Though Romans 7:14-25 does not deal directly with original sin and the imputation of Adam’s guilt to his offspring, it does offer clarification as to the scope of Adam’s sin and its punishment. Romans 5:12-21, like our present text, is a very difficult passage of Scripture with regard to its subject and its complexity. In it, the Apostle deals with the very difficult subject of original sin and the universal condemnation afforded by that sin. The Apostle complicates the passage exponentially by introducing Jesus Christ as the Second Adam and by comparing and contrasting the two God-ordained heads of the human race. The passage is complicated further by the Apostle’s seemingly free use of universal and particular language, making it seem at one point that Christ is the universal head of the human race and at another, the head of a particular race. Thus the passage reads:

But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for the many. And the free gift is not like the result of that one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.

Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord (Romans 5:15-21, emphasis mine).

There are several terms to note when trying to understand this passage. First is the persons over whom Christ is head. At some points in the passage, Christ is said to be the head of “the many” and at other points, “all men.” Second is the grace afforded to those over whom Christ is head. For the many is the “abundance of grace” (vv. 5:15, 17, 20), and for all men, the “grace of God” (v. 5:15). Third is the state of those over whom Christ is head. For the many, is the state of “righteousness” (v. 5:17, 19, 21), and for all men, “justification” (v.
5:16, 18). Fourth is the life granted to those over whom Christ is head. For the many is “eternal life” (v. 5:21), and for all men, “life” (v. 5:18).

Through this passage alone, we can deduce that Christ’s headship and the grace that God gives through Christ is universal in one respect and particular in another. What is not so clear however is the scope of the condemnation (whether it be temporal or eternal death) of Adam’s sin imputed to all of his offspring. For this, Romans 7 offers a clearer insight. In v. 7:9, the Apostle writes, “I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died.” In this verse, the Apostle clarifies what can be deduced in Romans 5:12-21, viz. that the death afforded by Adam is strictly temporal in nature, viz. that the punishment afforded to all men through Adam is physical death. For in v. 7:9, the speaker, being a descendent of Adam, is already condemned to physical death and yet is said to die when he encounters the law and transgresses it. Therefore, it can be said that spiritual death comes to the speaker when he first comprehends the law of God and transgresses against that law (cf. v. 1:20). The experience of the speaker of Romans 7 is identical to the experience of Adam, for God said to Adam, “On the day that you eat of the tree, you shall surely die,” and yet Adam remained physically alive after he ate. God’s word did not fail, for Adam, like the speaker of Romans 7, died spiritually the moment that he transgressed the commandment though he did not die physically until much later.

Was not the sin of Adam sufficient for both the physical and spiritual death of his offspring? It was indeed, but we see even from Genesis 3 the promised coming of the second Adam who would crush the head of the serpent and who granted Adam and his offspring, even prior to his coming, the grace of physical life though they deserved immediate, physical death. Paul puts it this way in Romans 3:23-25, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.” This divine forbearance that allowed God to pass over the sins of the human race and not to commit the race immediately to the judgment of physical death did not come without a price, but it came through the very blood of his Son, Jesus Christ. Here we see clearly how Christ is the universal head of all men and is also the particular head of the many. Christ is head of all men insofar as God through his death grants to all men a measure of physical life. Christ was offered up as a propitiation for the human race—a temporal turning aside of the wrath of God so that all men are temporarily justified in the sight of God so that they will not immediately bear the physical condemnation of Adam’s sin or their own transgressions. This is indeed a grace of God afforded by Christ for all men, for apart from this universal grace no man would live.

This grace of physical life that God grants to all men through Christ, the second Adam, has an even greater purpose, of which the Apostle speaks in Romans 9:20-24 when objections are made against the purpose of God:

You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?” But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory—even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles?

In this weighty passage of Scripture we see that God not only withholds his wrath from all men so that those who would believe in Christ would come to him in faith but also so that those who would be vessels of the abundance of God’s mercy would comprehend the riches of the grace of God granted to them through Christ. Christ’s universal headship that withholds the hand of God’s judgment exists ultimately to bring glory to his name through the realization of his great and particular mercy that he has shown to those over whom Christ is their particular head in the abundance of grace. Of this abundance of grace, the saints of God will sing forever, witnessing how God has sovereignly called them out of the world of common grace and into the fold of particular and abundant grace.

