Because he also said that whenever the attributes of Christ and the gospel is preached it is usually accompanied by an "invitation". And the offer was real and actual. He taught that a man, on his own, by his own powers of reason, can attend to the means of salvation, the hearing of the word, the sacraments, and preaching, and make it much more likely that the Holy Spirit will save him. He said that he had a warrant to declare that anyone who hears the gospel and comes to Christ will be received by Christ and saved. He also said that Christ cannot do anything for you if you will not believe.
"Obj. 5.
The doctrine of election represents God as insincere.
He invites all man to participate in the blessings of the gospel;
and yet, if this doctrine is true, the blessings of the gospel are not designed for all.
"If God's word teaches the doctrine of election, and if
it contains commands or invitations to all men to seek salvation through Christ, it is highly presumptuous in us to charge God with insincerity, because we cannot reconcile the two things with each other. We ought to remember that we are worms of the dust, and that it is criminal arrogance in us to judge and condemn the infinite God. But, in truth, there is no ground whatever for this charge of insincerity.
"God requires all men to believe in Christ; and this is their duty, however unwilling they may be to perform it. The fact that they are unwilling, and that God knows they will remain unwilling, unless he change their hearts, abates nothing from the sincerity of the requirement. God proves his sincerity, by holding them to the obligation, and condemning their unbelief.
"He promises salvation to all who believe in Christ; and he proves his sincerity, by fulfilling his promise in every instance. The
bestowment of special grace, changing the hearts of men, and bringing them to believe in Christ, is, in no respect, inconsistent with any requirement or promise that God has made.
"While men regard the call of the gospel as an invitation
which they may receive or reject at pleasure,
it accords with their state of mind to institute the inquiry,
whether God is sincere in offering this invitation:
"but when they regard it as a solemn requirement of duty,
for which God will certainly hold them accountable,
they will find no occasion for calling his sincerity in question."
"Every proposed method of salvation that leaves the issue dependent on human volition, is defective. It has been always found, that men
will not come to Christ for life. The gospel is preached to every creature; but all, with one consent, ask to be excused. The will of men must be changed; and this change the will itself cannot effect. Divine grace must here interpose. Unless God work in the sinner to will and to do, salvation is impossible.
"God knows the force of opposition which his grace will encounter in each heart, and the amount of spiritual influence necessary to overcome it. He gives or withholds that influence at his pleasure. He has his own rule of acting in this matter--a rule infinitely wise and good. With full knowledge how his rule will affect every particular case, he perseveres in acting according to it, however men may cavil: and the rule which infinite wisdom adopts must be the best; nor can it be any objection to it, that infinite wisdom knows perfectly its final result."
This eternal decree, established before creation and the fall, ordains salvation for the elect and reprobation for the rest.
"Obj. 7. The doctrine of election, by teaching that
God has reprobated a part of the human race to hopeless misery, represents him as an unamiable being.
"Sinful men are indeed
reprobated, not by the election of grace,
but
by the justice of God (Note: Because of their sin, not because they were not Elected)
but their reprobation is not hopeless, so long as the gospel of salvation sounds in their ears.
"But the only hope on which they are authorized to lay hold, springs from the electing love of God. Instead of covering men's prospects with the blackness of darkness, the doctrine of election sends a ray of hope, the only possible ray, to enlighten the gloom.
"The justice of God will hereafter doom the finally impenitent, as it has already doomed the fallen angels, to hopeless misery. The unamiable feature, which the objection we are considering finds in the divine character, is the justice so horrible to the workers of iniquity.
"The election of grace, if it wholly annihilated the justice of God, would receive the praises of unconverted men; but it cannot do this. The infinite benevolence of God cannot do this. If men will pronounce the character of God unamiable, because he is just, and dooms sinful beings to hopeless misery, they prove thereby that they do not love the God whom the Scriptures reveal, and by whom they are to be judged. Their quarrel with the doctrine of election is, in truth, a quarrel with
the justice of God, from which that election has not delivered them."
God’s purpose is to glorify Himself through the election of some to eternal life in Christ and the passing over of others.
"Besides God's Will of Purpose, we have seen that he has a Will of Precept. According to the latter, he commands all men everywhere to repent; he requires all to believe in Jesus Christ; and it is his will that all men should honor the Son. To all who obey his will in these particulars, he gives the promise of eternal life. The precept and the promise are both included in the revealed will of God.
"It is the revealed Will of God that the gospel should be preached to every creature, and that every creature who hears should believe, and that all who believe shall receive life everlasting. The revealed will is the rule of our faith, duty, and hope; and by it those who preach the gospel, and those who hear it, are authorised and bound to regulate every thought and action. In it, Christ is exhibited as the Saviour of the world;
[75] the only name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved;
[76] and sinners, without exception, are invited and commanded to believe in Christ.
"As the gospel is preached to all men without distinction, and all are called upon to come to Christ for life; and nothing but man's rejection of the gospel prevents the extension of its blessing to all who hear it; it accords with the design of God's revealed word, to speak of the offices and work of Christ, according to men's obligations respecting them.
"It must be remembered, however, that the gospel promises its blessings to those only who obey it; and, as the promise, not the precept, is the proper measure of the benefits which it secures, its benefits are limited to particular persons, even when the limitation in its extent does not appear in the language employed.
"Christ is called the Saviour of the world,
[77] the propitiation
[78] for the sins of the whole world; and the free gift through him is said to come on all men unto justification of life.
[79] These, and other like expressions of Scripture, represent the facts as they would be, on the supposition that all men did their duty. But notwithstanding these general expressions, the revealed will of God secures blessings only to the obedient, and is therefore narrower in its limit than the purpose or secret will of God, which not only provides all needed grace for the obedient, but also, for all the elect, the grace necessary to render them obedient.
"The remarks which have been made may suffice to show that redemption is not universal, in any view which can properly be taken of it. It is particular in its consummation, and in its purpose; and it is equally so in the revelation of it, which is made in the gospel. The general terms "all men," "the whole world," &c. which the Scriptures employ in speaking of its extent, cannot be understood to secure its benefits to the impenitent and unbelieving. According to God's secret will, or will of purpose, redemption is secured by the death of Christ to all the elect; according to his revealed will, it is secured to those only who believe."
Excerpts from:
JL DAGG, DD
"The Doctrine which is according to Godliness" -1 Tim vi. 3
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