold, I and the children God has given me" (Heb 2:13). This answers the words of His prayer as the inheriting Son: "...you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him" (Jn 17:2).

When Jesus as the Good Shepherd speaks of giving His sheep eternal life He also speaks of them as His Father's gift to Him ((Jn 10:27-29). Over and over again we find the Scriptures affirming in one way or another that we whom God has chosen and predestined in accordance with His purpose, will be glorified. "All that the Father gives me will come to me," said Jesus, showing that those given to Him by His Father were given before they come to Christ (Jn 6:37), and that they surely will come to Him. He goes on to confirm that the "all" He had in mind were indeed God's elect: "And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day" (vs 39).

Since this enabling grace was given to us as electing grace before time began another thing begs our attention: FOREKNOWLEDGE. In 1 Pet 1:1-2 we read of: "the elect...according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood."

To see how the meaning of foreknowledge applies to God, we should compare how the forms of this word are used in the New Testament. The meaning of biblical terms does not always match modern dictionary definitions. Current and popular use might not fit biblical meaning. New Testament Greek, not recent English, must be examined for accuracy of definition. This is true of the word foreknowledge when the Bible attributes it to God.

The noun prognosis is used only twice in the New Testament, both times of God. The first is in our text at hand, 1 Pet 1:2; the second in Acts 2:23.The construction of Acts 2:23 is sufficient to show us in what sense we should interpret prognosis in both verses. In the Greek, "this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God," is so constructed as to show that God's definite plan and foreknowledge are the same thing. In the Greek one definite article serves both expressions, making them synonymous. So, to be God's elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father is in fact to be God's elect who have been chosen according to His definite plan. God's foreknowledge is His FOREORDINATION.

The verb proginosko is used in the New Testament as man's foreknowing 2 Pet 3:17). Of course, as that it simply means merely knowing something beforehand, which at best amounts to weatherman's foreknowledge. But when it is used of God's foreknowing it refers to something remarkably different. It must be foreordination, which is ordaining beforehand.

Let's look at the references one at a time:

1. Rom 8:28-29 - God foreknew [proginosko] the people He called according to His purpose. That is, He foreordained them. His foreknowledge was not mere knowing beforehand, causing Him to choose His elect on account of their faith. It was a foreordination of His elect to eternal life including the means of their appropriating it. He did not merely foresee that they would believe and choose them on that account.

2. Rom 11:1-2 - God foreknew [proginosko] Israel. In the Old Testament we read that this nation was the only people God had known of all the families of the earth Amos 3:2.

"His people whom he foreknew," therefore, cannot possibly mean that God merely had intellectual awareness of Israel beforehand, for that would also mean that He did not have the same about the other peoples of the world beforehand. How absurd! His range of prior knowledge did not fix on Israel's future while leaving Him in ignorance of the future of peoples outside that range.

The only way, therefore, that God could have foreknown Israel but not the other peoples of the world was in the sense of foreordination. He foreordained Israel. Whereas in the New Testament we have foreknowledge equating with God's definite plan, in the Old Testament we have it equating with His definite choice Deut 7:6.

3. 1 Pet 1:19-20 - Christ was foreordained [proginosko] as our Sacrificial Lamb before the foundation of the world. Certainly God did not simply know beforehand that His Son would shed His blood on our behalf. He foreordained it. As Acts 2:23 shows, Christ was "delivered up" to His executioners by "God's definite plan and foreknowledge [prognosis]," with which His proginosko must agree.

As for God's foreordaining us, although another Greek word "tasso" is used, Acts 13:48 it states the fact in no uncertain terms that we were appointed to eternal life. Like God's purpose, His choice is sovereign. We did not choose Him by our free will, He chose us by His free will. It was entirely up to God whom He would choose and whom He would not choose. Why He chose us and not the unchosen remains a part of the secret things that belong to Him alone. That He chose us and not the unchosen is a revealed fact for us to know and for which we should render Him our constant thanksgiving and praise.

One day I incorrectly typed the word salvation. It came out "slavation." I now use my mistyped word as a synonym for the slavery of sin from which we were unable to save ourselves and for which the grace of God was necessary as the enabling means of our salvation.

By nature we are all Adamites, each bearing the image of fallen Adam. Though Adam was created in the image of God, we have been created, as Seth, in the image of Adam after his fall into sin (Gen 5:1-3). With this inherited sinful nature we each bear the heritage of imputed responsibility for Adam's sin (Rom 5:12).

The extent of what has been passed on to us from Adam spiritually amounts to total depravity:

1. Total depravity refers to EVERY PERSON of the human race. Without exception every individual ever born or to be born into this world since Adam sinned comes in polluted by his sin; we all, with not one exception, inherit Adam's fallen nature.