Going back to the testimony of Romans 7:9, the justification that Christ grants to all men is justification of the original sin of Adam that brings eternal condemnation. Though those who have not sinned after the likeness of the offense of Adam might fall under the physical curse and die without comprehending and volitionally transgressing a law (e.g. infants, mentally handicapped, etc.), their condemnation is not eternal death, for where there is no comprehension of the law there is no imputation of sin (v. 5:13). Thus it can be said that those who are children of Adam who have not comprehended the law of God, be it the Mosaic law or Natural law, are spiritually alive until they reach a point of comprehension of God’s law. This fact is clearly seen in v. 7:9 where the speaker says, “I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive, and I died.” The sin that came alive in the speaker, viz. covetousness from the command, “You shall not covet,” was sufficient enough to kill the speaker spiritually thereby affording him enslavement to sin and eternal damnation. And though Christ is the speaker’s universal head, who relieves him from original sin’s eternal condemnation, the curse of original sin, that which indwells the speaker and remains dormant until cognition of the law of God, is such that it is certain to kill the speaker the very moment that recognition of the law of God occurs.

All this is to say that Christ’s universal headship is such that it justifies eternally those who have died apart from comprehension of the law of God, be it the Mosaic law or Natural law. This doctrine is commonly expressed as the “age of accountability,” but until studying Romans 5:12-21 in light of Romans 7:9, I have never encountered Scriptural warrant for the doctrine. Indeed, I was quite on the fence, as it were, with regard to the salvation of those who died apart from volitionally transgressing the law, for I have always heard it argued from texts that were never meant to express that truth. This doctrine, expressed from Romans 5:12-21 and Romans 7:9, places the salvation of those who have not sinned in the likeness of Adam’s offense in its proper light, viz. in the grace of God afforded by the work of Christ. For apart from Christ even those who have never comprehended the law of God are under the condemnation of Adam which is both temporal and eternal death. However, Christ’s work as the Second Adam has placed all men under his headship, justifying them from the eternal condemnation of Adam sin. All men are relieved of this judgment of eternal condemnation until they comprehend the law of God, which brings with it certain rebellion and death because of the sin that indwells all men and remains dead until the time of that cognition.

Therefore, the doctrine that is known as the “age of accountability” would be better named the “state of accountability,” for it is not a certain age that makes one accountable to God, but it is a state of comprehension. For the very moment that a person, no matter his age, comprehends a command of God and by his sinful nature rebels against it and thereby rebels against God, he dies spiritually, becomes enslaved to sin, and is condemned in the sight of God. This rebellion against the commandments of God can indeed come at a young age, therefore making the declaration of the Gospel to children of great import. No parent should withhold from his child the teaching of the Gospel, especially if he sees in his child the evidences of rebellion. The first thing that a child should learn from his parent is that his rebellion has a much weightier consequence than a rod on the back—condemnation in the sight of a holy God. Every spanking of a child for his rebellion must then be used as an opportunity for the Gospel, so that through that discipline a parent might save his child from eternal damnation (cf. Proverbs 23:14).

Though Romans 7:14-25 does not deal directly with original sin and the imputation of Adam’s guilt to his offspring, it does offer clarification as to the scope of Adam’s sin and its punishment. Romans 5:12-21, like our present text, is a very difficult passage of Scripture with regard to its subject and its complexity. In it, the Apostle deals with the very difficult subject of original sin and the universal condemnation afforded by that sin. The Apostle complicates the passage exponentially by introducing Jesus Christ as the Second Adam and by comparing and contrasting the two God-ordained heads of the human race. The passage is complicated further by the Apostle’s seemingly free use of universal and particular language, making it seem at one point that Christ is the universal head of the human race and at another, the head of a particular race. Thus the passage reads:

But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for the many. And the free gift is not like the result of that one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.

Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord (Romans 5:15-21, emphasis mine).

