Bible Truth #136 - Ephesians 5:25

Ephesians 5:25

Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;

Whom did He love? For whom did Christ give Himself? For whom did He suffer and die on the cross? His Church.

Those who believe in decisional salvation may say, “Wait a minute. It says He ALSO loved the church. He loves everyone else too.” I refer you back to Bible Truth #66 in which I cover Psalm 5:5 and 11:5, God does NOT love everyone. There ARE those He hates. The word “also” in this context is a similitude, an example of how a man should love his wife, not a clause within which something else is added.

This is the L in the acronym T.U.L.I.P. Limited Atonement - if He died for every soul who ever lived, and since there ARE people in Hell, then His blood wasn’t enough, was it? It is hard to understand why the Arminian believes there are people in Hell today for whom Christ died. The Arminian claims, “What is needed is the Blood of Christ AND something else, something provided by the human. That being “acceptance” of the gift of salvation.” That is false. Christ’s Blood and His Blood alone is all that is needed. There is no “joint cooperation” between God and man regarding salvation. This is called synergism, which is false. Salvation is monergism, a work of God and God alone. God decided and chose to whom the Blood would apply before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4).

synergism - the doctrine that the human will cooperates with the Holy Spirit in the work of regeneration.

This theory is found NOWHERE in God’s Word.

monergism - the doctrine that the Holy Spirit acts independently of the human will in the work of regeneration.

Why does the Holy Spirit act independently? He must because lost man, if left to his own “free will,” will NEVER come to Christ, he hates Christ (John 3:20) and can't please God (Romans 8:8).

http://www.reformationtheology.com/2006/04/christ_loved_the_church_quote.php
http://www.reformationtheology.com/2006/04/monergism_v_synergism_quote_by.php
http://cicministry.org/commentary/issue93.htm