Introduction

Sovereign grace given to totally depraved sinners is called limited atonement when that grace is viewed from the perspective of the work of Christ on earth (cf. the different sides of the grace cube visualization). As we have said, calling the sacrifice of Christ on the cross limited atonement conveys the truth boldly and forcefully that Christ did not die on the cross for every single person from Adam and Eve to the end of time. If He did die for every single person without exception then every single person would be saved including Pharaoh and Judas.

Now understandably some people find the idea of limited atonement counter-intuitive and un-biblical. It seems to them to be as simple as citing John 3:16-17, For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. ¹⁷ For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. But things are not that easy. We must balance what we have in John 3:16 with other teachings of our Lord like John 17:9, I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. Here Jesus told us plainly that in going to the cross as intercessor by priestly sacrifice He did not pray for the world (Jn. 17:9). Whatever else we do with this passage; one thing we must do is figure out what Jesus is getting at when He says that He does not pray for the world. It may be difficult to interface loving the world with not praying for the world but we have to try our best to bring them together. After all, this is God’s word and all of it is true without contradiction.

So as we take up the doctrine of limited atonement it is important to introduce the subject for today by citing a general principle and applying it to the study of this doctrine.

The General Principle. The general principle is this: we must seek to understand any passage or subject of the Bible in context. That is, a subject must be understood both in the context of its surrounding verses (the paragraph, chapter, book, Testament, and entire Bible) and in its doctrinal context (that’s at the level of the Bible in its entirety). No verse stands by itself; each part must be carefully related to the whole.

This means that we must read Scripture with a framework consciously in mind. It needs to be a compact and trustworthy framework; it needs to be seasoned and tested itself. A framework gives a handle to aid us in grasping the big picture. In reformed theology, this emphasis on an intelligent grasp of the whole range of a topic gave rise to the confessions and catechisms. In their best use these confessional tools help us lay hold of what Paul calls the outline of sound words so we can guard the gospel treasure (2 Tim. 1:13-14). These tools do not take the place of Scripture but they are helpful teaching guides.

It naturally takes work to read Scripture in a holistic way. We have to stretch ourselves in the knowledge of Christ. It may be slow but it is sure. It should include an approach to learning in the church that keeps us in touch with the historic confessions as a reflection of the Holy Spirit’s work in the church over the centuries.

Reading Scripture this way gives a promise of a pound of silver but the result is a ton of gold. In this way we will not lose sight of the forest in seeing the trees. We simply need to alternate our perspective between the forest and the individual trees. We understand the parts best within the larger framework and we appreciate the whole by pondering the particulars.

Application to the topic of limited atonement. Limited atonement is a challenging topic and unmistakably controversial. Many misunderstandings immediately flood the mind even from the terminology; it sounds like we want to place limits on the work of Christ (limited atonement). Of course, we need careful definition of terms here as everywhere else. In this connection we made the point last week that limited atonement stresses the unlimited power of the cross. That means that everyone for whom Christ died will be saved: in the words of the Cowper hymn, "all the ransomed… will be saved." Limited atonement is good news to needy sinners because the saving of sinners is in God’s hands, which is the best possible place for it to be.

But this is easily and often misunderstood leading us into a maze of arguments and many misrepresentations. The way out of this maze is to gain perspective like seeing a literal maze from the top view. Needed here then is the doctrinal context of limited atonement so it can be seen in its proper and true light. Then we can maneuver our way out of the confusion.

What then is the doctrinal context of limited atonement? It is the covenant of grace (cf. The Atonement, Hugh Martin, 30-33). This fact has been under emphasized: limited atonement must been viewed within a covenantal perspective if it is going to be viewed correctly (this is the case even for those who oppose it; they must see it this way and evaluate it in this light if they are going to be fair and accurate). The WSC states the linkage of atonement and covenant in precise terms; if you read it carefully you cannot help but hear the good news of a limited, powerful, and saving atonement for sinners "in the estate of sin and misery."

WSC 20 Did God leave all mankind to perish in the estate of sin and misery? A. God having, out of his mere good pleasure, from all eternity, elected some to everlasting life, did enter into a covenant of grace, to deliver them out of the estate of sin and misery, and to bring them into an estate of salvation by a Redeemer.

WSC 21 Who is the Redeemer of God's elect? A. The only Redeemer of God's elect is the Lord Jesus Christ, who, being the eternal Son of God, became man, and so was, and continueth to be, God and man in two distinct natures, and one person, for ever.

