The death of Christ was a real, true, actual satisfaction of divine justice. It was a true payment and a true atonement in full, actually, not potentially. Paid to God by Christ on behalf of all who would ever believe because they were chosen. and redeemed by the power of God. Welcome to Grace to You with the Bible teaching of John MacArthur.
I'm your host, Phil Johnson. When Jesus died on the cross, did He pay for the sins of every individual?
So that anyone and everyone, all they have to do is simply believe in Christ for the salvation that has already been provided for them? Or did Jesus die only for some sinners and only those people will be saved? Those questions are at the heart of the debate over the doctrine of the atonement. It's one of the pillars of salvation truth that John MacArthur is looking at in his current study called the Doctrines of Grace.
Now for answers to those important questions, follow along as John begins to day's lesson. Certainly, the doctrine of the extent of the atonement is one of those doctrines that takes us way beyond where we will be comfortable to go. It stretches our minds to the breaking point. It takes our theology out to the perimeter of our tolerances. And in the end, it leaves us with some incomprehensible realities, and that's as it should be.
Since we are finite and He is infinite. There should be a vast distinction between what we can know and what God does know. But there are ways in which we can. Go to the edge of our comprehension and to the edge of biblical revelation to understand the greatness and the glory of the work of redemption. Let's begin by sort of working our way up to discussing the extent of the atonement.
Jesus came into the world, he said, to seek and to save those who are lost. Luke 19:10. He came to seek and to save those who are lost. He was on. A recovery mission.
He came into this world to rescue sinners, sinners who were alive then, who had lived already and would live in the future. His redemptive work on the cross reached back and reached forward and reached. out to those in his own generation. In order for God to save sinners. There had to be a sacrifice that paid the penalty for their sins.
Jesus, who is God. Came into the world, took on human form. to offer himself as that sacrifice. an unimaginable condescension, an undeserved Act. On the cross.
Jesus died. Not under the wrath of men, really, but under the wrath of God. Not by the plans of the Romans and the Jews, but by the determined plan of God predestined before the world began. And he bore the wrath of God, and he bore separation from God for sinners, for all the sinners who would ever believe. And while it was a sacrifice for Christ to do this, it was a satisfying sacrifice.
That was why he came. to offer that sacrifice. to purchase God's chosen people. to purchase his own bride. I just can't look at the cross and see Jesus at the very end of the cross looking up and saying, It is.
Started. What? It is Potential. That's not what he said, is it? Was the death of Christ a full and complete payment to God, satisfying his just wrath for some particular?
chosen people or was it and A potential For nobody. An actual for nobody, a potential for everybody. Let's look at the scripture and see how to understand that. We have to look at some terms.
Okay, world. Let's take world. Everybody comes and says, wait a minute, wait a minute. What about the world? What about the world?
Let me help you with that, okay? In John chapter 3, Verse 16, God so loved the world. What does that mean? Humanity. He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.
For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through Him.
Well, immediately you know the world has to be qualified. If you don't qualify it, we're all going to come out universalists here. With everybody being saved. And we know that can't be true. Because the Bible is so clear on Judgment.
He is the Savior of the world in this sense. He's the only Savior this world will ever have. He's the only savior the human race will ever know. The world has no other Savior. And what's really important to note, and all the way through the Gospel of John.
Whenever you read this, the Savior of the world, God so loved the world, he was in the world. etcetera. Keep in mind that John is addressing An environment of Jewish anti-Gentile racism. And the idea that the Messiah was for the world. was a foreign idea.
No pun intended. It was a revolutionary idea.
So we look at the term world and we always qualify it. There's another passage, two more that need our brief attention. I'm just going to comment briefly: 1 John 2. 1 John 2. Jesus Christ the righteous, verse 1, verse 2, He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.
What is that saying? That he is a propitiation not only for our sins. Again, this is very Jewish in its context. But for the whole world, it's making the same point that John made over and over again, the same point that they made in the book of Acts, the same point that Paul makes in Romans 11. That the gospel is not Limited to the Jews.
Propitiation, by the way, is a very strong word. Hilas mos in the Greek. And propitiation Means the actual satisfying of God's just wrath. It's not a potential, it's an actual word. It's it could be translated placated.
or satisfied He himself is the satisfaction. He is the placation. He propitiates God, satisfies God, placates God's anger for our sins. But not just ours as the inside people, but the whole world. That is to say, there is no other propitiation for people in any other nation than the one who is the propitiation for us.
