“Why doesn’t God just save everyone?”

In an article on the Christian Q&A website “Got Questions,” we find a fairly standard Christian answer provided to the following question: “Why doesn’t God save everyone?” (https://www.gotquestions.org/God-save-everyone.html) In this article, I’m going to be arguing that “Got Questions” fails to provide a scripturally sound answer to this question, and thus fails to defend the position that God isn’t going to save everyone.

Before I begin responding to the points made in the “Got Questions” article, it should be pointed out that “Got Questions” completely undermines its own response to this question in other articles found on the “Got Questions” website. For example, in its articles defending the Reformed doctrines of “unconditional election” (https://www.gotquestions.org/unconditional-election.html) and “irresistible grace” (https://www.gotquestions.org/irresistible-grace.html), we find a completely different reason provided for why God doesn’t save everyone. Consider the following excerpts from these other articles:

“God could have chosen to save all men (He certainly has the power and authority to do so)…He instead chose to save some and leave others to the consequences of their sin.”

“…God is sovereign and can overcome all resistance when He wills to. What God decrees or determines will come to pass…Certainly, if God is sovereign and all-powerful, as the Bible declares Him to be, then He could bring about the salvation of all men, if that was His decreed or pre-determined will.”

“…apart from God’s supernatural work in the life of a sinner, men will always choose to reject God and rebel against Him…”

“God elects people to salvation by His own sovereign choice and not because of some future action they will perform or condition they will meet. Those who come to Christ become His children by His will, not by theirs.”

“…whatever God decrees to happen will inevitably come to pass, even in the salvation of individuals. The Holy Spirit will work in the lives of the elect so that they inevitably will come to faith in Christ. The Bible teaches that the Holy Spirit never fails to bring to salvation those sinners whom He personally calls to Christ (John 6:37-40).”

We further read that the real reason why one person believes the gospel while another does not is because God “does something unique in the hearts of those who are saved,” and that “those who believe the gospel and are saved do so because they have been transformed by the Holy Spirit.”

In these articles, we find a clear affirmation of the scripturally-supported position that God has the power to “bring about the salvation of all men,” and that God is absolutely sovereign over, and responsible for, who becomes a believer in this lifetime, and who doesn’t. We’re told that “God is sovereign and can overcome all resistance when He wills to” and “could bring about the salvation of all men” (i.e., by transforming the hearts of all sinners, and thus making the unwilling willing). Thus, according to the position defended in these articles, we could conclude the following: if all sinners are not going to be saved by God, then it’s only because it’s not God’s intention that all be saved.

Instead of appealing to God’s sovereign will when answering the question “Why doesn’t God save everyone?” the “Got Questions” article to which this article is a response instead appeals to human “free will” (and God’s supposed unwillingness to “force salvation on the unwilling”). Consider, for example, the following excerpts:

“God will not allow even His overwhelming love to violate our free will. Why doesn’t God just save everyone? Because He will not violate the free will He has given us.”

“[God] won’t force salvation on the unwilling. Why doesn’t God just save everyone? Because gifts must be willingly received.”

Now, I’m not going to speculate on why such a glaring inconsistency exists on the “Got Questions” website (there are several possible reasons that could account for it). However, the fact that there is an inconsistency is worth noting, for it exemplifies an inconsistency that seems to exist in the minds of at least some Christians with regard to the question of why God doesn’t save everyone (especially when they’re pressed to provide an answer that is consistent with what I suspect they know, deep down, to be true with regard to God’s ability to transform the heart of any sinner and bring anyone he chooses to a place of repentance and faith).

Now, after some introductory remarks (designed, it would seem, to prepare the reader to accept the unsatisfactory answers provided in the remainder of the article), we read the following in response to the question “Why doesn’t God save everyone?”:

When [God] created Adam, He got down in the dirt and formed his body from clay. Then He blew into the man’s nostrils, “and man became a living soul” (Genesis 2:7). It was the image of God that separated mankind from all other living creatures. That “living soul” was immortal, meant to last forever. God had chosen to create a being so like Him that the man could reason, reflect, intuit, and choose his own paths. Without that right to choose, human beings would not bear God’s image (see Genesis 1:27). God respects what He has created to such an extent that He will not allow even His overwhelming love to violate our free will. Why doesn’t God just save everyone? Because He will not violate the free will He has given us.

