Arthur Dent:

Christ died for all, in the sufficiency of his death, but not in efficacy unto life; for only the elect shall be saved by his death; as it is written,  This is my blood in the new testament, which is given for you, meaning his disciples and chosen children. And, again, Christ, being consecrated, is made  the author of salvation to all that obey him.

Arthur Dent, A Plain Man’s Pathway to Heaven (Belfast, Edinburgh, Glasgow Brighton, 1859), 210.

[Note: This stated form of the formula could be taken as expressive of either the classic or of the revised construction. What is interesting is the apparent representational intention, ‘Christ died for all in this sense.’ It was this apparent intentionality that motivated many to restate the formula, thereby removing any hint representation and intentionality, of Christ dying representatively for all even with regard to the sufficiency of the merit and ransom of Christ. Thus, we now know the formula as “Christ’s death is sufficient for all, but efficient for the elect.” Now the emphasis is purely on the death’s intrinsic sufficiency. What is more, so many modern readers, read the older formula as if it meant to say nothing more than the revised expression seeks to communicate; which is not a lot in actuality.]

This entry was posted on Friday, August 15th, 2008 at 7:14 am and is filed under Sufficient for All, Efficient for the Elect. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

Comments are closed at this time.