In the context of
salvation and the gospel ministry, a RB Professor of Theology expresses this
opinion.
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"In my opinion,
you can't genuinely offer a gift you're not genuinely willing to give."
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On its own, it is a
good moral statement. Anything less would be brass faced hypocrisy.
In the context of
salvation and the gospel ministry, may I ask:
- To whom is the
gift genuinely offered?
- Who do you expect
to genuinely accept the offer? - Them that are perishing or them that are
saved? (If there is a third category, please let us know.)
I hope these are
fair questions.
1Cor 2:8 “For the
preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which
are saved it is the power of God."
[When the gospel
comes to them that are saved, it is perceived as a message declaring the power
of God in salvation; the same is perceived as foolishness to them that are
perishing.]
Does God offer
salvation to a man (one obviously without salvation) through the preaching of
the gospel, or
Does God freely and
sovereignly, thus effectually call a man out of his native state of sin and
death to that of grace and salvation in Jesus Christ, and calls him to believe
the truth of that salvation through the gospel ministry?
The issue involved
is the purpose of the gospel ministry:
is it the means to genuinely offer salvation
to sinners dead in trespasses and sins, or is it the means to call them that
are saved (ALREADY effectually called by God) to believe the truth of their
salvation by God's free grace?
Isaiah 1:18
Come now, and let us
reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be
as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.
To whom did the LORD
address His words?
It is popular to say
that the LORD was addressing those dead in trespasses and sins, well-meaningly /genuinely offers salvation to them!
No, He was
addressing the rebellious and unbelieving house of Israel, children He had
brought up.
Read the first few
verses of Isa 1.
2 Hear, O heavens,
and give ear, O earth: for the LORD hath spoken, I have nourished and brought
up children, and they have rebelled against me.
3 The ox knoweth his
owner, and the ass his master's crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth
not consider.
4 Ah sinful nation,
a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are
corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of
Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward.
1Cor 2:14 "But
the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are
foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually
discerned."
The LORD God is
reasoning with them concerning their well-being, which is conditioned upon them
doing the LORD's will for them.
Some sincere people
just laugh off the truth, hoping it will go away. The LORD summons them to gird
up the loins of their mind, and reason with Him, and come to their senses!
