The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and
saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world (John 1:29).
This verse is
cited by many in Christendom to teach a death of Christ for all men head for head,
bar none, including the reprobate.
(I)
Marinus
Schipper (1906-1985)
[Source: The Standard Bearer, vol. 59, no. 2 (October 15, 1982), pp. 27-28]
He it is that takes away the sin of the world.
The sin of the world? Which world?
Important it is that we pause for a moment or two to find the answer to that question. Does [John] the Baptist refer to the world (cosmos) of ordered things as they came into being by the word and power of the Creator? That is the meaning of the term when the Scriptures speak of the world apart from the facts of sin and grace. You find it in such passages which speak of what God did “before the foundation of the world.” It is obvious that the Baptist does not have that world in mind, for he speaks of the sin of the world.
What then? Does he perhaps speak here of the world as it has come under the power of evil? Of the world of which the devil is prince? The wicked world which we are commanded not to seek or to love? The world which is passing away? Though it is true that the Baptist is speaking of the sin of the world, it should be plain to us that he cannot have in mind the world that perishes in the way of its sin, but of the world that is saved. Moreover, to say that the Lamb of God takes away the sin of that world would militate against all Scripture, which denies universal atonement or the salvation of all men head for head.
That leaves then but one conclusion, that he must refer to the world of which the apostle John later speaks in this gospel: “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). That is the world of God’s good pleasure, the object of His eternal love. That is the world of which God’s Son in the flesh is the firstborn of all creation (Col. 1:15, 18).
That is the world of the new creation of
which the apostle John writes in his Revelation, where he in
prophetic vision sees the first heaven and earth passed away, and a new heaven and earth, in the center of which is the new Jerusalem, and the tabernacle of God is with men, and God dwelling with His people, and wiping all tears from their eyes; where there is no more pain, no sorrow, no death; where all the former things are passed away (Rev. 21:1-4). That is the world for which God sent His Son, which He purposed to save, and for which He prepared and sent His Lamb.
That world’s sin He takes away!
To understand this, we must remember that the world of God’s election historically and organically had its origin in the world of sin and death. We must also remember that it was God’s eternal purpose to realize the world of His good pleasure through the way of sin and grace (Ephesians 1 and Colossians 1). Hence, the sin of the world of God’s good pleasure is the sin of Adam, our first father; and the natural depravity of the world is the depravity in which each of God’s elect is conceived and born. All the elect, whether Jew or Gentile, are under sin (Romans 3:9). Into that state and condition the law of God came, only to magnify and to make that sin and depravity to become exceeding great (Romans 7: 18-25).
What should be clearly understood is the Scriptural truth that, though it is true that the Lamb of God came into the world which lay under the power of sin and death, He did not come to save all sinners, nor to make salvation possible for all men if only they would believe on Him. We repeat, God did not send His Lamb to redeem the world that perishes and passes away. But He came to take away the sin of the world of His good pleasure, the world which is the object of His eternal love, the world of His election.
For the sin of that world of God’s good pleasure, the God of our salvation prepares and sends His Lamb, His sacrifice of atonement. He makes Him to be sin, Who knew no sin, in order that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him (II Cor. 5:21).
It is in this connection that we learn from Scripture that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself (II Cor. 5:19).
That He takes away the sin of that world means literally,
first of all, that He lifts it up, raises it from the shoulders of that world,
and then bears it away never to return. And noticeably, the Baptist uses the
term in its present tense, which means that, as John saw Him, He was in
the very act of removing
the sin. It means that from the moment of His
birth to the moment of His death the Lamb of God was
taking away the sin of God’s world. That also
explains the reason for His circumcision and baptism. Indeed, He was the holy
child Jesus, Who knew no sin; but He was made sin, and the sin and guilt of His
people rested upon Him. And through the way of the shedding of His blood, of
which circumcision and baptism were the signs, He must enter into the world of
sin and darkness, and lead out the world of God’s good pleasure. Not only is He
the sin-bearer of God’s world, but as the Lamb of God He must take that sin
away—all of it. And in its place, He gives His righteousness; the righteousness
of God.
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(II)
Herman
Hoeksema (1886-1965)
[Source:
The Triple Knowledge, vol. I, pp.
641-642; emphasis added]
This dare not be understood in the sense that He suffered
and died and brought the sacrifice of atonement for every man individually, nor
even that it was His intention to do so. Nor may the expression that occurs
elsewhere in our Confessions (Canons
II, 3) that the sacrifice of Christ is “of infinite worth and value, abundantly
sufficient to expiate the sins of the whole world,” be understood in the sense
of general atonement. Christ suffered for His elect. Them and them alone He
represented according to the counsel of God. For His own, for the sheep His
Father had given Him, He laid down His life. He did not suffer more than was
necessary to redeem them. Not one drop of blood that was shed by the Saviour
was shed in vain. Those for whom He suffered are surely redeemed and saved.
