In this section, I will explain the reformed understanding of atonement as that of particular and penal substitutionary death of Christ on the cross. For this I will expound Scriptures so as to progressively unfold this doctrine and end the section with remarks on how this view of atonement satisfies all the imperfections earlier pointed against the Arminian view along with the relevance and importance of believing this doctrine.
The Doctrine of Particular Redemption - II
In the very first page of the New Testament, we are told why the Lord will be called Jesus. In Matthew 1:21, it is written “She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” Three things are very clearly stated here. First of all, the Son of Man, the incarnate Son of God, the Word which became flesh should be called Jesus. Jesus is the Greek from of Joshua which means the Lord saves. The name Jesus means the Lord saves. Please note that it does not mean that the Lord will try to save or will make salvation possible, but it is a declaration of a perfect work of salvation. It is a definitive statement, one which shall surely come to pass. Hence it is clear in the very first page of the New Testament, what the mission of Jesus was in His incarnation. Secondly, it is stated clearly that the subjects of this salvific work will be a group called 'His people'. So we can infer that there is a group of people called God's people, who alone shall be the effective recipients of the grace of God. Later on in this section, we shall see who this group are and which understanding – the Arminian or the Reformed, on the identity of this elect people of God is scriptural. Thirdly, it can be seen from the above verse that the Lord saves His people from their sins. It is from their sins that the Lord Jesus saves His people. In this day and age, where this message of freedom from sin is largely neglected and instead preaching on prosperity and earthly blessings are in the forefront, this verse should be an alarm for preachers to wake up from their decadence.
So we see that the mission of Jesus in coming to earth was to save His people from their sins and that He shall definitely do it so that He is worthy of having His Name as Jesus or 'The Lord Saves'.
Let me move on to another verse in Luke 19:10 where the Lord Himself states His intention of His earthly ministry. It is written “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.” It is clear from this verse that Jesus' intention was to seek and save the lost. Please note here as in the previous verse the definitive nature of the salvific work of Christ. He says He shall save the lost. It is no way conveyed that He shall try or make salvation possible. But rather He shall save the lost. In other words, He is no way referring to a theoretical salvation, but a real salvation. Our Lord is thus a Saviour who offers true salvation to His people and not one who makes salvation possible for willing ones to appropriate. So Jesus not only opens the door for the lost to be saved, but also causes His people to be saved. If He only makes salvation a possibility, then He is no saviour. It is no good news to hear that God has done everything for our salvation and now expects us – we who are dead in our sins and are enemies of God in our nature, to repent of our sins and believe Him. In earlier sections on total depravity and election, it was shown how we are not only unwilling but unable to obey God. We have a will, but which is bound by a dead and sinful nature. Hence if God does His part of making salvation possible for any willing ones, then surely no one will get saved. Even if some one does, he cannot honestly say that Jesus is His Saviour, the Author and Perfecter of faith. For he did his part and thus he got saved. Thus in that understanding of salvation, the person who gets saved is co-redemptrix with Jesus. This is blasphemy of the first kind. Hence we say using this verse in Luke 19:10, that Jesus is not one who just makes salvation humanly achievable, but rather He is the Saviour – one who purchases, facilitates and perfects the salvation of His people.
In John 10:11, Jesus said “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.”Here again, the Lord makes a clear statement on the particularity of the subjects of His atonement. There is no verse in the Bible, where the whole world is called the sheep of the Great Shepherd Jesus Christ. Now Arminians will argue that we can exercise our free will, repent of our sins,believe in the Lord and become the sheep of the Lord. So their argument is you can believe and become the elect. To which the Lord's words in the same chapter and verse 26 is apt. In John 10:26, the Lord told the unbelieving “you do not believe because you are not my sheep.” So we do not believe and become the sheep of the Lord, rather we believe because we are His sheep. Faith is granted only to the elect and hence the Arminian argument is totally unreasonable. Another evidence for explaining unbelief using the doctrine of election is John 8:46-47, where the Lord said “If I am telling the truth, why don’t you believe me? He who belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God.” The Lord very openly states the reason why some who hear His truth does not believe in Him. He said the reason is because they do not belong to God. They are not God's people, hence faith is not granted to them and therefore they remain in unbelief. It is noteworthy that the Lord did not explain their unbelief using their free will, but rather explained it using God's sovereign choice of His people. In our exposition of Matthew 1:21, at the beginning of this section we saw that the there is a group of people called 'His people'. From the words of our Lord shown here, it is clear that His people are His sheep, to whom He grants the gift of faith to believe in Him and thus be saved. Then from John 10:11, we can see that the Good Shepherd gives His life for this sheep alone. There is another group of people on earth who are not the sheep, for whom the gift of faith is not granted as nothing was purchased for them by Christ on the cross.
