And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us
to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of
reconciliation; to wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not
imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of
reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead,
be ye reconciled to God. For he hath made him to be sin for us, who
knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. (II Cor.
5:18-21).
FREE OFFER ARGUMENT:
This text, according to “free offer”
advocates, “is perhaps
the strongest and most moving passage that demonstrates a free offer of the
gospel.” “Notice,” they argue, “that Paul does not simply present the
gospel, but that the entire passage is bracketed with a sense of urgency … He
is beseeching and praying them!”
(I)
Rev. Ronald Hanko
[Source: Covenant Reformed Fellowship News, vol. 1, no. 11]
Q. “Where does ‘pleading’ and ‘persuading’ fit into Protestant Reformed theology (II Cor. 5:11, 20)?”
I believe that this question has reference to the preaching of the gospel—whether such pleading and persuading ought to have a place in the preaching. Many believe that because we deny that the gospel is an offer of grace we do not believe in such pleading and persuading and cannot do justice to passages such as II Corinthians 5:11 and 20, where Paul says concerning his own preaching, “Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord we persuade men,” and, “Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.”
Do we believe, then, in “persuading” men in the preaching of the gospel? Most certainly we do! Gospel preaching ought to be as persuasive as it can be. It ought to be persuasive in its content—that is, its content ought to be well-reasoned and well-ordered. This is, in fact, what the word “persuade” emphasizes when it is used in a passage like II Corinthians 5:11.
Do we believe in “beseeching” and “praying” sinners” to be reconciled to God? Without a doubt! Gospel preaching ought to be persuasive also in its fervency. It is gospel preaching. The minister of the gospel must show that the message he brings means something to him. Preaching which is matter-of-fact and in which the preacher gives no indication of any personal interest in the message or in the hearers is not true gospel preaching. The manner in which the gospel is preached, therefore, ought to show that it is good news. And the urgency of the gospel message ought to be plain, also, that it is a message which cannot be ignored. When the minister beseeches his hearers, that is exactly what he is doing.
It must be clear, however, that preaching with fervency, urgency and persuasiveness does not require that the gospel be turned into an offer of salvation. The basis for such fervency and persuasiveness is not a love of God for all men, nor a desire of God that all men be saved, nor an atonement which is in some sense for everyone who hears. The fervency of the gospel does not consist in its being an offer of salvation to every hearer. In fact, an offer is much less urgent than a command or call and only the preacher who believes he is bringing such a command or call from God can really do justice to the urgency of the message.
Nor does Scripture present the matter as though the fervency and persuasiveness of the message rests in its being an offer of salvation. In II Corinthians 5:20, the passage which speaks most clearly of persuading and entreating, the motive is the “terror of the Lord,” not a general grace or mercy of God to all.
Do
we believe in pleading and persuading?
Yes, we do! but not in the way of turning the gospel into an offer and
begging sinners to accept it. That is
neither God-glorifying, nor edifying, since the response of the sinner depends
not on his decision, but on the sovereign grace of God.
---------------------------------------------------
Prof. David J. Engelsma
Without denying that preachers of the gospel fervently exhort unbelievers to be reconciled to God by believing on Jesus, the obvious answer to this question is that, in II Corinthians 5:20, Paul is addressing the believing church, or believing members of the church. He makes this plain in the opening verses of chapter one, as throughout the preceding chapters. The opening verses of this chapter make this certain. He speaks to those who groan to be delivered from this life and to be with God at death. Surely, these are believers. If there yet remains any doubt, verse 21 removes this doubt. Those whom he addresses in verse 20 are those for whom God made Jesus to be sin and who are the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ. These are not all humans but the believing members of the church. (DJE, 15/11/2019)
(III)
Rev. Martyn McGeown
[Source: Protestant Reformed Theological Journal, vol. 51, no. 2 (April 2018), p. 71]
While it is true that “Paul does not simply present the gospel” … [and that the] “the entire passage is bracketed with a sense of urgency” … this [however] in no way requires a “free offer” … Even if we concede the point that all hearers, whether believers or unbelievers, elect or reprobate, are addressed in II Corinthians 5:20, the text still does not teach the “free offer” … What the text does not teach is that Christ pleads with sinners to be saved—the preacher might do that, and he often does. However, Christ, the sovereign Lord, never pleads with sinners, and the text does not teach that He does: “Now then we are ambassadors for Christ (Greek: huper Christou), as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead (Greek: huper Christou), be ye reconciled to God.” To prove the free offer, someone would have to demonstrate that God desires the salvation of the hearers and that He sincerely offers salvation to all of them (including to all the reprobate).
