TIMOTHY, 1ST 4:10, C. H. Cayce “For therefore we both labor and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, especially of those that believe.” We will endeavor to make just a few remarks in connection with the text. We suppose the latter part of the text is that upon which the brother wishes our views. It is a text— the latter part of it— which is frequently quoted by some people in endeavoring to prove that the Lord desires the final salvation and glorification of the entire human family. Hence they emphasize the expression, “who is the Saviour of all men.” If the text belongs where they put it, and the right application is as they make it, to the final or eternal salvation and final glorification of human beings in heaven; and if the term all men includes and embraces the entire human family; and if some of the human family are finally lost and are not finally glorified, then the text contradicts itself.
A saviour is one who saves. If one is a saviour of a man, then that man is saved. If one man of the race of Adam is not saved, or is finally lost, then the Lord is not that man’s Saviour in that sense. If, therefore, some of the race of Adam are finally lost, not finally saved, not saved with an eternal salvation, then the Lord is not the Saviour of all men in that sense. In whatever sense the saving may be used, the Lord is not the Saviour of a man not saved in that sense. If the word Saviour as used in this text has reference to a preserving in a natural sense, then in that sense the Lord is the Saviour, or preserver, of all the race. He is also the preserver of the beast creation. “O Lord, thou preservest man and beast.”— Psa 36:6. If this fact makes salvation in heaven possible for a human being, or for a man, it would do the same thing for the beast.
The Lord does preserve and uphold all His works in creation, and bestows His natural blessings in the natural realm; and the natural man enjoys them. But there are spiritual blessings which no one can enjoy unless one has the spiritual life. So there is a special blessing, or saving, or preserving, for His people that is not had or enjoyed by any others.
The term all men may be used in a generic or restricted sense, as that term is often used in Scripture. Used in that sense it would and should be applied to all the Lord’s children, all who are born from above. He is their Saviour, their Preserver. He saves them, and will finally deliver them from this present evil world, and they shall finally be conformed to the image of Jesus, though many of them do not here in this world believe in Jesus as the Messiah, as the King in Zion; they do not believe His teaching or doctrine. Some of His people do thus believe; and the Lord is a special Saviour of those who do thus believe. 1 Tim. 4:10 There is a special saving enjoyed by the Lord’s people here in this world who thus believe in Him that others do not and cannot enjoy. “Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.” The Primitive Baptist, August 1, 1926.