Problem Passages for Unconditional Election

I jumped ahead a little ways. There are a few problem passages, at least the ones that are typically brought up against unconditional election besides Romans 8:29, and one of them is that God desires all people to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth (1 Timothy 2:4). So if he desires all people to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth, what’s this talk about him choosing some and not others? How does that fit? Because it doesn’t look then like he’s desiring all people to be saved.

Here’s the way I think about 1 Timothy 2:4. A Universalist is somebody who believes all people will be saved in the end. Arminians are not Universalists, usually, and most evangelical Christians don’t think universalism is taught in the Bible. I certainly don’t. So we agree with the Arminians, that God’s desire for all people to be saved doesn’t happen. His desire isn’t realized, if this verse means that he desires all people to be saved, and I’m willing to say, “That’s what it means.”

So we agree that something intervenes and God’s desire doesn’t rise to the level of action. So you’d say, “Well, why doesn’t he save everybody if he desires all to be saved?” The Arminian has to answer that question and the Calvinist has to answer that question because neither of them believes all will be saved. The question is, which answers are given? The answer is not there in the text. You have to supply the answer. The Arminian gives the answer that in order to preserve human self-determination, God does not save everybody. And the Calvinist answers in order to preserve his sovereign freedom in election, God does not save everybody.

The question is, which one of those answers is true? This whole seminar is devoted to arguing that the first answer is not biblical. It’s a popular answer. Humans have to have ultimate self-determination — that is, free will — in order for the world to make sense and therefore, that’s the reason all are not saved. God won’t overcome the resistance that everybody has because if he did, he would turn everybody into robots. He won’t turn everybody into robots and, therefore, he lets us have ultimate self-determination and, therefore, he doesn’t save everybody. That’s an answer. Is it biblical? I would just say, “Where do you get that from the Bible?” I can’t find that anywhere in the Bible, that kind of an answer.

But that God doesn’t let his desire for all to be saved rise to the level of a well-considered decision to save everybody seems to be explained by the fact that he intends for his electing grace to be sovereign, and supreme, and free, and he doesn’t intend to save everybody from their sin and he has his reasons. It is possible in the heart of God, I’m arguing, for him to have two wills, and everybody agrees with this one way or the other — a will that all be saved and a will that something else keeps that from happening.

I’ll give you another example about that in a minute. But I put 2 Timothy 2:25 here alongside 1 Timothy 2:4 so that you will be reminded of the text we saw: “God may grant them repentance and come to a knowledge of the truth.” The reason I put the Greek up here is because of how similar this phrase is in Greek “to a knowledge of the truth.” Those are identical in the Greek right there. Those of you who know Greek can see that.

I don’t think that’s an accident that that identical phrase is used in these two places. Here, he desires all people to come to a knowledge of the truth and there, he may grant them to come to a knowledge of the truth. And what that says to me is I’m forced biblically, not theologically, to this conclusion. It’s not my system forcing anything here. I’m forced biblically to say, God wants all to repent and come to a knowledge of the truth and he does not give everybody the ability to because it says so right there in the text. God may grant them repentance to come to a knowledge of the truth, or he may not. And why he does, it doesn’t say. He just has his reasons for why he does what he does. But I’m perfectly willing to let the truth, this truth, and this truth stand. I’m not going to say, “Oh, Calvinist can’t believe 1 Timothy 2:4. That doesn’t fit our system.” It perfectly well fits our system. God desires all people to be saved and he doesn’t save all because he has his reasons not to do what he desires to do.

Not from His Heart

Second Peter 3:9 is another one. It says:

The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

It’s almost the same as 1 Timothy 2:4. These two texts will be thrown up at you again and again by Arminians. If you say I believe in election or unconditional election, they’ll say, “No, no, no, that can’t work because God desires all people to be saved and he does not wish for any to perish.” And this one may be solved in the same way as 1 Timothy 2:4 or the “you” may be the key. God is addressing believers or the church or the elect and he doesn’t want any of you to perish, and therefore, he doesn’t send the Lord Jesus back right away so that you might have time to repent and be saved. Either way, it doesn’t overthrow God’s unconditional election. And then there are others like:

Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, declares the Lord God, and not rather that he should turn from his way and live? (Ezekiel 18:23).

In other words, “My delight is not in the destruction of the non-elect. I don’t delight in people perishing. You might say, “Well, if he doesn’t delight in people perishing, then don’t let anybody perish. You’re God, for goodness sakes.” But look at this passage from Lamentations. I put them together so you can see the parallel:

For the Lord will not cast off forever, but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love; for he does not afflict from his heart or grieve the children of men (Lamentation 3:31–33).

He does cause grief, but it says he does not afflict willingly. Now, you have a Bible verse that is actually entertaining the reality that God does what he doesn’t delight to do and doesn’t do what he delights to do sometimes for his reasons. So he’s afflicting people. He’s causing grief as he punishes Jerusalem in Lamentations, but he does not afflict willingly. Now, I put the Hebrew there. I’d appeal to you Hebrew students. This is important enough to show you. This is actually crawling in the mind of God, which is a very dangerous place to be because it’s over our heads, big time. It’s a word that’s made up of three words — “from his heart.” So now let’s translate it that way. He does not afflict “from his heart” or grieve the sons of men. But he is afflicting them. Now, what does that mean?

