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Would God be Just if He Saved No One?
God would be just if he saved no one. Do you believe this? of course you do if you are a Christian. So why then do you believe it unjust if God sovereignly determines to have mercy on some and not others? It is a contradiction for you to hold to one and not the other. Doesn't he have the right to do with his coin as he so chooses as the parable says? (Matt 20:15; Matt 11:25-27; Rom 9:15, 16)
Christ did not die for all redemptively. The redemptive benefits of his atonement were intended for the elect only. In John 10 he says he lays down his life for the sheep (John 10:15) ... to the others he says, "but you do not believe because you are not among my sheep."(John 10:26) Only the sheep hear his voice (v27)
To those who reject Christ's particular love for his own we must ask, "so you believe salvation is NOT by Christ alone but partly due to your own natural ability? Can you give thanks to God even for your faith? if not, you are advocating a salvation that is not by Christ ALONE. Do you ascribe your repenting and believing to your own wisdom, humility, sound judgment or good sense? and not to Christ? Where do you think the ability came from to believe? We are commanded to give thanks to Christ for everything we need for salvation, not just some things.
As Tristan Crotinger said, Holy Scripture must always supersede "feelings" and all scriptures together must make sense in a coherent manner. I find John 6, 8 and 10 and Romans 8 & 9 to fit into NO Arminian framework and those who have tried to explain it away had to stray from scripture to do it. This in no sense lessens the responsibility of the hearer of the Gospel to respond in faith and in no sense does it ever take anything from any of the attributes of God (all-loving, all-just, & all-good). It should always be understood that no person that goes to heaven hates Jesus and no person that loves Jesus will be in hell.
At some level all Christians are forced to wrestle with the inspired writings of Paul on the doctrines of grace and through my search of these scriptures I have discovered God to be infinitely more loving, glorious and worthy of praise than I ever could have imagined. Accepting this doctrine has personally increased my ability to trust in God for everything.
I should say that studying grace is not for the faint of heart and many Christians are perfectly content to never deal with these verses in depth. As a teacher of the Word I could not do that.




Comments
You ask: "So why then do you believe it unjust if God sovereignly determines to have mercy on some and not others?"
I suppose that belief originates from the fallen human unenlightened nature inherited from Adam. I believe it does and I believe not until we are made alive with Christ will we come to know the Truth of that question.
Posted by: michael | January 12, 2013 11:34 AM
I have come to the conclusion that man clinging to his own ability to redeem himself is the same thing as clinging to "free will," in that the "free will" of man takes man back to the garden, and the siren song of the serpent saying, "God didn't really say that, He just doesn't want you to be like Him." So the free will believer is saying that in the end he can stand before God and justify himself. That is natural man. It is almost Sisyphussian. God has no obligation to save anyone. Grace would not be grace if God was obligated
Posted by: DENNIS MULLEN | January 24, 2013 10:07 AM