If this meant That he was actually a satisfaction for every person who ever lived. then the word is way too strong to mean anything potential. It would have to mean actual because it's a satisfaction. God was satisfied. With the sacrifice on their behalf.
Nothing is left out. And Jesus' death, dear one, was a satisfaction. He was the sacrificial lamb on the ultimate day of atonement, whose blood sprinkled before God was a true satisfaction. Propitiation is too strong a word to mean something potential. Because propitiation means it turns God's wrath away forever.
And not just for us, but for any Gentile or anyone else. Who believes? And in 2 Corinthians 5.19 God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself. And again, you say, well, okay, reconciling the world. People always show this up.
Well, didn't He reconcile the whole world?
Well, what do you mean by the world? It always has to be qualified. Otherwise, you end up, as I said, a universalist. Then what do you do with everybody that's being sent to hell? God is reconciling the world.
To himself. And what does it mean? Listen to this: not counting their trespasses against them. That's not a potential anything. That's an actual God is reconciling.
God is not making reconciliation possible. God is not removing a barrier to reconciliation. God is not giving the sort of eight-tenths of the deal and telling the sinner to take the next two steps. He is reconciling. to himself in Christ, that is in the death of Christ.
The world Not counting their trespasses against them. And let me tell you, my friend, not having your trespasses counted against you means that he bore your transgression in full. And you are under no condemnation. And that is not a potential salvation. That is an actual salvation.
Whoever the world is here. It is the ones who no longer have their trespasses counted against them. It is those. Who are verse seventeen new creatures in Christ. It is those in verse 21, for whom he made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf.
Whose behalf? Those who were reconciled to God. That we might become the righteousness of God and Him. There's no such thing in the Bible as a potential atonement. It simply means that there are no racial limits, there are no ethnic limits.
These passages regarding the world are all qualified. It's just humanity. The human world. This realm Not every single individual who ever lives.
Well, you say, well, the Bible says all. The Bible says all. I know it says all. You know, it says all. Want to look at some alls?
Romans 5, let's look at some alls. Romans 5.18.
So then This is another passage important.
So then, through one transgression, there resulted condemnation to all men. That one transgression was Adam, right? And that did affect everybody. Even so, Through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men.
Well, if you're not careful there, If you drive the parallel In the wrong direction, you're going to come out with this.
Well, everybody. was affected by Adam sin And became sinners, therefore, everybody is affected by Christ's righteous work and becomes righteous. The the problem with that is That's not true. There's only one illustration being made here. It's simply this.
The argument is coming up. Paul is talking about the impact of the work of Christ, how the work of Christ is the redeeming work for all who believe. And the question that comes up in the mind of the reader is going to be: how can one man's act have such a great effect? How can the act of one man have such massive implications? And so he simply makes the parallel.
Look. by one man's sin. Everybody died. Everybody who died died. And by one man's righteousness, everybody who became righteous became righteous.
He even changes his terminology. In verse 19. Where he says, just to make sure we don't think the all is inclusive, as through the one man's disobedience many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of one, many will be made righteous. And I think he puts that in there just to back us off the wrong understanding of verse 18, which would make everybody saved. And he, whoa, that's not what I'm trying to say.
Let's use the word many so we don't get mixed up here. We're only trying to illustrate the point that one man's work. One man's deed affects all who proceed from that one man. And so that is All only in the appropriate sense, qualified again in the context The 2 Corinthians chapter 5. 2 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 14.
And here is language very much like Romans 5, just so you can compare it. 2 Corinthians 5, we were there in the little, a few verses down. I want to go back to 14 and 15. The love of Christ controls us, having concluded that one died for all, therefore all died. And he died for all, that they who live should no longer live for themselves, but for him who died and rose again on their behalf.
Now, the all is qualified.
Now, just follow this carefully. The love of Christ controls us to include one died for all. People say, oh, he died for all. He died for the whole world, every single person in the whole world. He died for them all?
No. He died for all, therefore, all died. The all he died for. Died. What is that?
But when you came to Christ, do you remember? You died. Is that not true? I am crucified what? With Christ.
In Him you die.
So He died for all, therefore all died. He died for the all who died in him. Verse 15, he died for all. And who are the all? They who live.
