Particular Redemption

[Carbon]

The Scriptures teach, as the result of what Jesus did and suffered, his people (the elect) are reconciled to God, justified, and given the Holy Spirit who regenerates and sanctifies them. These blessings were all secured by Christ Himself for His people.

A - Christ, by his redeeming work, secured reconciliation for his people.

For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. Romans 5:10.

18 And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;

19 To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. 2 Cor 5.

15 Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace;

16 And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby: Eph 2.


21 And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled

22 In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight: Col 1.

 

[Carbon]

B - Christ secured the righteousness and pardon needed by his people for their justification.

24 Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:

25 Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; Rom 3.

8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

9 Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. Rom 5.

30 But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: 1 Cor 1.

13 Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree: Gal 3.

 

[Josheb]

I think it important to include the points of sufficiency and efficiency lest the less informed reader misconstrue the two opening posts. The redemptive work of God through His resurrected Son is sufficient to save everyone, but it is applied only to those God saves, those God chooses to save and not those He chooses not to save. God is sovereign, almighty, and not in any way dependent on the creature, the sinful creature, when He saves. That necessarily excludes any possibility He has predicated his choice and His actions on the work or will of the creature. We need Him. He does not need us or anything of us. Ever.

And this is evidenced when the "we," you," and "us" of the epistolary is correctly identified. For example, the "we" of Romans 5:10 is "all who are beloved of God in Rome, called as saints," and, by extension all those who are beloved of God and called as saints outside of Rome (both spatially and temporally). Likewise, the "us" of 2 Cor. 5:19 is, "the church of God which is at Corinth with all the saints who are throughout Achaia." Neither the "we" or the "us" can or should be identified as the not-yet-saved-still-dead-in-sin unregenerate. Both the "we" and the "us" of those two passages are people who are already saved, not people who are never saved. It is completely inappropriate (exegetically and logically) to apply the conditions of those verses to the unregenerate. The same holds true for all the rest of the verses cited in the two opening posts. What we're reading in those verses is God's application of redemption. Every single verse is particularly specific to the saint and not applicable in more generalized manner to all sinners.



And when we read Christian teachers who fail to correctly identify and exegete the inherent audience affiliations explicitly stated in scripture, we have reason to dismiss what they say because they've made a fatal error at the foundation of their teaching. Everything built on that error is incorrect. They've got a bad soteriology when it comes to redemption.