Continuing in chapter 4 of Arthur W. Pink's The Sovereignty of God, The Sovereignty of God in Salvation, and the part 1, The Sovereignty of God the Father in Salvation. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ, according as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself according to the good pleasure of His will, in whom also we have obtained an inheritance being predestinated according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will." Ephesians 1, 3, 5, 11 Here again we are told at what point in time, if time it could be called, when God made choice of those who were to be his children by Jesus Christ. It was not after Adam had fallen and plunged his race into sin and wretchedness, but long ere Adam saw the light, even before the world itself was founded, that God chose us in Christ. Here also we learn the purpose which God had before him in connection with his own elect. It was that they should be holy and without blame before him. It was unto the adoption of children. It was that they should obtain an inheritance. Here also we discover the motive which prompted him. It was in love that He predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, a statement which refutes the oft-made and wicked charge that for God to decide the eternal destiny of His creatures before they are born is tyrannical and unjust. Finally, we are informed here that in this matter He took counsel with none, but that we are predestinated according to the good pleasure of His will. 2 Thessalonians 2.13 But we are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth. There are three things here which deserve special attention. First, the fact that we are expressly told that God's elect are chosen to salvation. Language could not be more explicit. How summarily do these words dispose of the sophistries and equivocations of all who would make election refer to nothing but an external privilege or rank in service? It is to salvation itself that God hath chosen us. Second, we are warned here that election unto salvation does not disregard the use of appropriate means. Salvation is reached through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth. It is not true that because God has chosen a certain one to salvation that he will be saved willy-nilly, whether he believes or not. Nowhere do the scriptures so represent it. The same God who predestined the end also appointed the means. The same God who chose unto salvation decreed that His purpose should be realized through the work of the Spirit and belief of the truth. Third, that God has chosen us unto salvation is a profound cause for fervent praise. Note how strongly the Apostle expresses this. We are bound to give thanks all the way to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation, etc. Instead of shrinking back in horror from the doctrine of predestination, the believer, when he sees this blessed truth as it is unfolded in the Word, discovers a ground for gratitude and thanksgiving such as nothing else affords save the unspeakable gift of the Redeemer Himself. 2 Timothy 1.9 who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. How plain and pointed is the language of Holy Writ! It is man who, by his words, darkeneth counsel. It is impossible to state the case more clearly or strongly than it is stated here. Our salvation is not according to our works. That is to say, it is not due to anything in us, nor the rewarding of anything from us. Instead, it is the result of God's own purpose and grace. and this grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. It is by grace we are saved, and in the purpose of God this grace was bestowed upon us not only before we saw the light, not only before Adam's fall, but even before that far distant beginning of Genesis 1.1 and herein lies the unassailable comfort of God's people if his choice has been from eternity it will last to eternity nothing can survive to eternity but what came from eternity and what has so come will a quotation from G.S. Bishop 2nd Peter 1.2 elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father through sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. Here again, election by the Father precedes the work of the Holy Spirit in and the obedience of faith by those who are saved, thus taking it entirely off creature ground and resting it in the sovereign pleasure of the Almighty. The foreknowledge of God the Father does not here refer to His prescience of all things, but signifies that the saints were all eternally present in Christ before the mind of God. God did not foreknow that certain ones who heard the gospel would believe it apart from the fact that He had ordained these certain ones to eternal life. What God's prescience saw in all men was love of sin and hatred of God. The foreknowledge of God is based upon His own decrees, as is clear from Acts 2, 23. Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain. Note the order here. First, God's determinate counsel, His decree. And second, His foreknowledge. So it is again in Romans chapter 8 verses 28 and 29. For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son. But the first word here, fore, looks back to the preceding verse and the last clause of it reads, To them who are the called according to His purpose. These are the ones whom he did foreknow and predestinate. Finally, it needs to be pointed out that when we read in Scripture of God knowing certain people, the word is used in the sense of knowing with approbation and love. But if any man love God, the same is known of him. 1 Corinthians 8.3 To the hypocrites Christ will yet say, I never knew you. He never loved them. elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, signifies them, chosen by Him as the special objects of His approbation and love. Summarizing the teaching of these seven passages, we learn that God has ordained to eternal life certain ones, and that in consequence of His ordination they, in due time, believe. That God's ordination to salvation of His own elect is not due to any good thing in them, nor to anything meritorious from them, but solely of His grace. That