August 21, 2017
This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all people. 1 Timothy 2:3-6 (NIV)
Does all mean “every single person” or “all kinds of people”? Here are three reasons to interpret all as “all kinds of people…”
- That’s what all means in verse 1. God does not expect us to pray for every single person, but for all kinds of people.
- The Bible never suggests every single person will be saved. Some will enter everlasting life, others everlasting destruction.
- The word ransom means “payment of a price.” If Christ paid for the sins of “every single person,” hell would be filled with people whose sins were already paid for.
God wants all kinds of people to be saved. Christ gave his life to ransom all kinds of people. So there will be people in heaven with the greatest minds and people who never learned to read or write. There will be people in heaven who earned millions, and people who lived all their lives in poverty. There will be people from stable families, and people from dysfunctional families.
There will be people in heaven from your race and language group, so why not you? There will be people who were once caught in every kind of vice known to mankind, but have been redeemed by the blood of Christ, so, why not you?
There is one God and one mediator between God and men—Jesus Christ. That means Christ is the mediator for you.
Why not come to Christ and trust him as your redeemer today? If you come to Christ, he will never turn you away.