2. The Biblical Grounds for the Gospel Offer
Rev A W MacColl
Were the Westminster Divines and the Evangelical Presbyterians of Scotland correct in asserting the doctrine of the free offer of the gospel? To answer this question, we must consider the biblical grounds upon which the doctrine is founded.
In the first instance, it is clearly to be observed that the Bible contains promises of mercy and invitations to sinners to come to God through Christ to obtain this mercy. Among others, we might cite: “Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else” (Is 45:22); “Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters” (Is 55:1); “Let the wicked forsake His way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord; and He will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon” (Is 55:7); “Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Mt 11:28); “All that the Father giveth Me shall come to Me; and him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out” (Jn 6:37); “If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink” (Jn 7:37); “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me” (Rev 3:20); “Let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely” (Rev 22:17).
1Last month’s section of this Theological Conference paper discussed controversies surrounding the gospel offer.
Here we have sinners, wicked and unrighteous men, directly addressed with the information that, if they forsake their ways and return to the One from whom they have deeply revolted, they will be abundantly pardoned. If by God’s grace, they then accepted God’s words, they would act upon them by coming to Him for pardon. What is this other than an offer of pardon and acceptance from God to sinners?
Secondly, Christ’s ambassadors are commanded to preach the gospel to all without exception, as in Mark 16:15: “Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature”. It is therefore imperative that the good news of the gospel be proclaimed to as many as we are able to reach. In making this indiscriminate proclamation, we must bear in mind the fact that we simply do not know who will truly receive the good news in God’s sovereign good pleasure.
It is through hearing the Word that faith comes, and there is no doubt the Lord will ensure that all elected to eternal life will be brought into a state of grace and salvation in His own good time. Ordinarily this arises through the conjunction of the outward call of the gospel and the inward, effectual calling of the Holy Spirit. The Scriptures do not require us to make distinctions between those to whom salvation is to be offered and those to whom it is not. The conclusion therefore follows that, if the gospel is to be preached, it is to be preached unequivocally to all that hear it.
Thirdly, the very nature of the gospel itself should lead us to proclaim the free offer. If we conceive of the gospel as, fundamentally, the objective facts concerning Jesus Christ and His accomplishment of redemption, this ought to bring us to couch our presentation of these facts in a way that is conducive to bringing sinners to be persuaded of them and accept them for themselves, through the agency of the Holy Spirit. We are, as Paul says, to “persuade men” and, if we do not present the truths of the gospel to our hearers for their personal acceptance, then we are coming short of our duty. The teaching of the truth as it is in Jesus should culminate in pressing the claims of that truth upon our hearers for their own acceptance. It seems very difficult to conceive of any other way of bringing sinners to accept salvation unless they are brought to see that that salvation is adapted to and offered to them in particular.
Because of this we can assert that even those who in various ways deny the doctrine of the free offer, are – if they are saved themselves – brought to Christ through, implicitly, the very offer which they deny to others. For there is no other warrant for a sinner to lay hold of Christ for himself if Christ is not offered to him personally. No man can have knowledge of his election until he believes in Christ, and we cannot rightly believe in Him unless we
have a warrant to lay hold of His salvation for ourselves. If any will truly believe in the Bible’s revelation of Jesus Christ, he will be saved, for it is the truth that shall make him free. Christ came to save sinners; therefore if they believe the gospel truths concerning Him with application to their own case, they will not perish but have everlasting life. But if there is no offer of salvation, there is no access to that salvation. Clearly if sinners are saved it is because salvation in Christ is offered to them in the Word.
