The free offer of the gospel is a confessional doctrine. Westminster Confession of Faith 7.3 says God “freely offereth unto sinners life and salvation by Jesus Christ.” Westminster Larger Catechism 32 states, “He freely provideth and offereth to sinners a Mediator, and life and salvation by him.” Westminster Shorter Catechism 86 defines faith as “a saving grace, whereby we receive and rest upon him alone for salvation, as he is offered to us in the gospel.” The Canons of Dort 3/4.9 remind us, “The fact that many who are called through the ministry of the gospel do not come and are not brought to conversion must not be blamed on the gospel, nor on Christ, who is offered through the gospel.”
But there is sometimes a hesitancy regarding the gospel offer in Reformed circles. John Murray noted that some fear “the full, free, and unfettered overture of Christ in the gospel to all . . . impinges upon other truths such as sovereign election, definite atonement, and efficacious grace.”1 But there is no need to be hesitant—the free offer of the gospel is biblical and Reformed.
What is the “Gospel”?
If we are going to speak about the offer of “the gospel,” we need to know what the gospel itself is. The gospel is Jesus Christ himself in all the glory of his person and work. The gospel that Paul preached was none other than “Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures. . . . He was buried, he . . . was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures” (1 Cor 15:3). Jesus is the sum and substance of the gospel. So when we speak of the free offer of the gospel, we are really speaking of the offering of Jesus Christ to the world. John Murray is exactly right to say, “It is Christ in all the glory of his person and in all the perfection of his finished work whom God offers in the gospel.”2
What is the Free Offer of Jesus Christ to Sinners?
The free offer is to invite sinners to Jesus. This is the image we are given in the parable of the wedding banquet in Matthew 22:1–14. Here, the King “sent his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding feast” (Matt 22:3). When the initial invitation was rejected, it was repeated: “Tell those who are invited, ‘See, I have prepared my dinner . . . everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast’” (Matt 22:4). Despite this plea, those invited continue to spurn the invitation (Matt 22:5). After it was rejected again, the invitation went out more widely: “Go therefore to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find” (Matt 22:9). This parable and many other places in Scripture show us the gospel offer is a repeated invitation.
The free offer is pleading and entreaty. Consider the image of Romans 10:21: “All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people.” There, God’s arms are stretched out, pleading with a people who have rejected him to return.
The gospel offer is many more things. It is a command: “Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, because he has appointed a day on which he will judge the world” (Acts 17:30). It is a warning: “. . .except you repent you will likewise perish” (Luke 13:3). Every warning is an implied offer of mercy. The gospel offer is also a conditional promise: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household” (Acts 16:31).
All these are involved in the biblical definition of offer. This is also the Reformed definition of offer as we see in the teaching of The Sum of Saving Knowledge, a seventeenth-century Scottish document usually bound with the Westminster Standards. It defines the gospel offer as “God’s hearty invitation, held forth, Isa 55:1–4… the ‘earnest request’ that God makes to us to be reconciled to him in Christ; held forth, 2 Cor 5.19-21. . . the straight and awful command of God ”
To Whom is the Gospel Freely Offered?
In one sense this might seem a question that does not need to be asked. God, after all, “commands all men everywhere to repent” (Acts 17:30). It is hard to conceive of a statement more universal than “all . . . everywhere.” The gospel is for all.
Nor is this contradicted by the passages where the gospel offer is to the “thirsty”. For example, Isaiah 55:1 reads, “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters.” It might seem only the “thirsty” are invited, but everyone is thirsty. By nature, all fall under the condemnation of Jeremiah 2:13, “They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.”
It is true that only those who are convicted of sin, who feel their thirst, will value a Savior. But while that truth may explain who will embrace the gospel offer, it places no restriction on who the gospel offer is to. The gospel offer is to all—it is freely offered.
Who Makes the Gospel Offer?
It is obvious that the gospel offer comes from a human voice. But behind this is a glorious truth: the real offeror of the gospel is God.
Consider 2 Chronicles 36:15–16: “The Lord, the God of their fathers, sent persistently to them by his messengers, because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place.” Every call to repentance, to receive mercy, in the Old Testament from a prophet was a call from the living God. That is why we have the complaint of God in Psalm 81:13, “Oh, that My people would listen to Me, That Israel would walk in My ways!” It was God who was calling them.
And it is the same in the New Testament. The great verse in the New Testament which shows us that the gospel invitation is God’s invitation is 2 Corinthians 5:20: “Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.” The preacher is an “ambassador for Christ” and so it is “as though God were pleading through us.”
The Sum of Saving Knowledge makes this same point:
There cannot be a greater inducement to break a sinner’s hard heart, than God’s making a request to him for friendship; for when it became us, who have done so many wrongs to God, to seek friendship of God, he comes before us: and (O wonder of wonders!) he requests us to be content to be reconciled to him.
Does God Delight in Sinners Accepting the Offer?
Yes! Indeed, to preach the gospel with warmth and with passion, we must believe this. To truly plead with all sinners, we must believe it is God’s delight that they would receive Christ freely offered in the gospel.