There are several terms to note when trying to understand this passage. First is the persons over whom Christ is head. At some points in the passage, Christ is said to be the head of “the many” and at other points, “all men.” Second is the grace afforded to those over whom Christ is head. For the many is the “abundance of grace” (vv. 5:15, 17, 20), and for all men, the “grace of God” (v. 5:15). Third is the state of those over whom Christ is head. For the many, is the state of “righteousness” (v. 5:17, 19, 21), and for all men, “justification” (v.
5:16, 18). Fourth is the life granted to those over whom Christ is head. For the many is “eternal life” (v. 5:21), and for all men, “life” (v. 5:18).

Through this passage alone, we can deduce that Christ’s headship and the grace that God gives through Christ is universal in one respect and particular in another. What is not so clear however is the scope of the condemnation (whether it be temporal or eternal death) of Adam’s sin imputed to all of his offspring. For this, Romans 7 offers a clearer insight. In v. 7:9, the Apostle writes, “I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died.” In this verse, the Apostle clarifies what can be deduced in Romans 5:12-21, viz. that the death afforded by Adam is strictly temporal in nature, viz. that the punishment afforded to all men through Adam is physical death. For in v. 7:9, the speaker, being a descendent of Adam, is already condemned to physical death and yet is said to die when he encounters the law and transgresses it. Therefore, it can be said that spiritual death comes to the speaker when he first comprehends the law of God and transgresses against that law (cf. v. 1:20). The experience of the speaker of Romans 7 is identical to the experience of Adam, for God said to Adam, “On the day that you eat of the tree, you shall surely die,” and yet Adam remained physically alive after he ate. God’s word did not fail, for Adam, like the speaker of Romans 7, died spiritually the moment that he transgressed the commandment though he did not die physically until much later.

Was not the sin of Adam sufficient for both the physical and spiritual death of his offspring? It was indeed, but we see even from Genesis 3 the promised coming of the second Adam who would crush the head of the serpent and who granted Adam and his offspring, even prior to his coming, the grace of physical life though they deserved immediate, physical death. Paul puts it this way in Romans 3:23-25, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.” This divine forbearance that allowed God to pass over the sins of the human race and not to commit the race immediately to the judgment of physical death did not come without a price, but it came through the very blood of his Son, Jesus Christ. Here we see clearly how Christ is the universal head of all men and is also the particular head of the many. Christ is head of all men insofar as God through his death grants to all men a measure of physical life. Christ was offered up as a propitiation for the human race—a temporal turning aside of the wrath of God so that all men are temporarily justified in the sight of God so that they will not immediately bear the physical condemnation of Adam’s sin or their own transgressions. This is indeed a grace of God afforded by Christ for all men, for apart from this universal grace no man would live.

This grace of physical life that God grants to all men through Christ, the second Adam, has an even greater purpose, of which the Apostle speaks in Romans 9:20-24 when objections are made against the purpose of God:

You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?” But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory—even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles?

In this weighty passage of Scripture we see that God not only withholds his wrath from all men so that those who would believe in Christ would come to him in faith but also so that those who would be vessels of the abundance of God’s mercy would comprehend the riches of the grace of God granted to them through Christ. Christ’s universal headship that withholds the hand of God’s judgment exists ultimately to bring glory to his name through the realization of his great and particular mercy that he has shown to those over whom Christ is their particular head in the abundance of grace. Of this abundance of grace, the saints of God will sing forever, witnessing how God has sovereignly called them out of the world of common grace and into the fold of particular and abundant grace.

