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Transcript 111C — Will Christ Save the Whole Human Race? (1 Tim 4:10)
HC: Good evening. Welcome to Open Forum.
CALLER: Would you explain First Timothy 4:10?
HC: We read in the Revised Standard Version, First Timothy 4:10: "To this end we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the Living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of those who believe." That's an interesting verse, isn't it? Does this mean that Christ ultimately is going to save the whole human race? Because it says here that He is the Savior of all men.
Now the clue word here is this word all. In our language today, when we run across the word all, we mean by that an all-inclusive all: "All of the people in the room were brown-eyed." Well, we expect to see then a room full of people, and without exception they all have brown eyes. But in the Bible the word all is not used that way.
If it were, then we would have to conclude from this first phrase that there is universal salvation. We would have to conclude that Christ ultimately is going to save everyone. And there are people who read this verse, and verses similar to this, and they come to that very conclusion. For example, we find a verse in I Corinthians 15 that says, "As in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive." And so they look at these verses and isolate them from the rest of the Bible and conclude that somehow there's going to be universal salvation. But when we read the rest of the Bible, we read, for example, that Jesus teaches that "Broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many there are thereon, and narrow is the way and few there are thereon, that leads to everlasting life," and we know that there is no such thing as universal salvation. We know that most of the people of the world will end up in hell rather than in heaven.
And so we wonder, how can we understand this word all? Well, we find in the Bible that the word all has to be limited to what is possible with the word all. We read, for example, in Acts 2:17: "In the last days I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh." Now we know that God's Holy Spirit is poured out only upon those that are saved, and therefore we know that the word all means God will pour out His Spirit on all flesh who are born again, who actually have been chosen by God to receive God's Spirit. It's a conditional law.
We read in Luke 2:1 where God said, "A decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world shall be taxed." But from the context we know that it referred only to the Roman Empire. It was the area of the world that was subject to taxation.
And so when God says here that He is the Savior of all men, from the rest of the context of the Bible we know that He is the Savior of all men who are to be saved. We are chosen in Him before the foundations of the world, as we read in Ephesians 1:4. And these are the ones for whom He is the Savior. And this is indicated in the second phrase, "especially of those who believe." In other words, the focal point is put on those who place their trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. They ultimately are the ones for whom Christ is the Savior.