The point termed Limited Atonement is not actually the term that this doctrine was known by when these points were first formulated. In most instances in historical literature this point is called particular redemption. The sense being it was for a special group and not for an unparticular group. Redemption is both the paying of a price and the price paid. I would like to reiterate that these five points need to be seen as one complete whole. We understand for instance that in Total Depravity that mankind is hopelessly lost and dead in trespass and sin. Mankind is alienated from the life of God. The whole race is so plunged and plugged into sin, that it is unable to help itself.
God in His grace choose to save some and to condemn others. Unconditional election however, is not the same thing as we have already seen, as salvation. That God certainly choose some to everlasting bless is absolutely true, that He choose others to everlasting damnation is certainly true as well. If we were to just stop at this point we have proved nothing and have left mankind in a hopeless quagmire. I have quoted this same passage at the beginning, but have included it here, because of the misunderstandings that have come from our opponents over this very issue under consideration. “The question of supreme importance is not how the system under consideration came to be formulated into five points, or why it was named Calvinism, but rather is it supported by scripture”(Steele, 24)
As I have already said Unconditional election saves no one. Unconditional election only choose out certain ones to receive everlasting blessing and certain ones to receive everlasting damnation. “Those chosen by the Father and given to the Son had to be redeemed if they were to be saved.” (Steele, 38) This is where the major differences between Calvinist and Arminians is the most obvious. Our Lord Jesus had to enter into this world and take on human nature. Jesus did this so that He could be identified with His people. He did this so that he could become His peoples legal representative. We call this federal headship, Christ has identified Himself with His covenant people. Additionally Jesus kept the law of Moses perfectly so that he could be a perfect substitute. Having worked out a perfect righteous life (we can not do this for ourselves) He became able to impute unto His covenant people His righteousness. (Steele, 38) Completing this freed His people from there sins and the condemnation that goes with it.
What did Jesus do to free His people? He did it “Through His substitutionary sacrifice He endured the penalty of their sins and thus removed their guilt forever.” (Steele, 39) The result of this was that He could accredit His people with His perfect righteousness. All of those chosen are saved by His atonement and not by any good they have done. This was accomplished “solely on the ground of Christ’s redeeming work.” (Steele, 39)
The atonement was meant to be a complete satisfaction of God for the sins of His people. It was never intended to be partial, but it was meant to be particular, that is it was designed to be for His particular people. It consisted in everything that was necessary to bring eternal blessings to God’s people. Christ did not just make possible for His people to be pardoned, but He actually pardoned His people by His substitutionary sacrifice. The redeeming work of Christ had its object of completing “His purpose of election.” (Steele, 39)
“All Calvinists agree that Christ’s obedience and suffering were of infinite value, and that if God had so willed, the satisfaction rendered by Christ would have saved every member of the human race” (Steele, 39)
Our Arminian opponents also make a limitation, by saying that it was designed to make salvation possible. Either the work of Christ was sufficient to save as the Calvnist contends or the work of Christ was sufficient to make salvation possible. The arminian adds to this that the act of faith is what saves a sinner. This means either the design is limited or the extent.
A limitation has to be made simply because all men are not going to be saved as a result of Christ’s work. It boils down to either Christ died to make the salvation of His chosen people a certainty or He died to make it only possible and they need to add faith.
Steele, David N. and Thomas, Curtis C., The Five Points of Calvinism, Defined, Defended and documented., Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Co., Philadelphia, Pa., 1969.
This Scriptural Support is taken from (Steele, 40-47 ):
A. The Scriptures describe the end intended and accomplished by Christ’s work as the full salvation (actual reconciliation, justification, and sanctification) of His people.
1. The Scriptures state that Christ came, not to enable men to save themselves, but to save sinners.
Matthew 1:21: “… she will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”
Luke 19:10: “For the Son of man came to seek and to save that which was lost.”
II Corinthians 5:21: For our sake he [God] made him [Christ] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Galatians 1:3,4: Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father.
I Timothy 1:15: The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. And I am the foremost of sinners.
Titus 2:14: . . . who gave himself for us to redeem us from all iniquity and to purify for himself a people of his own who are zealous for good deeds.
