Myth, or no myth?
When Christ died, He "died for all", and tasted "death for every one". (2 Cor. 5:14; Hebrews 2:9) It had to be the second death that He "tasted", because what we call death, the Bible calls "sleep", which everyone experiences except those who will be translated (John 11:11-13; 1 Thessalonians 4:16,17). Therefore there is no reason why anyone should at last die the second death except that he has resisted or rejected the salvation already given him "in Christ" (Hebrews 2:3; the Greek word 'neglect' in the KJV means 'despise' ...see Matthew 22:5)
At Christ's baptism, the Father accepted the human race in His Son. (Matt. 3:17) Thus He is already the Savior of all men (John 4:42) no one can any longer doubt that the Lord has accepted him or her 'in Christ'. But Christ is "especially" the Savior "of those who believe" (1 Timothy 4:10).
Our salvation does not depend on our initiating a relationship with Him, it depends on our believing/responding to the relationship He has already initiated with us.
Christ has abolished death, the second death, (2 Timothy 1:10) for "every one", believers and unbelievers, for He has brought life, and for those who believe, He has also brought "immortality".
In Romans 5:15-18 Paul sets forth what Christ accomplished on the cross. Let me offer an analogy. Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 illustrates that "verdict of acquittal" or "justification" for "all men" . Lincoln granted every slave in the confederate territories a legal freedom. But no-one could experience it until
1. He heard the good news and
2. Let it motivate him to walk out into liberty.
So the blood of the cross has brought everyone legal freedom from sin and its eternal consequences. Our part is to believe.
So Christ has accomplished something for every human being that has ever lived. He died the second death for "every man" and thus elected "all men" to be saved. In that sense, it is true that "He saved the world".
As one writer put it...with His own blood Christ has signed the emancipation papers for the whole race.
John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
What is the gospel???
2 Corinthians 5:19 To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.
When we shar the gospel, with whomsoever will hear, we can be confident that Christ died for that person, and that by simple faith he or she may lay hold of eternal life. We need have no fear that the person we are sharing the gospel with may be a part of some group of people who God in His infinite wisdom set aside and has predetermined to punish and destroy. Such a duplicitous God is not the God we serve.
