And we have seen
and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the
world (I John 4:14).
Christ, in Scripture, is given the title, “the Saviour of the world.” (For example, the Samaritans in John 4:42 and the inspired apostle in I John 4:14)
Christ’s being “The Saviour of the world” has been interpreted in a number of ways, some are listed below:
Position 1: Christ actually died for each and every human head for head, but only to make a provision of salvation—the rest being dependent upon human beings and their "free will" to apply it to themselves (e.g., Arminians; Semi-Pelagains, etc.). (Note: Christ, in this view, is actually a Saviour of nobody; man himself, by his sovereign “free will,” is the real saviour…)
Position 2: Just like a
local council or ruler appoints a certain individual in a town or village to the
position of ‘The Village Doctor,” and that in one sense he is “the doctor of
all who live in the village; whether they actually go to him or not being
irrelevant; fact is, he is there for them should they need him”—the application
here being that God has appointed Christ to the office of “Saviour of the world,”
meaning, He is everyone’s Saviour, should any one us desire to come to Him; and
He is this, regardless whether anyone actually comes to Him or not. (Note:
This view is what’s called “stretching the Scriptures”; it takes no account of
what the actual words say and is unworthy of the name “exegesis”)
(I)
Prof. David J. Engelsma
In the theology of those who explain Jesus’ being the Savior of the world (in John 4:42 and I John 4:14) as described here, Jesus is actually the Savior of no one. At best, He is the ‘would-be’ Savior of the world. He likes to be the Savior of the world, that is, according to them, the Savior of every human without exception. But He actually saves no one. He merely makes Himself available as Savior to many, if they will have Him. Even then, on their view, He is not the Savior of the world, for there are many in the past and many today who live and die without ever so much as having heard of Jesus. They die in unbelief and, therefore, perish, unless, on the view of those who promote this understanding, humans are saved without faith in Jesus of whom they have heard [cf. Romans 10:14-15]. This leads me to the conclusion that those who promote this view are bound by their understanding of Jesus being Savior of the world to the conclusion that humans are saved apart from the gospel and faith in Jesus as presented in the gospel.
When Jesus is called the “Savior of the world,” the meaning is that He *saves* the world. Whatever and whoever the world of the text may be, Jesus saves it and them. He is not merely a ‘would-be’ Savior of the world, but *the Savior* of the world. The world of which He is Savior are *saved*. This is the text: “Savior of the world.”
Those who teach that the world of the text is all humans, many of whom perish despite Jesus’ desire to be the Savior of them, have a pathetically weak and dishonorable Jesus. Not only does His will fail to save multitudes, but also He actually saves no one. For if He wills to save all, whereas only some are saved, the explanation of the salvation of those who are saved is not the will and work of Jesus, but the will of those who are saved. Their will makes the difference and is the explanation of their salvation. They save themselves! How grateful to them Jesus must be that they render His effort to save humans successful in their case.
Those whose promote this view of the text must re-write it to read something like this: “the would-be Savior of the world, but the actual Savior, not only not of the world, but also not of anyone at all.”
The (serious) error that bedevils this Christ-dishonoring theology is misunderstanding of the “world” in the NT Scriptures. Seldom, if ever—if ever!—does it mean every human without exception. It certainly does not mean this in John 4 or I John 4:14. “World” in the NT refers to all the nations, the Gentiles, in distinction, from the nation of Israel, to which people in the OT the good news and its salvation were for the most part restricted. A grand and important truth revealed and carried out in the NT is that the gospel and its salvation extend also to the Gentile nations, for the salvation of the elect among the nations.… “World” refers to the nations, not to every human on earth. And in NT thinking, the reality of every nation is the elect in it. The salvation of the elect Dutch, of whom I am one, is the salvation of the nation of the Netherlands.
I repeat, John 4:42 (and I John 4:14) teaches that in the new dispensation, Jesus Christ is revealed as the Savior of all (Gentile) nations, whereas in the OT salvation was for the most part restricted to the nation of Israel, and Jesus Christ actually accomplishes the salvation of the nations by the salvation of the elect among them.
That the reality of a nation in the judgment of God is the elect in the nation should surprise no one. The Bible clearly teaches that the reality of Israel was and still is the elect in this nation, not all the Jews without exception. God saved and saves Israel by saving the elect Jews (Romans 9; Galatians 3).
Jesus *is* (not merely ‘would like to be’) the Savior of the world.
We Calvinists confess a glorious, effectual Savior, not a pathetic failure. (DJE, 13/05/2022)
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(II)
Augustine of Hippo (354-430)
[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.
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(III)
The Church of Smyrna (2nd Cent. AD)
[Source: Quoted in John Owen, The Death of Death in the Death of Christ (Banner of Truth, 2013), p. 310. This is an extract from a letter of the church of Smyrna to the churches of Pontus, giving an account of the martyrdom of Polycarp; emphasis added]
Neither can we ever forsake Christ, him who
suffered for the salvation of the world of them that are saved, nor
worship any other.
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(IV)
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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(V)
More to
come! (DV)
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