My take on limited atonement

[tonychanyt]

The term limited atonement is not in the Scripture. I neither believe nor disbelieve it. I approach it indifferently. I prefer to adhere to Scripture's wording when it comes to doctrines. I would not bother using the term in the formal doctrinal sense. I would put little weight on it when others use it in an argument. People who like to generalize tend to overgeneralize in a doctrine.

More specifically, I know:

John 10:

11 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

15 I lay down my life for the sheep."

1 John 2:

2 He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.

I don't use the term in my argumentation. I am not encouraging or stopping anyone from believing in limited atonement. It is not my place to do so.

 

[hedrick]

A better term is "definite atonement," i.e. that Christ's atonement was intended for a specific set of people. I think everyone agrees that Christ's death was sufficient for everyone. Everyone also agrees that not everyone accepts Christ's atonement. The disagreement is whether God's plan includes the identities of those who will and won't. Definite atonement is part of the Calvinist belief that God plans everything that happens, and thus the atonement was intended to save those specific people who were planned to come to faith.

Calvinsts describe the issue this way: God saves people, people who are unworthy, and incapable even of responding to offers of salvation. The atonement saves these people,, it doesn't just set up a general possibility of salvation, which individuals have to take advantage of, because we're sufficiently broken that giving us the possibility of saving ourselves isn't good enough.

"His sheep" is understood as those he has chosen to save. Here's Calvin's comment on 1 John 2:2:

"They who seek to avoid this absurdity, have said that Christ1 suffered sufficiently for the whole world, but efficiently only for the elect. This solution has commonly prevailed in the schools. Though then I allow that what has been said is true, yet I deny that it is suitable to this passage; for the design of John was no other than to make this benefit common to the whole Church. Then under the word all or whole, he does not include the reprobate, but designates those who should believe as well as those who were then scattered through various parts of the world. For then is really made evident, as it is meet, the grace of Christ, when it is declared to be the only true salvation of the world."

You'll have to decide whether this approach is consistent with Scripture and what we know of reality.

 

[Brightfame52]

The term limited atonement is not in the Scripture.

Yes but nevertheless,

The Scriptures habitually represent the definite design of the death of Christ to be the saving of many, the redemption of His sheep, His Church, His people, His children, the elect. “Thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins” (Mat 1:21). “The good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep…I lay down my life for the sheep” (Joh 10:11, 15). “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; That he might sanctify and cleanse it…That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish” (Eph 5:25-27). Christ is said to have died to “gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad” (Joh 11:51-52). “He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” (Rom 8:32-35).

Excerpt from Chapel Library God's Design in Jesus' Death