Levels of the Will of God

I go here because I’m just so eager to get some help for myself, if a human being can make some sense out of God’s action here. I could say, “God, you say that you desire all people to be saved. You say that you don’t want them to perish. You say that you don’t have pleasure in the death of the wicked and yet, you don’t save everybody. And you do punish the wicked, and you do grieve the sons of men.” And then God comes back to me and he says, “That’s right, you’re seeing things rightly, but I don’t do it from my heart.” What do you mean you don’t do it from your heart? Doesn’t that mean, “I have levels of willing in me”? Doesn’t that mean if he chooses that something happen here for all things considered, all of the reasons that go into it, all of the wisdom that dictates my doing this here, it still may not be the thing which, in and of itself, he delights most to do, namely, show grace to people.

That’s my best shot at trying to make sense out of texts that demand some kind of thought like that. So if you hear people say, “Calvinists are just squishing texts and making them mean what they want to mean,” I’m just trying to make sense out of texts. I’m not trying to force any of them into a system. I want to know what he means that he causes grief, but he doesn’t afflict from his heart.

Election Confirmed

Conclusion: We believe that God’s election is an unconditional act of free grace, which was given through his Son, Christ Jesus, before the world began. By this act, God chose before the foundation of the world those who would be delivered from bondage to sin and brought to repentance and saving faith in his Son. Implications: We should confirm our election and our calling. Somebody asked about that earlier. Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling (2 Peter 1:10).

This is so important. If you are asking right now, “Well, I wonder if I’m elect. I wonder if I’m elect. Am I among the elect?” There’s a wrong way to pursue the answer to that question and there’s a right way. The wrong way is to ask God to tell you, as if to say, “Tell me if I’m elect. Am I elect? Tell me, I need to know if I’m elect because I can’t have any peace. I can’t have any assurance unless you tell me.” That’s totally the wrong way to do it. There’s no instance in the Bible of anybody pursuing knowledge of their own election that way. It always is a reflex of doing something else, namely, believing in Jesus deeply and being changed by him, then you know you’re elect.

Here’s an example in 1 Thessalonians 1:4–5:

For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction.

That’s amazing that Paul would say that. How do you know that? Because our gospel came to you not only in word, but in power in the Holy Spirit and full conviction. You want to know that you’re elect? How have you responded to the word of God? Has it come to you in power? Has it come to you in the Holy Spirit? Has it produced inside of you strong conviction? When you read the Bible, do you say, “Yes, yes, yes. That’s my God. That’s my Christ.”

Another example would be in 1 Corinthians 12:3. No one can say Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit. What’s the point of saying that? So that you’ll know if you have the Holy Spirit. If you are saying from your heart, “You are my Lord. I submit to you. I love you as my Lord. You are king of my life,” you have the Holy Spirit and are elect. Or Romans 8:15–16 says:

For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,

When we cry, “Abba, Father,” it is the Spirit himself bearing witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. So how can you know if you’re a child of God? You don’t say, “Tell me if I’m your elect child. Tell me.” It doesn’t say that ever. Rather, he says, “Are you calling me Father? Are you trusting me as Father? Is it welling up inside of you that through Jesus Christ, you now have me as your Father and you’re trusting me as your Father?” So Jesus as my Lord, God as my Father, I know I’m his. That’s the way it works. That’s the way assurance works. You pursue the knowledge of your election indirectly. You pursue it by submitting to the Lordship of Jesus and you pursue it by embracing God as your Father through Jesus Christ and his atoning work.

Enjoy Security

So don’t go the other direction and pursue it directly. Let it produce humility in yourself and exalt exultation in Christ. First Corinthians 1:26–31 says:

For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

So the two results of being chosen freely by God are no boasting in man and much boasting in God and that would be the evidence that you are his. You’re not going around saying, “We, human beings, we produce this and we produce that,” you go around saying, “God is awesome. God is awesome.” And every time you say that, there’s a witness in your heart that says, “You’re mine. You’re mine.” It’s a reflex witness. When your heart is taken up in boasting in God, it comes around. I know it myself. The times I feel most assured of my salvation is when I’m preaching. I wonder why that is. I think it’s a spiritual dynamic that God loves so much being made much of that he ministers to me at that moment, “You’re my child, keep this up. Speak like this. Go on, do this. You’re mine.” And when I am most quiet and hesitant to bear witness to him, I doubt my salvation most. It just works that way. There is a witness. The Holy Spirit is witnessing within us that we are the children of God when we are boasting in the Lord.

Enjoy your rock solid security in Christ:

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified (Romans 8:28–30).

Nobody drops out between foreknowledge, predestination, and glorification. That is an amazing passage. If you know yourself in any of those links in the chain, you’re in all of them. So read that and meditate on it until it wells up inside of you, “I’m really safe. I’m really safe. He chose me. He predestined me. He called me. He justified me and I’m as good as glorified now because I’m in the chain and it never breaks.” Isn’t it amazing that God wants you to have rock solid assurance? It’s just so sad to watch people in other sects or in Roman Catholicism or in Arminianism where there’s so much insecurity. I don’t know if I’m saved. I don’t know if I’m going to go to heaven. I’m trying to live the best I can, but I don’t know how it’s going to go with me on the last day. That’s tragic. Nobody should live like that.

