Dear Readers,
Please forgive me for abandoning you for now nine days. More and more I am prone to believe in inspiration. Get me not wrong, I am not laying the blame of my passiveness on inspiration, but I will certainly say that without it, the desire to blog, write, and other such creativities is significantly diminished.
But today is a new day, a new moment in time, that is built of enumerable nuggets of tragedies, histories, and comedies, all coming together to form a normal day that is little different from yesterday, yet so unique. Hence, I now present to you a work produced during one of those regular days at the office, whose life veins I gathered together, creating what lays before you... I hope you enjoy my English assignment, an Opinion Paper, whose subject I picked to be...
Concerning the Eternal Salvation of Men
Some Christians say that Christ died for everyone. I believe this is neither scriptural nor logical. Instead I hold to the doctrine called “Particular Redemption,” which states that all those for whom Christ died are indeed saved and will go to heaven, but that he did not die for each member of the human race. The reasons for my opinion I now relate to you, my dear reader.
It must first be asked, “What did Christ actually accomplish on the cross?” Hebrews 9:12 tells us that “Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.” Hebrews 1:3 says, “When he had by himself purged our sins…” These verses clearly state that he actually obtained eternal redemption for those he died for by cleansing them completely of their sins. As Paul would say in 2 Corinthians 5:21, “For He [God the Father] hath made Him [Jesus Christ] to be sin for us…that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.” The Great Transaction, as it has been called, was that our sins were laid on Jesus Christ and his perfect righteousness was transferred to us, such that now the God “who cannot look upon sin” (Habbakuk 1:13) not only looks upon us but welcomes our fellowship. Jesus not only paid the debt for those individuals but assumed the guilt of that debt as well.
Why is this legal transaction necessary? The answer lies in the nature of God. Romans 9:14 states “What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid.” He works justly in all his actions. God must, if he is indeed God, punish sin. But by the same token God will not and cannot condemn to hell those people whose sins have been abolished by Christ’s self-sacrifice; to do so would be expressely against his nature of perfect justice. John Gill, an influential Christian author and theologian of the 1700’s, said this well in his Body of Doctrinal Divinity, “The reason why some are not punished in themselves, is, because Christ has made satisfaction for their sins, by bearing the punishment due to them.” If Christ died for an individual, that person is legally no longer guilty and will not, indeed cannot be condemned. He is, after all, not guilty, and an omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent, perfect God cannot err in His judgement. “Shall not the judge of all the earth do right?” (Genesis 18:25)
If, then, Jesus died for every man, the only possible outcome is that no one will go to hell. However, and most Christians will agree, Scripture clearly says that there are people in hell. For example, Luke 16:22-23: “…The rich man also died, and was buried; And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments…;” and again in Ezekiel 31:16: “When I cast him down to hell with them that descend into the pit…” In fact, Jesus himself talked about hell more than any other person or book of the Bible. If all for whom Christ died are certainly saved from hell according to the righteous judgement of God, but we know just as certainly from the scripture that there are some who inhabit that place of condemnation, the only possible logical conclusion is that Christ did not die for those people.
This belief is generally shunned by the majority of Christians. The argument that is often brought up is that Christ is unfair to save some and not others. This line of thought exposes a basic ignorance of the natural state of humankind; when our true nature is clearly understood, the fact that Christ saved anyone is rightly seen as nothing but gracious, merciful, and completely undeserved. Since Adam’s sin, all humans, through him, have been born sinners and totally depraved. Job 14:1 says, “Man that is born of a woman is of few days and full of trouble.” (Incidentally, this is easily proven by the fact that all men die – death is the ultimate expression of sin. …”Sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.” James 1:15) Ephesians 2:1 tells us “You hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins.” Must I actually define death for the reader? A spiritually dead man is as utterly impotent and incapable of sense to spiritual things as a naturally dead man is to natural things. He is not merely unconscious, he is without life. 1 Corithians 2:14 says about this, “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” Not only can a spiritually dead man not understand spiritual things, but he has no desire to; the natural man hates God, as we can see in Romans 8:7: “Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.”
As has already been shown, God, in his justness, must condemn sin. Gill says in his aforementioned book, “…Punitive, or vindicitive justice, is essential to God, or that he not only will not let sin go unpunished, but that he cannot but punish sin…” Therefore, in the name of Justice, all men deserve hell. God does not send anyone to hell – we bring upon ourselves that just condemnation by our own wilful transgression of his law. Every man since Adam has been born a sinner and proceeded to prove it by his actions as soon as he was able. As Romans 5:12 says, “Forasmuch as by one man [Adam] sin entered the world, and death by sin, so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.” The Judge of all the earth would be just and righteous to condemn all men to hell.
But God’s nature is also defined by mercy. In his great mercy he chose to bring salvation to many. God was never obligated to do so, nor was his mercy based on any merit in them, for “…even their righteousnesses are as filthy rags…” (Isaiah 64:6). He did it “…not according to our works but according to his own purpose…” (1 Timothy 1:9). Ephesians 4:1 also speaks of this: “According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:” He covenanted with Christ for the latter to die on the cross and bear God’s wrath as a substitute. This substitution not only transferred the punishment, it also transferred the guilt, making those whom God chose to save legally and actually innocent before him. It is indeed all of grace that anyone goes to heaven.
Andrew's Thanks: Eld David Pyles, from whose discourse, Abstract to the Doctrine of Salvationas Advocated by The Primitive Baptists, I borrowed an idea or two; Dan KB, who helped arrange my thoughts on paper to an understandable fashion; My Dearest Mum, without whom, I would never have finished any of these papers.
