The words of this
verse were spoken by the Baptist. The lamb of God, namely, the daily sacrifice,
takes away the sin of the world, as the sacrifice did for all Israel. In the Old Testament, the remedy was
universally applicable to that particular people, Israel. But here we have the true Lamb of God that
takes away the sin of the world. Ryle
quotes Calvin approvingly when he remarks that the writer, John, “extends this
favour indiscriminately to the whole human race, that the Jews might not think
he had been sent for them alone.”[1] The entire race is under divine condemnation,
but the divine remedy is offer to all without exception on condition of faith,
or as Calvin puts it here “by the guidance of faith.”
For him, John uses
the singular number, referring to “the sin” and not “the sins” of the
world. Says Ryle,
“The
expression seems to me purposely intended to show that what Christ took away,
and bore on the cross, was not the sin of certain people only, but the whole
accumulated mass of all the sins of all the children of Adam.[2]
Neither
Ryle nor Calvin places any restriction on the meaning and implication of the
text because Scripture does not.
Believing as they do that Scripture is clear on these important matters,
the natural meaning of the words is good enough for them, and therefore
followed. To limit the author’s intent
is to do injustice to his thought, and both Calvin and Ryle eschewed that
vigorously. Ryle delves into the hidden
purpose of God in the Cross when he mentions His intention for Christ in His
death. Clearly, it was to atone for the
sins of all men, not a limited few (relatively speaking). It was all-encompassing in its intent and
limited to the “whosoever believes,” in effect.
Ryle’s
limited understanding of things divine is expressed quite honestly when he
states that he rests in the inscrutableness of the divine will and purpose when
the world’s sin was laid on, borne by and atoned for in Christ.[3] It is inclusive of “all the men and women in
the world.” Repudiating the idea of
“universal salvation” as a “dangerous heresy,” and “utterly contrary to
Scripture,” Ryle asserts that “the lost will not prove to be lost because
Christ has done nothing for them. He
bore their sins, He carried their transgressions, He provided payment.”[4] Since He has done all that for the world, no
one having been provided out of the love of God for His creatures, can be said
to die without an offered and available, willing and able Saviour.[5] Their own stubborn refusal to trust Christ is
the cause of their eternal lostness, not any pre-creation decree passed by
God. As Ryle preaches, “He set the
prison door open to all, but the majority would not come out and be free.”[6]
So,
for Ryle, it is the act and attitude of unbelief that damns sinners, not any
insufficiency on the atonement.
“Christ’s atonement is a benefit which is offered freely and honestly to
all mankind. ... the true meaning [is] that the Lamb of God has made atonement
sufficient for all though efficient unquestionably to none but believers.[7]”
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