For Whom Did Christ Die?

In our discussion of Faith and Works, we noticed a passing statement from Paul in Rom. 2:4: "Do you not realize that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?" That statement suggests that God is working on all people with influences that lead toward salvation, influences that will actually save everyone who responds to them. We also found strong support for this idea in Jesus' words recorded in John 6. 44, 65. We have now seen from Paul that God gave Christ to die so that the justification of believers would be consistent with His own justice. This means that without the death of Christ, salvation — and therefore these divine influences leading toward salvation — would have been impossible. If that is true, then these influences, and the salvation that comes through them to all who believe the Gospel, were part of the purpose for which God gave His Son to die. In other words, the purpose of Christ's death included the entire human race.

There is much more teaching in the New Testament that confirms this universal purpose in the death of Christ.

The Rationale of the Atonement

We have already established, on solid historical grounds, that Jesus of Nazareth taught that His death on the cross has a unique relation to human salvation. Through that death, God receives into His favor, in spite of their past sins, all who believe the good news Christ proclaimed. Christ chose to die for this purpose, and the need for so costly a means of salvation arose from human sin. Paul drew from Christ's teaching the further conclusion that this necessity rested in the justice of God, and we have found that this conclusion best explains the teaching reflected throughout the New Testament. In the future, we shall consider historical evidence that the Crucified One claimed to be, in a sense shared by no other, the Son of God, the eternal companion of the Father's glory, the possessor of divine attributes, and the Creator and Judge of the world. And further, we shall consider historical evidence that this Savior of the world rose from the dead. Teaching about His own death, coming from such a Teacher and supported by such credentials, carries an authority we cannot dismiss. When our argument is complete, it will yield a settled conclusion to our theological inquiry.

Reconciliation to God

One of Paul’s most distinctive teachings about the death of Christ — something especially associated with him and logically flowing from what we have already seen — is the idea that Christ’s death brings about reconciliation to God. This theme shows up clearly in passages where Paul speaks of Christ’s death as restoring peace between God and humanity.

In Romans chapter 5, verse 1, Paul pulls together his earlier teaching — especially Romans chapter 3, verses 22–26 — and describes its outcome as “peace with God through Christ,” a peace that comes from “being justified by faith.” Later in that same chapter, verse 10 restates the argument of verse 9 by saying that believers have been “reconciled to God through the death of His Son,” treating this as another way of saying that they have been “justified in His blood.” Then, in verse 11, Paul adds, “through whom we have now received the reconciliation.”