Free offer of the Gospel

by Rev. John Flavel

Unbelievers as ever they expect to see the face of God in peace, must be pressed to receive Jesus Christ as He is now offered to them in the gospel. This is the very scope of the gospel: I shall therefore press it by three great considerations, viz.

First, What is in Christ whom you are to receive.

Secondly, What is in the offer of Christ by the gospel.

Thirdly, What is in the rejecting of that offer.

First Consider well what is in Christ, whom I persuade you this day to receive: did you know what is in Christ, you would never neglect or reject Him as you do: For (1) “God is in Christ,” 2 Cor. v. 19. The Deity hath chosen to dwell in His flesh; He is “God manifest in the flesh.” 1 Tim. III. 16. A Godhead dwelling in flesh is the world’s wonder; so that in receiving Christ, you receive God Himself.

(2) The authority of God is in Christ. (Ex. XXIII. 21.) “Thy name is in Him.” “Him hath God the Father sealed.” John VI. 27. He has the commission, the great seal of heaven to redeem and save you. All power in heaven and in earth is given to Him. He comes in His father’s name to you, as well as in His own name.

(3) The wisdom of God is in Christ, 1 Cor. I. 24. “Christ is the wisdom of God,” yea, “in Him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” Col. II. 3. Never did the wisdom of God display itself before the eyes of angels and men, as it hath done in Christ. The “angels desire to look into it.” 1 Peter I. 12, yet they are not so much concerned in the project and design of this wisdom in redemption as you are.

(4) The fulness of the Spirit is in Christ; yea, it fills Him as it never did, nor will fill any creature. John III. 34. “God giveth not the Spirit by measure to Him.” All others have their limits, stints, and measures; some more, some less; but the Spirit is in Christ without measure. O how lovely and desirable are those men that have a large measure of the Spirit in them! but He is anointed with the Spirit of holiness “above all His fellows.” Ps. XLV. 2, 7. Whatever grace is found in all the saints, which makes them desirable and lovely, wisdom in one, faith in another, patience in a third, they all centre in Christ as the rivers do in the sea.

(5) The righteousness of God is in Christ, by which only a poor guilty sinner can be justified before God, 2 Cor. V. 21. We are “made the righteousness of God in Him”: He is “the Lord our righteousness.”

Jer. XXIII. 6, i.e., The author of our righteousness, or the Lord who justifies us; by that name He will be known, and called by His people, than which none can be sweeter.

(6) The love of God is in Christ; yea, the very yearning bowels of divine love are in Him. What is Christ, but the love of God wrapt up in flesh and blood? 1 John IV. 9, 10, “In this was manifested the love of God towards us,” and herein is love, that God sent His Son. This is the highest flight that divine love made; one higher than this it cannot mount. O love, unparalleled and admirable!

(7) The mercies and compassions of God are all in Christ. Jude 21. Mercy is the thing that poor sinners want. It is that they cry for at the last gasp; it is the only thing that can do them good. O what would they give to find mercy in that great day! Why if you receive Christ, you shall with Him receive mercy, but out of Him there is no mercy to be expected from the hands of God; for God will never exercise mercy to the prejudice of His justice; and it is in Christ that justice and mercy meet and embrace each other.

(8) To conclude, the salvation of God is in Christ. Acts IV. 12. “Neither is there salvation in any other,” Christ is the door of salvation, and faith is the key that opens that door to men. If you therefore believe not i.e. if you receive not Jesus Christ, as God hath offered Him, you exclude yourselves from all hope of salvation. The devils have as much ground to expect salvation as you. You see what is in Christ to induce you to receive Him.

Secondly I beseech you, to consider what there is in the offer of Christ to sinners, to induce you to receive Him. Consider well, to whom and how Christ is offered in the gospel.

(1) To Whom is He offered; not to fallen angels, but to you; they lie in chains of darkness, Jude 6, as He took not their nature, so He designs not their recovery; and therefore will have no treaty at all with them: but He is offered to you, creatures of an inferior rank and order by nature; nor is He offered to the damned, the treaty of peace is ended with them. Christ will never make them another offer of salvation, nor is He offered to millions as good as you, now living in the world. The sound of Christ and salvation is not come to their ears, but He is offered to you by the special favour and bounty of heaven, and will you not receive Him? Oh! Then how will the devils, the damned, and the heathen upbraid your folly! and say, Had we had one such offer of mercy, of which you have had thousands we would never have been now in this place of torments.

Consider how Christ is offered to you and you shall find that He is offered,

(1) Freely, as the gift of God, to poor souls: you are not to purchase Him, but only to receive Him. Isa. IV. 1, “Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money, let him come,” etc.

(2) Christ is offered importunately, by repeated entreaties, 2 Cor. V. 20. “As though God did beseech you, we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.” O! what amazing condescension is here in the God of mercy! God now beseeches you, will you not yield to the entreaties of your God? O then what wilt thou say for thyself, when God will not hear thee, when thou shalt entreat and cry for mercy?

Consider the sin and danger that there is in refusing or neglecting the present offers of Christ in the gospel, and surely there is much sin in it; the very malignity of sin, and the sum of all misery lies here; for in refusing Christ,

1. You put the greatest contempt and slight upon all the attributes of God that it is possible for a creature to do: God hath made His justice, His mercy, His wisdom and all His attributes to shine in their brightest glory in Christ. Never was there such a display of the glory of God made to the world in any other way. O then, what is it to reject and despise Jesus Christ, but to offer the greatest affront to the glory of God that it is possible for men to put upon it?

2. You hereby frustrate and evacuate the very design and importance of the gospel to yourselves: you “receive the grace of God in vain.” 2 Cor. VI. 1. As good, yea, better had it been for you, that Christ had never come into the world, or, if He had, that your lot had fallen in the dark places of the earth, where you had never heard His name; yea, good had it been for that man if he had never been born.

3. Hereby a man murders his own soul. “I have said therefore unto you, that you shall die in your sins; for if ye believe not that I am He, ye shall die in your sins.” John VIII. 24. Unbelief is self-murder, you are guilty of the blood of your own souls; life and salvation were offered to you, and you rejected them, yea,

4. The refusing of Christ by unbelief will aggravate your damnation above all others that perish in ignorance of Christ. O, it will be more tolerable for heathens than for you: the greatest measures of wrath are reserved to punish the worst of sinners, and among sinners none will be found worse than unbelievers.

I will close with a few words of direction.

1. In receiving Christ come, empty-handed unto Him: believing on Him who “justifies the ungodly,” Rom. IV. 5, and know that the deepest sense of your own vileness, emptiness, and unworthiness, is the best frame of heart that can accompany you to Christ.

2. In receiving Christ, beware of dangerous delays. O follow on the work till it be finished. You read of some that are almost persuaded, and of others not far from the kingdom of God.

3. See that you receive Christ, with all your heart. To receive all Christ, is to receive His person clothed with all His offices; and to receive Him with all your heart, is to receive Him into your understanding, will and affections. Acts VIII. 37. As there is nothing in Christ that may be refused, so there is nothing in you from which He must be excluded.

4. Understand, that the opening of your hearts to receive the Lord Jesus Christ, is not a work done by any power of your own, but the arm of the Lord is revealed therein. Isa. LIII. 1. It is therefore your duty and interest to be daily at the feet of God, pouring out your souls to Him in secret, for ability to believe.

(Extract from Sermon on John I. 12.)