By Denny Burk
Pray for Salvation
First Tim. 2:1-3 said that prayers for “all people” were good and pleasing in the sight of “God our Savior.” That last phrase is the connection to the verse 1 Tim. 2:4. God is a Savior “who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” God’s people are not merely praying for God to give them a peaceful and quiet life.
They are not merely praying for their own personal piety. They are praying that all people might experience salvation through Christ.
Universalism teaches that God saves everyone, and this verse says in no uncertain terms that God’s will is for “all” to be saved. So, is this text stating that everyone is saved, whether they want to be or not?
The short answer is no. Neither this verse nor any other teaches that all people will be saved regardless of whether they have faith in Christ.
The key to understanding this text is to see that the Bible speaks of God’s will in two different ways. On the one hand, God has a providential will that cannot be violated. On the other hand, he has a moral will that can be violated.
God’s providential will refers to his sovereign plan for the world and for all of our lives. Ephesians 1:11, refers to God’s providential will that cannot be broken. In this sense, we cannot know what God wills until it happens. It is not revealed in the Bible; it unfolds in history. His providential will is largely a secret to us. We can know it only in retrospect.
God’s moral will refers to his holiness and goodness, and is reflected in his commands. Human beings can defy God’s moral will. In fact, this is what sin is: defiance of God’s will as revealed in Scripture. In 1 Thessalonians 4:3, Paul is referring to God’s moral will. And people break that all the time.
When Paul writes in 1 Timothy 2:4 that God “desires” or wills for all people to be saved, he is referring to God’s moral purpose that all men everywhere should repent and be saved. Yes, it is God’s moral will that all be saved, but it is not his providential will that all be saved. Salvation will come only to “all people” who believe.
Taken from Does God Want Everyone to Be Saved? (1 Timothy 2) by Denny Burk, Copyright © August 07, 2019. Used by permission of Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers, Wheaton, IL 60187, www.crossway.org
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