TULIP or BEERS: Limited Atonement

Limited Atonement

God limited His atonement to only those who are elect. When Jesus died on the cross, He did not die for the sins of the whole world; He only died for those He wanted to go to Heaven.  Christ died to atone for specific sins of specific sinners. He did not atone for all men, because obviously all men are not saved. 
(according to biblehelp.org)

Extravagant Atonement

When Jesus died for all mankind, He remedied the terminal condition that we are born into and made possible a way for us to be restored, to know forgiveness, and to be loved in a way that has nothing to do with our own merit.  Sin was dealt with decisively on the cross as Christ willingly gave His life to defeat the power of death and alienation that ruled over His creation.  His crucifixion was a cure for sin, the root of brokenness.  Jesus bore the complete weight of the curse of sin and death FOR US and put an end to (condemned) the hold that sin had over mankind.

Conclusion

My first inclination upon hearing and reading about limited atonement was, “you must be kidding!”   But no, the people who hold to this position are serious about it.

If you haven’t gathered it by now, I believe that Christ’s atonement is inclusive and effective for all mankind.  In the next post, we will talk more about our response to this.

There is a helpful list of verses at Biblehelp.org that are applicable to this topic.  You may not agree with all of the categories or summaries (I don’t), but it is helpful to see many of these verses listed together.