God has designedly selected the most unlikely objects to be the recipients of His special favors, in order that no flesh should glory in His presence. That God chose His people in Christ before the foundation of the world, not because they were so, but in order that they should be holy and without blame before Him. that having selected certain ones to salvation, he also decreed the means by which his eternal counsel should be made good, that the very grace by which we are saved was in God's purpose given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, that long before they were actually created, God's elect stood present before his mind, were foreknown by him, that is, were the definite objects of his eternal love. Before turning to the next division of this chapter, a further word concerning the subjects of God's predestinating grace. We go over this ground again because it is at this point that the doctrine of God's sovereignty in predestining certain ones to salvation is most frequently assaulted. Perverters of this truth invariably seek to find some cause outside God's own will which moves him to bestow salvation on sinners, something or other is attributed to the creature which entitles him to receive mercy at the hands of the Creator. We return then to the question, why did God choose the ones He did? What was there in the elect themselves which attracted God's heart to them? Was it because of certain virtues they possessed? Because they were generous-hearted, sweet-tempered, truth-speaking? In a word, because they were good that God chose them? No, for our Lord said, There is none good but one, that is, God, Matthew 19.17. Was it because of any good works they had performed? No, for it is written, There is none that doeth good. No, not one. Romans 3.12. Was it because they evidenced an earnestness and zeal in inquiring after God? No, for it is written again, There is none that seeketh after God. Romans 3.11. Was it because God foresaw they would believe? No. For how can those who are dead in trespasses and sins believe in Christ? How could God foreknow some men as believers when belief was impossible to them? Scripture declares that we believe through grace, Acts 18.27. Faith is God's gift, and apart from this gift, none would believe. The cause of His choice, then, lies within Himself and not in the objects of His choice. God the Father chose the ones He did simply because He chose to choose them. Sons, we are by God's election who on Jesus Christ believe. By eternal destination, sovereign grace, we now receive. Lord, by mercy, doth both grace and glory give. Secondly, the sovereignty of God the Son in salvation. For whom did Christ die? It surely does not need arguing that the Father had an express purpose in giving Him to die, or that God the Son had a definite design before Him in laying down His life. Known unto God are all His works from the beginning of the world, Acts 15.18. What then was the purpose of the Father and the design of the Son? We answer, Christ died for God's elect. We are not unmindful of the fact that the limited design in the death of Christ has been the subject of much controversy. What great truth revealed in Scripture has not. Nor do we forget that anything which has to do with the person and work of our blessed Lord requires to be handled with the utmost reverence, and that a thus saith the Lord must be given in support of every assertion we make. Our appeal shall be to the law and to the testimony. For whom did Christ die? Who were the ones He intended to redeem by His bloodshedding? Surely the Lord Jesus had some absolute determination before Him when He went to the cross. If He had, then it necessarily follows that the extent of that purpose was limited, because an absolute determination or purpose must be effected. If the absolute determination of Christ included all mankind, then all mankind would most certainly be saved. To escape this inevitable conclusion, many have affirmed that there was no such absolute determination before Christ, that in His death a merely conditional provision of salvation has been made for all mankind. The refutation of this assertion is found in the promises made by the Father to His Son before He went to the cross, yea, before He became incarnate. The Old Testament Scriptures represent the Father as promising the Son a certain reward for his sufferings on behalf of sinners. At this stage we shall confine ourselves to one or two statements recorded in the well-known 53rd chapter of Isaiah. There we find God saying, When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, that he shall see the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied, and that God's righteous servant should justify many. Isaiah 53 10 and 11. But here we would pause and ask. How could it be certain that Christ should see his seed, and see of the travail of his soul, and be satisfied unless the salvation of certain members of the human race had been divinely decreed, and therefore was sure? How could it be certain that Christ should justify many if no effectual provision was made that any should receive Him as their Savior? On the other hand, to insist that the Lord Jesus did expressly purpose the salvation of all mankind is to charge Him with that which no intelligent being would be guilty of, namely, to design that by which virtue of His omniscience He knew would never come to pass. Hence the only alternative left us is that, so far as the predetermined purpose of his death is concerned, Christ died for the elect only. Summing up in a sentence which we trust will be intelligible to every reader, we would say, Christ died not merely to make possible the salvation of all mankind, but to make certain the salvation of all that the Father had given to him. Christ died not simply to render sins pardonable, but to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself, Hebrews 9.26. As to whose sin, that is, guilt, as in 1 John 1.7, etc., has been put away, Scripture leaves us in no doubt. It was that of the elect, the world, John 1.29, of God's people, the whosoever believeth of John 3.16. Firstly, the