Grace to You :: Unleashing God's Truth, One Verse at a Time

The Doctrine of Actual Atonement, Part 1

Well, how many of you have always wanted to go to seminary? Youre about to go tonight. Im going
to challenge your thinking a little bit as we talk about this issue of the question, for whom did Christ
die? We have been looking over the last number of weeks at some very important doctrines: The
doctrine of perseverance, or the preservation of the saints; the doctrine of sovereign election in
salvation. We have looked at the doctrine of total or absolute inability, that is the depravity of the
sinner which renders it impossible for him to respond to the gospel. And tonight I want to talk to you
about what Ive chosen to call, trying to give it a more accurate name, the doctrine of actual
atonement. The doctrine of actual atonement.
Now, you need to understand that these doctrines were talking about are at the very heart and soul
of our theology. They are the very doctrines that were dealt with in the great Reformation and
rescued out of the darkness of Roman Catholicism. Now it may seem obvious to most Christians for
whom Christ died, but it is because we tend to take things at a rather superficial level and not think
about them deeply, and thus we miss the very essence of some of these glorious truths that we need
to dig a little more deeply. And Im going to try to do that tonight, and obviously the preliminaries took
a long time and rightly so, those were wonderful testimonies and a great time of singing.
So Im sure this is going to spill over to next week, so please, Im going to leave you hanging a little
bit tonight, and I know many of you are going to rush me afterwards with all your questions of things I
didnt cover. But if youll hold it until next Sunday night, well get there.
Lets begin in a simple way. And I hope this is clear to you. You know, as I tell young preachers, its
very easy to be hard to understand. Thats really easy. All you have to do is not know what youre
talking about, nobody else will either. And somebody might say, Well, it was too deep. But it might
have been only an illusion that it was too deep, it was just that he didnt understand it, so how could
you. Its hard to be clear. To be clear, you have to really understand the subject and work hard to get
it to an understandable way, and understandable format. And thats what Ive tried to do, and I hope
its clear to you.
But lets start with some simple things. If I ask the average Christian For whom did Christ die?, the
traditional answer would be, Everybody. Everybody. Christ died for the whole world, He died for all
sinners. And most people then in the church believe - and Im sure many people outside the true
church, many people associated with Christianity believe - that on the cross, Jesus paid the debt of
sin for everyone because He loves everyone and He wants everyone to be saved. Thats pretty
much the common evangelical view. Jesus died for everybody. He paid the price for the sins of
everybody. And all we have to do is tell sinners that He loves them so much that He paid the price
and He wants them to be saved, and all they have to do is respond.

Now if that is true, then on the cross Jesus accomplished a potential salvation, not an actual one.
That is, sinners have all had their sins atoned for potentially, and its not actual until they activate it
by their faith. So, what we need to do is to tell sinners that they need to pick up the salvation thats
already been purchased for them. Since Christ died for everybody, everybody therefore can be
saved. Its just a matter of them coming to receive that salvation. And so, our responsibility is to
convince people to come and take the salvation thats been provided for them, to convince them to
come and accept the gift.
This is so deep in the fabric of evangelical theology that the most popular book on the church
currently - The Purpose Driven Church - in it the author says, I can lead anyone to Christ if I find the
key to that persons heart. The assumption is that if you can just figure out the technique of getting
to some emotional point, you can win anybody on the planet to Christ because, after all, Hes died for
all of them. Thats the popular idea.
And I know many of you are thinking, Well. Well, it seems to me that thats what Ive always believed
in. Thats what Ive been taught. Well we may be taking you some places youve never gone before,
but thats good. Thats the popular idea.
The fallout of that would be like this. Hell is full of people for whom Christ died. Ill say it another way.
Hell is full of people whose sins were paid for in full on the cross. Thats a little more disturbing when
you say it like that, isnt it? Another way to say it would be that the lake of fire, which burns forever
with fire and brimstone, is filled with eternally damned people whose sins Christ fully atoned for on
the cross. Gods wrath was satisfied by Christs atonement on behalf of those people who will forever
stay in hell.
Now by the way, heaven will also be populated by the souls of those for whom Christ died. So, Christ
did exactly the same thing for the occupants of hell as He did for the occupants of heaven. That
makes the question a little more disturbing. The only difference is the people in heaven accepted the
gift, the people in hell rejected it. Thats pretty much the traditional evangelical view.
But it just sounds strange when you start to kind of pick it apart a little bit, doesnt it? That Jesus died
and paid in full the penalty for the sins of the damned, and died and paid in full the penalty for the
sins of the glorified, that Jesus did the same thing for the occupants of hell that He did for the
occupants of heaven, and the only difference hinges on the sinners choice? That is to say, the death
of Jesus Christ, then, is not an actual atonement, it is only a potential atonement. He really did not
purchase salvation for anyone in particular. He only removed some kind of barrier to make it possible
for sinners to choose to be saved.
So the message then - the typical evangelical message - is to sinners, God loves you so much He
sent His Son who paid in full the penalty for your sins. And wont you respond to that love, and not
disappoint God, and accept the gift, and let Him save you since He already paid in full the price for
your sins? The final decision is up to the sinner.
And it kind of carries the notion that God loves you so much, youre so special, He gave His Son and
He paid in full the penalty for your sins, and thats supposed to move you emotionally to love Him
back and accept this gift. And so you kind of work the sinner, and kind of manipulate the sinner in
that direction, trying to find a psychological point, a felt-need point, play the right organ music, sing