2. Total depravity refers to EVERY PART OF EVERY PERSON of the human race. Our intellects are depraved, our personalities are depraved, our physical desires are depraved, our emotions are depraved, our consciences are depraved, our wills are depraved. We Adamites are victims of total "slavation" to depravity (Ps 51:5; Rom 7:18). See what the Lord Jesus reveals exists in our fallen sinful nature: (Mk 7:20-23). It is obvious that this list of heart characteristics contains nothing good, just as Paul said about his sinful nature. Of course, Jesus was not saying that each of us indulges in every one of these sins. In our straying from God each of us has turned to our own way of sinning (Isa 53:6).

Though we each have the same potential there are a variety of ways to practice iniquities, and "to each his own." We know we are sinners. But do we really have any idea how sinful we are in the eyes of a holy God? Do we really have any idea how much in need of God's saving grace we really are? I'm not talking about the degree of sinning we have been guilty of; I'm not talking about how much sin we have manifested. I'm talking about how sinful our heart is, how sinful our nature is.

Contrast our nature with God's. When God created our first parents He created them in His own image. We read in 1 Jn 1:5 that "God is light, and in him is no darkness at all." In Eph 5:8 Paul tells our pre-conversion story this way: "at one time you were darkness." Since the fall of Adam into sin we Adamites have been darkness. Not only in darkness, but darkness itself: at one time we were darkness." Total depravity! Every part of every man, darkness!

The Scriptures make it quite clear, that men by nature and God by nature are mutually exclusive. Our past as darkness saw our alienation from God in terms of our being "dead in the trespasses and sins" and our being "alienated from the life of God" (Eph 2:1; 4:18). We who loved darkness rather than light because of our evil deeds were the acme of antithesis to Jesus Christ who is the true Light (Jn 1:9; 3:19). How thankful we should be to God Who has called us out of darkness into his marvelous light, a calling into fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord (1 Pet 2:9; 1 Cor 1:9)!

The charge again is: "all, both Jews and Greeks [representing Gentiles], are under sin." The "all" of the Jews and Gentiles comes up again in 3:23 where we read: "for all have sinned." The all appears as "no, not one," "no one" and "not even one" in the elaboration: "None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God....no one does good, not even one" (vss 10-12).

Dropping down to vss 19-20 the "all" becomes "every mouth" and "the whole world," in declaring everyone without exception accountable to God and guilty before Him.

Mankind is alienated from God universally and individually. Universal alienation is found in the expression: "All have turned aside," and the extent of individual alienation is found in the expression: "together they have [every individual commonly with every other individual] become worthless" (vs 12)

Because of man's total depravity none of his self-righteousness or self-produced works of human goodness is ever taken into account by God. As far as God is concerned no one is righteous and no one does any good until justified by faith and grace (Rom 3:20-24).

Even the good of unjustified men is evil to God. In His holy eyes even their righteous acts amount to nothing more than "a polluted garment" (Isa 64:6). Looking back to the past of the Colossians when they were in "the domain of darkness" Paul remarked: "And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds," (Col 1:13, 21). This shoe fits us all without exception. Our natural minds do not submit to God's law and cannot submit to God's law. We refuse to submit and are unable to submit because of our total depravity. (Rom 8:7).

The natural man has a fallen intellect and a fallen will. "No one understands; no one seeks for God" (3:11). Here we see depravity as deprivation. Because of sin men are deprived in their intellect and will. This means that they are unable to understand spiritual things and unable to seek God as He is revealed in His Word which they are unable to submit to. Thus the Apostle Paul wrote: "The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned." (1 Cor 2:14).

Before God grants sinners "repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth," they are held by the devil as captives to do his will (2 Tim 2:25-26). Repentance is a change of mind. When God grants it to us and leads us to it (Rom 2:4), He imparts to us the ability to understand and accept the truth.

What is God's plan of salvation? I suppose the usual answer from Christians would focus on the presentation of the Gospel in terms of man's need, God's provision for that need and man's response to have that provision applied. Man would be exposed as a sinner (Rom 3:23), Christ would be presented as God's love-gift to the sinner (Jn 3:16), and the invitation to receive Christ as personal Savior would be extended to the sinner as the climax (Jn 1:12). All this is the Gospel truth. However, this is the way of salvation, not the plan of salvation.

What is God's plan of salvation? It is the chain of precious links we find in Rom 8:30: "And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified." In eternity past God planned each step in the process of working out His plan. The fulfillment of every part of it was so certain in His mind that He saw it as if it all had already taken place. When Paul recorded it in Scripture He wrote it that way. Now that is a plan!

