grateful4grace
New Member
While studying once in the early 90’s it came to me how simple the matter of limited atonement really was to defend, when proposed in the following question: If Jesus died for souls now in hell, by whose merits do we hope to obtain salvation?
There is only one answer: not HIS; only YOURS. There is simply no way out of it. I have asked this question to dozens of people since then, and have never gotten anything remotely close to a answer, and rarely is it long atempted.
Secondly, those of a universal atonement perspective often like to assert that scripture nowhere teaches a limited atonement, but everywhere speaks of a universal one. While the second claim is likely better deal with in a separate string, yet I would like to propose the following scripture as conclusive scriptural proof that the Lord Jesus died only for His elect.
“29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
30 Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.
31 What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?
32 He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?” (Romans 8:29-32)
Notice verse 32…… It says one thing very clearly: Whoever it was that Jesus died for gets “all things”, and these “things” can ONLY refer to those “things” just mentioned… predestination, calling, justification, and glorification…. i.e., salvation. So if Jesus died for all men, then all are saved, because those for whom he died cannot fail of getting THESE things. Thus we are left with being either Sovereign Grace, or Universalists. That choice should be easy.
The bible is too clear in teaching that MOST men will be eternally damned, therefore, Jesus only died for His elect.
For those who oppose this doctrine, I propose to them that they answer these two questions.
1. Precisely WHAT is the benefit that these shall receive, if not that which is explicitly NAMED….. eternal salvation, from predestination all the way to glorification?
2. To WHOM is this benefit applied, if not to those explicitly NAMED in the text, those for whom Christ “gave Himself”?
I remind the respondent that a direct answer the two questions that are here asked is alone pertinent.
G4G
There is only one answer: not HIS; only YOURS. There is simply no way out of it. I have asked this question to dozens of people since then, and have never gotten anything remotely close to a answer, and rarely is it long atempted.
Secondly, those of a universal atonement perspective often like to assert that scripture nowhere teaches a limited atonement, but everywhere speaks of a universal one. While the second claim is likely better deal with in a separate string, yet I would like to propose the following scripture as conclusive scriptural proof that the Lord Jesus died only for His elect.
“29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
30 Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.
31 What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?
32 He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?” (Romans 8:29-32)
Notice verse 32…… It says one thing very clearly: Whoever it was that Jesus died for gets “all things”, and these “things” can ONLY refer to those “things” just mentioned… predestination, calling, justification, and glorification…. i.e., salvation. So if Jesus died for all men, then all are saved, because those for whom he died cannot fail of getting THESE things. Thus we are left with being either Sovereign Grace, or Universalists. That choice should be easy.
The bible is too clear in teaching that MOST men will be eternally damned, therefore, Jesus only died for His elect.
For those who oppose this doctrine, I propose to them that they answer these two questions.
1. Precisely WHAT is the benefit that these shall receive, if not that which is explicitly NAMED….. eternal salvation, from predestination all the way to glorification?
2. To WHOM is this benefit applied, if not to those explicitly NAMED in the text, those for whom Christ “gave Himself”?
I remind the respondent that a direct answer the two questions that are here asked is alone pertinent.
G4G