limited design and the atonement follows necessarily from the eternal choice of the Father of certain ones unto salvation. The Scriptures inform us that before the Lord became incarnate, He said, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. Hebrews 10.7 And after He had become incarnate, He declared, For I came down from heaven not to do mine own will, but the will of Him that sent me. John 6.38 If then God had from the beginning chosen certain ones to salvation, then, because of the will of Christ, in perfect accord with the will of the Father, He would not seek to enlarge upon his election. What we have just said is not merely a plausible deduction of our own, but is in strict harmony with the express teaching of the Word. Again and again our Lord referred to those whom the Father had given Him, and concerning whom He was particularly exercised, said He, All that the Father giveth Me shall come to Me, and him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out. And this is the Father's will which hath sent Me, that of all which He hath given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. And again, these words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come, glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee, that thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world. Thine they were, and thou gavest them me, and they have kept thy word. I pray for them, I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me, for they are thine. Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me, for thou lovest me before the foundation of the world. Before the foundation of the world, the Father predestinated a people to be conformed to the image of His Son, and the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus was in order, too, the carrying out of the divine purpose. The very nature of the atonement evidences that, in its application to sinners, it was limited in the purpose of God. The atonement of Christ may be considered from two chief viewpoints, Godward and manward. Godward's, the cross work of Christ, was a propitiation, an appeasing of divine wrath, a satisfaction rendered to divine justice and holiness. manwards, it was a substitution, the innocent taking the place of the guilty, the just dying for the unjust. But a strict substitution of a person for persons, and the infliction upon him of voluntary sufferings, involved the definite recognition on the part of the substitute, and of the one he is to propitiate, of the persons for whom he acts, whose sins he bears, whose legal obligations he discharges. Furthermore, if the lawgiver accepts the satisfaction which is made by the substitute, then those for whom the substitute acts, whose place he takes, must necessarily be acquitted. If I am in debt and unable to discharge it, and another comes forward and pays my creditor in full and receives a receipt in acknowledgment, then, in the sight of the law, my creditor no longer has any claim upon me. On the cross, the Lord Jesus gave Himself a ransom, and that it was accepted by God was attested by the open grave three days later. The question we would here raise is, for whom was this ransom offered? If it was offered for all mankind, then the debt incurred by every man has been cancelled. If Christ bore in His own body on the tree the sins of all men without exception, then none will perish. If Christ was made a curse for all of Adam's race, then none are now under condemnation. Payment God cannot twice demand, first at my bleeding surety's hand, and then again at mine. But Christ did not discharge the debt of all men without exception, for some there are who will be cast into prison. 1 Peter 3.19, where the same Greek word for prison occurs, And they shall by no means come out thence till they have paid. the uttermost farthing Matthew 5 26 which of course will never be Christ did not bear the sins of all mankind for some there are who die in their sins John 8 21 and whose sin remaineth John 9 41 Christ was not made a curse for all of Adam's race, for some there are, to whom he will yet say, Depart from me ye cursed. Matthew 25.41 To say that Christ died for all alike, to say that he became the substitute and surety of the whole human race, to say that he suffered on behalf of and in the stead of all mankind, is to say that he bore the curse for many who are now bearing the curse for themselves. that he suffered punishment for many who are now lifting up their own eyes in hell, being in torments, that he paid the redemption price for many who shall yet pay in their own eternal anguish the wages of sin, which is death." Another quote by G.S. Bishop, but on the other hand, to say as scripture does that Christ was stricken for the transgressions of God's people, to say he gave his life for the sheep, To say that He gave His life a ransom for many is to say that He made an atonement which fully atones. It is to say He paid a price which actually ransoms. It is to say He was set forth a propitiation which really propitiates. It is to say He is a Savior who really saves. Thirdly, closely connected with and confirmatory of what we have said above, is the teaching of Scripture concerning our Lord's priesthood. It is as the great high priest that Christ now makes intercession, but for whom does he intercede? for the whole human race or only for his own people? The answer furnished by the New Testament to this question is clear as a sunbeam. Our Savior has entered into heaven itself now to appear in the presence of God for us. Hebrews 9.24 That is, for those who are partakers of the heavenly calling. Hebrews 3.1 And again it is written, Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. " This is in strict accord with the Old Testament type. After slaying the sacrificial animal, Aaron went into the Holy of Holies as the representative and on behalf of the people of God. It was the names of Israel's tribes which were engraven on his breastplate, and it was in their interests he appeared before God. Agreeable to this are our Lord's words in John 17.9, I pray for them, I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me, for