What is provisionism? What is a provisionist?

Again, in this view, the evangelist can proclaim the gospel without any reserve. He can boldly tell men — all men — Christ died concerning your sins. He can unhesitatingly say, God has been so glorified about your sins by Christ's death, that on the ground of it He is now offering you salvation and is beseeching you to come and take it. You cannot refuse on the plea that the provision for salvation is only sufficient for a limited number. Every man can be told that the provision is for him, and that if he refuses it he can never say he perished because salvation was not provided for him. It is a misrepresentation of the gospel of God to say God has provided salvation only for those who actually believe. God has put no limit to the number who can be saved. He has made provision for all. While all thus can be saved, none are saved except they repent and believe the gospel.

Once more: When I insist that the provision for salvation is unlimited — is as truly for those who miss it as for those who get it — I am not teaching universal salvation. I am teaching universal provision — provision for all. But while all are provided for, many will not get what has been provided for them. Their not getting it is not because provision has not been made for them, but because of not availing themselves of it. The provision is for all; faith gets what has been provided; unbelief misses it.

I cannot leave this subject without a few further remarks. In what I have expressed above I have avoided errors that prevail in certain quarters to the injury of souls. The limitation of the propitiation, made at the cross, to the sins of believers, necessitates a limited provision. If that were the truth it would follow that salvation has been provided only for believers, whereas, in truth, it has been provided for all. All are invited to come and get it. None lose it because it is not for them, but because they decline to receive it.

It is here that election does come in; not to limit the provision, nor to restrict in any wise the grace that bids and welcomes all, but to secure the blessing of those who otherwise would refuse and forfeit it as the rest do. The grace to all is not narrowed by the "grace upon grace" to many. The universal offer means and is based on a universal provision, and a provision of exactly the same character for all alike, in which God testifies that He has "no pleasure in the death of him that dies," but "will have all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth." It may be asked, as it has been asked, Of what avail is a provision for all which saves not one additional to the elect number? The answer which Scripture would give is, "What if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith [or faithfulness] of God without effect? God forbid." The salvation of men is from God; the damnation of men is from themselves. This all the pleadings, warnings, offers of God affirm. And grace refused is still grace, and to be proclaimed to His praise.

Only a provision actually made for all could fulfill the fair meaning of such texts as these; and we may not bring into them any doctrine of election, to limit them. They are the testimony of the desire of God's heart for all. They are the assurance that if men die unsaved, the responsibility of their ruin is with themselves alone. They are the encouragement to implicit confidence in a love that welcomes, and has title to welcome, all who come by Christ to God.

God has provided the blood. It is He who has delivered up His Son to death. This provision for the sinner's need is one therefore entirely of God's grace, and consequently a provision outside of the sinner altogether. God in His infinite mercy, and because He so loved the world, provided the Lamb for the sacrifice; and now the precious blood of that Lamb avails for every one who believes (John 3:16). There is no limit whatever in its application, excepting in the sinner's unbelief. It is provided for all, and everyone may be the subject of its blessed cleansing power through faith.

Further, all the passages which speak of Christ's work for the world (1 John 2:2; 1 John 4:14; John 1:29), simply show the freeness of the work of Christ. It is available for all, if they will receive it. Provision has been made and the invitation is given, but if the offer of grace is rejected men are yet in their sins.

But this being so, it settles decisively the meaning of Christ's death being for all. "For there is one God, and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all;" "a propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world:" these and many similar passages assure without any doubt of full and sufficient provision for all made in the atonement.

"A ransom for all, the testimony to be rendered in due time." This statement has been perverted by some, who handle the Word of God deceitfully, to mean that the whole human race will ultimately be saved including all the wicked dead. And more than that, some of these teachers have made the astonishing statement that the testimony of their unscriptural invention was to be reserved for a certain time, and that "due time" came when they preached their "larger hope" and universal salvation. He has given Himself a ransom for all, which means that provision is made by His propitiatory sacrifice for the salvation of the whole race, but faith is necessary for the appropriation of this salvation.

We must turn now to consider the sense in which Christ is propitiation in relation to the sins of the whole world. I must first observe that the apostle does not imply that there is any need now of propitiation being made for the sins of the whole world. Since the cross, it is no more a question of making propitiation concerning sins. That was done then, done once for all, and it was done for the sins of all. Now it must not be inferred from this that all are saved from the due of their sins. That is not the fact. The making propitiation for the sins of all does not by itself save anybody. It provides a righteous basis on which salvation can be bestowed on all — on all who submit to the one condition on which it is offered, faith. Only believers are actually saved; but the propitiation concerning sins made at the cross was the ransom-price paid in behalf of all. It is not now the time of making propitiation, but the time of testimony. The gospel, which is for all, is a proclamation of an accomplished propitiation as a righteous basis of an offer of salvation, received by the believer. So, then, during this time of testimony God is not imputing sins to men. He is, by us, beseeching them to be reconciled (2 Cor. 5:20).

The gospel of God's grace in Christ Jesus is offered in perfectly good faith to all mankind. Christ is "the propitiation for our (believers') sins, and not for ours only, but also for (the sins of) the whole world" (1 Jn. 2:2). As the propitiation, Christ is the one who has by His great sacrifice fully satisfied God in regard to the question of man's sins, and the value of that sacrifice is fully avaliable for all who will receive it: it is not limited in any way. Those who refuse it will have only themselves to blame for the judgment they fully deserve. lf they could not believe, it was because they would not. As we have before seen, man is fully responsible to God, and one must receive salvation in God's way or be lost.

On the other hand, election is God's prerogative: this is His perfect right. Election is according to His foreknowledge. With perfect knowledge of all the future He chose certain people in Christ before the world existed. Nothing was left unconsidered in this choice: it was right, it was wise, it was wonderfully gracious, as every believer must heartily agree.