Provisional Atonement vs. Limited Atonement

Contrary to the idea of “limited atonement,” there is “unlimited atonement.” But I shall simply use the term “provisional atonement” after Leighton Flowers. Basically, Jesus died for the whole world and all people inclusively. That is, Jesus died for all and there is no one excluded from that all. The angel who brought “good news of great joy” to the shepherds tending their flock, said that this good news was for “all people” (Lk 2:10). He did not say that it was only joyous news to a few select people. Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection was accomplished provisionally for all. If the work of Jesus was only done for a few select individuals, then the good news would only be for them while the rest of the “all people” are excluded from this opportunity of good news and great joy. That contradicts the good tidings that the angel had brought because for anyone who is not “the elect,” it would be bad news for them, since God never “chose them” to be saved. And so, they are born without hope, born without ability, and born without the ever possibility of being saved. Under such a Calvinistic doctrine, the good news would only be limited to a select group.

Speaking within the context of the judgement that is going to come in the destruction of the world and the destruction of ungodly people, Peter says, “The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance” (2 Pet 3:9). The reason the world has not come to an end yet is because God is giving people more time to come to repentance so that they might be saved, since He desires no one to perish but for all to turn to Him to receive life. God says that He takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked (Ezek 33:11). It would seem quite contrived and against the nature of God to say that this is only speaking about a select group of individuals to be saved while for the rest of them, God would delight in their destruction and wishes for them to perish. The work of Christ and for us as His ambassadors, is to reconcile the world to Him, to plead people to be reconciled to God (2 Cor 5:18-20). When Jesus died on the cross, He died for His enemies and for His persecutors (Lk 23:34; Ro 5:10). His love comes first. Then faith in that love. And then comes salvation where we are no longer His enemies. That is how people are reconciled to God. Jesus even died for false prophets and those who apostatize (2 Pet 2:1; Heb 6:1-8).

1 Timothy 4:10 says that God “is the Savior of all men, especially of believers,” and 1 Timothy 2:3-6 says, “This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all, the testimony given at the proper time.” In verses 1-2, it defines who all men are and it is all people without exclusion. Therefore (1) God desires all to be saved, (2) God desires all to come to the knowledge of the truth, and (3) Christ “gave Himself as a ransom for all.”

Ransom means that Jesus gave Himself as the price for a life which is about freeing slaves. His life, suffering, and death are what cost Him to bring about the freedom of the captives to convince people of God’s love for them so that they would be reconciled to God. This reconciliation comes when our hearts are cleansed by faith as Acts 15:9 says, “and He made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith.” Romans 5:1 says, “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

In the book of 1 John, “the world” is consistently defined as the evil system of the world and all the people within it. It is a very inclusive term. From this context, John writes, “We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world” (1 Jn 4:14). Then, in one of the clearest passages in the whole Bible, John writes, “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world” (1 Jn 2:1-2). Notice how it says “whole world” which is completely inclusive regarding all people. And notice also how John first writes of the believers, saying, “My little children,” and then extends the sacrifice of Jesus to be for all. He even clarifies for us saying, “not for ours only,” in order to say that the sacrifice of Jesus was for the whole world. That is to say, Jesus didn’t die only for the believers or “the elect,” but for all.

In the gospel of John, Jesus says, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him” (Jn 3:16-17). Before Jesus died on the cross, God the Father was already well-disposed towards His creation and loved all people and that’s why He sent His only Son to save it. But if Calvinism and Limited Atonement are true, then sending Jesus into the world is just a charade since God had supposedly already decreed from eternity past who He would choose to save and regenerate and who He would choose not to save. That doctrine also renders meaningless verse 17 about God being wholly well-disposed towards the world so as to bring the possibility of salvation all people and to exclude no one. For, to exclude anyone is to in effect pronounce judgement on them and to condemn them. But Jesus just said that “God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world.” But it is certainly quite a judgement to say that Jesus didn’t die for a certain group of people and therefore, it is impossible for them to ever be saved. That is the exact opposite intent of this verse. People perish not because God chose to withhold His love and grace to them, but because of their unbelief and desire to not choose God because of their love for their sin. But all they have to do is believe and they can be saved.

