The World's Propitiation #1b

Welcome to The Truth Pulpit with Don Green, Founding Pastor of Truth Community Church in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Hello again, I'm Bill Wright. It is our joy to continue our commitment to teaching God's people God's Word. Today Don is continuing with the second part of a message we started last time. So let's get right to it. Open your Bible as we join Don now in The Truth Pulpit.

Now secondly, and here comes the more difficult question for us to deal with today. We've rejected universalism, but secondly, there are Christians, and I mean that in the true sincere sense, that would answer this question, yes, but we're not going to accept their view of it. Second question for this morning, the second major point, is John in 1 John chapter 2, verse 2, does that verse teach potential salvation for all men? Does it teach potential salvation for all men? This view, which is the most popular view of this verse, says something like this. It says that Christ's death makes salvation possible for all men throughout the world. One writer says it this way, talking about chapter 2, verse 2. He says John rules out the thought that the death of Jesus is of limited effectiveness.

The possibility, and notice, listen for the word possible or potential in these quotes. The possibility of forgiveness is cosmic and universal. Jesus made salvation possible for men. When you hear that, then you say, well, if Jesus only made salvation possible, what is it that makes it effective?

What activates it? In other words, if he just died this death that is a general payment for sin, what activates it? And their answer is going to be very familiar to most of you. Christian writers routinely say, now get this, I'm speaking with as much precision as possible, and it's very important that you think critically and carefully right now. Christian writers routinely say that the decisive factor in salvation is whether a person believes or not. Christ made salvation possible. He made it potential by dying on the cross. Whether anyone actually receives benefit from it or not depends on whether they believe.

Listen to some of these quotes. Quote, Christ's atoning work has made it possible for anyone in the world to be saved, but each sinner must personally accept Christ as his Redeemer. Quote, the effectiveness of Jesus' propitiation for salvation is dependent on the one believing in Jesus. Quote, his sacrifice does not become effective until people believe in him. And what these men are saying is that when Jesus died on the cross, he only made salvation possible. It only becomes actual if you choose to believe in him.

I think that's a fair representation of what they are saying, even though you have to dig pretty hard to get some clarity from some of these writers. It only becomes actual if you choose to believe in him. It's up to you. It depends on you believing on whether salvation is going to actually happen or not. What do we have to say about that?

I'm going to introduce some of the issues and then we'll have to finish it next week. First of all, devastating point against that view. This view, the view that the potential salvation view ignores, get this, it ignores the context of actual effective propitiation. The context of 1 John 2 2 is actual settled propitiation. Let's go back to 1 John there again and just again keep the verse at the front of our minds. 1 John chapter 2, in the middle of verse 1, if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous, and he himself is the propitiation for our sins. He is the propitiation for our sins. You do have a settled propitiation that has forever turned away the wrath of God. You are secure in Christ. It is settled.

It is actual. It is accomplished. That's what he's saying to believers as he writes there.

Heaven is our advocate and his advocacy is based on his work of propitiation when he died on the cross. Now here's a simple but crucial observation. Notice the present tense. He is the propitiation. It is an indicative. It is a statement of reality.

It is actual. He's talking about an actual propitiation that has actually and in reality turned away the wrath of God from us forever. That's what he's talking about as he talks about propitiation at the start of verse 2. And that is the context of the rest of 1 John as well. Look at chapter 1 verse 7.

Stay with me here. I've simplified this as much as I possibly can to the risk of oversimplification. Chapter 1 verse 7, if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us, continually cleanses us from all sin, all sin without exception. Settled. It is actual cleansing, ongoing cleansing that we enjoy in Christ. Chapter 2 verse 12. Chapter 2 verse 12, I am writing to you little children because your sins have been forgiven you for his name's sake.

It is settled. It is a settled forgiveness that he is writing to Christians about. And chapter 5 verse 13, these things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.

Stay with me here. In the context of 1st John chapter 2 verse 2, both the immediate context and the broader context, he is saying that our sins are actually forgiven in Christ. God's wrath is actually, in fact, as a matter of objective reality. His wrath is turned away from us in Christ. He is not describing potential propitiation for believers. It's an actual reality rooted in the actual death of Christ for our actual salvation. That's the point of propitiation there at the beginning of verse 2.

Now, watch this. It is from that statement of actual propitiation that he steps and extends it to the rest of the world. He is extending the reality of an actual propitiation to the rest of the world in some fashion or another. He says, look at verse 2 with me again. I'm gonna keep your eyes glued on that verse so that you see I'm not making this up.

He himself is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only but also for those of the whole world. From actual propitiation somehow extending that actual propitiation out to the whole world. Now, beloved, track with me here. Think with me here and not just listen to what you may have always heard in the past. What we're talking about here is what I grew up being taught.

Here's the question, beloved. Where in 1 John 2 2, where is the language? Where are the words that justify making changing from actual propitiation for believers? Where is the language that suddenly makes that potential for the rest of the world? Where does he say potential? Where does he say possible? Where does he say maybe?

