Limited Atonement vs Universalism - Part 1

The Love of Christ and the Question of Atonement

Thank you for listening to this message from the ministry of Morse Corner Church in Leverett, Massachusetts. Morse Corner is a non-denominational church that is committed to the preaching and teaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Our church was founded in 1896 by two students of the famous evangelist D .L. Moody. We seek to encourage and edify the body of Christ through the proclamation of God's word through the ministries of the local church.

If you'd like more information, visit our website, morsecornerchurch .com. We hope you enjoy the message. 2 Corinthians 5, verse 14, the Bible reads, For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus, that if one died for all, then all died.

And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for him who died for them and rose again. Let's pray. Our Father, as we open your word this morning, I pray that your spirit would be present.

And Lord, I ask that you would guide my tongue from error and give grace and understanding to our minds as we ponder these truths from thy word. And I ask all this in Jesus name. Amen. All right, we're going to need an extra measure of grace this morning.

Universal Atonement, Limited Atonement, and Universalism

OK, because we are going to brush up against a very controversial subject, a subject that has been debated throughout church history. And you may have noticed from the verses that we read that there is some universal sounding language here.

2 Corinthians chapter 5, the Apostle Paul states, Christ died for all. And then in verse 19, he says that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself. So, this is universal type language. Christ died for all.

And you say, Amen. And Christ died for all. And I say, Amen. But Christ died for all. We could ask, all of what? Or all of who? Paul uses the term all, but you may remember what Jesus said in Mark 10, 45, when he said that he would give his life a ransom for many.

And then in John 10, 15, our Lord says, I lay down my life for the sheep. So, historically, these things have led to the debate of universal atonement versus limited atonement. And I know there's a lot of people, they don't like that term, limited atonement.

And for some, that may seem like the elephant in the room. But you know, that's not really the primary concern this morning. What we want to do, this is what we always want to do, we want to know what the scripture is saying.

What is the intent of the Apostle Paul? That's the real question here. What was the intent of the Apostle Paul in writing to the church at Corinth? Notice what he says in verse 14, that if one died for all, then all died.

Who is this all? And who is this group that has died? Is Paul talking about all human beings, every human being on earth, or every human being who has ever lived upon the earth? Or is he talking about all who believe, all Christians?

Well, that's the first thing that we are going to look at. And this will lead us to the second point, which is verse 17, where Paul says, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things have passed away.

Behold, all things have become new. And then the final point is God's work of reconciling the world to himself. So if you're going to understand this message, you have to pay attention this morning. Okay?

You have to pay attention. But this is universal sounding language, which has led some people to draw some false conclusions. Not least among them is what is called universalism. How many of you have heard of universalism?

Okay, and we will talk about that. But before we get into the meat of the word here, let's bring ourselves back up to speed from the last time we were in 2 Corinthians chapter 5. First off, you remember the context of the letter.

In 2 Corinthians, the Apostle Paul is having to defend himself against the attacks of the false teachers. And he appeals to the church. He said, You know me. You know my doctrine. You know my manner of life.

Look at verse 12. He says, For we do not commend ourselves again to you, but give you opportunity to boast on our behalf, that you may have an answer for those who boast in appearance and not in heart.

So who are those who boast in appearance but not in heart? Well, this is the false teachers, the false teachers. Paul wants to make sure the church understands who they are and what they're about. So Paul's opponents boasted in appearance.

This is what the scribes and Pharisees would do. They boasted in appearance, but not in heart. They were not sincere. So the false teachers, false apostles, false brethren, they were not sincere. They look good on the outside.

They look like Christians on the surface, but they were not sincere in their hearts. So just think about it, what they were doing. They were attacking an apostle of Jesus Christ. And these false teachers, we believe, were legalists.

And what is legalism? This is the real form of legalism, which was a type of salvation by faith plus the works of the Mosaic law. So the legalistic false teachers were attacking the Apostle Paul. And apparently one of the things that they were saying about Paul is that he's crazy.

The Apostle Paul is out of his mind. What does Paul say in response? Verse 13, Paul says, well, if we are beside ourselves, it's for God. And the Greek word, ex estemi, means to be out of one's mind or beside yourself.

So the false teachers were saying Paul is out of his mind. And Paul says, well, if that's true, it's for God. If I'm crazy, I'm crazy for God, basically is what he's saying. Verse 14, for the love of Christ compels us.