Prof. Herman C. Hanko
[Source: Covenant Reformed News, vol. 17, no. 22 (Feb. 2020) and 23 (Mar. 2020)]
Question 2: “II Corinthians 5:19-20 and 6:1-2 speak of the apostles (and, by extension, the church) being entrusted with the ‘word of reconciliation.’ The passage says that we are to ‘beseech’ men to be ‘reconciled to God.’ Preachers are called ‘ambassadors’ who pray in ‘Christ’s stead,’ pleading for his hearers ‘to receive not the grace of God in vain’ and informing them that ‘now is the day of salvation.’ How are we to understand these verses without referring to a well-meant offer of grace and reconciliation through Christ on the part of God to all who outwardly hear the gospel?”
This question brings us to the heart of the issue, the preaching of the gospel, and must be carefully considered.
The first point that must be made is that the heresy of the well-meant gospel offer confuses a command of God to all men to believe in Christ with a gracious offer to everybody. The Bible has many commands to all who hear the gospel, for they must forsake sin and believe in Christ.
It seems to me that this distinction is, as my seminary professor was wont to say, as clear as the sun in the heavens. I cannot see why anyone not bent on teaching heresy can possibly confuse God’s command to believe with a loving offer to the reprobate of an available salvation that He will give to him if only he believes. The only sense one can make of it is a denial of total depravity: man can of his own power of will accept the offer Christ makes to them. A denial of total depravity is a fatal error that ultimately destroys the whole truth of sovereign grace.
Wherever we preach the gospel, we are commanded to confront everyone with the command to believe. We tell them that they are under solemn obligation to trust in Christ or else they will earn for themselves everlasting hell. It is a fact that God is in dead earnest when He tells man that he must trust in Christ crucified and risen.
The reason why God commands all men to believe is this: He created man capable of perfect obedience. Man’s loss of the ability to believe is not God’s fault but man’s own fault. God is just and still requires that men obey Him; His command is that man, even in his fallen state, obey God. God does not say, as it were, “Oh, you poor man. You disobeyed me but that’s alright. I still love you and I will save you, if you want to be saved.”
The Heidelberg Catechism faces this question already in Lord’s Day 4: “Doth not God then do injustice to man, by requiring from him in His law that which he cannot perform?” The Catechism tells us that this is not true for the Most High is just. The sinner must still do what God commands.
In The Triple Knowledge, his commentary on the Heidelberg Catechism, Herman Hoeksema uses an apt illustration. It goes like this. I contract with a builder to build me a house. He wants his money before starting the project and I give it to him. If he takes this cash, squanders it on an around-the-world cruise with his family and comes back broke, he is still under obligation to build me a house. If he refuses to do the job, pleading a lack of money, I may take him to court so that he fulfils his promise. He may not plead inability, for I made him able to build the house. By his sin, he put himself in a position that he cannot do it. Certainly, that sin of his does not release him from his obligation.
The Synod of Dordt, in its battle against the Arminians of its day, who also taught a well-meant offer of the gospel rooted in an alleged divine love for all men, specifically enjoined upon the Reformed churches the calling to preach the gospel of the cross to all men with two parts to that gospel: (1) everyone who hears the gospel is under solemn obligation to believe in Christ and (2) the promise of salvation is that God will save all who believe.
