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Calvin and Calvinism » The Well-Meant Offer

Archive for the ‘The Well-Meant Offer’ Category

14
Aug

Johannes VanderKemp (1664-1718) on the Well-Meant Offer

   Posted by: CalvinandCalvinism

[Note: 1) The following is a but a very brief selection from VanderKemp. What we do see here are some very pertinent comments, hence their selection. 2) In his exposition of the Catechism, VenderKemp first provides a positive exposition the catechism, after which sets out sets out applications by way of exhortations, first to the unbeliever, second to the believer. The following are his exhortations to unbelievers.]

VanderKemp:

1) 2 But ye, who seek not yet the suffering Jesus. who pursue your happiness in your own works, to whom Jesus is not yet precious in his sufferings, who mind earthly things, and are thus enemies of the cross of Christ j who once seemed to have chosen his side. but have again loved the present world, and do thus crucify the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame; who withstand the people of Jesus, and therefore Jesus himself, see in these sufferings of Jesus what will betide you also: for if these things were done in the green tree, what shall be done in the dry?” Luke xxiii. 31. If the Son of God experienced so much woe, when he was guiltless, and had done all things well, how will ye, O vile wretches, endure, when he will attack you not as a man. but when he will stir up all his wrath, and ring you to his seat at, that he may accuse you of all your misdemeanors, your sedition again4t him, your blasphemy, reproaching and transgressing of his law; that he map condemn you as guilty, and send you away as accursed, when he will say to you, standing on his left hand, bb Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels,” Matt. xxv. 41. How will ye then be crucified? for “your worm shall not die, and your fire shall not be quenched,” Mark ix. 44. Either ye must suffer, or Jesus for you. Since now ye evidence by your behavior, that ye have never sought him in truth, ye have therefore no proof, that he suffered for you: therefore be anxious and concerned, look unto him, that ye may be saved, He stretches out his hands, pierced with the nails, to you, and invites you to come unto him.       Johannes VanderKemp, The Christian, Entirely the Property of Christ, in the life and death, Exhibited in Fifty-three Sermons on the Heidelberg Catechism. (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Reformation Heritage Books, 1997), 1:322. [Sermons originally published in 1717.] [Some spelling modernized; underlining mine.]

2) 4. Perhaps ye may think, all this doth not concern us, for we know God: we could prove by passages from the word of God that he exists, and show what and who he is, and w endeavor to live according to our knowledge, by forsaking evil, and doing good. It is well; but does your knowledge warm your hearts, unite you to God and Christ? and are your works “done in God,” as the Lord Jesus says? John iii. 21. But how few are there, who know God thus? there are many who have not been taught so by God; they nave only a literal knowledge of the void, which leaves their souls alienated from God, and doth not influence and urge them to do all things in union with the Triune God. Their knowledge puffs them up, and “their. zeal for God is not according to knowledge, leading them to establish their own righteousness,” Rom. x. 2, 3.

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Davies:

Thus you see the death of Christ may be called the great price with which we are bought, and by which all spiritual and everlasting blessings were bought for us. As for believers, it is beyond all dispute that they have been thus dearly bought; and on this account they are not their own, but God’s. They are his on the footing of redemption; and therefore he has the strongest claim to their service. O! shall not those favored creatures whom he has redeemed from hell, redeemed from sin and Satan, redeemed with the precious blood of his Son, devote themselves to their Deliverer as his servants for ever? Can you bear the thought of withholding his own from him, when he redeemed you when lost, and purchased a right to you by the blood of his Son? one drop of which is of more value than a thousand worlds!

A thousand worlds so bought were bought too dear.

Must not the love of Christ constrain you, as it did St. Paul, to judge thus: That if this illustrious personage “died for you, then you that live should no longer live to yourselves, but to him that died for you and rose again:” 2 Cor. v. 14, 15.

Thus, you see, the argument concludes with full force as to believers, who are indisputably purchased by the blood of Christ. But will it conclude also as to those who are now unbelievers? Were they so redeemed, or bought by Jesus Christ, that they are no longer their own but God’s, and upon that footing obliged to devote themselves to him? There is hardly any subject in divinity more intricate than the extent of Christ’s redemption; and it would by no means suit the present occasion to perplex a practical discourse with this controversy. I shall, therefore, only lay down a few principles which are indisputable, and will fully answer my present design.

(1.) As to those who believe that Christ laid down his life as a price for the redemption of every individual of mankind, the argument concludes with full force; for by their own confession they are bought with a price, and therefore they are not their own, but God’s.

(2.) You all hope that Jesus Christ died for you: unless you have this hope, you can have no hope at all of being saved according to the gospel; for the gospel allows you no hopes of salvation at all, but upon the supposition of Christ’s dying for you. Have you, then, any hope of salvation? Undoubtedly you have; for you do not look upon yourselves as shut up under remediless despair. Well then, just as much hope as you have of salvation, just so much hope you have that Christ died for you; and consequently, upon your own principle, you are so far obliged to act as persons bought with a price, and therefore not your own but God’s; that is, as far as you hope for heaven, so far are you obliged to devote yourselves to God as his, and no longer to live to yourselves. And if you deny his claim to you upon the footing of redemption, you renounce all hope, and give yourselves over as lost and hopeless. And what can bind you more strongly than this? Will you rather rush into despair, and fling yourselves headlong into ruin, than acknowledge God’s right, and behave as those that are his, and not your own?

