{N}2,{/}3 This paragraph will be of special interest to those inquiring about how God saves non-Christians. {C}God wants all to be saved and come to the knowledge of truth{/}. We should not distort this statement, even with good intentions, to make it say more than what it contains. This, {C}God wants...{/}, does not mean: "God wants without any condition or restriction..." By no means does it imply that, "God will bring it about that everyone will be saved."
Certainly, we may conclude from the biblical text that God loves everyone. Nevertheless, we must recognize that it clearly states that, "God wills that everyone be saved through knowledge of the truth." In this context, "truth" refers unequivocally to the Christian experience. Neither may we interpret the text to mean: "Know that everyone will be saved." Rather it is saying, "Do everything possible so that all will be saved. That is God's will by means of faith and Christian preaching."
{C}As there is one God, there is one mediator between God and people, Christ Jesus.{/} In the introduction to the Book of Jonah we referred to the crisis of faith that occurred at the beginning of this century when many have tragically passed from a "sectarian" security to a liberalism foreign to the Bible; because for nineteen centuries it was preached that only the baptized would be saved. Modern opinion claims, without foundation or explanation, that there are many roads leading to salvation. Christianity is only one of them and Christ is only Mediator and Savior for those who believe in him.
The message of 1 Timothy 2,5 obliges us to clarify three points.
1. The salvation that we proclaim is much more than a simple pardoning of sins, for example, if Christ were to pay a debt or if he were to take upon himself someone's punishment. Rather, salvation is the turning of the universe to God, and the expiation and the fulfillment of human history in such a way that divine wisdom and love can be seen to have been responsible for its realization. It is necessary that this universal history, which occurs in time and is full of contradictions, may one day have a place in eternity where everything forms one reality.
If we have understood this perspective that inspires the epistles to the Ephesians and to the Colossians, we will have no difficulty in affirming that Christ, the Eternal Word of the Father, is the only mediator. He will be and he is in eternity, and it is he who reunites in himself all the children of God, and with them, all of creation.
2. Neither is there any question of denying the value of Jesus' voluntary sacrifice of himself, a perfect sacrifice which obtains for us the pardon of our sins. The Letter to the Hebrews develops this perspective (Heb 9:23-28). Christ replaced all of those sacrifices through which the people of God attempted to obtain forgiveness. Christ's offering was superior to that of the high priests, who were Israel's official intercessors in the Old Testament. But that Letter was not meant to explain the whole issue. Rather, it was a response to those believers whose religious education was rooted in worship in the Temple. The author was not concerned with the question that preoccupies us: How does God save non-Christians?
Without question, non-Christians are just as much sinners as we are. Nevertheless, the sin of Christians differs from theirs in that it is not simply a fault. Rather, since we have been called and elected by Christ and we have entered into a loving relationship with God, our sin has the taint of treason, of indifference or contempt, and of inflicting an offense. Consequently, Christians need a very special pardon and a particular mediator. This is not to say that non-Christians do not need a mediator. Christ's sacrifice was necessary to manifest divine holiness and the superabundance of love toward all humanity that was alienated from its very origin.
3. Even though we may affirm that God foresaw the need and willed that there be diverse ways of salvation, we must not deny Christ's universal role in that regard. God, fully aware of the human condition, manifested his wisdom and love in history by not giving everyone the same vocation. The majority of people in the world, ignorant of revelation and of the one Mediator, search for a mysterious, unknowable God. In contrast, the minority people of God, chosen by grace to receive the Word of God, live a different history, acting as a ferment for the majority. (In this regard, refer to the comment on the salvation of non-Christians at the end of the Apocalypse.) The Father does not love the majority less for not having made Christian revelation available to them. Nor is Jesus the only one in whom and thanks to whom the majority will achieve their place in the one Adam in eternity.