I am not fond of the word “plead,” which the questioner uses (although the text does not use it) but God is serious when He commands men to believe in Christ. He is not playing games; He is not “teasing” men; He is not playing a joke. It is the will of His command that man do indeed believe in Christ. God, after all, created him in such a way that he was capable of obeying God in all things. God does not ever release him from this solemn obligation. The decisions of the Synod of Dordt make this clear too. They can be found in Canons III/IV:8-9.
[ … ]
… The defenders of the gospel as a loving offer to everybody head for head confuse the command of the gospel with a mere offer. This is inexcusable exegesis. Even in every-day speech, who confuses an offer with a command?
… In [II Corinthians 5:20], Paul says that, as an ambassador of the gospel of Christ, he “beseeches” the Corinthians to be “reconciled to God” through faith in Jesus. The offer defenders appeal to the word “beseech.” On that word and similar words in Scripture, they hang their doctrinal error of God’s universal love and tender plea to absolutely everyone to believe in Christ.
… [W]ords similar to the word “beseech” indicate the seriousness of God’s command that comes to all men to believe in Christ. God means what He says when He commands all men to forsake sin and believe in the gospel. He does not play games. Several remarks must be added to this.
Historically, the Reformed churches have always made a distinction between the will of God’s command and the will of God’s decree. The doctrine of election and reprobation belongs to the will of God’s decree; the will of God’s command is that all men forsake their sin and believe in Christ. Yet the will of God’s command is related to the will of His decree, for the will of His command is the means God uses to execute the will of His decree of reprobation so that reprobation is accomplished by God in the way of wicked man’s rejection of the gospel. The doctrine of a well-meant offer to all, rooted in an alleged divine desire to save everybody, has crowded out the doctrine of sovereign double predestination. This refusal to believe the truth of divine predestination is not only rooted in its inherent conflict with the idea of a well-meant offer, but historically those who hold tenaciously to a well-meant offer of the gospel have denied, or ended up denying, double predestination.
Such has been the nature of the preaching of the gospel throughout history—even in the Old Testament times. Even then, the gospel always came with the command to forsake sin and believe the promise of God that He would send the Seed of the woman, Jesus Christ.
And so God has worked through the ages. The gospel was preached to the organism of the nation of Israel, including elect and reprobate. The gospel was always the same: it included an urgent command to all who heard it to repent of their sins and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ—in the old dispensation, to believe in the promise of the coming of Christ as the Seed of the woman. But that command, preached to the organism of the nation, came to the elect as well as the reprobate, for the elect had to repent and believe the promise of Christ, as well as the reprobate. That was the command of God that came to all.
But along with that command came also the promise that whoever believed in Christ would receive eternal life in Him. That promise too came to all who heard the gospel. Those who rejected God’s command and scorned His promise were damned; those who believed the promise, forsook their sin and repented were saved.
So it is also in the new dispensation. In the organism of the church, this is always the command of the gospel: repent and believe! Never is that gospel to be reduced to a mere loving offer to all men absolutely, for that is a caricature of the gospel, and does terrible despite to the only true and sovereign God.
From God‘s point of view, the true preaching of the gospel that I have described is the means He uses to accomplish His purpose of election and reprobation, for the gospel is “the power of God unto salvation” to all who believe (Rom. 1:16). God gives the gift of faith to His elect whom He knows eternally as His own (John 17:9). Whereas, He hardens the reprobate who reject the gospel and mock His command to repent.
God works in this way because He does not treat men as robots, so that the elect believe because God pushes the right button. My minister used to say that God does not take the elect to heaven in the top bunk of a Pullman sleeper. He works in them so that they actually do believe. Nor does God work in the reprobate in such a way that they reject the gospel because God compels them to reject it. Adam was created capable of doing all the things that God commanded him, but he rebelled and now his descendants show their wicked rebellion by turning their backs on Jehovah and remaining in the slime of sin.
The figure that Scripture uses to explain this truth is found in Isaiah 55:10-11 and Hebrews 6:7-8. It is the figure of rain that falls on the earth, and waters both herbs and weeds. The rain is responsible for the herbs bearing food and it is responsible for the growth of the weeds so that they manifest themselves as weeds. The same is true of our Lord’s teaching in the parable of the four kinds of soil, and the parable of the wheat and tares (Matt. 13:3-30, 36-43).
