Evidence for Particular Atonement

          Source for this information is mainly from Salvation Accomplished by
     the Son:  The Work of Christ, by Robert A. Peterson.


          Three pieces of evidence for Particular (or Definite or Limited) Atone-
     ment vs Unlimited (or Universal) Atonement:

                 1. Trinitarian harmony

                 2. Exclusion passages

                 3. Efficacy passages

         
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          First, unlimited atonement is the view that Christ died to make possible
     the salvation of every human being.

          Particular (Limited) atonement is the view that Christ died to save only the elect.
     Although certain benefits of Christ's death come to everyone, and although God
     adopts a posture of love toward a world that hates Him, Christ's atonement was
     designed not merely to make salvation possible, but actually to secure the sal-
     vation of those whom God has chosen.
          It is, therefore, specifically designed to save a definite or particular people.

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          Today, we will concentrate on trinitarian harmony, using Ephesians 1:3-14.
     and John 17.

          The passage divides thematically as follows:
  
                               Ephesians 1:3-6     The Father's election

                               Ephesians 1:7-12   The Son's redemption

                               Ephesians 1:12-14  The Spirit as seal


                                                                 

"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms
with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For He
chose us in Him before the creation of the world,
to be holy and blameless in His sight.
"In love He predestined us to be adopted as His
sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with His
pleasure and will -- to the praise of His glorious
grace, which He has freely given us in the One He
loves.

"In Him we have redemption through His blood, the
forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of
God's grace that He lavished on us with all wisdom
and understanding. And He made known to us the
mystery of His will according to His good pleasure,
which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect
when the times will have reached their fulfillment -
to bring all things in heaven and on earth together
under one head, even Christ.
"In Him we were also chosen, having been predestined
according to the plan of Him who works out every-
thing in conformity with the purpose of His will, in
order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ,
might be for the praise of His glory.

"And you also were included in Christ, when you heard
the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having
believed, you were marked in Him with a seal, the
promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our
inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's
possession -- to the praise of His glory."
                                                     Ephesians 1:3-14
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          FOLLOW THE PRONOUNS

          "We" and "us" refer to believers, God's people.

          1. The Father chose US before the creation of the world, to be holy and
     blameless, and predestined US to be adopted as His sons.

          2. WE have  redemption, the forgiveness of sins through the Son.


          The continuity of pronouns indicates that the people whom God chooses
     for salvation are the same ones Christ redeems through His substitutionary
     atonement.  The Son works in harmony with the Father.

          Even as the Father does not choose every human being for salvation, so
     the Son does not atone for everyone's sins.  He atones for the sins of the
     elect.  (He does not atone for those who will never believe in Him.  They are
     still in their sins, and have not been reconciled with the Father as the elect
     have).

          The Spirit too, as God's seal on believers, works in concert with the
     Father and Son.  The same people the Father predestined (Eph 1:5), the Son
     redeemed (Eph 1:7), and were sealed by the Spirit (Eph 1:13).


          The three divine Persons work in harmony in salvation, but an unlimited
     atonement sets Son against Father and Spirit.  For in such a scenario, the
     Father chooses a particular people, and He sets the seal of the Spirit only on
     believers, but the Son dies to redeem everyone.
    

          Provisional (or unlimited) atonement makes salvation "possible" as op-
     posed to particular atonement which actually accomplishes salvation for His
     people.  Provisional atonement introduces disorder into the doctrine of God.
     The Father and Holy Spirit have different goals than the Son.


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          Ephesians 1:3-14 presents Father, Son, and Spirit working in unison to save
     their people, and this implies a definite or limited atonement.
          The same harmony is present in the Son's prayer to the Father for those
     whom the Father gave Him, that is, those whom the Father chose.  Although
     the Son was LORD over all, He gave eternal life only to those the Father gave
     Him (John 17:2).

           Jesus prayed only for those given to Him by the Father.

                                "I pray for them.  I am not praying for the world,
                                 but for those you have given me, for they are yours.
                                 All I have are yours, and all you have is mine."
                                                                              John 17:9-10a


          Jesus sanctifies only those given to Him by the Father, so that they
     might become saints, sanctified by the Son's priestly consecration at
     Calvary.

                                "For them I sanctify myself, that they too
                                 may be truly sanctified."
                                                                             John 17:19


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          The Son is Mediator and Redeemer for the ones the Father gave him.  To
     them alone the Son reveals the Father and gives eternal life; for them alone He
     prays; He asks the Father to take them alone to heaven.  And for them alone
     the Son consecrates Himself in death in order to sanctify them in salvation.

          This implies a particular atonement, designed to save those whom the
     Father gave to the Son.  An unlimited atonement, by contrast, would disrupt
     the harmony between Father and Son and put them at odds:  the Father
     choosing some and the Son dying to save all.


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          Next time - Exclusions in substitutionary atonement and efficacy of the
     cross passages.