<blockquote>[color:blue]She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins."</font color=blue> Matthew 1:21 (ESV)</blockquote>A question that has come to my mind on occaision, and I just now had time to ask it, is how does an Arminian explain this verse without contradicting their idea that Jesus was sent to make salvation possible for all men? Because it seems to me that this verse makes it clear that Jesus' mission wasn't to make something possible but to complete the salvation of certain people. I am just curious as to if anyone has an answer to this.
the answer is in the text,God had one purpose in soteriology that is to redeem a people his people to him. Its amazing people may love to hear about a chosen one in movies or chosen people fighting the evil people but when it comes to this they seem to cry wolf.<br><br>blade
Wesley (John that is) very simply says it was Israel. Adam Clark another Arminian states: <br><br><blockquote>This shall be his great business in the world: the great errand on which he is come, viz. to make an atonement for, and to destroy, sin: deliverance from all the power, guilt, and pollution of sin, is the privilege of [color:red]every believer</font color=red> in Christ Jesus. Less than this is not spoken of in the Gospel; and less than this would be unbecoming the Gospel. The perfection of the Gospel system is not that it makes allowances for sin, but that it makes an atonement for it: not that it tolerates sin, but that it destroys it. In ;Mt 1:1, he is called Jesus Christ, on which Dr. Lightfoot properly remarks, "That the name of Jesus, so often added to the name of Christ in the New Testament, is not only that Christ might be thereby pointed out as the Saviour, but also that Jesus might be pointed out as the true Christ or Messiah, against the unbelief of the Jews." </blockquote> Thus, he uses the tern believer and does not theologically exegete the "term" any further.<br>
I keep coming to the conclusion in my head that it is about the Jews; and then I read passages like this:<blockquote>[color:blue]But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.</font color=blue> 1 Peter 2:9-10 (ESV)</blockquote>Am I just confused and stuck on something really simple or what? [img]http://www.the-highway.com/w3timages/icons/confused.gif" alt="confused" title="confused[/img]
Well, as I understand covenant theology, the Christian church has displaced the Jewish nation as God's chosen people. We are the "true Israel."<br><br>EDIT: And, actually, that makes an interesting analogy: remember how Jacob/Israel supplanted Esau?
Last edited by CovenantInBlood; Sat Sep 27, 20039:46 AM.
Kyle
I tell you, this man went down to his house justified.
In reply to:[color:"blue"]Well, as I understand covenant theology, the Christian church has displaced the Jewish nation as God's chosen people. We are the "true Israel."
Actually, the N.T. Church didn't "displace" or even "replace" the nation of Israel as God's chosen people. One needs to avoid getting trapped into that hermeneutical error called a "psycho statistical mean". Without going into a long explanation with examples of how it is derived, it is simply limiting the meaning of words to a singular definition rather than allowing the context determine the meaning of words, which is often many. In this particular case, "chosen" is used in various ways through the Bible and although it has the basic meaning "to single out", the purpose for the choice of one over another can be and often is quite different. The nation of Israel was chosen for a particular purpose. But within that nation of Israel God also made another more specific choice, that being salvific. Thus Paul tells us "they are not all Israel, which are of Israel:" (Rom 9:6). The context of this passage clearly shows that salvation was the focus of God's election. And, within the nation of Israel (visible) there was a chosen people who were given saving grace who were part of the TRUE ISRAEL (invisible). This TRUE ISRAEL is comprised of both Jews and Gentiles of all ages. (cf. Eph 2:15ff)
So, applying this meaning to Matt 1:21, we are to understand that "his people" to mean, those whom the Father gave Him to atone for. The caveat for those who want to make "his people" to mean Israel or the Jews only is that this would create two indefensible problems:
[*]The text says he will save his people from their sins. There is no "possibility salvation" even implied here. It is a definite, infallible salvation. Thus the "all people" are guaranteed salvation, which would of necessity mean that every Jew will be saved indiscriminately. This we know is totally false.[*]Applying this same idea, that the phase, "his people" means the Jews, it would also mean that no non-Jew will be saved. This again is incontrovertibly false according to the Scriptures.[/LIST]In His Grace,
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