(From the NEW PARK STREET PULPIT,
Volume IV. pages 70, 71).
(1834-1892)
Edited THE SWORD AND TROWEL; Author of THE TREASURY OF DAVID; AN EXPOSITION OF MATTHEW; THE SOUL WINNER; MORNING AND EVENING; LECTURES TO MY STUDENTS; numerous other works.
There are in the world many theories of atonement; but I can not
see any atonement in anyone, except in this doctrine of substitution. Many divines
say that Christ did something when He died that enabled God to be just, and yet
the Justifier of the ungodly. What that something is they do not tell us. They
believe in an atonement made for everybody; but then, their atonement is just
this: They believe that Judas was atoned for just as much as Peter; they
believe that the damned in Hell were as much an object of Jesus Christ's
satisfaction as the saved in Heaven; and though they do not say it in proper
words, yet they must mean it, for it is a fair inference, that in the case of
multitudes, Christ died in vain, for He died for them all, they say; and yet so
ineffectual was His dying for them, that though He died for them they are
damned afterward.
Now, such an atonement I despise I reject it. I may be called
Antinomian or Calvinist for preaching a limited atonement; but I would rather
believe a limited atonement that is efficacious for all men for whom it was
intended, than a universal atonement that is not efficacious for anybody,
except the will of man be joined with it.
Why, my brethren, it we were only so far atoned for by the death
of Christ that any of us might afterward save himself, Christ's atonement were
not worth a farthing, for there is no man of us who can save himself no, not
under the gospel; for if I am to be saved by faith, if that faith is to be my
own act, unassisted by the Holy Spirit, I am as unable to save myself by faith
as to save myself by good works. And after all, though men call this a limited
atonement, it is as effectual as their own fallacious and rotten redemptions
can pretend to be.
But do you know the limit of it? Christ hath bought a
"multitude that no man can number." The limit of it is just this: He
hath died for sinners; whoever in this congregation inwardly and sorrowfully
knows himself to be a sinner, Christ died for him; whoever seeks Christ, shall
know Christ died for him; for our sense of need of Christ, and our seeking
after Christ, are infallible proofs that Christ died for us. And mark, here is
something Substantial.
The Arminian says Christ died for him; and then, poor man, he has
but small consolation therefrom, for he says, "Ah! Christ died for me;
that does not prove much. It only proves I may be saved if I mind what I am
after. I may perhaps forget myself; I may run into sin and I may perish. Christ
has done a good deal for me, but not quite enough, unless I do something."
But the man who receives the Bible as it is, he says, "Christ
died for me, then my eternal life is sure. I know," says he, "Christ
can not be punished in a man's stead, and the man be punished afterwards."
"No," says he, "I believe in a just God, and if God
be just, He will not punish Christ first, and then punish men afterwards. No,
my Saviour died, and now I am free from every demand of God's vengeance, and I
can walk through this world secure; no thunderbolt can smite me, and I can die
absolutely certain that for me there is no flame of Hell, and no pit digged;
for Christ, my ransom, suffered in my stead, and, therefore, am I completely
delivered. Oh! glorious doctrine! I would wish to die preaching it! What better
testimony can we bear to the love and faithfulness of God than the testimony of
a substitution eminently satisfactory for all them that believe on
Christ?"
I will here quote the testimony of that pre-eminently profound
divine, John Owen:
"Redemption is the freeing of a man from misery by the
intervention of a ransom. Now, when a ransom is paid for the liberty of a
prisoner, does not justice demand that he should have and enjoy the liberty so
purchased for him by a valuable consideration? If I should pay a thousand
pounds for a man's deliverance from bondage to him that retains him, who hath
power to set him free, and is contented with the price I give, were it not injurious
to me and the poor prisoner that his deliverance be not accomplished? Can it
possibly be conceived that there should be a redemption of men, and those men
not redeemed? That a price should be paid and the ransom not consummated?