The "calling" of this wonderful text is effectual calling. In other words, it works! It produces God's desired results. It's an inner calling of power that causes the sinner to believe the Gospel and to receive Christ as his personal Savior from sin.

There is a general calling that is invitational. It may or may not be effectual. Remember the distinction between the preaching and the power of the Holy Spirit. The preaching can be resisted, the power cannot. Now the preaching of the Holy Spirit is invitational; it may or may not be effectual. When the Holy Spirit extends the general call of the Gospel the sinner can reject the invitation. In fact, by nature that is all the sinner can do!

But if the Holy Spirit empowers the Gospel when He presents it the sinner will accept the invitation, just as Jesus said: "All that the Father gives me will come to me" (Jn 6:37). This is a special or specific calling. It is always effectual. It always works.

After all, we are called "according to his purpose," and God has said: "'My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose....I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass; I have purposed, and I will do it" (Isa 46:10-11).

A general invitational call is seen in the words: "For many are called, but few are chosen" (Matt 22:14). Only the chosen will respond positively to the invitation. Here they are only a few of the many who are called.

An effectual calling is clearly defined in Rom 8:30. It is specifically preceded by predestination and followed by justification and glorification. The calling in 2 Tim 1:8-9 is the special, specific, effectual calling.

Since God's effectual call saves us with irresistible grace there's no room for our so-called free will in the transaction. Only God has free will in our coming to Christ in faith. In fact, only God has free will in anything that takes place in the world of humanity. So-called human free will belongs to the category of myth.

Just think of the ordinary for a minute. Where do we get the idea that man freely exercises his own will in any area of his life? Does he really make decisions all on his own? I submit to you that the direction of our wills is always influenced one way or another, never really free. No, I'm not making us out to be robots; I'm making our decisions depend on how we think or feel. Our intellect and emotions play a major part in the direction our will takes. Vying with each other for dominion these will take turns influencing our wills.

Then again, even our intellect is not entirely free. What we think and believe has been shaped. We have learned from others, been persuaded by others, and have sometimes formed opinions based on partial evidence or downright misinformation. We listen to those we like and trust and do not listen to those we don't like but distrust. We accept some things without much thought and reject other things by being too logical or complex.

Nor are our emotions entirely free. Someone or something might trigger an emotion in us, be it happiness, grief or anger. Our decisions might be governed by our moods. These moods are not free either. We are not always free to feel one way or another, and accordingly, not always free in our choices.

Now, add to our will's natural bondage its spiritual bondage to sin and Satan. Luther called man's so-called free will "nothing," Spurgeon called it "a slave," and I call it "a myth." Our rejection of Christ is because we can do nothing else; sin and Satan will see to that. Our acceptance of Christ is because we can do nothing else; God's effectual calling will see to that.

But then there is "whosoever." This is a favorite word of free-willers. They take it from the King James Version of the Bible and take it out of its context as well. They dangle this word of invitation by using it--really, abusing it--without regard for its modifiers. They see "whosoever" standing alone with its own self-contained meaning, and insist that anyone and everyone without exception has the right to substitute his or her name in its place.

This ESV updates this word to "whoever," as well as translating it in other ways. For example it's "whoever" in Jn 3:16, "everyone" in Rom 10:13 and "the one" in Rev 22:17. But in Gospel invitations these always have a modifier and each modifier limits its use. For instance, in Jn 3:16 it's whoever believes in God's Son; in Rom 10:13 it's everyone who calls on the name of the Lord; and in Rev 22:17 it's the one who is thirsty, who desires to take of the water of life and comes and takes of that water.

The so-called "whosoever" Gospel invitations never stand alone just having their own self-contained meaning. They always stand in relation to some modifier that makes it refer to some people but not to others. This word doesn't dangle on it's own. It is always modified by some aspect of God's effectual calling. We believe because He causes us to believe; we call because He causes us to call; we come because He causes us to thirst, desire and come.

This word of invitation in no way suggests free will. It neither means that everyone without exception can come nor that everyone without exception may come. In fact, just the opposite.

This invitation isn't even the general call. Though there is a general call, this invitation is extended only to anyone who is already prepared to accept it. Its objects are only those who are predisposed by the special or specific call. This call first makes the sinner thirsty for the water of life, then all that remains for it to do is to cause the sinner to drink of the water of life.

The Spirit's invitation "Come" in Rev 22:17 is addressed to those who are ready to accept the invitation because the Father is drawing them and effectually teaching them (Jn 6:44-45). They are about to come because God has given them to His Son (vs 37). They will come believing because God has granted that they will believe by His grace (vs 65). (Acts 18:27).