There are a number of problems with what is said in the above paragraph. The first problem concerns the idea that being “a living soul” (Gen. 2:7) is what separates mankind “from all other living creatures.” Although humanity was created in God’s image and according to his likeness (Gen. 1:26-27; 9:6), this idea is not being expressed in, or implied by, the fact that we are “living souls” (although, to be sure, being a “living soul” is a necessary precondition to being a divine image-bearer). It’s made clear in the first two chapters of Genesis that non-human animals are “living souls” as well (Gen. 1:20-21, 24; 2:19). That is, both living humans and non-human animals possess a capacity for sentience (or “soul”). They’re also described as having the same life-sustaining spirit that was breathed into the nostrils of Adam (Gen. 6:17; 7:15, 22) – i.e., the spirit that we’re elsewhere told returns to God (click on the link for a more in-depth consideration of this subject). Thus, with regard to our being “living souls” and having the “spirit of life,” there is no difference between humans and non-human animals. Instead, the divine image in which we were created has more to do with our unique capacity to subdue the earth and to “hold sway…over all the earth and over every animal that is moving on the earth” (Gen. 1:28).

Moreover, this unique capacity is based on our biologically advanced design and nature, and not on something that is (or that makes us) “immortal, meant to last forever.” Although God is and always has been immortal and incorruptible (Rom. 1:23; 1 Tim. 1:17; 6:16), Scripture is clear that immortality is not something that naturally or inherently belongs to humans. Instead, we begin our existence just as mortal and corruptible as every other “living soul” that God created. When we die (i.e., become lifeless), we must remain dead (lifeless) until we’re resurrected. There is no part of us that continues to live and consciously exist after we die, and which survives our death; when our body dies, we die. The only human who is presently immortal is Jesus Christ, and he was not made immortal until he was resurrected by God (for a defense of the reality of Christ’s pre-resurrection death – and, by implication, the reality of death for all who have died – click the following link: http://thathappyexpectation.blogspot.com/2020/12/a-defense-of-reality-of-christs-death.html).

But what about what the author of the article referred to as “our free will”? The author seems to be using the expression “free will” to refer to a “right to choose” that man has supposedly been given – i.e., the right to “choose [our] own paths.” According to the author, God will not “violate” this “right” because it is essential to man’s status as a creature made in God’s image. And this, apparently, means that, if any of God’s image-bearing creatures have chosen a “path” that eventually leads to a place or state that most Christians have in mind when they speak of “hell” (or “eternal separation from God”), then God can’t intervene in such a way that prevents them from arriving at their “self-chosen” destination. This idea, however, is incompatible with what Scripture reveals concerning God’s sovereign control over the life and destiny of his human creatures. Consider, for example, the following verses from the book of Proverbs:

Proverbs 16:1

The plans of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from Yahweh.

Proverbs 16:9

The heart of man plans his way, but Yahweh establishes his steps.

Proverbs 16:33

The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from Yahweh.

Proverbs 19:21

Many are the plans in the heart of a man, but it is the purpose of Yahweh that will stand.

Proverbs 20:24

A man’s steps are from Yahweh; how then can man understand his way?

Proverbs 21:1

The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of Yahweh; he turns it wherever he will.

The truth affirmed in these verses contradicts the idea that human beings are able to act outside of, and contrary to, what God has purposed for our lives (or that the “paths” we choose to walk can somehow take us somewhere other than where God has already planned for us to go). In the last verse quoted above, the inspired writer singled out kings to make the following point: not even the most powerful men on earth are exempt from God’s providential control over the lives of human beings; God can just as easily turn the heart of a king (and thereby direct world affairs) to accomplish his purpose as he can direct the steps of every other inhabitant of the earth. For some more examples where we find the truth of God’s control over the hearts of human beings affirmed, see Deut. 2:30; 30:6; Josh. 11:19-20; Ezra 6:22; 7:27; Ps. 33:14-15; 105:23-25; Jer. 24:7; Ez. 36:22-27, 31-32; Rev. 17:16-17.

Echoing the truth expressed in the proverbs quoted above, the prophet Jeremiah affirmed this understanding of God’s providential control over men’s lives as follows:

“I know, O Yahweh, that the way of man is not in himself, that it is not in man who walks to direct his steps” (Jer. 10:23).

