One thing that I got from John Owen’s The death of death in the death of Christ is this:
Christ either died for:
1) all the sins of all men or
2) some sins of some men or
3) some sins of all men or
4) all the sins for some men.
The first instance is universalism, which we know is not biblical. The second instance would mean that Christ did not die for all of a person’s sins, and obviously if He didn’t, then they could not be forgiven. The third one, same thing. This leaves us with the last option, which is the biblical one. Then, how is it that these “some men” are chosen?
I think it is is interesting that many of us who have come to a reformed understanding of salvation were first arminian in our beliefs. In a sense this protects us from stumbling and thinking well what if I am not one of the elect, can I still be saved? So it is interesting that later as we study more in depth and understand more of Who God is and especially His sovereignty, we come to understand the doctrines of grace. And I think this leads us to what is the underlying problem today in people’s understanding. They start with man: man’s wants, man’s needs, man’s rights, what man “deserves”, etc. etc. When you start with man, then you decide that it isn’t fair if everybody can’t be saved because we “deserve” it. Even solid churches can do this. We are so steeped by our culture in humanistic thinking that we can hardly get beyond it. During our last US election people were willing to boldly proclaim that they even have a right to government subsidized birth control. Even the international community has a list of what are human rights. Man’s ideas about what he deserves is seemingly limitless. (BTW What does the Bible say that sinful man deserves?)
But where does the Bible start – with God! This is essentially what you must do to understand reformed theology. You start with God, His sovereignty, His Kingship, His rights as Creator, as Judge of all mankind, His just and holy nature and so on. There are so many key scriptures to understand this. Here are just two: Isaiah 14:24, 27 and Daniel 4:35. Then when you have begun to understand the holy and just character of our Creator God and only then, you go to sinful man. We need God elevated in our minds, not man!