"Yet all this must be made true, and innumerable other
absurdities, if universal redemption be asserted. A price is paid for all, yet
few delivered; the redemption of all consummated, yet few of them redeemed, the
judge satisfied, the jailer conquered, and yet the prisoners inthralled! Doubtless 'universal, and 'redemption'
where the greatest part of men perish, are as irreconcilable as 'Roman'
and 'Catholic.'
"If there be a universal redemption of all, then all men are redeemed. If they are redeemed, then are they delivered from all misery, virtually or actually, whereunto they were inthralled, and that by the intervention of a ransom. Why, then, are not all saved? In a word, the redemption wrought by Christ being the full deliverance of the persons redeemed from all misery, wherein they were inwrapped, by the price of His blood, it can not possibly be conceived to be universal unless all be saved: so that the opinion of the Universalists is unsuitable to redemption."
In the "Great Carrollton Debate," between J. R. Graves and Jacob Ditzler (Methodist), held at Carrollton, Missouri in 1875. Graves made the following remarks in his defense of the doctrine of Eternal Security:
"He (Christ) did not contract for the lost angels, nor for
all men. He only took hold of the 'seed of Abraham,' not of Adam.
"If He had taken hold of the nature of the lost angels, they
would all have been saved. If of the seed of Adam, all men would have been
saved, and Universalism would have been the true doctrine. But he contracted as
surety. Mediator, only for 'the seed of Abraham' the elect of mankind.
"I know this is death to Arminianism, the natural religion of
all natural men. They want to believe that they elect themselves, and then
Christ takes them into His Covenant. The Christian's will has been subdued to
the will of God, and he is willing for God to be an absolute sovereign and in
his own experience he knows it, if a Christian, and if not, he doesn't know it,
and dislikes to receive it. We were made to love God because He first loved us.
We elected or chose Him, because He first elected or chose us." (page
1136).
" 'It was owing to God's Sovereign love,' says an Evangelical
writer, 'and mere good pleasure, that the elect, the seed of Abraham, and not
others in the same condemnation, by the fealty of the first Covenant, were
represented and contracted for by Jesus Christ in the second, that their names
were put in the eternal contract, while those of angels and others were left
out. They were the father's choice, and that was enough for Christ, and should
be enough for us'. 'Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight. "
"Infidels may wrest this hard doctrine, more fully developed
by Paul than any other Apostle, to their own destruction, but a host of the
best and clearest minds that have ever lived on earth have advocated it as
Augustine, Calvin, etc., and Knox, Henry and it is crystalized in the creeds
of Presbyterians, Episcopalians, Methodists, as well as Baptists. We see here
no universal Atonement or Redemption." (page 1138).
(1820-1893)
Edited THE TENNESSEE BAPTIST: Wrote JOHN'S BAPTISM; SEVEN DISPENSATIONS; many other works.
(The following excerpts from SEVEN DISPENSATIONS. Chapter VII).
"If His atonement was limited, and to Adam's race only, did
it include all or only a part of the human family? All denominations, with the
above exception (Universalists) hold and teach that only a part, and
comparatively a small part, of Adam's race will be saved; and if not, then must
it not be because they were not included in the Covenant of Redemption, and
given to Christ to save?"
"It is quite impossible to bring an unprejudiced, mind and a
balanced reason to the examination of these questions. All Bible readers have
taken position; and the verdict of the world is made up: and how difficult to
reverse or modify it. They involve the sovereignty of God in the bestowment of
His favors. All men are by nature Arminians; and the absolute sovereignty of
God is a doctrine hateful to the natural and depraved heart. False teachers
have taken the advantage of this natural feeling, and have for ages inflamed
the prejudices of Christian men and women against any exercise of sovereignty
on the part of God in this Covenant, either as to His determinate counsels,'
His electing love, or His distinguishing grace. They presumptuously and
impiously assert, that, unless God extended the same grace to all the lost that
He did to those who are saved, He is justly chargeable with partiality and
injustice, and, if He saw fit, in the dispensation of His grace, when none
would, if left to themselves, accept or desire it, and, indeed, all have
rejected it to so influence the wills of some that they would seek His grace,
He is guilty of forcing some men to be saved, and others to be lost. But we
know that the Omniscient God is incapable of doing wrong; and if it plainly
revealed that He passed by all the fallen angels, who will charge Him with sin
or wrong had He passed by all of Adam's race? How, then, can He be charged with
injustice, if He saw fit to save a portion of it?"