(3.) I venture to assert that Christ died for every man, in such a sense as to warrant all that hear the gospel to regard the offer of salvation by his death as made to them without distinction; and to oblige all indefinitely to embrace that offer, or to believe in him, and to conduct themselves towards him as one that, by his death, placed them under a dispensation of grace. Therefore, all are obliged to behave themselves towards him as their Redeemer, and to own that he has a right. to them upon the footing of redemption. This is sufficient to my present purpose: for if this be the case, then I may enter a claim to you all, in the name of God, as his property: and you cannot refuse to resign yourselves to him, without denying the Lord that bought you. He claims your souls and bodies as his due, and requires you to glorify him with both, upon the footing of redemption.

Samuel Davies,  “Dedication to God Argued from Redeeming Mercy,” in Sermons on Important Subjects (New York: Robert Carter, 1845), 2:84-86. [Some reformatting; underlining mine.]

31
Jul

William Shedd (1820-1894) on the Free Offer of the Gospel

   Posted by: CalvinandCalvinism

In relation to common and special grace, Shedd says:

These two forms and grades of grace, so plainly described in the Scripture texts above cited, are mentioned in the Westminister Confession, vii. 3, “Man by his fall, having made himself incapable of life by that [legal] covenant, the Lord was pleased to make a second, commonly called the covenant of grace, wherein he freely offered unto sinners life and salvation by Jesus Christ, requiring of them faith in him, that they may be saved, and promising to give unto all those that are ordained to life his Holy Spirit, to make them willing and able to believe.” According to this statement there are two things contained in the covenant of grace: (a) An offer to sinners of life and salvation by Jesus Christ, requiring of them faith in him, that they may be saved ; and (b) a promise to give unto all those that are ordained to life the Holy Spirit, to make them willing and able to believe. The “offer ” in the covenant of grace is made to all sinners without exception, but the “promise” in the covenant is made only to “those that are ordained to life,” or the elect. The “offer” is common grace; the “promise” is special grace. The “offer “is taught in such Scriptures as, “Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth shall be saved.” Mark 10:15. “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16. The “promise” is taught in such Scriptures as, “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you, and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.” Ezek. 36: 26, 27. “All that the Father gives me shall come to me ; and him that cometh to me [because given by the Father] I will in no wise cast out. No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me, draw him.” John 6:37, 44.

Calvinism: Pure and Mixed, (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1893), 98. [Some spelling modernized; underlining mine.]

[Note: To be clear, one should not take Shedd’s distinction here as absolute. There is a place for conditional promises as offered to all men, and that as an expression of God’s compassion towards all. Cf. Calvin, or Turretin, Institutes, 1:415.]

Titus 2:11-12:

For the grace of God that brings salvation hath appeared to all men, Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world.

Here we have the grounds or considerations upon which all the foregoing directions are urged, taken from the nature and design of the gospel, and the end of Christ’s death.

I. From the nature and design of the gospel. Let young and old, men and women, masters and servants, and Titus himself, let all sorts do their respective duties, for this is the very aim and business of Christianity, to instruct, and help, and form persons, under all distinctions and relations, to a right frame and conduct. For this,

1. They are put under the dispensation of the grace of God, so the gospel is called, Eph. iii. 2. It is grace in respect of the spring of it—the free favor and good-will of God, not any merit or desert in the creature; as manifesting and declaring this good-will in an eminent and signal manner; and as it is the means of conveying and working grace in the hearts of believers. Now grace is obliging and constraining to goodness: Let not sin reign, but yield yourselves unto God; for you are not under the law, but under grace, Rom. vi. 12-14. The love of Christ constrains us not to live to self, but to him (2 Cor. v. 14, 15); without this effect, grace is received in vain.

2. This gospel grace brings salvation (reveals and offers it to sinners and ensures it to believers)—salvation from sin and wrath, from death and hell. Hence it is called the word of life; it brings to faith, and so to life, the life of holiness now and of happiness hereafter. The law is the ministration of death, but the gospel the ministration of life and peace. This therefore must be received as salvation (its rules minded, its commands obeyed), that the end of it may be obtained, the salvation of the soul. And more inexcusable will the neglecters of this grace of God bringing salvation now be, since,

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Burkitt:

11 For the grace of God that brings salvation hath appeared to all men, 12 Teaching us, that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world.

As if the apostle had said. Let all sorts of men, servants and masters, children and parents, old and young, discharge their duties faithfully to God and one another; for the grace of God,  discovered in the gospel, has appeared to all men, teaching them to deny all doctrines and practices which are ungodly, and all worldly lusts of sensuality, and that we should live soberly, with respect to ourselves, righteously and charitably towards our neighbor, and holily towards
God, in this present world.

Note here, 1. A choice and excellent description of the gospel; it is the grace of God, that is, the doctrine of God’s free grace and gratuitous favor declared in Christ to poor sinners.

Note, 2. The joyful message which the gospel brings, and that is, salvation: the gospel makes a gracious tender of salvation, and that universally, to lost and undone sinners.

Note, 3. The clear light and evidence that it doth hold forth this message in and by; it has appeared or shined forth like the day-star, or the rising sun.

Note, 4. The extent of its glorious beams, how far they reach, to all indefinitely. The grace of God bringing salvation has appeared unto all men; that is, it is tendered to all without restriction or limitation.

1. As to nations, Jew or Gentile.

2. As to persons, rich or poor, bond or free;

3. Without restriction, as to the number and greatness of their sins;

4. Without restriction, in reference to the degree of their graces.

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