Joel R. Beeke and Paul M. Smalley on the Objection Against the Gospel Call

2. The Objection against the Gospel Call

Just as some people have so emphasized the general gospel call as to severely downplay God’s sovereign election, others have so emphasized election as to minimize the gospel call. The various forms of this error are often called hyper-Calvinism. However, we must acknowledge that this label has difficulties. Often it is wrongly applied to legitimate forms of historic Reformed doctrine, such as unconditional election or eternal reprobation. The term is also misleading because, as Iain Murray writes, “Too often it has been supposed that the difference between Calvinism and Hyper-Calvinism is simply a question of degree.”⁵⁸ The problem is not too high a view of divine sovereignty but the denial of other biblical doctrines.

Some advocates of sovereign grace deny that the gospel call is an offer of Christ. The most relevant meaning of the verb offer in this case is “to present for acceptance or rejection.”⁵⁹ John Gill wrote, “The gospel is indeed ordered to be preached to every creature to whom it is sent and comes”; however, he also said, “That there are universal offers of grace and salvation made to all men I utterly deny; nay, I deny that they are made to any; no, not to God’s elect; grace and salvation are provided for them in the everlasting covenant, procured for them by Christ, published and revealed in the gospel, and applied by the Spirit.”⁶⁰ Yet we note that Gill could preach as follows: “Come to the Lord as humble penitents … let sensible sinners come to the person, blood and righteousness of Christ for justification and salvation.”⁶¹ Gill also encouraged preachers “fervently” and “boldly” to “set forth the lost and miserable estate and condition of men by nature, the danger they are in, the necessity of regeneration and repentance, and of a better righteousness than their own, and of faith in Christ; which things are blessed for the turning of men from darkness to light.”⁶² He commended preaching that is “very moving … striking … spiritual, savory, and evangelical having a tendency to awaken the minds of sinners to a sense of sin and danger, and to relieve and comfort the distressed.”⁶³ However, it does appear that Gill held to a mild form of hyper-Calvinism that discouraged churches from freely calling and commanding lost sinners to come to Christ, believe in him, receive him, and be saved.⁶⁴

The language of the free offer expresses biblical truth. Faith is receiving of Christ (John 1:11–12; Col. 2:6), but it is difficult to understand how Christ could be received if he were not offered to people in the gospel. Grace is a gift that must be received for salvation (John 1:16; Rom. 5:17). Christ offers the Spirit to the thirsty, and sinners receive the Spirit by faith in Christ (John 7:37–39; Gal. 3:1–2). The Spirit in his operations upon the believer is a “gift” that repentant sinners “receive.”⁶⁵

The free offer is affirmed in Reformed confessional statements. Calvin’s Catechism of 1537 (Art. 12) says, “Just as the merciful Father offers us the Son through the word of the Gospel, so we embrace him through faith and acknowledge him as given to us. It is true that the word of the Gospel calls all to participate in Christ, but a number, blinded and hardened by unbelief, despise such a unique grace. Hence, only believers enjoy Christ; they receive him as sent to them; they do not reject him when he is given, but follow him when he calls them.”⁶⁶ The Genevan Confession (Art. 11) states, “We believe the promises of the gospel and receive Jesus Christ as He is offered to us by the Father and described to us by the Word of God.”⁶⁷ The Canons of Dort (Head 3/4, Art. 9) say, “It is not the fault of the gospel, nor of Christ offered therein, nor of God, who calls men by the gospel and confers upon them various gifts, that those who are called by the ministry of the Word refuse to come and be converted.”⁶⁸

The Westminster Standards affirm the same. The Shorter Catechism (Q. 31) says that Christ is “freely offered to us in the gospel.”⁶⁹ The Larger Catechism (Q. 68) speaks of how God justly leaves in unbelief the wicked for “their willful neglect and contempt of the grace offered to them.”⁷⁰ The Westminster Confession of Faith (7.3) says, “The Lord was pleased to make … the covenant of grace; wherein He freely offereth unto sinners life and salvation by Jesus Christ; requiring of them faith in Him, that they may be saved.”⁷¹

The free offer of the gospel expresses God’s sincere desire for sinners to repent and be saved. Another relevant meaning of the word offer is “to declare one’s readiness or willingness.”⁷² The Word reveals the goodness of God to all people. God “is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil” because of his “merciful” character (Luke 6:35–36; cf. Matt. 5:44–48).⁷³ When the gospel comes to people, he expresses his good desires for them in saying, “O that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children for ever!” (Deut. 5:29).