The Holy Spirit bears witness with our spirit that were the children of God and one of the ways he does it is by giving us verses like he’s predestined you, he’s called you, he’s justified you and, therefore, it is virtually certain he will glorify you in the last day. Be strong and of good courage.

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us (Romans 8:31–37).

Who talks like that except people who know I’m chosen and I cannot be lost? So enjoy your security in these things.

Question and Answer

Let’s take a few questions and then we’ll see if we can pace ourselves to get through to more letters.

Assuming unconditional election, can God change his mind because of our prayers about someone’s salvation?

God never needs to change his mind in response to your prayers because he knows what you’re going to pray before you pray. He planned your prayer. So don’t think God has a plan over here and then you’re independent over here praying. You’re not independent, you’re part of the plan. This is part of the means by which people get saved. If you are praying for 52 years, like George Müller, for the salvation of someone, and as you’re dying, they haven’t been saved. You can say like him, “Maybe they’ll get saved at my funeral,” and some did. None of those 52 years of praying were in vain.

You don’t have to change God’s mind in order to be effective in God’s action because your prayer is planned. Everything’s planned. And you have to get into that feeling like life is meaningless because everything’s planned and then get out of that irrational conclusion onto the other side where now everything has unbelievable significance because God has a purpose for everything. That’s the way it works when you’re growing up into hard things. You get into them part way and you feel like this is just crazy. I’m going to blow my brain. I can’t do anything with this. Then you live with it, and you move into the fullness of it, and you say, “This is glorious. It’s just glorious. How did I ever miss this?”

How can election be unconditional? Does God have a reason for his choosing? Or how does God choose who to save and who to not?

I do not know the answer and I’m sure he means for me not to know. It’s like the Trinity. Who can fathom the Trinity? What this doctrine does, when you call it unconditional, is to protect us from ever looking in ourselves for a reason why he chose me. When you look at yourself, you see reasons not to be chosen. Then you come out of yourself in praise to the unfathomable grace of God and that’s the way you live your life. I don’t think he ever made for you to come up with an answer like, “Why did you choose me and not my brother?” You should say to your brother, “There’s nothing in me, Fred, there’s nothing in me that would make him choose me over you, which means there’s nothing in you to keep him from choosing you.”

I don’t know if it lands on you this way, but to me, the doctrine of unconditional election is an unbelievable help in evangelism of people who think they’re too bad to be saved. Let this land on you. Somebody comes into your office, and you share the gospel with them, and you plead with them to believe and they say, “You just don’t know how bad I am. You do not know what I have done.” Do you know what I do when that happens? I take them by the collar (not really) and I say, “Who do you think you are? Who do you think you are telling God that you are too bad for him to have chosen you? Do you get unconditional election? Unconditional elections says nothing, not anything that you have done or anything 10,000 times worse than you have done could possibly exclude you from unconditional election. That’s the meaning of it.”

That’s really liberating for a person who’s a horrible person. The reason a lot of people don’t turn to Jesus is because they feel they’re too bad. They think, “I look at you, Christians. You’re all basically upstanding and blah, blah, blah. If you knew my horrible, horrible life, you wouldn’t even try to get me saved.” I just think the doctrine of unconditional election blows those people away. You don’t dare treat God like that. God chooses people totally without reference to their track record. So quit talking about your track record right now. Stop it. There’s nothing about your track record that could possibly exclude you from salvation.

So I love this doctrine and I love it for the sake of evangelism. No matter whether it works that way. Have you thought about it or not? Let it sink in. If God chooses people unconditionally, there is nobody who can bring any condition against his salvation from his past life. That goes away. Now you’re on common ground with him and you say, “Would you just believe? Just believe. Trust him. That’s why he died to cover all that.”

Do you have any counsel for someone who believes in Calvinism but their spouse does not? Can you share anything from your and Noël’s experience?

I can’t share anything that would be helpful just because we came together, that’s why I don’t think it would relate to the situation. I married my wife three months into the seminary. And I’ve always said I’m glad there weren’t computers because my precious wife typed all my papers, which means she learned everything I knew. I would write them out longhand and she would type them because my typing was so terrible. And therefore, we could talk about anything and did and so if you gave her a quiz on Calvinism today, she’d be where I am. I never even felt like I was coercing her or anything.

But here’s a tip, maybe. We did form the habit before we were married, while we were going together, to pray together every day. So I’d take her home and before we got out of the car, we stopped and thanked the Lord. Helps keep you pure physically to be praying together. As you’re praying together, it’s hard to pet inappropriately. At least that’s what they used to call it. I don’t know what they call them. Make out. Those are all 1960s words, I don’t follow them anymore. So we prayed. So I would say if your wife is a professing believer, let’s just say believer, and you’ve come into a love of the doctrines of grace just keep praying together. Keep praying for light. Keep loving her like crazy or she, you. I mean, it might be the wife who’s way ahead of the guy here in terms of doctrinal understanding.

