Cap. 3 Obj. 4: If the death is applicable to all, are resurrection, intercession, and mediation likewise?

Obj. 4. If Christ's death is to be considered as a remedy or lytron applicable to any human being by God's ordination, then Christ's resurrection, intercession, and mediation will likewise look to all in the same way. But Christ was not raised for all, does not intercede for all, is not the Mediator of all: therefore neither is his death to be extended to all. That these must never be torn apart is proved from (Romans 8:34), where all are joined together: It is Christ who died, yes rather who rose again, who is also at the right hand of the Father, making intercession for us. And (Romans 4:25): the Apostle teaches that for whose offenses Christ died, for their justification he was also raised: but he was not raised for all; therefore neither did he die for all.

Sol. If the reason of our defense is rightly weighed, it will easily appear that all this brings no detriment to our cause. For we do not maintain that Christ's death is, by God's ordination, so applied to all and each human being that on account of this propitiatory sacrifice the whole are immediately set back into a state of grace and salvation; nor do we defend that, from God's special intention and the decree of predestination, this death of Christ is to be applied infallibly to all and each; but that this death, God so ordaining and revealing it in his word, is that lytron by which the sins of any human beings whatsoever can be expiated, the conditions required in the Gospel being fulfilled. And hence it is that the Gospel preacher, whomever he meets under whatever sky, can confidently announce to him salvation obtainable in the death of the Son of God, if he believes. This can be promised to none of the fallen angels. Whence it is clear that this conditional promise of salvation in Christ's death, which can be announced to any human being, is founded in some ordination of the Divine will which regards human beings universally and individually, and does not regard angels. Let the adversaries say what this ordination is, if it is not that which we affirm — of Christ's death as applicable to the human race under the Gospel conditions. These things being so established, we come nearer to the solution of the said objection; and we affirm that Christ's resurrection, intercession, and mediation pertain to all and each by the same right as the death itself, or the oblation accomplished on the cross. For as we can truly announce to any human being that his sins are, by God's ordination, expiable by Christ's death, and will be expiated if only he believes in Christ; so also we can truly announce that the same Christ has been raised that he may justify that believer, exalted to the right hand of God that by his mediation and merits he may preserve that believer in grace with God, and at length lead him to glory. We do not therefore tear apart what God has joined, but teach that Christ's death, resurrection, and intercession are joined by an indissoluble bond — yet in different ways. If we look to the universal human race, that is, to all and each human being, then we say that not only the death but also the resurrection and intercession of Christ look to them as to the possibility of enjoying these benefits, the condition of faith being presupposed: if we look to the elect, we affirm that all these look to them as to the infallibility of enjoying them, from this condition of faith destined for them and to be given them in time. Although therefore in a certain special respect Christ's death and resurrection, with the vast treasure of his merits, are restricted to the elect alone (of which we shall treat later), yet it is not to be denied that the death and merits of Christ, who soundly assumed the nature of all and one cause of all, are of such a kind as can be announced, offered, and applied by faith to all and each who share human nature. Christ himself indicated this clearly enough in (John 3:17–18) in these words: God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. He that believes on him is not condemned: he that believes not is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. Those therefore who never believe or will believe nonetheless had life obtainable in the death and merits of Christ by God's ordination, if they had believed.