Moreover, concerning the scope and extension of the words ὑπὲρ πάντων, there is no one who can doubt without injury. Indeed, 1) they are universal of themselves, extend infinitely, and show that ἀντίλυτρον was expended by Christ for absolutely all men. 2) They display the same breadth whether they are compared with the proximate context or with the somewhat more remote context. For immediately precedes the universal expression εἷς καὶ μεσίτης θεοῦ καὶ ἀνθρώπων, “one also and common mediator of God and men”; but somewhat more remotely either πάντες ἄνθρωποι, all men, are mentioned, whom God desires to be safe and saved, or prayers are commanded which ought to be poured forth ὑπὲρ πάντων ἀνθρώπων, for all men, for this reason: that Christ gave himself ἀντίλυτρον ὑπὲρ πάντων, a redemption for all. Nor is that 3) of no account which Heinrich Heinrichs1 observed: “By so frequent a repetition of ὑπὲρ πάντων, it is not—”
—far from the truth that the Apostle was attempting to overthrow the proud particularism of the Jews.” He certainly 4) opposed it, since, with Theodoret2 as interpreter, he willed this to be expressed and signified by his words: “When all had been brought under the power of death, Christ, who neither as God was liable to death—for he has an immortal nature—nor as man, for he committed no sin which brings death, οἷόν τι λύτρον ἑαυτὸν δέδωκε, καὶ τῆς ἐκείνου δουλείας ἅπαντας ἠλευθέρωσε, gave himself as a certain price of redemption and liberated all from its servitude.” Concerning this 5) universal liberation and the price of redemption paid for all, nothing is more evident than the things which are drawn from the harmony and concord of the Scriptures. For in the first place it is drawn out that the apostolic sentence concerning Christ “who gave himself a redemption for all” corresponds to those things by which the same is called3 σωτὴρ πάντων ἀνθρώπων, μάλιστα πιστῶν, Savior of all men, especially of the faithful; σωτὴρ τοῦ κόσμου, Savior of the world; and ἱλασμός, propitiation for our sins, but not for ours only, ἀλλὰ καὶ περὶ ὅλου τοῦ κόσμου, but also for those of the whole world. But these things joined together do not allow the procurement of salvation to be regarded as restricted by boundaries. Indeed,4 “the saying is faithful and worthy of all acceptance, ὅτι Χριστὸς Ἰησοῦς ἦλθεν εἰς τὸν κόσμον, ἁμαρτωλοὺς σῶσαι, that Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners.” But there is no man who is not of himself and by his nativity a sinner. Therefore Christ came that he might preserve all men. For the charity5 of Christ urges us, judging this: ὅτι εἰ εἷς ὑπὲρ πάντων ἀπέθανεν, ἄρα οἱ πάντες ἀπέθανον. καὶ ὑπὲρ πάντων ἀπέθανεν, “because if one died for all, therefore all died. And Christ died for all.” For on this account6, ἐφανερώθη ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ θεοῦ ἵνα λύσῃ τὰ ἔργα τοῦ διαβόλου, “the Son of God appeared, that he might dissolve the works of the devil.” But the work—
—of the devil7, together with the first man, bound the whole posterity. Therefore the Son of God put on flesh and appeared conspicuous among men, that he might exempt all from the chains of sin and death cast upon them and, once they had been exempted, might reward them with the liberty of the sons of adoption.