the thing about God, is He has always made exceptions ..
The way I prefer to look at it is, God has sovereignty to do what He wants, and whatever He does, He is still good. See: the book of Job.
actually Rosa is being technical ..
Perhaps. Rosa can speak for herself, but the way I read her question is: "Did Jesus die also for those [who have committed exceptionally evil sins]?" I could have read that totally wrong, but I didn't think Rosa was asking a technical question about predestination.
If the question is, "Is God's willingness to offer atonement relative to the severity of a person's sin," I think that's a different conversation from the technicalities of predestination, and everyone participating here had been answering
that question in ways that are faithful to scriptural teaching. Verses like John 17:12 do offer some challenging questions, but it doesn't say (and I don't think you were suggesting otherwise
) that the "son of perdition" must be lost because of the grave severity of his sin, but "that the scripture might be fulfilled." (And God has sovereignty to do what He wants, and whatever He does, He is still good.)
Okay, so if we think of Jesus' atonement using the analogy of a gift (Ephesians 2:8-9), let's say you work in an office, and at Christmas, you buy everyone a gift. Say, it's an espresso maker, for the whole office, and you put it in the kitchen for anyone to use. The gift is freely offered to everyone (even to the guy who always takes a bite out of your sandwich in the staff fridge), but everyone still has a choice to accept it, or not. If a person never chose to use the espresso maker, was it ever really "for" them? I'd say "yes" and "no" are both acceptable responses (although, in terms of the implications for Christian ministry, I personally think "yes" is a more helpful way of looking at it). Does it change things if I have foreknowledge of whether or not each person will accept the gift? Well, since I can't come anywhere close to wrapping my head around the implications of foreknowledge, I'll just say that I don't know, and I won't insist that it
has to be either way. And I also think that in practical ministry terms, it's
probably irrelevant:
For example, since Rosa mentioned Hitler, let's suppose while he was still around, Hitler approached you, convicted about his life, and asked how he can be saved. Whatever you believe about what the technicalities of "for" are in "for" whom the gift of atonement is offered, would any Christian ever respond to such a request by saying, "Well, some people just aren't predestined to receive atonement, and you
have done some pretty bad things, so maybe you can't be saved." I think it's more likely, we would each read him 1 John 1:2,
He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.
So Rosa, whatever it is you were asking in your question, I hope you've found something helpful in something
someone said to help guide you toward an answer!
