1 John 4:14-15 “And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Saviour of the world. (15) Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.”
The final witness quoted above, is the apostle John. Very clearly in this passage, the Holy Spirit through the apostle John confirms to us just who Jesus came to save, for He tells us that Jesus came as the Saviour of the whole world. Again, this means that no one is excluded. And so clearly through the Son as Saviour of the world, God has made provision for everyone to be saved. And so, without a doubt, all four of the witnesses quoted in this section agree on the same point, that God has made it possible for every man to be saved. Sadly however, it’s on this point that many believers stumble, because in their natural thinking, they cannot understand how God could make His Son suffer for the sins of those who He knew would reject His salvation. For example, think about those who were already in hell by the time Jesus went to the cross. The question is asked, why God would do such a thing. The answer to that question is twofold; firstly God is good, and as a perfect God He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good (Matthew 5:45-48), and so in the same manner His Son died for the sins of both the evil and the good. Secondly, God is honest, and throughout the history of man God had left Himself a witness, so that all the nations would come to Him (Acts 17:26-28). And then going forward from the cross, for God to tell His church to proclaim the gospel of salvation to all the nations (Matthew 24:14), knowing that in reality there was no salvation for those nations, because His Son had only died for the sins of a select few, would make God dishonest, which He is not, for it is impossible for God to lie (Hebrews 6:18). And so, God Who is love, sent His Son to die even for those He knew would never accept Him. The natural mind cannot understand that level of sacrificial love, but the spiritual mind understands it completely. Now as I stated in the previous section, there are some in the church that would try twist the scriptures quoted in this section, by saying they actually mean something other than what we simply read, but again in order to try prove to us that these scriptures actually mean something else to what we simply read, they have to depart from the simplicity of Christ.
Michael E.B. Maher
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