What we read in these and other similar verses is not “advanced truth” that only mature or exceptionally intelligent students of Scripture should be expected to grasp. Rather, it’s a fundamental truth of Scripture that nothing can prevent God from accomplishing what he wills (Job 42:2; Ps. 115:3; 135:6; Isa. 46:10; 55:11). In fact, seven years after his “right to choose” was “violated” by God, King Nebuchadnezzar came to understand this basic truth as well. In Dan. 4:35 we read that Nebuchadnezzar declared the following:

“All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, but he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, “What have you done?””

It is with respect to their ability to thwart or frustrate God’s will (as expressed in the words “stay his hand”) that “all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing.” We can therefore conclude that, although humans have a will and the ability to make choices, no human can thwart God’s sovereign plan for his or her life (or anyone else’s life). In fact, according to what we read in Eph. 1:11, God is “operating all in accord with the counsel of His will.” There is, consequently, nothing that occurs that isn’t “in accord with the counsel of [God’s] will” (and this necessarily includes the “steps” that each person takes in life, and the “way” in which he or she goes). Nor is there any scriptural basis for the idea that being made in God’s image has anything at all to do with having the ability to operate outside of God’s purpose.[1] The belief that humans can, by the exercise of their will, successfully withstand God’s intention and frustrate his purpose (which, of course, includes God’s will to save any individual whom God wants to save at a certain time) is simply not in accord with what Scripture teaches.

But what, exactly, is God’s will with regard to mankind’s salvation? Paul tells us in 1 Timothy 2:4:

“God…wills that all mankind be saved and come into a realization of the truth.”

Keeping this verse in mind, it’s worth noting that the author of the “Got Questions” article later concludes the article as follows:

C. S. Lewis has famously stated, “There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done,’ and those to whom God says, in the end, ‘Thy will be done.’ All that are in Hell, choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no Hell. No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. Those who seek, find. Those who knock, it is opened” (from The Great Divorce).

Since Scripture is clear that God wills the salvation of all mankind (and since C.S. Lewis was likely not ignorant of this fact), the implication of what Lewis “famously stated” is that all who end up in “Hell” will be there because they were able to successfully thwart the will of God (in fact, Lewis himself elsewhere referred to those in “Hell” as “successful rebels to the end”). However, the belief that there will be any such thwarting of God’s will by “successful rebels” is not compatible with what Scripture reveals concerning the sovereignty of God and the absolute supremacy of his will.

The Greek verb translated “wills” in 1 Tim. 2:4 is theló, and means to decide, intend or purpose something. In Romans 9:16, the word is used to refer to man’s volitional activity (“Consequently, then, it is not of him who is willing, nor of him who is racing, but of God, the Merciful”), and in v. 18 it’s used to refer to God’s (“Consequently, then, to whom He will, He is merciful, yet whom He will, He is hardening”). Similarly, in v. 22 it refers to God’s intention to “display his indignation and to make his powerful doings known” by patiently carrying “the vessels of indignation, adapted for destruction…”[2]

Notice that, when God’s will is in view, the word refers to something that, by virtue of God’s willing it, shall necessarily occur (or has already occurred/is occurring). In fact, every other time that Paul used this word in his letters to refer to God’s volitional activity, he had in mind something that, by virtue of being willed by God, would be caused by God to take place (or which had already been caused by God to take place). Consider the following examples:

1 Cor. 4:19

“Yet I shall be coming to you swiftly, if ever the Lord should be willing, and I will know, not the word of those who are puffed up, but the power.”

1 Cor. 12:18

“Yet now God placed the members, each one of them, in the body according as He wills.”

1 Cor. 15:38

“…God is giving it a body according as He wills, and to each of the seeds its own body.”

Col. 1:25-26

“…the secret which has been concealed from the eons and from the generations, yet now was made manifest to His saints, to whom God wills to make known what are the glorious riches of this secret among the nations, which is: Christ among you, the expectation of glory…”

In no instance did Paul ever use this word to refer to something that God would like to occur, but which will not ultimately take place. The will of the Creator will ultimately prevail over the will of the creature; whatever God intends to do, he does. As Paul’s imaginary objector correctly affirms in Rom. 9:19, no one can successfully resist God when it’s his intention that something occur. Thus, with regard to his ability to save anyone whom he wills to save, God has no limitations. There is no one whom God could intend to save at a particular time but then find it impossible – or even difficult – to do so. In Matt. 19:23-26 we read the following:

Now Jesus said to His disciples, “Verily, I am saying to you that the rich squeamishly will be entering into the kingdom of the heavens. Yet again, I am saying to you that it is easier for a camel to be entering through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to be entering into the kingdom of God.” Now, hearing it, the disciples were tremendously astonished, saying, “Who, consequently, can be saved?” Now, looking at them, Jesus said to them, “With men this is impossible, yet with God all is possible.”