God has an elect people and for them He entered into a covenant of grace "to deliver them out" of sin and "bring them into" salvation by a redeemer. And marvelously, the redeemer is both God and man in two distinct natures and one person forever. Therefore, there is saving power in the wonder working blood of the Lamb.

So today let’s consider some of the biblical basis for the covenant context of the atonement and how this context necessitates a limited, powerful, and saving work of Christ in His death on the cross.

1A. Covenant and atonement are linked in the work of the Shepherd

We know that the Lord Jesus is the good, great, and chief shepherd of the church (Jn. 10:11a; 1 Pet. 2:25; 5:4) who "lays down his life for the sheep" (Jn. 10:11b). Interestingly, it is in the book of Hebrews where we get some unpacking of what this means for the shepherd to lay down his life for his sheep. Look with me at Hebrews 13:20-21:

Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, ²¹ equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

One of the first things we notice here is that this is a benedictory prayer that has theological content compressed within it. The prayer is that God will "equip you with everything good that you may do his will" and that he may do this by "working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, though Jesus Christ." In what does the writer ground his prayer? He grounds it in the blood of the great shepherd. But that fact does not stand alone. The ground is not the death of Christ as an isolated fact for if we just had the fact of His death we would have no hope. Why can I say that? I can say that because the writer identifies the crucified shepherd as the risen Lord: God brought Him "from the dead." The ground of this prayer for every good to come to us is the death of the risen Lord Jesus. But that does not complete the picture. The writer connects the work of the risen Christ with the eternal covenant for it is "by the blood of the eternal covenant" that God is working in us and equipping us with everything good.

Intuitively, even in prayer, the biblical writer puts the death and resurrection of Christ into the context of the eternal covenant. Our hope for everything good by His working in us through Jesus Christ is grounded in the agreement made between the members of the triune God before the foundation of the world, that is, in eternity past for this covenant transcends time; it is the eternal covenant. This is what the catechism means by the covenant of grace.

2A. Covenant and atonement are linked in the work of the High Priest

1B. The High Priest does not intercede for the world

Let’s begin here with what our Lord tells us He did not intend to do by His death. He says, "I do not pray for the world." What this means is defined by the context. The context indicates that "pray for" is equivalent to "die for."

1) This whole chapter records the great high priestly prayer.

This can be called "The Lord’s Prayer" and the model of prayer that we are to follow that we call the Lord’s Prayer is better called "The Disciples’ Prayer." Thus we are told that Jesus "lifted his eyes to heaven, and said" (17:1a). If you have a red letter edition of the NT, then the rest of chapter 17 is written with red ink.

2) The whole prayer is a sacrificial offering.

This is the powerful point made in 17:1b, Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you. What is the hour that has come and what is meant by glorifying the Son? This is the hour or time of the cross that Jesus spoke about repeatedly. Here are some key verses in the Gospel of John:

And Jesus said to her, "Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come." (2:4)

So they were seeking to arrest him, but no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come (7:30).

These words he spoke in the treasury, as he taught in the temple; but no one arrested him, because his hour had not yet come (8:20).

And Jesus answered them, "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified" (12:23).

"Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? 'Father, save me from this hour'? But for this purpose I have come to this hour (12:27).

Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end (13:1).

Behold, the hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me (16:32).

Clearly, when Jesus prays for glorification He focuses it in the hour of His departure. His glorification will come through the deepest humiliation of death on the cross. It is the awesome hour from which He recoiled with every fiber of His being as God with us incarnate in flesh and blood. Thus, the second question per the ESV translation of John 12:27 is actually an exclamation in which Jesus says, "Father save me from this hour!" This exclamation is followed by an expression of committed submission: "But for this purpose I have come to this hour."

Unmistakably then, His prayer is the presentation of Himself as a priestly sacrifice. He is offerer and much more: He is the very offering presented for death on the cross. He is going to the cross as intercessor by sacrifice. Therefore, when He says, "I pray for" He is saying "I give myself in death for." To pray for means to die for. All through this prayer Jesus reveals what His death will accomplish as the culmination of His completed work on earth (v. 4). But in 17:9, He clearly tells us that He is not going to the cross as an offering for the world.

2B. The High Priest intercedes for His given ones

Christ was given a work to do by the covenant of grace (Jn. 17:4). He performed that work during His entire time on earth. It was given to Him before the world was created; it was part of the glorious and loving relationship between the Father and the Son (Jn. 17:24b w/ 1 Pet. 1:20). Thus everything Christ did including His priestly sacrifice on the cross was in accord with an agreement between the members of the trinity before time.

