Wesleyan Theology and the Doctrine of Salvation — Unit 2: God's Love for All: Universal Atonement

Key Verse

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." (John 3:16, NKJV)

Learning Objectives

When you finish this unit, you should be able to:

1. Explain what the atonement is and why the question "For whom did Christ die?" matters.

2. Show from Scripture that Wesleyans teach that Christ died for every person.

3. State the Reformed doctrine of limited atonement fairly, with its main arguments and its main texts.

4. Give the Wesleyan answer to each Reformed argument, and explain why universal atonement is not universalism.

5. Explain how this doctrine shapes preaching, evangelism and the comfort a pastor gives to a seeker.

The Voice of This Course

This course is written from inside the Wesleyan tradition, for Wesleyan students. It is conservative and evangelical. When it says "we," it means the churches that follow John Wesley's teaching. Our Reformed brothers and sisters are Christians who love the Lord and the Bible, and we state their views as they would state them before we answer. The history of the quarrel between Wesley and his Calvinist friends was told in Course 1, Unit 5. Here we study the doctrine itself.

What Is the Atonement?

Sin has separated all people from God. Isaiah 53:6 says, "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all." Paul writes that God made Christ "who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him" (2 Corinthians 5:21). The atonement is the work of Christ on the cross, where He died in our place and bore our sin, so that God can forgive sinners and make peace with them.

Christians agree on this. The disagreement is about its extent. For whom did Christ die? Did He die only for those whom God had chosen before time began, or did He die for every human being? The question touches the character of God, the message of the preacher, and the hope of the sinner.

The Wesleyan Teaching

We teach that Christ died for all people without exception. Salvation is provided for everyone. It is received by everyone who believes. The word "universal" in "universal atonement" describes the offer, not the result.

Our teaching rests on plain texts of Scripture.

John 3:16. God loved "the world," and "whoever believes" may have life. The invitation has no list of names.

1 John 2:2. "And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world." John writes to believers, then adds that Christ's sacrifice reaches beyond them to the whole world.

Hebrews 2:9. Jesus tasted death "for everyone," says the writer, by the grace of God.

1 Timothy 2:3-6. God our Savior "desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth." There is one Mediator, "the Man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all."

2 Corinthians 5:14-15. Paul reasons that one died for all, and therefore all were dead, and that He died for all so that those who live should live for Him.

1 Timothy 4:10; Titus 2:11; 2 Peter 3:9. Each passage speaks of God's saving purpose toward all people. Peter says that the Lord is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.

Other verses show that Christ died for people who may still be lost. Paul warns a strong believer not to destroy by his food a brother "for whom Christ died" (Romans 14:15). Peter speaks of false teachers who deny "the Lord who bought them" (2 Peter 2:1). The Methodist Articles of Religion of 1784 follow the same line, teaching that the offering of Christ on the cross is the full payment for all the sins of the whole world.

The Wesleyan way of putting it

Theologians have often said that Christ's death is sufficient for all and efficient for those who believe. Wesleyans accept these words, but we put the weight in a different place from our Reformed friends. God has provided a real atonement for every person. The atonement becomes effective in a person's life through faith. Romans 3:25 says that God set Christ forth as a propitiation "through faith in His blood." The Savior has done everything needed. Each sinner must receive what has been done.

What Universal Atonement Is Not

Some people think that if Christ died for all, then all will be saved. That is universalism, and we reject it. Jesus said that those who do not believe are condemned already (John 3:18), and He spoke of "everlasting punishment" and "eternal life" together (Matthew 25:46). A medicine that is bought for everyone does no good to the man who will not take it.

Nor do we teach that people save themselves by receiving the gift. Faith is not a payment. It is an empty hand held out for a gift. We will study this further in Units 3 and 5.

The Reformed View, Stated Fairly

Many faithful Christians believe in limited atonement, also called particular redemption. This was one of the five heads of doctrine in the Canons of the Synod of Dort (1618-1619), a Reformed assembly held in the Netherlands. The Synod answered the Remonstrants, who were followers of Jacobus Arminius. The Remonstrants had stated their own five points in 1610, including the view that Christ died for all. The Reformed teach that Christ died with a saving purpose for the elect alone. The English Puritan John Owen defended this view at great length in The Death of Death in the Death of Christ (1647). Historians also debate how clearly John Calvin himself taught limited atonement, and some Reformed teachers hold a broader view of the cross while still teaching unconditional election.

Their main arguments are these.

1. The argument from God's purpose. If God intended to save everyone through the cross, and many are lost, then God's purpose has failed. A sovereign God does not fail, so His purpose must have been to save the elect.

2. The argument from payment. If Christ paid the penalty for the sins of the whole world, then no one can be punished for sins that have already been paid. Since some are punished, Christ cannot have paid for them.

3. The argument from the texts that name a particular people. Jesus said that the good shepherd lays down His life "for the sheep" (John 10:11, 15). Paul says that Christ "loved the church and gave Himself for her" (Ephesians 5:25). The angel said that Jesus would save "His people from their sins" (Matthew 1:21). In His prayer Jesus said that He was not praying for the world, but for those whom the Father had given Him (John 17:9).

4. The argument from the "all" and "world" texts. Reformed teachers read "all" and "world" in verses like 1 John 2:2 as "all kinds of people," Jews and Gentiles alike, and not every single person.

