The Death of Death

And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins. MATTHEW 1:21

In 1647, when he was about thirty years old and a country pastor in Essex, Owen published a large and closely argued book with a striking title: Salus Electorum, Sanguis Jesu; or, The Death of Death in the Death of Christ. Its subject was the design and effect of the atonement. For whom did Christ die, and what did His death achieve? Owen’s answer, which he defended with enormous learning and relentless logic, is often called particular redemption, or definite atonement. It has been one of the most influential and one of the most disputed things he ever wrote.

This chapter tries to do two things: to set out Owen’s case fairly and in his own terms, and to be fair to the many faithful Christians who have not been persuaded by it.

What Owen argued

Owen’s starting point is that the work of salvation is the work of the whole Trinity acting in one purpose. The Father chose a people and gave them to the Son; the Son came to redeem them; the Spirit applies that redemption to them. These three cannot be at cross purposes. The Son did not die with one intention while the Father elected with another.

From this he argues that Christ died with the definite intention of saving those the Father had given Him, and that His death actually secured their salvation. It did not merely make salvation possible for everyone, leaving it uncertain whether anyone would be saved; it purchased everything needed for the salvation of His people, including the faith by which they would receive it. The Good Shepherd laid down His life for the sheep.

I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. JOHN 10:11

Owen gathered a great weight of Scripture to support this. Christ came to save His people from their sins. He loved the church and gave Himself for it. He purchased the church of God with His own blood. He prayed, on the night before He died, not for the world but for those the Father had given Him; and Owen argued that Christ’s death and His intercession cannot be separated, so that those for whom He died are those for whom He intercedes.

Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it. EPHESIANS 5:25

I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine. JOHN 17:9

He also pressed a famous argument, which may be put simply. Either Christ bore the punishment for all the sins of all people, or for all the sins of some people, or for some of the sins of all people. If only some sins of all, then everyone still has sins to answer for, and no one can be saved. If all the sins of all, why is anyone lost? If the answer is that they are lost because of their unbelief, Owen asked, is unbelief a sin or not? If it is, Christ bore it too. So, he concluded, Christ bore all the sins of some people: His elect.

What Owen did not argue

It is important to be clear about what Owen did not say, because his view is often caricatured.

He did not say that Christ’s death was too small to save everyone. He affirmed, with the older theologians, that the death of Christ was of infinite value and sufficient in itself for the whole world; its limitation lay in God’s purpose, not in its worth.

He did not say that the gospel should be offered only to the elect. He insisted that the gospel is to be preached freely to all people, and that everyone who hears it is commanded to repent and believe. No one is told to find out whether he is elect before coming to Christ.

He did not say that the universal language of the New Testament is meaningless. He argued that words such as world and all have various senses in Scripture, and that in many places they refer to people of every nation and kind, Gentiles as well as Jews, rather than to every individual without exception.

And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. 1 JOHN 2:2

Those who disagree

Many Christians who love Christ and revere Scripture have read these texts differently. They point to verses that seem to them to speak plainly of a love and provision extending to all.

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. JOHN 3:16

Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. … Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time. 1 TIMOTHY 2:4–6

Some, often called Arminians after the Dutch theologian Jacob Arminius, whom Owen had written against in his very first book, hold that Christ died for all people in the same way, making salvation available to all, and that it becomes effective for those who believe. Others, including many Reformed theologians of Owen’s own day, took a middle path: they held that Christ died in one sense for all, providing a genuine basis for the universal offer, and in a special sense for the elect, securing their salvation. Owen’s contemporary Richard Baxter, a fellow Puritan and a man of equal devotion, disagreed with him sharply on these matters, and the two men argued in print. Later, the Wesleys and a great host of evangelical preachers held that Christ died for all, and preached it with extraordinary fruit.

This book will not pretend to settle these differences. Owen’s logic is powerful, and those who hold his view find in it a great comfort. Those who do not often feel that the system presses some verses harder than they will bear. What the reader should do is what Owen himself would urge: go to the Scriptures, weigh the texts on every side, and hold what the Word of God teaches, even where it does not fit neatly into a system.

What all may learn

Whatever one concludes about the extent of the atonement, there is something in Owen’s book that every Christian can gain. He insisted that the cross actually accomplished something. Christ did not die to make a salvation that might or might not come to anything. He died to save. He paid a real debt, bore a real penalty, and won a real redemption. The believer’s assurance does not rest on the strength of his own faith or the success of his own efforts, but on a finished work.

Ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, … But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. 1 PETER 1:18–19

This is why Owen’s doctrine of the atonement is not separate from his teaching on mortification. In the last chapter of The Mortification of Sin he told believers to look to Christ’s death as the source of power against sin, because Christ died not only to free His people from guilt but to purify them. The same Christ who secured their pardon secured their holiness. The title of his book says it all: in the death of Christ, death itself was put to death.

O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? 1 CORINTHIANS 15:55

FOR REFLECTION AND ACTION

1. Before deciding what you think of Owen’s view, read carefully John 10:11–30, John 17:1–26, 1 Timothy 2:1–6 and 1 John 2:1–2, noting what each passage says.

2. If you hold a view different from Owen’s, try to state his argument fairly in your own words. If you share it, try to do the same for those who disagree.

3. Whatever your conclusion, thank God that Christ’s death actually saves, and that your hope rests on His finished work, not on your own.

4. Ask whether your convictions on this subject have ever made you proud, harsh or less eager to share the gospel with everyone. If so, repent.

A PRAYER

Lord Jesus, Good Shepherd, You laid down Your life for Your sheep, and You saved Your people from their sins.

Thank You that Your death was not a mere possibility but a finished work, and that nothing can be added to it.

Where Christians disagree about the depths of Your purpose, give us humility, patience and charity, and keep us all close to Your Word.

And make us bold to call everyone to come to You, knowing that You cast out none who come. Amen.