Are you familiar with Indulgences? Indulgences were like a kind of tax sold to people by the church to help them or their relatives purchase penance. If you sinned, or you feared a loved one was in purgatory, buying an indulgence became a way to make it right. Now we are all familiar with confession and doing penance in the Catholic Church. It is a practice that helps people admit their sins to God and move forward with an act of contrition, a way of saying you’re sorry. It is why we have a prayer of confession every weekend. During the time of the Reformation, 16th century, indulgences were getting out of hand, according to Martin Luther a German reformer who lived a generation before Calvin. He wrote his famous 95 theses about indulgences and nailed them to the door of the Wittenberg Church. Luther was sure that the Pope would not approve of taking money from the flock in order to fill the church coffers. A little proverb from that time said, “The moment the money tinkles in the collection box, a soul flies out of purgatory.” So through indulgences people could buy their way out. Luther feared that indulgences were misleading simple souls and turning penance into external acts, of payments and robbing them of meaningful contrition. The corrupt practice of indulgences sparked the reformation, started the challenge of the Pope’s authority and brought the question of salvation to the fore.
We are in the midst of a sermon series on John Calvin and his five points of theological thought. First we covered Total Depravity which argues that we are completely sinful because of the fall of Adam. Then last week we talked about Unconditional Election and how we can only come to God after God elects us, or extends grace to us. Today we are taking up Limited Atonement or “the how” and “the who” of salvation.
First we need to understand the idea of atonement. Throughout scripture, God calls humanity into relationship and repeatedly humanity falls short, because of total depravity. God always created a way for people to make restitution for their sins. In the OT reading, we heard of Day of Atonement – a time of sacrifice. This was an annual festival that would assure that all would make proper sacrifices to God. Through sacrifices the consequences of sins would be paid for by the blood of the animal and very often the person confessed their sin. Taking the blood and the life an animal is regrettable, but the worshipper is stained by sin and God allows the substitution of the pure life of the victim, to pay the penalty of sin. Offering sacrifices was God’s gracious provision for his sinful people.
Of course Christ became that perfect, holy and eternal sacrifice for God’s people. Never again would one need to sacrifice an animal, because Christ willingly became our mediator, offering the perfect atonement for sin; hence the title of Lamb of God. The crucifixion and Passover coincide, creating the ultimate gift of his life given to pay for sins. We all know sin creates a barrier between you and God, atonement is the way God makes things right. Even though the word atonement is not in the New Testament, yet the atoning work of Christ is a prevailing theme. The best way of thinking about atonement is At-One-Ment- meaning we are”at one” with God through the process of atonement. The barrier of sin is taken away and we are at one with God because of what Christ did on the Cross. We are at one with God through atonement.
The question soon becomes is atonement universal meaning available to all, or is it limited. One commentator writes, “Limited atonement is debated within Christian circles. We are free to agree with it and not agree with it. But it is worth noting that every true Christian believes in a form of limited atonement. Within the Reformed camp the limit on the atonement is in the scope. In other words, the atoning work of Christ is so powerful that all for whom the atonement has been made will be saved. On the other hand, the universal atonement position limits the power of the atonement since it says that not everyone who is atoned for will be saved. Where Reformed theology broadens the power of the atonement, it also limits the scope, where “Arminian” theology broadens the scope but lessens the power. Either way, a form of “limited” atonement is held by all Christians.” (https://carm.org/what-is-limited-atonement)
I need to make two disclaimers, Calvin did not write a great deal about limited atonement. Remember these five acronyms were established a century after Calvin. What he did write came in the section, “The way we receive the Grace of Christ.” Here he connects salvation to election and predestination. So it is a natural conclusion from his idea of election- God electing some- so that salvation only comes to some. The gospel writer John clearly notes that God has given some to Christ who is offering eternal life, and by default that means some will not receive it. Again Jesus says, “I am not asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those you gave me.” This raises the question of who will receive salvation.
