Discussions on the extent of the atonement frequently confuse atonement acquired with atonement applied. One sees this in statements such as “Everyone limits the atonement.” The thought behind this is that, unless one believes in universalism, then atonement only comes to those who believe. This is true, but it dodges the issue. The issue is whether an atonement even exists for someone. The definite atonement position says that atonement exists if one believes. Note: Not that it is only applied to believers, but that it exists only for some. John Piper exemplifies this view in a fictional discussion with an inquirer. In the following, E stands for Evangelist, and U for Unbeliever.
E: [W]hen Jesus, the Son of God, died, he absorbed God’s wrath, removed it, and he bore the guilt of sin for all who trust him.
U: Did he do that for me?
E: If you will have him—receive him—you will have all that he is for you and all that he did for you. If you will trust him, yes, he did it for you.
U: So you don’t know if he did it for me?
E: He is offering himself to you right now freely. He is offering you a wonderful, finished work of redemption—all that he accomplished in absorbing God’s wrath and cancelling sins. All of that is yours for the having, right now. If you won’t have it, it’s not yours. If you will, it is. There’s only one way to know if your sins were cancelled and your death sentence was commuted in the death of Jesus. Believe on him. His promise is absolute: If you believe, you will be saved. If you won’t believe, you remain in your sin, and under God’s wrath.[1]
The last part of this is again something that all aside from universalists agree with: “If you believe, you will be saved. If you won’t believe, you remain in your sin.” But what precedes this introduces something else: “There’s only one way to know if your sins were cancelled and your death sentence was commuted in the death of Jesus. Believe on him.” The assurance of salvation is not based on the objective truth that Jesus died and rose again, but on the subjective application of the atonement to me in particular.
This reverses the order of things, making atonement acquired rest on atonement applied. If the atonement is never applied (by faith) it was never acquired to begin with. You were excluded from it in eternity past, or at least at the cross. This conflating of the objective reality that Christ offered himself and the subjective application of it to a believer is a confusion of atonement acquired and atonement applied. What is not acquired can never be applied. Yet this says what is not applied was never acquired.
Pendleton puts the matter starkly. “If faith implies reliance on the atonement, and if the atonement was made for a part of the race only, it follows that it is the duty of those for whom no atonement was made to rely on that which has no existence. This is an absurdity. The more the point is considered, the more evident it will appear that the duty of all men to believe the gospel is inseparable from the “objective fulness” of the provisions of the atonement for the salvation of all men.”[2]
A sinner can apply by faith the atonement of Christ because it truly exists, was made for him. He was included in that atonement, and thus an objective reality exists to be applied. To say that if one does not apply it by faith it never existed is replace this objective reality with a subjective choice.
When the Christian may have doubts about their salvation, may waver, the reality of Christ’s death and resurrection—unrevisable facts of history—are the ground of assurance, not my reception of these facts. My reception applies the benefits of these facts, but it doesn’t create the facts. I can know I am saved because Christ gave himself as a ransom for all. This truth exists for me to apply by faith. If my application of it determined whether it exists at all, is this really a sure foundation? Am I the sure foundation of my salvation? Certainly not.
[1] https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/a-five-pointer-shares-the-gospel
[2] Christian Doctrines: A Compendium of Theology, J.M. Pendleton (Philadelphia, American Baptist Publication Society, 1878), 244-245.