In John 17, when Jesus prays for His disciples, He makes this distinction between His people and the others. In verse 19, He prays “I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours.” He did not pray for the others, but for the ones whom the Father gave Him. Who are these? In verse 2, the Lord prays “For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him.” So the ones whom the Father gave the Son are the ones to whom the Son gives eternal life. Please note the particularity in the plan of God to save His chosen people, His sheep alone.
So we have seen that the Father has chosen a group of people from all the peoples of the world and gave them to His Son to seek and save, for whom the Son grants eternal life and even that which is necessary for their appropriation of this salvation namely faith.
In keeping with this plan of redemption, where God chooses a particular group of people and then calls, justifies and glorifies them alone(Romans 8:30), it is highly unreasonable that the atonement of Christ (which causes all these to happen to His people) be universal. It has to be particular both in intention and effect.
Again in the most popular chapter on the atonement of Christ, Isaiah 53, we have enough evidence to substantiate the particular nature of His redemption. In verses 10-12, it is written “But the LORD was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief; if He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, and the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand. As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied; by His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, As He will bear their iniquities. Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great, and He will divide the spoils with the strong; because He poured out Himself to death, and was numbered with the transgressors; yet He Himself bore the sin of many, and interceded for the transgressors.”
From the above verses, many things can be pointed out regarding the atonement. However we will confine ourselves to those points which are relevant in the present discussion. First of all, it is said about the Lord that He will be satisfied with the result of the anguish of His soul. In other words, the Lord accomplished everything He desired to accomplish in His death on the cross and thus was satisfied with His atonement. If at this point we consider the universal view of the Arminians, then how can the Lord be satisfied about the result of His suffering. For in the Arminian view, Jesus dies even for those who will not believe Him and will go to hell in the end. How can the Lord look at His 'efforts' on the cross to save them and be satisfied at the their eternal peril? If He thus fails to save men, then how can He be satisfied? Thus in the Arminian view, the Lord does not accomplish His desire and cannot be fully satisfied at His work on the cross. However in the particular redemption view, which I believe and defend as the Biblical view here, has no such issues. For we say that the Scriptures are clear on for whom the Lord gave His life on the cross and they are the elect of God. Jesus died on the cross for them and thereby offers them salvation along with the evangelical grace of faith so that they shall be perfectly saved. Thus the Lord accomplishes all that He purposed and can be fully satisfied with His work on the cross. Second point relevant to this discussion is found in verse 12, where it is clearly written that the Lord bore the sin of many. It does not say that the Lord bore the sins of the world, but a group called the many. A valid question to ask is : who is this many? The answer to that is in verse 11. It is written in verse 11, that by His knowledge the Great Servant of Jehovah shall justify the many, as He will bear their iniquities. It is clear from this verse who the many are. The many are those whom the Lord shall justify. In other words, the many are those who shall get saved through Jesus Christ. They many are those who receive peace with God as a gift through the grace given in Christ. So the many are the true Christians or we can say the elect. For justification of their sins is a gift only possessed by born again believers and it says that He bore their sins only, no one else included. The above verse is clear that if Jesus bore the sins of someone then that one will also be justified and be saved. In other words, Jesus cannot bear someone's sins and then let that person end up as an unbeliever. So it is unreasonable and unscriptural to say that the Lord bore the sins of even those who shall end up in hell for being unbelievers. The Lord carried the sins of His people alone, whom He shall justify and glorify, who as stated earlier are the predestined, chosen ones of God – the elect.
So we have seen that the Lord bore the sins of only those whom He shall justify and thus His atonement was particular in nature towards the elect of God.
One more evidence on the particular nature of the intention, work and effect of the atonement death of Christ. In Titus 2:14 it is written “who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.” In this verse Paul very clearly states that the ones for whom the Lord gave Himself are the ones who are being redeemed. In other words the intention of the atonement was to redeem His people. If Paul were an Arminian, he should have said “who gave Himself for the world to redeem the world”. But in the above verse it is not so. The verse is clear that for whom the Lord gave His life are the same ones who are redeemed from all wickedness. Hence if the Lord gave His life for all the world then the whole world should get redeemed from all wickedness, which both Arminians and Reformed saints reject. The only possible way to understand this verse is to believe in election and particular redemption.
