From RBS Tabletalk, the blog of Reformed Baptist Seminary.
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Having considered the significance of “particular redemption” (Part 1) and its implications for our view of Christ and his redemptive work (Part 2), we’ll now reflect on its implications for evangelism and missions. Some people might consider it a strange thing to say that the doctrine of particular redemption is a great encouragement to evangelism. In fact, one of the reasons some often oppose the doctrine is because they think particular redemption is the mortal enemy of evangelistic and missionary endeavor. But I want to demonstrate that this is not true and that, in fact, particular redemption rightly understood is a great encouragement to evangelism in at least 3 ways.
1. The doctrine of particular redemption gives us confidence in the ultimate success of evangelism and missions.
This doctrine tells me that the shedding of Christ’s blood did not merely make men savable, but that it actually secured the salvation of those for whom it was shed. It tells me that there is a people, known only to God and chosen by Him from eternity, for whom Jesus Christ did actually stand in their place as their substitute. There is a people out there for whose sins Christ has paid, and who by the very justice of God must in due time be delivered from the guilt and bondage of sin. The redemption which has been planned by the Father and accomplished by the Son must in due time be applied by the Spirit. And the same Bible tells me that the means through which the Spirit brings those people to the enjoyment of that redemption are the prayers and evangelistic endeavors of God’s people.
So how should this affect me in my evangelism? Well it gives us confidence. It gives us boldness. It gives us perseverance, and patience in the face of hardship and resistance. We are encouraged to evangelize by the fact that we are not on a fool’s errand. We are not engaged in an uncertain task with no real assurance of ultimate success. God’s people are encouraged to believe that our evangelistic endeavors will ultimately be successful because they are founded upon an atonement that was successful.
This is the same element of certainty and confidence that encouraged the heart of the Lord Jesus Himself during His earthly ministry, even in the face of persecution and rejection. He could say in John 10:15ff, “I lay down my life for the sheep and other sheep I have which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice: and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.” It was the certainty of the ultimate success of His death in the saving of His sheep that sustained our Lord in the face of rejection and in His sufferings.
So it should do for God’s people. Nothing is more discouraging and demotivating than the sneaking suspicion that all of our efforts are a waste of time, and will come to nothing. But nothing is more productive of confidence and perseverance than the certainty that as we do what God has put into our hands to do, ultimately, the gates of hell shall not prevail against us. The vision of the Apostle John in the book of the Revelation reveals that the purchase of Christ’s blood includes a great multitude that no man could number out of every nation, kindred, people, and tongue. That ought to motivate us as the church of Jesus Christ to engage in extensive local and, indeed, worldwide evangelism with the certainty of the ultimate blessing of God upon our efforts. But not only is this doctrine a great encouragement to evangelism because it gives confidence in the success of evangelism.
2. The doctrine of particular redemption gives us confidence in the sufficiency of the gospel of evangelism and missions.
What do I mean? The doctrine of particular redemption enables me to feel that I have a complete gospel to proclaim and an all-powerful, all-sufficient Savior to set before sinners. Spurgeon put it this way,
Now, beloved, when you hear any one laughing or jeering at a limited atonement, you may tell him this: general atonement is like a great wide bridge with only half an arch; it does not go across the stream: it only professes to go half way it does not secure the salvation of anybody. Now, I had rather put my foot upon a bridge as narrow as Hungerford, which went all the way across, than on a bridge that was as wide as the world, if it did not go all the way across the stream.1
Do you understand the illustration? General atonement is like a bridge that is very wide, but it only goes half way across the river. In other words, it leaves men short of being redeemed, and requires the sinner to add something of his own to it to make it effectual and to get him across. Particular atonement, while recognizing the necessity of the sinner’s repentance and faith, proclaims an atonement which has purchased those very graces, and produces those blessed effects in the sinner’s heart. I can tell a sinner who feels the awful hardness of his heart and the absence of those things which God demands of Him to look away from himself to a Christ who has purchased every grace by His blood, and is able to give him all that he needs. In other words, I can say with that old hymn that we often sing. “Come ye needy, come and welcome/God’s free bounty glorify,/True belief and true repentance/Every grace that brings you nigh/without money, Come to Jesus Christ and buy.”