they are thine. Another scripture which deserves careful attention in this connection is found in Romans chapter 8. In verse 33 the question is asked, Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? And then follows the inspired answer, It is God that justifieth, who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea, rather that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Note particularly that the death and intercession of Christ have one and the same objects. As it was in the type, so it is with the antitype. Expiation and supplication are coextensive. If then Christ intercedes for the elect only and not for the world, then he died for them only. And observe further that the death, resurrection, exaltation, and intercession of the Lord Jesus are here assigned as the reason why none can lay any charge against God's elect. Let those who would still take issue with what we are advancing weigh carefully the following question. If the death of Christ extends equally to all, how does it become security against a charge seeing that all who believe not are under condemnation? John 3.18 Let those who would still take issue with what we are advancing weigh carefully the following question. If the death of Christ extends equally to all, how does it become security against a charge seeing that all who believe not are under condemnation? John 3.18. Fourthly, the number of those who share the benefits of Christ's death is determined not only by the nature of the atonement and the priesthood of Christ, but also by His power. Grant that the one who died upon the cross was God manifest in the flesh, and it follows inevitably that what Christ has purposed, that will He perform, that what He has purchased, that will He possess, that what He has set His heart upon, that will He secure. If the Lord Jesus possesses all power in heaven and earth, then none can successfully resist His will. But it may be said this is true in the abstract. Nevertheless, Christ refuses to exercise this power inasmuch as he will never force anyone to receive him as their Savior. In one sense that is true, but in another sense it is positively untrue. The salvation of any sinner is a matter of divine power. By nature the sinner is at enmity with God, and naught but divine power operating within him can overcome this enmity. Hence it is written, No man can come unto me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him. John 6.44, it is the divine power overcoming the sinner's innate enmity which makes him willing to come to Christ that he might have life. But this enmity is not overcome in all. Why? It is because the enmity is too strong to be overcome. There are some hearts so steeled against him that Christ is unable to gain entrance. To answer in the affirmative is to deny God's omnipotence. In the final analysis it is not a question of the sinner's willingness or unwillingness, for by nature all are unwilling. Willingness to come to Christ is the finished product of divine power operating in the human heart and will in overcoming man's inherent and chronic enmity, as it is written, Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power. Psalm 110, verse 3. To say that Christ is unable to win to Himself those who are unwilling is to deny that all power in heaven and earth is His. To say that Christ cannot put forth His power without destroying man's responsibility is a begging of the question here raised. For he has put forth his power and made willing those who have come to him, and if he did this without destroying their responsibility, why cannot he do so with others? If he is able to win the heart of one sinner to himself, why not that of another? To say, as is usually said, that the others will not let him, is to impeach his sufficiency. It is a question of his will. If the Lord Jesus has decreed, desired, purposed the salvation of all mankind, then the entire human race will be saved, or otherwise He lacks the power to make good His intentions. And in such a case, it could never be said, He shall see of the travail of His soul and be satisfied. The issue raised involves the deity of the Savior, for a defeated Savior cannot be God. Having reviewed some of the general principles which require us to believe that the death of Christ was limited in its design, we turn now to consider some of the explicit statements of Scripture which expressly affirm it. In that wondrous and matchless fifty-third of Isaiah, God tells us concerning His Son, He was taken from prison and from judgment, and who shall declare His generation? For He was cut off out of the land of the living, for the transgression of My people was He stricken. in perfect harmony with this was the word of the angel to Joseph thou shalt call his name Jesus for he shall save his people from their sins Matthew 121 that is not merely Israel but all whom the father had given him our Lord himself declared the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many Matthew 20 28 but why have said for many if all without exception were included. It was His people whom He redeemed, Luke 1.68. It was for the sheep and not the goats that the Good Shepherd gave His life, John 10.11. It was the Church of God which He purchased with His own blood, Acts 20.28. If there is one scripture more than any other upon which we should be willing to rest our case, it is John 11.49-52. Here we are told, And one of them, named Caiaphas, being the high priest that same year, said unto them, Ye know nothing at all, nor consider that it is expedient for us that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not. And this he spake not of himself, but being a high priest, that year he prophesied that Jesus should die for that nation, and not only for that nation only, but that also he should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad. Here we are told that Caiaphas prophesied not of himself, that is, like those employed by God in Old Testament times, see 2 Peter 1.21. His prophecy originated not with himself, but he spake as he was moved by the Holy Spirit. Thus is the value of his utterance carefully