the right invitation hymn. You know, grease the slides and get him moving in the direction of making
the choice.
Now weve got a problem here, folks. Weve got a big problem. We saw in our last study that no
sinner on his own can make that choice, right? This is the doctrine of absolute inability. He cant
make it. He cannot make that choice. All people - all people - are sinners, and all sinners are dead in
their trespasses and sins. All of them are alienated from the life of God. All do only evil continually.
All are unwilling and unable to understand, to repent and to believe. All have darkened minds,
blinded by sin and Satan, all have hearts that are full of evil, all are wicked, desperately wicked. All
desire only the will of their father who is Satan. All of them are unable to seek God. They are all
trapped in absolute inability and unwillingness.
So how then can the sinner make the choice? I dont care what felt need you might find. I dont care
what you might think you see in his heart that will let you lead anyone to Christ. I dont care how
many invitation verses you sing, or how much organ music or mood music you play to try to induce
some kind of response, the sinner on his own cannot understand, cannot repent, and cannot believe.
Remember what we saw in John 1? To as many as believed He gave the authority, the right to
become children of God but not by the will of man or the will of the flesh. Ephesians 2:8-9. By grace
are you saved through faith; but that not of yourselves. It is through Him that you are in Christ, 1
Corinthians 1:30.
Salvation is from God. We saw that. He has to give life to the dead. He has to give sight to the blind.
He has to give hearing to the deaf. He has to give understanding to the ignorant. He has to give
repentance to those who love sin. He has to give faith to those who cant believe. He has to move
the heart to seek Him who otherwise would not. So that all the elements that caused the sinner to
come to Christ are God-ordained and God-induced.
And as we have learned, the doctrine of absolute inability means that people will only be saved if
God saves them, and therefore salvation is based upon the decree of God, the sovereign doctrine of
election. No one could be saved unless God saved him, and God saves those whom He chooses to
save. You cannot expect the sinner on his own, no matter how hes emotionally prodded or
psychologically prodded, no matter how hes threatened, no matter what you say to him, on his own,
you cannot expect him to decide for Christ. Those who will come to Christ are those whom the
Father draws and the Father gives to the Son because Hes chosen to do so.
Now with that in mind, looking back at those doctrines, the doctrine of election, the doctrine of
absolute inability, we can ask the question again. For whom did Christ die? Did He die a death that is
a potential salvation for everyone, and therefore on the largest part it was useless? Or did He die a
death that is an actual atonement, not a potential one? For those who would believe because God
calls them and God grants them repentance and faith, because God in eternity past chose them?
Well, the only answer to the question that makes any real sense is that Jesus Christ died and paid in
full the penalty for the sins of all who would ever believe, so that His atonement is an actual
atonement and not a potential one that can be disregarded. If Jesus actually paid in full the penalty
for your sins, youre not going to go to hell, that would be double jeopardy.

