VICARIOUS ATONEMENT (7)
For Whom? (3)
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GOOD NEWS FROM THE REDEEMER
March 25, 2007 MESSAGE #677
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VIII. "Those who are being sanctified" – as in Hebrews 10:14: "For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified."
1. These sanctified ones are identified in the context.
i. They are all who are in covenant relationship with God (v.16a): "I will make [the covenant] with them" (cp. Jeremiah 31:31ff).
ii. They are all who live in conformity to God's law (v.16b): "I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them."
iii. They are all who are forever forgiven by God (v.17): "Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more."
iv. They are all who find in Christ alone their only remission from and sacrifice for sin (v.18): "Now where there is remission of these, there is no longer an offering for sin."
v. They are all who were "perfected forever" by Christ when He made His once for all offering for their sins (v.14). They therefore confess that "we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all" – at one time for all time (v.10).
vi. They are all who obey the commandment of verses 19-22: "Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, and having a High Priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water."
2. These sanctified ones are distinguished from those who in their obstinate unbelief will never be sanctified before God – regardless of how much they vainly attempt to sanctify themselves (as in Isaiah 65:2-5).
IX. All without distinction – as in the following texts. 1 Timothy 2:5f: "the Man Christ Jesus ... gave Himself a ransom for all." 2 Corinthians 5:14f: "One died for all ...; and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again."
1. Consider the meaning of the word all in the term "for all".
i. The meaning here is not "all without exception" (as various universalists aver).
1) When Paul the apostle exhorts "that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men" (1 Timothy 2:1), he does not mean "all without exception".
i) That would require us to do the impossible, and to pray a prayer that would never cease.
ii) That would require us to pray for even those whom God forbids us to pray (as in Jeremiah 7:16): "Therefore do not pray for this people, nor lift up a cry or prayer for them, nor make intercession to Me; for I will not hear you" (cp. 11:14; 14:11).
iii) That would require us to pray for even those for whom Christ would not pray (John 17:9): "I pray for them [i.e., those whom the Father had given to Him out of the world, as in vv.6-8). I do not pray for the world but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours."
2) When we read "God our Savior ... desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth" (1 Timothy 2:3f), He does not mean "all without exception". God is not so inconsistent!
i) God does not desire the salvation of those for whom He forbids prayer (as above).
ii) God does not desire the salvation of those whom He has already rejected (as in Jeremiah 6:30): "People will call them rejected silver, because the LORD has rejected them."
iii) God does not desire the salvation of those whom He says "long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ" (Jude v.4).
3) When we read of atonement "for all", this does not include those for whom no atonement was to be made:
i) all who are not of "the children of Israel" for whom alone atonement was to be made (Leviticus 16:34; Numbers 15:25; Deuteronomy 21:8; note also that "they are not all Israel who are of Israel" in Romans 9:6, and that there is no atonement for any who refuse Israel's God);
ii) all whom Jehovah pronounces "incurable" (Jeremiah 30:12-15): "For thus says the LORD: 'Your affliction is incurable .... There is no one to plead your cause [e.g., no priest to make atonement for you], that you may be bound up; you have no healing medicines. ... Why do you cry about your affliction? Your sorrow is incurable. Because of the multitude of your iniquities, because your sins have increased, I have done these things to you'";
iii) all who are unrepentant rebels against God (Isaiah 22:14): "Then it was revealed in my hearing by the LORD of hosts, 'Surely for this iniquity there will be no atonement [Hebrew kaphar] for you, even to your death,' says the Lord GOD of hosts";
iv) all who are unrepentant enemies against God's people (Jeremiah 18:23): "Yet, LORD, You know all their counsel which is against me, to slay me. Provide no atonement [Hebrew kaphar] for their iniquity, nor blot out their sin from Your sight; but let them be overthrown before You. Deal thus with them in the time of Your anger";
v) all who are unrepentant disbelievers in Christ (John 10:11, 26): "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep. ... But you do not believe, because you are not of My sheep";
vi) all who are those for whom Christ refused to pray in His High Priestly prayer (John 17:9): "I do not pray for the world but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours"; vii) those already in Hades when Christ died to make atonement (e.g., Dives the rich man in Luke 16:19-31).
ii. The clear meaning of "all" in these instances is "all without distinction" – all sorts of people, whether Jew or Gentile, ruler or subject, male or female. None who desire atonement through Christ are refused. This was definitely the meaning of Christ when He declared, "And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself" (John 12:32). He has not drawn to Himself "all without exception"; but He has indeed drawn to Himself "all without distinction": a people "out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation" (Revelation 5:9), not everyone within every tribe and tongue and people and nation.
2. Consider the meaning of the word for in the term "for all".
i. In the expressions "Christ Jesus gave Himself a ransom for all" (1 Timothy 2:56) and "He died for all" (2 Corinthians 5:14f), the Greek preposition translated "for" is huper. (See a previous message that dealt with this preposition.) This preposition in these instances means "in the place and stead of" – as the substitute and vicariously (as in John 11:50 52). Christ died as the substitute and vicariously only for God's elect (as in Isaiah 53:8), and for His own sheep (John 10:11, 15) in contrast to those who refuse to be His sheep (vv.26-29).
ii. In the expression "Jesus ... might taste death for everyone [Greek huper pantos]" (Hebrews 2:9), the meaning is for every one identified in the context:
1) the many sons He will bring to glory (v.10a);
2) all who will know Him as the "captain of their salvation" (v.10b);
3) all who are "one" with Him (v.11a);
4) all whom He calls "My brethren" (vv.11b-12);
5) all whom He calls "the children whom God has given Me" (v.13);
6) all whom He as High Priest will release from bondage (vv.14-18);
-- Christ did not "taste death" for any who through their own obstinacy suffer the Second Death.
iii. The same meaning applies also to the Greek preposition anti translated "for" in the expression "the Son of Man [came] ... to give His life a ransom for many" (Matthew 20:28). (To be continued)
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