So pray together, be patient with each other, and don’t nag, dropping pamphlets or books. Just be real and just talk about what you’re coming to. And if she’s willing to read or he’s willing to read, share what’s been helpful to you. Direct to blogs. Try to go to a good church where things will be said. But I admit, there are real tough marital things on that issue and many others where you may have to live in a sad situation for a long time. Marriage is a covenant built on a promise. It’s not a covenant built on a common theology. The Bible is clear about that in 1 Peter 3, where the wife gets saved and the husband’s not. Well, now she’s a Calvinist, maybe. She’s radically different religiously from her pagan husband and Peter gives her some advice there. That advice would be good for men who are married to non-Christian women as well, at least much of it would be. So read 1 Peter 3:1–7 for guidance.

Does God love those he does not elect? How does that work?

That’s a very good question. Yes he does, but not the same. God has different kinds of love. There’s electing love, and predestining love, and calling love, and justifying love, and glorifying love, and sanctifying love, and preserving love. He doesn’t have that love for the non-elect, but he makes the sun rise on the evil in the good.

You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust (Matthew 5:43–45).

In Romans 2:4, it says, “Do you not know that the kindness of God is meant to lead you to repentance? But you by your heart and unrepentant heart are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath.” So they’re the kindness of God. That sunshine out there, the approach of spring, the fact that in six or eight months, daffodils might come up are all evidence of God’s kindness to the world. Yes, he does. It’s a love that he would bring you to the seminar and expose you to this much Bible and it’s a love that you are not dead yet or anywhere worse.

If someone is elected, won’t God save that person regardless of my teaching and gentleness? If I am obstinate and do not let God use me, won’t he still be faithful to save that person?

If the person is elect, God will get them saved. And if you say you don’t want to be a part of it, he’ll drop you and use somebody else. But that would of course be a very stupid thing to do because there are a few joys in the world greater than being the instrument in God’s hands in bringing blessing into someone’s life, especially the blessing of salvation.

I remember one time somebody asked my dad as an old man, almost senile, “What is the key to your joy, Brother Bill?” And he said, “There is no greater joy and to be used to save a soul.” That was the first thing on his mind. God used him to save sinners. So if you’re obstinate, and rebellious, and you’re not going to be God’s instrument, he’ll just do an end run and go ride around you, and he’ll bring somebody else into the life of the person that he intends to get saved. He will save his elect, you won’t be able to stop that. But he will always use means so you can never say, “Well, if they’re predestined and they’re elect, then we don’t need to get them the gospel.”

They won’t be saved without the gospel. But God will get the gospel to them, just may not use you. But of course, you want to think exactly the opposite and say, “Use me. Use me. Yes, at any cost, use me. Let me be a little cog in the wheel that’s turning of your providence so that I can be a part of the salvation of sinners.”

Why would God make a call or will or desire for repentance to anyone at any time knowing that they cannot or would not respond unless he overcomes and causes repentance?

Why would he bring them part way and then not save them all the way? Oh, my. This is what we’re talking about at lunch, I think. There’s a whole range of issues that are all related in a fallen world like this, we have a sovereign God who could change things just like that. He could throw Satan into the lake of fire this afternoon at 4:00 p.m. and a lot of our temptations would go away. He could do for all of us Christians now what he’s going to do with the second Coming. In the twinkling of an eye, we will sin no more and we will not be made into robots in heaven. Heaven will not be a place full of robots, but people who freely never sin and God will bring that about. He could do that this afternoon at 5:00 p.m.

My guess is that neither of those will happen this afternoon. The Bible says they won’t, which means that God has, for wise and holy purposes, decided that the world will go on embattled and imperfect until Jesus comes. And evidently, he believes that the church ministry and individual progress in sanctification will bring him more glory in this embattled world than if he snapped his finger and everybody stopped sinning, and Satan disappeared now, and all the people were just thrown out. He has his reasons. I don’t know. And part of that is this question, namely, well, in that process, there are some people who come to church, they come under the conviction of sin, they start to get concerned about their eternal destiny, which is a work of God, and they don’t ever follow through. Why? I don’t know why he would allow that to happen, bring some that far and then not bring them all the way. I don’t know. He just has his reasons for why John Piper is so imperfect after 67 years.

The easiest way for me to keep it personal is to say I’ve been a Christian for 61 years according to my mother, who said I prayed to receive Jesus when I was six. So I’m 67. I’ve been walking with Jesus for 61 years. Why am I not a better man, a better husband, a better father, a better pastor? Why so much sin left? To keep me broken? To make me able to empathize with sheep? I don’t know. I mean, I can guess it includes reasons like that, but that’s just the way he does it.

What would you say to someone who says that they think they aren’t predestined?

I’d say it’s none of your business to think about that. It’s absolutely none of your business to contemplate the fact that you’re not predestined. You have one task: Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. So my answer is stop thinking about it. Stop directing your attention straight into the mysterious mind of God and direct yourself to Jesus where he pointed you. He sent Jesus into the world and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Go there and you will be saved.” That’s what I would say to you.

As a pastor, how essential is it to understand to look for shepherding God’s people effectively? Can a pastor do without it?

It’s really helpful. It’s just wonderful. At every point, there are relevances for my faith, for my family, for my church, for my society of how I feel, and how I live, and how I relate to God that are flowing from a fuller understanding of these things than of small understanding. So I would just say, why even think about minimizing what you know instead of maximizing what you know? If you say to yourself, “Well, I don’t know whether these things are so or not. I just don’t think they’re important and so I’ll focus on the basic gospel and not think about those things.”

