For Whom Did Christ Die?
The Bible calls the death of Christ, an atonement for sin. The blood of Christ washes away sins in an act of penal substitution (Lev 16). It is called a “purchase” (Rev 5:9) and a “ransom” (Mt 20:28). Men must pay for their own sins in eternity (penal), if they are not forgiven of all of their sins in this temporal life.
Christ was sinless (Heb 4:15), so he did not die for Himself. This makes substitution obvious. Christ died for others. He bore “our” sins upon the cross (1 Pet 2:24). The debated question is, “Who is ‘our’?” In a brief survey of Bible passages, we will attempt to answer this question of God’s intent for Jesus dying on the Cross, and to what extent it reaches people. He either died for everyone, everywhere, and at all times, or Jesus died for His chosen people. Consider these highlighted passages with my italics included for focal emphasis.
First, Matthew 1:21, “She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” In this passage, we clearly have God’s purpose, which is to save people from their sins. We also have a distinction, Jesus saves His people. We must remember this point as we work through our list of pronouns, like “many,” “all,” “our,” and “us.”
Second, John 10:15, “even as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep.” Jesus Himself tells us who He died for: His sheep. Elsewhere, Jesus distinguishes His sheep from goats (Mt 25). Using the Shepherd/sheep imagery, we can clearly connect the idea of His sheep being His people (Ezek 34; Jn 10, 21).
Third, Ephesians 5:23, 25, “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her.” In these first three passages, we identify a specific group of people in relationship to Christ. We also see Jesus in action: saving; laying down His life; and giving Himself up. These are all ways of saying the same thing. They are all allusions to Christ’s death on the Cross. Christ died for His people, His sheep, and His church. Christ is the Savior of His body of people (5:23).
Fourth, 1 Peter 2:24, “and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed.” Again, “bore our sins” tells us what Christ did in His death. It also introduces us to our first pronoun, “our.” Naturally, we must ask who “our” is? The apostle Peter is writing to the churches of northern Asia minor. Clearly, Peter’s pronoun reference has an antecedent, and it must be the church. Christ died for our sins, the sins of His people, His church.
Fifth, 1 Corinthians 5:7, “Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed.” The apostle Paul makes the allusion to the Israelite Passover in Egypt (1446 B.C.). An unblemished lamb was killed, and its blood applied to Jewish houses to propitiate the angel of death on a night of God’s judgment against the sins of Egypt (Ex 12).
We must ask who is “our” in this context? The Lamb of God slain propitiates the wrath of God and delivers those who belong to “our.” As with Peter, the apostle Paul is writing to a church, this one at Corinth. Israel had the promise of deliverance by the blood of the lamb, and so does the church, which is the Israel of God (Gal 6:16). Excluded was Egypt, the object of God’s wrath; which serves as a type of “the world.” Out of Egypt I called my Son; and out of the world, God calls His sons, “come out of her my people (Rev 18:4).”
Sixth, 1 Corinthians 8:11, “For through your knowledge he who is weak is ruined, the brother for whose sake Christ died.” Paul writes to the local church, and he makes reference to immature Christians in singular form. Christ died for “the brother.” The church is made up of many members, who are called “brothers” and “sisters.” Christ died for individuals, who make up each congregation, which collectively constitutes the church.
Seventh, 1 Corinthians 15:3, “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures.” We can begin to see how many times pronouns are employed, and we must see the implication. The apostles are writing under the assumption that their audience knows who the pronoun refers to. The context is always the church, the people of God, and the sheep of His pasture.
Eighth, 2 Corinthians 5:14–15, 21, “For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died; 15 and He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf.” Paul employs a second pronoun for us to consider, “all.” The “all” in context is the church. Christ died for “all” of the church, or we might say “all” of the members. The term is corporate. It is singular, but it does not mean “all people everywhere and at all times.” The context does not permit such an interpretation, as demonstrated by another verse in the same text that returns us to “our.” 2 Corinthians 5:21 reads, “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” “All” and “our” refer to “ambassadors for Christ (2 Cor 5:20),” which is another term for the church.
Ninth, Galatians 1:3–4, “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ,4 who gave Himself for our sins so that He might rescue us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father.” The apostle writes to another local church in south central Asia minor, and we have another pronoun combination. This passage employs “our” as a reference to the church, and it adds “us” to the pronoun collection. Christ gave Himself (see Eph 5:25) for our sins, not their sins. He rescues the church, not the world.
Tenth, Galatians 4:4–5, “But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, 5 so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.” Who is under the Law? The letter to the Galatians is written to a church plagued by a group of Judaizers. These were people insisting that new believers must follow the prescription of the Law of Moses in order to be truly Christians. This was already settled at the Council of Jerusalem in Acts 15.
Jews and Gentiles are born as slaves to sin (Rom 1–2). The Jews were given the Law by covenant through Moses. They lived in agreement with the covenant, but they could not keep the covenant. Christ kept the Law and the covenant to perfection. By adding His perfect sacrifice, Christ redeemed God’s elect Jewish people, who became sons of God through Jesus Messiah. The church is made up of Jews and Gentiles (Eph 2:11–22), who are at peace with God and one another in Christ.