The restricted "whosoever" and its assured positive response gives all the glory to God for our salvation. How precious! God not only offered us life-giving water but has made us thirsty for it too. And caused us to drink! He not only requires faith from us but produces it in us too. To God be all the glory!

This does not violate our so-called free will. It delivers our enslaved will from bondage to sin, self and Satan, to the Gospel-embracing influence of the Holy Spirit. The issue, you see, is not a matter of choice, but of the power of choice. The issue is ability. This ability does not reside in the human will. It must be given to us by God at the time of our conversion to Christ.

By convenient text tampering the restriction of the "whosoever" invitations to those who would respond positively, has been replaced by an extension to all without exception as if they could respond positively, or negatively, depending on their own free will. But the fact is that the "whosoever" Scriptures hold out invitations to only the "whosoever" wills, and never to the "whosoever" won'ts.

The whoever means all without distinction, not all without exception. In other words, both Jews and Greeks [Gentiles]: "Everyone who believes [modifier] in him will not be put to shame." That is, everyone without distinction, not everyone without exception: "For there is no difference between Jew and Greek--the same Lord is Lord of all [Jew and Greek] bestowing his riches on all who call on him [modifier]." That is, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord [modifier] will be saved" (Rom 10:11-13). We may add "even us' whom he has called [effectually], not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles" (Rom 9:24).

Of course, the restricted invitation is God's restriction, not ours. Since we don't know who God's elect are until after they are converted, we must beware of making a premature judgment. Though evangelism is mainly "for the sake of the elect, that they too may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus" (2 Tim 2:10), we must not witness selectively about the Gospel to only those whom we think are going to accept it. Our witness must be general.

"Spurgeon was told by a friend: "If I believed like you do (about election), I wouldn't preach the way you do". To which Spurgeon replied: "Well, if the Lord had put a yellow streak down the backs of the elect, I'd go up and down the street lifting up shirttails, finding out who had the yellow streak, and I'd give to them the gospel. But God didn't do it that way -- he told me to preach the gospel to every creature."

Who did Christ die for? What really happened at Calvary? Was it an indefinite provision for every sinner without exception? Or was it a DEFINITE ACCOMPLISHMENT on behalf of God's elect?

"For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God" (1 Pet 3:18). Since Christ died to bring us to God will any for whom He died not be brought to God?

To put it another way: Was Christ's death a REAL ATONEMENT? Did God really place our iniquities on Christ on the cross? Was Christ actually our Sin-bearer on the cross, or not? The Apostle Peter wrote: "He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree" (1 Pet 2:24). Well, did Christ bear our sins on the tree or didn't He?

The writer to the Hebrews complements with: "...so 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." (Heb 9:28).

Well, did Christ take away our sins when He was sacrificed or didn't He? Many Christians do not believe that Christ bore our sins or took them away at the cross. Instead, here is what they believe:

1. Christ provided salvation at the cross, making every individual without exception savable.

2. When a sinner believes in Christ as his personal Savior, at that time his sins are taken away by faith and placed on Jesus on the cross retroactively.

How far from the truth they are! The truth is that on His cross Christ actually bore the sins of every sinner He will eventually save. Rather than providing salvation as an open-ended offer He actually secured the salvation of all those He will surely save.

Actually, Christ was specifically sacrificed to take away the sins of "many people." On the night He instituted the Lord's Table He told His disciples: "This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins" (Matt 26:28). Earlier our Lord had said: "...just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many" (Matt 20:28). And in the classic cross chapter of the Old Testament we read: "...by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities....yet he bore the sin of many" (Isa 53:11-12).

We gather four things then:

1. On the cross Christ represented many.

2. He gave Himself as a ransom for them.

3. He bore their sins.

4. He took away their sins.

In the explanation of the pregnancy of Mary Joseph learned: "She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins" (Matt 1:21). We have already seen that these people are given to Christ by His Father before they come to Christ (Jn 6:37). The cross has special reference to these elect people. Christ was "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" (Heb 2:17).

Who did Christ die for? How we answer this question reveals a great deal about our concept of the purpose of God. Many Christians are appalled by the thought that God set a limit on the atonement who have no idea of the far more appalling thought of the limitation they themselves are coming out with. They limit the purpose of God in the crucifixion of Christ. They disallow God any specific design in the cross.

And, while insisting that God merely made every last sinner savable, they disallow a truly substitutionary atonement. They make the cross a substitutionary accomplishment by application, not by actualization. But if what Jesus did on the cross wasn't an actual atonement then there is no atonement to apply!

But we do have to believe in Christ, don't we? We do have to receive Him as our personal Savior, don't we? Of course we do. And effectual calling will make sure that we do. But it isn't at that point that our sins are placed on Christ. He didn't become our Sin-bearer or our Substitute when we believed. He was our Sin-bearer and Substitute at the cross.