As we talked about earlier, there are basically two ways of looking at atonement. Universal atonement, meaning what Christ did on the cross has a universal or all encompassing extent. Because Christ atoned for the sin of the world, all will receive the benefit. Yet there is usually a caveat provided. Salvation is possible for all, is sufficient for all, but the saving effect of atonement is realized in the individual only when some condition is met such as faith or obedience. That means we need to believe in God, have faith in Christ. That explains, from a universal perspective, why some are saved and others are not. This is contrasted with Limited Atonement. Here the death of Jesus Christ is more than sufficient to expiate, or wipe out, all the sins of all people, but God’s intention was to save the elect. Calvin did not believe that we could work our way to salvation, but that God elected us to receive it. Calvin asks this question, “Whence comes your salvation but from God’s election?” For Calvin salvation is God’s historical outworking of God’s election.
Yet as Christians we must meet certain conditions for salvation. I would like to mention two. First is belief in God and Jesus Christ. A tenant of the reformed tradition is that we are saved by faith alone. Calvin refined this in that through belief one will be joined to Christ’s body and participate in the atonement. In Calvin’s words, “Christ was given to us by God’s generosity, to be grasped and possessed by us in faith. By partaking of him, we principally receive double grace: namely that being reconciled to God through Christ’s blamelessness, we may have in heaven instead of a Judge, a gracious Father; and secondly, that sanctified by Christ’s spirit we may cultivate a blamelessness and purity of life.” (Instit. 3. 11.1) Calvin took that last part very seriously, because he expected a very high moral standard of his flock, so much so that elders, an office he created, were truly disciplinary officials and would check on the moral conduct of the members to see if they could receive communion.
Are you familiar with setting a baseline? That is the setting of a standard or typical level of functioning in a job or emotional well-being, anything. A good way of thinking about atonement is to say that when we sin we fall from our baseline. Our baseline is a place of neutrality and we go into a deficit or negative place. Atonement is the way of restoring us to the baseline- of paying the debt and returning us to where we were before. That is why sacrifices continued to be needed. Salvation is so much more. Through salvation the debt is paid once and for all, but also be grafted into Christ, joining into his inheritance, sharing in his grace, we are lifted to new life. Calvin quotes II Corinthians, “for our sake Christ who knew not sin was made sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” We might become the righteousness of God. Salvation is not just returning to a baseline, because of what Christ voluntarily did on the cross, we are lifted up into the righteousness of God. For Calvin this righteousness is justification. That’s the second point. Now justification is a big word, and Calvin talked about it a great deal. Simply put to justify means two things to acquit of guilt, and to accept. Justification is our gracious acceptance by God and the forgiveness of our sins, both of which we receive only through the intercession of Christ’s righteousness.
Do you remember when forever stamps first came out? I was living in Remsenburg NY where everyone had a P.O. Box. So Ray the postmaster let me in on a little secret. A forever stamp costs the current first class rate of 41 cents but it will always and forever grant you permission to send a letter first class no matter how much the postage goes up to. So now 8 years later with postage at 49 cents, you save 8 cents on every letter if you purchased the forever stamps when they were first released. This is a perpetual rate, a promise that no matter what happens in the future this stamp will get your letter to its destination. When Christ paid for our sin, that was one price, but we keep sinning and it seems like the price keeps going up. Through justification God’s gracious acceptance, God gives you this stamp that will guarantee Christ’s atonement for your sin, and Christ will deliver you to salvation- no matter what sin lies ahead. God’s forever stamp.
Of course Christ paid an enormous debt, Christ bore the sins of the world and appeased God‘s displeasure with humanity so that through his life, death and resurrection we could be reconciled to God. Yet Calvin writes that the work of atonement comes from God’s love. “God embraced us before the creation of the world” and “God shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.” Of course he is quoting Romans. I think sometimes Calvin’s thought is expressed without this deep dedication to the love of God. For salvation and atonement are given by God so that we can be in right relationship with God. To use John’s words, “This is eternal life; this is salvation that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” (John 17:3)
Now whether you believe atonement is limited or not, there is one thing on which we can stand. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but have eternal life.” The hope and strength of our salvation is found in Jesus Christ and God our heavenly Father who claims us as his own. Amen.
