God's Will: Universal Salvation

Say to them: 'As I live,' says the Lord God, 'I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For why should you die O house of Israel?'

(Ezekiel 33:11)

In the previous section, we explored God’s perfect will and His permissive will. In this section, we will establish that salvation is God’s perfect will, while damnation is His permissive will. In other words, God desires all people to be saved, yet He permits individuals to reject His salvation—His perfect will for their lives—resulting in damnation, which aligns with His permissive will. Consequently, God casts into hell those who choose to reject His salvation.

Scripture teaches that truth is established by the testimony of two or three witnesses (Matthew 18:16). To confirm that it is God’s perfect will for all people to be saved, I have cited not just two or three but four witnesses: Ezekiel the prophet, Jesus Christ the Lord, Paul the apostle, and Peter the apostle. Many other scriptures affirm this truth, but four witnesses suffice to meet the biblical requirement. The first witness, quoted above, is the prophet Ezekiel. In this passage, God instructs His prophet to declare that He takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked but desires that they turn from their evil ways and live. Clearly, if God desires the salvation of the wicked, He also desires the salvation of the righteous. Thus, this passage reveals that it is God’s perfect will for all people to be saved.

For the Son of Man has come to save that which was lost. "What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them goes astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine and go to the mountains to seek the one that is straying? And if he should find it, assuredly, I say to you, he rejoices more over that sheep than over the ninety-nine that did not go astray. Even so it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.

(Matthew 18:11-14)

The second witness is the Lord Jesus Christ. This passage reveals several important truths. In its context, Jesus focuses on little children, placing a child among His disciples and teaching that children are already part of God’s kingdom. He explains that we must become like them (born again) to enter the kingdom. The lost sheep Jesus refers to are those who were once part of His kingdom as children but as adults have died spiritually and thus become lost to His kingdom (for more details, see my series Of Such is the Kingdom). The key point here is that Jesus declares it is not the will of God the Father that any little one should perish. This clearly teaches that God’s perfect will is for all people to be saved.

For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time,

(1 Timothy 2:3-6)

The third witness quoted above is the apostle Paul. As always, the apostle Paul is very clear and concise in revealing the will of God to us, and in this case it is no different. For in the above passage, Paul plainly tells us by the divine inspiration of the Holy Spirit, that it is God’s express desire that all men should be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. The Holy Spirit couldn’t make it any plainer than that even if He tried.

The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.

(2 Peter 3:9)

The fourth witness quoted above is the apostle Peter. It is always encouraging to see the similarity between the gospel messages of the apostle Peter and the apostle Paul. The reason I say this is that both men received their gospels directly from the Lord Jesus Christ, independently of each other. Yet time and again in Scripture, we see that what Paul taught, Peter taught as well. And in this instance, it is no different. In the passage of Scripture quoted above, the apostle Peter, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, plainly tells us that it is not the will of God the Father that anyone should perish, but rather that all should be saved.

Thus, we have now quoted four witnesses in this section who all say the same thing: that it is the perfect will of God our Father that all people should be saved. There are some in the Church who try to twist these scriptures, claiming they mean something other than what is plainly written. But in attempting to prove that these scriptures mean something else, such individuals are forced to depart from the simplicity of God’s Word—something the apostle Paul warns against (2 Corinthians 11:3).

Michael E.B. Maher

Predestined to His Purpose

Buy Now

Donate

Payoneer