A REPLY

Dear Sir: — Will you kindly oblige me by explaining the meaning of 1 Tim. 4:10, “Who is the Saviour of all men,’; for as all men will not be saved, I must confess, to my mind it appears a little difficult.

Yours very sincerely,

A Constant Reader.

ANSWER

This is one of those texts which are continually brought forward by Arminians in defense of their views, and may be taken as a type of the class of Scripture quotations which they adduce to overthrow the truth of the Gospel. The same key which opens this lock will also fit most of the same kind. We shall, therefore, first address ourselves to a general view of such passages (as we often receive similar inquiries), before we open up the meaning, as it seems to us, of the words quoted by our correspondent.

1. Now, we must lay it down as a broad, undeniable principle that no single, isolated text must be interpreted so as to overthrow grand fundamental truths. All truth, especially God’s truth, must be consistent with itself, harmonious throughout its whole structure, from the lowest basis to the topmost pinnacle. If, then, any one text seem to contradict what the Apostle calls “the proportion of faith” (Rom. 12:6), that is, the general harmony of truth which is revealed to faith, this contradiction cannot be real, but apparent; for if it could be sustained as a valid contradiction, it might be used, as Arminians use it, as a lever to overthrow the whole truth of God from the very foundation.

2. But, secondly, this text, with others of a similar character, may be explained as representing the wide character of the gospel as compared with the narrow, restricted genius and spirit of the Jewish dispensation. According to that covenant, no one had any right or title to the mercy and favor of God who was not either a lineal descendant of Abraham, or admitted as a proselyte to Jewish privileges. One grand feature in Paul’s ministry, both in preaching and writing, was to beat down that narrow, contracted view which a Jew almost necessarily had, that the Gospel was to be as restricted as the covenant made with Israel. When, therefore, he speaks of Christ dying for all men, and being the Saviour of all men, and God willing all men to be saved, he does not mean it so in the sense taken by the advocates of universal redemption (for how can God will a thing that He does not accomplish?), but that it is God’s expressed will that all sorts of men, Jew and Gentile, Greek, barbarian, bond and free, might be saved, and that the narrow limits whereby God only willed the salvation of Israel after the flesh were now broken through and the middle wall of partition was thrown down, so that all men of all ranks and classes, of all nations and countries, might now have a manifested interest in the great work of salvation.

It is this declaration of the will of God that salvation no longer belongs to the Jew, which opens the way whereby the gospel may be preached in every place and to every creature. This does not prove that Christ died for all, or that salvation is to be offered to all, or that the will of God is to save every human being, for it is impossible that the will of God can be wider and more extensive than electing love, for that is only the expression of His will; and one perfection of God can be no more larger than the other than one attribute can clash with the other. But as it is not manifestly known who God’s elect are, while in the unregenerate mass, a way is opened for the gospel to be preached in the hearing of all, leaving it to the blessed Spirit to apply the word to those whom God has in His own eternal mind predestinated unto eternal life.

3. Besides this, it is necessary to make the promises and declarations of Scripture as large and wide as they possibly can be without infringing upon or contradicting grand foundation truths. At present, in spite of what we may call the largeness of Scripture invitations and promises, doubt and desporndency make great head in many of the saints of God; but were the promises as strictly limited in their expression as they really are in their application, unbelief and Satan would take the greatset advantage thereby to distress and harass those who are coming to Jesus Christ for salvation.

4. Such texts seem left in the sacred Word as tests of the believing and obedient, and as stumbling-blocks to the unbelieving and disobedient. Ungodly men cavil at them, stumble over them, and abuse them to their own destruction; whereas the believing and obedient submit their minds to the teaching of God, and leave what they cannot altogether understand, feeling convinced that God in His own time and way will clear up all difficulties. Thus, whilst He confounds all the pride of man, and banishes all rebels into the blackness of darkness for ever, He will make manifest His own wisdom and His own glory to those whom He has chosen in Christ, to be partakers of His crown.

5. But the text, quoted by our correspondent, admits a different, and, we believe, an easier solution. The words, “Saviour of all men,” it will be-observed, are spoken of God the Father, not of Christ; and, therefore, seem rather to mean that He is the preserver of all men in a temporal sense, which He is by giving them food and raiment (Deut. 10–18; Acts 14:17; 20:28), watching over them, and keeping them in a thousand different ways in the same way as He feeds the raven (Ps. 147:9) and holds up the sparrow (Matt. 10:29). In this sense God is the “Saviour,” or preserver “of all men,” but in a more especial sense “of those that believe,” for He will take more peculiar and constant care of their bodies, seeing He has loved and redeemed their souls through the blood of His dear Son.

We do not, therefore, consider that the word “Saviour of all men,” as spoken of God here generally, has any reference to the salvation of the soul, but simply means the preservation of the body. It is evident that God does not save all men in a spiritual sense, but all are indebted to him for their preservation from day to day and hour to hour as long as they live upon earth.

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