Going back to the testimony of Romans 7:9, the justification that Christ grants to all men is justification of the original sin of Adam that brings eternal condemnation. Though those who have not sinned after the likeness of the offense of Adam might fall under the physical curse and die without comprehending and volitionally transgressing a law (e.g. infants, mentally handicapped, etc.), their condemnation is not eternal death, for where there is no comprehension of the law there is no imputation of sin (v. 5:13). Thus it can be said that those who are children of Adam who have not comprehended the law of God, be it the Mosaic law or Natural law, are spiritually alive until they reach a point of comprehension of God’s law. This fact is clearly seen in v. 7:9 where the speaker says, “I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive, and I died.” The sin that came alive in the speaker, viz. covetousness from the command, “You shall not covet,” was sufficient enough to kill the speaker spiritually thereby affording him enslavement to sin and eternal damnation. And though Christ is the speaker’s universal head, who relieves him from original sin’s eternal condemnation, the curse of original sin, that which indwells the speaker and remains dormant until cognition of the law of God, is such that it is certain to kill the speaker the very moment that recognition of the law of God occurs.

All this is to say that Christ’s universal headship is such that it justifies eternally those who have died apart from comprehension of the law of God, be it the Mosaic law or Natural law. This doctrine is commonly expressed as the “age of accountability,” but until studying Romans 5:12-21 in light of Romans 7:9, I have never encountered Scriptural warrant for the doctrine. Indeed, I was quite on the fence, as it were, with regard to the salvation of those who died apart from volitionally transgressing the law, for I have always heard it argued from texts that were never meant to express that truth. This doctrine, expressed from Romans 5:12-21 and Romans 7:9, places the salvation of those who have not sinned in the likeness of Adam’s offense in its proper light, viz. in the grace of God afforded by the work of Christ. For apart from Christ even those who have never comprehended the law of God are under the condemnation of Adam which is both temporal and eternal death. However, Christ’s work as the Second Adam has placed all men under his headship, justifying them from the eternal condemnation of Adam sin. All men are relieved of this judgment of eternal condemnation until they comprehend the law of God, which brings with it certain rebellion and death because of the sin that indwells all men and remains dead until the time of that cognition.

Therefore, the doctrine that is known as the “age of accountability” would be better named the “state of accountability,” for it is not a certain age that makes one accountable to God, but it is a state of comprehension. For the very moment that a person, no matter his age, comprehends a command of God and by his sinful nature rebels against it and thereby rebels against God, he dies spiritually, becomes enslaved to sin, and is condemned in the sight of God. This rebellion against the commandments of God can indeed come at a young age, therefore making the declaration of the Gospel to children of great import. No parent should withhold from his child the teaching of the Gospel, especially if he sees in his child the evidences of rebellion. The first thing that a child should learn from his parent is that his rebellion has a much weightier consequence than a rod on the back—condemnation in the sight of a holy God. Every spanking of a child for his rebellion must then be used as an opportunity for the Gospel, so that through that discipline a parent might save his child from eternal damnation (cf. Proverbs 23:14).

As I noted in the introduction, when we speak of Particular Redemption or Limited Atonement, we are not placing a value on the death of Christ but intention. In other words, Christ’s death is not limited because of the nature of his sacrifice, but it is limited in its design and its redemptive application. This is to say that when Christ died on the cross that there was a particular people that he was redeeming and buying out of bondage to be the sons of God.

This idea of Christ’s decisive and particular work of redemption is seen throughout Scripture and is tied intimately to the nature of his Coming. It is for this reason the Angel declares before Christ’s birth when he speaks to Joseph, “[Mary] will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins” (Matt. 1:21). And the Prophet Isaiah declares concerning the work of Christ:

He poured out his soul to death
…and was numbered with the transgressors;
yet he bore the sin of many,
…and makes intercession for the transgressors (v. 53:12).

These declarations and numerous others demonstrate that Christ died to save sinners not to possibly save sinners.

Indeed this is main thrust of the doctrine of Particular Redemption, viz. that when Christ died on the cross he accomplished the salvation of his people. Most Christians today do not believe this concerning the death of Christ. They instead believe in a “Christ meets you half-way” doctrine of salvation. No, they will not use these exact words, but they will mean precisely that. Their belief manifests itself in such sayings as, “Christ died for your sins, but you must exercise your faith to receive his gift of salvation for which he has paid.” The emphasis is on the word exercise. Though the above sentence sounds orthodox, it subtly makes faith a work. It says in essence, “Christ has done his part on the cross; you must do your part and believe.”