guarded, and the divine source of this revelation expressly vouched for. Here, too, we are definitely informed that Christ died for that nation. that is Israel, and also for the one body, his church, for it is unto the church that the children of God scattered among the nations. are now being gathered together in one. And is it not remarkable that the members of the church are here called children of God even before Christ died, and therefore before he commenced to build his church? The vast majority of them had not then been born, yet were they regarded as children of God. Children of God because they had been chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world. and therefore predestinated unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself. Ephesians 4, Ephesians 1, 4 and 5. In like manner Christ said, Other sheep I have, not shall have, which are not of this fold. John 10, 16. If ever the real design of the cross was uppermost in the heart and speech of our blessed Savior, it was during the last week of his earthly ministry. What then do the Scriptures, which treat of this portion of his ministry, record in connection with our present inquiry? They say, When Jesus knew that his hour was come, that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end. John 13.1 They tell us how he said, Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. John 15.13 They record His word, For their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth. John 17, 19 Which means that for the sake of His own, those given to Him by the Father, He separated Himself unto the death of the cross. One may well ask, Why such discrimination of terms if Christ died for all men indiscriminately? Air-closing this section of the chapter, we shall consider briefly a few of those passages which seem to teach most strongly an unlimited design in the death of Christ. In 2 Corinthians 5.14 we read, One died for all. But that is not all this scripture affirms. If the entire verse and passage from which these words are quoted be carefully examined, it will be found that instead of teaching an unlimited atonement, it emphatically argues a limited design in the death of Christ. The whole verse reads, For the love of Christ constraineth us, because we thus judge that if one died for all, then were all dead. It should be pointed out that in the Greek there is the definite article before the last all, and that the verb here is in the aorist tense, and therefore should read, We thus judge that if one died for all, then they all died. The Apostle is here drawing a conclusion as is clear from the words, We thus judge that if, then, were, his meaning that those for whom the one died are regarded judicially as having died too. The next verse goes on to say, And he died for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again. The one not only died, but rose again, and so too did the all for whom he died. For it is here said, They live. Those for whom a substitute acts are legally regarded as having acted themselves. In the sight of the law, the substitute and those whom he represents are one. So it is in the sight of God. Christ was identified with his people, and his people were identified with him. Hence, when he died, they died judicially. And when he rose, they rose too. But further we are told in this passage, verse 17, that if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. He has received a new life, in fact, as well as in the sight of the law. Hence the all for whom Christ died are here bidden to live henceforth no more unto themselves, but unto him which died for them and rose again. In other words, those who belonged to this all for whom Christ died are here exhorted to manifest practically in their daily lives what is true of them judicially. They are to live unto Christ who died for them. They are to live unto Christ who died for them. Thus the one died for all is defined for us. The all for which Christ died are the they which live and which are here bidden to live unto him. This passage then teaches three important truths, and the better to show its scope, we mention them in their inverse order. Certain ones are here bidden to live no more unto themselves, but unto Christ. The ones thus admonished are they which live, that is, live spiritually, hence the children of God. For they alone of mankind possess spiritual life, all others being dead in trespasses and sins. Those who do thus live are the ones, the all, them for whom Christ died and rose again. This passage therefore teaches that Christ died for all His people, the elect, those given to Him by the Father that as the result of His death and rising again for them they live, and the elect are the only ones who do thus live. And this life, which is theirs through Christ, must be lived unto Him. Christ's love must now constrain them. For there was one God, and one mediator between God and men, not man, for this would have been a generic term and signified mankind, O the accuracy of holy writ, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time. 1 Timothy 2, 5, 6 it is upon the words who gave himself a ransom for all, we would now comment. In scripture the word all as applied to humankind is used in two senses, absolutely and relatively. In some passages it means all without exception, in others it signifies all without distinction. As to which of these meanings it bears in any particular passage must be determined by the context and decided by a comparison of parallel scriptures, that the word all is used in a relative and restricted sense, and in such case means all without distinction, and not all without exception, is clear from a number of scriptures, from which we select two or three as examples. And there went out unto him all the land of Judea, and they of Jerusalem, and were all baptized of him by the river Jordan, confessing their sins. Does this mean that every man, woman, and child from all the land of Judea and they of Jerusalem were baptized of John in Jordan? Surely not. Luke 7.30 distinctly says, but the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the counsel of God against