Where does he make it if something or the other happens? Listen, you can look for those verses for a very long time. You can look for those words for a very long time in 1 John 2 2 and you're not going to find them. Those words of potentiality are not there and they're not there because John didn't want them there under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. It's not what he said.

That's a simple observation but that is not what he said. He doesn't insert the word potential or possible. He doesn't contrast actual propitiation for believers and possible propitiation for the world. That's not what that verse says and therefore we don't believe that. We don't insert what we want it to say for our benefit. No, we take the Word of God for what it says and then try to understand it and work out the implications of it.

Now let me suggest something to you here. These well intentioned writers, many of whom are writers that I respect and have benefited from even in my exposition of 1 John. Listen, they have to insert the concept of potentiality so that they avoid the trap of universalism because they want to preserve the fact that God intended salvation somehow for all men everywhere. That's what they're trying to do.

That's why they have to insert potential. They know that universalism is not true. They want to preserve God's intentions of saving everybody in the world without exception and so they have to make the propitiation somehow contingent or potential in order to not become universalists which they know to be true. That's the problem that they have and that's what they're trying to avoid and so on the one hand universalists say John's talking about an actual salvation for all men. They want the all-men part but they can't say actual so they have to make it potential and in so doing they violate the simple language that John himself uses and insert things that he did not say. Beloved, we have to find an understanding of this passage that does not put words in the mouth of an inspired apostle.

You with me? It does not say potential salvation and so we're not willing to embrace that aspect of it. Now there is a second problem with this potential salvation view that is even more decisive in my mind than what I think is conclusive about that first sub point. Second sub point here, does this verse teach a potential salvation?

The answer that is my understanding is no, absolutely not, it does not. Giving you the first reason it doesn't say potential salvation. Secondly, the potential salvation view makes sinners the decisive factor in whether they receive salvation or not.

That's a mouthful. Let me summarize it this way, the potential salvation view makes sinners decisive in salvation and that is something that the Bible clearly rejects. Beloved, salvation cannot ultimately depend on the sinner's response to Christ. The decisive factor can't be in the sinner's hands because if that were the case no one would ever be saved including you and me. No one, if it's ultimately up to the sinner, no one is going to choose to be saved.

Sin has left man in a state of settled rebellion against God. He cannot, the sinner cannot and will not take the step of faith toward God no matter how brilliantly the gospel is presented to him. He will not do that on his own and I want to remind you of some familiar passages that tie in here that the potential salvation view has to overlook and not discuss. Romans chapter 3, Romans chapter 3, turn there with me, Romans chapter 3. Now think about this, think about this passage that I'm about to read in the context of everybody saying it's dependent on the sinner believing.

It's all up to you. Chapter 3 verse 10, actually we'll start in verse 9, Paul says, what then are we better than they not at all for we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin as it is written there is none righteous not even one. There is none who understands, there is none who seeks for God. All have turned aside, together they have become useless.

There is none who does good, there is not even one. Look at verse 18, there is no fear of God before their eyes. Now turn over a few pages toward the end of your Bible to the book of Ephesians.

Again reminding you of familiar important passages in an important context. What we're looking here in Romans 3 and Ephesians 2, we're looking at the condition of those who allegedly contain the keys to their own salvation and whether they believe or not. Ephesians chapter 2 verses 1 through 3. Looking back to the time before his readers were Christians, Paul says this, he says, and you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world according to the prince of the power of the air of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we to all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind and were by nature children of wrath even as the rest. And so there is no one who seeks for God, Romans 3. Ephesians 2 says that sinners are dead in their trespasses and sins, that they're dominated by the devil, and that they are living under the wrath of God. Now where is someone who is spiritually dead in chains to the devil and who has no interest and is not seeking for God, beloved, where are they going to come up with the eternally pure faith necessary to put their faith in Christ and believe in Him for salvation on their own? Where does that come from?

That's impossible. And what I would say is is that when people take a potential view of salvation here in 1st John 2, 2, what I would say to you is, and they and they say it's dependent on the sinner believing, they are grossly underestimating the biblical doctrine of sin and the sinner's inability to do anything to make himself pleasing to God. If Christ only purchased a potential salvation and the gift of faith was somehow outside of what Christ did, where does that sinner's faith come from?

There is no biblical answer for that question. In the affirmative, the sinner is not neutral. He is dead in sin and he will never choose salvation of his own accord. If Christ died only to make salvation potential, beloved, the Bible tells us that no one would ever be saved. Now some of these writers recognize that problem and to their credit they try to address it. And some writers who hold this view acknowledge that God has to help the sinner exercise faith. God has to do something in their heart. One writer who holds to the potential salvation view says this, he says, human beings are sinful in all aspects of their humanity and are unwilling and unable to receive God's salvation revealed in Jesus apart from the enabling work of the Holy Spirit.

Now you know what? I agree with that. I think that's a pretty good statement. John 6 44, Jesus said, no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.