Yet it must also be remembered that the gospel is preached to an organism, whether a nation, a church or a family. Hence, in John 15:1-8, Jesus compares the nation of Israel to branches. Christ Himself is the vine and God is the husbandman. There are branches in the vine that bear fruit and there are branches that do not bear fruit. The latter are those who do not turn from their wicked way (in Jesus’ day, particularly worshipping God in outward and formal law-keeping to gain salvation by the works of the law). The former are those who confess that only by faith in Christ can they be saved (in Jesus’ day, Nicodemus, the Marys, the disciples, the thief on the cross, etc.).
Herman Hoeksema (1886-1965)
[Source: The Gospel, Or, The Most Recent Attack Against the Truth of Sovereign Grace, pp. 86, 122-124]
[The] gospel proclaims … that God in Christ has reconciled the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and prays in Christ’s stead: be ye reconciled with God. [The well-meant offer advocate] wants to make of this reconciliation “a possibility of reconciliation” … But this is not according to the word of God. He who proclaims the possibility of reconciliation does violence to the gospel. For the gospel is the fulfilment of the promise of God by God. The reconciliation is an accomplished fact. Nineteen hundred years ago, God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself, and the “world” is, therefore, reconciled.
We must understand this well: for the pure preaching of the gospel hangs in the balance precisely at this point. Reconciliation is the objective blotting out of our guilt through satisfaction in the blood of Christ. It is, therefore, also purely an act of God. It is not a fact which comes into existence through an act on God’s part and an act on our part. It comes into existence only by a work of God. Among men, reconciliation is a reciprocal action. Men reconcile with one another. But this may never be applied to the idea of reconciliation with respect to God and His people. Men cannot blot out sin. We do not reconcile God; neither do we reconcile ourselves with God; neither does God reconcile Himself. One finds all these confused and incorrect presentations frequently in writings and in preaching. And by all such false presentations, men always and again conciliate Arminianism and meet it halfway. No, there is but one correct, scriptural presentation of reconciliation: God has reconciled us unto Himself. Reconciliation is not a “possibility,” but an accomplished fact. We enter into reconciliation by faith. But never may reconciliation as such be presented as a “possibility”—neither as far as the power and completeness of that reconciliation is concerned, nor as far as the participants in that reconciliation are concerned. For Christ has died for the elect; God has reconciled the elect unto Himself through the blood of Christ, not imputing their sins unto them. That reconciliation, therefore, is also not “conditional.” It does not depend upon our faith; it does not come into existence through our faith; it is not made void through our unbelief. In all its significance it is an historic fact—the fulfilment of the sure promise of God—and must be proclaimed as such.
And this is not only true of the objective fact of reconciliation and atonement, but of the entire central fulfilment of salvation in Christ Jesus—of the resurrection and the ascension and the sitting at the right hand of God and the victory and reign of Christ over all things. Christ’s resurrection is the resurrection of the elect—for they are in Him, and He is their head. We are, then, also raised with Him and set with Him in heavenly places; with and in Him we have the victory and are more than conquerors through Him who has loved us …
… As far as II Corinthians 5:20 is concerned … much modern-day preaching leaves the impression as though reconciliation is really a work which comes about through both God and man. There are, then, “two parties who reconcile with one another,” just as is the case among men: “Now that God is already reconciled, you must now also be reconciled with God, even as God has reconciled Himself with you, and reconciliation is an accomplished fact. As long as you do not become reconciled, reconciliation is finished only from one side; then it is not complete. But if you become reconciled with God, peace is accomplished.” Or, if they do not present it thus, they nevertheless come with the presentation that “God is indeed willing to reconcile you, if now you also let yourself be reconciled,” something to which God then prays yjou through the Gospel, you are actually reconciled with the Most High. But neither of these presentations is according to Scripture. In reconciliation God is His own party. Thus it is also with God’s covenant in general. There is no covenant concluded between God and man. God is GOD! Man is never a party over against God. God’s covenant is solely God’s. And He establishes His covenant with whom He will. It is no different with reconciliation. God and man do not reconcile with one another. Whoever would say that would thereby reveal that he understood nothing of it, would especially show that he does not understand that God is GOD. God reconciles. And He reconciles not Himself, but the sinner, His people. And that reconciliation is the blotting out of guilt through satisfaction of the justice of God over against sin in the blood of the cross. It is then also an accomplished fact through the death and resurrection of Christ. Whether anyone is reconciled with God does not depend on him, but only on his being in Christ, who died for us and is raised again. And on the ground of that objective fact of reconciliation, God now comes, not with an “offer of reconciliation” to all men, but with the serious calling, with the prayer to His people: “Be ye reconciled to Me! Reconciliation is an accomplished fact, for I have reconciled you in Christ. Believe now My word of reconciliation which I have laid in the apostles, and, through faith, enter into that reconciled relationship also before your own consciousness and with your entire life! Let that reconciliation rule your entire life, so that you no longer live unto yourself, but unto Him who died for you and is raised again! For if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature, old things are passed away; behold, all is become new.”
