In his excellent book, From Glory to Golgotha, (Christian Focus Publications, Ross-shire, 2002), Prof Donald Macleod unashamedly presents authentic Calvinism when he writes about the atonement. In his other writings, a similar practice can be discerned, as in his A Faith To Live By. He moves effortlessly from saying that Christ 'offers the world redemption' to 'what His death would mean to His people,' and His mind being 'preoccupied with love for his own.' Macleod fully accepts that reformed believers and preachers can say with confidence that "Christ died for you," that "He died for sinners," affirming, since all are sinners, He, in that sense, died for all.
The following quotations reveal what the author thinks about this central Gospel doctrine.
"He has disclosed what he has prepared for those who love him (1 Cor.2:9-10), the mystery of his decision to exercise clemency and show pity to a lost race." (59). (Emphasis his).
"He is himself the cure: Come unto Me. As he understands himself he can offer rest to the whole world - to every man, woman and child. Fully conscious of the magnitude of the problem and visibly so frail and vulnerable, he offers the world redemption from its tyrannies and deliverance from its neuroses." (61). (Emphasis his.)
I have no doubt that as Donald Macleod's writings are examined, it will be discovered that he holds to the reformed principle that the death of Christ is "sufficient for all, efficient for the elect." This paradigm makes best sense of the antinomies of the Gospel. There are very many universalistic texts about the design of the atonement in the Scriptures, and there are texts that state that Christ died for His people, His sheep. Macleod strikes the proper balance in these books; may all reformed preachers 'go and do likewise.'
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