Fourthly, there are places in Scripture which seem to indicate a “desire” in God that wicked, unrepentant sinners turn to Him in repentance for pardon. We might think of such passages as Deuteronomy 5:29, 32:29; Psalm 81:13, Isaiah 48:18, and also Matthew 23:37, as expressive of a Divine desire that unrepentant sinners would turn to Him in repentance.2 There is clearly a large element of condescension to our level in how God speaks to us about Himself in these verses, yet Rev David Silversides points out that they do contain something “that is actually true of God, albeit stated in human terms to help our feeble understandings”.3
God is giving a demonstration of what is pleasing to Him, what is consistent with His nature and His moral government of the universe. If He commands and invites sinners to turn from sin, this is because He hates sin and loves holiness in all His creatures. It is something wholly pleasing to the Divine nature that sinners as sinners turn from their evil ways and live, as Ezekiel makes clear in chapters 18 and 32 of his prophecy. The precise implications of the will of God’s decrees are not in view at this point, since the prophet is only dealing with what is in accordance with God’s character and His preceptive will as moral Governor. If they do turn, they will not be refused by God. It is inaccurate to say God desires the salvation of all men, neither can we assert that God has two separate wills regarding the salvation of sinners. But it is right and proper to maintain that the repentance of sinners generally is a thing that delights God.
If we are looking for a solution to the great problem of where those passages of Scripture originate which seem to point to a “desire” in God that all should be saved, we must look to the nature and character of God for our answer – rather than to His eternal purpose. Francis Turretin’s comments on this point are worth considering. He makes it clear, first of all, that it is inconsistent and erroneous to suggest that God could intend the salvation of those whom He has reprobated from all eternity, otherwise “He would intend
2K W Stebbins, Christ Freely Offered, Covenanter Press, 1996 edn, p 43.
3D Silversides, The Free Offer: Biblical and Reformed, Marpet Press, 2005, p 48. The technical terms for this kind of language are anthropomorphism and anthropopathism.
what He knows is contrary to His own will and what He knew in eternity would never take place.”4
Turretin goes on, however, to state, “Although God does not intend the salvation of the reprobate by calling them, still He acts most seriously and sincerely; nor can any hypocrisy and deception be charged against Him”. He goes on to explain this position: Since God “seriously and most truly shows them the only and most certain way of salvation, seriously exhorts them to follow it and most sincerely promises salvation to all those who do follow it . . .”.
Turretin continues: “God delights in the conversion and eternal life of the sinner, as a thing pleasing in itself and congruous with His own infinitely compassionate nature, rather than in his perdition; and therefore demands from man as an act due from him, to turn if he would live. But although He does not will, in the sense of delighting in, the death of the sinner, He at the same time wills, in the sense of decreeing, the death of the sinner for the display of His justice. Even as an upright magistrate, though he does not delight in and desire the death of the criminal, yet determines to inflict the just penalty of the law.”5
Following on from this, there is the fact that, in preaching the gospel tidings, we are to preach with love to the souls of our hearers. There can be no question that Christ’s preaching was full of love and compassion for the souls of the lost, those sheep without a shepherd, so that in weeping over the city of Jerusalem He was giving vent in His human nature to sentiments that were entirely in accordance with the Divine mind.6 Again, this was obviously the manner of apostolic preaching, as Paul’s heartfelt desire for the salvation of his unbelieving Jewish compatriots reveals (Rom 10:1). If we are to preach the gospel earnestly, in the same strain and with the like compassion that characterised the Saviour and His apostles, we must have love in our hearts for our hearers and an earnest desire that they would be saved. We cannot be allowed to hold the view that we are more compassionate than Christ or that we can love our unconverted hearers more than Christ who perfectly fulfilled the law of love to His neighbour.
We agree with Mr Silversides: “As the Holy Spirit is the cause of all true love to our neighbour, so He must be the author of that love as it expresses
4Francis Turretin, Institutes of Elenctic Theology, Presbyterian and Reformed, 1994, vol 2, p 505.
5Turretin, Institutes, vol 1, p 408, cited by Shedd, Dogmatic Theology, Presbyterian & Reformed, 2003 edn, p 347. Shedd’s translation is given here.
6Mr Silversides refutes the assertion that Christ’s weeping was only directed towards the elect in Jerusalem (The Free Offer, pp 50-54).
itself in desire for their salvation. He is also the ultimate cause of all true prayer, including that for the salvation of men. The desire God created and approved of in the Apostle, must reflect something analogous in God Himself for the creation and approval of it to be consistent with His own holy character.”7
These are the biblical grounds upon which the free offer of the gospel may be said to rest. In the next article (DV) we will seek to consider a few of the wider theological issues which arise in connection with this doctrine.