Bible Truth #269 - 1 Corinthians 15:1-3

1 Corinthians 15:1-3

1  Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand,

2  by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain.

3  For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,

...Christ died for OUR sins according to the Scriptures.

This is one of the many verses that support the Biblical position of Limited Atonement. Christ did NOT die for the sins of every human who ever lived, that is false. He died for our sins.

Think about it. If Christ died for the sins of someone burning in Hell at this very moment, then the Arminian is saying that the Blood Jesus shed is not enough. Do they believe that? Does the Arminian really believe that salvation is through the shed blood AND man’s acceptance? That a man has to do something before God will save him?

That is synergism, and synergism is false.

Sorry, anything man has to do BEFORE God saves him negates the “finished” work Christ did on the cross. Immediately before Christ died He cried out, “It is finished” (John 19:30), EVERYTHING that needed to be done was done. There is nothing man has to do to gain salvation. There is nothing man CAN do to gain salvation. There are, however, many things he will do as the result of God quickening his dead spirit. Things like believe and repent.

So - for whose sins did Christ die? OUR sins. And if you go back to 1 Corinthians 1:2, Paul tells us to whom he is writing - the Church of God in Corinth, those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be holy, all those everywhere who call on the name of Jesus. Those are the ones for whom Christ shed His precious Blood, His Elect. Jesus Himself said that His Blood will be shed for many, He did not say all (Mark 14:24).

God's Elect are the ones He has chosen and placed IN Christ before the foundation of the world. (Ephesians 1:4). They, and they ALONE, are the only ones for whom Christ died.