themselves, being not baptized of Him. Then what does all baptized of Him mean? We answer, it does not mean all without exception, but all without distinction. That is, all classes and conditions of men. But the same explanation applies to Luke 3.21. And all the people came unto him, and he sat down and taught them." John 8.2 Are we to understand this expression absolutely or relatively? Does all the people mean all without exception or all without distinction, that is, all classes and conditions of people? Manifestly the latter, for the temple was not able to accommodate everybody that was in Jerusalem at this time, namely the Feast of Tabernacles. Again we read in Acts 22.15 And for thou, Paul, shalt be his witness unto all men of what thou hast seen and heard. Surely all men here does not mean every member of the human race. Now we submit that the words, who gave himself a ransom for all, in 1 Timothy 2.6, mean all without distinction, and not all without exception. He gave himself a ransom from men of all nationalities, of all generations, of all classes, in a word, for all the elect, as we read in Revelation 5.9, For thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood, out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation. that this is not an arbitrary definition of the all in our passage is clear from Matthew 20 28 where we read the son of man came not to be ministered unto but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many which limitation would be quite meaningless if he gave himself a ransom for all without exception Furthermore, the qualifying words here, to be testified in due time, must be taken into consideration. If Christ gave himself a ransom for the whole human race, the whole human race, in what sense will this be testified in due time? Seeing that multitudes of men will certainly be eternally lost, but if our text means that Christ gave himself a ransom for God's elect, For all without distinction, without distinction of nationality, social prestige, moral character, age, or sex, then the beginning of these qualifying words is quite intelligible. For in due time this will be testified in the actual and accomplished salvation of every one of them. Hebrews 2.9 But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man. This passage need not detain us long. A false doctrine has been erected here on a false translation. There is no word whatever in the Greek corresponding to man in our English version. In the Greek it is left in the abstract. He tasted death for every. Others suppose the word thing should be supplied. He tasted death for every thing. But this too we deem a mistake. It seems to us that the words which immediately follow explain our text. For it became him for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. It is of sons the Apostle is here writing, and we suggest an ellipsis of son. Thus he tasted death for every Sun. Supply sun in italics. Thus instead of teaching the unlimited design of Christ's death, Hebrews 2, 9 and 10 is in perfect accord with the other scriptures we have quoted which set forth the restricted purpose in the atonement. It was for the suns and not the human race our Lord tasted death. 1 John 2, 2 will be examined in detail later. In closing this section of the chapter, let us say that the only limitation in the atonement we have contended for arises from pure sovereignty. It is a limitation not of value and virtue, but of design and application. We turn now to consider, thirdly, the sovereignty of God the Holy Spirit in salvation. Since the Holy Ghost is one of the three persons in the Blessed Trinity, it necessarily follows that He is in full sympathy with the will and design of the other persons of the Godhead. The eternal purpose of the Father in election, the limited design in the death of the Son, and the restricted scope of the Holy Spirit's operations are in perfect accord. If the Father chose certain ones before the foundation of the world and gave them to his Son, and if it was for them that Christ gave himself a ransom, then the Holy Spirit is not now working to bring the world to Christ. The mission of the Holy Ghost in the world today is to apply the benefits of Christ's redemptive sacrifice. The question which now is to engage us is not the extent of the Holy Spirit's power, on that point there can be no doubt it is infinite, but what we shall seek to show is that His power and operations are directed by divine wisdom and sovereignty. We have just said that the power and operations of the Holy Spirit are directed by divine wisdom and indisputable sovereignty. In proof of this assertion we appeal first to our Lord's words to Nicodemus in John 3, 8. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth. So is every one that is born of the Spirit. A comparison is here drawn between the wind and the Spirit. The comparison is a double one. First, both are sovereign in their actions, and second, both are mysterious in their operations. The comparison is pointed out in the word so. The first point of analogy is seen in the words where it listeth, or pleaseth. The second is found in the words canst not tell. With the second point of analogy we are now concerned, but upon the first we would comment further. The wind bloweth where it pleaseth. So is every one that is born of the Spirit. The wind is an element which man can neither harness nor hinder. The wind neither consults man's pleasure, nor can it be regulated by his devices. So it is with the Spirit. The wind blows when it pleases, where it pleases, as it pleases. So it is with the Spirit. The wind is regulated by divine wisdom, yet, so far as man is concerned, it is absolutely sovereign in its operations. So it is with the Spirit. Sometimes the wind blows so softly it scarcely rustles a leaf. At other times it blows so loudly that its roar can be heard for miles. So it is in the matter of the new birth. With some the Holy Spirit deals so gently that His work is imperceptible to human onlookers. With others His action is so powerful, radical, revolutionary that His operations are patent to many. Sometimes