So Jesus Christ gave Himself for the elect so that elect will be redeemed from all wickedness and be purified to be His own people.
Thus in the particular redemption view of the atonement, we have
1.Christ who in all respect is a perfect saviour because His death does guarantee the eternal salvation for all whom He died for. Unlike the Arminian view, Christ does not merely try and fail.
2.Faith is a gift granted only to the sheep of the Great Shepherd and thus believers have nothing to boast about their salvation. Unlike the Arminian view, we cannot believe and become the elect. So man is not the decisive factor in salvation and thus not worthy of any glory greater than that of Christ.
3.The wrath of God against the elect alone has been appeased by Christ's death and hence on the Last day, God punishes the reprobates with His unappeased wrath towards them. Unlike the Arminian view, God does not punish first Christ with the sins of the reprobates and then even though His wrath has been appeased by Christ, punishes the reprobate on the Last day, for the same sins again.
Why Believe This Doctrine?
The atonement of Christ is the central truth in Christianity. There is no greater truth which we should believe, understand and celebrate than the death of our Saviour. Due to the weightiness of this truth, it is absolutely critical that we know this truth in all its purity. For in it we see the perfection of the work of Christ, the efficacy of the atonement and the wisdom of God. Not only is our understanding affected by our knowledge of the atonement, but our worship of God, our perseverance in faith and in fact all practical areas of Christian life are tremendously dependant on our enlightening on the atonement work of Christ on the cross. From my own experience of being an Arminian for seven long years, I can honestly testify that it is after I became a Reformed Christian that I perceived the manifold and awesome perfection of Christ's work. It revolutionized my love and worship of Him. In battles of overcoming sin, it is a real comfort to know the efficacy of the atonement of Christ. Christ is no longer a theoretical saviour who opened the doors for me to achieve salvation – whether justification or sanctification or even glorification. But He is my Saviour – one who not only opens the way, but has secured through His death, all I require to appropriate my salvation - whether justification or sanctification or glorification. That's good news indeed and a Christ who is all together glorious.
“Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.” (Ephesians 5:25-27)
My Christ gave Himself only for the Church, with this intention of saving her to be holy and He shall see to it. Our justification, sanctification and glorification is all included in the atonement and He who gave His life to purchase our justification, sanctification and glorification will cause it all to happen in us through His grace.
May His Name alone be glorified.
In the very first page of the New Testament, we are told why the Lord will be called Jesus. In Matthew 1:21, it is written “She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” Three things are very clearly stated here. First of all, the Son of Man, the incarnate Son of God, the Word which became flesh should be called Jesus. Jesus is the Greek from of Joshua which means the Lord saves. The name Jesus means the Lord saves. Please note that it does not mean that the Lord will try to save or will make salvation possible, but it is a declaration of a perfect work of salvation. It is a definitive statement, one which shall surely come to pass. Hence it is clear in the very first page of the New Testament, what the mission of Jesus was in His incarnation. Secondly, it is stated clearly that the subjects of this salvific work will be a group called 'His people'. So we can infer that there is a group of people called God's people, who alone shall be the effective recipients of the grace of God. Later on in this section, we shall see who this group are and which understanding – the Arminian or the Reformed, on the identity of this elect people of God is scriptural. Thirdly, it can be seen from the above verse that the Lord saves His people from their sins. It is from their sins that the Lord Jesus saves His people. In this day and age, where this message of freedom from sin is largely neglected and instead preaching on prosperity and earthly blessings are in the forefront, this verse should be an alarm for preachers to wake up from their decadence.
So we see that the mission of Jesus in coming to earth was to save His people from their sins and that He shall definitely do it so that He is worthy of having His Name as Jesus or 'The Lord Saves'.
