On Sunday evenings, our church has been studying what the Bible says about how God saves people. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve considered God\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s intention in salvation as it relates to doctrines such as election as well as God\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s purpose in evangelism. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve seen that these twin purposes of God work together to accomplish the same glorious end.<\/p>\n
However, we also need to consider God\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s desire in salvation. The general desire of God to save sinners is distinguished in Scripture from His ultimate intention, which cannot be thwarted.<\/p>\n
God\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s will of desire is not the same as God\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s ordained will of decree. For example, God desires that all people wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t sin, but all people do in fact sin; therefore, this desire of God is not based on His sovereign will of intention, but rather on His stated will of desire.<\/p>\n
When God wills something with His sovereign will of decree, that thing will happen. God created the heavens and the earth by His sovereign will of decree and it came to be for His good pleasure. God\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sovereign will of decree in salvation is that all whom the Father gives to Jesus for salvation will in fact come to Jesus (Jn. 6:37). Nothing can thwart this purpose.<\/p>\n
We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve also seen that Christians have been sent by their Savior with\u00c2\u00a0a great invitation<\/em>. Our God is a missionary God. He sends His people into the world to make the gospel known to all.<\/p>\n The Father sent His one and only Son from His heavenly throne down to the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153far country\u00e2\u20ac\u009d where we live. He came to redeem a people for Himself; to purchase redemption for every person given by the Father to the Son. This was God\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s intention in sending His Son to earth.<\/p>\n The invitation to believe the gospel, to come to Christ, to repent of sins, to be saved by grace through faith goes out to every nation and to every individual under heaven.<\/p>\n The same God who ordained the doctrine of election is the same God who ordained biblical evangelism as His chosen means of bringing every one of His elect to Himself. Both of these truths reflect the explicit teaching of Scripture.<\/p>\n According to the Bible, no one is able to respond to the gospel unless God enables them to do so (Jn 6:44, 65; Mt 11:25-27, Eph 2:1-9). This too is explicitly taught in Scripture.<\/p>\n However, God does desire the salvation of all people in a general sense and God is the Savior of all people in a general albeit temporal sense.<\/p>\n 1 Timothy 2:1-4 and 4:10 are often used as proof-texts to deny the particular redemption of God\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s elect. These verses appear to teach that God wants to save everybody, but He can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t for reasons beyond His control (i.e. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153the free will of man\u00e2\u20ac\u009d).<\/p>\n Those who believe that God intended to save everybody have to add that second clause to escape the charge of universalism. Yet that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s exactly where general atonement leads when you read verses guaranteeing the salvation of Christ\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sheep and then apply it universally,\u00c2\u00a0the logical conclusion\u00c2\u00a0is universalism.<\/p>\n Clark Pinnock is a modern example of a Bible \u00e2\u20ac\u0153scholar\u00e2\u20ac\u009d who once held to\u00c2\u00a0a biblical view\u00c2\u00a0of theology and even biblical inerrancy, but then he began to question some of the hard truths of Scripture. He gradually moved from a reformed view of the sovereignty of\u00c2\u00a0 God toward Arminianism, then toward Pelagianism, then open-theism, and eventually he embraced universalism.<\/p>\n But why should anyone be surprised at this? Each step leads logically (and theologically) to the next step. Pinnock is just being honest in going where his theology has led him.<\/p>\n So we shouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t shrink from addressing these difficult texts in their context to understand what God is saying to us in these wonderful verses. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll find that God is the Savior of the world in a general sense, but nothing is beyond His control, especially in His intention to save His elect.<\/p>\n Keep in mind, we must take every doctrine of the faith and every belief and we must relate it to every verse of Scripture so that its shape and form will be biblical.<\/p>\n As a basic rule of biblical interpretation, the\u00c2\u00a0explicit<\/em> teaching of Scripture always controls our interpretation of the\u00c2\u00a0implicit<\/em> teaching of Scripture. Therefore, an implicit (or paradoxical) verse of Scripture must not be used to overthrow the clear meaning of an explicit teaching in Scripture.<\/p>\n These verses (1 Timothy 2:1-4 and 4:10) could be used by universalists if they let the implicit teaching (what the verse appears to say) overrule the explicit teaching of the rest of the New Testament where universalism is clearly denied.<\/p>\n But again, this method of distorted interpretation isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t possible without doing great violence to the clear teaching of Scripture throughout the rest of the Bible.<\/p>\n That said, let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s look at what 1 Timothy 2:1-4 and 4:10 are actually telling us.<\/p>\n \u00e2\u20ac\u0153First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people,\u00c2\u00a02<\/sup><\/strong> for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.\u00c2\u00a03<\/sup><\/strong> This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior,\u00c2\u00a04<\/sup><\/strong> who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d [1 Tim 2:1-4, ESV]<\/p>\n Later, in 1 Timothy chapter 4, verse 10 says\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n \u00e2\u20ac\u0153For to this end we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d [1 Tim 4:10, ESV] <\/strong><\/p>\n Combining these two passages, we read that God desires all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth and that God is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe.