But Esaias is very bold, and saith, I was
found of them that sought me not; I was made manifest unto them that asked not
after me. But to Israel he saith, All
day long I have stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying
people (Rom. 10:20-21).
I
have spread out my hands all the day unto a rebellious people, which walketh in a way that was not good,
after their own thoughts (Isa. 65:2).
Since the day that your fathers came forth
out of the land of Egypt unto this day I
have even sent unto you all my servants the prophets, daily rising up early and
sending them: Yet they hearkened not unto me, nor inclined their ear,
but hardened their neck: they did worse than their fathers (Jer. 7:25-26).
COMMON GRACE ARGUMENT:
This passage is sometimes used to support
the “well-meant offer of the gospel” (so-called)—i.e. the notion that the
Almighty earnestly and fervently wills, wishes, wants and desires the salvation
of the reprobate; the notion that entails the ghostly spectre of a failing,
foolish and frustrated God.
The idea of this text is that God’s
“outstretched arms” are symbolic of His going out in the preaching to many
sinners in love and grace, desiring to save them, trying to save them, but
failing to save them.
(I)
Prof.
Herman C. Hanko
[Source: Common Grace Considered (2019 edition), p.
352]
To
stretch out one’s hands is to underscore the earnestness in which one issues a
command.
Yet,
let it be understood as well that the command of the gospel is exactly that—a
command. It is not “an offer that expresses God’s deepest desire.” It is not an
“invitation,” although those who speak of the preaching as an “offer” really
mean that the command is nothing else but an “invitation, the acceptance or
rejection of which is left to man’s free will.”
----------------------------------------------------
(II)
Herman Hoeksema (1886-1965)
Herman Hoeksema (1886-1965)
(a)
Who
found Him? The people before whom God stood with outstretched arms did not find
Him. “All day long I have stretched forth my hands,” God Himself says, “unto a disobedient and gainsaying people.”
That was the Jews in the old dispensation. God was not found by them.
We
must consider this part of the text very carefully, because these words are
used to overthrow all that the apostle has been teaching. The explanation goes
like this. God stood before a rebellious and gainsaying people with
outstretched arms. Those arms are a symbol of God’s general will to save
everyone, including the gainsaying and rebellious people. And if that is so,
some argue there is no doctrine of election and reprobation. Similarly, there
are Reformed people who confess the doctrine of election, but this text, they
say, shows that there is also a general will in God to save all, and we must
accept both. They call this a “mystery.” But we reject a general will of God to
save all. We cannot overthrow all that we have learned in Romans 9 and 10 and
all that we will be taught in Romans 11.
Let
us look at the text. Does it teach anything like a general will of God to save
all? It does if the outstretched arms mean that God says to these rebellious
and gainsaying people, “I sincerely desire to save you all.” But this is
contrary to the gospel. Nowhere does Scripture teach that the outstretched arms
symbolize God’s readiness to save all. The meaning of the outstretched arms is
that God is willing to receive and save all who come to Him.
Does
this contradict the other fundamental truth that we will never repent and come
into the outstretched arms unless God gives us the heart and the will to come?
Scripture says ‘No.’ There is no contradiction. If any man is to come into the
outstretched arms of God, God must give him the will.
Surely
God stood before the entire nation of Israel, just as today He stands before
the entire congregation with outstretched arms, saying, “I am ready to receive
and save all who come to Me.” The preaching is general. But in that nation of
Israel there were many who would not have Him. There were many who showed
themselves, over against the outstretched arms, as gainsaying and disobedient.
They rebelled against the Word of God. They were gainsaying. They opposed that
Word of God. That was Israel. Why? Because God is merciful to whom He wills.
When Christ came, the outstretched arms of God became manifest to all, but they
rebelled against these outstretched arms. They rejected them.
We
must not overlook the positive aspect of these words. The positive aspect is
that some Jews believed, found God, and were saved, even though they, too, were
rebellious by nature. Although the reference of the text is to the Jews in the
old dispensation, its teaching applies as well to the Gentiles in the new
dispensation. God does not say, “I first stretched out My arms to disobedient
and gainsaying Israel, and then I went to a different nation that did not
disobey and gainsay My Word.” The notion that the Gentile world was seeking
after God is simply nonsense. There were no such Gentiles. The Gentiles were no
better than the Jews. The text says, “I was found of them that sought me not.”
This is forever true. The Gentile world in the old dispensation was hostile to
God. By nature, we are all gainsaying.
(b)
[Source: Commentary on
Isaiah 65:2 and Jeremiah 7:25-26, in A Power of God Unto Salvation, Or,
Grace Not An Offer]
[To understand the
following more clearly, briefly read through HH’s commentary on Psalm 81:11-13 found
on the following page: http://commongracedebate.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/psalm-8111-13oh-that-my-people-had.html]
Also
here we observe that these verses are neither general in content nor speak of
an offer of grace. We must keep in mind the following:
1.