The last words quoted above express an absolute divine truth that is applicable to any individual and time period (whether a person is dead, alive or yet to be born). God does not share the limitations that his human creatures have, and can accomplish the salvation of anyone he chooses whenever he chooses to do it. And the fact that relatively few will be entering the kingdom of God during the coming eons of Christ’s reign (which is the salvation that’s in view in this passage) in no way means that God is unable to save those who won’t be entering into this kingdom during this time. God is fully able to save everyone; the fact that few are being saved during this present eon simply means that it’s not God’s will for the majority of people to be saved during this time. God’s will that all mankind be saved is not being accomplished for everyone at the same time. It’s being accomplished for a few now, and for everyone else later.

After affirming God’s will to save all mankind in 1 Tim. 2:4, Paul went on to write the following in verses 5-7:

“For there is one God, and one Mediator of God and mankind, a Man, Christ Jesus, Who is giving Himself a correspondent Ransom for all (the testimony in its own eras), for which I was appointed a herald and an apostle (I am telling the truth, I am not lying), a teacher of the nations in knowledge and truth.”

Since the word translated “correspondent Ransom” in v. 6 (antilutron) refers to the payment by which a person’s release from captivity (or some other undesired condition) is secured, it follows that everyone for whom Christ gave himself a ransom will, in fact, be saved. But saved from what? Answer: from the condemnation of which our sins make us deserving. In other words, everyone for whom Christ gave himself a correspondent ransom when he died in obedience to God shall be justified (Rom. 5:18-19). But for whom did Christ give himself a ransom? Answer: for “all.” And in the immediate context, the “all” for whom we’re told Christ gave himself a ransom refers back to “mankind” (anthrōpos), and thus includes the same number of individuals whom we’re told God wills to save (i.e., “all mankind”).

Moreover, Scripture is clear that, when God roused his Son from among the dead, he made him Lord of all and gave him all authority in heaven and on earth (Matt 28:18; Acts 2:36; 10:36; Rom 14:8-9; Phil 2:9-11). And with this unlimited, universal authority, Christ has the power to “subject all to himself” (Phil. 3:21). No prior “willingness” on the part of those yet to be subjected to him is required in order for Christ to bring about their subjection. As was so clearly manifested in the dramatic calling of the apostle Paul (Acts 9:1-22), Christ can exercise his authority to bring about the salvation of any of the sinners he came into the world to save without the sinner doing or believing anything beforehand to “qualify” for salvation. It is completely within Christ’s power to eradicate unbelief from the heart of even the most stubborn of sinners, and to produce within them the unfeigned love and heartfelt obedience by which God is glorified. Concerning this fact, A.E. Knoch wrote the following:

“The apostle Paul’s case is of surpassing significance in its bearing on the salvation of unbelievers. He was the foremost of sinners, and it cannot be denied that, among men, there was no case quite as desperate as his. All question as to God’s ability to save vanishes in the light of his call on the Damascus road. The miraculous means employed in his case surely would suffice for every one of God’s enemies.” (All in All, p. 93)

On the road to Damascus, Paul was neither seeking out God, nor repentant, nor deep in prayer contemplating whether or not to “accept Jesus as his personal Savior.” He was, instead, “still breathing out threatening and murder against the disciples of the Lord,” and trying to hunt down more believers in order to have them led back to Jerusalem in chains (Acts 9:1-6). Though overflowing with religious zeal, he was deep in unbelief, and utterly oblivious to the fact that he was living in rebellion against the true Messiah and Lord of the universe. Yet when the appointed time came (Gal 1:13-16), Christ appeared to Paul and subjected him to himself in an instant with the glorious revelation of who he is. As a result of his remarkable encounter with the risen Christ, Paul was permanently changed, and his will fully yielded to Christ – and this took place without any resistance from Paul. Paul’s words in 1 Tim. 1:14 (“Yet the grace of our Lord overwhelms, with faith and love in Christ Jesus”) even suggest that there was nothing Paul could’ve done to prevent the faith and love that resulted from his life-changing encounter with Christ.

