And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us
to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of
reconciliation; 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 (II Cor. 5:18-19).
HYPO-CALVINIST ARGUMENT:
This text is appealed to in support of a
death of Christ for all men. The idea is that “world” means all men, head for
head, including the reprobate.
Herman Hoeksema (1886-1965)
[Source: The Protestant Reformed Churches in America (1947), p. 344; emphasis added]
The “world” [among other things] may also mean the totality of the saved out of the world, because the saved are gathered from every nation and tongue and tribe and not merely from a single nation or group.** A plain illustration of this connotation you find in II Cor. 5:19: “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. They that would interpret the word “world” in this text as meaning all men, must needs distort and deny the true meaning of the word “reconciliation.” To reconcile always implies the blotting out of sin. That this is also implied in the text is evident from the words “not imputing their trespasses unto them.” It is clear, then, that this “world” is actually saved in the blood of Christ. It is reconciled. But, then, either is true: “world” does not mean “all men,” otherwise “all men” are saved. The latter is not true; hence, “world” does not signify all men, but the totality of the saved out of every nation.
** On pages 343-344, Rev. Hoeksema demonstrates
from Scripture that “world” can also mean (1) “creation in its organic sense …
without having respect to individual creatures” (John 3:16) and (2) “this
present world as it is in sin and corruption … the works of God … from the
viewpoint of their being dominated by the wicked” (John 14:30; 16:11; 17:9, 16;
I John 2:15-17)
[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.
More to come! (DV)
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