I Peter 3:18: For Christ also died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit.
2. The Scriptures declare that, as the result of what Christ did and suffered, His people are reconciled to God, justified, and given the Holy Spirit who regenerates and sanctifies them. All these blessings were secured by Christ Himself for His people.
a. Christ, by His redeeming work, secured reconciliation for His people.
Romans 5:10: For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.
II Corinthians 5:18,19: All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.
Ephesians 2 :15,16: … by abolishing in his flesh the law of commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby bringing the hostility to an end.
Colossians 1:21,22: And you, who once were estranged and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and irreproachable before him.
b. Christ secured the righteousness and pardon needed by His people for their justification.
Romans 3:24,25: . . . they are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as an expiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.
Romans 5:8,9: But God shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we are now justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.
I Corinthians 1:30: He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, whom God made our wisdom, our righteousness and sanctification and redemption.
Galatians 3:13: Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us …
Colossians 1:13,14: He has delivered us from the dominion of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
Hebrews 9:12: . . . he entered once for all into the Holy Place, taking not the blood of goats and calves but his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.
I Peter 2:24: He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.
c. Christ secured the gift of the Spirit which includes regeneration and sanctification and all that is involved in them.
Ephesians 1:3,4: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.
Philippians 1:29: For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake.
Acts 5:31: “God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins.”
Titus 2:14: . . . who gave himself for us to redeem us from all iniquity and to purify for himself a people of his own who are zealous for good deeds.
Titus 3:5,6: … he saved us, not because of deeds done by us in righteousness, but in virtue of his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal in the Holy Spirit, which he poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior.
Ephesians 5:25,26: Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word.
I Corinthians 1:30: He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, whom God made our wisdom, our righteousness and sanctification and redemption.
Hebrews 9:14: … how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify your conscience from dead works to serve the living God.
Hebrews 13:12: So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood.
I John 1:7: . . . but if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.
B. Passages which represent the Lord Jesus Christ, in all that He did and suffered for His people, as fulfilling the terms of a gracious compact or arrangement which He had entered into with His heavenly Father before the foundation of the world.
1. Jesus was sent into the world by the Father to save the people which the Father had given to Him. Those given to Him by the Father come to Him (see and believe in Him) and none of them shall be lost.
John 6:35-40: Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to me shall not hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. All that the Father gives me will come to me; and him who comes to me I will not cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me; 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 at the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that every one who sees the Son and believes in him should have eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.”
2. Jesus, as the good shepherd, lays down His life for His sheep. All who are “His sheep” are brought by Him into the fold and are made to hear His voice and follow Him. Notice that the Father had given the sheep to Christ!
John 10:11,14-18: “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep …. I am the good shepherd; I know my own and my own know me, as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. And I have other sheep, that are not of this fold; / must bring them also, and they will heed my voice.
So there shall be one flock, one shepherd. For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life, that I may take it again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again; this charge I have received from my Father.”
John 10:24-29: [The unbelieving Jews demanded of Him] “If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name, they bear witness to me; but you do not believe, because you do not belong to my sheep. My sheep hear my voice, and / know them, and they follow me; and 7 give them eternal life, and they shall never perish, and no one shall 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 the Father’s hand.”
3. Jesus, in His high priestly prayer, prays not for the world but for those given to Him by the Father. In fulfillment of the Father’s charge Jesus had accomplished the work the Father had sent Him to do-to make God known to His people and to give them eternal life.
John 17:1-11, 20, 24-26: When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify thy Son that the Son may glorify thee, since thou hast given him power over all flesh, so that he might give eternal life to all whom thou hast given him. And this is eternal life, that they know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. I glorified thee on earth, having accomplished the work which thou gavest me to do; and now, Father, glorify thou me in thy own presence with the glory which I had with thee before the world was made.
