Think Wink.

Last night in my history of Christianity class I had an interstingly brief conversation with one of my class mates.  During that conversation I was being questioned about limited atonement.  He told me that he did not hold to Limited Atonement but rather universal atonement because of John 3:16 and 1 John 2:2.  I told him that I too do not hold to Limited Atonement but that Christ’s death redeemed a particular people that God has chosen to be his own elect people under the New Covenant.  I gave him all of my arguments for why John 3:16 does not defeat Particular Redemption.  But class began before I had the time to address 1 John 2:2.  I had posted upon 1 John 2:2 earlier but did not really give a definitive stance on the text but only hinted at it.  Thus here I go to post on it to give my precise stance on the text.  John writes in 1 John 2:2,

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

Now I must say from the outset that I would be crazy to say that a person cannot find universal atonement/general redemption in this verse.  This is not like John 3:16 where one has to read into it the “free will” and universality of the efficiency of the atonement (the scope is limited only to believers but is grounded in a universal love).  The language of universal atonement is in 1 John 2:2 and I am not in denial of the language.  My main disagreement comes from the meaning of the terms.  I only ask that you hear me out and weigh what I have to say against the text and make your own decision prayerfully.

Why do I not think this really speaks of universal atonement/general redemption?  First comes from the term propitiation.  It is the Greek term hilasmos.  It literally means the means by which sins are forgiven.  It is a sacrifice in which the wrath of the divine party is appeased.  It is used four times in the New Testament: Romans 3:25; Hebrews 2:17; 1 John 2:2; 1 John 4:10.  In each place Jesus has atoned for the sin in which God would have poured out his wrath upon.  Jesus death paid the penalty so that those sins are forgiven and removed from us.  They have been taken away and we no longer bear them.  That is a propitiation, satisfying the wrath of God against sin; and that is what Jesus’ death did.

The other key term in this text is the words the whole world.  The phrase in Greek literally reads holou tou kosmou, holos means entire and kosmos means world.  The term can mean the whole planet, all of mankind, all of a group of people.  It can mean anyone of these things.  Most people in this particular text take it to mean all of mankind.  For argument’s sake, I will go with this assumption. 

If we take the word propitiation to mean exactly as defined before and the world to mean every single human being, then my question becomes why do people go to hell.  If all of the sin of all humanity has been atoned for, God is no longer angry at those sins and has forgiven them, then why do some people go to hell?  If Jesus died for all of the sins of all people, then that is universalism and no one goes to hell.  Even more so, God cannot send people to hell for sins he has forgiven.  That would mean that Jesus did not atone for those sins or that Jesus’ death was for nothing.  So I conclude that we cannot take either propitiation to mean an atonement and forgiveness for all sins or the world to mean all people.

Second, let us take propitiation to mean all sins but the belief in the Lord Jesus Christ.  Let us just say that is what hilasmos means.  Thus the only way to be saved is the cross and resurrection plus man’s faith.  If that is true, then when Paul says in Ephesians 2:5 “by grace you have been saved” is negated.  It is no longer by grace.  Also, faith is no longer just trusting in God and the work of Jesus but faith itself is a deed.  Faith is something that we must do to be saved in the same way that obedience to the Mosaic Law in the Old Testament.  It is a wage and wages are death (Romans 3:28; Romans 4:4-5; Romans 6:23).  It is no longer a Hebrews 11:1 faith.

Staying in the same line of understanding propitiation as atoning for all sin but faith in Jesus for all people.  Then how do we know that the atonement has fully atoned for the other sins that we have commited?  It is an objection that one must consider: the sufficiency of the cross.  Has God really forgiven all of those sins or not?  Is it all sins of all people or may be some sins of all people?

There is a third line of interpretation for this text in which one limits the scope of propitiation to all sins but belief and limits the scope of the atonement.  The whole world no longer means every single person but is limited to the chosen people of God.  This however makes absolutely no sense with the Bible.  I insert this as more of a parenthesis than an actual argument.  It lacks, in my mind and reading of the Bible, any substance and validity of arugment.  It would argue that the atonement forgives some sins of some people.  Like I said, it doesn’t fit.

Now here is what I would argue: John is saying that Jesus’ death atones for all sin of some people, namely the elect people of Yahweh.  I argue that propitiation truely forgives all sin even the sin of not believing.  But I have more to say about this.  I am arguing that world is not every human being but the people of God throughout the world.  I base this first and foremost upon the parallel of this verse in John’s record of the High Priest’s prophecy in John 11:51-52 after Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead.  John records for us,

51 He did not say this of his own accord, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, 52 and not for the nation only, but also to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad.

John says the prophecy predicts that Jesus would die for the nation of Israel and all of teh children of God who are scattered abroad.  What the High Priest meant was that if Jesus continued to stir up the people, he might lead a revolution that won’t be friendly to themselves or if it fails will end in the utter destruction of Israel by Roman legions, which is bad for themselves.  Now look at how this is viewed.  Caiaphas stated that Jesus died for all of God’s children were scattered into the whold world.  Thus in that sense, Jesus died for the whole world, not each indiviudal but for all of God’s people living in the different parts of the world.  This is the best way to understand what John in saying in our text, 1 John 2:2 when we are to understand the meaning of kosmos.  Thus I argue that Jesus died for all of his people.  John 10:11 records Jesus as saying, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.”  Jesus said in John 10:15-16, “I lay down my life for the sheep.  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.”  One flock in many folds gathered into one.  Only for that flock did Jesus die.  Those who are believers believe because they are the sheep of God, because they are part of that flock (John 10:26).  The four living creatures in Revelation 5:9 says, “for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.”  Here again from out of the whole world were the people of God that Jesus’ blood purchases, but the whole world was not purchased by Jesus’ blood.  His blood did not forgive all of the sin of every human being.  John goes on to refer to these people as a great multitude and the 144,000 in Revelation 7.  These 144,000 that were the great multitude are the redeemed spoken of earlier when they are seen again in Revelation 14:1-5.

The reason I feel that the death of Christ covers all sins is found in Hebrews 10:12, 14.  Here Jesus’ death is portrayed as the only sacrifice for all time to atone for sin.  Also it says that by that one sacrifice “he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.”  The sacrifice has done exactly as it was intended to do, atone and perfect those whom God is making holy.  The propitiation is a real and total atonement for all sin, once for all.

Thus what I conclude to view of this is this: Jesus’ death atones for all sins of some people.  As I said earlier, I am not in favor of ascribing to “Limited Atonement” but to “Particular Redemption/Definite Atonement.”  Jesus’ death definitely accomplished redemption for a certain or particular people, the elect people of God.  When John says the whole world, he means all of the people of God, the flock of God, scattered through out the world.  When John says propitiation he means a true forgiveness of sin, a complete and total atonement and not a partial atonement.

Related posts:

John 3:16

Yeah, Kinda Sad

Stomaching Hard Truths