Christ’s Benefits for the Unsaved

By Dr Peter Masters

How is Christ “the Saviour of all men”?

“This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation. For therefore we both labour and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe.” 1 Timothy 4:9-10

In what sense is God “the Saviour of all men”? This text gives rise to confusion, and yet it points to the great scope and effectiveness of Christ’s redeeming work.

Some think the verse means that Christ died to atone for the sins of every person born into the world, but that only those who believe claim the benefits. This interpretation cannot be right, as other scriptures show that Christ died most particularly for his people:

  • The Saviour said: “I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine … and I lay down my life for the sheep” (John 10:14–15).
  • Paul, in Ephesians 5:25 speaks of how “Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it”.
  • Acts 20:28 refers to “the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood”.

It is clear, then, that Christ’s full atonement was made for those who would be saved.

So, if Christ died specifically for the redeemed, what does Paul mean when he says that God is “the Saviour of all men”? He cannot mean that God is Saviour only to the elect, because he adds, “specially of those that believe”. He is the Saviour of all in various ways, but ‘specially’ of believers.

‘Specially’ translates the Greek for ‘very’ or ‘most’. Christ is Saviour to believers the most—meaning that the very greatest benefit, namely redemption, comes to them, while a great but very reduced benefit comes to unbelievers, and only during their time on earth.

The Saviour of all

For believers, the Saviour paid the price of sin, bearing their punishment, and offering his perfect righteousness to secure their pardon and everlasting bliss.

But what did he obtain for all people, including the unrepentant? How was he their Saviour?

The answer is found in the way the Bible uses the word ‘Saviour’.

It is used not only to describe the Lord as deliverer from sin and death, but also to describe God when he delivers saints and sinners alike from earthly calamities.

For example, when God saved the children of Israel from Egypt, he is called their Saviour—yet most of them were subsequently lost in the wilderness. They were not spiritually saved: they did not have faith, and they rebelled. But God was their Saviour in the sense that he delivered them from Egypt, and kept them in their journey through the wilderness.

God’s saving work in the preservation of the children of Israel continued, but there were repeated judgements, when only a remnant were delivered. Throughout their history, God was their earthly Saviour and preserver—but for only some of them was he a spiritual deliverer. 

The benefits of common grace

God in Christ is equally the Saviour of all Gentiles in many ways, for we are all sustained in life, every moment we breathe, by the power of God (Colossians 1:15–17). He is the so-called life force that sustains all. He breathed life into us, and says, “Even to your old age I am he; and even to hoar hairs will I carry you: I have made, and I will bear; even I will carry, and will deliver you” (Isaiah 46:4).

Everyone is indebted to God. This is part of God’s universal favour upon all mankind (but not including salvation), also known as common grace. This is proclaimed by scriptures such as Psalm 145:9, Matthew 5:44–45, and Acts 14:17.

God is also the whole world’s Saviour by placing in the human heart the desire for orderly civil government, and the maintenance of law and order (Romans 13:1–7; Titus 3:1; 1 Peter 2:13–15). What a continuous cauldron of savagery the earth would be if God had not written the need for government and order in our constitution! He is also the restrainer of constant war and tumult, permitting only so much for limited periods, in order to teach mankind its fallen condition. 

Christ the light of “every man”

We remember that in the very first chapter of the Gospel of John, it is said that Christ “lighteth every man” who comes into the world.

Here is a degree of spiritual awareness that comes with common grace. It may well be that all individuals, even the most hardened pagans and atheists, at some time in their lives call upon God, and in that instant he is their helper, in order to encourage them to seek him.

He “lighteth every man that cometh into the world”, with a shaft of Romans 1:19-20 light, an instinct for the true God, and often with an experience of earthly help or deliverance, so that all are without excuse for their subsequent rejection of him.

If we knew the secrets of hearts, we would probably see some kind of summons or call to seek the Lord being experienced by every life.

We read of wartime experiences, or people writing of how they prayed desperately for rescue and survived. To their amazement and wonder, God was their earthly, bodily Saviour in that moment. But due to hardness of heart, that is as far as it went. They never sought him for anything more.

Christ’s work enables common grace

This brings us to the work of Christ as the basis of common grace.

How is it that every human being is not condemned and brought to death and judgement the very first time they sin? How is it that we survive childhood? How is judgement suspended and execution stayed until the day we die? How is God’s long enduring mercy toward lost sinners procured? Was a portion of Christ’s humiliation and suffering borne to obtain the period of grace and mercy extended to all mankind?

No scripture tells us explicitly how Christ secured the mercy of common grace, but there is a linking of common grace with Christ’s saving work.

As a starting point, it is obvious that the sinful human race would never have received the deferring of judgement and the benefits of common grace if the redeeming work of Christ had not been planned. Christ is the “Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Revelation 13:8) meaning that Calvary cast its benefits for the world across history.

In this very basic way at least, common grace owes its existence to Calvary. (See footnote for texts providing significant hints.)

Louis Berkhof in his Systematic Theology accounts for the benefits of common grace in these words (p. 438):

“The general blessings of mankind, indirectly resulting from the atoning work of Christ, were not only foreseen by God, but designed by him as blessings for all concerned. It is perfectly true, of course, that the design of God in the work of Christ pertained primarily and directly, not to the temporal well-being of men in general, but to the redemption of the elect; but secondarily and indirectly it also included the natural blessings bestowed on mankind indiscriminately.” 

Common grace and saving grace

“The Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world” (1 John 4:14). He is the physical, temporal, Saviour of everyone—but he is Saviour in the highest, spiritual, atoning and pardoning sense, of the redeemed.

As Paul says, Christ is “the Saviour of all men, specially [that is mostly, chiefly, particularly] of those that believe”. For them he atoned wholly, fully and eternally, so that they might be pardoned. For them he offered his perfect, Heaven-opening righteousness. He is their complete and victorious Saviour.

We may think of a man who has dedicated so much of his life to opposing religion, relentlessly attacking the Bible and Christianity. He is an accomplished scientist, highly eloquent and immensely effective in his ‘mission’. His books have all been international best-sellers, and his televised debates have been viewed everywhere.

He has become, certainly in the West, a household name, and very rich. He is able to live in elegant comfort, reaping all the benefits of the approval of a godless society. He has been spared from visible earthly judgement, and seems to enjoy a measure of earthly success and comfort.

But what if he should die unsaved? What will happen when he is compelled to stand before the Creator of all things? How will he react, in his unclothed soul, when it dawns on him that all his earthly benefits without exception, and his long season of mercy with its deferring of death and judgement, were secured by the very one he spurned and scorned—the Saviour of the world?

Without salvation, he will have left it too late, and the desperation, guilt and horror that will overwhelm his soul will be only the beginning of sorrows. The benefits of common grace will be no help to one who rejected the offer of saving grace.

May even those hostile to Christ be moved by an overpowering work of the Spirit to grasp their indebtedness and need, and fall before him, and “take the water of life freely”.

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