TheosGuy

R.L. Dabney in his Systematic Theology draws a distinction between limited atonement and unlimited expiation. As Dabney is a “Five-Point Calvinist” this is a rare distinction from that side of the theological debate.
And since he believes expiation is an unlimited work of Jesus Christ, it is also an intended unlimited work of Christ to provide such.

It seems plain that the vagueness and ambiguity of the modern term ‘atonement,’ has very much complicated the debate. This word, not classical in the Reformed theology, is used sometimes for satisfaction for guilt, sometimes for the reconciliation ensuing thereon; until men on both sides of the debate have forgotten the distinction. The one is cause; the other effect. The only New Testament sense the word atonement has is that of katallage, reconciliation. But expiation is another idea. Katallage is personal. Exilasmos is impersonal. Katallage is multiplied, being repeated as often as a sinner comes to the expiatory blood. Exilasmos is single, unique, complete; and, in itself considered, has no more relation to one man’s sins than another. As it is applied in effectual calling, it becomes personal, and receives a limitation. But in itself, limitation is irrelevant to it. Hence, when men use the word atonement, as they so often do, in the sense of expiation, the phrases, ‘limited atonement,’ ‘particular atonement,’ have no meaning. Redemption is limited, i.e., to true believers, and is particular. Expiation is not limited.¹

1. Dabney, Robert L., Systematic Theology. From chapter 35, Section 8. (2). “Christ’s Satisfaction Not Commercial.”

Tags: Dabney

Jonathan Edwards wrote this on Christ seeking the salvation of the wicked.

Ans 2. We ought now to seek and be concerned for the salvation of wicked men, because now they are capable subjects of it.  Wicked men, though they may be very wicked, yet are capable subjects of mercy.  It is yet a day of grace with them, and they have the offers of salvation. Christ is as yet seeking their salvation; he is calling upon them, inviting and wooing them, he stands at the door and knocks. He is using many means with them, is calling them, saying, Turn ye, turn ye, why will ye die? The day of his patience is yet continued to them; and if Christ is seeking their salvation, surely we ought to seek it.

God is wont now to make men the means of one another’s salvation; yea, it is his ordinary way so to do. He makes the concern and endeavors of his people the means of bringing home many to Christ. Therefore they ought to be concerned for and endeavor it. But it will not be so in another world; there wicked men will be no longer capable subjects of mercy. The saints will know, that it is the will of God the wicked should he miserable to all eternity. It will therefore cease to be their duty any more to seek their salvation, or to be concerned about their misery. On the other hand, it will be their duty to rejoice in the will and glory of God. It is not our duty to be sorry that God hath executed just vengeance on the devils, concerning whom the will of God in their eternal state is already known to us.

Jonathan Edwards, “The End of the Wicked Contemplated by the Righteous,” in The Works of Jonathan Edwards (Carlisle, Penn.: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1992), p. 210.

HT: Theological Meditations

Tags: Atonement, Jesus Christ, Jonathan Edwards, Salvation

Jonathan Edwards wrote this about Christ laying down His life for those that will be damned.

Jesus Christ, the Redeemer, will have no pity on you. Though he had so much love to sinners, as to be willing to lay down his life for them, and offers you the benefits of his blood, while you are in this world, and often calls upon you to accept them; yet then he will have no pity upon you. You never will hear any more instructions from him; he will utterly refuse to be your instructor: on the contrary, he will be your judge, to pronounce sentence against you.

Jonathan Edwards, “The End of the Wicked Contemplated by the Righteous,” in The Works of Jonathan Edwards (Carlisle, Penn.: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1992), p. 211.

HT: Theological Meditations

Tags: Atonement, Jesus Christ, Jonathan Edwards, Salvation

Charles Hodge believes that John 3:16 indicates that God has designed and rendered the salvation of all men possible

“2. It is here [in John 3:16], as well as elsewhere taught, that it was the design of God to render the salvation of all men possible, by the gift of his Son. There was nothing in the nature, or the value, or the design of his work to render it available for any one class of men only. Whosoever believeth, etc. This is not inconsistent with other representations that it entered into God’s design to render the salvation of his people certain by the death of his Son.”

Charles Hodge, Princeton Sermons (London: Thomas Nelson and Sons, 1879), 17.