This is not to say at all that Scripture does not declare to sinners, “Believe and repent,” but it is to say that we have misunderstood the source of our faith. We, in our ignorance, think that our faith is our own doing and then form doctrines on the Gospel and atonement according to our misconceptions rather than go to Scripture and learn from it. For Scripture declares, “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God” (Eph. 2:8), and elsewhere, “For the righteousness of God has been revealed from faith for faith; [namely], the righteousness of God through the faith of Jesus Christ for those who have faith” (Rom. 1:17; 3:22, translation mine). Furthermore, the Apostle declares in his letter to the Hebrews that Christ is the “Author and Finisher of our faith” (v. 12:2).

Scripture declares elsewhere that our state is so dire and severe that we have no ability to believe in the Gospel on our own accord. We are said to be blind to the glory of God, deaf to the Gospel call, and dead in our trespasses, and there is nothing in us that would cause us to believe in the Gospel on our own accord. The Apostle writes:

If our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. . . . For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ (2Cor. 4:3, 4, 6).

Here the Apostle declares that our salvation and our faith is as much a work of God as was the calling forth of light by the power of his Word at Creation’s beginning.

This is all to say that faith is a fruit of the Spirit rather than a work by which we receive the benefits of Christ’s work. In actuality the reverse is true, viz. Christ’s work on the cross is what afforded the Spirit the power for regeneration that opened our eyes to the Gospel of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ that caused us to cry out, “I believe!”

Since faith is not the means by which we meet God half-way for our salvation, Christ’s death was not a mere opportunity for all who would simply believe to come and receive the potential saving power of the work of Christ. For faith is not simple, it is impossible without God’s prevenient work. God must be the Initiator and the Accomplisher of our salvation and our faith. Thus the Lord declares to Isaiah concerning his preaching of the Gospel, “Keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive. Make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and blind their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed” (vv 6:9, 10). For this reason also the Lord declared to Jeremiah that he would preach to an obstinate Israel and to Jonah that he would preach to a repentant Nineveh.

On the other hand, faith is simple in a way. After being born again by the will of the Spirit, the act of faith is as natural and simple to the child of God as crying is to a baby at his birth.

Our misconception of the source of our faith has also manifested itself in our practices. Instead of believing that the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation, we believe that it is a simple decision that anyone can make, just like deciding to make a sandwich for lunch instead of going out to eat. Therefore, instead of finding those who boldly preach the Gospel and its demands, we find those who use their cunning and the wisdom of men to trick people into praying a prayer for salvation. But, I digress.

Coming back to Christ’s work on the cross, we must look at the intentions and goals of his work. Did Christ intend to bear the guilt and eternal consequences of every person who had ever lived, even those to whom he did not grant the gift of faith? If you say that he did, there will be some serious questions come Judgment Day. Scripture clearly declares that all men outside of Christ will be judged and damned according to their deeds, but if Christ died for those deeds, why then are they being condemned? You might say, “They are condemned because they must believe that Christ bore their sins in order for Christ to have born their sins.” But then, are you not making faith a work? Are you not making yourself your savior rather than Jesus Christ?

We are taught in Scripture that imputation does not happen by choice but by headship. In Romans 5 we are taught by the Apostle that humanity has had two heads—Adam and the second Adam, Jesus Christ. Through the first Adam all men, having him as their father, were imputed his deed of disobedience and were thereby condemned (hence the necessity of the virgin birth, but I digress again). Jesus Christ came into the world as a second head, one who imputed to us who are in him his righteousness. The Apostle writes, “For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ” (v. 5:17).

Faith as a gift and the imputation of Christ’s righteousness both point to the doctrine of election, which by its nature demands a particular redemption, for God, having ordained the Fall of Adam before the foundation of the world and the subsequent need of a Redeemer, predestined some for glory and some for condemnation. God’s predestination of those who are vessels for glory and his forbearance of sins is based totally in the work of Christ, for we who are saved were not merely chosen before the foundation of the world, but we were chosen in him before the foundation of the world. The Apostle writes:

He chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth (Eph. 1:4-10).

All these are good and glorious things that God grants to his children through the special and particular work of Christ on their behalf.

