Christ's Redemption: Good News for All

There can, therefore, be no reason to doubt that Jesus Christ our Lord died for the unbelievers and the sinners.  If there had been anyone who did not belong to these, then Christ would not have died for all.  But He did die for all men without exception.  There is no one, therefore, in all mankind who was not, before the reconciliation which Christ effected in His blood, either a sinner or an unbeliever.  The Apostle says:

For why did Christ, when as yet we were weak, according to the time, die for the ungodly?  For scarce for a just man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man one would dare to die.  But God commends His love towards us, because if when as yet we were sinners, Christ died for us, much more, being justified by His blood, shall we be saved from wrath through Him.  For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, shall we be saved by His life.

The same Apostle says in his Second Epistle to the Corinthians:

For the love of Christ constrains us, judging this, that if One died for all, then all were dead.  And He died for all, that they also who live, may not live to themselves, but unto Him who died for them and rose again.

And let us hear what he says of himself.

A faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation: that Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners, of whom I am the chief.  But for this reason I have obtained mercy: that in me first Christ Jesus might show forth all patience, for the information of them that shall believe in Him unto life everlasting.

Therefore, the whole of mankind, whether circumcised or not, was under the sway of sin, in fetters because of the very same guilt.  No one of the ungodly, who differed only in their degree of unbelief, could be saved without Christ's Redemption.  This Redemption spread throughout the world to become the good news for all men without any distinction.

Prosper of Aquitane, Call of the Nations, 2.16