3. The doctrine of particular redemption gives us confidence in the necessity of evangelism and missions.
What do I mean? How is that? Well the doctrine of a general atonement as held by some, if reasoned out to its logical conclusions, makes foreign missions unnecessary. Think with me. If I argue that Christ paid for the sins of all men, as those who hold to a general atonement argue, and if I also argue that Christ’s death was a substitutionary atonement, as many who hold to a general atonement also argue though inconsistently, and if I, therefore, argue that Christ has redeemed all men from the curse of the law, then no man can ever come under that curse. “Ah yes” says the advocate of general atonement, “but men still have to believe for salvation to be theirs.” Then they go on to argue that the only sin for which any man will ever be condemned is the sin of denying Christ. The sin of unbelief (so the argument goes) becomes the only sin that condemns, for they say all other sins have been paid for.
Now if this is so, if carried out to its logical conclusion, then if no one ever hears of Christ, he never denies him, right! Moreover he can never be justly condemned, for God certainly would not hold someone responsible for not believing something he had never heard. Therefore the ultimate logical extension of such a notion is that many (if not most or all) who never have the opportunity to hear the gospel will be saved. Christ paid for their sins. The only sin for which men can be condemned is rejecting Christ. But those who never hear the gospel are not guilty of rejecting Christ. Therefore, many (if not most or all) who never hear will be saved.
Now again, this is no proverbial straw man that I’m building. There is the tendency of a belief in a general atonement to lead to various forms of universalism. One Baptist who held to general atonement has written that,
Many who never had the means to know the Mediator particularly and definitely, must yet have salvation by Him…All that know the Lord to be such a God as does exercise loving kindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth, do know this Mediator virtually, and believing on the Lord as such, do know him savingly.2
One contemporary theologian, Donald Lake, in the book Grace Unlimited, argues on the basis of a general atonement that
A valid offer of grace has been made to mankind, but its application is limited by man’s response rather than God’s arbitrary selection. God knows who would, under ideal circumstances, believe the gospel, and on the basis of his foreknowledge, applies that gospel even if the person never hears the gospel during his lifetime.”3
Now, brethren, if that’s true, then what’s the point of missions? If hearing the gospel is not essential to the salvation of men then foreign missions is a waste of time. Just leave men alone in their ignorance and many (if not most or all) of them will be saved anyhow.
Now I ask which doctrine gives confidence in the absolute necessity of evangelism and missions. Is it the doctrine of a general atonement or the doctrine of particular atonement?
So the practical implication of the doctrine of particular redemption with respect to evangelism and missions is that, rightly understood, it is a great encouragement to evangelism. It gives confidence in the ultimate success of evangelism. It gives confidence in the sufficiency of the gospel of evangelism, and it gives confidence in the necessity of evangelism. In our next installment (Part 4), we’ll look at the ramifications particular redemption has for the gospel message and the nature of saving faith.
Jeffery Smith
Pastor of Emmanuel Baptist Church, Coconut Creek, FL
Professor of Reformed Baptist Seminary, Easley, SC
1. Charles Spurgeon. I’m uncertain where I first heard or read and recorded this quote. [↩]
2. Thomas Grantham, St. Paul’s Catechism, as quoted in Thomas J. Nettles, By His Grace and for His Glory: A Historical, Theological, and Practical Study of the Doctrines of Grace in Baptist Life (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House,1986), 403 [↩]
3. Clark Pinnock, ed., Grace Unlimited (Minneapolis: Bethany Fellowship, Inc., 1975), 43, as quoted by Nettles, By His Grace and for His Glory, 404.
