J. C. Ryle (1816–1900) on John 6:27

John 6:27 "Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him."

When our Lord says, "The Son of man shall give you the meat that endureth to everlasting life," He appears to me to make one of the widest and most general offers to unconverted sinners, that we have anywhere in the Bible. The men to whom He was speaking were, beyond question, carnal–minded and unconverted men. Yet even to them Jesus says, "The Son of man shall give unto you." To me it seems an unmistakable statement of Christ's willingness and readiness to give pardon and grace to any sinner. It seems to me to warrant ministers in proclaiming Christ's readiness to save any one, and in offering salvation to any one, if he will only repent and believe the Gospel. The favorite notion of some, that Christ is to be offered only to the elect, – that grace and pardon are to be exhibited but not offered to a congregation, – that we ought not to say broadly and fully to all whom we preach to, Christ is ready and willing to save you, – such notions, I say, appear to me entirely irreconcilable with the language of our Lord. Election, no doubt, is a mighty truth and a precious privilege. Complete and full redemption no doubt is the possession of none but the elect. But how easy it is, in holding these glorious truths, to become more systematic than the Bible, and to spoil the Gospel by cramping and limiting it!

J. C Ryle, Expository Thoughts On The Gospels (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1979), 3:353.

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My observations:

1) Ryle apparently felt that he had to deal with certain hyper-Calvinistic notions in his day. They rejected free and sincere offers to all indescriminately. Nota bene: They were not against preaching to all, but apparently said "that grace and pardon are to be exhibited but not offered to a congregation." They were not against "evangelism" as such, but they were against free offers. Whoever says that they are not a hyper-Calvinist on the basis that they 1) believe in evangelism and 2) in preaching to everyone is ignorant about the history of hyperism. One can still be hyper and believe in our need to evangelize and preach to all. Some hyper-Calvinists just don't believe we are warranted to "offer" Christ indescriminately to all, especially if we are seeking to assure them that Christ, as a divine person, wants, wills or "ardently desires" (to use an expression used by John Murray and John Calvin) to save them. Ryle is dealing with the sort that think that Christ is only offered to the elect. Some hypers rejected the idea of offers altogether. Underlying all of this is the problem of not thinking of the revealed or preceptive will of God as truly a will.

Several months ago I spoke to Dr. Curt Daniel by phone. I asked him about his doctoral dissertation on hyper-Calvinism and if he would change anything that he wrote. As I recall, he only mentioned one thing. Instead of arguing that the essence of hyperism is the rejection of offers, he said it really boils down to a problem they have with the revealed will of God. I completely agree. That's why I keep posting material related to that subject. This problem is far more rampant among Calvinists than many people think. It just seems so normal to them to think along purely decretal lines. That type of thinking gets reinforced over and over again as they interract with other "Calvinists" online.

2) Notice that Ryle speaks of a "complete" and "full" redemption that belongs to the elect alone. He could, in a sense, be said to adhere to the doctrine of particular redemption. Only the elect are completely and fully redeemed because they alone fulfill the condition (because they are granted the moral ability to believe through regeneration) for their release from spiritual bondage. Christ redeemed all men sufficiently through what he suffered (he pays the ransom price of all - 2 Tim. 2:6), but not all have complete and full redemption, because they remain in unbelief. Ryle is basically saying what Peter Martyr Vermigli said long ago:

They [the anti-predestinarians] also grant that "Christ died for us all" and infer from this that his benefits are common to everyone. We gladly grant this, too, if we are considering only the worthiness of the death of Christ, for it is sufficient for all the world's sinners. Yet even if in itself it is enough, yet it did not have, nor has, nor will have effect in all men. The Scholastics also acknowledge the same thing when they affirm that Christ redeemed all men sufficiently but not effectually.

Vermigli, Works, v 8, p. 62.

And also Wolfgang Musculus:

That reprobate and deplorably wicked men do not receive it, is not through any defect in the grace of God, nor is it just, that, on account of of the children of perdition, it should lose the glory and title of universal redemption, since it is prepared for all, and all are called to it.

Wolfgang Musculus, Common Places, p. 151.

Though these men affirm a kind of universal redemption, it is not an equal universal redemption as non-Calvinists think. Rather, it is an "unequal universal redemption," as Richard Baxter would put it. It's not that there is an inequality in what Christ suffered, but there is an inequality in terms of his intention in suffering for the sins of the whole world. As the last Adam, he substitutes for all mankind in suffering the righteous requirement of the law, but he did not do so with an equal intention to save all. He especially wills the salvation of his elect.

Edmund Calamy argues the same basic position when he said in the debate on redemption in the Westminster Assembly:

I am far from universal redemption in the Arminian sense, but I hold with our divines in the Synod of Dort that Christ did pay a price for all, [with] absolute intention for the elect, [with] conditional intention for the reprobate in case they do believe; that all men should be salvabiles, non obstante lapsu Adami; that Jesus Christ did not only die sufficiently for all, but God did intend, in giving of Christ, and Christ in giving himself did intend, to put all men in a state of salvation in case they do obey.’…‘This universality of redemption does neither intrude upon either doctrine of special election or special grace.

Minutes of the Westminster Assembly, p. 152.

J. C. Ryle is taking the same position when he speaks of a "complete and full redemption" of the elect alone in the above quote.

3) Also, note what Ryle says about some who hold to the "mighty truth" of election. It's "easy," for some of them, "in holding these glorious truths, to become more systematic than the Bible, and to spoil the Gospel by cramping and limiting it!" These who virtually "spoil the gospel" would never think that they are doing that. It's just the case that they are blinded by a system and it's strong presuppositions that go undetected. The presuppositions are so strong in their minds that they don't even realize that they even warp sacred scripture to preserve the system. What causes such a "cramping" and "limiting" of God's generous gospel? It has to do with a diminished conception of the revealed will of God that issues in a strictly limited conception of Christ's death. This, in turn, results in limited offers (i.e. if they consistently reason out their views).

Take care that you're not guilty of "cramping" and "limiting" God's gospel in Christ in order to preserve a theological construct. Such cramping is totally unnecessary to preserve a classical and biblical view of Calvinism.