You can choose to build a church like that, if you want. I think it will be a weaker church. I think it will be more vulnerable, long-term to decay, and to being swept away by suffering and by false doctrine. It never has made sense to me. I don’t know what it is about people that we’re so different in this regard. It never has made sense to me that I would love God more if I knew less about him. That has never made sense. And therefore, I think in terms of maximizing what I can know about God, not minimizing it. And people who say, “Yeah, but if I just stay with the basics, I might . . .” You might what? Avoid some controversy? Well, yeah, I suppose. But don’t you want to know him? I mean, like he really is in the Book? This is a big book. There are a few favorite verses you have and they’re precious beyond words. They’re worth dying for. Yeah, you can live your life on the basis of those, but he didn’t give us this book for no reason. He didn’t tell us things like we’re looking at here for no reason. Did he make a mistake to tell us these things? And if he didn’t make a mistake to tell us these things, then why would we not want to know about them? I just don’t get it. I’ve never been able to compute with people who somehow think that more knowledge of God is dangerous. I think that’s an insult to God, frankly.

You can be proud of your ignorance and you can be proud of your knowledge. Therefore, trying to get more knowledge is probably not more dangerous than being content with less because, given the way we are all wired to be proud, you will be just as likely probably to boast in the privacy of your heart that you’re faithful to the core central things and don’t get caught up into that controversial stuff. And thus, you would be boasting in your ignorance as I would likely boast in, “I have all five points of TULIP right. Oh, what a big boy I am.”

I can give you an illustration of pride. Lord, help me pace this right. When I was teaching at Bethel and I just had my doctorate, I was all heady about academia and was writing articles for scholarly journals. I had three or four articles published. I thought, “Yes, thank you.” And it started to worry me that I was doing that not because I love the truth or love the church or love God, but because it felt so good to be successful academically. So I decided I would stop. There was a period of years where I said, “Okay, I’m not going to do scholarly writing anymore because the motive feels corrupt.”

Do you know what happened? My pride just shifted over onto teaching. I thought, “I will get the best student recommendations of any faculty in the theological faculty. I will be the teacher of the year.” Do you see the point? The point is not here there is the danger and here’s there’s no danger. There’s danger everywhere. The danger is in my heart. And so I stepped back and I said, “Lord, I’m the problem here. Articles are not the problem and teaching is not the problem, I’m the problem.” And ever since then, I have not made my decisions mainly on the basis of which activities out there are proud activities, but rather, “Oh God, how can this proud heart be subdued so that any activity will be for your glory and the good of people and not about me?”

Limited Atonement

We have to shift gears and get going on limited atonement. My aim is to argue that the Bible presents a bigger and better atonement than the Arminians see, not a smaller one. I said this already. I don’t like the word “limited atonement” because it sounds like it’s smaller, less adequate, less effective, just less. Even though Arminians usually claim the high ground in affirming an unlimited atonement, we will see that the Bible affirms the essence of that, plus a glorious addition for the elect. What we call limited atonement is not instead of what the Arminians believe, but in addition to it. That’s my thesis. If you could go away from here thinking one thing about limited atonement, that would be a helpful thing to think about. What Calvinists believe, or at least what John Piper type Calvinists believe, is that the atoning work of Jesus on the cross does more than the Arminians say, not less. That’s where we’re going.

Here’s the definition: The atonement is the work of God in Christ, by his obedience and death, by which God canceled our debt (the debt of our sin) appeased his own holy wrath, provided a perfect righteousness in his sinless Son, and secured for his people all the benefits of salvation. Atonement is the act of God in Christ. So we’re right at the heart of the gospel now. The Son is sent, he lives a perfect life, is thus a flawless lamb to be offered. He dies a substitutionary death and in his dying on the cross, he does those things. Sin is canceled. Wrath is removed. I underlined them here. He canceled debt of sin. He took wrath away. He provided perfect righteousness. He secured the benefits of salvation forever. All that is objectively accomplished at the cross. It is purchased and secured. That’s what atonement is.

Biblical Basis of Atonement

Key texts on the atoning work of Christ, just maybe we’ll look at one of these several, because I want to make sure that I don’t assume in this room that all of you are Christian. So this is the point at which I will try to be as clear as I can about how to become a Christian. If that’s in your condition, you listen up for the next five minutes, especially. This, in my judgment, is the most important paragraph in the Bible:

All have sinned . . . (Romans 3:23).

So let’s start there with our gospel presentation. That’s me, I’ve sinned, and sinning means I fall short of the glory of God. I don’t glorify him as I ought. I choose other things and prefer other things over him and therefore, he gets belittled rather than glorified. And we are justified. How? That’s what I’m going to be. What does justified means? Justified means that God declares you just or righteous or perfect or holy or law-keeping. He declares that for us. How can you do that? I’m a sinner. I mean, that’s a contradiction. He’s going to call me just and call me holy, call me perfect when I’m not? Yes, that’s what it means. You’re in a courtroom, everybody knows you’re guilty, and God says, “Not guilty. Go free.” That’s justification.