Eleventh, Galatians 5:1, “It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore, keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.” Christ set His people free, like Moses did in delivering Israel out of Egypt. Sin enslaves all people (Rom 6:6), but Christ is setting captives free, and bringing “many” sons, not all sons, to glory. The ransom is for “many” (Mk 10:45), which constitutes a ransom for “all” of God’s chosen people (1 Tim 2:6), who are many. There are the children of devil and the children of God (1 Jn 3:10). Each group represents sons of their respective fathers (Jn 8:44; 1 Jn 3:1). All are in enslaved submission to the god of this world (2 Cor 4:4), until Christ sets some free (Jn 8:32). These again are called, “us” as in “us Galatians plus Paul,” which means “us” the church.
Twelfth, Ephesians 5:1–2, “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; 2 and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.” The apostle Paul writes to another church in western Asia Minor, and it isolates them with the pronoun “you” (2nd person, plural). Christ loved you all. Here we learn Christ’s motive is love for the church, whom He prayed for over and against the world (Jn 17:17). Paul then uses “us” to refer to the corporate church everywhere and at all times. We conclude this because God’s Word is timeless truth, and what was true for the Galatians, Ephesians, and Corinthians, etc., is true for the church at all times, everywhere.
Thirteenth, 1 Thessalonians 5:9–10, “For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, 10 who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep, we will live together with Him.” “Us” now includes the Thessalonians in our study. The wrath of God is not directed toward the church. God positioned Christ between Himself and the church. He is first a propitiation, meaning Christ endured the wrath of God for the sake of His bride, the church. He is a propitiation for “our” sins (1 Jn 2:2), that is, a “propitiation for the sins of the people (Heb 2:17).”
Next, He is positioned between God and the church as Mediator of the new covenant. Christ represents both God and man at this table of diplomatic peace. He Himself is “our” peace with God as a result (Eph 2:14). The world is not at peace with God and will have no peace with God. The wrath to come is the wrath of God against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men (Rom 1:18). The wrath of God is in full effect against them, but not “us.”
Fourteenth, 1 Timothy 1:15, “It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all. Ripped out of context and with no correlation, an interpreter could suggest “all” might be connected universally with “sinners.” My hope is that my reader has joined me in looking at the aforementioned evidence to see the limited nature of the use of these pronouns. Jesus came to save sinners, and to save His people from their sins (Mt 1:21). These are one and the same, but they never represent all people, universally.
Fifteenth, Titus 2:11–14, salvation to “all men” (v. 11), by Christ Jesus, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds (v. 14). The salvation of God is the person of Jesus Christ, who has been sent into the world, and who has accomplished His purpose. Are all men saved? The Universalist says, “yes.” The Arminian says, “no, but the possibility exists for all men to be saved.” The Bible says, “no, Christ died for the people He intended to save, and they are all saved.” Jesus Himself said on the Cross, “It is finished (Jn 19:30),” not, “It is a possibility.”
Sixteenth, Titus 3:4–5a, “But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared,5 He saved us,” God so loved the world (Jn 3:16). The world includes “mankind.” Mankind includes God’s people, the church. The universalists connect “mankind” to “us” in these passages. God loves everybody and everybody is saved. The Arminian claims that God loves everybody and yet cannot connect “mankind” and “us.” However, here is the inconsistency of Arminianism. According to this errant view, Christ died for everyone, that is, “mankind”, but He only possibly saved “us,” the church. The right view is to understand Paul saying that “us” is part of “mankind.” He saved some of what He loves. This is also depicted in the Old Testament word “remnant,” as in “a remnant will be saved (Rom 9:27).” That is by God’s gracious choice (Rom 11:5).
Seventeenth, Hebrews 2:17, “Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.” The imagery points us to the Jerusalem temple, where the high priest would make a sacrificial offering, blood placed on the mercy seat of the Ark of the Covenant, in the holiest place, on the Day of Atonement. He made atonement for the sins of the nation of Israel, only, not the sins of the whole world. The high priest was one of the people of Israel, which was a blood related family. They had become an entire nation of people.
Christ is the high priest over a holy nation called “the church (1 Pet 2:9),” a spiritually related family, and propitiated the wrath of God against this nation, who we have said is the “Israel of God (Gal 6:16).” We are the people of the new covenant cut in His blood (1 Cor 11:25). We speak of a one-time sacrifice offered on behalf of all the people of this covenant (Heb 7:26–27).
In summary, we have asked a crucial question of the Christian faith, “For whom did Christ die?” We established the first three verses to answer the subsequent question about pronouns. We said first, Christ died for His people; second, His sheep; third, His church. Next, we retrieved a number of verses regarding Christ’s death for “many,” for “us,” for “all” Christians, and for “our” sins.
In conclusion, we have seen how the Scriptures must teach either: Universalism, Arminianism, or the historical position of the church, in this debated matter since the days of St. Augustine. We do not suspect the errant views will go away anytime soon, but our hope is that you have seen for yourself what the Bible clearly teaches, that Jesus Christ came into the world, in love, and laid down His life for a select group of people called, “vessels of mercy” prepared for glory (Rom 9:23). We glory in the truth of Christ’s loving sacrifice, as our penal substitute for sins, and we praise Him for His perfect atonement, having been decreed, blood-bought, and then sprinkled upon His people for the forgiveness of their sins.
David E. Norczyk
Spokane Valley, Washington
January 17, 2021