HT: Theological Meditations

Tags: Atonement, Charles Hodge, Jesus Christ, Salvation

“II. Let all be exhorted to accept the grace of the gospel. One would think, that there should be no need of such exhortations as this, but alas, such is the dreadful wickedness and the horrible ingratitude of man’s heart, that he needs abundance of persuading and entreating to accept of God’s kindness, when offered them. We should count it horrible ingratitude in a poor, necessitous creature, to refuse our help and kindness when we, out of mere pity to him, offer to relieve and help him. If you should see a man in extremity of distress, and in a perishing necessity of help and relief, and you should lay out yourself, with much labor and cost, out of compassion to him, that he might be relieved, how would you take it of him, if he should proudly and spitefully refuse it and snuff at it, instead of thanking you for it? Would you not look upon it as a very ungrateful, unreasonable, base thing? And why has not God a thousand times the cause, to look upon you as base and ungrateful, if you refuse his glorious grace in the gospel, that he offers you? When God saw mankind in a most necessitous condition, in the greatest and extremest distress, being exposed to hellfire and eternal death, from which it was impossible he should ever deliver himself, or that ever he should be delivered by any other means, He took pity on them, and brought them from the jaws of destruction by His own blood. Now what great ingratitude is it for them to refuse such grace as this?

But so it is: multitudes will not accept a free gift at the hands of the King of the World. They have the daring, horrible presumption as [to] refuse a kindness offered by God himself, and not to accept a gift at the hands of Jehovah, nor not his own Son, his own Son equal with himself. Yea, they’ll not accept of him, though he dies for them; yea, though he dies a most tormenting death, though he dies that they may be delivered from hell, and that they may have heaven, they’ll not accept of this gift, though they are in such necessity of it, that they must be miserable forever without it. Yea, although God the Father invites and importunes them, they’ll not accept of it, though the Son of God himself knocks and calls at their door till his head is wet with the dew, and his locks with the drops of the night, arguing and pleading with them to accept of him for their own sakes, though he makes so many glorious promises, though he holds forth so many precious benefits to tempt them to happiness, perhaps for many years together, yet they obstinately refuse all. Was ever such ingratitude heard of, or can greater be conceived of?

What would you have God do for you, that you may accept of it? Is the gift that he offers too small, that you think it too little, for you to accept of? Don’t God offer you his Son, and what could God offer more? Yea, we may say God himself has not a greater gift to offer. Did not the Son of God do enough for you, that you won’t accept of him; did he [not] die, and what could he do more? Yea, we may say that the Son of God could not do a greater thing for man. Do you refuse because you want to be invited and wooed? You may hear him, from day to day, inviting of you, if you will but hearken. Or is it because you don’t stand in need of God’s grace? Don’t you need it so much as that you must either receive it or be damned to all eternity, and what greater need can there possibly be?

Alas, miserable creatures that we are, instead of the gift of God offered in the gospel‘s not being great enough for us, we are not worthy of anything at all: we are less than the least of all God’s mercies. Instead of deserving the dying Son of God, we are not worthy of the least crumb of bread, the least drop of water, or the least ray of light; instead of Christ’s not having done enough for us by dying, in such pain and ignominy, we are not worthy that he should so much as look on us, instead of shedding his blood. We are not worthy that Christ should once make an offer of the least benefit, instead of his so long urging of us to be eternally happy.

Whoever continues to refuse Christ, will find hereafter, that instead of his having no need of him, that the least drop of his blood would have been more worth to them, than all the world; wherefore, let none be so ungrateful to God and so unwise for themselves, as to refuse the glorious grace of the gospel.”

Tags: Atonement, Christ, Jonathan Edwards, Salvation, Theology

The following outline is from Dr. David Hocking’s class on Christology. Dr. Hocking’s materials are available at his ministry website, The Hope for Today.

Primary Texts: John 1:1-18; 1 Timothy 3:16

A. HIS NAMES PROVE THAT HE IS GOD!

1. He is called “GOD” – Jhn 1:1; 20:28; Act 28:28; Rom 9:5; Tts 2:13; Hebr 1:8; 1 John 5:2-8; cf. Isa 9:6
2. He is called the “SON OF GOD” – uses huios (G5207) for son, which refers to position, not origin (word for “born one” in Greek, teknon, (G5043) is never used of Jesus Christ) – cf. John 5:18; 10:30-36; 19:7
3. He is called the “LORD” (Greek – kurios) – used in LXX for the Hebrew YAHWEH (Jehovah) – Isa 45:22-23; Joe 2:32; Act 2:21-36; Rom 10:9-10; Phl 2:5-11 (fbr: “christos” used in LXX for Hebrew word translated “Messiah”)
4. He is called the “LORD OF GLORY” – Psa 24:7-10; 1 Cor 2:8
5. He is called the “HOLY ONE” – Isa 48:17; Act 3:14
6. He is called “THE FIRST AND THE LAST” – Isa 44:6; 48:12-16; Rev 1:17-18; 2:8; 22:12-13, 16
7. He is called the “LORD OF HOSTS” – Isa 44:6 (Hebrew word is YHWH not adonai)—Redeemer is YHWH.

