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| Interpretation of the Expression in I Tim. II. 4: ‘Who Will Have All Men to Be Saved.’
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Chapter 103.—Interpretation of the Expression
in I Tim. II. 4: “Who Will
Have All Men to Be Saved.”
Accordingly, when we hear and read
in Scripture that He “will have all men to be saved,”1294
although
we know well that all men are not saved, we are not on that account
to restrict the omnipotence of God, but are rather to understand
the Scripture, “Who will have all men to be saved,” as meaning
that no man is saved unless God wills his salvation: not that there
is no man whose salvation He does not will, but that no man is
saved apart from His will; and that, therefore, we should pray Him
to will our salvation, because if He will it, it must necessarily
be accomplished. And it was of prayer to God that the apostle was
speaking when he used this expression. And on the same principle we
interpret the expression in the Gospel: “The true light which
lighteth every man that cometh into the world:”1295
not that
there is no man who is not enlightened, but that no man is
enlightened except by Him. Or, it is said, “Who will have all men
to be saved;” not that there is no man whose salvation He does
not will (for how, then, explain the fact that He was unwilling to
work miracles in the presence of some who, He said, would have
repented if He had worked them?), but that we are to understand by
“all men,” the human race in all its varieties of rank and
circumstances,—kings, subjects; noble, plebeian, high, low,
learned, and unlearned; the sound in body, the feeble, the clever,
the dull, the foolish, the rich, the poor, and those of middling
circumstances; males, females, infants, boys, youths; young,
middle-aged, and old men; of every tongue, of every fashion, of all
arts, of all professions, with all the innumerable differences of
will and conscience, and whatever else there is that makes a
distinction among men. For which of all these classes is there out
of which God does not will that men should be saved in all nations
through His only-begotten Son, our Lord, and therefore does save
them; for the Omnipotent cannot will in vain, whatsoever He may
will? Now the apostle had enjoined that prayers should be made for
all men, and had especially added, “For kings, and for all that
are in authority,” who might be supposed, in the pride and pomp
of worldly station, to shrink from the humility of the Christian
faith. Then saying, “For this is good and acceptable in the sight
of God our Saviour,” that is, that prayers should be made for
such as these, he immediately adds, as if to remove any ground of
despair, “Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the
knowledge of the truth.”1296
God, then, in His great
condescension has judged it good to grant to the prayers of the
humble the salvation of the exalted; and assuredly we have many
examples of this. Our Lord, too, makes use of the same mode of
speech in the Gospel, when He says to the Pharisees: “Ye tithe
mint, and rue, and every herb.”1297
For the Pharisees did not tithe
what belonged to others, nor all the herbs of all the inhabitants
of other lands. As, then, in this place we must understand by
“every herb,” every kind of herbs, so in the former passage we
may understand by “all men,” every sort of men. And we may
interpret it in any other way we please, so long as we are not
compelled to believe that the omnipotent God has willed anything to
be done which was not done: for setting aside all ambiguities, if
“He hath done all that He pleased in heaven and in earth,”1298
| 1298 Ps cxv. 3. [“Our God
is in the heavens: He hath done whatsoever He hath pleased.”
A.V.] | as the
psalmist sings of Him, He certainly did not will to do anything
that He hath not done.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
|