These are serious arguments, made by serious teachers, and a Wesleyan pastor should know them.

The Wesleyan Answer

To argument 1 (God's purpose). The argument assumes that whatever God desires must happen. But the Bible shows God desiring things that do not happen. Jesus wept over Jerusalem: "How often I wanted to gather your children together... but you were not willing!" (Matthew 23:37). God has given people a real response to make. God's purpose is not defeated when people refuse, because His purpose was always to offer salvation on the terms of faith. In making free creatures, God chose to be a loving Father rather than a force that moves puppets. This is the sovereign choice of a sovereign God.

To argument 2 (payment). Scripture does not describe the cross as a bank payment that cancels each person's debt automatically. It describes a sacrifice and a ransom received through faith. Paul writes that even believers were "by nature children of wrath, just as the others" (Ephesians 2:3) until they believed. So being under the cross does not remove a person from wrath until faith unites him to Christ. The atonement is sufficient for all, and it is applied to those who believe.

To argument 3 (texts naming a people). Each of these texts is true, but none says "only." Paul can say, "the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me" (Galatians 2:20), and no one thinks this means He did not die for others. A husband may say that he gave himself for his wife without implying that he did not love his children. The sheep, the church and His people are those who respond. The texts that say "all" and "world" must be given the same honor as the texts that say "sheep" and "church."

To argument 4 (the meaning of "all" and "world"). The reading "all kinds of people" cannot carry every passage. In 1 John 2:2 John says the sacrifice is for our sins "and not for ours only," which means that it goes further than the believers he is writing to. In 2 Peter 2:1, men who deny the Lord "who bought them" are false teachers who will be destroyed. In Romans 14:15 a brother may be destroyed, though Christ died for him. The simplest reading is that Christ died for each person.

An added concern: the sincere offer. A preacher who stands before a crowd and says, "Christ died for you," speaks truly only if Christ died for all. Our Reformed friends answer that the gospel offer is sincere because everyone who believes will be saved. We reply that the offer carries its full power only if the Savior's death was truly for the person being addressed. The weight of Scripture, from "God so loved the world" to "whoever," agrees with this.

Why This Doctrine Matters

John Wesley preached on this question in 1739 in his sermon "Free Grace," and he returned to it in a longer work in 1752 called Predestination Calmly Considered. He saw that the doctrine was not a debate for scholars only. It touches God's character. If God has chosen not to save most people and has not even provided a cross for them, then it is harder to say that "God is love" (1 John 4:8) in the way that John means it. The Wesleyan teaching lets us say, to every man and woman, "God loves you and Christ died for you."

It shapes our preaching. Wesley preached to colliers, to farmers, to criminals and to the rich, and he looked upon all the world as his parish. Because Christ died for all, no sinner can be turned away as beyond the reach of the cross. It shapes our missions. We send missionaries to the nations because Christ died for the nations. It shapes our comfort. A troubled sinner does not have to ask whether he is among the chosen before he can trust Christ. The cross is for him.

And it shapes our humility. Because the atonement is a gift offered to all, those who believe have no right to boast, and those who are lost have no one to blame but their own unbelief.

Pastoral Application

A pastor in a mountain village visits Rosa, an older woman who has come to the services for several months. She is troubled. A neighbor, who attends another church, told her that Christ died only for those whom God chose beforehand. "How do I know if I am one of them?" she asks. "Maybe I have been wasting my time."

The pastor does not insult the neighbor. He says that many good Christians hold that view, and then he opens the Bible with Rosa. He reads John 3:16 slowly and asks her to notice the words "the world" and "whoever." He reads 1 John 2:2. He tells her that Christ's arms were stretched out on the cross for every sinner, and that nothing in the Bible asks her to look first for a hidden list of names. She is not asked to read the secrets of God. She is asked to repent and believe.

Then he prays with her, and he invites her to come to Christ that very day. He tells her that anyone who calls on the Lord will be saved. The next Sunday Rosa comes forward in the service.

Summary

The atonement is Christ's death in our place for our sin. Wesleyans teach that He died for every person, and that His death is received through faith. Key texts include John 3:16, 1 John 2:2, Hebrews 2:9 and 1 Timothy 2:3-6. This is not universalism, because only those who believe receive the benefit. The Reformed teach limited atonement, defended at the Synod of Dort (1618-1619) and by John Owen, with arguments from God's purpose, payment, texts about the sheep and the church, and a reading of "all" as "all kinds." We answer that God's desires can be refused, that Scripture speaks of sacrifice received through faith, that the particular texts do not say "only," and that "world" and "all" cannot be reduced in the passages above. The doctrine shapes our preaching, our missions and the comfort we give to sinners.

Further Reading

• John Wesley, "Free Grace" (Sermon 110), in the Standard Sermons.

• John Wesley, Predestination Calmly Considered (1752).

• John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament, on John 3:16 and 1 John 2:2.

• The Methodist Articles of Religion (1784), the article on the one offering of Christ.

• The Canons of the Synod of Dort (1618-1619), for the Reformed position in its own words.

• John Owen, The Death of Death in the Death of Christ (1647), a Reformed argument.

• The Arminian sections of the CTS Systematic Theology course (CTSST).

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