B. HIS ATTRIBUTES PROVE THAT HE IS GOD!

1. He is ETERNAL – Isaiah 9:6; 1 John 5:11
2. He is UNCHANGEABLE – Mal 3:6; Hebr 1:8-12; 13:8
3. He is OMNIPRESENT – Mat 18:28; 28:20; Col 3:11
4. He is OMNISCIENT – Jhn 2:23-25; 16:38; Col 2:3
5. He is OMNIPOTENT – Phl 3:20-21; Rev 1:8; 22:12-13
6. He is PERFECT – Colossians 1:19; 2:9-10
7. He is INCOMPREHENSIBLE – Isa 9:6; 55:8-9; Mat 11:27; Rom 11:33-36; Eph 3:8, 19

C. HIS ABILITIES PROVE THAT HE IS GOD!

1. He CREATED all things – John 1:3, 10; Col 1:16
2. He CONTROLS all things – Col 1:17; Hebr 1:2-3
3. He CURES all diseases – Mat 4:23-24
4. He CALMS the sea – Mark 6:47-51
5. He CONQUERS death – John 11:25-26
6. He CLAIMS to forgive sins, answer prayer, and give eternal life – Mar 2:1-12; Jhn 10:27-33; 14:13-14

The above outline is copyrighted material, from The Hope for Today.

Tags: Christ, Deity, God, Jesus Christ

Following are some key texts on the doctrine of imputation:

Following are some additional related texts:

Tags: Cross, Imputation, Righteousness, Salvation

From John Calvin’s commentary on John 3:16

[Two] points are distinctly stated to us: namely, that faith in Christ brings life to all, and that Christ brought life, because the Father loves the human race, and wishes that they should not perish…[St. John] has employed the universal term whosoever, both to invite all indiscriminately to partake of life, and to cut off every excuse from unbelievers. Such is also the import of the term world, which he formerly used; for though nothing will be found in the world that is worthy of the favor of God, yet he shows himself to be reconciled to the whole world, when he invites all without exception to the faith of Christ, which is nothing less than an entrance into life. Let us remember, on the other hand, that while life is promised universally to all who believe in Christ, still faith is not common to all, but the elect alone are they whose eyes God opens, that they may seek him by faith.

Here are some thoughts of B. B. Warfield on John 3:16

Certainly here ‘the world’ and ‘believers’ do not seem to be quite equipollent terms: there seems, surely, something conveyed by the one which is not wholly taken up by the other. How, then, shall we say that ‘the world’ means just ‘the world of believers,’ just those scattered through the world, who, being the elect of God, shall believe in His Son and so have eternal life? There is obviously much truth in this idea: and the main difficulty which it faces may, no doubt, be avoided by saying that what is taught is that God’s love of the world is shown by His saving so great a multitude as He does save out of the world. The wicked world deserved at His hands only total destruction. But He saves out of it a multitude which no man can number, out of every nation, and of all tribes, and peoples and tongues. How much must, then God love the world! This interpretation, beyond question, reproduces the fundamental meaning of the text…The key to the passage lies—you see, in the significance of the term ‘world.’ It is not here a term of extension so much as a term of intensity. Its primary connotation is ethical, and the point of its employment is not to suggest that it takes a great deal of love to embrace it all, but that the world is so bad that it takes a great kind of love to love it at all, and much more to love it as God has loved it when He gave His Son for it.

There is a common question of whether or not it is right to also pray to Jesus, rather than just to the Father. Here is a passage from the New Testament that would indicate that it is appropriate to pray to Jesus.

“Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.”—John 14:13-14 (NASB)

In addition, the following thoughts are from Wayne Grudem’s audio message, “Jesus as Prophet and Priest” at approximately 26 minutes into the message.

Best to look to to Epistles of the New Testament.

1. In Acts 7:59, where Stephen prayed “Lord Jesus receive my spirit.” The word “Lord” (kurios) most often refers in the New Testament to Christ, while “God” refers most often, in context, to the Father.
2. In Acts 1, when choosing the the apostolic replacement for Judas: “Lord show us which one to choose.” Prayer to Christ (see 1 above re: “Lord”).
3. “Maranatha (Lord Come)” is a prayer to Jesus Christ (see 1 above re: “Lord”). See Rev 22:20 NASB and 1 Cor 16:22 NASB
4. Paul prays to the Lord in 2 Cor 12 (see 1 above re: “Lord”).
5. The epistle of Hebrews generally denotes Jesus as our mediator and high priest (e.g., Hebr 8:1, 6), and therefore it would seem appropriate for Him to receive our requests.
6. Anytime during the Gospels where someone made a request to Jesus to heal, raise from the dead, to save, etc. was the same as we consider of prayer requests (e.g., Mat 8:1-10).

Tags: Christ, Prayer