Now this exclusiveness appears to be the necessary consequence of the breadth and freedom of the offer; and had I had the framing of the thesis, I should have preferred to have stated it as “The breadth, freeness, and consequent exclusiveness of the Gospel:” for if we consider the great origin of the Gospel,—the eternal love of God; the marvellous plan of the Gospel,—the sacrifice of the Son of God; the boundless mercy of the Gospel,—as seen in the offering such a salvation to every poor sinner under heaven; and the unutterable grace of the Gospel,—in offering it freely to poor sinners, at the very time that those sinners are hopelessly sunk in the ruin of their sin;—it does appear to be an act of the deepest presumption for men to suppose that there may be other ways through which men can be saved, other systems through which men can be restored. If men could be saved any other way, why did the Lord Jesus come? why did He die? If self-denying idolatry or conscientious morality were sufficient, why was there any Gospel at all? and why were we not left to win our way to eternal life, by morality and heathenism in all their varied forms? If the Gospel be regarded as a Divine remedy for the sinner, then surely it must be exclusive. If this be God’s plan, then surely a plan from God was needful, and no human plan was sufficient. If it were a human plan, then I could perfectly understand that other human plans might be equally effectual,—or, I should rather say, equally fruitless; but if it be really God’s plan, then it must stand alone as the only way of restoration to life.
The only possible way of meeting this view of the subject is, by supposing that the result of our Lord’s propitiation is applied, without their knowledge, to those who do not believe in His Name. Of course if this were God’s plan, we should have nothing to say, and our simple duty would be to accept it with thanksgiving. But on this point we must be wholly dependent on God’s own statement of His own counsel. When we are studying God’s purpose, our only hope of arriving at truth is by simple dependence on what God has revealed to us in His Word; and not the smallest reliance can be placed on any conclusions which we may draw from what we think most probable in so benevolent a God. Of course if men do not believe in Scripture, as inspired by the Spirit, this evidence fails them; but then they have nothing to assure them that there is any Gospel at all. But if we admit it to be God’s plan, then from God we must learn its character, and His Word alone must guide our decision. Now it is needless for me to multiply passages, as I might do to almost any extent, to show that in God’s Word we are taught, that the blessings of our Lord’s work are not bestowed except through faith in His Name. Whatever conclusions men may derive from their own ideas of Divine benevolence, there cannot be a question that this is the testimony of Scripture. If men place greater reliance on their own opinion of what they think God ought to have done, than on what God Himself declares He has done, we can only say, as St. Paul did,—“Nay! but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God?” In such a matter we are entirely limited by the Divine statements, and man’s opinion is utterly worthless; for the counsels of God, in their very nature, lie quite beyond the limits of human enquiry. If we do not believe in the words of our blessed Saviour, we have not the slightest evidence of any salvation at all; and if we do believe them, we must believe them all, and must accept without hesitation His own most solemn statement, the most exclusive sentence which I know in the whole range of Christian theology,—“He that believeth, and is baptized, shall be saved; and he that believeth not shall be damned.”
London: William Hunt and Company.
ADVERTISEMENT.
The following will be published in this Series, uniform in size and price.
“The Present Position and duties of the Evangelical Body in the Church of England.”
By the Rev. W. R. Fremantle, M.A.
“The Atonement.”
By the Rev. J. Richardson, M.A.
“The Articles, Liturgy, and Subscription.”