My apologies for taking so long to respond!
I hope that during this
deafening silence, you had a good Thanksgiving with your family.
Okay, I guess it’s my turn. I shall attempt to give accurate reformed view of this text:
1 John 2:2 He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.In short, I believe this epistle, including verse 2,
is directed toward Jewish Christians.
"Ours" = Jewish Christians.
"The whole world = Gentile Believers scattered all over.
I shall attempt to expand:
To whom is this epistle directed? It is my contention that John here is addressing Jewish Christians in particular. How do we know this? I shall give a few lines of reasoning for this. First, John was a minister and an apostle specifically to the Jews as we see in Galatians 2:9. Secondly, John seems to be addressing Jewish Christians when he says in vs. 7:
Beloved, I am not writing a new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning; the old commandment is the word which you have heard. As I am sure you are well aware, the Gospel had it’s beginnings with the Jews (Rom. 1:16). Furthermore, several places in the epistle John is addressing the Judaist heresy. He warns that
No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also. (1John2:23) It also appears as if he was writing to Jewish Christians in particular, those who had been
“anointed by the Holy One” (1 John 2:20) and knew the truth (1 John 2:21). Thirdly, the opposition that John makes between
us and the
world gives us some insight to whom he was addressing. John, when he says,
ours is including himself among those whom he was addressing.
So why does John add or contrast the “whole world” to “ours?” I think he is reminding his hearers that Christ’s expiation is not only for “them”, but for Gentiles as well. The Jews, historically, had a vitriolic hatred of the Gentiles and needed to be reminded that the redemption procured by
“their” Messiah was not for them only. So, we see John saying,
“He is the propitiation for our sins [believing Jews];
and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. [believing Gentiles scattered around the world].” We see John using reasoning similar to this in John 11:51-52, where he says:
He did not say this of his own accord, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but also to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad. I think it is clear that the contrast between people groups here is not between the effectual salvation of all believers and the ineffectual redemption of all others. No, I think it is the extending of the same effectual redemption which belonged to the Jewish believers as well as all other children of God scattered throughout the world. Or in other words: He was reminding his Jewish hearers that God’s chosen people were no longer only Israelites, but rather, men and women from every tribe, tongue and nation.
Revelation 5:9-10 And they sang a new song, saying, "Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth."Another useful thing to consider with this passage is the word
propitiation. It means that God’s wrath against sin, demanded by His justice, is appeased on account of the death of Christ for sinners. If the universal language used in this and other passages is in fact
universal, then Hell would be empty. We know that a single drop of Christ’s infinitely valuable blood would be enough to save every living soul to the uttermost. So if Christ’s propitiation is that powerful (and it is) … why are not all men saved? Is it because of their unbelief? Let’s let John Owen give us some clarity here:
Here is a link to a decent paper which deals with the extent of the atonement as it pertains to this passage:
www.the-highway.com/1Jh2.2.html