Accordingly, Jesus asked the Father to bring the session of humiliation and suffering to its most bitter end for a specific purpose and for a particular people: "Give me the cup to drink of judgment and damnation to fulfill the purpose you gave me." That purpose centered on the given ones: "to give eternal life to all whom you have given him" (17:2). He petitioned the cross and presented Himself a sacrifice for death in order to give eternal life to the Father’s elect (Jn. 17:2, 6, thine they were and you gave them to me; they include more than the apostles but all who will be saved, vs. 20, 24).

So, the other half of verse 9 tells us who Jesus did die for as a priestly offering: "those whom you have given me" ( again "they are yours" identifies them as the Father’s elect).

3B. The High Priest tastes death for His covenant children

In the Gospel of John, it is stated that we "become children of God" when we receive Christ by faith (Jn. 1:12). That happens in history in the unfolding of our lives; we must undergo a transition from wrath to grace. It is at this time that we become brothers and sisters in union with Christ as our elder brother. But this aspect of the subject is only part of the story.

The writer of Hebrews traces our union with Christ as His children back to a time before Christ came into the world (2:14). Indeed, the incarnation of Christ (His becoming a man at a point in time) flows from a union that existed with His brothers and His children. Christ’s priestly work is rooted in His standing before God in the divine appointment by which His destiny and the destiny of the people of God are forever united. In the language of foreknowledge (cf. 1 Pet. 1:20; Rom. 8:29), He is foreknown and we are foreknown in union with Him; that is, He is loved supremely by the Father and therefore we are supremely loved in union with Him! His death was necessitated by the fact that He had covenant children before He came into the world; His union with them is what brought Him into the world and onto the cross. He became a "Man for men…for the express purpose of undergoing death" (Hebrews, Hughes, 106).

Because He is one with His people He became incarnate for them to taste death on their behalf and in their place. As high priest he made propitiation for the sins of the people, who are defined as His brethren and children "given" to Him (Heb. 2:13) in the eternal covenant (Heb. 13:20) and thus before the foundation of the world (Eph. 1:4).

Concluding Remarks

1) Thus the covenant idea is not a roundabout product of Reformation thinking. Rather it is a Scriptural theme. The terms of this issue are furnished by Scripture itself (Martin, 33).

2) The covenant idea in relation to the atonement is not merely a deduction from Scripture. Limited atonement is not just drawing logical conclusions from total depravity or election and thus merely the dictate of a system that is not dictated by Scripture as some allege (cf. Lightner, The Death Christ Died, 122). To the contrary, it is Scriptural from beginning to end!

3) The covenant idea is basic to the doctrine. We cannot discuss this doctrine properly without careful reference to the covenant of grace. To dislocate is to derange. If we separate covenant and atonement that we turn aside from the rivers and streams that "make glad the city of God."

4) However clear this may be, it does not explain John 3:16. For that we have to go to John 3 and deal with it with the covenantal perspective in the back of our minds. As best we can we must try to do justice to the flow of thought in John 3:16 while we work at it within a covenant framework. That will be part of our task the next time we discuss limited atonement.

5) Thus again we must say that limited atonement, that is, the unlimited/personal/saving atonement is good news. The cross is a unique combination of love and power; it is the means by which Christ accomplished the redemption of those given to Him by the Father.

But that is only part of the picture as it is only part of His high priestly work because from His work flows the promise of every good thing to His covenant children for time and for eternity (Heb. 13:20-21).

Thus we are directed to think about what it is that Jesus petitioned, purposed, and thus accomplished in His mediation by death. According to John 17, He petitioned the protection of His own of all ages (the disciples and all the given ones down through the ages, vs. 6, 20), protection from destruction (v. 11, keep them), and protection from the evil one (v. 15). He petitioned their sanctification (v. 17) and set Himself apart for sacrifice to that end (v. 19). His sacrifice secured their final arrival in glory (v. 24).

So it is good to call this doctrine limited atonement (limited in design to and for the given ones). But that terminology has its limits and does not convey enough. This doctrine of atoning grace is much richer than that because it means that His death in our place was planned before the foundation of world, His death accomplished our salvation securing and guaranteeing everything that is needed to bring us out of darkness and death and into light and life. His death secured and guaranteed our sanctification in time over the course of our journey on earth and our sure entrance into heaven’s glory when our pilgrim journey is finally completed.