When we received Him by faith as our Savior we were personally coming to lay hold of what was already ours. We were receiving an already accomplished fact. Effectual calling was bringing us to God as the inevitable result of Christ's bearing our sins on the cross.

At the cross He was our SIN-BEARER--actually! At the cross He was our SUBSTITUTE--really! At the cross He was our Redeemer; there He truly ransomed us; there He truly paid the ransom price for our redemption. How lamentable that many Christians see the cross as no more than a mere token payment whose effect is conditioned by man's faith!

Obviously, the death of Christ in the place of others limited the atonement. By God's design He was the Substitute for only the elect. Had He been the Substitute for every last individual, bar none, then every last individual, bar none, must at last be saved. To properly appreciate the scope of the atonement we must, as I have already mentioned, appreciate its design. We should not be looking at the extent of the cross without looking at God's INTENT for the cross.

Take faith. If our sins really were on Jesus on the cross, then in the purpose of God we must be brought to faith in our Savior. Now take unbelief. Is unbelief a sin? Of course it is. Jesus said that the Holy Spirit would convict the world of guilt in regard to sin because they did not believe in Him (Jn 16:7-9). Sin and guilt: that's unbelief. So in order to be saved we had to have our sin of unbelief taken care of at the cross along with the rest of our sins. Christ as our Sin-bearer bore our sin of unbelief. As our Substitute He assumed the guilt of our unbelief. That done, consequently, God must take away our unbelief experientially. The time must come when He replaces our unbelief with faith.

Was our unbelief atoned for? Yes. Then it has to be removed. The atonement necessitates this. Our unbelief will be removed at the point of our conversion to Christ because our unbelief was erased on the cross of Christ. There is absolutely no way it could be otherwise. What takes place as our appropriation takes place because of what actually took place at the cross. God's purpose had to be fulfilled at the cross just as in everything else He has purposed.

Every Christian believes in a limited atonement. Some see it limited by God's design, while others see it limited by man's free will. Even those who abhor the thought of a limited atonement will insist that the atonement does not automatically save anyone. Its power, they claim, is limited unless and until man's free will gives it permission to do its work.

On the other hand, others of us gladly attribute all the permission and free will to the sovereign purposing God who made the cross powerful in taking care of the sins of His elect, making sure our salvation, including our appropriation of Christ as our Savior.

Those who exalt man's so-called free will have lots of Scriptures they use to oppose the necessary design of a real atonement for God's elect. They recast many texts of Scripture that clearly teach an atonement limited by God's design, making them teach exactly the opposite. Quite a number of biblical texts suffer at their hands because they do not want to accept God's purpose in the atonement.

For instance, there are several universal texts that contain the words "world" or "all" or "every" that are used far too universally by those who put the crown of choice on the head of man instead of on the head of God.

Yes, there is a universal intent to the verses we'll be looking at. But their true universalism falls victim to a false universalism that needs to be addressed. Since the true--every man without distinction--is being replaced by the false--every man without exception--it is time for us to restore the God-praising focus by harmonizing the universal texts with those we've been considering on designed atonement.

One of the most common texts that people bring up in defense of a false universal view is Jn 3:16: "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." Their assumption, of course, is that the words "the world" refer to every last individual of the human race. But I'd like to know how anyone can hold to this view in the light of some other "world" texts.

Jn 1:29 is one: "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world." Let me ask you, does this mean that the Lamb of God takes away the sin of every last individual of the human race? If it does, then every last individual of the human race will be saved.

Without doubt the idea of all without exception cannot fit here. John the Baptist was announcing that the sacrifice of the Lamb of God would reach outside the confines of Israel in its coverage. Up until the cross God had been calling His people out of Israel with only the odd Gentile here and there included. Now God was about to call His people to Himself mainly from the Gentiles (Acts 15:14). The Lamb of God would be taking away the sin of His elect from the Gentiles as well as His elect from Israel. All without distinction.

"For God so loved the world," then, refers to all without distinction, not to all without exception. A helpful reference on this is Rev 5:8-9 where we see that the Lamb purchased by His blood men for God (God's interest is the main biblical perspective) from every tribe and language and people and nation.

Another thing. Up until the cross a system of sacrifices stood in Israel that could never take away sins (Heb 10:4). Now one sacrifice by the Lamb of God would actually do just that: "...so 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." (Heb 9:28). Either the Lamb of God did take away the sin of the world and the sins of many, or He did not. If He did, then the world here must be restricted to God's elect from the world.

