Atonement: Limited in scope but not in power (part III)

A biblical view of atonement does allow for the whole of mankind to be beneficiaries of Christ's death, but not in a saving, redeeming sense. It allows for all the common benefits that mankind enjoy from the rising sun, to the rain in season, to the spreading of the gospel message throughout every tribe, nation and tongue and it allows for the stay of execution (the fact that God doesn't deal with the iniquity of men and women as soon as they are born). It allows for these things, because these are all manifestations of grace. The reality is no man or woman deserves even the slightest hint of grace, but rather the full wrath of God. For God to be consistent with His character He must justly deal with the wickedness of man by instantly pouring out His judgment upon them. There is no room for patience or long-suffering. And yet God is patient and long-suffering with the wicked. So how can He be just and patient at the same time? Well, by Christ buying that grace upon the cross of Calvary. By doing this, Christ has appeased God's judgment, met God's justice and bought time for the sinner and patience from God. In this sense Christ's atonement was for everyone, but his special redeeming work on the cross which brought about the purchase of lost souls was definitely limited to the elect of God. Romans 3:25 and 2:4 are helpful verses in this respect.

We looked at 1 John 2:2 as a challenging text for limited atonement and we said that the best understanding of that text was to view the word 'world' in the sense of God's elect people from every tribe, nation and tongue, but we didn't really give a clear idea why that would be the right way to look at it. I've got this to add: If we take a look at John 11:51-52 we can see another text written by the same author (John) which adds weight to the idea that 'world' in 1 John 2:2 means God's elect from every tribe, nation and tongue. John 11:51-52 reads like this:

He did not say this on his own, but as high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the Jewish nation, and not only for that nation but also for the scattered children of God, to bring them together and make them one.

He did not say this on his own, but as high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the Jewish nation, and not only for that nation but also for the scattered children of God, to bring them together and make them one. The similarities in the idea and grammar are really striking. Jesus is going to die for the Jewish nation (by the way He didn't die for the whole Jewish nation either, but that's another study) and for the scattered children. 1 John 2:2 takes the same format. Understanding who exactly John was writing to in 1 John will also help us to work out what the 'us' in the verse means. John is a Jew writing to other believing Jews, so the 'us' means 'us elect Jews'. To add to this, the fact that John elsewhere in his writings makes it clear that the whole world is not going to be saved (Revelation 14:9-11), it leaves little doubt that the 'world' referred to in 1 John 2:2 is the elect peoples from every tribe, nation and tongue (Revelation 7:9).

Continued in part 4...