Complete Atonement, Briefly

The main reason I’ve seen for people not understanding Complete Atonement comes from a misunderstanding of sacrifice and propitiation. It goes something like this:

Calvinist: Jesus can’t have atoned for everyone’s sins, because then all people would be saved, and that is universalism.

Remonstrant: No, only the people who freely choose to accept Jesus’ sacrifice on their behalf are saved. He dies for everyone, but only those who have faith in him are saved.

The key phrase from the Remonstrant is this: “[those who] accept Jesus’ sacrifice”. Let’s take a brief detour into the Old Testament to see why.

At the temple, the obedient Jew could bring a prescribed animal to the temple. This animal would be offered as a sacrifice by the priest on behalf of the repentant Jew. The sacrifice was offered to God, by a priest, on behalf of a sinner.

For this sacrifice to be effective in covering the sin of the Jew, God had to accept the sacrifice. If God accepted the sacrifice, there was peace between Him and the person on whose behalf the sacrifice was offered.

One more time: the priest offers the sacrifice to God, God accepts the sacrifice, and because God has accepted the sacrifice, the person is forgiven. Now let’s see what this has to do with the cross.

At the cross, Jesus was the sacrifice. John and Hebrews show that Jesus is the Great High Priest. Jesus sacrificed himself (the offering), then took his place before God as the High Priest and mediator. Now, see this in light of the Old Testament:

If God has accepted the sacrifice that Jesus the High Priest offers him, then there is peace between God and whoever the sacrifice was offered for. We know that God accepted Jesus’ sacrifice, therefore all who Jesus offered his sacrifice for have peace with God.

Jesus bears the sin for [x] people on the cross > that offering is brought before God by Jesus himself > God accepts the sacrifice, there is no condemnation for [x] people.

The Remonstrant cannot be consistent here. [x] cannot be everyone.

Objection #1

‘Yeah but that means a person is saved regardless of whether they have faith and believe in God’.

Response

This assumes that a person for whom Christ died can die as an unbeliever before the Holy Spirit makes them alive spiritually. This is not the case. One of the Holy Spirit’s specific ministries is to do what is shown by the prophet Ezekiel and bring spiritually dead people to life, granting them a God-loving heart that eagerly, faithfully and freely loves and obeys God.

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Can you see a flaw in the logic or in the biblical case, or do you have a further question? Let me know in a comment. 🙂