CHAPTER XI – Last General Argument
CHAPTER XI – Last General Argument The last general argument.
ARGUMENT XVI. Sixth: Scriptures that preclude Universal Redemption.
Our next argument is taken from some particular passages of Scripture that clearly and distinctly hold out the truth we affirm. Out of the great number of them, I will take a few with which to close our arguments.
1. Genesis 3:15 – There are two Seeds.
First, the seed of the woman.
I will begin with the first mention of Jesus Christ, and the first revelation of the mind of God concerning a discrimination between the people of Christ and his enemies: Gen. 3:15, "I will put enmity between you" (the serpent)
"and the woman, and between your seed and her seed." The seed of the woman means the whole body of the elect. Christ is their head, and all the rest are his members. The seed of the serpent (the devil) with the whole multitude of reprobates, make up the malignant state, in opposition to the kingdom and body of Jesus Christ.
It is most apparent that the seed of the woman means Christ with all the elect, for all the things foretold of the seed of the woman concur in them
(the properties of a thing prove the thing itself). In the elect, who are believers in and through Christ, are found all the properties of the seed of the woman. The head of the serpent is broken in them and by them. Satan is trodden down under their feet. The devil is disappointed in his temptations, and the devil's agents are frustrated in their undertakings. Principally and especially this is spoken of Christ himself, of his whole body collectively, which bears a continual hatred toward the serpent and his seed.
Secondly, the seed of the serpent.
The seed of the serpent means all the reprobate men of the world, impenitent unbelievers. For, First, the enmity of the serpent lives and exercises itself in them. They hate and oppose the seed of the woman; they have a perpetual enmity
toward it; and everything that is said of the seed of the serpent properly belongs to them.
Secondly, they are often called his seed in the Scripture: Matt. 3:7, "O generation of vipers," or seed of the serpent; also Matt. 23:33. Christ tells the reprobate Pharisees, "You are of your father the devil, and you will do the lusts of your father," John 8:44. So again, "Child of the devil," Acts
13:10, that is, the seed of the serpent; for "the one who commits sin is of the devil," 1Jn. 3:8.
These things being undeniable, we proceed thus: Christ died for no more than God promised he should die for. God did not promise that he should die for all; for he did not promise the seed of the woman to the seed of the serpent. He did not promise Christ to reprobates. Instead, in the first mention of him in Gen. 3:15, God promises enmity against the seed of the serpent. In sum, the seed of the woman did not die for the seed of the serpent.
2. Matt. 7:23 – There are those who are known and unknown by Christ.
"I will say to them, I never knew you." At the last day, Christ says to some that he never knew them. Christ says directly that he knows his own, those for whom he lays down his life, John 10:14-17. And surely he knows whom and what he has bought. Is it not strange that Christ would die for and buy those whom he will not own, saying he never knew them? If they are
"bought with a price," surely they are his own, 1Cor. 6:20. If Christ did buy them, and laid out the price of his precious blood for them, but then at the last day deny that he ever knew them, might they not well reply, "Ah, Lord!
Was not your soul heavy unto death for our sakes? Did you not undergo for us that wrath which made you sweat drops of blood? Did you not bathe yourself in your own blood, that our blood might be spared? Did you not sanctify yourself to be an offering for us as well as for any of your apostles?
Was not your precious blood by stripes, by sweat, by nails, by thorns, by spear, poured out for us? Did you not remember us when you hung upon the cross? And now you say you never knew us? Good Lord, though we be unworthy sinners, yet your own blood does not deserve to be despised. Why is it that none can lay anything to the charge of God's elect? Is it not because you died for them? And did you not do the same for us? Why, then,
are we thus charged, and thus rejected? Could your blood not satisfy your Father, so that we ourselves must be punished? Could justice not content itself with that sacrifice, yet we must now hear, "Depart, I never knew you?" I do not know what can be replied to this plea if the general ransom is granted.
3. Matt. 11:25, 26 – There are those who know, and do not know.
"I thank you, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and prudent, and have revealed them to babes.
Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in your sight." God in his sovereignty, as Lord of heaven and earth, of his own good pleasure, hides the gospel from some, either with regard to its outward preaching, or with regard to the inward revelation of its power in their hearts. Christ certainly did not die for them. To what end would the Father send his only Son to die for the redemption of those whom, for his own good pleasure, he had determined would be everlasting strangers to it, and never so much as hear of it in the power of that gospel revealed to them? Our Savior affirms here that there are such people; and he thanks his Father for that dispensation of which so many complain today.
4. John 10:11-29 – There are the sheep and the goats.
This clear passage, 186 which is sufficient of itself to gut the general ransom, has been considered before, and therefore I will only review it briefly.
First, all men are not the sheep of Christ, First, He says so himself, verse 26, "You are not my sheep."
Secondly, the distinction will be made evident at the last day when the sheep and the goats will be separated.
Thirdly, the properties of the sheep are not found in all: that they hear the voice of Christ, that they know him, and the like.
Secondly, the sheep that are his elect are called by God This refers as much to those who were to be called as to those who were then already called (verse 16). Some were not yet of his fold of called ones.
They are sheep by election, and not by believing.
