L – Limited Atonement:
Defined:
Christ’s redeeming work was intended to save the elect only and actually secured salvation for them. His death was a substitutionary endurance of the penalty of sin in the place of certain specified sinners. In addition to putting away the sins of His people, Christ’s redemption secured everything necessary for their salvation, including faith which unites them to Him. The gift of faith is infallibly applied by the Spirit to all for whom Christ died, thereby guaranteeing their salvation (Steele & Thomas, p. 17).
This tenet is known negatively as “Limited Atonement,” but put positively as “Particular Redemption.”
Scriptural Considerations:
Let’s recap. Calvinism says: Because of being born in sin, all of us are spiritually dead, so dead we are unable to even have faith (Total Depravity). Therefore, in order for us to be saved, God alone has to save us. We know that everyone doesn’t “get saved,” so, God had to choose those to whom He would give grace (Unconditional Election). Jesus couldn’t have died for everyone or everyone would be saved. So, because some are lost, we know Jesus didn’t die for everyone (Limited Atonement).
Did Jesus die for everyone? Let’s see what the Scriptures say:
“And He Himself is the propitiation (atoning sacrifice) for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world” (1 John 2:2).
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:16).
“For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all, the testimony borne at the proper time” (1 Timothy 2:5-6).
“For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, 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 ” (2 Corinthians 5:14-15).
“But we do see Him… Jesus, because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone” (Hebrews 2:9).
(See also: 2 Peter 3:9; Matthew 11:28-30; Revelation 3:20.)
Can we tell anyone we will ever meet that God loves them, and Jesus died for them? Absolutely! But, what about the Calvinist?
“As a Reformed (ie. Calvinist) Christian, the writer believes that counselors must not tell any unsaved counselee that Christ died for him, for they cannot say that. No man knows except Christ himself who are his elect for whom he died.” (Competent to Counsel, Jay Adams, Presbyterian & Reformed Pub. Co., 1975, p. 70).
We do not need to worry (unlike the Calvinist) that we may have inadvertently lied to someone about Jesus dying for them just because we were unaware if they were one of “the elect.”
– Glen Osburn