In Ezekiel 18:23, we read, “Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? saith the Lord God: and not that he should return from his ways, and live?” The words “have I any pleasure at all” render a grammatical construction that repeats the same Hebrew root for emphasis. Calvin said, “God desires nothing more earnestly than that those who were perishing and rushing to destruction should return into the way of safety.… And this is the knowledge of salvation, to embrace his mercy which he offers us in Christ.”⁷⁴ This is a revelation of the heart of God. Johannes Polyander said, “The impelling cause [of the gospel call], whereby God is moved internally by himself, is God’s grace, his good pleasure and favorably-inclined will to offer, in Christ, his salvation to wretched sinners.”⁷⁵

Does this teaching overthrow the Reformed doctrine of election? Herman Hoeksema said that to teach a “general love of God and desire to save sinners” is “Arminianism and Pelagianism.”⁷⁶ There is some tension in the Bible at this point, but no surrender of the doctrines of sovereign grace. In one sense, God desires all men to repent. In another sense, he desires to punish the wicked, and he sometimes gives them up to a hard and unrepentant heart. When Eli corrected his wicked sons, the Scriptures say that they did not listen and repent “because the Lord would slay them” (1 Sam. 2:25). Literally the verse says the Lord “was pleased to cause them to die,” using the same verb translated as “please” (khapets) as is used in Ezekiel 18:23.

Therefore, one text says that God is not pleased that sinners do not repent and so die; another text says that some sinners did not repent because God was pleased that they should die. How can we understand both of these texts together?

The answer lies in the manifold and complex display of God’s goodness to fallen sinners. God’s gracious character shows itself in his goodness and compassion to all his creation (Ps. 145:8–9). Therefore, he calls all who hear the gospel to repent and live, and desires that they do so. As John Murray said, “The full and free offer of the gospel is a grace bestowed upon all. Such grace is necessarily a manifestation of love or lovingkindness in the heart of God.”⁷⁷ However, God is also the sovereign and righteous King (vv. 13, 17). He is free to work as he sees fit (115:3) and always works consistently with his righteousness (33:4–5). The same goodness by which he delights in mercy (Mic. 7:18) is that by which he delights in justice (Jer. 9:24). In his sovereign freedom, he has chosen to be good to all people in temporal blessings, to graciously call many people to eternal joy, and to actually save only some (Matt. 22:14). He is patient and good to many in this life whom he has destined for destruction for their sins (Rom. 2:4–5; 9:22). This is the doctrine of reprobation.⁷⁸

Moïse Amyraut (1596–1664) misunderstood this to indicate two wills in God,⁷⁹ but Calvin spoke more wisely when he said that “his will is one and simple; but since our minds do not penetrate the abyss of secret election, in accommodation to the capacity of our weakness, the will of God is exhibited to us in two ways.”⁸⁰ Francis Turretin explained, “Now in calling God indeed shows that he wills the salvation of the called by the will of precept and good pleasure (euarestias), but not by the will of decree.… It teaches what is pleasing and acceptable to God and in accordance with his own nature (namely, that the called should come to him); but not what he himself has determined to do concerning man.”⁸¹ Therefore, we do not preach a two-faced God or a God of duplicity, but one God whose wisdom and will are infinitely beyond our understanding (Rom. 11:33–34), knowable only in part and then by his revelation alone.⁸² God’s purpose is not to confuse us but to assure us that he gladly receives every repentant sinner (Luke 15) and to call us to praise him for our salvation, for it is entirely of his gracious will (Eph. 1:3–6).

The combination of human responsibility, divine sovereignty, and the free offer of the gospel appears most beautifully in Jesus Christ, the perfect Image of God. The Lord Jesus Christ said of the Jews in Jerusalem who would soon kill him, “How often would I have gathered [you] together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not” (Matt. 23:37). Both occurrences of “would” translate the same Greek verb (thelō), which means to desire, to will, or to decide.⁸³ Christ was willing, but they were not willing.

Again, Christ said to a group of Jews, “These things I say, that ye might be saved” (John 5:34). The grammatical syntax (hina plus a subjunctive verb) indicates purpose. Hence, the Son of God made known his desire and the intention behind the message he communicated: that those who heard him would come to him by faith and have eternal life (v. 24)—though they were not willing to do so (v. 40). Christ’s words clarify matters for everyone who hears the gospel. Jesus wants them to be saved by faith in him; if they are unsaved, it is because of their unwillingness to come to him.⁸⁴

Similarly, in Matthew 11 we hear that Christ condemned the cities of Galilee for their rejection of the gospel and called everyone who was burdened to come to him and find rest (Matt. 11:20–24, 28–30). Yet sandwiched between these declarations of human responsibility and the free offer, we read that God has hidden the truth from some people according to his good pleasure, and that no one can know the Father except those to whom Christ chooses to reveal him (vv. 25–27). The Lord Jesus shows us that man’s responsibility for his sins, God’s sovereignty in saving whom he chooses, and the free offer of the gospel belong together.

The Canons of Dort (Head 1, Art. 5) say, “The cause or guilt of this unbelief, as well as of all other sins, is no wise in God, but in man himself; whereas faith in Jesus Christ and salvation through Him is the free gift of God.”⁸⁵ Calvin said,

If we see and acknowledge, therefore, the principle on which the doctrine of the Gospel offers salvation to all, the whole sacred matter is settled at once. That the Gospel is, in its nature, able to save all I by no means deny. But the great question lies here: Did the Lord by His eternal counsel ordain salvation for all men? It is quite manifest that all men, without difference or distinction, are outwardly called or invited to repentance and faith. It is equally evident that the same Mediator is set forth before all, as He who alone can reconcile them to the Father.… The mercy of God is offered equally to those who believe and to those who believe not, so that those who are not divinely taught within are only rendered inexcusable, not saved.⁸⁶

