Will everybody be saved?

By John Earp

1 Timothy 2:3 NASB This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, 4 who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. 5 For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave Himself as a ransom for all, the testimony given at the proper time.

In recent years, there has been a resurgence in an old heresy known of as universalism, which claims that everybody will be saved in the end, no matter what. While this of course would be wonderful if it were true, the Scriptures indicate several things that specifically argue against the possibility that all mankind will certainly be saved. From verse 4 above, we see that God genuinely desires that all would be saved, and while the Bible is also quite clear in stating that Christ died for the sins of the whole world (1 John 2:2), the Bible also reveals there are specific conditions which must be met by human beings in order for any individual to be saved.

For instance, in 1 John 2:1-6, we read:

“My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; 2 and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.

3 By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. 4 The one who says, “I have come to know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; 5 but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him: 6 the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked. (NASB)

Now a propitiation is the atonement, that which reconciles former enemies and makes them friends. Christ here is stated to himself BE the atonement and the advocate or helper, one who argues a case for someone. So, while the inspired apostle is clear in stating that he writes these things to believers that they sin not, if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, who is Himself our propitiation, our atonement. True Christianity is about being made one with God, united with Him and he with us by means of His Word and Spirit. The only remedy for sin is the atonement (literally, a contraction of three words, “at one ment”), and Jesus is our atonement. As 1 Timothy 2:5 states, “…there is one God and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus.”

In order for anyone to be saved, they must come through Jesus Christ, who Himself said in John 14:6, “I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father, except by me.”

The Scriptures reveal that all are certainly able to be saved through Christ, and that the way of salvation is through uniting with Christ by faith as our personal atonement with God. Further, we see in 1 John 2:3-5 that someone who has truly come to know God in Christ keeps his commandments, which are summed up as the love of God. Simply believing without a true change of heart and mind through repentance and faith in Christ as Lord and Savior/atonement falls far short of what the New Testament describes as the life of a genuinely saved individual. If we are truly saved and made one with God through Christ, He is now our Lord and Master, His Spirit lives within us, and we will therefore be His obedient servants and children.