the wind is purely local in its reach. at other times widespread in its scope. So it is with the Holy Spirit. Today He acts on one or two souls, tomorrow He may, as at Pentecost, prick in the heart a whole multitude. But whether He works on few or many, He consults not man, He acts as He pleases. The new birth is due to the sovereign will of the Spirit. Each of the three persons in the Blessed Trinity is concerned with our salvation. With the Father, it is predestination. With the Son, propitiation. With the Spirit, regeneration. The Father chose us. The Son died for us. The Spirit quickens us. The Father was concerned about us. The Son shed His blood for us. The Spirit performs His work within us. What the One did was eternal. What the other did was external, what the Spirit does is internal. It is with the work of the Spirit that we are now concerned with His work in the new birth, and particularly His sovereign operations in the new birth. The Father purposed our new birth, the Son has made possible by His travail the new birth, but it is the Spirit who effects the new birth, born of the Spirit, John 3, 6. The new birth is solely the work of God the Spirit, and man has no part or lot in it. This, from the very nature of the case, birth altogether excludes the idea of any effort or work on the part of the one who is born. Personally, we have no more to do with our spiritual birth than we had with our natural birth. The new birth is a spiritual resurrection, a passing from death unto life, John 5.24. And clearly, resurrection is altogether outside of man's province. No corpse can reanimate itself. Hence it is written, it is the spirit that quickeneth the flesh, profiteth nothing, John 6.63. But the spirit does not quicken everybody. Why? The usual answer returned to this question is, because everybody does not trust in Christ. It is supposed that the Holy Spirit quickens only those who believe. But this is to put the cart before the horse. Faith is not the cause of the new birth, but the consequence of it. This ought not to need arguing. Faith in God is an exotic, something that is not native to the human heart. If faith were a natural product of the human heart, the exercise of a principle common to human nature, it would never have been written, All men have not faith. 2 Thessalonians 3.2 Faith is a spiritual grace, the fruit of the spiritual nature, and because the unregenerate are spiritually dead, dead in trespasses and sins, then it follows that faith from them is impossible, for a dead man cannot believe anything. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. Romans 8. but they could if it were possible for the flesh to believe. Compare with this last quoted scripture, Hebrews 11.6, but without faith it is impossible to please Him. Can God be pleased or satisfied with anything which does not have its origin in Himself? that the work of the Holy Spirit precedes our believing is unequivocally established by 2 Thessalonians 2.13. God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth. Note that sanctification of the spirit comes before and makes possible belief of the truth. What then is the sanctification of the spirit? We answer, the new birth. In scripture, sanctification always means separation. Separation from something and unto something or someone. Let us now amplify our assertion that the sanctification of the spirit corresponds to the new birth and points to the positional effect of it. Here is a servant of God who preaches the gospel to a congregation in which are a hundred unsaved people. He brings before them the teaching of Scripture concerning their ruined and lost condition. He speaks of God, His character and righteous demands. He tells of Christ meeting God's demands and dying the just for the unjust and declares that through this man is now preached the forgiveness of sins. He closes by urging the lost to believe what God has said in His word and receive His Son as their own personal Savior. The meeting is over. the congregation disperses ninety nine of the unsaved men have refused to come to Christ that they might have life and go out into the night having no hope and without God in the world But the hundredth heard the word of life. The seed sown fell into ground which had been prepared by God. He believed the good news, and goes home rejoicing that his name is written in heaven. He has been born again. And just as a newly born babe in the natural world begins life by clinging instinctively in helplessness to its mother, so this newborn soul has clung to Christ. Just as we read the Lord opened the heart of Lydia that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul, Acts 16, 14, so in the case supposed above, the Holy Spirit quickened that one before he believed the gospel message. Here then is the sanctification of the Spirit. This one soul who has been born again has, by virtue of the new birth, been separated from the other ninety-nine, Those born again are by the Spirit set apart from those who are dead in trespasses and sins. A beautiful type of the operations of the Holy Spirit antecedent to the sinner's belief of the truth is found in the first chapter of Genesis. We read in verse 2, And the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. The original Hebrew here might be literally rendered thus, And the earth had become a desolate ruin, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. In the beginning the earth was not created in the condition described in verse 2. Between the first two verses of Genesis 1 some awful catastrophe may have occurred, possibly the fall of Satan, and as a consequence the earth may have been blasted and blighted and become a desolate ruin lying beneath a pall of darkness. Such also the history of man. Today man is not in the condition in which he left the hands of his Creator. An awful catastrophe has happened, and now man is a desolate ruin and in total darkness concerning spiritual things. Next we read in Genesis 1 how God refashioned this ruined earth and created new beings to inhabit it. First we read, And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. Next