So how? It’s by his grace. There’s nothing in me that’s making this deserved. It’s a free gift to be saved, it’s a free gift to be accepted. Paul says:

All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus . . . (Romans 3:23–24).

Redemption or ransoming is a payment that is made by a sacrifice to produce liberty. That’s what redemption is — a payment or sacrifice for freedom. He did that when he died on the cross. So the question is, how do I get in on it? I want to be redeemed. I want my sins to be forgiven. I want to be declared righteous. I want no guilt and I want wrath removed forever. That’s what I want through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Paul continues:

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation (to take away wrath) by his blood, to be received by faith (Romans 3:23–25).

There it is. Okay, so how do you get in on this, this gracious gift? You receive the gift by faith. So here you are sitting there now, wishing you were a Christian, maybe, so you could say yes to everything I’m talking about as personally relevant for you. I would say right now, in the next 60 seconds, you could become a Christian. That’s just awesome to think about, isn’t it? The miracle of new birth can be granted to you and your parallel work with the Holy Spirit here can happen. You might say, “Well, you told us the Holy Spirit saves.” He does. He’s here, I’m talking. He loves what I’m saying right now. He loves you, and he loves what I’m saying, and so he’s very likely to work right now. You are called to receive the truth, to receive this grace here, to receive this gift here, to receive this redemption here, to receive this Christ by faith.

If you want more specificity, I would say you can just, eyes closed our eyes wide open say, “God, I know I’m a sinner. I’ve heard for the last five hours how bad I am and he doesn’t know the half of it and you do. And you said that that’s not a condition that could keep me out. So my hope is rising a little bit now that maybe you would have me. I just want to lay down all my rebellion. I quit. I throw it down. I don’t want to fight you anymore and I want to receive the gift of redemption. You paid a ransom for sinners and I am one. And you’ve said that we could have that ransom count for us if we would receive it and I now am receiving it. I receive your sacrifice for me and all that you are for me, and I don’t even know all that you are for me. I just want it because I see enough of you to want you, and I receive you, and I am yours.”

Do you remember the time you did that? I don’t. I wish I did. But I do it every day. I don’t get saved every day. I just say, “Jesus, I do now receive you,” meaning, “I just want more of You every day, more of you every day.” That’s my answer to how you get saved.

Now, the evidence that you are saved, make your calling and election sure. You go out of here. Read your Bible, love people, and start acting like a Christian and the Holy Spirit will confirm you’re new. You’re new. All that sin that used to be so unbelievably controlling, it might be still a little attractive, but it’s just not going to hold you like it used to hold you.

To Show God’s Righteousness

Paul continues:

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins (Romans 3:23–25).

It looked like God was unrighteous because he treated sins as though they didn’t matter. And now he says, “Oh, I don’t ever sweep it under the rug ever. If I forgive sin, it’s on the basis of an appropriate judgment. My son bore the judgment. So my righteousness in upholding my glory is vindicated because my son dies for the people that I forgive.” So if your sins are forgiven for Jesus’s sake, God is righteous to do that, because the son paid your penalty and justice is done, and righteousness is vindicated. That’s the great thing about the atonement.

The Extent of the Atonement

What do Arminians say about the extent of the atonement? They look at texts like “he gave himself as a ransom for all” (1 Timothy 2:6), and, “He is the propitiation for our sins, and not only for ours but for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2:2), and, “He suffered by the grace of God that he might taste death for everyone” (Hebrews 2:9), and, “In Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself” (2 Corinthians 5:19), and, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 2:29), and they say, in the words of Millard Erickson, “God intended the atonement to make salvation possible for all persons. Christ died for all persons. But this atoning death becomes effective only when accepted by the individual.” He says that is the view of all Arminians. Christ died for everybody in the sense that his death is offered to everybody and becomes effective in the life of a person through faith.

WHat’s my response? Yes, I believe that the atonement accomplished that. I’m not going to argue here. I’m just going to go way beyond that. Make sure you hear what I’m saying. When an Arminian says, “Christ died for everybody,” what do they mean? I’m not going to quibble over words at this point. I want to know what they mean. They don’t mean everybody is saved. They don’t mean the death of Christ produced the forgiveness of everybody, produced the propitiation of everybody, produced the redemption of everybody, or the justification of everybody. They don’t because they’re not Universalists. Everybody is not saved. What they mean is that he died for everybody in such a way that if they would believe, it would count for them, to which I say amen. Are you with me? I’m there. Now, I might not use language exactly the same way they do, but that’s what they mean, I just want to say, “I’m with you.”

John 3:16 says:

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

So I would say the love of God is manifest in Christ for the world, so that whoever believes lives. So what is meant by love and atonement in that sentence is a bona fide offer obtained by the blood of Jesus. It is given indiscriminately to every single person in the world and the sentence that comes out of our mouth is, “If you would just believe, it’s yours,” to which I say amen. That’s exactly what I do in preaching and what I want to do in my personal witness.

The More of the Atonement

Someone might say, “What more, Piper, do you believe about the extent of the atonement besides that? What more do you believe? Because you said, yours is bigger.” We believe that in addition to making salvation possible for all who will believe, God had a design in the death of his Son and the design was to purchase that very believing. The elect are chosen by God and the elect are predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son. And then before the elect were called, God broke into history and he did something for them, for the elect. What did he do? He bought their conversion. He didn’t do that for everybody. He paid the dowry for a bride.