"Now, will not, must not, all unprejudiced Bible-reading
Christians agree to the following propositions?
"1. That the Son undertook and will save all that the Father,
in the Covenant of Redemption, gave Him to save.
"2. Since all are not saved, as all evangelical Christians
admit, we must conclude that all were not given to the Son.
"3. That the Father, in the Covenant of Redemption, gave some
of Adam's race to His Son to be redeemed.
"Christ is pleased to allude to Himself as the Shepherd of
Israel, chosen by the Father the Good Shepherd, who lays down his life for
His sheep, i.e., those the Father gave Him to redeem from among men. The
shepherds of Palestine, as well as those of England and Scotland in our day,
have the sheep counted out to them in the spring; and for the safety of these
they become personally responsible: so that in the fall, when they are
returned, they are counted back and they are compelled to pay for all they
lose. The loss of a part of the flock is an implication of unfaithfulness or
lack of ability on the part of the shepherd."
"Christ magnifies His office of Shepherd; He is faithful and
true; He is omnipotent; no one is able to pluck the least lamb of the flock out
of His hands. His sheep are those His Father gave to Him in the Covenant of
Redemption. All these Christ, from the beginning, knew (John 6:64); and
all these Will believe on Him, and come to Him; nor come unto Him, discover
from this that they are, at least, not His sheep."
'"Then of this we may be confident all given to the Son
by the Father will certainly come to Him and be saved."
"We must admit that not all of Adam's race were given by the
Father to the Son to be saved, else all will be saved, as the Universal
redemptionists falsely teach."
"Christ took hold of a special class, and a definite number,
known by the Father, to succor and to save, and whom He calls the 'Seed of
Abraham, 'His Seed;' 'His Sheep;' 'The lost sheep of the house of Israel.' To
save none others was He specially sent into the world. 'I was not sent except
to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.'" (Matt. 15:24).
"Those He foreknew He gave to His Son to save; and these
Christ received, and is said to have written their very names in His Book of
Life from the foundation of the world. (Rev. 13:8). These, given to Him
by the Father, whose names He has written in His Book of Life, He also, as
their High-priest, bears upon His shoulders, and upon His breastplate, as Aaron
did the names of the twelve tribes of Israel, whom God, in Covenant, gave His
Son. Various are the designations given these in the Scriptures: 'The Seed of the
woman;' 'the seed of Abraham;' 'the Elect of God;' 'the Election;' 'Israel;'
'the seed of Jacob;' 'my People;' 'my Sheep,' when Christ is referred to as
Shepherd; the Lamb's Wife;' 'Peculiar People;' 'Holy Nation.'
"These are those Christ represents in the Covenant of
Redemption; for whom He died; for whom He intercedes, and will intercede: and
His atoning work will go on until the last one shall have received the blessing
of His atonement; and His work will not be finished until a whole world of
sinners will be saved. We do not mean until all who are now living, or who have
ever lived on this earth, will be saved, but until enough have been redeemed to
re-people this entire earth when it shall have been redeemed a new heaven (Rom.
8; Rev. 22).
"The most unyielding Arminian must admit that the Omniscient
Father foreknew, from the beginning; each man and woman, and therefore the
entire number that would come to His Son and be saved; for 'the foundation
of the Lord standeth sure, having this seal, the Lord knoweth them that are
his;' and 'known unto God are all his works (and this must be true of
His plans) from the beginning of the world.' But those of the race the
Father gave to Christ, while known to Him, are unknown to me, and Christ, as
Saviour, therefore is freely offered to all to whom the gospel is preached or
the Bible sent."
"If any are saved, it must be because God, in the exercise of
His sovereignty, willed, i.e. determined that some should be saved; and these
He quickens from their death in trespasses and sins and gives to them
repentance and the remission of sins. The Brazen Serpent was uplifted on the
pole in the very midst of the camp, and the proclamation of life for a look was
made, and urged upon all; and yet doubtless thousands died within sight of it
through willful unbelief as sinners do now, with salvation's offer in their
ears, and the Cross before their eyes.
