"For He says to Moses, 'I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion'. So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy" (Rom 9:15-16).
There was once a ministers’ meeting in Toronto, and a scholar addressed them. He claimed that there was a spark that was present in every single person and that it was the duty of ministers to fan it into life. There was a fundamentalist preacher there who was bold enough in the question time to challenge this interpretation. He used Scripture very skillfully and comprehensively to present its own verdict on man. He expostulated with the speaker, didn’t he know that man was dead in trespasses and sins, that he was born in sin and from the womb he went astray telling lies, that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually, that in his flesh dwelt no good thing, that none seek after God. “The leopard cannot change its spots,” he said, “and this so-called spark of goodness doctrine is not only a myth; it is a lie; it gives man confidence in himself. It dethrones God and exalts man to be the Captain of his soul.” It was very well done and all of us would have said Amen to his words.
Then the modernist got up to respond. “I commend you,” he said, “on your response and your knowledge of many Scriptures. I have only one question. Do you believe that man has the ability, in himself, to either accept or reject the gospel of Christ when it is presented to him?” Without a moment’s hesitation the fundamentalist replied, “Why, of course I do.” “Right,” said Mr. Liberal, “well, what is this ability in man that gives him this power?” The Arminian fundamentalist looked a bit puzzled as he replied, “Why, that is man’s free will.” The modernist smiled and said, “Exactly! You call it free will, while I call it the spark of goodness. You say we should do all we can to get man to exercise his will to make a decision, and I say we should fan the spark into a flame. Regardless of all you said in your statement, we both agree that the determining factor in becoming a Christian is man’s own power of choice, and we’ve both got to find the best methods of inducing him to use that ability in the right way.”
That liberal was being 100% consistent with his basic and wrong presupposition, and the fundamentalist was the one who was totally inconsistent. The failure to see the obvious truth that a phrase like ‘spark of goodness’ and another phrase like ‘free will’ is much the same thing drove a wedge deep into the evangelical church a hundred years ago, and it allowed modernism its massive spread and grip on the pulpits of our nation. As long as men believe that they have a ‘spark of life’ that they can fan into a flame when they choose to do so then they will go on feeling that they are not actually dead in sin. Then salvation is not due to the grace of God alone, but it is grace cooperating with man who decides to fan the spark, when he chooses. But the Bible will not tolerate that interpretation. Every part of man is affected by his being dead in transgressions and sins.
- Geoff Thomas, pastor of Alfred Place Baptist Church, Aberystwyth, Wales
The incarnate God's love for recalcitrant Jerusalem makes him weep over it; "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who would kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing" (Matt.23:37). Would any describe these hearers of Christ as penitent and exercised sinners? We are told of them that they would kill and stone those God sends to them. They are brutal bloodthirsty murderers. These are the ones for whom Christ cries, "O!" in anguish, repeating the city's name in affection. To them he expresses his longing to have gathered them to safety, but they reject him. Is this not a love as wide as a whole city? Will we too not love Bangkok, and Amsterdam, and Las Vegas, and Paris, and New Orleans, and Soho, and San Francisco with their teeming millions and abundant cruelty and sensuality? Not with a love that would indulge in or sympathise with the wickednesses, but would see its citizens saved from their sin and its consequences...
When that anonymous man filled the pulpit at the last minute in the ArtilleryStreetPrimitiveMethodistChurch in Colchester one snowy January day almost exactly one hundred and fifty years ago in the absence of the invited preacher he spotted a teenager in the congregation. He had no knowledge that that boy was elected to eternal life, any more than any person can know another person is elect before they believe, but he did know two things that were true about him because they are true of every person on the planet, that the boy had a soul, and that it was not God's will that he should perish, but that he come under the sheltering wings of Christ's grace. He believed that God wanted this boy to be saved, and so he told the boy the way of salvation and urged him to look to the Lord and live. Thank God he did because the boy hearing that message was Charles Haddon Spurgeon through whom many more believed on Christ.
It is God's love that moves him to imploringly entreat everyone to look to Jesus Christ. Think of the way the apostle Paul, filled with the Spirit of God, addressed men and women, "We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God" (2 Cor. 5:20). He quotes to the Romans Isaiah 65:2 and says to them, "All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and obstinate people." Only a deep persuasion that God loves his hearers would make a preacher implore them to be reconciled to God accompanied by such tender gestures of entreaty. How familiar were Paul's tears to the Ephesian elders - as well-known as his doctrines (Acts 20:19 and 31).
It is from this whole picture that we with all the orthodox church have developed this conviction that God wants every single person on this planet to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. In the gospel God speaks to every sinner in particular, as though he were addressing them by their names saying, "I desire you to come to me and find rest. I am willing to give this to you. Warmly and affectionately I am offering life and salvation to you. I will accept no excuses. Do not plead that you do not know whether you are elected to salvation, nor that you cannot come because you are ignorant of whether God the Father gave you to God the Son. Do not plead that you are dead in sin and cannot turn, because whether you can or cannot you must believe. 'This is the work of God that you believe on him whom he has sent" (John 6:29)." Thus God himself earnestly and lovingly addresses everyone, beseeching his hearers to entrust themselves to him, because he loves them and wants them to be saved.
Hear Spurgeon himself preaching on the text, "And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." (Rev.22:17) It was the famous revival year, 1859, and Spurgeon was speaking at the Music Hall, RoyalSurreyGardens on October 16th. He says in the course of this sermon, "How wide is this invitation! There are some ministers who are afraid to invite sinners, then why are they ministers? They are afraid to perform the most important part of the sacred office. There was a time I must confess when I somewhat faltered when about to give a free invitation. My doctrinal sentiments did at that time somewhat hamper me. I boldly confess that I am unchanged as to the doctrines I have preached; I preach Calvinism as high, as stern, and as sound as ever; but I do feel, and always did feel a longing to invite sinners to Christ. And I do feel also, that not only is such a course consistent with the soundest doctrines, but that the other course is after all the unsound one, and has no title whatever to plead Scripture on its behalf.
"There has grown up in many churches an idea that none are to be called to Christ but what they call sensible sinners. I sometimes rebut that by remarking, that I call stupid sinners to Christ as well as sensible sinners, and that stupid sinners make by far the greatest proportion of the ungodly. But I glory in the confession that I preach Christ even to insensible sinners - that I would say even to the dry bones of the valley, as Ezekiel did, 'Ye dry bones live!' doing it as an act of faith; not faith in the power of those that hear to obey the command, but faith in the power of God who gives the command to give strength also to those addressed, that they may be constrained to obey it. But now listen to my text; for here, at least, there is no limitation. But sensible or insensible, all that the text saith is, 'Whosoever will, let him come and take the water of life freely.' The one question I have to ask this morning is, art thou willing?"
So I am saying that this verse in the New Testament is teaching that God sincerely wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth, and that the fountain head of this desire is his love for all men. I do not believe that such love is the same as that electing love of his own people which caused him to give the whole church to his Son before the foundation of the world and effectually redeem them. "Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless" (Ephs.5:25-27). That is a divine affection, "nought but his loved ones know." There are thus two kinds of divine love.
I recommend this sermon, "He Purged Our Sins" from Heb 1:3. The preacher is someone I'm not very familiar with, and it is wonderful to hear the gospel.