So that aspect of that is true. God not only had to provide the propitiation, he has to work in the heart of the sinner in order to bring that sinner to faith. When Christ died on the cross, he purchased not only the the propitiation, but he also enabled the gift of faith to be given to everyone that God chose to believe.

Now listen to me though. What I said is that these men who want potential salvation for all men, they're wanting to preserve the goodwill of God toward all men without distinction. What this writer just said though, that it takes the enabling work of the Holy Spirit to believe shows that that doesn't solve their problem. That doesn't solve their dilemma with particular redemption at all. It just pushes the question a little further back because here's the question if that's true, it's potential salvation but God has to move in the hearts of people in order for them to believe.

Here's the question then, why does God move on the hearts of some but not on the hearts of others? You're still left, if that's the view you take, you're still left with God's sovereign pleasure being the determining factor in salvation, not the response of the sinner. And that, in my opinion, exposes the weakness of the potential salvation view. That exposes the weakness of the potential salvation view. When you follow it through to its logical conclusion, it either leaves you hoping that a spiritually dead sinner will exercise saving faith in Christ or it leaves you with God acting on some hearts and not others and then you've just recreated the dilemma on a different front that they're trying to avoid. There's a much better way to view this passage but we're going to have to save it until next week.

For now let me say this, don't close up your Bibles and everything just yet. Let me say this, at the cross your Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, didn't maybe do something on your behalf that depended 2,000 years to see what you would do to as to whether you would actually be saved or not. Jesus Christ at the cross actually accomplished salvation for all those that the Father had chosen before the foundation of the world. His work on the cross was so perfect and so complete and so intentional in the outworking of the predetermined plan of God that no one whom he intended to save could possibly have been lost. If you are a Christian, understand that Jesus Christ secured the certainty of your salvation when he died for your sins. He even secured the gift of faith that you would need to be bestowed upon you.

Here's what that means. There is a galactic conclusion to all of this, beloved. That means that Christ actually accomplished our salvation on the cross and when he said it is finished he didn't say, now it's your turn.

I've done my part, now you do your part. Understand this, beloved. Choosing us before the foundation of the world. Christ dying on the cross and securing that salvation. The Spirit of God working in your heart to bring you to Christ and then preserving you all the way until you are with him in glory. Understand this, beloved. Understand that that view of salvation means that God gets all the glory, not just 95% of it.

There is nothing for us to boast about. You're saved by grace through faith that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. It is a gift that he certainly gives to those that he wants to have it. And what that does, beloved, is it humbles your heart completely and makes you praise him and makes you deny yourself. Yes, you have to believe in Christ, but that belief is also an outworking of God's gift of salvation. It's something that God does in you to bring to pass, certainly so that your salvation is never at any point ultimately dependent on you unaided by the work of God on your behalf.

Now if you're not a Christian, know this for certain, you don't have to speculate about whether you were included in God's design or not. The gospel is free, the gospel is spread open. Jesus invites all men to come to him. He said, the one who comes to me I will certainly not cast out. Believe him for his intrinsic trustworthiness when he says, if you come to me I will save you. The only way for you to be reconciled to God is through the propitiation of Christ on the cross. So come to him, believe in him, trust him because he truly paid it all so that the gates of heaven could be open to you. If you hear the sound of the gospel and you come to Christ, he will save you from all of your sins and eternal destruction will not be your destination in the end, but eternal life in heaven around the throne of Christ.

Beloved, why would you turn away from an offer like that? Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this difficult passage and for the men who have gone before us in years gone by to help explain it and to help us understand it, Father. We thank you for the work of Christ on the cross and we acknowledge before you as believers, our Father, that if you had not first loved us we never would have loved you.

We would not be saved at all if it had not been your initiative and we would not have been saved at all if it depended on something that we contributed to the process. We are humbled before your word, gloriously humbled. We rejoice in this, Father, because that means that you had your intention set upon us not only before the foundation of the world but at the cross itself. Christ died for us individually, particularly to save us individually and particularly, and absorbed the wrath of a holy God on our behalf, on my behalf, not just in general but in particular. And oh, how we rejoice in that. Your great love toward your children cannot be measured.

It is too high, it is too deep, it is too broad for us to comprehend. And in light of that teaching from your word, Lord, we completely humble ourselves before you and give you 100% of every bit of the glory. In Jesus' name, amen. Just before we close, my friends, I just want to let you know that this podcast is made possible for you by the generous support of many friends of our ministry. We're grateful for that and if you have supported us I want to say a special word of thanks to you for all that you've done to make this possible. And if you would like to join in the support of our ministry you can do that so easily by going to thetruthpulpit.com.

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Know that our love and prayers are with you. Thank you for joining us. We'll see you next time as we continue to study God's Word together here on The Truth Pulpit. That's Don Green, founding pastor of Truth Community Church in Cincinnati, Ohio. Thank you so much for listening to The Truth Pulpit. Join us next time for more as we continue teaching God's people God's Word.