In other words, by shedding his blood, God not only made salvation possible for all through faith, but he made it certain for his elect by purchasing everything they need, including their faith, and repentance to enjoy it. That includes conversion. Another way to say it, we believe that irresistible grace was secured for God’s elect by the atonement. If it takes irresistible grace to get you saved and irresistible grace towards undeserving sinners is unjust because they don’t deserve it, the way God secures the justice of that is by dying to make it happen, so that the death of the Son secures our irresistible grace.

Now, what is my main biblical reason for believing that? The main one — and there are three or four and we’ll look at all of them briefly — is my understanding of the New Covenant. So let’s do a little lesson now on the New Covenant. We’ll take our break at about three, if you’re wondering.

And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood (Luke 22:20).

So Jesus held up the cup which represented his blood and said, “This is the new covenant,” which I take to mean, “When I shed my blood tomorrow, I will purchase the benefits of the New Covenant. I secure them. I bring them about through my blood, the blood of the covenant.”

Christ’s Blood and Purchase

What did the blood of the covenant purchase? Let’s just look at a few of the New Covenant texts:

Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people (Jeremiah 31:31–33).

When he shed his blood, he purchased the writing of the law on the heart, the putting of the law within them, and God being their God. Or consider Jeremiah 32:40:

I will make with them an everlasting covenant, that I will not turn away from doing good to them. And I will put the fear of me in their hearts, that they may not turn from me.

God is saying, “There is a people I will not turn away from. I will put my fear in their heart. I will never let them depart from me.” Those are sovereign activities done in fulfillment of the New Covenant. How does anybody participate in the New Covenant? Answer: He bought it with the blood of the covenant. He bought this sovereign activity, this pursuing people and making them his own. Or consider Ezekiel 11:19, which says:

And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh . . .

How does anybody get a heart of flesh instead of a heart of stone? God does it in fulfillment of the New Covenant. For whom does he fulfill the New Covenant? Those for whom he shed his blood. He bought these promises with his blood. These promises are not making salvation possible, these promises are performing salvation in people by doing heart transplants, writing the law in their heart, and making them his own.

Ezekiel 36:26–27 says:

I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.

That’s how you believe. Nobody believes until he has heart that’s not a stone. I wonder if you agree with that. If you’ve got a heart that’s a stone, you’re not going to believe in Jesus. The way you come to believe in Jesus is the heart of stone is taken out and a heart of tender, soft, touchable flesh is put within and suddenly, you wake up to the reality of Jesus, which means that the New Covenant is not a conditional covenant waiting for people to believe. It makes people believe, it brings people to faith and it was purchased by the blood. So the blood is effective for the New Covenant people whom God sovereignly saves for himself. That’s the more that I’m saying belongs to the atonement.

Atonement in the Writing of John

Let’s look at the Gospel of John and the writings of John for a few minutes because 1 John 2:2 is used against limited atonement, usually, and want to show you a way to read it that might help you decide for yourself if you think that’s right. John says:

He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.

Propitiation is a big word. It means wrath-removing. It seems to say he removes the wrath, his wrath from not just for our sins, but from the sins of the whole world. What did he mean? What did he mean by that? Years ago, I stumbled upon the similarity between the writer John in 1 John 2:2 and the writer John in John 11:50–52. Caiaphas is the high priest to the Jewish Council, the night before Jesus is crucified, and he prophesies because of his role there and he didn’t even know what he was saying. So here’s what he says:

Nor do you understand that it is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish.” He did not say this of his own accord, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but also to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad (John 11:50–22).

According to John 11:52, Christ died with a design that the death would gather into one the children of God, the elect, scattered throughout the whole world. So it’s not just Jews, but Gentiles scattered. It’s for the elect children of God out there. It’s to gather them. That’s what the death of Christ was for, to gather them. I think that’s what he means in 1 John 2:2. He is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only, but to gather under his propitiating influence the children of God from the whole world. So the world is spoken of there as the representative sphere where all these people are found that are his own. Keep that in mind as a possible interpretation and just look at these other texts from John.

All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me . . . (John 6:37–39).

There are a number of people that God the Father has and he gives them to the Son, and the Son’s charge is don’t lose them, save them, keep them, and preserve them. How? John 10:10–11 says:

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

Then John 10:16 says:

And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.

I think that is the same as, “I die to gather the children of God scattered abroad.” See that there? He’s going to die not only for the nation but to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad. There seems to be a specificity, a design, a focus on the sheep and on the elect in the death of Christ, not to exclude everything we’ve said so far. You can preach to the whole world that if they believe they may be saved. It’s that universal. But here he seems to have a design for his sheep.

Consecrated in Death

John 17:9 continues:

I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours.

John 17:17–19 says:

Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.

Almost everybody agrees that refers to his going to the cross. He’s praying this the night before he dies and he’s saying to the Father, “Father, you’ve given me a people and I’m praying for them that they be kept. And now, I’m consecrating myself that they may be sanctified in the truth. And what I’m consecrating myself to is my death. In a few hours, I will hang on the tree for them. I’ll lay down my life for the sheep.”