In Jn 1:10 world is used in two ways: "He was in the world [earth], and the world [earth] was made through him, the world [earth-dwelling humans] did not recognize him." There is the world of those who cannot receive the Spirit of truth (Jn 14:17), the world that the Holy Spirit convicts (Jn 16:8), the world Christ came to save (Jn 3:17), the world that Christ does not pray for--He prays for His elect--(Jn 17:9), the world God loved (Jn 3:16), and the world distinguished from those God loved (1 Jn 3:1).

According to the Greek and reproduced exactly in the ESV, we read in 2 Cor 5:19 "…in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them." Hence, the world here is synonymous with those made exempt from their trespasses. And their being thus exempted was simultaneous with their being reconciled to God at the cross. There God was pardoning those He was reconciling. Those God reconciled in Christ, by that very reconciliation became exempt from accountability to God for their sins.

That accountability fell instead on their Substitute, Jesus Christ (vs 21). He was the actual sin-bearing substitute for the world. As such He died for all (vss 14-15). Obviously, the world, the all, here must mean God's elect, the many for whom Jesus actually became sin on the cross, guaranteeing that they would become the righteousness of God in Him.

Then there is 1 Jn 2:2: "He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world." The word propitiation means satisfaction or appeasement. Jesus Christ is the Propitiator, the Satisfier, the Appeaser of God for the sins of the whole world. Therefore, the whole world whose sins He bore will be saved.

Obviously, again the restriction is clear. The whole world WITHOUT DISTINCTION, not WITHOUT EXCEPTION, is the meaning. Otherwise we find ourselves with a couple of impossible alternatives. One is that everyone without distinction will be saved because an actual propitiation has been made for them. We reject this because we know that many will be assigned to eternal destruction (2 Thess 1:7-10). The other is that instead of making a propitiation Christ made a mere provision for anyone and everyone without exception depending on their free will and faith. But here looms a great problem indeed. If Christ's sacrifice didn't actually propitiate it could not have made any provision for us. What kind of provision could it possibly have made for sinners if there was no actual sin-bearing and substitution for sinners at the cross?

It is important to realize that propitiation is Godward. It has to do with appeasing His wrath. We properly speak of Christ's propitiating God. Well, is this what Christ did, or not? 1 Jn 2:2 gives an emphatic, Yes! As our Substitute He did indeed appease God's wrath on our behalf. There is no way, therefore, that anyone could be the object of God's wrath for whom Christ has appeased that wrath. So in this text too the world comes out, as in the others, all without distinction rather than all without exception.

On propitiation we also read: "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us-for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree'" (Gal 3:13). The idea of propitiation is in Christ's becoming a curse for us. To this is joined redemption: Christ's redeeming us.

Let's consider the curse and the ransom:

1. The Curse: If Christ became a curse for every last individual born or to be born, then His "Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire" which He said to "the goats" could never be fulfilled (Matt 25:33, 41). The truth of the matter is that Christ did not bear the sins of the goats, just of His sheep. In Jn 10:14-16 we read: "I am the good shepherd; I know my own and my own know me...and I lay down my life for the sheep. And I have other sheep that are not of this fold [cp Christ as the propitiation, not for our sins only but also for the sins of the whole world in 1 Jn 2:2]. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd."

On the other hand, Christ said to some in the audience for His Good Shepherd discourse: "but you do not believe because you are not part of my flock." [Not "You are not of my flock because you do not believe."] (Jn 10:26).

2. The Ransom: Remember that Jesus said that He would "give his life as a ransom for many: (Matt 20:28). Well, Paul told Timothy that God "desires all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth" (1 Tim 2:3-6). Beyond a doubt the "all men" here--the "many"--can only mean all men without distinction, not all men without exception.

Since Jesus Christ gave His life as a ransom for "all" of these "many" ransomed their debt to God has been canceled. And God does not collect twice! Therefore, the totally appeased, totally satisfied God desires to save them. And His want to is the same as His will to. He is not willing that any of His ransomed should perish.

Some would rather speak of particular redemption than limited atonement. This is all right. The thing we must be careful to do is to distinguish between SAVING redemption and NON-SAVING redemption. Or between SPECIAL redemption and GENERAL redemption.

Yet we do read that they were bought. The explanation for this is one of those simple things we easily miss. There is an aspect of redemption that is often overlooked. We read of "the Master" who bought them. The Greek word "master" carries the meaning of "despot." It refers to absolute ownership and control.

We usually think of redemption in terms of a master purchasing a slave to set him free. Indeed, this is what Christ has done for His elect. But this would not be the usual action of a slave-buyer, would it? The general or common action of a slave-buyer would be to purchase a slave to be his own, not to set him free. He would buy the slave so he could master him. Hence, he'd be purchasing the slave but not ransoming him.

