Who Did Christ Come to Save?

By James Pruch
May 31, 2007

Part 1

There is a popular phrase we use in Christian circles when we are evangelizing. Have you ever used or heard the phrase, “Jesus died for you.” The Bible never uses the phrase “Jesus died for you.” What is the truth then? What do we tell people in spiritual conversations?

Paul says in 1 Timothy 1:15 that “it is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost of all.” Romans 5:8 says, “While we were still yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Who is the “we” and “us” in that verse? It is sinners! Jesus said, “For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners” (Matt 9:13).

Passages like these would seem to lead us to believe that there are righteous people who do not need a savior, right? However, we know that Romans 3:23 says everyone has fallen short of the glory of God. This passage shows that there are some people who think they are righteous. For example, there are some people who truly believe they haven’t done anything bad enough to need a savior to rescue them from condemnation. A Pharisee would be a great example of this. If you look at the gospels, you will see Jesus continually having run-ins with the Pharisees like this. He constantly tells them that they need to understand their sinfulness and imperfections. The poor, helpless, sick, broken sinner, on the other hand, comes to Jesus humbled and Jesus forgives and heals them. They were devastated enough to understand that they needed a redeemer.

In Romans 5:6, Paul writes, “At the right time, Christ died for the ungodly.” He did not die for those who suppose themselves godly. Even in the Old Testament, it is evident that the Law was for the unrighteous. The Law was given for lawbreakers. Who is a lawbreaker? Everyone–because we are flawed, but not everyone admits it. Romans 3:12 says, “There is no one who does good.” Who is sinful? All people, but not everyone realizes it.

When God’s Spirit moves in a person to give them the realization that they are a weak and wounded sinner, the lengthy process of salvation has begun. There are many unsaved people who realize they are sinners. Many people know they are, at their core, evil. So, not everyone who knows this is a Christian, obviously. No person comes to Christ thinking they are eternally okay without him. The Holy Spirit is the only being that can lead people to God. No person can do it on his/her own. It is by the Father’s will. The road to salvation cannot begin until total depravity is revealed by the Holy Spirit and then realized, understood, and embraced.

Part 2

Before going on, make sure you read Part 1 of this essay.  That will give you a baseline for what this is about. I would like to make a disclaimer before you go on, though. I have been reading and praying over issues I will address in this note for many months. I have sought biblical teaching from others on this and my reading of the scholarship on the subject is very wide. People who know me know that I do not read things that are only based on my presuppositions and then base my decisions on that. I don’t want anyone to be offended. If you don’t agree, that is okay. Don’t take my word for it-go to the Bible yourself, it’s all there. I think God has revealed truth to me (along with many others) through his Word regarding this subject and I feel now is the right time to write about it. My intention is not to “open up a can of worms” amongst Christians. My goal is to communicate what I believe the Bible teaches. That’s what I am all about: going to the Bible and searching the Scriptures for Truth. I’m a teacher first, and my objective is to spread truth and love through teaching. I hope this note accomplishes just that. This is by no means exhaustive as far as applicable Scripture is concerned. This note would be entirely too long if I used the entire scope of the Bible to illustrate the point. Still, it is very long, but bear with me and please read on. I promise it will be worth it. Feel free to read it in stages if you don’t have time at one sitting. Grace and peace to you all.

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Jesus taught like no other person in the history of the world. He was in a class by himself. He taught with stories that are known as “parables” which means something like “to compare.” Simply put, parables are stories using earthly metaphors for a heavenly or spiritual thing; they can be very difficult to understand-especially for the first century listeners Jesus had.

There is a very interesting exchange that Jesus had with his disciples in Mark 4. The disciples asked Jesus why he taught in parables. Jesus immediately said, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but for those outside everything is in parables so that: ‘they may indeed see but not perceive, and may indeed hear but not understand, lest they should turn and be forgiven’ ” (11-12). I’d like to address this issue of whom God calls to himself and who Christ really, truly died for.

I hope to bring to light three things through Jesus’ use of parables, along with the use of other passages: 1) God’s internal calling must precede any kind of pursuit of or belief in Jesus; 2) God has chosen some for Christ and passed over others; 3) Though God has chosen some (i.e. predestined/elected) our choices are no less real or robotic even though God makes the ultimate decision.

Now, back to Jesus’ parable in Mark 4. What in the world does that mean? Why would Jesus quote this passage from Isaiah 6 and say he teaches this way so people will not turn and be forgiven? What Jesus is saying is that he speaks to them in that way so they can see, but not really see; so they can hear, but not really hear; so they can understand, but not really understand. In other words: Jesus teaches in parables so some people will be confused and have no idea what he is talking about. Hence the reason Jesus said, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven…” in verse 11. In the same account of this conversation in Matthew 13, Jesus goes on to quote Isaiah and tells the disciples they are blessed for seeing and hearing Jesus in the flesh, for many righteous people and prophets longed for that. How much more are the disciples blessed because they have been “given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven”? It is clear here that Jesus makes the point that not all people are given that ability. This shows that understanding and faith are gifts from God, not something we conjure up on our own.