Moreover, despite the commonly-held Christian belief that Christ can’t save those who die in unbelief (and who are devoid of love for God), the fact is that it’s no more difficult for Christ to resurrect and save a dead unbeliever than it is for him to save a living unbeliever. He can accomplish the former just as easily as he can accomplish the latter. Just as death cannot prevent Christ from resurrecting a person who lived and died in a state of unbelief, so it cannot prevent Christ from transforming a person into a loving and faithful servant of God.

We go on to read the following in the “Got Questions” article:

We can reflect His glory in ways unique to our design (Proverbs 16:7; Psalm 147:11; 149:4). Or we can reject His love and His commands (Ezekiel 8:17; 33:11; 2 Kings 22:17). God’s act of creating us can be compared to a husband and wife who are perfectly happy and content in themselves, but they decide to have a child. That decision brings with it the potential for exceeding joy and exceeding sorrow. They have chosen to alter their lives by creating a vulnerability that they did not have to create. As they love and care for that child, they long for the child to love them back. But they won’t force the love, because forced love is not love at all. Why doesn’t God just save everyone? Because our love for Him must be voluntary.

Underlying the idea that God is unable to save everyone because “our love for Him must be voluntary” is the assumption that God is subject to the same limitations as his creatures. We cannot bring about the conditions and circumstances that would effectively result in another person loving someone whom they do not yet love; we have neither the wisdom nor the power to accomplish something that would involve someone else undergoing a radical change of heart. We cannot guarantee the removal of false beliefs and selfish desires from someone else, or cause them to value or care about that which they do not presently value or care about. And since we cannot accomplish such a feat, it’s assumed by many Christians that God cannot do it, either. But as we’ve seen, such a man-centered, God-belittling assumption as this is contradicted by what Christ himself declared concerning what God is able to do. Since God is able to save anyone he wills to save – and since being saved ultimately involves becoming a person who loves God with all of his heart, soul, mind and strength (and who loves his neighbor as himself) – then it follows that God is able to successfully transform any person who doesn’t love him into someone who does (and this includes anyone who is no longer living, or who has yet to be born).

Now, in Romans 8:28, believers are referred to by Paul as “those who are loving God.” Moreover, our love for God is a direct result of God’s love having been “poured out in our hearts through the holy spirit which is being given to us” (Rom. 5:5). As John declared elsewhere concerning believers, “We are loving God, for He first loves us” (1 John 4:19). But why do some believe and others don’t? Answer: Because it is God’s will that some believe and others don’t. In John 6, Christ taught that no one could come to him (which, in the context, meant believing on him) unless God had previously drawn them to himself (see verses 36-40, 44). In v. 45 Christ explained this “drawing” by God to mean being “taught of God” – i.e., hearing from the Father and learning the truth. All who were being drawn by God at this time came to Christ (believed on him), and it is these whom Christ said he would “raise up on the last day,” and who will thus “have life eonian.”

It should be noted that, in the context of this chapter, Christ was explaining why those to whom he was speaking had not believed on him (v. 36). Christ attributes the unbelief of these people to the fact that God had not given them to him, by means of drawing them. Had they been drawn by God, they would’ve come to Christ (i.e., believed on him). Since they didn’t believe, it’s evident that they hadn’t been drawn by God, and weren’t among those whom God was giving to Christ for him to “raise up on the last day.” Christ gave the same explanation for unbelief later on in this chapter, when speaking concerning Judas. In John 6:64-65, we read the following: 

“There are some of you who do not believe.” (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.) And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.” 

The words, ”…no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father” refer back to Christ’s words in v. 44 (”No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him”), and were understood by Christ as being the explanation for why Judas did not believe. According to Christ, then, all who were coming to him (believing on him) during his earthly ministry were doing so because it had been granted them by the Father to come to Christ (i.e., believe on him). It is these whom Christ will be raising up on the last to enjoy eonian life. Since not all Israelites will be raised up by Christ on the last day, it follows that God was only drawing, and giving faith to, some. In accord with this fact, we read in John 1:12-13 that those to whom God was giving the right to “become children of God” (and who “are believing in His name”) were “begotten, not of blood, neither of the will of the flesh, neither of the will of a man, but of God.”

