John Colquhoun
An extract, slightly edited, from Colquhoun’s Saving Faith, recently reprinted by Free Presbyterian Publications (hardback, 359 pages, £16.00). The author, who lived from 1748 to 1827, was the minister of the New Church in South Leith.
The direct and formal warrant, which all the hearers of the gospel have, to come and trust in the Saviour, each of them, for salvation for himself in particular, consists of the following:
- The gracious offer which God the Father makes of Christ and which Christ makes of Himself in the gospel, to sinners in common, forms a part of the direct warrant for each of them to receive and trust in Him for all His salvation. God essentially considered, in the person of the Father, makes the original and authentic offer of Christ. This offer is called the gospel offer, because He makes it in the gospel, which is therefore styled “good tidings of great joy to all people”. He in the gospel makes an offer, or a gift in offer, of Jesus Christ, with His righteousness and salvation, to sinners of mankind without exception. The same authentic offer is also made by Christ Himself and the Holy Spirit.
The ministerial offer – which ministers of the gospel are commissioned, in subordination to Christ, to make to sinners indefinitely – is their publishing of God’s authentic offer to them as their formal warrant to trust in Christ. If any sinner were excepted in the authentic offer, no ministerial offer could lawfully be published to that sinner, any more than to a fallen angel. But no sinner of the human race is excepted. The blessed gospel must be preached “to every creature”, and “whosoever will may take the water of life freely”. The original and authentic offer is, especially in the following passages of Scripture, styled a gift, or a giving, of Christ to sinners of mankind indiscriminately – not a giving of Him in possession, upon believing, but a giving of Him in offer before, or in order to, believing – such a giving or gift of Him as is a direct warrant for any sinner of mankind to receive Him.
“Unto us”, says Isaiah in the name of the visible Church of Israel, “a child is born, unto us a Son is given.” To us a Son is given, given in offer, offered as a gift – not to us who were previously children of the light, but to us who were walking “in darkness” and dwelling “in the land of the shadow of death”.
Jehovah the eternal Father is introduced as saying to the Son as Mediator, “I will give Thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles; to open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison-house”. And again, “I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that Thou mayest be My salvation unto the end of the earth”. Here it is plain that they to whom the Father gives His dear Son to be a covenant, a light, and His ordinance for salvation are the people, the Gentiles, the blind, the prisoners, they who sit in darkness, and they who are lost. These are descriptions of the children of Adam in common, considered as sinful and miserable, ignorant and destitute of the least good qualification to recommend them to divine favour; and to them as such, the compassionate Saviour is given in offer.
The same gracious offer is, in a very remarkable manner, expressed in these words: “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life”. God so loved the fallen, the sinful, the lost world, that He gave His only begotten Son to fulfil a perfect righteousness and so to merit everlasting salvation; and He still gives Him, with His righteousness and salvation, in the blessed gospel to the same lost world, in order to render it warrantable for sinners of mankind in common to believe in Him. It is remarkable that, after the words, “He gave His only begotten Son”, the particular persons to whom God gave His Son are not named. This may be regarded as a blank to be filled up with the names of such as, upon the warrant of this unlimited offer, trust in the Lord Jesus for all His salvation besides; the word whosoever affords a warrant for every sinner of the human race to believe in the Son of God for eternal life, for if whosoever believes in Him shall have everlasting life, than doubtless, if any sinner believe in Him, that sinner shall have life eternal.
When the Lord Jesus was preaching in Capernaum to a multitude, most of whom appear to have been unbelievers or enemies to Him, and was making a comparison between Himself and the manna which fell about the tents of Israel in the wilderness, He said to them all, “My Father giveth you” the true bread from heaven”. He did not say, “My Father giveth to believers among you, or to sensible sinners, or to some of you merely, the true bread; but He giveth you indiscriminately “the true bread from heaven” (John 6:32). As the raining of the manna about the tents of Israel is, in verse 31, styled a giving of it, before it was tasted; so “the offer of Christ”, says Calvin on the place, “is called a giving of Him, before He be received and believed on”. It is a giving of Him and His righteousness, though not in actual possession, yet in right to take possession, a giving of Him to sinners indefinitely, in order that the divine grant may be a warrant for any of them so to trust in Him for salvation as to take possession of Him.
To the same purpose are these cheering words of the Apostle John: “This is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life; and this life is in His Son”. Sinners become guilty of making God a liar by disbelieving this record, or testimony: “That God hath given to us eternal life and this life is in His Son”. The giving here mentioned is not a bestowing or giving in possession, but a giving in offer – such a giving by way of tender, to sinners in common, to whom the record comes, that every individual of them is bound to believe that it is an offer to him in particular. That everyone to whom the record is published is bound to believe that the grant is to him or to her is evident from the immediately preceding verse, which represents the horrible sin of unbelief as consisting in not believing that record: “He that believeth not God hath made Him a liar, because he believeth not the record which God gave of His Son”.
That unbelief, which is a giving of the lie to God, does not consist in not believing that He gives in possession eternal life to actual believers, for the greatest unbelievers, and even devils themselves, believe that. But it consists in not believing that God has given in offer eternal life to us, even to us. Besides, a gift to believers only, or to the elect only, cannot be a warrant for others to receive it; nay – not even for the elect themselves – till they know that they are already believers. A gift tendered only to some men can never be a warrant for all men to receive it. But the divine record is the witness of God, which He has testified of His Son, to be received by all the hearers of the gospel; and therefore it is a warrant for all to believe in Christ, and to lay hold on eternal life in Him.
A taking or receiving of Christ necessarily supposes a giving of Him by way of offer; and this giving may be, and for the most part is, where there is no receiving. But there can be no right reception of Christ except there be a previous grant or offer of Him as a warrant for sinners to receive Him. Hearers of the gospel, then, are guilty of making Him a liar, by not believing this record of God that to sinners of mankind in common, and to themselves in particular, He has given in offer eternal life in order that it might be warrantable for them to take possession of it. By not believing, or taking to themselves, this immensely rich and precious gift, they fly in the face of God’s testimony, and so deserve eternal death.
Of the greatness of this salvation, no tongue of man or angel can fully tell.
1. It must be great, for God the Father devised it, as the peculiar revelation of His divine glory.
2. It must be great, for “God manifest in the flesh” wrought it out and paid its price.
3. It must be great, for God the Spirit is the only agent capable of effectually applying it.
4. It must be great, for it delivers from wrath, equal to the demerit of sin.
5. It must be great, for it comprehends, in endless duration, the glory of heaven
6. It must be great, for it includes every kind of good.
7. It must be great, from the pressing offers and appeals which God makes.
8. It must be great, for it embraces multitudes.
James Stewart