In the verses directly preceding John 3:16, Jesus says, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life” (v. 14-15). Jesus is saying here that His sacrifice was provisional for all people just as the Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness was provisional for all who would look up in belief. If they looked upon the staff with the serpent, they would be healed. But if they did not have faith to look up, then they would not have looked up and they would have perished. In the same way, all those who look to Jesus with eyes of faith, will be saved.

In John 6 we see this same theme where Jesus is compared to food and drink and He is offered to all. But only those who consume Him will live forever. That is, only those who put their faith in Him and His sacrifice on the cross will be saved. Jesus said, “I am the living bread that came down out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread also which I will give for the life of the world is My flesh” (Jn 6:51).

Paul compares Jesus to “our Passover” (1 Cor 5:7) which is the Passover lamb sacrifice spoken of in Exodus 12. Those who ate the Passover lamb and marked the blood on their doorposts, were delivered from the angel of death. But eating the Passover and marking the blood was all about the act of faith in the One true God, Yahweh. The firstborn of every household perished from all those who still believed in the Egyptian gods. The provision to be saved was offered to all but only those who believed were saved. And so, this wasn’t about a substitutionary one-for-one sacrifice. The lamb didn’t literally die in their place. The lamb was all about having faith in God.

In a similar way, Abraham’s faith was tested when he was told to give up his only son, Isaac. The moral of the story is not about substitution, but about faith. God had promised to Abraham that He would make through his prodigy countless people and many nations. So if Abraham truly believed God and the promise He made to him, then giving up his only son would not nullify the promises of God since God previously swore by Himself that He would keep it. For this reason, Abraham knew that his boy could not die or stay dead because then the promise of God would be cancelled.

The consistent theme throughout the Bible is faith in God and it is through faith that our relationship is restored to God, not through the sacrifice itself. Even so, with Jesus’ sacrifice, we are reconciled to God the Father through faith, and it is by this faith that the life of Jesus comes to live within us so that we receive immortality. The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus is effective for those who receive His life through faith. Therefore, the sacrifice is provisional for all but effective for only those who believe. But if it is provided for all, then the atonement is no longer limited.

From here, there are multiple paths. One is to believe in Penal Substitutionary atonement and also hold to Provisional atonement. This means that God loves all and provisionally died for all. In this case, it would be best to avoid using the term “unlimited atonement” since that can bring some confusion because of the substitution aspect. That is, Jesus died for the sins of all people but this does not mean that it was a penal substitutional sacrifice and exchange for all people. The exchange is for only those who believe.

However, the other path we can take is to reject Penal Substitutionary Atonement, hold to Provisional atonement, the Moral Influence model of the atonement along with the substitutionary nature of the Recapitulation model of the atonement. These options are consistent with Jesus dying for the whole world inclusively and do not render the sacrifice of Jesus to be in vain for anyone.

Limited atonement or this idea of only a small select chosen group of people will and can only be saved by God’s sovereign choice, is not compatible with these other views. People are accountable to God to be saved or to be condemned for the very reason that they have the ability to choose faith in God or the informed ability to reject the offer of salvation. Without such an ability, they are not responsible (response-able) because they are not in any real sense able to respond. But if they were not able to respond, then God must have sent His Son into the world to condemn them since God had already made up His mind about them, not wanting them to be saved since He never gave to them the grace or ability to ever believe. Limited atonement removes the true responsibility of individuals and instead places all the blame on God so that God isn’t blameless in all His actions. This does great damage to the glory of God. For this reason, I no longer believe in Calvinism.

According to biblical scholar, David L. Allen, “historically, it was the near-universal belief of the church until the late sixteenth century that the extent of the atonement was unlimited. With only rare exceptions before the Reformation, limited atonement was never espoused” (74). Then he says that this belief of limited atonement did not even come from the Reformers: Luther, Calvin, or Zwingli. It didn’t even come from Augustine. But it later arose and was clearly articulated in the sixteenth century by Theodore Beza. Regardless, most all agree universally that the atonement is limited only in its application to those who believe (75).

(Calvinism: A Biblical and Theological Critique, edited by David L. Allen & Steve W. Lemke)

Check out Leighton Flowers: God's Provision of Atonement for All