Calamy:

Mr. Calamy–I argue from the iii. of Joh[n] 16, In which words a ground of God’s intention of giving Christ, God’s love to the world, a philanthropy the world of elect and reprobate, and not of elect only; It cannot be meant of the elect, because of that ‘whosoever believeth’… xvi. Mark, 15. ‘Go preach the gospel to every creature.’ If the covenant of grace be to be preached to all, then Christ redeemed, in some sense, all–both elect and reprobate; but it is to be preached to all; there is a warrant for it… For the minor, if the universal redemption be the ground of the universal promulgation, then… the minor, else there is no verity in promulgation. All God’s promulgations are serious and true… Faith doth not save me, but only as an instrument to apply Christ. There is no verity in the universal offer except founded in the…

Alex Mitchell and John Struthers, Minutes of the Sessions of the Westminster Assembly of Divines (London: William Blackwood and Sons, 1874), 154.   [Notes: The portion of the minutes contained in the old Mitchell-Struthers “Minutes,” referencing the redemption of the elect only, or not, is identical to the same in  Chad B. Van Dixhoorn’s new edition of the minutes, Reforming the Reformation: Theological Debate at the Westminster Assembly, 1643-1652, 6:202-209. Regarding Calamy, he was not only a Westminster divine, but one of the leaders of the English Presbyterians until his death.  Lastly, it should be noted that Calamy, along with a reported one third of the divines, signed the Westminster in good conscience, while holding to the classical construction of John 3:16 and Christ’s redemption of mankind, in some form or another.]

Carson:

1) B. Some Different Ways the Bible Speaks of the Love of God

I had better warn you that not all of the passages to which I refer actually use the word love. When I speak of the doctrine of the love of God, I include themes and texts that depict God’s love without ever using the word, just as Jesus tells parables that depict grace without using that word.

With that warning to the fore, I draw your attention to five distinguishable ways the Bible speaks of the love of God. This is not an exhaustive list, but it is heuristically useful. (1) The peculiar love of the Father for the Son, and of the Son for the Father. John’s Gospel is especially rich in this theme. Twice we are told that the Father loves the Son, once with the verb agapao (John 3:35), and once with phileo (John 5:20). Yet the evangelist also insists that the world must learn that Jesus loves the Father (John 14:31). This intra-Trinitarian love of God not only marks off Christian monotheism from all other monotheisms, but is bound up in surprising ways with revelation and redemption. I shall return to this theme in the next chapter

(2) God’s providential love over all that he has made. By and large the Bible veers away from using the word love in this connection, but the theme is not hard to find. God creates everything, and before there is a whiff of sin, he pronounces all that he has made to be “good” (Gen. 1). This is the product of a loving Creator. The Lord Jesus depicts a world in which God clothes the grass of the fields with the glory of wildflowers seen by no human being,perhaps, but seen by God. The lion roars and hauls down its prey, but it is God who feeds the animal. The birds of the air find food, but that is the result of God’s loving providence, and not a sparrow falls from the sky apart from the sanction of the Almighty (Matt. 6). If this were not a benevolent providence, a loving providence, then the moral lesson that Jesus drives home, viz. that this God can be trusted to provide for his own people, would be incoherent.

(3) God’s salvific stance toward his fallen world. God so loved the world that he gave his Son (John 3:16). I know that some try to take kosmos (“world”) here to refer to the elect. But that really will not do. All the evidence of the usage of the word in John’s Gospel is against the suggestion. True, world in John does not so much refer to bigness as to badness. In John’s vocabulary, world is primarily the moral order in willful and culpable rebellion against God. In John 3:36 God’s love in sending the Lord Jesus is to be admired not because it is extended to so big a thing as the world, but to so bad a thing; not to so many people, as to such wicked people. Nevertheless elsewhere John can speak of “the whole world (1 John 2:2), thus bringing bigness and badness together. More importantly, in Johannine theology the disciples themselves once belonged to the world but were drawn out of it (e.g., John 15:19). On this axis, God’s love for the world cannot be collapsed into his love for the elect. The same lesson is learned from many passages and themes in Scripture. However much God stands in judgment over the world, he also presents himself as the God who invites and commands all human beings to repent. He orders his people to carry the Gospel to the farthest corner of the world, proclaiming it to men and women everywhere. To rebels the sovereign Lord calls out, “As surely as I live . . . I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! Why will you die, O house of Israel?” (Ezek. 33:11).⁹

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Davenant:

That we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.]

Behold, then, the end and aim of Paul, and so, indeed, of every other Minister of the word; viz. that they may bring all kinds of people to that saving knowledge of Christ in which Christian perfection consists. Now to avoid confusion herein, let us make two separate explanations. The first as to the intention of Paul; the other as to Christian perfection, or the character which constitutes it. In respect of the first, then, it is asked, Is not this intention of Paul either extravagant or absurd, it being most certain that the greater part of mankind will not be brought to Christ after all the efforts of the Gospel ministry? For though many are called, yet few come, i.e. are chosen. Why, then, does he profess an intention which never can be fulfilled?