Now someone is going to say, Well wait a minute. That sounds like limited atonement. You say the
word limited atonement and peoples antennas go up. Because were used to that kind of
evangelical idea that Jesus paid the sins in full, paid the price for the sins in full of everybody. But
that is fraud with so many obvious problems. But thats what the evangelical church believes, and
thats why it uses manipulation to move people emotionally, and according to felt needs, and by what
other means it might come up with, believing that the penalty is paid in full for everybody, so that
most of the people that Jesus died for are in hell. Then what in the world kind of atonement did He
provide for them?
And so you say, You must believe the atonement is limited. Of course. So do you. You say, I
believe in an unlimited atonement. Well, then you must be a universalist. A universalist believes that
everybodys going to heaven. There is no hell. Everybody is going to heaven. And thats consistent. If
you believe that Jesus paid in full the penalty for all the sins of all the people whove ever lived, then
you have to be a universalist.
But we know better than that. We know the atonement is limited. We know not everybody is going to
heaven. To be a universalist, you have to ignore Scripture. So lets just - let me give you just a
handful of points, okay? And well see how far we go.
Number one, the atonement is limited. And by atonement I mean the sacrifice of Christ, by which
He paid the penalty for sin. The atonement is limited. Now lets look at this in just some obvious
passages. Matthew 10. Matthew chapter 10. And Im not going to wait for you, so you might want to
write these down. Matthew 10:28. Weve got to go. Verse 28. Gird up your loins, here we go.
Matthew 10:28. Do not fear. Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but
rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Thats also quoted in Luke 12, as
weve been learning. There is a hell and God is going to send people there. That tells me the
atonement is limited. There is a hell and God is going to send people there.
In Mark chapter 9 - and these are just samples that tell us that the atonement is certainly limited. In
Mark 9:43, If your hand causes you stumble, cut it off; its better for you to enter the life crippled,
than, having your two hands, to go into hell into the unquenchable fire. And some texts say, where
the worm doesnt die and the fire is not quenched. Again, another reference to hell.
Verse 48 again repeats verse 47 and 48. If your eye causes you to stumble, cast it out; better to
enter the Kingdom of God with one eye, than, having two eyes, to be cast into hell where the worm
doesnt die and the fire is not quenched.
You come, as I noted, to the gospel of Luke chapter 12, you have the same statement as in Matthew
10:28. But go to the Gospel of John, and I just want to take you sort of briefly to this gospel and a few
glimpses of the obvious reality of the atonement being limited.
It is limited. Chapter 8 makes it very clear, 8:12. I am the light of the world; Jesus said, he who
follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the Light of life. Heres a condition. You have to
follow Christ. It is limited, then, to those who follow Christ. You find over in verse 24 a similar saying.
I said, therefore, to you that you shall die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am He, you shall
die in your sins. There is a hell and people are going there. In fact, Matthew 7 says, Many are going
there. And the only way to avoid going there, the only way to avoid dying in your sins, that is dying

without a sacrifice for your sins, the only way to avoid that is to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
How could Jesus say you could die in your sins if their sins had been paid for? They had not been
paid for if they died without believing in Him. And there are other parts of John. If you go back to
chapter 3, God did not send His Son - verse 17, - to judge the world, but that the world should be
saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged; but he who does not believe has been
judged already, because hes not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
There is a hell and people go there who dont believe in Jesus Christ. And then there are so many
other places where you can see this very same emphasis made. I dont want to burden you with an
endless list of them, but there are perhaps a couple of others maybe to think about. Matthew 22:13.
The king said to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and cast him into the outer darkness; in that
place there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. A further description of horrific punishment and
judgment. 25:30. Cast the worthless slave into outer darkness; in the place where there shall be
weeping and gnashing of teeth.
And then in a Pauline letter, 2 Thessalonians chapter 1, it talks about the coming of the Lord Jesus
from heaven. Second Thessalonians 1:7, With His mighty angels and flaming fire, dealing out
retribution to those who do not know God to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.
And these will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and the
glory of His power.
So the Bible promises there is a hell. The only way to avoid it is to not die in your sins. And to not die
in your sins, you have to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. And if you dont, youre going to pay the
penalty of eternal destruction. That proves that the atonement is limited. It does not apply universally.
God did not intend to save everyone. He is God. He could have intended to save everyone. He could
have saved everyone. He would have if that had been His intention. The atonement is limited.
Now we all have to accept that or be universalists. We know not everyone is going to heaven. In fact,
it is a little flock, it is the few which, if we were to hold on to this sort of evangelical idea, means that
the vast majority of people for whom Christ died and paid in full the penalty for their sins are going to
go to hell. And thats just something very difficult to believe. So we do believe in a limited atonement.
It is limited to those who believe.
How is it limited? Thats the second point. Number one. Is the atonement limited? Answer: Yes.
Number two. How is it limited? Well, first of all, its limited because not everybody is saved, only
those who repent and believe. Thats how its limited. Only those who believe in Christ and confess
Him as Lord are saved. Only those have their sins atoned for. It is limited to those who believe.
Thats how its limited, okay? Very important that you grasp that. Well come back to that.
Now here comes the key question. By whom is it limited? By whom? We know its limited. We know
how its limited. Its limited to those who believe. It is only applicable to those who believe. If you
confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord, believe in your heart God raised Him from the dead, youll be
saved. Now by whom is it limited?
And the popular view would say this, The atonement of Jesus is unlimited, but sinners limit its
application. And were back to what we said before. It is a potential atonement, the actuality of which