You might ask, “Even if this is true, what is the practical benefit of this doctrine? For those who are in Christ, this doctrine has great benefit. First, it helps us understand the ways of God and his purposes in Creation. Second, it encourages us to preach the Gospel with great boldness knowing that God will save his people from their sins. Thirdly and most importantly, it will cause us to glorify God more for his particular and unmerited mercy toward us. Through our election and redemption and our witnessing the wicked’s condemnation, God will make known to us, his vessels of mercy, the riches of his glory and grace (cf. Rom. 9:23).

Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!
For who has known the mind of the Lord,
…or who has been his counselor?”
Or who has given a gift to him
…that he might be repaid?”
For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen (Rom. 11:33-36).

Next: Concerning Particular Redemption, Part V. The Work of Christ for the Infantile

This propitiatory work of Christ for humanity is indeed gracious and merciful on its own accord. The fact that God gives the children of Adam a reprieve from their deserved and ultimate damnation is a mercy that should be incomprehensible to any reasonable heart, and yet Christ’s work on the cross for humanity did not end with its propitiation for humanity.

To understand this second aspect of Christ’s work, we must understand the nature and desserts of all men. We learn in Scripture that all men have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and that no man is righteous on his own accord (Rom. 3:23, etc.). We are also told in Scripture that every person is guilty before God, not only for the evil deeds that flow from his evil heart, but because of the imputation of Adam’s sin to his children (cf. Rom. 5:12-21). All men therefore, because of their father’s deed and their own wicked deeds, are doubly guilty before God and deserve evil continually.

In spite of the wickedness of men, Scripture teaches that the rain of blessing falls on the just and the unjust from the hand of a loving and gracious God (cf. Matt. 5:45). All men, regardless of their self-righteousness or wickedness, enjoy an amount of blessings while they live upon the earth. All, despite their relationship to Christ, breathe the air that God has provided for the world, give and are given in marriage, enjoy children and grandchildren, are given food for their sustenance and shelter for their protection.

All of these good things that God grants to all people are a gift through Christ and his blood, for it is through his blood that the immediate wrath of God is removed from mankind so that they might live and it is through his blood that these aforementioned gifts are granted to men while they live. And because of his death, Christ has been granted the name above names and is exalted above all things so that in all things he is preeminent and in him all things, including the unregenerate and regenerate, are held together and sustained (cf. Col. 1:15-20).

This goodness of God in Christ in spite of humanity’s wickedness is revealed apart from Scripture in the testimony of Nature, and therefore all humanity is aware of the mercy and goodness of God. The Apostle writes concerning this general awareness in his Epistle to the Romans:

For what can be know about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him (vv. 1:19-21).

Though God has revealed his goodness to all men, they do not give thanks to him for it and thereby condemn themselves further for their ingratitude.

Therefore Christ is for the world the fount head of mercy and blessing, for in his death he temporarily withholds the Divine Judgment and also extends to all common blessings and enjoyments in this age. Tomorrow we will look at redemptive aspect of Christ’s work on the cross.

Before we study the particular and redemptive aspect of Christ’s work on the cross, I believe that it would be helpful to look at the universal and propitiatory aspect of his work. But before we even begin this study, I would like to define some terms. “Universal” and “particular” are the adjectives that we will be using to define the scope of each of Christ’s works. “Redemption” is the act of redeeming a person out of bondage for a price. This term is used solely of the saints of God who have been freed from their slavery to sin and have been brought under the Lordship of Jesus Christ through his blood (cf. Romans 6). “Propitiation” is the act of turning aside wrath. With respect to God, this is a sacrifice that temporarily appeases the wrathful hand of the just Sovereign of the Universe. In other words, “redemption” is the complete satisfaction of God’s wrath, and “propitiation” is the temporal appeasement of God’s wrath.

One of the lessons that the Great Flood narrative of Genesis has taught us is that Yahweh is a God of immediate justice. That is, without a mediator, God exacts his sentence upon the guilty swiftly and without delay. As for the world during the time of Noah, its terrible wickedness had been presented before the Lord without a Propitiator. We know this because of the outcome of the story: “Yahweh saw the wickedness of man and . . . said, ‘I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens’” (Gen. 6:5, 7). And this he did. The glorious Justice of God manifested itself in the terrible downpour that destroyed the whole earth and all its life save the righteous Noah and his party.