" 'Who gave himself a ransom for all to be testified in
due time' (I Tim. 2:6), should be interpreted by Christ's own words: 'Even
as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give
his life a ransom for many.' (Matt. 20:28). And when Christ said, 'If I
be lifted up, I will draw all men unto me' (John 12:32), He certainly did
not mean every sinner of Adam's race; for it would be notoriously untrue: He
meant all conditions and races of men, and, savingly, only all men given Him by
the Father. Is not this His explanation of the phrase 'all whom the Father
giveth me shall come unto me?' These are the 'all' from whom He gave
himself a ransom to be testified in due time."
"It was for the 'all men' given by the Father that Christ
savingly died; and it was for their justification He rose from the dead; and it
was for these alone He prayed on earth, and intercedes in heaven.
"It must therefore be admitted that, if the Father had given
all men to His Son, in the sense He did some men, then all men would come to
Christ for salvation: but all do not come comparatively few do come; and
these would not, unless graciously drawn to Christ by the Father. (John
6:44)."
"The Arminian, we know, will, plant the batteries of his
rebellion against the sovereignty of God in man's salvation, as expressed in his
prayer, and presumptuously charge his Creator with partiality and thus dealing
with man, but he will effect no more than to discover the unsubdued rebellion
of his own heart to the government of God. Why does he not charge God with
partiality and sin in passing by the lost angels, and taking hold of men
instead, an inferior order of beings? Why will not these Arminian professors
charge God with the sin of partiality in not creating all men equal
constitutionally and intellectually? Why in not offering to all nations, and all
men in every nation, the same gospel advantages? God is as chargeable with sin,
or blame, in the one case as in the other. We have no controversy with a
sovereign God. Rom. 9:14-26."
(1776-1884)
Author of BAPTISM IN ITS MODE AND SUBJECTS; HISTORY OF PROVIDENCE; THE ATONEMENT and other works.
(The following from LIFE AND WRITINGS OF CARSON, Volume II. pages
159-163).
In the reading of the Scriptures nothing strikes us more forcibly
than the sovereignty of Jehovah. Almighty power is, without doubt, in all
things exercised in wisdom and justice. But the ways of God are too deep for
us; we cannot fathom them. He gives no account of His matters; and in
innumerable instances His conduct is not only utterly beyond the grasp of our
conception, but is the very reverse of what we would expect. Every page of
Scripture is written with this impression deeply marked on it. The book of God
is everywhere stamped with the seal of sovereignty.
This is the more striking, as there is nothing more displeasing to
the mind of man. The fanatic is still bolder than the philosopher in
blaspheming this attribute; and the sanctified raver, with the boldness of an
infuriated demon, will dare to denounce, as an Almighty tyrant, the Lord God
who reveals himself the Sovereign Jehovah. Audacious man prescribes measures to
Omnipotence, and will not trust sovereignty even to God. There is no degree of
force which he will not employ to banish it from the Scriptures.
The God of the Scriptures stoops not to satisfy his impertinent
demands. He speaks as a sovereign, and deigns not to smooth the way to the
reception of His testimony by removing difficulties to faith; but in almost
everything that He teaches, He leaves something to manifest disaffection where
it exists. There is not a doctrine in Scripture which perverse ingenuity has
not found something at which to cavil, in the manner of its exhibition in the
words of the Holy Spirit. No man would have written, if left to his own wisdom,
as God has written, the Bible. The style of it is indeed truly in wisdom, but
it is in sovereign wisdom." It strikes continually at the pride of man.
God sends the message of mercy in such a way that many cry out that they will rather
expose themselves to his wrath than receive such a forgiveness.
Even the rejection of revelation will not relieve from the
evidence of the sovereignty of God. The ways of the God of Providence are in
sovereignty as well as those of the God of the Bible. It is impossible to deny
sovereignty, consistently with the admission of perfect power and wisdom in the
Ruler of the world.