He died for those who died and live in him. It was for them that he died. And it rose again, end of verse 15, on their behalf. on their behalf. You could look at the word many if we had time.
It has some interesting Usages In uh Hebrews 9. Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many. Wow. Offered to bear the sins of many. You don't want to do too much with these words, other than to.
understand in the context how they are always qualified. Listen to Matthew 20, 28. The Son of Man didn't come to be served, but to serve and give his life a ransom for? For many. Who are the many?
All who would believe, he actually was a ransom. He actually was a satisfaction. He actually provided an expiation. He actually achieved an atonement. For those who would believe.
To put it in the angelic language, It goes like this. The angel says Joseph?
Son of David. Do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. For that which has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. and she will bear a son. And you shall call his name Jesus.
Listen, for it is he who will save. Who? His people From Their sins. The Bible teaches nowhere a potential salvation, He saves His people. From their sins.
That's what he will do when he comes. It will be a real salvation for his people. John 10, 11. I am the Good Shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life Four.
The Sheep. And I know my own Cheap. I am the good shepherd. I know my own. My own know me.
I lay down my life for the sheep. In chapter 11 of John's Gospel, And verse 50. It is expedient for you that one man should die for the people and that the whole nation should not perish.
So says Caiaphas.
Now this he did not say on his own initiative. But being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation. Listen to this, and not for the nation only, but that he might also gather together into one the children of God who are scattered abroad. Wow, what a statement. You get that?
Jesus died. Jesus died. Not just for Jews. But to gather into one body the children of God scattered all over the world. That's who we died for.
In Ephesians chapter 5, just a couple more. Husbands love your wives just as Christ Also loved what? The church and gave himself up for. Her. That he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that he might present to himself the church in all her glory.
He paid the price for his bride, his church. He redeemed her. It wasn't a redemption of nobody in particular, it was a redemption of his own redeemed. Church. It was a particular redemption.
He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world. He predestined us. In Him we have redemption. Ephesians 1, 7. We have the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished.
On us. We are I love this. Verse 14, Ephesians 1. God's own possession. It says, the redemption of God's own possession, a people of his own possession.
Titus two. Thirteen? We look for the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. I love this, who gave Himself for us. that he might redeem us.
And purify for himself a people for his own possession. And who was that people? The people whom God chose before the foundation of the world and gave to the Son as his. Bride. Peter says, He bore our sins in his own body.
1 Peter 2.24. Peter says Christ died for sin once for all the just for the unjust in order that he might bring us to God. He didn't die to potentially bring people to God. He died to bring us to God. He died to satisfy God.
He died to redeem the holy seed, the holy offspring. One other Text. That's it. One other one. It's a clarification, really.
Hebrews 10.29. How much severe punishment? Do you think he will deserve who has trampled underfoot the Son of God? and regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified.
Some people say, well, wait a minute, that says right there. that some people who are going to be punished Some people who trample underfoot the Son of God. and regard as unclean the very blood of his covenant. Are said to be sanctified. Can I help you with that verse?
Take out your little pin. And put just a little line above the H that turns it into a capital H. It's not talking about sinners being sanctified, it's talking about Christ. By which he was Sanctified. Trampling underfoot the Son of God and regarding as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was set apart as the covenant.
Sacrifice.
Well Somebody could throw in a verse like 2 Peter 2:1 and say, wait a minute, it says of those people there who were apostate that they denied the master who bought them. Sure, there's a sarcasm there. They claim to be true believers. They claim to be true teachers. They infiltrated the church as false teachers, and maybe in a mocking way say, Huh.
You now have denied the master that bought you. We know the master didn't pay the price. for damnable heretics.
So how do we summarize this? The death of Christ was a real, true, actual satisfaction of divine justice. It was a true payment and a true atonement in full, actually, not potentially. Paid to God by Christ on behalf. Of all who would ever believe.
Because they were chosen. And redeemed by the power of God. The death of Christ was then definite, particular, specific, and actual on behalf of God's chosen people, limited in extent by the sovereign purposes of God, but unlimited in effect. For all for whom it was rendered, it is fully in force. Or will be.
In each individual life, it is the work of God, it is the work of Christ to accomplish redemption, not to make redemption possible, to then be finally accomplished by the sinner. Christ procured salvation for all whom God would call and justify. Sinners do not limit the atonement. God does. Jesus did actually take the penalty in full for all who would ever believe.
