O Israel, return unto the Lord thy God; for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity.
Take with you words, and turn to the Lord: say unto him, Take away all
iniquity, and receive us graciously: so will we render the calves of our lips
(Hos. 14:1–2).
COMMON GRACE
ARGUMENT:
In the previous chapters
of Hosea, God has been declaring final and irreversible judgment upon the
nation of Israel for their constant rebellion and transgressions. Enough is
enough. The end is finally coming.
Proponents of the
well-meant offer and common grace, however, appeal to chapter 14, verses 1 and
2 in support for their theory of a desire of God to save the reprobate. Their
take on this passage is that God, out of love, mercy, and compassion, well-meaningly
offers to give these reprobates one last chance to come to Him for salvation.
What a gracious opportunity His is giving them … Surely this shows that He is
still kind-of-heart and favourably disposed towards them … His justice cries
for their destruction, but God would rather have mercy upon them. So He,
through the prophet Hosea, issues this undeserved offer of mercy and peace with
these reprobates, on condition that they come to Him with words of confession
and promises to amend their ways … There is still hope yet!
(I)
John Calvin
[Source: Comm. on Hosea
14:1-2, emphasis added]
Here
the Prophet exhorts the Israelites to repentance, and still propounds some hope
of mercy. But this may seem inconsistent, as he had already testified that
there would be no remedy any more, because they had extremely provoked God. The
Prophet seems in this case to contradict himself. But the solution is ready at
hand, and it is this,—In speaking before of the final destruction of the
people, he had respect to the whole body
of the people; but now he directs his discourse to the few, who had as yet remained faithful. And this
distinction, as we have reminded you in other places, ought to be carefully
noticed; otherwise we shall find ourselves perplexed in many parts of Scripture.
[Note:
Calvin is using a hermeneutical principle known as the “organic” concept. For
more on this method of interpreting Scripture see the following:
---------------------------------------------
(II)
More
to come! (DV)
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