is limited by the sinner. Now we have to believe, then, that God has provided a sacrifice for sins in
His Son that, in and of itself is not sufficient, in and of itself is not actual, in and of itself is not real,
because the sinner can neutralize it.
I dont mind believing God can limit the atonement. God does limit the atonement. But listen carefully
to me. He limits the atonement as to its extent. You have to believe that. Because He didnt choose
everybody and not everybodys going to heaven. And thats in the divine mind, and thats the decree
of God, and thats the purpose of God, and you have to come to grips with that.
I dont have any problem at all saying the atonement is limited. I dont have any problem at all saying
how its limited. Its limited to those who believe. And I have no problem saying and those who
believe are those whom God grants faith. And therefore, the atonement is limited because God
limited it. Im much more comfortable with that than that sinners can limit the atonement that Christ
has provided, or that the atonement that Christ has provided is wasted on the vast majority of people.
If you say that God provided an atonement which is only potential, which only removes the barriers
so that the sinner can be saved if he chooses to be, you know what youve done? You have said that
God not only limited the atonement as to its extent, and you have to believe that, but He limited it as
to its effect. Okay? In other words, if you believe in an unlimited atonement, and you think youre one
of those magnanimous people who believed Jesus died for everyone. Then by saying the atonement
is unlimited as to extent, you have just also said it is limited as to effect. It covers everybody, but not
potently. It covers everybody, but not powerfully.
A little while ago you sang a hymn, Jesus - what? - paid it all. Do you believe that? Well,
potentially. Did He pay it all potentially or actually? Did He actually bear in His body your sins on the
cross or only potentially, if you decide that He did? If youre going to say that the extent of the
atonement is unlimited, then the effect of the atonement is limited. If youre going to say that the
extent of the atonement is limited, then youre going to say the effect of the atonement is unlimited.
For those to whom it extends, it has no limits.
So when you say you believe in a limited atonement or unlimited atonement? I believe in a limited
atonement as to its extent. It is limited to those who believe, who are those who are called, who are
those who are chosen. But I believe it is unlimited as to its effect. For those to whom it is granted, it is
a full atonement. Jesus did pay it all.
So, you know, these people who want to say, Well, you know, we believe the atonement is
unlimited. You say, Well, well, wait a minute. You mean Jesus died for everybody in the whole
world? Yes. Well, you may think its unlimited as to its extent, but you have just confessed that its
limited as to its real effect, because people are going to go to hell even though He died for them.
What kind of an atonement is that? But even people who say, We believe its unlimited, dont
believe that. They dont mean that. They know God limited it to those who believe, and they believe
that sinners limit it by making wrong choices. And then they believe theres some limits in the very
atonement itself, so that it really doesnt do the work of atonement, it just makes it possible for the
sinner to activate it.
You know, you look at the Bible and its pretty clear. The hymn writer got it right. And that hymn is a
pretty simple hymn. And I dont know what was in his mind when he wrote it but when he wrote,

Jesus paid it all, he meant that. What He did on the cross was not a partial atonement. What He did
was not a potential atonement. It was not some kind of virtual atonement. It was a real actual
atonement.
It was limited in its extent to those who would believe, who are the called and the chosen. But it was
unlimited in its effect. For them, it was a full and complete atonement. There is no such thing as an
atonement by Jesus Christ on the cross that is less than a true and actual atonement. There is no
such thing as some kind of potential atonement, some kind of half-way atonement. Theres no such
thing as Jesus paying in full for your sins and then you paying in full for your sins forever in hell. That
diminishes the work of Christ, that mocks the work of Christ.
What are you saying? Youre saying Jesus only partially activated this and its up to the sinner to fully
activate it? If Christ paid for the sins of everybody and everybody doesnt go to heaven, then
whatever He paid wasnt the full price. So weve got to change our hymn and say, Jesus paid half,
the rest is up to you. That would be a good line. Jesus paid the first half. The rest is up to you.
I just cant bring myself to believe that hell is full of millions of people whose sins were paid for in full
by Christ on the cross. I cannot see the Father fully punishing the Son on the cross for the sins of
people who will then be punished for those sins forever in hell. What is the point? What Christ did on
the cross was a true, and full, and complete atonement for the sins of all who would believe, and
since no one can believe unless God grants them faith, it is the sins of those whom the Father has
chosen to call to Himself.
You hear people say, Well, you know, when you say the atonement is limited, people dont feel very
special. Well, Ill tell you what. I dont feel very special if you say to me, Christ died for you, He
loves you just like He died for the millions in hell. That doesnt make me feel very special. Thats
kind of a hard way to do evangelism. Christ died on the cross for your sins, and all the people in hell,
too. Thats not special. Thats anything but special.
You mean to tell me He paid for my sins and Im paying for them forever? Then Ill tell you, whatever
His payment was, it was bogus. You see, its not biblical to limit the atonement as to its power. Its
not biblical to limit the atonement as to its effectiveness. Its not biblical to limit the atonement as to
its accomplishment. If He paid in full the penalty for your sins, you will receive that salvation.
The atonement of Jesus Christ on the cross has to be in perfect harmony with the eternal decree. It
is not biblical to limit the atonement by making it potential and not actual. It is not biblical to limit the
atonement by the will of the unwilling and unable sinner. The atonement is limited by God to the
elect. But it is unlimited as to its effect. For them, it is a full and complete atonement.
Now, the sum of it comes down to this. Is the death of Christ a work that potentially saves willing
sinners, or is it a work that actually provides salvation for unwilling sinners who by Gods sovereign
grace will be made willing? The only possible answer is that God provided a sacrifice in His Son, a
true payment in full for the sins of all who would ever believe, and all who would ever believe will
believe because the Father will draw them, and He will grant them repentance, and faith, and
regeneration. Jesus death, then, is to be understood as a full satisfaction to Gods holy justice on
behalf of all whom God will save.

