Daily Devotionals

Grace for Today

Devotional: September 23rd

Romans 5:11

‘The atonement’

Read Luke 23:32-47

Because there is much confusion about the redemptive work of the Lord Jesus Christ, I want to be very plain and clear. The Bible nowhere teaches, nor does it anywhere imply that our Lord Jesus Christ died to redeem and save every person in the world. I hold it to be an authoritative doctrine, consistent with all common sense and most plainly revealed in Holy Scripture, that whatever Christ has redeemed, Christ will have. This simple foundation truth must be well established in our hearts: whatever the Lord Jesus Christ has redeemed he must have. Otherwise his redemptive work at Calvary would be a failure.

It is repugnant to reason and contrary to the plainest statements of Holy Scripture to assert that Christ has died to purchase what he will never possess. It is nothing less than blasphemy to declare, as many do, that the intention of our Savior’s death can be frustrated. I am sure that all who weigh the matter and honestly consider it, must see that the intention of Christ in his death must be fulfilled and that the design of God, whatever that may be, must be carried out. I believe that the efficacy of Christ’s atonement is just as great as God meant that it should be, and that what Christ has redeemed is precisely what he meant to redeem and exactly what the Father had decreed he should redeem. Therefore I cannot, for one moment, give any credence whatever to that doctrine which tells us that all men are redeemed. The Lord Jesus Christ did not die to redeem those men and women who ultimately perish in hell!

Our Lord declares that he is ‘the Good Shepherd: the Good Shepherd giveth his life for the sheep’. He did not give his life for those who are not his sheep. It is written: ‘He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied.’ That is to say, all of those for whom he suffered and whom he died to redeem will be with him in glory. Not one of his redeemed ones will perish.