That misery exists is a fact that cannot be denied, whatever
account the vanity of human wisdom may be inclined to give of its origin. Why
did an Almighty, All-wise God permit sin and misery to enter? Human wisdom, or
folly, has always been employed in giving an answer to this question. But it
will always remain unanswered. The human faculties cannot grapple with the
subject. It must be left with divine sovereignty. How the existence of sin and
misery is consistent with omnipotence, wisdom, goodness, etc., the intellect of
man cannot perceive.
The sovereignty of God is most illustriously displayed in the
gospel. It meets us at the very threshold, in the fact that Christ interposed
for man and not for fallen angels. Why did he not rather take on Him the
recovery of the superior nature? Why did He not save both? To ask such question?
with the impression that an answer is either necessary or possible for man, is
most audacious arrogance. Can human ingenuity find out what God has concealed?
We know nothing about redemption but what God has revealed. No absurdity can be
greater, than in the matter of redemption to go beyond revelation.
In the redemption of sinners, sovereignty offends human wisdom
with respect to its extent. Why are not all men actually saved from hell? Acres
of paper have been wasted in attempting to account for this, independently of
the divine sovereignty. Men may attempt to impose on themselves with words. But
after considering everything that human wisdom can allege, have we got an
answer which enables us to acquiesce with satisfaction in the eternal misery of
either angels or men? We have no relief but by unreserved acquiescing in the
sovereignty of God.
The sovereignty of God is so offensive to the proud heart of man,
that every expedient of artifice has been employed to banish it from the Bible.
But no expedient has ever succeeded no expedient ever will succeed. The
sovereignty of Jehovah meets us in every page of the Bible.
Nothing more strongly shows the enmity of the human heart to this
part of the divine character than the forced attempts of learning and ingenuity
to expel it from the ninth chapter of the Epistle to the Romans. Every engine
of torture has been employed to make the apostle retract, prevaricate, or
soften. But all in vain. The obstinate witness, after every sinew is cracked,
after every joint is dislocated, still cries:
"Sovereignty, sovereignty, not of him that willeth, nor of
him that runneth, but of God who showeth mercy."
Even the Christian, if he will listen to his own wisdom, will not
admire this feature in the divine countenance, and will not be indisposed to
throw it into the shade. He will talk like a sage, in the language of science,
and adopt as an improvement the criticism that makes God less hateful in the
wisdom of man. But after all that human ingenuity can allege, the only reason
that keeps any man from seeing a sovereign God in this chapter is that he does
not like a sovereign God.
The sovereignty of God is seen in the substitution of Christ to
bear the curse of the law in the room of his people. Sin is often represented
in Scripture as debt. The representation is true, but it does not give the full
character of sin. Sin must be viewed as crime as well as debt. In the payment
of a debt justice can make no difference, whether it comes from the debtor, or
from any other who is willing to advance it. Justice cannot refuse to accept
payment from any substitute.
But it is not so with crime. The sheriff could not execute another
who should present himself in the room of the prisoner. An absolute sovereign
might in His sovereignty accept such substitution. God, then, in accepting the
substitution of Christ, acts in sovereignty, and provides what the law has not
provided. Had it been possible for man to have presented a substitute able to
make atonement for transgression, God might have rejected him. The law under
which man was made knows nothing of fulfillment by substitution. The acceptance
of Christ as our substitute is in sovereignty. "This," says
God, "is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." Here is a
declaration of the Father's acceptance of the Son in the room of the guilty.
There is sovereignty not only in God's choice of His people, there
is sovereignty also in His conduct toward them. Even to them He gives no
account of His matters. One He places in affluence, another in poverty; to one
He gives much knowledge, to others very little; to some He gives health, others
have scarcely a day free from pain. They all have troubles, but some have
troubles beyond others. Sometimes He continues the least distinguished of them
to the utmost term of human life, while the most talented are cut off in the
midst of a glorious career of usefulness.
In ten thousand ways the Lord shows His dealings with His people
to be in sovereignty as well as in mercy. They must not presume to question His
comparative treatment of them. That He does all things well, they must believe
on His own testimony.