That the Lord also here speaks of Israel, of His people, which is elect according to its kernel, but reprobate
according to its shell. Only if you keep this in mind can you understand these
passages. This is also the basic thought of Romans 9-11. Therefore the apostle
can maintain that God has not cast away His people when Israel as a nation is
rejected, but that the elect have obtained it, while the rest were hardened.
That this organic presentation of Israel, as the people of God with its elect
kernel and reprobate shell, is correct as the point of departure in the
explanation of Isaiah 65:2 is clear also from the subsequent context. Read
verses 8 and 9:
Thus saith the Lord, As the new wine is
found in the cluster, and one saith, Destroy it not; for a blessing is in it;
so will I do for my servants’ sakes, that I may not destroy them all. And I
will bring forth a seed out of Jacob, and out of Judah an inheritor of my
mountains: and mine elect shall inherit it, and my servants shall dwell there.
2.
That the Lord spread out His hands to that people, something which, of course,
means the same as the sending of the prophets of which the prophet Jeremiah
speaks … In that word of the prophets, sent by the Lord, He spread forth His
hands to them, with the divine purpose, of course, of saving the elect. It was
never God’s purpose to change the reprobate shell into the elect kernel. The
elect have obtained it, and the rest were hardened.
3.
That the content of the message of the prophets, figuratively presented as the
spreading forth of hands, never was a general, well-meant offer of grace to all
without distinction, but a calling to walk in the ways of the Lord and, paired
with that, a sure promise of salvation and eternal life. Never did the Lord
thus spread forth His hands to Israel that He offered grace to all without
distinction. On the contrary, He called them to the fear of the Lord, to the
keeping of His covenant, to walking in His ways, to conversion, all through
their history. And under this spreading forth of His hands to Israel as a
nation, there was a twofold effect, as always under the preaching of the Word;
the elect received of the Lord grace to do what He demanded; He did not offer
them grace, but bestowed it upon them; the rest received no grace, were
hardened through the operation of God’s wrath, and showed more and more that
they were wicked and rebellious. Through this the elect finally entered the kingdom
of heaven, received the sure promises of God, came to the wedding-feast, while
the rest were cast out. This explanation is supported by the entire prophecy of
Isaiah, which has as its main content this: that it is God’s purpose to save
the remnant according to the election of grace, but to harden the rest, also
through the means of the prophetic word.
Thus
we have in this spreading forth of the hands a calling to conversion which
comes to the entire people of God, with a particular bestowal of grace (no
offer) to the elect, to heed that call, paired with a manifestation of
wickedness and rebellion on the part of the reprobate shell, which brings them
to destruction.
----------------------------------------------------
(III)
Prof. David J. Engelsma
Prof. David J. Engelsma
God’s
stretching forth His hands to a disobedient and gainsaying people is His
revelation of Himself in the gospel as the God of mercy in Jesus Christ, ready
to receive and save every sinner who comes to Him in faith and repentance. This
is how He shows Himself in the gospel to all who hear the gospel. I do not say
that He is gracious to all who hear the gospel. If this were the case, all who
hear the gospel would be saved, for the grace of God is almighty, irresistible.
But He shows to all that He is gracious, and that in this grace He will receive
every one who comes to Him. The stretched forth hands, therefore, are what Reformed
theology refers to as the “external call” of the gospel. God makes Himself
known to all that He is a God of grace. He calls all hearers to come to Him by
believing on Jesus. He promises to every one who comes that he will be
received.
But
this does not mean that God is gracious to all, that He wills the salvation of
all, or that coming to God for salvation depends on the willingness of the
sinner. This would contradict everything that the apostle has taught previously
in Romans, including the total depravity of the sinner—his inability to come to
Christ; limited, effectual atonement; the sovereignty and irresistibility of
grace; and the government of salvation by God's predestination, election and
reprobation. No one can come to Christ except the Father draw him (John 6:44).
But
now also, these truths of sovereign, particular grace do not at all detract
from the preaching of the gospel to all or from the serious call to all hearers
to come to God by believing on Jesus Christ, with the promise that every one
who comes will be received and saved by God. This preaching is the outstretched
arms of God. When wicked men and women refuse to come to God, disobeying the
external call of the gospel, they can never say that the reason is that God
would not receive them even if they came. The God of the gospel is the God of
the outstretched arms, ready and eager to receive every one who comes.
It
is true that only those come whom God has chosen to salvation. It is also true
that those who refuse to come refuse according to God's eternal reprobation of
them. But none of this detracts from the truth that in the gospel God calls
all, with the external call, or command, and that He shows Himself ready to
receive every sinner who comes in faith.
----------------------------------------------------
(IV)
More to come! (DV)
More to come! (DV)
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