Or he says, if we're of sound mind, it's for you. But the love of Christ compels us. So Paul understood that the cross was the most amazing display of God's love. And Paul understood what Christ did for him.

And that's why he says, the love of Christ compels us. The love of Christ compels me. And of course, to serve him. So Paul understood all of that. But let's focus in on this statement in verse 14. Because this is really what you need to pay attention to, what we're going to focus on.

In verse 14, for the love of Christ compels us. And then we get this statement, because we judge thus. That if one died for all, then all died. And verse 15 starts, he died for all. Okay, so there's a very clear statement, Christ died for all.

So let's stop there and examine this statement that Paul is making. That Jesus died for all. This is where people get the idea of a universal atonement. Or what people call universalism. So we've all heard of universalist churches.

Today they're usually combined where it's Unitarian Universalist. And whatever they believe today is one thing. But historically, a universalist church believed that everybody goes to heaven. So universalism is the idea and the teaching that everybody goes to heaven no matter what.

So universal, every human being who ever lived will go to heaven. Now that's universalism, which we don't believe the scripture teaches. The universal atonement is the idea that Jesus died for all. That is, he atoned for the sins of every single human being who has ever lived.

But is that really what Paul is saying here? Okay, I don't think so. I don't think that is what he is saying. Now here's my preliminary statement on the atonement of Christ. The atonement is sufficient for all, efficient for some.

And you could write that down. The atonement is sufficient for all, efficient for some. So in that sense, the atonement is limited. On the other hand, we preach it as though salvation and the atonement is offered to all.

We preach the gospel to every creature. But again, the atonement, the forgiveness of sin, it's only applied to a limited group. That would be those who believe.

Are you following along?

Substitutionary Atonement and the Meaning of “For All”

So with that said, what is the Apostle Paul's intent? Christ died for all. What does he mean by that? Well, first, let's look at this statement that he died for someone, okay? Paul says, starting in verse 15, and he died for, F-O-R, he died for all.

The Greek word translated for is hopere, and it means on behalf of or in place of. 1 Corinthians 15 verse 3 says, Christ died for our sins. And this is where we get the doctrine of what is called substitutionary atonement.

We're using a lot of big theological terms this morning, okay? Substitutionary atonement. That Jesus was a substitute. He died for us. He took our place. God punished him instead of us. If you believe in Jesus, God will never punish you at the judgment.

He will never punish you for your sins. Because Christ has died for them. He took care of the penalty. So to the question, when Paul says that Christ died for all, what does he mean? All of who? All who believe?

Every human being who has ever lived? That's the question. What is the intent of the Apostle Paul? Well, first off. And, you know, when you ask a question, an answer usually pops into someone's mind. Well, I think this.

I believe this.

Okay, well, why do you believe that? Have you been taught that? Have you come to your own conclusion through the study of scripture? So this statement, he died for all. I think it's important to remember who Paul is, his background, and who he is writing to.

Right?

Paul was a former Pharisee. Do you remember the Pharisees and most of the Jews at that time? They believed that God only cared about them.

Right?

The Pharisees thought that God only cares about the Jews. But now Paul is writing to the church, which is a mixed group of Jew and Gentile. Also, considering the subject of the atonement. In the Old Testament, what happened on the day of atonement?

And what is atonement? Christ providing a covering for our sins, cleansing of our sin. But consider, in the Old Testament, when the high priest applied the blood on the mercy seat. On the day of atonement, it was on behalf.

I don't think anybody questions this. The atonement was on behalf of those who were in the covenant. The day of atonement in the Old Testament was for God's people. When atonement was made by the Jewish high priest, it was not made on behalf of the king of the Philistines.

The atonement was not made on behalf of the Babylonians. The atonement, in other words, was limited for the children of Israel. So with that in mind, what does Paul mean that Christ died for all? All of who?

Well, let's look at the context. What do we do when we look at the context? We read the verses before. We read the verses after. And we compare Scripture with Scripture. So let's look at the context. Verse 15 starts out with the statement, Christ died for all.

And again, I say amen. But the verse prior says this. 2 Corinthians 5 .14,. For the love of Christ compels us.

Who's the us?

For the love of Christ compels us. Because we judge thus, that if one died for all, then all died. Thanks for listening. I'm Pastor Michael Grant from Morris Cornick Church. If you'd like to listen to the complete message, or if you'd like more information about the ministry, visit our website, MorrisCornickChurch .com.

And we'd love to have you join us some Sunday morning here in Leverett. Until next time, may the grace of God be with you.