This is one of the most misunderstood doctrines of Calvinism. The opponents of Calvinism love to create straw-men likenesses of this doctrine, and often, the objections to it are emotional rather than Biblical and intellectual.
What Particular Redemption is not:
1. It is not the belief that Christ’s blood is not powerful enough to save more people.
2. It is not the belief that if a man wants to be saved that he can’t because Christ didn’t die for him. [This is because no one desires to be saved outside of the regenerative power of God. This will be discussed more in the article on Irresistible Grace.]
3. It is not the belief that one does not have to believe in order to be saved. [See the article on Unconditional Election.]
What Particular Redemption is:
Christ died only for the elect. He was under no obligation to die at all, and thus, it is His sovereign right to have mercy on whomever He wants to. Thus, Christ suffered on the cross and secured salvation for all the elect and only the elect.
There are quite a few Scriptural references for this, but it is also the logical outgrowth of the other four points of Calvinism. On the other hand, a positive Biblical proof should be shown. All quotes are from the NASB (emphasis mine):
John 6:37-40
“All
that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out. For I have come down from
heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has
given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son
and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.”
Commentary:
Jesus states that God the Father has given a specific group of people to Christ which He will raise up to eternal life on the last
day (v.40), the elect. In the passage, the giving of the Father to the Son precedes the coming of those believing in Christ. Thus, it is the Father who chooses a particular group of men to be saved, and it is this group that will believe in Christ and
be risen up on the last day unto eternal life.
John 10:11, 15
“I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for
the sheep…I am the good shepherd, and I know My own and My own know Me, even as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; and I lay
down My life for the sheep.”
Commentary:
Christ states that He lays His life down for His sheep (i.e. the elect), not everyone (i.e. “…I know my own and My own know Me…”). Elsewhere, Christ states that He will separate His sheep from the goats:
“All the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; and He will put the sheep on His right, and the goats on the left.”
-Matthew 25:32-33
Thus, the group called the ‘sheep’ cannot include every last person who ever lived or will live.
John 10:25-28
Jesus answered them, “I told you, and
you do not believe; the works that I do in My Father’s name, these testify of Me. But you do not believe because you are not
of My sheep. My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they will never
perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand.
Commentary:
Jesus
tells the unbelieving Jews why they don’t believe: they are not His sheep. He did not say that they were not His sheep because
they didn’t believe. Instead, He said that they did not believe because they were not His sheep. Christ goes on to say
that His sheep hear His voice and follow Him. Clearly then, Christ teaches the belief that there is a particular group whom
He has chosen to be redeemed apart from everyone else.
John 17:6, 9
“I have manifested Your name to the men whom You gave Me out
of the world; they were Yours and You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word…I ask on their behalf; I do not ask on behalf
of the world, but of those whom You have given Me; for they are Yours;”
Commentary:
In His High Priestly prayer, Christ states He does not pray for the world but for those whom the Father had given Him out of the world. Clearly, Christ is only praying for those who will be saved, the elect.
Acts
When the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord; and as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed.
Commentary:
This passage clearly implies that only those who have been appointed to eternal life believe. This is the essence of Particular
Redemption.
2 Peter 3:3-9
Verse 9 of this passage is frequently
used by non-Calvinists to attack the idea of Particular Redemption. However, in its context, this verse backfires on them because
it actually supports Particular Redemption. This passage will be discussed in Problematical Passages segment, next.
“Problematical”
Passages
This section is called the “Problematical” Passages
not because these passages actually contradict Particular Redemption, but it is named such because non-Calvinists use them quite errantly
in their crusade against the Doctrines of Grace. Nevertheless, they use them, and so, a response is required.
World and
All Passages
Many times in Scripture, the words ‘world’ and ‘all’
appear in connection to what Christ did on the cross. It is argued that these passages prove that Christ died for the sins of
all men, even those who end up in hell.
World:
The writers
of the New Testament were mostly first-century Jews, and they would have written in the cultural context of their time. In those
days, it was generally believed that when the Messiah came He would destroy the oppressive Romans and all the other Gentile enemies
of
John 8:48
The Jews answered and said to Him, “Do we not
say rightly that You are a Samaritan and have a demon?”
Commentary:
Calling Jesus a Samaritan was the equivalent of calling someone a ‘half-breed’ in our day. It is worthy to note that Jesus,
in His response in verse 49, ignored the Samaritan part and only answered the demon part probably because He didn’t care what someone’s
ethnic background was.
Thus, Jesus destroyed the Jews’ expectations and opened the
Luke
20:9-18
And He began to tell the people this parable: “A man planted a vineyard and rented it out to vine-growers, and went on a journey
for a long time. At the harvest time he sent a slave to the vine-growers, so that they would give him some of the produce of
the vineyard; but the vine-growers beat him and sent him away empty-handed. And he proceeded to send another slave; and they
beat him also and treated him shamefully and sent him away empty-handed. And he proceeded to send a third; and this one also
they wounded and cast out. The owner of the vineyard said, ‘What shall I do? I will send my beloved son; perhaps they will respect
him.’ But when the vine-growers saw him, they reasoned with one another, saying, ‘This is the heir; let us kill him so that
the inheritance will be ours.’ So they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. What, then, will the owner of the vineyard
do to them? He will come and destroy these vine-growers and will give the vineyard to others.” When they heard it, they said,
“May it never be!” But Jesus looked at them and said, “What then is this that is written: ‘THE STONE WHICH THE BUILDERS REJECTED,
THIS BECAME THE CHIEF CORNER stone’? Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces; but on whomever it falls, it
will scatter him like dust.”
The meaning, then, of ‘world’ in this first century Jewish context was the inclusion of gentiles
into the plan of salvation. Therefore, when texts like John 1:29 which says, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin
of the world!” or John
Luke 2:1
Now in those days a decree went out from
Caesar Augustus, that a census be taken of all the inhabited earth.
Commentary:
Did the Romans include the Parthians? The Chinese? The Germanic tribes? No, they only took a census of those in
the
Luke 2:10
But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which
will be for all the people;”
Commentary:
Was Christ’s coming
“good news of great joy” to the Pharisees? The Sadducees? Herod? Pontius Pilate? The Emperor Diocletian (i.e.
a persecutor of Christians)? Lenin? Stalin? The Communists? No, the angel meant that Christ would be “good
news of great joy” to some men of all the different ethnicities of the earth.
Colossians 1:5-6
…because of the hope laid up for
you in heaven, of which you previously heard in the word of truth, the gospel which has come to you, just as in all the world also
it is constantly bearing fruit and increasing, even as it has been doing in you also since the day you heard of it and understood
the grace of God in truth;
Commentary:
Had the truth of the gospel
gone out to
John 12:19
So the Pharisees said to one another, “You see that you are not doing any good; look, the
world has gone after Him.”
Commentary:
Obviously, the Pharisees weren’t
following Jesus since they are the ones complaining about Christ’s following. How about the Chinese? The Indians? The Pharisees were using a hyperbole. They meant that a great many had gone after Him.
Particular Redemption
(a.k.a. Limited Atonement)
(Part 1)