Preface to the Study
A great deal of misunderstanding has often arisen in Reformed circles about the free offer of Christ and the importance of our need to call people to believe the gospel and be saved. This has happened before. During the 18th Century, Baptists in England placed so much emphasis on election that they began to neglect sharing the gospel and inviting people to come to Christ. Many even began to teach that the gospel should not be shared with a person until that person had the “warrant of faith,” or some evidence that they were elected.
Such teachings created many problems. First, it caused many believers to neglect evangelism and missions assuming that “if God wants the heathen to be saved, He will do so and without our help!” Second, it made many non-believers unsure if they had that “warrant” and so they waited for such evidences rather than fleeing to Christ. Finally, some who had come to faith spent much time agonizing over whether their evidences were real enough or sufficient enough, or whether they may have been deceived. While there is certainly a need to discern between true and false conversion, we must be careful not to fall into the error of attaching anything to the free offer of the gospel. It weakens evangelism and missions, it causes some to delay coming to Christ, and it hinders true assurance among those who believe.
Fortunately, the 19th Century in England saw a renewed emphasis on the free offer of salvation, especially in the preaching of Charles Spurgeon. Spurgeon was soundly criticized by many Calvinists for his emphasis on the free offer of salvation and for calling people to come to Christ without “law work” that had become the emphasis among the hyper-Calvinists of the 18th Century.
The articles chosen for this issue emphasize that same concern: that we would invite people to come to Christ; that we would say to them, “Today is the day of salvation, behold, now is the appointed time;” that we preach the whole gospel, “that repentance and forgiveness of sins might be preached in His name to all nations” (Luke 24:47). May we all be encouraged to call many to come to Christ to receive his free offer of salvation!
By His Grace, Jim