Let me move on to another verse in Luke 19:10 where the Lord Himself states His intention of His earthly ministry. It is written “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.” It is clear from this verse that Jesus' intention was to seek and save the lost. Please note here as in the previous verse the definitive nature of the salvific work of Christ. He says He shall save the lost. It is no way conveyed that He shall try or make salvation possible. But rather He shall save the lost. In other words, He is no way referring to a theoretical salvation, but a real salvation. Our Lord is thus a Saviour who offers true salvation to His people and not one who makes salvation possible for willing ones to appropriate. So Jesus not only opens the door for the lost to be saved, but also causes His people to be saved. If He only makes salvation a possibility, then He is no saviour. It is no good news to hear that God has done everything for our salvation and now expects us – we who are dead in our sins and are enemies of God in our nature, to repent of our sins and believe Him. In earlier sections on total depravity and election, it was shown how we are not only unwilling but unable to obey God. We have a will, but which is bound by a dead and sinful nature. Hence if God does His part of making salvation possible for any willing ones, then surely no one will get saved. Even if some one does, he cannot honestly say that Jesus is His Saviour, the Author and Perfecter of faith. For he did his part and thus he got saved. Thus in that understanding of salvation, the person who gets saved is co-redemptrix with Jesus. This is blasphemy of the first kind. Hence we say using this verse in Luke 19:10, that Jesus is not one who just makes salvation humanly achievable, but rather He is the Saviour – one who purchases, facilitates and perfects the salvation of His people.
In John 10:11, Jesus said “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.”Here again, the Lord makes a clear statement on the particularity of the subjects of His atonement. There is no verse in the Bible, where the whole world is called the sheep of the Great Shepherd Jesus Christ. Now Arminians will argue that we can exercise our free will, repent of our sins,believe in the Lord and become the sheep of the Lord. So their argument is you can believe and become the elect. To which the Lord's words in the same chapter and verse 26 is apt. In John 10:26, the Lord told the unbelieving “you do not believe because you are not my sheep.” So we do not believe and become the sheep of the Lord, rather we believe because we are His sheep. Faith is granted only to the elect and hence the Arminian argument is totally unreasonable. Another evidence for explaining unbelief using the doctrine of election is John 8:46-47, where the Lord said “If I am telling the truth, why don’t you believe me? He who belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God.” The Lord very openly states the reason why some who hear His truth does not believe in Him. He said the reason is because they do not belong to God. They are not God's people, hence faith is not granted to them and therefore they remain in unbelief. It is noteworthy that the Lord did not explain their unbelief using their free will, but rather explained it using God's sovereign choice of His people. In our exposition of Matthew 1:21, at the beginning of this section we saw that the there is a group of people called 'His people'. From the words of our Lord shown here, it is clear that His people are His sheep, to whom He grants the gift of faith to believe in Him and thus be saved. Then from John 10:11, we can see that the Good Shepherd gives His life for this sheep alone. There is another group of people on earth who are not the sheep, for whom the gift of faith is not granted as nothing was purchased for them by Christ on the cross.
In John 17, when Jesus prays for His disciples, He makes this distinction between His people and the others. In verse 19, He prays “I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours.” He did not pray for the others, but for the ones whom the Father gave Him. Who are these? In verse 2, the Lord prays “For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him.” So the ones whom the Father gave the Son are the ones to whom the Son gives eternal life. Please note the particularity in the plan of God to save His chosen people, His sheep alone.
So we have seen that the Father has chosen a group of people from all the peoples of the world and gave them to His Son to seek and save, for whom the Son grants eternal life and even that which is necessary for their appropriation of this salvation namely faith.
In keeping with this plan of redemption, where God chooses a particular group of people and then calls, justifies and glorifies them alone(Romans 8:30), it is highly unreasonable that the atonement of Christ (which causes all these to happen to His people) be universal. It has to be particular both in intention and effect.
Again in the most popular chapter on the atonement of Christ, Isaiah 53, we have enough evidence to substantiate the particular nature of His redemption. In verses 10-12, it is written “But the LORD was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief; if He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, and the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand. As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied; by His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, As He will bear their iniquities. Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great, and He will divide the spoils with the strong; because He poured out Himself to death, and was numbered with the transgressors; yet He Himself bore the sin of many, and interceded for the transgressors.”