What does that mean to you?
Well for one you ought to rejoice. Because the price was paid in full for you. You don't have to activate it. You're a trophy of God's divine grace. Secondly, Go out and evangelize the lost with joy, knowing that.
that there's a holy seed out there. For Christ has already paid the price for their sins, and it's our joy and our privilege to be God's instruments to reach them. Mm-hmm. You're listening to Grace to You, the Bible teaching ministry of John MacArthur. John's current study is called The Doctrines of Grace.
Now, friend, perhaps you've heard people say that the doctrine John looked at to day, actual atonement, is a teaching that discourages evangelism. They reason that if Christ only died for the elect, then why even give unbelievers the gospel?
Well, that's certainly not John MacArthur's perspective. In fact, here's what he said about why this doctrine actually encourages evangelism. Because I know that God has his people. I mean, this takes me back to Isaiah 6.
So God says, Who will go for us? Whom shall I send and who will go for us? And Isaiah says, Here am I, send me. And so Isaiah says, How long, O Lord? And the Lord says, Well, listen, nobody's going to listen.
They're going to have ears but don't hear, eyes that don't see, hearts that don't believe. And so Isaiah says, You want me to go and you want me to preach this message, but nobody's going to listen, nobody's going to hear. And then the 13th verse in Isaiah 6, the chapter ends by saying, But I have a tenth. The doctrine of the remnant. I have a holy seed.
I love that. I have a holy seed out there. And that is what spurs our evangelistic efforts to know that there is an elect people. Paul, when he writes to Titus, says that he is a servant of God, and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to bring the gospel to the elect. What an incredibly marvellous reality We cannot fail.
We will succeed because God has His chosen people waiting to hear the gospel message. And the gospel message will come to them because. All that the Father has chosen will come and be given to Christ, and Christ will receive them all, keep them all, raise them all to glory.
So I say the doctrine of sovereignty is what motivates me to faithful evangelism constantly because I know that this is the means that God is using to save his chosen people. If, on the other hand, I thought that this was just a random deal, God hadn't chosen anybody, and I was supposed to try to convince the people who needed to be saved to be saved. That's more responsibility than I would care to have on my shoulders. The eternal destiny of souls, and they would be responsible to me for how I presented the message, or how attractive I made it, or how clever I made it, or how faithfully I proclaimed it. I couldn't bear the weight of that.
So, I can actually go and preach the gospel with joy, preach the gospel with freedom, knowing that God already has chosen His people and that I'm just a tool that He uses to draw them in. What a holy and high calling. That's why Paul says to the Corinthians: We always triumph in Christ. We always triumph in Christ because in our evangelistic work, The end is already determined, and we're just the instruments to that. And yet, though we have nothing to be rewarded for, the Lord.
Rewards us in glory as partners in that enterprise. That's right, friend. God is sovereign over everything, including who will respond positively when you give the gospel. But of course, being able to explain the gospel clearly should be the goal of every Christian, and to do that, you need to know God's Word.
So, to help you get all you can when you study Scripture, I encourage you to get a copy of our flagship resource, the MacArthur Study Bible. With its 25,000 footnotes written by John covering Genesis through Revelation, the MacArthur Study Bible makes virtually every passage clear. To get your copy of the MacArthur Study Bible with several languages to choose from, contact us today. Call us at 80055 GRACE or visit our website gty.org. The MacArthur Study Bible comes in hardcover, leather, and even premium goat skin.
It's available in the English standard, New American Standard, New King James and Legacy Standard versions. Again to order call 800-55GRACE or you can shop online at gty.org. Another way to get a steady dose of Bible teaching around the clock is what we call Grace Stream. It's a continuous loop of John's teaching through the entire New Testament. It starts in Matthew and goes through Revelation and then it starts all over again.
Just hop in wherever John is teaching. It helps you get into God's Word fast and absorb it in a systematic way. And like so many of our resources, GraceStream is available for free at gty.org.
Now for the entire Grace DU staff, I'm Phil Johnson. Remember to watch Grace to You television this Sunday on DirecTV Channel 378. And make sure you're here tomorrow when John MacArthur shows you why the same gospel that saves some people hardens the hearts of others. It's another 30 minutes of Unleashing God's Truth one verse at a time on grace to you.