We read elsewhere that no one could become truly acquainted with (and “see”) God except those to whom Christ had chosen to reveal him (Matt. 11:25-27; cf. 13:11). In fact, Christ declared that no one could receive even one thing unless it had been given to them from God (John 3:27). This would necessarily include one’s faith. In accord with this fact, we read in 2 Peter 1:1 that those to whom Peter wrote had “been granted a faith just as precious as ours” (NET Bible). The word translated “granted” here is related to a verb that means “to obtain by lot” (see Luke 1:9; John 19:24; Acts 1:17), and indicates that those to whom Peter wrote had obtained their faith on the basis of God’s choice and selection (cf. 1 Pet. 1:1-2). In contrast with the believing Jews to whom Peter wrote, we read in 1 Pet. 2:7-8 that the unbelieving were “appointed” to the stubbornness that caused them to be “stumbling at the word.” 

Paul also clearly believed that both repentance and faith were gifts from God, and that those who have repented and come to believe the truth have done so only because it was God’s will that they (and not others) do so. In 2 Timothy 2:24-25, Paul wrote the following: 

“Now a slave of the Lord must not be fighting, but be gentle toward all, apt to teach, bearing with evil, with meekness training those who are antagonizing, seeing whether God may be giving them repentance to come into a realization of the truth…” 

Notice that it was not merely an opportunity to repent that Paul believed had to be given by God. Rather, it was repentance itself (with the implication being that those to whom God gave repentance would, in fact, repent and “come into a realization of the truth”). As is the case with repentance, Paul also understood that a person’s faith was also a gift from God. God has assigned a “measure of faith” to every member of the body of Christ (Rom 12:3), and those who believe on Christ do so because it was “graciously granted” to them by God to believe (Phil 1:29). So, it is not just that salvation is a gift from God (although it is). More than this, the very preconditions for salvation (e.g., repentance and faith) are gifts of God as well. Hence, Paul could rhetorically ask the saints in Corinth: “For who is making you to discriminate? Now what have you which you did not obtain?” (1 Cor. 4:7). Everything we have – including the “measure of faith” by which we are able to believe “the word of truth, the gospel of our salvation” – was given to us by God (Acts 17:25). Nothing we have originates with us.

In accord with this view, Paul understood that it was God’s grace – not his own innate goodness, desire or willingness – that was the source of his faith and love (1 Tim 1:13-14). When a person believes and becomes a “new creation in Christ,” this is no less the sovereign work of God than was the original creation; it is all God’s doing (2 Cor. 5:17-18). Apart from God’s spirit at work in our mind and heart, we would have no interest in spiritual things (1 Cor. 2:14). Our hearts must be opened by God just so that we will pay attention to what is being said when the gospel is heralded to us (Acts 16:14), and those who hear and believe the truth do so only because they were “appointed” (or “set”) by God for this (Acts 13:48). No one becomes a believer (or even remains an unbeliever) apart from the divinely-controlled circumstances that God is using to accomplish his redemptive purpose in the world.

God pours out His love and provision on this earth (Matthew 5:45), desiring that His human creations acknowledge His truth and love Him back. He makes Himself known in thousands of ways (Psalm 19:1; 97:6; Romans 1:19–20), working behind the scenes to bring us into a position to reach out to Him (Isaiah 46:10–11; Proverbs 16:33). He provides, protects, and blesses, giving mankind numerous opportunities to look up and find Him (Matthew 5:44; Jeremiah 29:13; Romans 2:4). But He won’t force salvation on the unwilling. Why doesn’t God just save everyone? Because gifts must be willingly received.

The claim that “gifts must be willingly received” (with the implication being that a blessing from God cannot be given and enjoyed by someone unless he or she “willingly” accepts it) is false. Paul, for example, declared to the Athenians that God “gives to all life and breath and all” (Acts 17:25). No one has had to “willingly receive” these gifts from God before they could begin enjoying them. We also read of “the grace which is given to us in Christ Jesus before times eonian” (2 Tim. 1:9). Since those to whom this grace was given in Christ Jesus were not alive “before times eonian,” it follows that this grace is yet another gift from God that was not “willingly received” when it was given.[3]