I answer, Neither is the Apostle’s intention of bringing all men to Christ, though few will in reality be brought, nor are his endeavours to fulfill it extravagant or vain. That it is not extravagant there are two reasons: 1. Because it is in conformity with the rule of Charity, for according to that rule we are to presume favourably of every man until the contrary is shewn: But Ministers have no evidence against any particular man being saved; therefore they are bound to entertain a good hope for every man, and to do every thing they can for promoting his salvation.

2. This desire is not extravagant, because it is in perfect accordance with the revealed will of God. For that revealed will in the promulgation of the Gospel offers salvation to every man without respect of persons; and no man is excluded, unless he exclude himself by his unbelief. Agreeable to this statement is 1 Tim. ii. 4, God will have all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth. What, therefore, God himself hath declared to be his will in offering the Gospel, the same also ought to be the will of his Ministers in preaching it.

But here another question is raised from the foregoing: If God would have all men to whom he sends the Gospel of salvation to be saved, why are not all saved; since the will of God, neither in itself nor in the means by which it acts, can be hindered in producing the effect intended? A common answer to this question is taken from Augustine: When God is said to will that all men should be saved, we must make a distribution of individuals into classes, not of classes into individuals; so that the sense will be, God wills that some should be saved of every class of men. But to me the commonly received distinction of the Schoolmen between the will of his good pleasure and his visible will (voluntate signi) is better suited to this passage. We therefore reply, that the will of his good pleasure is always effectually fulfilled, because it is formally and essentially in God, and is his practical absolute will, when employed concerning any future good. But his visible will is not always fulfilled, because it is not formally and essentially in God, and is not his absolute and practical will; but, it is his declarative or approbative will (if I may be allowed such a word) towards us. God is, therefore, said to will, by his visible will, the salvation of all, to whom he proposes and offers the Gospel, which is the ordinary means of effecting salvation. Moreover, we are not to inquire into the secret will of God; but all our actions must be directed according to his revealed will: and we ought, therefore, to wish and aim at the salvation of all those to whom God vouchsafes to grant the saving Gospel.

Neither is the endeavour of this Ministry, in drawing those to Christ who will never come, vain. In the first place, because, whilst they are performing their duty, they are relieving their own consciences. Secondly, because, though the exertions of the ministry in behalf of the reprobate, fail of their intended effect, they abundantly answer their purpose in all those fore-ordained to salvation. Lastly, because by this means infidels and reprobates will be condemned in the day of judgment, and deprived of very excuse for their sins; having disobeyed the calling through the perverseness of their own evil affections.–And thus far as to Paul’s intention.

John Davenant, An Exposition of the Epistle of St. Paul to the Colossians (Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth Trust, 2005), 1:323-325. [Italics original, underlining mine.]

Calvin:

3. “Among whom also we all had our conversation.” Lest it should be supposed that what he had now said was a slanderous reproach against the former character of the Ephesians, or that Jewish pride had led him to treat the Gentiles as an inferior race, he associates himself and his countrymen along with them in the general accusation. This is not done in hypocrisy, but in a sincere ascription of glory to God. It may excite wonder, indeed, that he should speak of himself as having walked “in the lusts of the flesh,” while, on other occasions, he boasts that his life had been throughout irreproachable.

“Touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.” (Philippians 3:6.)

And again,

“Ye are witnesses, and God also, how holily, and justly, and unblamably, we behaved ourselves among you that believe.” (1 Thessalonians 2:10)

I reply, the statement applies to all who have not been regenerated by the Spirit of Christ. However praiseworthy, in appearance, the life of some may be, because their lusts do not break out in the sight of men, there is nothing pure or holy which does not proceed from the fountain of all purity.

“Fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind.” To fulfill these desires, is to live according to the guidance of our natural disposition and of our mind. “The flesh” means here the disposition, or, what is called, the inclination of the nature; and the next expression (ton dianoion) means what proceeds from the mind. Now, “the mind” includes reason, such as it exists in men by nature; so that lusts do not refer exclusively to the lower appetites, or what is called the sensual part of man, but extend to the whole.

“And were by nature children of wrath.” All men without exception, whether Jews or Gentiles, (Galatians 2:15,16,) are here pronounced to be guilty, until they are redeemed by Christ; so that out of Christ there is no righteousness, no salvation, and, in short, no excellence. “Children of wrath” are those who are lost, and who deserve eternal death. Wrath means the judgment of God; so that “the children of wrath” are those who are condemned before God. Such, the apostle tells us, had been the Jews,—such had been all the excellent men that were now in the Church; and they were so by “nature,” that is, from their very commencement, and from their mother’s womb.

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