we are told, And God said, Let there be light, and there was light. The order is the same in the new creation. There is first the action of the Spirit, and then the word of God giving light. Before the word found entrance into the scene of desolation and darkness, bringing with it the light, the Spirit of God moved. So it is in the new creation. The entrance of thy words giveth light, Psalm 119, 130. But before it can enter into the darkened human heart, the Spirit of God must operate upon it. Footnote, the priority contended for above is rather in order of nature than of time, just as the effect must ever be preceded by the cause. A blind man must have his eyes opened before he can see, and yet there is no interval of time between the one and the other. As soon as his eyes are opened, he sees. So a man must be born again before he can see the kingdom of God. John 3.3 Seeing the Son is necessary to believing in Him. Unbelief is attributed to spiritual blindness. Those who believe not the report of the gospel saw no beauty in Christ that they should desire him. The work of the Spirit, in quickening that one dead in sins, precedes faith in Christ, just as cause ever precedes effect. But no sooner is the heart turned toward Christ by the Spirit than the Savior is embraced by the sinner. to return to 2 Thessalonians 2.13 But we are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth. The order of thought here is most important and instructive. First, God's eternal choice. Second, the sanctification of the Spirit. Third, belief of the truth. Precisely the same order is found in First Peter. One, two, elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father through sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. We take it that The obedience here is the obedience of faith, Romans 1 5, which appropriates the virtues of the sprinkled blood of the Lord Jesus. So then before the obedience of faith, that is Hebrews 5 9, There is the work of the Spirit setting us apart, and behind that is the election of God the Father. The ones sanctified of the Spirit, then, are they whom God hath from the beginning chosen to salvation. 2 Thessalonians 2.13 Those who are elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father. 1 Peter 1.2 But it may be said, Is not the present mission of the Holy Spirit to convict the world of sin? And we answer, It is not. The mission of the Spirit is threefold, to glorify Christ, to vivify or make alive the elect, to edify the saints. John 16, 8-11 does not describe the mission of the Spirit, but sets forth the significance of His presence here in the world. It treats none of His subjective work in sinners, showing them their need of Christ by searching their consciences and striking terror into their hearts. What we have there is entirely objective. To illustrate, suppose I saw a man hanging on the gallows. Of what would that convince me? Why, that he was a murderer. How would I thus be convinced? By reading the record of his trial? By hearing a confession from his own lips? No, but by the fact that he was hanging there. So the fact that the Holy Spirit is here furnishes proof of the world's guilt, of God's righteousness, and of the devil's judgment. The Holy Spirit ought not to be here at all. That is a startling statement, but we make it deliberately. The Holy Spirit ought not to be here at all. Christ is the one who ought to be here. He was sent here by the Father, but the world did not want Him, would not have Him, hated Him, and cast Him out. And the presence of the Spirit here instead evidences its guilt. The coming of the Spirit was a proof to demonstration of the resurrection, ascension, and glory of the Lord Jesus. His presence on earth reverses the world's verdict, showing that God has set aside the blasphemous judgment in the palace of Israel's high priest and in the hall of the Roman governor. The reproof of the spirit abides, and abides altogether irrespective of the world's reception or rejection of his testimony. This Reformation audio track is a production of Stillwater's Revival Books. SWRB makes thousands of classic Reformation resources available, free and for sale, in audio, video, and printed formats. Our many free resources, as well as our complete mail-order catalog, containing thousands of classic and contemporary Puritan and Reform books, tapes, and videos at great discounts, is on the web at www.swrb.com. We can also be reached by email at swrb.com, by phone at 780-450-3730, by fax at 780-468-1096, or by mail at 4710-37A Edmonton, that's E-D-M-O-N-T-O-N Alberta, abbreviated capital A, capital B, Canada, T6L3T5. You may also request a free printed catalog. And remember that John Kelvin, in defending the Reformation's regulative principle of worship, or what is sometimes called the scriptural law of worship, commenting on the words of God, which I commanded them not, neither came into my heart. From his commentary on Jeremiah 731, writes, God here cuts off from men every occasion for making evasions, since He condemns by this one phrase, I have not commanded them, whatever the Jews devised. There is then no other argument needed to condemn superstitions than that they are not commanded by God. For when men allow themselves to worship God according to their own fancies, and attend not to His commands, they pervert true religion. And if this principle was adopted by the papists, all those fictitious modes of worship in which they absurdly exercise themselves would fall to the ground. It is indeed a horrible thing for the Papists to seek to discharge their duties towards God by performing their own superstitions. There is an immense number of them, as it is well known, and as it manifestly appears. Were they to admit this principle, that we cannot rightly worship God except by obeying his word, they would be delivered from their deep abyss of error. The Prophet's words, then, are very important, when he says that God had commanded no such thing, and that it never came to his mind, as though he had said that men assume too much wisdom when they devise what he never required, nay, what he never knew.