The Christ of the Gospel an Offense

 

Before the coming of Christ the world was as full of all sorts of idolatries as a dog is full of fleas on St. John's Day (June 24). Every place swarmed and teemed with idols. Yet no devil then cast out the other; no idol placed his foot on the other's head; nor did any one of them bite the other's heel. They could well tolerate and bear one another's company, so much so that the Romans even gathered the idols from all the world and built a church, calling it the Pantheon, the church of all the gods; for the worldly-wise lords wanted to have all the gods in their city. But when the true God, Jesus Christ, came, they would not tolerate Him. Is it not a remarkable thing to welcome all the other gods but to exclude and persecute only this One? All the others are quiet and keep peace among themselves, but with the coming of this One the sport and discord begin. Then all the gods threaten to become frantic, together with their servants, the Romans; they club to death apostles, martyrs, and all who dare call upon the name of Christ. Servants of the other gods they do not injure but give them all honor and homage.

But if Christ had also been a devil, as the other gods, how gladly and gloriously would the devils have permitted Him to be welcomed and worshiped by their side! But now that they all rant and rave against Him, they confess thereby that He is the one true God, who bruises their heads and storms their palaces, conquers them and confiscates their holdings. So they scream and bite His heel. They accuse Him of disturbing the peace of Rome and of the whole world and imagine that they are rendering God a great service by persecuting Him so violently and shedding so much blood. Yes indeed, if we do the devil's bidding and let go of Christ, we shall have a solid peace from the devil. He can afford to let us enjoy all sorts of idolatry and falsehood, but this Bruiser of his head he cannot tolerate.

Martin Luther 

Source: 

What Luther Says, pp. 203-204

All whom the Father Gives to Christ Come to Him

 

The connection between the importance of the preaching and the church is clear. Only the church is called to preach the gospel. When the gospel is preached in the church, Christ is proclaimed. By the proclamation of Christ, the gospel is the power that draws men to Christ to seek in Him their salvation. Those who are God’s elect come to Christ, and in coming to Him they are made stones in the temple of God, a temple built on Jesus Christ the cornerstone…
The preaching so draws the people of God that they come to Christ Who is proclaimed in the gospel. To come to Christ is a theme that runs through the New Testament and implies several important truths. Christ calls through the gospel and says, “Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden” (Matt. 11:28. Christ calls His sheep by name (John 10:3); that call of the gospel is heard by Christ’s sheep and they come to Him and follow Him.
Coming to Christ is not coming in a geographic sense. It was not geographic even during the days the Lord was upon earth. Coming to Christ is believing on Him and finding in Him deliverance from the misery of sin, death, and hell.
Christ’s call is not indiscriminate. It never is. Even the external call of the gospel is not completely indiscriminate, for only those whom God sends the gospel hear the outward call. The call of the gospel as an internal call comes to the elect alone, who are Christ’s sheep. They are laboring and heavy laden with the burden of sin. Christ calls the elect by the gospel, which proclaims Him as the only way of salvation, and Christ calls by His Spirit in the hearts of His people.
The call is not only particular, but also efficacious. It is powerful to draw. Those whom it draws come to Christ. All whom the Father gives to Christ come to Him (John 6:39), but they come because the Father draws them (v.44). They come to Christ drawn by the Father, but drawn in such a way that they come eagerly and willingly, for they are aware of their sins and long for the salvation found in Christ alone.

Herman Hanko
A Pilgrim’s Manual, pp.108-109

http://rfpa.org/collections/books-by-herman-hanko/products/a-pilgrims-manual 

 

Call, Not Offer

The term “offer” according to its original Latin meaning, refers to “setting forth” or “putting before.” Originally, in connection with the Gospel, it simply meant the declaration of the Gospel promise and command to repent and believe through the preaching before whomever God sends the Gospel. The use of “offer” in the Canons of Dordt and the Westminster confessions is not what is meant today in the church world. Now, it means that God intends to save those to whom God presents the promise of the Gospel and the call to repent and believe. Instead of a declaration, now the offer is a “well-meaning, well-intended desire of God to invite people to salvation, if they fulfill the condition to believe.” As a result, in today’s church history, the term “offer” is synonymous with the Arminian “well-meant offer of the Gospel.”

Ronald Hanko writes:

There are many who prefer to speak of the gospel as an "offer" rather than a call. It is interesting, to say the least, that Scripture never uses the word offer to describe the gospel. We have no objection to the word offer as such. In its older sense it means only that in the gospel there is a "showing forth" of Christ. The Westminster Larger Catechism, for example, defines an offer of Christ as a "testifying that whosoever believes in Him shall be saved" (WCF, Q&A 65).
In its modern sense, however, the word offer suggests and is used to teach that God loves all men and wants to save every one of them, that He makes an effort to save all of them in the gospel, and that whether or not a sinner will be saved is dependent on the will of that sinner. These teachings are all contrary to Scripture.
Scripture does not teach that God loves all men (Ps. 11:5; John 13:1; Rom. 9:13), nor does it teach that God is trying to save all of them (Isa. 6:9-11; Rom. 9:18; 2 Cor. 2:14-16). Certainly it does not teach that in saving sinners God can be frustrated by their unwillingness, or that He waits, cap in hand as it were, for them to accept His salvation (Ps. 115:3; John 6:44; Rom. 9:16; Eph. 2:8-9). For these reasons we prefer not to speak of the gospel as an "offer."
A call is different from an offer. It reminds us of the sovereignty of God. He, as King, summons sinners to believe and obey the gospel. It even intimates that He actually does bring salvation by His sovereign call. When we remember that it is God who calls, it is not difficult to understand this. He is the one who "calleth those things which be not as though they were" (Rom. 4:17).
That call is heard in the preaching of the gospel. It is made effectual to salvation by the inward work of the Holy Spirit, so that some not only hear, but also obey that call. By the Spirit's work it is God in Christ who calls, not the preacher. The preacher is only an instrument.
That is the reason the ungodly are condemned for disobedience when they refuse to heed the call. By their unbelief they do not refuse a mere man, but the living God Himself as He speaks through His only begotten Son. That is serious.
It is also the reason the preacher must bring nothing but Scripture. Those who hear must hear God's Word, not the preacher's notions, philosophies, political commentaries, etc. The preacher must even be careful that He does not obscure the sovereign call of God by adding all sorts of unnecessary begging or "hard sell" tactics, leaving the impression that God waits upon the will of sinners.
It must be clear in the preaching of the gospel that God sovereignly demands faith and repentance of sinners- that He, the Almighty, the Judge of heaven and earth, requires obedience and will punish disobedience. By such preaching sinners are saved, and God is glorified. (Doctrine According to Godliness, pp. 191-192)