Thirdly, Christ says that he laid down his life for his sheep, Plainly he excludes all others; for, First, he lays down his life for them as sheep. What belongs to them as sheep belongs only to sheep. If he lays down his life for sheep, as sheep, certainly he does not lay it down for goats, wolves, and dogs.
Secondly, he lays down his life as a shepherd, verse 11. Therefore, he lays it down for them as sheep. What has the shepherd to do with wolves, unless it is to destroy them?
Thirdly, dividing all men into sheep and others, verse 26, he says he lays down his life for his sheep; which is the same as saying he did it for them only.
Fourthly, He describes those for whom he died by this: "My Father gave them to me," verse 29; also Jn. 17:6, "They were yours, and you gave them to me." This is not all men, for "all that the Father gives him shall come to him," Jn. 6:37, and he "gives them eternal life, and they shall never perish," Jn. 10:28.
Let the sheep of Christ hold this evidence close, and all the world shall never deprive them of their inheritance. To further confirm this passage, add
Matt. 20:28; 188 John 11:52.
5. Rom. 8:31-34 – Christ's love, sacrifice, and intercession is for the Elect.
190 is to offer consolation to believers in affliction or under distress. He does this generally in verse 31, by giving the assurance of the presence of God with them, and his assistance at all times. These are enough to conquer all opposition, and to make all difficulty indeed contemptible, by the assurance of his loving kindness which is better than life itself. "If God is for us, who can be against us?" To manifest this presence and kindness, the apostle reminds them of that most excellent, transcendent, and singular act of love towards them, in sending his Son to die for them. He did not spare him, but required their debt be paid from his hand. He then argues from the greater to the The intention of the apostle in this passage
lesser: that if he has done that for us, surely he will do everything else that will be required. If he did the greater, will he not do the lesser? If he gives his Son to death, will he not also freely give us all things? From which we may observe, First, if Christ died for all out of love, then God loves those who perish.
The greatest and most excellent expression of the love of God towards believers is in sending his Son to die for them, not sparing him for their sake. This is made the chief of all expressions. Now, if God sent his Son to die for all, then he has shown as great an act of love, and as great a manifestation of it, to those who perish as to those who are saved.
Secondly, God freely gives all good things to those he loves, including faith.
God will freely give all things to whomever he has given and not spared his Son. But he does not give all things that are good to everyone, such as faith, grace, and glory. From this, we conclude that Christ did not die for all. Again, verse 33, he gives us a description of those who have a share in the consolation intended: for whom God gave his Son, to whom he freely gives all things. That is, they are his "elect." It does not refer to all, but only to those whom he has chosen before the foundation of the world, that they should be holy. This gives another confirmation of the restraint of the death of Christ to them alone. He further confirms this in verse 34, by declaring that those of whom he speaks will be freely justified and freed from condemnation. And so,
Thirdly, those he died for are freely justfied.
He gives two reasons for this: First, because Christ died for them.
Secondly, because he is risen, and makes intercession for those for whom he died.
This affords us two invincible arguments for the business in hand.
The first is taken from the infallible effects of the death of Christ: Who will lay anything to their charge? Who will condemn them? Why are they , what reason is given? "It is Christ that died." His death infallibly frees all those for whom he died from condemnation.
The second is taken from the connection that the apostle makes here between the death of Jesus Christ, and his intercession: he makes
intercession for those for whom he died; but it is also true that he completely saves those for whom he intercedes, Heb. 7:25.
From all of this, it is undeniably apparent that the death of Christ, along with its fruits and benefits, belongs only to the elect of God.
6. Eph. 1:7 – Christ's blood brings forgiveness only to Abraham's seed.
"In whom we have redemption." If his blood was shed for all, then all must have a share in those things that are to be had in his blood. Now, among these things is the redemption which consists in the forgiveness of sins.
This certainly all do not have, for those who have it are "blessed," Rom.
4:7, and they will be blessed forevermore. This blessing does not come to all, but only to the seed of righteous Abraham, Rom. 4:16.
7. 2Cor. 5:21 – Those for whom he died are considered righteous.
"He has made him sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." It was in his death that Christ was made sin, or made an offering for it. Now, for whomever he was made sin, they are made the righteousness of God in him: "By his stripes we are healed," Isa 53:5. John
15:13, "Greater love has no man than this: that he lays down his life for his friends." So then, interceding is not a greater love than dying, nor is anything else that he does for his elect. If he laid down his life for all, which is the greater love, then why does he not also save the rest of them completely?
8. John 17:9, 19 – Christ prayed for and sanctified himself for the Elect.
"I pray for them: I do not pray for the world, but for those whom you have given me; for they are yours." And verse 19, "For their sakes I sanctify myself."
9. Eph. 5:25 – The object of Christ's love is his bride alone, not another.
"Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;" also Acts 20:28.
191 The object of Christ's love and his death is asserted to be his bride, his church. The church is as properly the object of Christ's affection as a man's own wife is the only permissible object of his conjugal affections. If Christ had such a love for others as to die for them, then there is latitude for men to have conjugal affections for women other than their wives.
I thought to add other arguments, intending a clear discussion of the whole controversy. But upon reviewing what has been said, I confidently conclude that those arguments which have already been urged will be enough to satisfy those who will be satisfied with anything. And those who are obstinate will not be satisfied with more. So here will be an end of our arguments.
BOOK IV