From the above verses, many things can be pointed out regarding the atonement. However we will confine ourselves to those points which are relevant in the present discussion. First of all, it is said about the Lord that He will be satisfied with the result of the anguish of His soul. In other words, the Lord accomplished everything He desired to accomplish in His death on the cross and thus was satisfied with His atonement. If at this point we consider the universal view of the Arminians, then how can the Lord be satisfied about the result of His suffering. For in the Arminian view, Jesus dies even for those who will not believe Him and will go to hell in the end. How can the Lord look at His 'efforts' on the cross to save them and be satisfied at the their eternal peril? If He thus fails to save men, then how can He be satisfied? Thus in the Arminian view, the Lord does not accomplish His desire and cannot be fully satisfied at His work on the cross. However in the particular redemption view, which I believe and defend as the Biblical view here, has no such issues. For we say that the Scriptures are clear on for whom the Lord gave His life on the cross and they are the elect of God. Jesus died on the cross for them and thereby offers them salvation along with the evangelical grace of faith so that they shall be perfectly saved. Thus the Lord accomplishes all that He purposed and can be fully satisfied with His work on the cross. Second point relevant to this discussion is found in verse 12, where it is clearly written that the Lord bore the sin of many. It does not say that the Lord bore the sins of the world, but a group called the many. A valid question to ask is : who is this many? The answer to that is in verse 11. It is written in verse 11, that by His knowledge the Great Servant of Jehovah shall justify the many, as He will bear their iniquities. It is clear from this verse who the many are. The many are those whom the Lord shall justify. In other words, the many are those who shall get saved through Jesus Christ. They many are those who receive peace with God as a gift through the grace given in Christ. So the many are the true Christians or we can say the elect. For justification of their sins is a gift only possessed by born again believers and it says that He bore their sins only, no one else included. The above verse is clear that if Jesus bore the sins of someone then that one will also be justified and be saved. In other words, Jesus cannot bear someone's sins and then let that person end up as an unbeliever. So it is unreasonable and unscriptural to say that the Lord bore the sins of even those who shall end up in hell for being unbelievers. The Lord carried the sins of His people alone, whom He shall justify and glorify, who as stated earlier are the predestined, chosen ones of God – the elect.
So we have seen that the Lord bore the sins of only those whom He shall justify and thus His atonement was particular in nature towards the elect of God.
One more evidence on the particular nature of the intention, work and effect of the atonement death of Christ. In Titus 2:14 it is written “who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.” In this verse Paul very clearly states that the ones for whom the Lord gave Himself are the ones who are being redeemed. In other words the intention of the atonement was to redeem His people. If Paul were an Arminian, he should have said “who gave Himself for the world to redeem the world”. But in the above verse it is not so. The verse is clear that for whom the Lord gave His life are the same ones who are redeemed from all wickedness. Hence if the Lord gave His life for all the world then the whole world should get redeemed from all wickedness, which both Arminians and Reformed saints reject. The only possible way to understand this verse is to believe in election and particular redemption.
So Jesus Christ gave Himself for the elect so that elect will be redeemed from all wickedness and be purified to be His own people.
Thus in the particular redemption view of the atonement, we have
1.Christ who in all respect is a perfect saviour because His death does guarantee the eternal salvation for all whom He died for. Unlike the Arminian view, Christ does not merely try and fail.
2.Faith is a gift granted only to the sheep of the Great Shepherd and thus believers have nothing to boast about their salvation. Unlike the Arminian view, we cannot believe and become the elect. So man is not the decisive factor in salvation and thus not worthy of any glory greater than that of Christ.
3.The wrath of God against the elect alone has been appeased by Christ's death and hence on the Last day, God punishes the reprobates with His unappeased wrath towards them. Unlike the Arminian view, God does not punish first Christ with the sins of the reprobates and then even though His wrath has been appeased by Christ, punishes the reprobate on the Last day, for the same sins again.
Why Believe This Doctrine?
The atonement of Christ is the central truth in Christianity. There is no greater truth which we should believe, understand and celebrate than the death of our Saviour. Due to the weightiness of this truth, it is absolutely critical that we know this truth in all its purity. For in it we see the perfection of the work of Christ, the efficacy of the atonement and the wisdom of God. Not only is our understanding affected by our knowledge of the atonement, but our worship of God, our perseverance in faith and in fact all practical areas of Christian life are tremendously dependant on our enlightening on the atonement work of Christ on the cross. From my own experience of being an Arminian for seven long years, I can honestly testify that it is after I became a Reformed Christian that I perceived the manifold and awesome perfection of Christ's work. It revolutionized my love and worship of Him. In battles of overcoming sin, it is a real comfort to know the efficacy of the atonement of Christ. Christ is no longer a theoretical saviour who opened the doors for me to achieve salvation – whether justification or sanctification or even glorification. But He is my Saviour – one who not only opens the way, but has secured through His death, all I require to appropriate my salvation - whether justification or sanctification or glorification. That's good news indeed and a Christ who is all together glorious.
“Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.” (Ephesians 5:25-27)
My Christ gave Himself only for the Church, with this intention of saving her to be holy and He shall see to it. Our justification, sanctification and glorification is all included in the atonement and He who gave His life to purchase our justification, sanctification and glorification will cause it all to happen in us through His grace.
May His Name alone be glorified.
