You say that Christ died for His people, His sheep, His friends, for His Church and yet 1 John 2:2, speaking of Jesus, states, “He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.” How do you explain that?
I can certainly see how someone would use this verse to undermine the reformed doctrine of Particular Redemption, yet Scripture, I believe, is not contradictory to itself. There is one Divine Author of Scripture and He does not contradict Himself. So how are we to understand 1 John 2:2?
I have written elsewhere about the principles of correct interpretation of scripture. There is only one correct interpretation of scripture. Though there may be many applications of a verse, it only means what it was intended to mean when it was written.
In my article entitled “Playing Marbles with Diamonds” I refer to a number of principles of biblical interpretation (hermeneutics), three of which would apply here:
1. Consider the Author – who wrote the book? (what was his background, language, culture, vocation, concerns, education, circumstance, what stage of life?)
2. Consider the Audience (why was the book written? who was the audience? what would these words have meant to its original recipients?) Continue reading
“Jesus gained a supreme and ultimate victory over satan and his demons at both the cross and the resurrection – not just the resurrection. Of course, a dead Savior can’t save anyone. Jesus did need to rise from death and His resurrection vindicated all His claims (Rom 1:4). As Jesus bore the wrath of God for sin, neither satan nor his demons were laughing for even a moment. In fact though in the eyes of the world it was Jesus who looked like a public spectacle – a source of ridicule and scorn – yet, in the spiritual arena, Jesus was not losing, but winning, winning, winning and if we could see with spiritual eyes, it was the devil who was put to open shame. Jesus was able to say “It is finished” while still hanging on the cross (to say “paid in full”) and made the devil a public spectacle, as He cancelled all the sins of the people of God, He bore our sins in His body on the tree (1 Peter 2:24), and the Scripture reveals that the veil of the temple was torn in two on Good Friday (Matt 27:51), not resurrection Sunday, indicating that the wall of separation between God and man had been forever broken down. The cross of Jesus Christ was the consummate victory, and not a defeat in any way at all, and all the demonic host knew it! Though the serpent bruised His heel, Jesus crushed the serpent’s head (fulfilling Gen 3:15)! Hallelujah!”
Hebrews 9:23 Therefore it was necessary for the copies of the things in the heavens to be cleansed with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. 24 For Christ did not enter a holy place made with hands, a mere copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us; 25 nor was it that He would offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the holy place year by year with blood that is not his own. 26 Otherwise, He would have needed to suffer often since the foundation of the world ; but now once at the consummation of the ages He has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. 27 And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment, 28 so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him. (NASB)