In the same way, we read in Romans 5:15 that the “gratuity in grace” that is “of the One Man, Jesus Christ” shall super-abound to the same “many” who died as a result of “the offense of the one.” Since “the many” to whom Paul was referring in this context is everyone into whom death passed through as a result of Adam’s sin – i.e., “all mankind” (Rom. 5:12-14) – it follows that all mankind shall obtain the superabundant grace secured by Christ’s death, and thus “shall be constituted just” (v. 19). And just as Christ died for our sins apart from our consent, so the ultimate outcome of Christ’s death for our sins (the justification of all mankind) will be brought about apart from our consent as well. No one will have to (or has had to) “willingly receive” the “superabundance of grace” and “gratuity of righteousness” that will ultimately be obtained by everyone for whom Christ died.

God has given His very best—His only begotten Son—to settle our sin debt (John 3:16–18; 2 Corinthians 5:21). He does not take the rejection of that offer lightly. The Father who watched His own beloved Son be tortured to death for the benefit of an ungrateful mob refuses to degrade that sacrifice by deciding later that it was not truly necessary (see Acts 4:12; Isaiah 42:8). Why doesn’t God just save everyone? Because salvation can only come through faith in Christ. “Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life” (1 John 5:12).

If only those who, through faith in Christ, “willingly receive” salvation will be saved, then it would follow that all who die as infants/young children (as well as adults who live and die without the mental capacity to believe) will never be saved. But I’ve never heard any Christian affirm or defend this view. Even those Christians who claim that they can’t be “dogmatic” on the subject (because of a supposed lack of scriptural revelation or clarity) seem entirely open to the possibility – and are in fact inclined to believe – that those who die in early childhood or in a mentally handicapped condition will be saved by virtue of Christ’s redemptive death. Consider, for example, the following statement from another “Got Questions” article:

“We believe that all infants and young children who die before the age of moral accountability go straight to heaven.”

What’s so remarkable about this statement is that, earlier in the same article, we were told the following:

“The Bible tells us that even if an infant or child has not committed personal sin, all people, including infants and children, are guilty before God because of inherited and imputed sin…Infants are just as guilty as adults are before the righteous God of the universe…The only way God can be just and at the same time declare a person righteous is for that person to have received forgiveness by faith in Christ…Salvation is an individual choice.”[4]

In accord with the above, we’re told elsewhere (in an article titled, “What is the Christian Doctrine of Salvation?”) that salvation ”is only available through faith in Jesus Christ.” Since those who die in infancy and early childhood die without faith in Jesus Christ (and thus without receiving the forgiveness that is by faith in Christ), we would expect “Got Questions” to deny that this category of human beings will be saved. After all, we’re assured that those who die in infancy and early childhood die in a state of “inherited and imputed sin.” However, that’s not the position we find affirmed on this website.

So, on the one hand, we’re assured by most Christians that “salvation is an individual choice” and that salvation is “only available through faith in Jesus Christ” (and by “salvation” they clearly mean going to heaven rather than to “hell” for “all eternity”). On the other hand, it’s also commonly believed by Christians that a vast number of human beings who die without having ever had faith in Jesus Christ will, in fact, be saved and “go straight to heaven!” However, for Christians to make any category of human beings an exception to the requirement that one must believe in Christ in this lifetime in order to be eternally saved is to completely undermine the position that faith (as well as repentance) is absolutely necessary to being eternally saved. That is, the exception that most Christians are willing to make for infants/young children (and many mentally handicapped people) completely invalidates their belief that only those who have faith in Christ before they die will be saved.

Moreover, as I’ve demonstrated elsewhere (see, for example, the following two-part article), the salvation that comes through faith in Christ is “life eonian” (or “age-lasting life”). That is, the salvation that is for believers involves having life that will continue for, and be enjoyed during, the future ages/eons of Christ’s reign. This is the “life” to which John was referring in the verse quoted above (i.e., 1 John 5:12; cf. verse 11 and 13). Those who don’t receive this blessing of life are not, however, “eternally lost”; they simply won’t be immortal during the eons of Christ’s reign. But they’re still among the sinners whom Christ came into the world to save, and their salvation is thus no less certain to take place than is the earlier salvation of believers.

