Matt Chandler on Extent of the atonement
Definite — for the elect, effectually
Yeah, it's limited. Absolutely. Of course it's, look, my neighbor's not saved. It's limited.
THE POSITION
Leans definite. Asked by Piper whether he preaches the five points every Sunday, he says he wants his people to take them as normal, and voices the reply he hopes they will give, which this cell quotes. The words are the congregant he imagines and not a statement in his own person. The argument they give, that his neighbour is not saved, shows only that the atonement is limited in some sense, which would fit sufficient-for-all, efficient-for-the-elect too. What tips the cell is a 2015 sermon in which, as The Christian Post reported it, Jesus on the cross absorbs the sins "of all of those who would believe upon the name of Jesus throughout history."
46 About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”
10 OTHERS HOLD THIS
ABOUT THIS FIGURE
Lead pastor of teaching at The Village Church in Flower Mound, Texas, since 2002, and from 2012 president, later chairman, of the Acts 29 church-planting network. He is known for joining Reformed soteriology to openly continuationist practice, a pairing he has described as feeling like a theological orphan. This entry rests on his 2009 interviews and conference messages with Desiring God, a 2011 Tabletalk interview, his 2017 foreword to a book by Sam Storms, a 2024 podcast transcript, press reports of his sermons, The Explicit Gospel (2012, with Jared C. Wilson) as reviewers quote it, and his church's statement of faith, which is used only where a cell says so.
Cite this page
"Matt Chandler on Extent of the atonement", Examined Doctrine, July 2026 edition, https://examineddoctrine.com/position/chandler/atonement-extent (archived at https://examineddoctrine.com/editions/2026-07/position/chandler/atonement-extent).