The Extent Of The Atonement

THE EXTENT OF THE ATONEMENT
There are two commonly held views with regard to salvation. There is the Natural View that says man brings about his own salvation and there is the Supernatural View that says God intercedes on man's behalf to bring about his salvation. John Murray offers the following series of questions (1984a).

How is Man Saved?|
Natural View|Supernatural View|
Man saves himself by self effort|Go accomplishes the work of salvation through the death of His Son, Jesus, upon the cross||||
|How does God save Man?||||
|Sacerdotal View||Evangelical View||
|Man is saved through the partaking of the sacraments as the church dispenses salvation||Man is saved through the preaching of the Gospel. The Holy Spirit brings salvation to those who believe.||
|||For Whom Did Christ Die?||
|||For all men equally.|For the elect.|

How is a man saved? The Roman Catholic Church says this salvation is dispensed through the sacraments—the Eucharist, baptism, penance, and confession. By contrast, the Scriptures tell us that the gospel is the power of God unto salvation (Romans 1:16-17). The last question in this chart asks the question of the intended recipients of the atonement. For whom did Christ die? There are two possibilities.

1. He died for all men equally.

If the death of Jesus accomplished the same thing for all men equally, then we are left with two further possibilities:

All men are saved. There are some who have assumed the Scriptures to be speaking only allegorically when speaking of the last judgment or that hell is only temporary and that all men will ultimately be saved. The atonement only made it possible for some men to save themselves; it did not actually save anyone.

2. He died for the elect. This is not to say that the death of Christ was not sufficient to save all men or even that the offer of salvation is not given to all men. What it does mean is that the atonement was effective in actually accomplishing the salvation of some.