Did Christ Die for All?

On Good Friday, we celebrate Christ’s saving death on the Cross. But for whom did he die? Certain Protestants, particularly those in the Reformed (or Calvinist) tradition, believe in the doctrine of “limited atonement,” claiming that Christ didn’t really die for everyone. What are the major reasons that people believe in this theory, and what does Scripture have to say?

Only For Many?

Broadly speaking, there are three major reasons that people believe in limited atonement. The first is that Jesus sometimes speaks of his death being “for many.” At the Last Supper, for instance, Jesus says, “this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins” (Matt. 26:28). It sounds like Jesus is saying that his blood isn’t going to be poured out for everyone, but only for some. After all, if your boss ended a meeting by saying that “many of you will still have a job on Monday,” you would probably not greet this news with relief, since the obvious implication is that some of you won’t.

But we’re reading an implication into this passage that doesn’t exist in the Greek, which literally says that Jesus’ blood is poured out “for the many” (τὸ περὶ πολλῶν; the article τὸ is untranslated). A better reading would be something closer to “the masses.” For instance, if you referred to “the many people on earth,” you’re not implying that some people are on earth, and others are off in space. You’re simply saying that the group of people you’re referring to is large. So there’s no contradiction between Jesus saying that he gives his life “as a ransom for many” (Matt. 20:28) and St. Paul saying that he “gave himself as a ransom for all” (1 Tim. 2:6).

Only For the Church?

The second objection is that Scriptures sometimes describes those Christ died for in narrow terms. For instance, St. Paul says that “Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her” (Eph. 5:25). But it would be a disaster to read Paul as saying that Christ died only for those currently in the Church. After all, he elsewhere says that “Christ died for the ungodly,” and that “while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son” (Rom. 5:6-10). As Jesus explains, “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners” (Mark 2:17). So just as there is no contradiction between saying that Christ died for “the many” and for all, there’s no contradiction between saying that he died for the Church and for the ungodly.

In writing to the Church, it’s not surprising that the focus should be on the meaning of Christ’s death for the Church. But the New Testament authors are clear that this death isn’t just for us. St. John is perhaps the most explicit. Writing to the Church, he says that Christ “is the expiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2:2).

Only for the Saved?

The final major reason offered for limited atonement is that Christ’s death is “for the forgiveness of sins” (Matt. 26:28). But not everyone is saved, so it seems that Christ didn’t die for everyone. The argument here relies on circular theological reasoning, assuming that if Christ died for a person’s salvation, then that person will necessarily be saved. But that argument only works if you assume a particular view of predestination, and reject our ability to freely reject Christ’s ransom for our sins. So you have to already believe the Reformed system for this to sound like a good argument. What’s more, Scripture clearly speaks of our ability to reject the salvation won for us by Christ. After all, both John the Baptist’s baptism and Christian baptism are also “for the forgiveness of sins” (Mark 1:4, Acts 2:38), but it doesn’t follow that everyone who receives either baptism is permanently saved. We see the opposite from Scripture: Simon Magus believes and is baptized (Acts 8:12), but sins against God, and finds himself mired once more “in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity,” with his heart “not right before God” (Acts  8:21-23).

St. Peter warns against false teachers “who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction” (2 Pet. 2:1). He leaves no room for ambiguity: these false teachers have been “bought” (ransomed) by Christ, but still turn away from him back to destruction. He cautions (2 Pet. 2:20-21):

For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overpowered, the last state has become worse for them than the first. For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them.

Such language leaves no doubt that some of those ransomed by Christ can and will turn away from him, ending up worse off than had they never been saved in the first place. For instance, Demas goes from being one of St. Paul’s “fellow workers” (Philem. 1:24) to deserting him because he was “in love with this present world” (2 Tim. 4:10), even though St. John warns that “if any one loves the world, love for the Father is not in him” (1 John 2:15).

This may not sound like good news, but the alternative is worse. Given that some people go to hell, there are only two possibilities: either Christ offered them salvation and they refused it, or  he never wanted them to be saved in the first place. The implication of “limited atonement” is that Christ doesn’t love some (perhaps many) of the people that he created, that he didn’t die for them on the Cross, and that it is therefore impossible for them to ever be saved, no matter what they say or do. That’s a vision of God that’s impossible to harmonize with the Jesus Christ we see in Scripture, who can refer even to Judas Iscariot as “friend” (Matt. 26:50).

Christ died for the Church, but he also died for the ungodly. He died for the many, and for the world. He also died for you and for me. The difference is one of emphasis. Its why St. Paul can say that Christ  “loved me and gave himself for me” (Gal. 2:20), without any of us concluding that therefore, Christ didn’t die for the rest of us. His death is both universal in its scope, and personal in its depth. And that’s extremely good news.