I. Howard Marshall on Limited Atonement and Penal Substitution

        Despite such statements in classical documents as that Christ “made a full perfect and sufficient oblation for the sins of the whole world” (Book of Common Prayer), and the clear declaration of the New Testament that “Christ gave himself as a ransom for all people” (1 Tim. 2:6), there have been some attempts to tie the doctrine of penal substitution to a doctrine of limited or particular atonement; some scholars hold that penal substitution can be defended only on the basis that Christ acts as substitute only for those who are actually saved by his death rather than being a saviour who makes an atoning sacrifice for the sins of the whole world (1 John 2:2) in accordance with the desire of God that all might be saved (John 3:16; 1 Tim. 2:4–6; 2 Pet. 3:9). Otherwise, it is argued, in the case of those who are not saved, God would have demanded the penalty twice, once from Christ and once from themselves when they suffer the penalty of disobedience. […][1]
        However this objection is without any force because it assumes a kind of mathematical equivalence between the death of Christ and the penalty due to sinners; there is nothing unjust about penalizing offenders who refuse to accept the offer of an amnesty. […] The doctrine of penal substitution is not part of a package which also contains as essential the concepts of particular election[2] and limited (or definite) atonement. “None need perish; all may live, for Christ has died” (Sanders, W. In The Methodist Hymnbook [London: Methodist Conference Office, 1933], No. 315). Sadly, however, it is not inevitable that all will respond positively when the gospel news is sounding.

I. Howard Marshall, Aspects of the Atonement: Cross and Resurrection in the Reconciling of God and Humanity (Milton Keynes, UK: Paternoster, 2007), pp. 62–3 n. 45[3]

Copyright © Divinity School of Chung Chi College, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2007. All rights reserved.

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Notes

        1. ‘[T]he penalty of disobedience’ being the final punishment of the unrepentant, whether conceived of in terms of endless torment or final annihilation.
        2. That is, unconditional election to salvation. The corollary doctrine is unconditional reprobation. High Calvinistic theology maintains that God unconditionally chose which specific individuals would be saved and damned prior to the creation of the world. This doctrine is commonly referred to as double predestination.
        3. The pagination of the paperback edition (ISBN-13: 978-1-84227-549-8) of Aspects of the Atonement differs from the hardback edition (ISBN-13: 978-1-60657-024-1) . In the hardback edition the above quotation may be found on pp. 70–1.  —J. D. Gallé

Addendum.  Ian Howard Marshall (1934–2015) died on Saturday, 12 December 2015, aged eighty-one.

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