In the same way, in the light of the teaching of Scripture on a limited atonement, we see that there was a non-ransoming aspect of Christ's purchase in His cross-work. While purchasing His elect by ransom to set them free, He purchased the non-elect without ransom to establish His right of ownership of them. Because of His obedience in going to the cross, Jesus will have every knee in heaven, earth and under the earth bowing to Him and every tongue confessing His lordship over them (Phil 2:8-11; Rom 14:7-12).

But for those for whom Christ paid the ransom price of His own blood there is guaranteed freedom. Christ not only bought us to exercise His right of ownership of us, which right He received at His ascension, but He actually redeemed us from the curse of the law. For us redemption is synonymous with the forgiveness of trespasses (Eph 1:7).

We might compare this with our reconciliation:

1. Reconciliation at the cross = exemption from our trespasses (2 Cor 5:19)

2. Redemption at the cross = forgiveness of our trespasses (Eph 1:7) God's purpose--the intent of the cross that limited the extent of the cross--was "to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons" (Gal 4:5). In other words, His purpose was to redeem us so that we might fulfill His predestination of us to adoption as His sons (Eph 1:5), and ultimately to conformity to image of His one and only Son (Rom 8:29).

We call the death of Christ on our behalf a legal satisfaction. Did Christ's death really satisfy God as Judge, or not? Was God fully satisfied by Christ's sacrifice, or not?

Totally!

Then that judicial fact means that all for whom Christ made that satisfaction to God must have been fully exonerated of guilt at the cross. It also means that all who were exonerated of guilt in their Substitute must be brought into that assurance "through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth" (2 Thess 2:13).

Remember this: The effectiveness of the cross isn't a matter of our receiving Christ but of God's receiving Christ! If the punishment for our sins has been truly borne by Christ, the propitiation for our sins truly made by Him, and the ransoming redemption of us truly done by Him, then the forgiveness of sins must be granted to us for whom this satisfaction to God was given.

Suppose even one sinner for whom Christ died did not get accepted by God. Then that would mean that the death of the substitutionary Savior was not fully accepted by God. It could mean nothing else.

God does not require double payment; He does not require double satisfaction. If Christ died for us there is no way God will require another payment from us. God doesn't indulge in double jeopardy. No, if Christ made the payment on our behalf, God will see to it that sooner or later we will receive that payment by faith.

If Thou hast my discharge procured,
And freely in my room endured 
The whole of wrath Divine; 
Payment God cannot twice demand, 
First at my bleeding Savior's hand 
And then again at mine. 
- Augustus Toplady

Three important Greek prepositions underscore Christ as an actual Sin-bearer and actual Substitute at the cross. Each of these translates as "for," but each has its own way of showing God's design and limit in the cross-work of Christ.

1. Matt 26:28: Here there is peri which means CONCERNING. We read: "This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for [concerning] many for the forgiveness of sins."

The text tells us in what way "concerning" applies. It applies specifically to a limited "many" whose sins were forgiven at the cross where their redemption actually took place. Remember that purchasing may not include ransom. But we notice in this case it does, for, what was done concerning many was "for the forgiveness of sins," which we have seen in Eph 1:7, is equated with redemption. So concerning here is specific and limited.

There is no question that Christ was our Sin-bearer and our Substitute at the cross (Isa 53:6; 1 Pet 2:24). Since Christ as our Sin-bearer did something concerning us, surely it must be that He bore our sins. Since Christ as our Substitute did something concerning us, surely it was that He substituted Himself for us.

2. Matt 20:28: Here we have anti which means INSTEAD OF. We read: "...even as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for [instead of] many." A term like this leaves no doubt. Either someone does something instead of you or he does not. So either Christ gave Himself as a ransom instead of us or He did not. Here again we see the "many." The Lord Jesus gave Himself as a ransom instead of many. At the cross He actually stood in their stead. He was not there merely opening up a possibility for everyone whether they wanted to get in on it or not.

3. 1 Tim 2:6: The third word is huper, which means on behalf of. We read: "...who gave Himself as a ransom for [on behalf of] all." The idea is clearly that when Christ gave Himself He represented us. It was a true and total representation of all without distinction, not an if-you-let-me-I-will-represent-you representation of all without exception, depending on their faith. The "all" ransomed of 1 Tim 2:6 are the "many" ransomed of Matt 20:28. The Lord Jesus did not give Himself a ransom on behalf of those who will not be brought to a saving knowledge of Him.

So the Good Shepherd would lay down His life "for" [on behalf of] His sheep, both for those already in the sheep pen and for those who were not of that sheep pen who would be brought together with them as one flock (Jn 10:11, 16).