Omitting the quote by C.S. Lewis (on which I remarked earlier), the “Got Questions” article concludes with the following:

We err when we, from our earth-bound perspective, magnify the love of God out of proportion to His justice, righteousness, and wrath toward sin (Romans 1:18; Isaiah 61:8). Sin is serious, and the debt against our Creator must be paid (Colossians 2:14). We can accept Jesus as our substitute (2 Corinthians 5:21), or we can pay for sin ourselves in eternity (Matthew 25:46; Jude 1:7).

Since it’s believed by the author of the “Got Questions” article that God saves some sinners by virtue of Christ’s death, he or she must admit that this belief does not “magnify the love of God out of proportion to His justice, righteousness, and wrath toward sin” (whatever he or she means by this). Nor would the author affirm that this belief somehow denies the seriousness of sin. So how, exactly, does believing that God is going to save all sinners on the basis of Christ’s death somehow mean that one is erroneously magnifying the love of God out of proportion to his justice, righteousness and wrath toward sin (or that one is denying the seriousness of sin)? If the present salvation of some sinners is consistent with the reality of God’s “justice, righteousness and wrath toward sin” (and the seriousness of sin), then there’s no reason why the future salvation of all sinners is not (or could not be) consistent with it.

The fact is that it’s the seriousness of sin that made it necessary for Christ to die for our sins. But the fact that Christ did die for our sins means that the salvation of everyone for whose sins Christ died (i.e., all mankind) has been secured. Believers will enjoy the salvation that Christ secured through his death before the rest of mankind (for God is the Savior “especially of believers”). However, the salvation of those who die in unbelief was just as much secured by Christ when he gave himself “a correspondent Ransom for all” as was the salvation of believers. Because Christ died for our sins, it’s impossible that anyone will have to pay for their sins “in eternity” (and as I’ve argued elsewhere – see, for example, here and here – neither Matthew 25:46 nor Jude 1:7 reveals or implies that this will be the case). Such an impossible state of affairs would imply that God wasn’t, in fact, pleased by his Son’s sacrificial obedience “unto death, even the death of the cross,” and that he didn’t accept Christ’s death as a sin-offering on behalf of everyone for whose sins Christ died. However, the fact that Christ was roused the third day by his God and Father constitutes incontrovertible evidence to the contrary.

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[1] Let’s assume, for the sake of argument, that being made in God’s image means having the same kind of volitional ability that God has. If that’s the case, then we have no good reason to believe that we can choose contrary to what we most want to do at any given moment. For God’s will is always in accord with what he desires to do, and God cannot will that which is contrary to who and what he is. Hence we’re told that it is impossible for God to lie (Titus 1:2; Heb. 6:18; Nu. 23:19). God is not “free” to lie, because doing so is contrary to his nature. For the same reason, God is not free to not love mankind; love is so essential to God’s nature that we’re told “God is love” (for a defense of the position that this description of God has to do with God’s essential disposition toward humanity, click here: The God Who is Love). And we have no reason to believe that our choices are any less determined by our nature (in conjunction with the circumstances in which God places us) than God’s choices are determined by his nature.

Thus, the salvation of those who are presently locked up in stubbornness (Rom. 11:32) does not require the violation of their “free will” (for they have no “free will” to be violated). All God has to do is bring about the circumstances that he knows will result in an individual becoming voluntarily submitted to him. And since God is all-wise and all-knowing, he necessarily knows the exact conditions and circumstances by which to accomplish this for all. That is, God – being God – necessarily knows exactly what it would take to bring about voluntary, heartfelt obedience from every one of his image-bearing creatures. And since Christ has been given all authority in heaven and on earth from his Father, it follows that he has the authority to bring about the exact conditions and circumstances necessary to elicit such a response from all people, regardless of how sinful and hardened in rebellion against God they might presently be. 

[2] In these verses Paul was referring to God’s dealings with mankind prior to, and during, the coming “day of the Lord” – i.e., the future period of time when God’s indignation will be displayed (Rom. 2:3-5; 1 Thess. 5:1-3). However, as I’ve argued elsewhere, the “destruction” that the “vessels of indignation” will undergo will not be a permanent fate: http://thathappyexpectation.blogspot.com/2020/01/are-unbelievers-destined-for.html 

[3] It may be objected that, in Matt. 7:11, we’re told that God gives good gifts to those who ask him. However, this doesn’t mean that God can’t give gifts to those who don’t ask him. There are some gifts that are (and will be) given by God in spite of people not asking him first.

[4] https://www.gotquestions.org/age-of-accountability.html