If [a student of the word] carefully reads the context of this text, he shall have to agree with this explanation. For the apostle writes here to the church. This may not be overlooked. In the context this even stands emphatically on the foreground. The context is precisely concerned with the light in which the apostle views the congregation and according to which he judges her. It is the judgment which is determined by the love of Christ toward His church. That love constrains Him unto this judgment, that if one died for all, then are all dead. That all is the elect (verse 15). [The Reformed believer] will grant me this if he does not want to embrace entirely the error of a Christus pro omnibus [Christ for all]. Well, then: He has died for all in order that they should no more live to themselves, but to Him who died for them and is raised again. Therefore the apostle judges that the congregation must be considered as the gathering of new creatures; the old is passed away, all is become new. That this does not hold for all, head for head who belong to the church on earth, makes no difference as far as this judgment concerning the congregation is concerned. The apostle knows no man after the flesh. Now then, all these new things are of God and find their basis in reconciliation. For God was in Christ reconciling the world (here, the elect world out of all nations) unto Himself (not Himself with the world), not imputing their trespasses unto them. Reconciliation, which is the firm basis of the preaching, is an accomplished fact; and because He has committed the word of reconciliation unto the apostles, therefore the apostles must preach that reconciliation and, on the ground of it, come to the congregation and to all whom the Lord will call thereto, with the lovely prayer: “Be ye reconciled with God!” Also according to the context, therefore, you have here a very particular basis in reconciliation, a very particular call of God to His church on the ground of that reconciliation, and a very particular outcome: the elect enter into that reconciliation by divine grace through faith and become new creatures.
This
does not mean, of course, that the preaching
of reconciliation and the prayer of God to enter into that reconciliation is
not heard by others than the elect. The preaching
of particular reconciliation, the demand of God unto repentance, is general, or
at least common. This hearing of the general
proclamation of reconciliation also compels an answer. And the negative
answer of the natural man, “I will not be reconciled with God!” also aggravates
his judgment. For it brings to manifestation the dreadful character of sin as
enmity against God. But this does not change the fact that you do not have here
a “general offer, well-meant on God’s part, in which He offers to all men to
reconcile them with Himself,” but the proclamation of a very particular
reconciliation, on the ground of which the
church enters into salvation.
[Source: sermon: “Blessed Are the Peacemakers” (Matt. 5:9, Date: 28/03/2021); Note: Rev. Pfeiffer is the pastor of the Swansea Evangelical Reformed Church, in South Wales, UK]
When
we are brought to know God, and we know the establishment of peace between Him
and ourselves by the Prince of Peace, our Saviour, we become, do we not,
desirous that men be reconciled with God. We begin to know something of that
spirit in our heart that Paul wrote of to the Corinthians in his second
epistle, when he said “Be ye reconciled to God” [II Cor. 5:20]. Of course, he
is addressing the church. He’s addressing the church—with its
various difficulties and a sense of rebellion against the Word.
------------------------------------------------
No comments:
Post a Comment