Isaiah anticipated the same thing: "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned-every one-to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all." (Isa 53:6). And: "...by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many" (vss 11-12).

Putting it all together we see:

1. The kind of representation Jesus would make: a sin-bearing substitution.

2. The whole nation of Israel would be included in the death of Christ. Someday "all Israel will be saved" (Rom 11:26), yet that universal remnant will be purged of the rebels of that nation (Ezk 20:34-38). The "all" means all the elect of Israel.

3. The "many" extends to "the scattered children of God," no doubt the elect from the Gentiles, who are children of God before they come to Christ (cp Jn 6:37).

On the cross Jesus said: "It is finished," (Jn 19:30). Whenever we think of these words let's celebrate the accomplishment of the purpose of God at the cross. And let's thank Him who loved us and gave Himself "for" [on behalf of] us (Gal 2:20).

When God saves according to His purpose He saves sovereignly. Thus He saves selectively. He saves as He pleases, whom He pleases, how He pleases and when He pleases. He saved us in eternity past by divine election and saved us in time through the gospel (2 Tim 1:9-10; 2:10; Eph 2:8).

Paul testified that when the day came for him to be saved in time that, along with receiving our Lord's grace in terms of faith and love in Christ Jesus, he also received mercy (1 Tim 1:13-16).He extols the mercy of God in his salvation on two accounts. As to his past: "I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief." As to his future: "I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life."

These two reasons go together. Without the second there would be no first. Sinners don't receive God's mercy solely on the basis of their ignorance and unbelief. This self-confessed "foremost" of sinners was delivered from his unbelief and ignorance so that Jesus Christ might use him as a "foremost" example of his Savior's patience to others of the elect who would be brought to believe in Him for eternal life.

In this vein I bring up a cross-reference that is more often than not wrested from its context. The advocates of free-will salvation unblushingly misquote 2 Pet 3:9 to show that God isn't willing that any--no exception--should perish. What the verse really says is that God is patient towards His elect who haven't come to repentance yet, not willing that any of them should perish. Get this--"patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish." "You" is the antecedent of "any."

Peter's second letter was written to same people he wrote his first letter to (3:1). In his first letter he identified them as God's elect according to His foreknowledge [foreordination], whom He had chosen to be His people for His own possession, to proclaim His excellencies and--get this--who had in due time "received mercy" (1 Pet 1:1-2; 2:9-10)! Since the Lord doesn't want any of them to perish they surely will not perish. He Himself will give them repentance (2 Tim 2:25; Acts 11:18).

In his second letter Peter exhorted those already professing to be saved to make their calling and election sure by producing fruit that proved their profession to be true. Borrowing some words from John the Baptist we could say that Peter was telling them to "Bear fruit in keeping with repentance" (2 Pet 1:10; Matt 3:8). Then we see in the same letter that he included God's elect who had not yet come to repentance as already in-grouped with those who had. After all, the elect whether believers or still unbelievers were already the Father's people whom He had given to His Son before any of them came to Christ (Jn 6:37; 17:1-2).

So Peter was telling them in effect, "Some of you as God's elect have been sanctified by the Spirit and have come to obedience to Jesus. You have repented. But there are others who belong to you who have not yet come. Therefore, until they too come to repentance, the Lord will be patient with you--i.e., with those who are a part of you by election who have yet to be joined to you by saving faith".

What an exciting day that was for me in 1958 when I saw my election by God for the first time! I was reading Romans nine when this wonderful truth leaped off the page into my heart. How it thrilled me to read in vss 15-16: " For he says to Moses, 'I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy.'" (Though I quote the ESV now, in 1958 I was reading from the KJV.)

This truth overwhelmed me when I saw it. Through tears of joy I looked on and saw that the patience of God as we saw it in 2 Pet 3:9, was reflected here in (vss 22-24).

In the former reference God's patience is with those He doesn't want to perish; in the latter His patience is with those He does want to perish. In our immediate reference God's patience in bearing with the vessels of wrath is not for their sake. They are already doomed: "prepared for destruction." His patience to them is for the sake of the vessels of His mercy, "prepared beforehand for glory," His elect from the Jews and the Gentiles.

To put it plainly, God is patient, holding off His wrath on the non-elect until His elect receive the salvation that will end in the glorification He has prepared them for (Rom 8:30). This matter of patience was exemplified by Paul, in whom Christ showed His unlimited patience, who said: "Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they too may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory" (2 Tim 2:10).

It is to the praise of the glory of God's grace exclusively that we owe our salvation. He gave us this grace before the ages began, applied it to us in time, granting us repentance and faith, and according to His own purpose will make sure we will someday be glorified in the image of His Son Jesus Christ forever. Hallelujah!