Growing up in a conservative, Arminian denomination (Free Will Baptist), I never had to deal much with the heavy yoke of theologies of predestination or election. But I did have to carry the (perhaps) heavier yoke of always thinking I was on the verge of an eternal Hell. I could lose my Salvation at any moment, and as a gay kid, that was always a very real possibility in my mind.
As I got older, however, and was able to understand how to read texts contextually, and when I began to understand that the Bible itself was a translation from original, ancient languages – and possibly a translation of a translation, depending on the version I was reading – it began to dawn on me that maybe there was something amiss with the common Christian concept of Hell. This became even clearer to me when I began reading the Church Fathers, especially Origen, Gregory of Nyssa, and St. Isaac the Syrian.
But I want to start this series on Christian Universalism with a post on what is perhaps the most systematic treatment of the gospel message in the New Testament: the Letter to the Romans. This letter was, for Martin Luther, “the purest gospel.” While that is a subjective opinion, it is certainly true that the book of Romans, when properly read, is one of the best constructed, most logical arguments for Universal Salvation.
Before writing of Paul’s message of universal salvation, though, it is important to note his understanding of the depth and universality of sin. Otherwise, we would be left asking, “salvation from what and to what end?” I don’t much think we need scripture to convince us of the reality of a broken, sinful world. It is, perhaps, the only Christian doctrine for which there is tangible proof all around. But Paul is clear in Romans that even creation itself is broken by sin:
“For we know that the whole creation groans and travails in pain until now. And not only creation, but we too, which have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our bodies.” – Romans 8:22-23
And Romans 1 gives a clear picture of humanity at it most broken and sinful. It shows the result of our worship of things and beings other than God. It is the culmination of that brokenness and sinfulness within all of us that is taken to its logical conclusion: “Since they did not acknowledge God, God gave them up to their own sinfulness. They were filled with all manner of wickedness, evil, covetousness, malice. Full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malignity. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.” – Romans 1:28-31
This should not be shocking to us. Read or watch the news on a daily basis, and this is on full display. This is not to say that we, as God’s creation, do not sometimes display his love, mercy, and grace in our lives. We do. But when we do, it is the work of His Spirit within us, the light that enlightens every human being. The backdrop, however, is this complete brokenness that the Apostle Paul so clearly explains. And this is a crucial backdrop to Paul’s understanding of universal reconciliation and salvation.
I do not see why we should not think of this in terms of total depravity. A broken clock (i.e. John Calvin and associates) is right twice a day. Paul sets the scene as one in which all of creation, including humanity, is completely broken and in need of salvation. This is objectively true, but it is also a brilliant way for him to set up his coming argument with a beautiful parallelism, as you will see. This universal brokenness is the backdrop for universal salvation.
The fifth chapter of Romans and the very end of Romans are where Paul explicitly makes his argument for universal salvation, but it’s important to not that he does so by reiterating crucial, foundational doctrines in which his universalism is framed. Paul tells us that we are justified by faith (5:1); that Christ died for the ungodly (5:6); that we are justified by his sacrifice (5:9); that we are reconciled to God through him (5:11); that Christ died for us while we were yet sinners (5:8). Orthodox Christians, including Evangelicals, accept these things, but something very strange happens when Evangelicals – both Arminian and Calvinist – continue reading in chapter 5. They suddenly become very uncomfortable and are forced to write thousands of words in articles and commentaries on short verses just to keep from accepting the most natural meaning of Paul’s writing. For them, the Bible seems to means what it says until it doesn’t.
Paul has laid forth the orthodox doctrinal positions on faith and Christ’s role in salvation in the beginning of chapter 5 so that, starting in verse 12, he can very clearly present a parallel between Adam and Christ, the second Adam. He writes, “Therefore, as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all mankind because all have sinned….For as many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift in the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many…..Then as one man’s trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one man’s act of righteousness leads to acquittal and life for all men. For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by one man’s obedience many will be made righteous.” – Romans 5:12;15;18-19
The parallelism that Paul uses here is total and unequivocal. Sin and death enter the world through Adam, and salvation occurs for the world through Christ. Just as sin is ubiquitous, so is salvation. Paul could not be any clearer, and the plain meaning of the verses above leave no doubt as to the universal efficacy of Christ’s salvation.
One may wonder why Paul uses “all” in some cases and “many” in others, and this is an instance where a basic knowledge of Greek becomes useful. You will not find particularists (those who believe only some will be saved) using this all/some switch by Paul as evidence for their position for a very good reason. Paul regards both words as synonymous. The Greek term for “many” here, pollous and polloi, is translated variously as “many”, “great”, “plentiful”, “large”, “much”, and “long”. It is often used in particular reference to crowds or large multitudes. By using “many”, Paul is referring to the multitude of humankind, the host of humankind. If one wishes to deny this, then must also deny that all humankind is infected by sin, and I do not know of an evangelical who is willing to accept this. No, “all” and “many” are interchangeable here, and the evangelicals know it.
While most Calvinists accept that universal salvation is the clearest reading of these verses, they often go to great lengths to make Paul say something he just does not say. Their first line of defense is to point to passages elsewhere in scripture, such as 2 Thessalonians 1:8-9 and Matthew 25:46, that seem to present a notion of eternal torment for the unsaved. This is a strange reaction on the part of those who often hold to biblical inerrancy, since it seems that just are just conceding that Romans 5 is teaching universal salvation, but it can’t be true because other passages teach eternal torment (or so they think). The truth of the matter is that these other passages do not, in fact, teach eternal torment when understood contextually, but that’s for another post in this series. Suffice it to say, the argument presented above, mostly by Calvinists, is certainly a strange one for biblical inerrantists.
Another argument against a universalist reading is to say that “all” doesn’t really mean all. Those making this argument claim that “all” here simply refers to the general availability of salvation among humankind, not every particular individual. But if this is the case, does Paul also mean that not every particular individual has been infected by sin, and if not, are not therefore in need of a Savior? Could the passage really read, “Then as one man’s trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one man’s act of righteousness leads to acquittal and life for some men”? This is not at all convincing and is obviously a stretch to make the verse fit into a pre-existing theology.
Some particularists similarly argue that “all” means “all who are in Christ.” But this is simply not what Paul wrote. He could have written it if that was what he meant, but it’s not. Paul has carefully constructed his parallelism in this passage to make a very clear point: all are condemned through Adam, and all have been made alive through Christ. It is the simplest, clearest reading. There is an exact equivalence Paul is making here, and we do violence to the text if we do not accept that. When Paul writes of all humankind, he means every single individual.
Of course, this is not the only passage that presents universal salvation. It’s just the beginning. In future posts, I will cover other Pauline writings on universal salvation, the understanding of universal reconciliation through purification in Jesus’ teachings and throughout the Hebrew and Greek testaments, and the real meaning of “hell” throughout the scriptures (hint: it has everything to do with translation)
