The Crucified Messiah

[Sung Psalm: 86]

In 1 Timothy 2 there are two are remarkable statements: God our Savior "desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth" and Christ Jesus "gave himself as a ransom for all."

Jesus Christ gave himself as a ransom for all. His suffering and death was a full and sufficient sacrifice to cover the sins of the whole world.

We don't need to be bashful about saying this! And for that matter, we don't need to resort to saying that Paul means that Jesus is the ransom for "all sorts of people," because Paul isn't talking about Jesus forgiving "every individual" here, he is talking about humanity as a whole. Even as Adam brought the human race under God's wrath and curse, so now Christ ransoms the human race.

But the only way that you will partake of the benefits of the redemption wrought by Christ is by faith.

And so we say that Christ's atoning sacrifice is sufficient for all (he gave himself as a ransom for all) but it is efficient only for the elect (this ransom is only applied to the elect)...