After the Flood, God blessed Noah and gave his covenant promise to him and his descendants that he would never destroy the world by water again as he had done with the Great Flood. This covenant that God initiated with Noah does not demonstrate a shift in the nature of God, but it demonstrates the arrival of a Propitiator, for God does not change and neither does his ways. Thus God, when he smells the burnt offering given by Noah after the Floor subsides, gives his covenant to Noah, not because of the sufficiency of the burnt offering, but because of the Great Offering that Noah’s offering foreshadowed.

The Apostle demonstrates this point in his letter to the Romans:

For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins (vv. 3:23-25).

Later in his letter, the Apostle reveals the Father’s glorious plan behind his Son’s propitiation of the sins of the world and the Father’s passing over them:

So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills. You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?” But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory? (vv. 9:18-23).

Therefore, when we look at the universal aspect of Christ’s work on the cross, we must look at it as the temporal turning aside of the wrath of God so that God could manifest the riches of his glory to those whom he had chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world.

How do we know that this universal propitiation is temporal? We know this because Scripture clearly teaches that all men will be judged and, apart from Christ, condemned according to their deeds, be they public or private (cf. Romans 2:16; Rev. 20:12, 13). Therefore, when Christ turns aside the wrath of the Father toward the world, its wrath-bearing effect finds its end on Judgment Day and not beyond.

Tomorrow, we will take a look at the temporal mercy and gifts that the work of Christ has brought to all of mankind.

The doctrine of particular redemption, simply put, is the teaching that the sins that Christ bore on the cross are only the sins of the elect–i.e. those who were chosen in love before the foundation of the world to have faith in Christ. This doctrine has been more popularly labeled in the past as “limited atonement” in small part to place emphasis on the scope of Christ’s work on the cross and in larger part to force fit the doctrine into the middle of the “TULIP” acrostic that was born out of the Synod at Dordt in response to the Arminian heresy.

The popular term “limited atonement” has sparked enough debate by its semantics alone, and perhaps rightly so in a way. Many have interpreted the use of the word “limited” as one that places a cap on the value on Christ’s death, and others have had a problem with describing anything that God does as “limited,” especially the giving up of himself on the cross. These objections bring up some healthy concerns of those who have them, though their concerns are based upon their ignorance not fact. The doctrine of the limited atonement of Christ (henceforth “particular redemption”) has never taught that there is a definite value on the work of Christ. Quite the contrary, the doctrine teaches that the death of the Infinite by necessity has an infinite value, and therefore could atone for an infinite number of souls if it were God’s good pleasure for it to do so. For these reasons, “particular redemption” is a much more accurate name for the doctrine and a less offensive one.

Many object to the divisive nature of the doctrine and wonder what benefit such a teaching has for the Church. I acknowledge the doctrine’s tendency to divide, and I also sympathize dearly with the desire for a unified Church. However, I do believe that Scripture teaches a particular redemption in its pages and that God in his benevolent wisdom has placed it there for our mutual edification. I will make note of particular benefits of the doctrine in a forthcoming post, but till then know that the doctrine helps us understand the ways of God and will cause the saint to adore and to glorify his Maker and his Redeemer rightly and in greater degree and truth.

Allow me to offer a word of warning before we engage in this study: this doctrine is only fit to be explored by him who is a child of God and does not neglect the weightier matters of God’s law. It is very easy to be fascinated with such teachings and for those teachings to become a snare and a stumbling block to the petrified heart. If you find that studying such doctrines does not make you a more humble, gracious, and loving person toward your siblings in Christ and toward your neighbors, you have no business with this meat until you have grown past your spiritual infancy. Studying this doctrine apart from a desire to wholeheartedly glorify God in Christ and to love his Church will make you a callous, intellectual elitist in your church and will make you a glorifier of yourself rather than of Christ.