We Have Now Received the Atonement

The word “atonement” in Romans 5:11, as found in our King James (Authorised) Version Bible, means reconciliation.¹

The main part of the same word (in the original Greek) is translated “reconciled” in the preceding verse: “For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement [i.e. the reconciliation]” (Romans 5:10-11).

These verses teach us that “we” Christian converts have already received this reconciliation to God. We have now received the atonement. Our Saviour has already reconciled us to God.

The verses that follow the “atonement” statement above contain the apostle Paul’s famous long parenthesis (verses 12-21)—an extended argument in which he compares Adam, the Covenant Head of the whole human race, with Christ, the Covenant Head of the elect.

The Free Gift

There is one verse within Paul’s long parenthesis which, if its context is not considered carefully, appears to support the Arminians’ idea that the Lord Jesus Christ has been crucified for the sins of all mankind: “Therefore as by the offence of one [Adam] judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one [Christ] the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life” (v.18).

Arminians assert that one and the same group of “all men” is being spoken of throughout this argument—that the phrase “all men” means every fallen human being, past, present and future. Thus, all mankind is under condemnation, but then—“the free gift came upon all men”.

There are three candidates for the correct interpretation of this passage, and of other passages in the Bible that have to do with the extent of salvation:

• Real universal atonement: Christ died for “all men,” meaning every fallen human being; therefore every fallen human being is, or will be, saved.
• Hypotheical universal atonement (Arminianism and variations, e.g. free-willism, decisionism): Christ died for “all men,” meaning every fallen human being; therefore every fallen human being is hypothetically or potentially saved—but now individually they need to put their faith in Christ, in order to make the atonement “real for them,” or effective in their personal case.
• Real limited atonement² (Calvinism): the “all men” for whom Christ died, and thereby saved, does not include every fallen human being.

The problem for Arminianism, both here in Romans chapter 5 and elsewhere in the Bible, is that their argument that “all means all, the entire human race, head for head” ends up disproving very doctrine that they are attempting to prove: namely, hypothetical universalism.

No, Paul’s teachings will not allow that interpretation. The apostle affirms, in Romans 5:

• Those who are substituted by Christ in his death “have now received” the atonement (v.11);
• The gift of justification by grace “hath abounded” (past tense) unto many (v.15);
• The free gift of justification of life has “came upon” (past tense) the “all men” for whom Christ died (v.18);
• And therefore, having recieved this free gift, all these men, “shall be” made righteous (v.19).

Our Saviour’s death on the cross has already accomplished the atonement; justification by grace; justification of life; making righteous—for all those people for whom he died. And all these are applied to believers when they come to believe.

Therefore the Calvinist position is correct: in verse 18, the “all men” upon whom Adam’s sin actually brought condemnation is not (in extent) the same “all men” upon whom Christ’s righteousness brought justification of life.

Appendix

James Fisher et al., An Exposition of the Shorter Catechism, Question 25:40-44 (supplemental to Q. 25 of the Westminster Shorter Catechism).

Q. 25:40. What is the blessed effect and consequence of Christ’s perfectly satisfying the justice of God?
A. It is the reconciling us to God (Romans 5:10).

Q. 25:41. How does the satisfaction of Christ reconcile us to God?
A. It discovers the love of God, in providing such a ransom for us; and this love, apprehended by faith, slays the natural enmity against God (1 John 4:10,19).

Q. 25:42. When is it that the elect are actually reconciled to God?
A. When, in a day of power they are determined to come to “Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling” (Hebrews 12:24).

Q. 25:43. Why is the blood of Jesus called the blood of sprinkling?
A. To distinguish between the shedding and the application of his blood (Exodus 24:8); and also to point out the necessity of the one, as well as the other, for reconciliation and pardon (Ezekiel 36:25).

Q. 25:44. How may we know if we are reconciled to God?
A. If we are dead to the law as a covenant (Romans 7:4); and are content to be eternal debtors to rich and sovereign grace (Psalm 115:1).

John Brown of Haddington’s Self-Interpreting Bible, at Romans 5:17-19.

V:17. And therefore, if by the destructive fall of one mere man as their representative, death, in all its forms, has invaded, subdued and exercised dominion over all men, through their polluting connexion with him, much more they, who are made partakers of the rich abundance of God’s love and favour through Christ, and have his infinitely valuable righteousness imputed to them, are so inerested in all the abundant blessings purchased by it, shall enjoy a glorious freedom from sin and death, reign honourably in grace and glory, in union to, and in fellowship with, Jesus Christ.

V:18. But, notwithstanding such circumstantial differences, the manner of conveying Adam’s guilt and Jesus’s righteousness is the very same in substance; for, as by one offence of Adam, sin, and through it condemnation to death, spiritual, temporal and eternal, came upon all his natural posterity; so by the righteousness of our one Mediator and surety Jesus Christ, and by the pardon of all sins, past, present, and to come, and an acceptance unto life, temporal, spiritual, and eternal, cape upon all his spiritual seed.

V:19. For, as by the imputation of Adam’s sin of eating the forbidden fruit, all his natural posterity are legally charged with it, and so, judicially constituted sinners, and being condemned as such, are brought under the punishment of an unholy and depraved nature, prone to all evil; so, by the imputation of Christ’s holiness of nature, obedience of life, and satisfactory sufferings, all his elect seed shall be judicially constituted, and in justification declared righteous and brought under a holy influence to sanctify their nature.