Now, here is the frame of our discussion here. Jesus teaches with authority never before seen. He teaches with a strategy called “parables.” He uses parables so some people are confused and cannot be forgiven and hence, saved. Others are given to know the secrets (i.e. the disciples). Does this make any sense? Why would Jesus say this? Why would he say that some people are being confused so they cannot be saved?

There is one answer for that: because everyone is invited but not everyone is chosen.

This comes from a plain reading of the text. You can look up the Greek, but it will say the same thing. Greek will not give you any amazing insight with this passage. I am not making any sweeping generalizations here; there is no fallacy in this interpretation. You cannot interpret it any other way. This is what is coming from the gospel narratives-right from Jesus mouth. Now, with that in mind let’s look at another parable that will shed light on the idea and difference between invitations and chosen ones.

Matthew 22:1-14 tells the parable of the wedding feast. Some of you may remember this one, but you can read it for yourself. Here’s the synopsis. A father gives a feast for his son’s wedding. He sends his servants out to call those who were invited to the feast, but nobody comes. He tries again with other servants, “Tell those who are invited, See, I have prepared my dinner…” (4). Not one person paid attention and they attended to their own business. After the king’s episode of anger at the invited guests, he says to his servants, “Go therefore to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find.”

Now, put yourself in the king’s position. His son is just married and he wants to throw a party. He invites the rich and famous, but nobody cares. In fact, the king has to send his servants to the main road-the common road, if you will; the place where all the inner-city folk hang out. There are no rich suburban people at the party. (I will not get into a rich/poor analogy here, but it is important to think about for other contexts.) So, the king arrived late to the feast after this ordeal and saw a person there without a wedding garment on. It would be the equivalent of going to a fancy wedding today and be the only person wearing jeans and flip flops. It was not a good thing to have no wedding garments on. The king told his servants to escort this man out to the “outer darkness…with weeping and gnashing of teeth.” This man could have been one of the invited persons. More likely, he was one of the people on the main road, but didn’t have the proper attire. Whatever the case, the man was invited, but he was not welcome.

Before we move on, we must understand that the idea of invitation and welcomness are two different things in the Bible. They were obviously different in Jesus’ opinion, as we can see. How do we know this? The answer comes in verse 14 of Matthew 22.

The king said, “For many are called, but few are chosen.”

It is evident that there are two types of invitations that the king gave to his guests. Everyone gets a free invitation to come. But some are not welcome. There is a different invitation that indicates people who are “chosen” (which we draw from verse14) and people who are not.

We must differentiate between these two things. The Bible makes it absolutely clear that this is the case. This is the same as in Acts 16 with Lydia. Verse 14 says, “The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul.” Without God’s opening of people’s hearts, ears, and eyes, they will not be given the understanding of needing Jesus. Romans 8:30 says, “And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.” God destines some to be called to saving faith so they can be justified in Christ. This is called an “internal call.” Only those who believe in Jesus get that. Everyone gets the “external call”-the invitation to the wedding feast. So, my first resolution that you cannot believe in or pursue Christ without first being called holds true. We don’t have time or space to go into it, but if you read the Scriptures, you will never find one person who is called (internally) by God who does not come to him. On the other hand, every person is called (externally) but does not always come to God.

This greatly affects evangelism and it should give you hope in witnessing! This takes pressure off of us to do any changing of somebody’s heart. Have you ever witnessed to someone and afterward said, “Well, I can’t change them. Only God can.” You are so right! Only God can. Only the Holy Spirit can turn off the spiritual blinders and quicken that person to life in Jesus. It should give you comfort that when someone accepts the gospel with full conviction they are chosen (1 Thes 1:4-5). Many evangelists say, “You are drowning and God is throwing you a rope and all you have to do is grab on to it.” That is not true. The Bible speaks of people who are spiritually dead, not morally ill (Eph 2:1-5; Col 2:13). A dead person cannot grab onto a rope. They are so dead they need a gracious, merciful God to dive into the bottom of the river and divinely resuscitate them to life. The great news is that everyone gets the free offer of the gospel because we do not know who the chosen ones are, just like the servants in the parable gave everyone the invitation to the wedding. They didn’t know who was chosen. Their job was to spread the word about the feast. That’s our job with evangelism: spread the news about the feast our great God is giving and let God work so that people come and sit at the table and savor his taste and see that he is good.

My second resolution that some are chosen and others are not is probably despised among Christians more than anything else I would say about this subject. Some will say, “All people are called. All you have to do is make a decision.” But, it is clear that is not the case. Never in the Bible does it say we need to make a “decision” for Christ. People use Revelation 3:20, “I stand at the door and knock…” to argue that Jesus knocks on everyone’s heart. Remember that Revelation 3:20 is speaking to believers-people who have been called, justified, are being sanctified, and will be glorified. Jesus is continually knocking on believers’ hearts.