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58 Iain H. Murray, Spurgeon and Hyper-Calvinism: The Battle for Gospel Preaching (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1995), 40.
59 Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, s.v. “offer.”
60 John Gill, The Doctrine of Predestination Stated, and Set in Scriptural Light: In Opposition to Mr. Wesley’s Predestination Calmly Considered, in Sermons and Tracts (1815; repr. Streamwood, IL: Primitive Baptist Library, 1981), 3:117–18.
61 John Gill, The Watchman’s Answer to the Question, What of the Night?, in Sermons and Tracts, 1:59; cf. John Gill, The Glory of God’s Grace Displayed, In Its Abounding over the Aboundings of Sin (London: Aaron Ward, 1724), 38.
62 Gill, Body of Divinity, 931–32.
63 John Gill, Funeral sermon for Samuel Wilson (1750), cited in S. H. Cone, “Biographical Sketch of the Author,” in Samuel Wilson, A Scripture Manual or a Plain Representation of the Ordinance of Baptism, in The Baptist Library: A Republication of Standard Baptist Works, ed. Charles G. Sommers, William R. Williams, and Levi L. Hill, 3 vols. (Prattsville, NY: Robert H. Hill, 1843), 1:29–30.
64 Gill said that the gospel obligates men to historical faith—that is, to assent that the historical events reported in the gospel are true—but does not obligate them to saving faith in Christ. John Gill, The Cause of God and Truth (1855; repr., Paris, AK: The Baptist Standard Bearer, 1992), 31–32. Therefore, it is not man’s immediate duty to trust in Christ upon hearing the gospel. “Though I think the judgment should still be surrounded with cautions and caveats, there may be compelling evidence that Gill held to the distinctive hyper-Calvinist tenet.” Tom J. Nettles, “John Gill and the Evangelical Awakening,” in The Life and Thought of John Gill (1697–1771): A Tercentennial Appreciation, ed. Michael A. G. Haykin (Leiden: Brill, 1997), 153n60. “Gill was shaped by the rationalism of his day.… Gill’s theology did hamper passionate evangelism and outreach.” Michael A. G. Haykin, “Remembering Baptist Heroes: The Example of John Gill,” in Ministry by His Grace and for His Glory: Essays in Honor of Thomas J. Nettles, ed. Thomas K. Ascol and Nathan A. Finn (Cape Coral, FL: Founders, 2011), 29.
65 Acts 2:38; 8:19–20; 10:45, 47; 11:17.
66 Reformed Confessions, 1:365–66.
67 Reformed Confessions, 1:397–98.
68 The Three Forms of Unity, 143. On the meaning of offero in the Canons of Dort and other Reformed orthodox writings, see R. Scott Clark, “Janus, the Well-Meant Offer of the Gospel, and Westminster Theology,” in The Pattern of Sound Doctrine: Systematic Theology at the Westminster Seminaries, Essays in Honor of Robert B. Strimple, ed. David VanDrunen (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R, 2004), 169–73.
69 Reformed Confessions, 4:357. See also Q. 86 on “faith in Jesus Christ” (4:365).
70 Reformed Confessions, 4:312.
71 Reformed Confessions, 4:242–43.
72 Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, s.v. “offer.”
73 See chap. 2.
74 Calvin, Commentaries, on Ezek. 18:23.
75 Polyander, Walaeus, Thysius, and Rivetus, Synopsis Purioris Theologiae, 30.12 (2:213).
76 Hoeksema, A Triple Breach in the Foundation of the Reformed Truth, 32.
77 Collected Writings of John Murray, 4 vols. (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1982), 4:132. This article (pp. 113–32) was a committee report authored by Murray for the General Assembly of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. It is available at http://www.opc.org/GA/free_offer.html.
78 On God’s good delight in repentance and retribution, see RST, 1:845–46. On reprobation, see RST, 1:989–97.
79 On Amyraldianism, see RST, 1:1024, 1026.
80 Calvin, Commentaries, on Matt. 23:37. On Calvin and Amyraut’s misinterpretation of him, see Muller, Calvin and the Reformed Tradition, 107–25.
81 Turretin, Institutes, 15.2.15 (2:507). On God’s preceptive will and decretive will, see RST, 1:764–67.
82 On the importance of recognizing the vast difference between God’s theology (archetypal) and our theology (ectypal) as image bearers, particularly our theology as pilgrims on earth who have not arrived, see Clark, “Well-Meant Offer,” in The Pattern of Sound Doctrine, ed. VanDrunen, 149–68, 174–79.
83 TDNT, 3:44–46.
84 Willard, A Compleat Body of Divinity, 438. On John 5:34, see Samuel E. Waldron, The Crux of the Free Offer of the Gospel (Greenbrier, AR: Free Grace Press, 2019), 19–34.
85 The Three Forms of Unity, 121.
86 John Calvin, On Eternal Predestination, in Reformed Confessions, 1:751, emphasis original.

Joel R. Beeke and Paul M. Smalley, Reformed Systematic Theology: Spirit and Salvation, vol. 3 of Reformed Systematic Theology (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2021), 299–305; italics original.