CONCLUSION

Fundamental to the doctrine of faith in John Calvin (1509-64) is his
belief that Christ died indiscriminately for all men . . . Had not Christ died for all,
we could have no assurance that our sins have been expiated in God’s sight. . . .’¹

The evidence that Calvin was a limited redemptionist is far more extensive
than the few quotations offered by writers like Murray and Helm . . . would indicate.
There is . . . a wealth of explicit and unambiguous statements in Calvin to the effect
that Christ died only for the elect. . . .²

‘Well, what was Calvin’s view?’ This is a question. I have frequently been asked when people learn that I studied Calvin’s doctrine of the atonement. They are asking, of course, whether Calvin subscribed to a doctrine of limited atonement, the view that Christ died only to save the elect, or unlimited atonement, the view that he died to save everyone. As the quotations above demonstrate, scholars have strong and contrary opinions on this matter.

I will address Calvin’s view of the extent of the atonement at the beginning of my conclusion for two reasons. First, because there continues to be great interest in the subject. Of the twenty two Calvin sources that I added to the bibliography for this edition, half deal with this issue. Second, I will discuss Calvin on the extent of the atonement, an issue he does not address in the Institutes, because after having dealt with this issue, we will be able to focus on the many things he does address in the Institutes concerning the work of Christ.

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