However, also the Scriptures employ similar expressions as occur in our
Confessions. John the Baptist points Him out as “the Lamb of God, which taketh
away the sin of the world.” And the
apostle John writes: “And he is the propitiation for our sin: and not for ours
only, but also for the sins of the whole
world.” But these expressions, as well as similar terms, must be
understood organically, rather than individualistically. They refer to the
whole organism of the race, to the elect from every nation, and tongue, and
tribe, and not to every individual man. After all, mankind, and not a few
individuals, is saved; but it is saved in the elect. The world is redeemed, but
it is the world of God’s love, not every individual man. And it is in that
same sense that the words of the Catechism
must be understood that Christ sustained the wrath of God against the sins of all mankind. For those, in whose stead and
in whose behalf, He bore the wrath of God, are surely redeemed by His blood.
Everlasting righteousness and eternal life He obtained for them. And what He
obtained for them by His suffering, He surely bestows upon them by His
sovereign grace.
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(III)
Louis Berkhof (1873-1957)
[Source: Systematic Theology (Banner of Truth, 2005), pp. 395-396; emphasis added]
a. There are passages which teach that Christ died
for the world, John 1:29; 3:16; 6:33,51; Rom. 11:12,15; II Cor. 5:19; I John
2:2. The objection [to the doctrine of limited atonement] based on these
passages proceeds on the unwarranted assumption that the word “world” as used
in them means “all the individuals that constitute the human race.” If this
were not so, the objection based on them would have no point. But it is
perfectly evident from Scripture that the term “world” has a variety of
meanings, as a mere reading of the following passages will prove conclusively,
Luke 2:1; John 1:10; Acts 11:28; 19:27; 24:5; Rom. 1:8; Col. 1:6. It also
appears that, when it is used of men, it does not always include all men, John
7:4; 12:19; 14:22; 18:20; Rom. 11:12,15; in some of these passages it cannot
possibly denote all men. If it had that meaning in John 6:33,51, it would
follow that Christ actually gives life to
all men, that is, saves them all.
This is more than the opponents themselves believe. In Rom. 11:12,15 the world
“world” cannot be all-inclusive, since the context clearly excludes Israel; and
because on that supposition these passages too would prove more than is
intended, namely, that the fruits of the
atoning work of Christ are actually applied to all. We do find in these
passages, however, an indication of the fact that the word “world” is
sometimes used to indicate that the Old Testament particularism belongs to the
past, and made way for New Testament universalism. The blessings of the gospel
were extended to all nations, Matt. 24:14; Mark 16:16; Rom. 1:5; 10:18. This is
probably the key to the interpretation of the word “world” in such passages as
John 1:29; 6:33,51; II Cor. 5:19; I John 2:2; Dr. Shedd assumes that the
word means “all nations” in such passages as Matt. 26:13; John 3:16; I Cor.
1:21; II Cor. 5:19; and I John 2:2; but holds that in other passages it denotes
the world of believers, or the Church, John 6:33,51; Rom. 4:13; 11:12,15. Kuyper
and Van Andel also assume that this is the meaning of the word in some
passages.
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(IV)
Robert Lewis Dabney (1820-1898)
[Source: Systematic Theology (Banner of Truth, 2002), pp. 524-525; emphasis added.]
The usual
explanation, offered by the strict Calvinists, of these texts [John 1:29; 3:16;
4:42; 6:51; 12:32; I Cor. 15:22; II Cor. 5:14,15; 5:19; I Tim. 2:6; 4:10; Heb.
2:9; I John 2:1,2 etc.] is this: that terms seemingly universal often have to
be limited to a universality within certain bounds by the context, as in Matt.
iii:5; that in New Testament times, especially when the gospel was receiving
its grand extension from one little nation to all nations, it is reasonable to
expect that strong affirmatives would be used as to its extent, which yet
should be strained to mean nothing more than this: that persons of every
nation in the world were given to Christ. Hence, “the world,” “all the world,”
should be taken to mean no more than people of every nation in the world,
without distinction, &c. There is a certain amount of justice in these
views; and many of these passages, as I Cor. xv:22; Jno. i:29, and xii:32, may
be adequately explained by them.
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[Source: Quoted in John Owen, The Death of Death in the Death of Christ (Banner of Truth, 2013), p. 312]
He often calleth the church itself
by the name of the world; as in that, ‘God was in Christ reconciling the
world unto himself;’ and that, ‘The Son of man came not to condemn the world,
but that the world through him might be saved.’ And John in his epistle saith,
‘We have an Advocate, and he is the propitiation for [our sins, and not for
ours only, but also for] the sins of the whole world.’ The whole world,
therefore, is the church, and the world hateth the church. The world, then,
hateth the world; that which is at enmity, the reconciled; the condemned, the
saved; the polluted, the cleansed world. And that world which God in Christ
reconcileth to himself, and which is saved by Christ, is chosen out of the
opposite, condemned, defiled world.
Neither can we ever forsake Christ, him who suffered for the salvation of the world of them that are saved, nor worship any other.
Ambrose of Milan (340-397)
[Source: Quoted in John Owen, The Death of Death in the Death of Christ (Banner of Truth, 2013), p. 311. Owen notes that Ambrose then “proceeds at large to declare the reasons why, in this business, ‘all’ and ‘the world’ are so often used for ‘some of all sorts.’”]
The people of God hath
its own fulness. In the elect and foreknown, distinguished from the generality of all, there is accounted a certain special universality; so that the whole world seems to be delivered from
the whole world, and all men to be taken out of all men.
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