<\/p>\n Are these verses the definitive rejection of the doctrines of election and definite atonement?<\/p>\n Only if you believe that the Bible contradicts itself or if you interpret the explicit teachings of Scripture by means of the implicit. Both of these approaches will lead you into error.<\/p>\n In 1 Timothy 2:4, God says through Paul that He is \u00e2\u20ac\u0153our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n There are three things to notice in this verse. First, Paul is addressing a situation in Ephesus where some teachers may have denied that God is the Savior of the world in a general sense.<\/p>\n In Ephesus, Caesar was worshiped as the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153protector, provider, and savior\u00e2\u20ac\u009d of the people of the empire. Paul wants the church at Ephesus and the world at large to know that God is truly the Protector of the world, the Provider for the world, and the Savior (or deliverer) of the world.<\/p>\n Paul refers to God as our Savior throughout First Timothy (1:1; 2:4; 4:10). He wants the world to know that God desires all men to come under the wings of His salvation and deliverance.<\/p>\n Second, In 1 Timothy 2:4 the word \u00e2\u20ac\u0153desire\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is from the word\u00c2\u00a0thelo<\/em>.\u00c2\u00a0Thelo<\/em> reflects God\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s will of desire which flows from His feeling and inclination. God is inclined to save anybody. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s God\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s nature to save as an act of grace, not because people deserve to be saved by Him.<\/p>\n But there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s another word for God\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s determined sovereign will; that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the wordboulomai<\/em>. This will (or desire) comes from God\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s precise determination; it inexorably fulfills God\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s intention without fail.<\/p>\n So 1 Timothy 2:4 is referring to God\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s inclination to save anyone, not to His actual sovereign intention (as is the case for God\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s elect, 1 Timothy 4:10).<\/p>\n Third, the phrase \u00e2\u20ac\u0153all people\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in 1 Timothy 2:4 is used in the same context as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153all people\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in 1 Timothy 2:1 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for\u00c2\u00a0all people<\/em>\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n The \u00e2\u20ac\u0153all people\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in this context doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t refer to every single individual. He isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t saying that our prayer list should be an exhaustive and tedious register of every name of every individual in the world. That would be impossible, since we don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know every name or every person.<\/p>\n What he means in 2:1 by \u00e2\u20ac\u0153all people\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is\u00c2\u00a0all kinds of people<\/em>. We should pray for all kinds of people in the world, for all types of people. Then Paul enumerates some of the kinds of people for whom we should pray in particular: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (1 Tim. 2:2).<\/p>\n Then in verse 4 of this same chapter, the phrase \u00e2\u20ac\u0153all people\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is used again the same way. God desires and is inclined to save\u00c2\u00a0all kinds of people<\/em>,\u00c2\u00a0all types of people<\/em> in the world. And this is in fact what the rest of Scripture describes.<\/p>\n Revelation 5:9 says of Christ, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n God is saving people from every nation and people group in the world. People are coming to Christ out of paganism, out of dead religions, out of Roman Catholicism, out of the Hindu and Muslim religions, out of atheism\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6\u00c2\u00a0all kinds of people<\/em> are being drawn to the Savior.<\/p>\n Then in 1 Timothy 4:10, when God says through Paul, <\/strong>that He \u00e2\u20ac\u0153is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d He is referring to the salvation of all kinds of people in one sense, and in a second sense he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s referring to salvation as God\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s benevolent temporal deliverance of all people (i.e. common grace), but especially as Savior of those who actually believe.<\/p>\n So he distinguishes between general deliverance by God as the Savior of all people from God\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s particular saving work in the lives of those who actually believe the gospel. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the difference between temporal common grace and sovereign election when it comes to salvation.\u00c2\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n When we exposit through First Timothy later this year, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll cover these verses in the context of Paul\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s instruction to Timothy, but this overview of two verses from that epistle provides a general understanding of how implicit verses are to be interpreted in light of the explicit verses regarding God\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s will of desire and His sovereign will of intention.<\/p>\n With love in the Truth, <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On Sunday evenings, our church has been studying what the Bible says about how God saves people. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve considered God\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s intention in salvation as it relates to doctrines such as election as well as God\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s purpose in evangelism. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve seen that these twin purposes of God work together to accomplish the same glorious end. However, … <\/p>\n
\nPastor Kevin<\/p>\n