“I have manifested thy name to the men whom thou gavest me out of the world; thine they were, and thou gavest them to me, and they have kept thy word. Now they know that everything that thou hast given me is from thee; for I have given them the words which thou gavest me, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from thee; and they have believed that thou didst send me. Iam praying for them; I am not praying for the world but for those whom thou hast given me, for they are thine; all mine are thine, and thine are mine, and I am glorified in them. And now I am no more in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to thee. Holy Father,
keep them in thy name which thou hast given me, that they may be one, even as we are one …. I do not pray for these only, but also for those who are to believe in me through their word, . . . Father, I desire that they also, whom thou hast given me, may be with me where I am, to behold my glory which thou hast given me in thy love for me before the foundation of the world. 0 righteous Father, the world has not known thee, but I have known thee; and these know that thou hast sent me. I made known to them thy name, and I will make it known, that the love with which thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.”
4. Paul declares that all of the “spiritual blessings” which the saints inherit such as sonship, redemption, the forgiveness of sin, etc., result from their being “in Christ,” and he traces these blessings back to their ultimate source in the eternal counsel of God-to that great blessing of their having been chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world and destined to be God’s sons through Him.
Ephesians 1:3-12: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. He destined us in love to be his sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace which he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace which he lavished upon us. For he has made known to us in all wisdom and insight the mystery of his will, according to his purpose which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.
In him, according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to the counsel of his will, we who first hoped in Christ have been destined and appointed to live for the praise of his glory.
5. The parallel which Paul draws between the condemning work of Adam and the saving work of Jesus Christ the “second man,” the “last Adam,” can best be explained on the principle that both stood in covenant relation to “their people” (Adam stood as the federal head of the race, and Christ stood as the federal head of the elect). As Adam involved his people in death and
condemnation by his sin, even so Christ brought justification and life to His people through His righteousness.
Romans 5:12,17-19: Therefore as sin came into the world through one man [Adam] and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all men sinned …. If, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ. Then as one man’s trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one man’s act of righteousness leads to acquittal and life for all men. For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by one man’s obedience many will be made righteous.
C. Some passages speak of Christ’s dying for “all” men and of His death as saving the “world,” yet others speak of His death as being definite in design and of His dying for particular people and securing salvation for them.
1. There are two classes of texts that speak of Christ’s saving work in general terms: (a) Those containing the word “world”- e.g., John 1:9,29; 3:16,17; 4:42; II Corinthians 5:19; I John 2:1,2; 4:14 and (b) Those containing the word “all”-e.g., Romans 5:18; II Corinthians 5:14,15; I Timothy 2:4-6; Hebrews 2:9;IIPeter 3:9.
One reason for the use of these expressions was to correct the false notion that salvation was for the Jews alone. Such phrases as “the world,” “all men,” “all nations,” and “every creature” were used by the New Testament writers to emphatically correct this mistake. These expressions are intended to show that Christ died for all men without distinction (i.e., He died for Jews and Gentiles alike) but they are not intended to indicate that Christ died for all men without exception (i.e., He did not die for the purpose of saving each and every lost sinner).
2. There are other passages which speak of His saving work in definite terms and show that it was intended to infallibly save a particular people, namely those given to Him by the Father.
Matthew 1:21: “… for he will save his people from their sins.”
Matthew 20:28: “. . . the Son of man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
Matthew 26:28: “. . . for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.”
John 10:11: “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.”
John 11:50-53: “. . . you do not understand that it is expedient for you that one man should die for the people, and not that the whole nation should perish.” He did not say this of his own accord, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus should die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad. So from that day on they took counsel how to put him to death.
Acts 20:28: Take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you guardians, to feed the church of the Lord which he obtained for himself with his own blood.
Ephesians 5:25-27: Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her. having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that the church might be presented before him in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.
Romans 8:32-34: He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, will he not also give us all things with him? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies; who is to condemn?
Hebrews 2:17; 3:1: Therefore he had to be made like his brethren in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make expiation for the sins of the people …. Therefore, holy brethren, who share in a heavenly call, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession.
Hebrews 9:15: Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred which redeems them from the transgressions under the first covenant.
Hebrews 9:28: … Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many . . .
Revelation 5:9: … and they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy art thou to take the scroll and to open its seals, for thou wast slain and by thy blood didst ransom men for God from every tribe and, tongue and people and nation . . .”
Review also the verses quoted above under B, 1, 2, 3.
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