Universal Salvation

“Those ‘who belong to Christ’ (1 Cor. 3:23; 15:23) have passed through the abyss of God’s judgment; they have been baptized into Christ’s death and have been buried with him (Rom. 6:3-4). Although this radicalization of the human condition in the cross of God’s Messiah logically seems to lead to a conception of universal salvation, Paul refrains from any unequivocal assertion of this point. The time between the cross and the end-time is a time for commitment, decision, mission, and endurance. Those who are disobedient to the gospel will be judged and destroyed in the last judgment because they behave as if the powers defeated by Jesus Christ still rule the world. Thus the thrust toward a notion of universal salvation is balanced by an emphasis on responsibility and obedience for those who have heard the gospel.” - J. Christian Beker, Paul’s Apocalyptic Gospel: The Coming Triumph of God, pg. 35-36