Look at Revelation. This is still John:

And they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth” (Revelation 5:9–10).

He didn’t say he ransomed everybody. He has sheep to be gathered, children of God who are scattered that need to be brought. His own for whom he’s consecrated himself and people in all the peoples of the world. This is the great foundation of global missions. There are people among all the peoples of the world and he ransomed them. Go preach the gospel. They’ll be drawn to him.

I remember John Alexander, the president of InterVarsity in 1967 Noël and I were at the Missions Conference. Someone asked a question about predestination. He said, “20 years ago, when I went to Pakistan, if I had believed in predestination, I wouldn’t have gone. I thought if they were predestined we wouldn’t need to go. They’re going to get saved anyway.” And then he said, “After 20 years, I say that if I didn’t believe in predestination, I wouldn’t go because nobody’s getting saved in Pakistan without the sovereign work of God.” And it’s been that way for many, many, many missionaries over the history of the world. That was an effort to help you see that in the writings of John, there is this additional, unique, focused design in the atonement to save his own, I lay down my life for the sheep.

Atonement in the Writings of Paul

Now, let’s get it from Paul:

Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her . . . (Ephesians 5:25).

One of the things I’ve said to my folks and I’m sure at Bethlehem, hundreds of people are perplexed about this issue when we begin to claim that everybody has this figured out and therefore, I just want to help them. I’ve said, “Look, I love all you women in this church and not like I love Noël and I think you’re happy about that.” Every woman wants to know a man loves his wife more than he loves her because then she’s safe, right? So it works. If you love her more than his wife or as much she’d be in trouble and he’d be sick. So my unique embrace of my covenant woman is different from the love I have for all the other women, and so is God’s love for his bride.

Christ loved the church uniquely. Yes, all people are loved, the gospel is sent, everyone is invited, any may come, any may benefit, but Jesus is saying, “I love my bride and I will have her. I will have her. I’m paying a price uniquely for her.” First Corinthians 6:19–20:

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

Paul says:

Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood (Acts 20:28).

I think this is the last piece in the argument. Consider how the death of Christ fits with the logic of the security in Romans 8:28–32. We’ve read it so many times, I’m going to jump straight to Romans 8:31–32:

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?

Now, what’s the logic of the atonement in these last two verses? The death of Jesus and God’s not sparing him but pouring out his wrath on him in place of sinners, how does that function here? It’s a rhetorical question. Anytime you read a rhetorical question that has no answer, the assumption is you know the answer and we do know the answer. He certainly will. So let’s translate it without a question. Make it a statement: “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all will surely give us all things with him.”

Does that work if the death of Christ isn’t uniquely for us? I don’t think it does. If he’s saying he did not spare his own Son but gave him up in the same way for all the people in the world, will he not then with him freely give the elect all things? The logic breaks down. It’s the design and the focus of the atonement on the justified, the predestined, the called, and the glorified that makes the logic work and it is a glorious logic and I just want you to enjoy it. I want you to be able to go home today and say, “He who did not spare his own Son but gave himself for me will most certainly give me everything I need to get to heaven and be happy forever personally.”

Loved Personally and Completely

I want you to be able to say Galatians 2:20:

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Now, if you, in your head, have a theology that says he gave himself for you the same way he gave himself for those in hell — no different design — then the logic of his death securing things for you will be weak at best because it didn’t secure anything for people in hell. He didn’t die for you the same way he died for the people in hell. He died for the people who go to hell in the sense that his hands were extended and the offer was made, “If you would believe in me, my death would cover all your sins.”

He died with a specific design and purpose that said, “I am pursuing you through the death of my Son. I will overcome all the obstacles that you throw up in my path. I will knock them down and make you my own. I will have you at any cost because I paid for you personally.” That’s the more that I add to the Arminian universality. And it means that you have a very sweet, personal relationship with God through Jesus in regard to his atonement. You don’t think of yourself as a number of millions for whom he died in vain. He died in vain. You just don’t think of yourself that way. You think of yourself as, “He sought me, he bought me.” And now we’re going to go in a little bit and say and he’ll keep me because that’s part of the New Covenant promise as well.

When Christ died, he laid down his life for his friends (John 15:13). That is what it means that “having loved his own, he loved them to the end.” When he died, he was buying his bride at the cost of his life. He was expressing the greatest love possible for us. It was the great love that he has uniquely for his wife. And the upshot is that we may know ourselves, owing to nothing in ourselves, personally and supremely loved by God. If he has loved me like this, he will spare no omnipotent effort to bring me into everlasting joy with him.

Here’s a concluding paradox. Let this sink in. Is it not amazing that Calvinism, therefore, has the lowest view of the saved person as utterly depraved and hopeless in himself and the highest view of the saved person as individually chosen, loved, and purchased at infinite cost? Tim Keller never tires of saying this: “You are more sinful than you ever thought you could be and more loved than you ever dreamed you could be.” I think if both of those are held in balance, we will be the most humble and the most happy people. It’s only because we don’t see that very clearly and because the remaining sin keeps blinding us to it that we’re as proud or as unhappy as we are and we all are on that continuum from proud to humble and happy to sad.