Predestination 4: Does God want everyone to be saved?

15 Oct

1 Timothy 2:1–7

You’re reading the fourth instalment in a series on predestination. These began as notes for our youth leaders, but gradually evolved into something the internet might accept. Start here for the series introduction.

People walking across a city street in sunlight

Think of someone you love who doesn’t trust Jesus. You want them to know him. You pray for them. But does God want them to be saved too?

Once we start talking about predestination and the idea that God chooses some, it can become a troubling question. If God chooses whom he saves, can we really say he wants everyone to be saved?

In 1 Timothy 2:1–7, Paul gives us a clear answer: Yes! God wants all people to be saved.

Some context

In this letter, Paul is helping Timothy teach Christians how to live together as God’s church. Having warned him about false teaching in chapter 1, he now turns to prayer. Our passage urges Christians to pray for everyone—including kings and those in authority—and explains why.

1. Pray for all people (vv. 1–2)

Paul begins by telling Christians to pray for everyone, including kings and those in authority. We should pray that they govern well, so we can live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. That's a good thing in itself. But Paul doesn't stop with our own peaceful lives. He goes on to show how these prayers fit into God's much bigger concern for the world.

2. God desires all people to be saved (vv. 3–4)

And here's why praying for everyone is good and pleasing to God:

God our Saviour, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.
1 Timothy 2:3–4

Paul really does say that God wants all people to be saved. We shouldn't explain that away just because we're thinking about predestination. And this isn't the only place the Bible says something like this. In Ezekiel 18:23, God asks, “Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked?” And 2 Peter 3:9 says he's patient, “not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” These aren't reluctant statements. God really does take no pleasure in the death of the wicked. He wants people to turn to him and live.

So our prayers aren't simply about having a peaceful life, important as that is. We're praying in line with God's saving concern for all people everywhere. If God wants people to be saved, we should be asking him to save them.

3. Jesus is the one mediator for all people (vv. 5–7)

And how can people be saved? Through Jesus. There is one God and one mediator between God and humanity: Jesus Christ. A mediator brings two parties together, and Jesus brings sinners back to God. He gave himself as a ransom, paying the price to rescue us from sin.

Jesus hasn't come for just one nation or one kind of person. He is the one Saviour people everywhere need. That's why Paul wants the good news to go out to the world.

Pushback questions

If God genuinely wants everyone saved and he’s all-powerful, why doesn’t he just save everyone?

We need to distinguish between what God desires and what he decides to bring about. His desire for people to repent is genuine, but it isn’t the only consideration in his purposes.

We can genuinely want more than one thing too. I might really want a second helping of steak and chips. But I also want to keep the dad bod in check. Saying no to seconds doesn’t mean I never wanted them. I really did! But another consideration shaped what I chose.

Obviously, God isn’t agonising over a plate of chips. The illustration simply helps us see that genuinely wanting something doesn’t necessarily mean deciding to make it happen. God’s desire for people to turn to him and live is real. So is his sovereign decision to show mercy to those he chooses. We shouldn’t explain away either of those things.

Nor should we picture God turning away people who come to Jesus wanting to be saved. Those who reject him are responsible for their rejection, and those who are saved have his grace to thank.

Why does God choose to save some rather than everyone? We aren’t told all his reasons, and the illustration doesn’t supply them. But does that make him unfair? That’s the question we’ll tackle in our article, “How is predestination fair?”

So does God actually love people he knows are going to hell, or not?

Yes, he really does. Jesus says God makes his sun rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous (Matthew 5:45). Every day, God gives good things even to people who reject him. His kindness isn't fake, and neither is his desire for people to be saved.

But God's love doesn't mean he'll let people reject him forever without consequences. He's patient, but he's also just. Those who persist in rejecting him will face his judgment. God genuinely loves people, even those who reject him. But that doesn't mean he saves everyone. People are responsible for rejecting God, and those who are saved have only God's grace to thank.

If Jesus “gave himself as a ransom for all,” doesn’t that completely destroy the idea of predestination?

If Jesus gave himself for all, how does it make sense that God then only chooses some people to be saved? Doesn’t all mean everyone?

But look at the context. Paul tells Christians to pray for everyone, including rulers. He then explains that there is one God and one mediator, Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all. His point is that salvation isn’t restricted to one nation or one kind of person. People everywhere need the same Saviour.

We see a similar idea elsewhere. God is the God of both Jews and Gentiles—people who aren’t Jews (Romans 3:29–30). There is no distinction between them when it comes to calling on Jesus for salvation (Romans 10:12–13). God loved “the world” (John 3:16), and Jesus is the atoning sacrifice for “the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2:2). John also explains that Jesus died not just for the Jewish nation, but to gather God’s scattered children (John 11:51–52).

These passages have their own contexts, but they draw on a similar idea: God’s saving work isn’t restricted to the Jews. It reaches people from every nation and background. So language like “all” and “the world” doesn’t, by itself, mean that every individual will be saved.

Christians often express it this way: Christ’s death is sufficient for all, but effective for the elect. In other words, Jesus’ death is more than enough to save anyone. But its saving benefits—forgiveness and life with God—are received by those whom God brings to faith in Jesus.

So we should pray for everyone and offer the gospel to everyone. We don’t know whom God has chosen, but we do know that anyone who trusts Jesus will be saved.

So what?

Pray for everyone and write nobody off.

If God wants all people to be saved, we should want that too. And if Jesus is the one Saviour for people from every background, we have no reason to write anyone off.

It's easy to look at someone who isn't interested in Jesus—or who has rejected lots of invitations—and think they'll never become a Christian. But we don't know whom God has chosen. That's not our job to work out.

So pray for your friends, your family, your leaders and people who seem completely opposed to Christianity. Look for opportunities to tell them about Jesus. God wants people to be saved, and Jesus is the Saviour people everywhere need.

Study 4. Does God want everyone to be saved?

Pray and get going

Q1. Who do you find easiest to pray for? Who do you find harder to pray for, and why?

Read 1 Timothy 2:1–7

Q2. Who does Paul tell Christians to pray for (vv. 1–2)? What does he ask them to pray for?

Q3. Why does praying for everyone please God (vv. 3–4)? What does this show us about God?

Q4. What do verses 5–6 tell us about who Jesus is and what he’s done?

(A mediator brings two parties together. A ransom is a price paid to set someone free.)

Q5. Why do people from every background need the same Saviour? How do verses 5–7 explain why the good news should go out to everyone?

Q6. Someone says, “If God only chooses some people, there’s no point praying for everyone.” How would you answer them from this passage?

Q7. Is there someone you’ve stopped praying for, or assumed would never become a Christian? How does this passage challenge that?

Q8. Choose one person who doesn’t yet trust Jesus. What could you pray for them after what we’ve read? Take a moment to pray for them now, then think of a way you could help them hear about Jesus.

Pray and give thanks

Father, thank you that you want people to be saved, and that Jesus gave himself to rescue sinners. Help us not to write anyone off. Please bring the people we’ve prayed for to know Jesus, and give us opportunities to share the good news with them. Amen.