Generally, when God commands something, it is pleasing to him. So, when God calls us to love him and to love our neighbour (Mark 12:30–31), it is clear these are things God wants us to do. To do these things is to “do his will,” which “is pleasing in his sight” (Heb 13:21). Conversely, to fail to do what God asks is to displease him: “For you are not a God who delights in wickedness” (Ps 5:4).
So, because the gospel is a command to all everywhere, by definition, God delights in all people, everywhere, embracing the gospel offer. This is pleasing to him. And the rejection of the gospel offer is displeasing, contrary to his delights.
We see this clearly in Ezekiel 18, which teaches that God never takes pleasure in the death of any wicked person: “Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, declares the Lord God, and not rather that he should turn from his way and live?” (Ezek 18:23). And this truth, that God does not desire the death of the wicked, is the very basis for the gospel offer. Ezekiel 18:31–32 says, “I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Lord God; so turn, and live.” It is because of the character of God, who says, “I have no pleasure in the death of one who dies,” that there is the appeal, “therefore turn and live.” If we do not understand God’s pleasure in all sinners turning to him, we undercut the very basis for the gospel appeal, “turn and live.” Calvin understood God’s pleasure in sinners turning to him:
God desires nothing more earnestly than that those who were perishing and rushing to destruction should return into the way of safety. And for this reason not only is the Gospel spread abroad in the world, but God wished to bear witness through all ages how inclined he is to pity.3
To sum up this point, John Murray says, “The gospel is not simply an offer or invitation, but also implies that God delights that those to whom the offer comes would enjoy what is offered in all its fullness.”4
Putting this into Practice
The free offer of the gospel should be a standard element of reformed preaching. James Durham said, “There are two great works that the Ministers of the Gospel have to do; one is to engage people to Christ, and to persuade them to receive him and close with him; The other is to induce them to walk worthy of him.”5 Often that preaching of the gospel offer (engaging people to Christ) is lacking today.
We need to return to the gospel offering preaching of our forefathers, like James Durham:
This is our errand to proclaim these glad tidings to you. . . . Is not the Father ready? He hath given his consent; is not the Bridegroom ready, when he hath done so much and is waiting on your consent? The Feast is ready, and the Garments are ready. . . . The contract is ready. . . . He is ready to accept of you, if ye will accept of him; our blessed Lord Jesus says that He is content to marry you. . . . There is in effect nothing wanting but your consent, and let that not be wanting, I beseech you.6
Failing to offer the gospel freely is a serious thing. John Murray said,
If we fail to appreciate what the free offer of the gospel is, and if we fail to present this free offer with freedom and spontaneity . . . we are not only doing dishonour to Christ and his glory but we are also choking those who are the candidates of saving faith. . . . It is only when Christ is presented to lost men in the full and free overture of his grace that true faith can be elicited.7
Let us never fail in this area. Instead, as our confessions outline, let us “freely offer unto sinners life and salvation by Jesus Christ.”
Notes
- John Murray, Collected Writings of John Murray, 4 vols. (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1976–82), 1.168.
- Murray, Collected Writings, 4.132.
- John Calvin, Calvin’s Commentaries: Ezekiel (Calvin Translation Society, 1847), Ezekiel 18.
- Murray, Collected Writings, 4.114.
- James Durham, The Unsearchable Riches of Christ, And of Grace and Glory In and through Him (Glasgow: Robert Sanders, 1685), 80.
- Durham, Unsearchable Riches, 56.
- Murray, Collected Writings, 1:169.
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Donald John MacLean
Donald John MacLean is President and Professor of Historical and Systematic Theology at Westminster Seminary, UK. He is a minister in the Evangelical Presbyterian Church of England and Wales, and a trustee of the Banner of Truth and Tyndale House. He is married to Ruth and they have two children.
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This is great. What would be a helpful way to respond to someone who objects that we can’t speak this way and yet believe in election because, to them, that would mean God is preventing what he desires or (i.e. he wants people to be saved but then does not elect them to salvation). I’ve received this objection a lot from family who, to put it mildly, are not friendly towards Reformed theology on this point.
Hi Keenan,
The objection ignores the basic biblical and Reformed distinction between the way God knows things and the way we know things. There is an analogy between them but there is and can never be an intersection of the two.
So, we know that God has elected his people from all eternity but we do know know before we preach whom God has elected but we do have God’s Word instructing us by precept and example how we are to speak to sinners. So, that’s what we do. We preach the law and the gospel in all its fullness and we leave to the sovereign Holy Spirit to use the preaching of the gospel and the free, well-meant offer to bring his elect to new life and true faith.
We must wrestle, as Mr Murray says, with the way God reveals himself. This is what the Reformed have always done. He reveals himself as not desiring the death of the wicked (Ez 16). The reality of election does not change that. This is where the distinction between God hidden and God revealed is so important. God has decreed what he has decreed but the question is what stance are we, mere mortals, to take toward the lost? We take the stance that God is revealed to take: “Why will you die? Turn, turn says the Lord.” “O Israel how I have longed to gather you as a hen gathers her chicks.” etc.
This essay might help.
Take a look at the resource page on the free offer.
I really appreciate such a thorough and pastorally rich presentation of this important truth. It is at one and the same time so comforting and so challenging.