I didnt invent this. This doctrine goes way back, back to the Reformation, back to John Owen, and
even back to Charles Spurgeon. Listen to what Spurgeon said. We are often told that we limit the
atonement of Christ because we say that Christ has not made a satisfaction for all men, or all men
would be saved. Now, our reply to this is that on the other hand our opponent is limited. We do not.
The Arminians say, Christ died for all men. Ask them what they mean by that. Did Christ die so as to
secure the salvation of all men? They say, No, certainly not.
Or we ask them the next question, did Christ die so as to secure the salvation of any person in
particular? They say, No. Theyre obliged to say that if theyre consistent. They say, No. Christ has
died that any man may be saved if - and then follow certain conditions of salvation.
Now who is it that limits the salvation of Christ? Why you. You say that Christ did not die so as
infallibly to secure the salvation of anybody. We beg your pardon. When you say we limit Christs
death, we say, No, my dear sir. It is you that do that. We say Christ so died that He infallibly secured
the salvation of a multitude that no man can number who, through Christs death, not only may be
saved but will be saved, and cannot by any possibility run the hazard of being anything but saved.
You are welcome to your atonement, said Spurgeon. You may keep it. We will never renounce ours
for the sake of it.
The atonement is an actual atonement, not a potential one. It is a real atonement, not simply a
barrier removed. And it is in behalf of all who would ever believe, and since the sinner is unable and
unwilling to believe apart from divine intervention and regeneration, it comes, then, down to the
power of God based upon the decree of God.
Now, are you with me? I have listed here about 50 passages of Scripture, 5-0. And this is really the
rich part of this. I just kind of set it up tonight and Im going to leave it there. Because if I get into this,
well be here till the rapture of the church, Im afraid. So, you understand the issue and how to think it
through reasonably, and logically, and fully.
And next Sunday night, I want to take you down into the depths of what the Scripture has to say to
support this marvelous view of an atonement that God has by His own sovereignty limited to those
who believe, but an atonement which in itself is unlimited to all for whom it is provided, salvation will
be given in its fullness.
Now, I want to add hastily to that. People say, Well, how do you know whether Christ died for you?
The answer is, That whosoever will may come, and if you come and believe in the gospel of the
Lord Jesus Christ, then the death of Christ was for you. And dont hold back, come to Christ.
You know, there was a preacher in London when I was over there doing that conference and he
pulled me aside and he said, Do you actually encourage people to come to Christ? And I said,
Yeah. He said, I find it so hard. Im so restrained in my spirit. Thats where your theology has
plugged up in the wrong place. Look, we dont know who it is, other than those who have already
come. We dont know whos out there to complete those for whom Christ paid a full atonement. So
we plead with sinners.
And I said to him, Paul said, We beg you in Christ-stead. Paul said, I could wish myself accursed
for my own people Israel that they would come to know the Savior, the Messiah. We plead with

sinners. We take the gospel to the ends of the earth, and we leave the secret things to the Lord, but
we follow the responsibility to call sinners to faith, knowing that those who come will have had a full
atonement provided for them. And were here to talk to you about that in our prayer room.
Father, thanks for a great day and the glory of our faith and our salvation coming more and more
clear to us in those things weve learned today. And we bless Your name and thank You. Amen.

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