In John 6:44, Jesus said to some Jews he was teaching, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.” This word “draws” in Greek is “helkuo” and literally means “to drag.” Later in this chapter, Jesus said the flesh profits nothing and only the Spirit gives life. He said that the words he has spoken are spirit and life “but there are some who do not believe.” Verse 64b says, “For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe.” So, Jesus knew some would believe and others would not. Then Jesus said in verse 65, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.”

Can anybody explain why some would come to saving faith and not others? Is it because you are more intelligent? That would be works. Is it because you made a decision to choose a religion that made more sense than others? That would be works because you could possibly boast about your decision. There is no boasting before God. He wants all the glory for himself. The only way we can explain that some come to saving faith and belief in Jesus is not that they “just made a decision” but rather that God “dragged” him to Jesus. “For by grace you have been saved through faith” (Eph 2:8). God gives us grace to have faith by calling us to himself. And this is not against man’s will, which we will get to in a minute.

I want to quickly address some passages that people would use to argue that Jesus died for everyone or the whole world. Passages like John 3:16, 2 Peter 3:9, Hebrews 2:9 and many others seem to say that the entire world of people has been redeemed. In John 3:16, the most popular verse, Jesus said that God “loved the world.” This “world” in Greek means “any aggregate or general collection of particulars of any sort.” Notice the word “particular.” God had particular people in the world in mind when he died for them. Not all people. Second Peter 3:9 would be a huge one as well for opponents of what I’m suggesting. The end of the verse says, “[The Lord} is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” First of all, who is the “you”? If we look at 3:1, we see it is the “beloved” (NIV: “dear friends”) which we know from 1 Peter 1:1 is the “elect exiles” who are scattered across Asia. These are Christians! Secondly, the word “all” in 2 Peter 3:9 is the Greek word “pas” which means “some of all types.” It would mean, “Some white, some black, some Hispanic, some Chinese, some rich, some poor, some young, some old, etc.” Technically, that is “all” people. This is the case in Hebrews 2:9 for the word “everyone.” It is the same Greek word. So, we can see that God does not desire for the “world of believers” to perish and that he tasted death for “all believers.” You can think of it this way. If you were having a staff meeting for work and the boss says, “Is EVERYONE here?” does he mean everyone in the world or everyone who is supposed to be there? This is the way it is used in the New Testament.

Let us finally go back to the king’s last statement in Jesus’ parable. “For many are called, but few are chosen.” We see this word “chosen.” This word makes a lot of people cringe. It makes them uncomfortable. What do you mean chosen, one might ask. How is that so or didn’t I have a choice, are other questions.

Yes, you did have a choice. And if you are a believer, you chose Christ. But God chose you first. Speaking to the disciples in John 15:16, Jesus said, “You did not choose me, but I chose you.” A better question than didn’t I choose or is my choice real is, “What (or who) is the ultimate source of a real decision?” Are you the baseline for all real choice, or is God? If God chose you (like we have seen is the case), then who is to say that your choice isn’t real? Do you feel like a robot, puppet, or voodoo doll if you are a Christian? Do you feel less real? NO! Of course not, who would say that? We must remember that this earth is not the ultimate source of reality. When the Holy Spirit moves in someone to draw them to Christ (what we call “monergism” as opposed to “synergism”), the glory of Jesus is what fills their heart and mind. They are enamored with his greatness! They taste and see that God is so great and worthy and count everything as loss for the sake of the cross! They are humbled by God’s power and grace and mercy and their sinfulness so much that they bow down in worship and weep before their Savior. That hardly seems to me like robotic decisions. God’s glory and his heavenly realm is the final and absolute source of all real decisions. This we must remember.

So, my third resolution stands as well. We must understand that our perspective is limited. Who are we to say to God, “Why did you make me like this?” (Rom 9:20). God is the potter and we are the clay. God designed life and eternity like this so he alone would be glorified. He shares his glory with no one. And God would not get glory if someone were to say, “I chose God on my own.” The Holy Spirit never stops pursuing the chosen ones. He cannot because they are chosen. “Those whom he has called he also justified.”

Take heart, Christian, this is something beautiful to believe. It is something important. It has helped me know God better. It has helped me love people more. It is something that has made me stand in awe of God Almighty and tremble. Knowing that God chose you should bring you to your knees and on your face in worship of the amazing, awesome, all-powerful God we serve. Nothing is out of his control or grasp. He is sufficient and great. His name will be made famous because by it men come to salvation. So the encouragement to everyone is don’t hold back and go invite people to God’s feast! Spread the word of God’s grace and forgiveness and give the free offer of the gospel to everyone! Enjoy God for your salvation and thank him for his mercy on those who believe.

“For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever. Amen.”

Amen.