How Do We Call People To Believe The Gospel?
Charles Hodge and the Free Offer of the Gospel
As John Calvin begins Book Three of his Institutes, he emphasizes the importance of union with Christ. He’ll go on to discuss the bond of our union with Christ – namely, the Holy Spirit and faith. But first, he says, “we must understand that as long as Christ remains outside of us, and we are separated from him, all that he has suffered and done for the salvation of the human race remains useless and of no value for us.” (1) This profound statement from Calvin has made a big impression on how I think about the doctrine of salvation.
We talk a lot about the Person and Work of Christ, for good reason. But the reception of Christ by faith is the fulcrum of salvation. Hearing about Christ’s Person and Work does not automatically save people. Believing that Christ saves other people does not save you. To truly receive the salvation promised in the gospel, one must personally take a hold of Christ by faith. This is pivotal. This is urgent.
As ministers of Christ, we must proclaim the free offer of the gospel in a manner that communicates the importance of a personal union with the Lord Jesus. Anything less than this may imply that hearers can stop at the level of mere assent to general truths. But that is not the sort of faith that unites us to Christ, and thus, it is not a saving faith.
Hodge On Saving Faith
In a passage reminiscent of Calvin, Hodge reminds us that, “however abundant and suitable may be the provision which God has made for the salvation of men, there are many who fail of attaining eternal life.” (2) He goes on to say that saving faith includes the acknowledgement of sin, but excludes any merit on our part. The gospel is full of grace, and can only be truly received as such.
Saving faith is a “believing reliance” on God. There is a distinction between assent and reliance as parts of saving faith, but intellectual assent alone does not save anyone. (3) Likewise, there is the common distinction between the direct and the reflex act of faith. (4) The former is when I accept Christ, the latter is the sense that then arises of being loved and forgiven as I rest in Christ – along with the assurance that Christ died for me. But, says Hodge, “These two acts are inseparable… They are only different elements of the complex act of accepting Christ.” (5) Union with Christ is personal, and so the saving faith that unites us to Him is personal. Thus, the free offer of the gospel must also be personal.
Hodge sums it up best in his Systematic Theology (ST):
“When we are commanded to believe in Christ as the Saviour of men, we are not required merely to assent to the proposition that He does save sinners, but also to receive and rest upon Him alone for our own salvation. What, therefore, the Scriptures mean by faith, in this connection, the faith which is required for salvation, is an act of the whole soul, of the understanding, of the heart, and of the will.” (6)
Hodge The Preacher
Hodge is known for his academic work, his theology and his leadership at Princeton; but he was also a capable preacher. In a sermon on Galatians 2:20, Hodge already had refined and simplified his definition of saving faith. What must I believe in order to be saved? Hodge’s answer is just the words of the Apostle Paul: “Believe that Jesus is the Son of God – that he loves you – that he gave himself for you.” (7) This answer shows us how Hodge practically preached what he taught in seminary. His answer also confirms the long Presbyterian pedigree of the three-point sermon!
To be sure, the free offer of the gospel is not a bare statement that Christ died for you as a substitute, nor that you are one of the elect. Notice how Hodge joined together these three elements of saving faith in his preaching – elements that he also joined together in his theology as assent and reliance, or the direct and the reflex act. Christ is offered to sinners as the one source of salvation for mankind, and therefore, the source of salvation for each one personally. When you take hold of Christ as the Son of God, there’s a nearly-simultaneous grasp of this One who loves you and gave Himself for you. In the end, saving faith involves a sense, and then a firm confidence, that Christ loves you and died for you. Why? Because this is the Christ who is on offer in the gospel! (8) This is what the Apostle Paul teaches us in Galatians 2:20.
Three Biblical Images
Remarkably, Hodge includes a whole section on Galatians 2:20 in his ST, wherein he provides one of the best biblical analogies for understanding the relationship between saving faith and the free offer. Hodge’s exposition in the ST is consistent with what he had already preached in that sermon many years prior. Before we explore that, let us consider two other analogies he uses in the previously mentioned sermon. First, Hodge employs the imagery of the Israelite who lays his hand on the sacrificial lamb as corresponding to what we do as individuals when we put our faith in Christ’s atoning work for us. “We must lay our hand on the head of the victim,” which is Jesus Christ, in order to be reconciled to God. (9)
Second, Hodge addresses the objection of those that say the doctrine of sovereign regeneration undercuts the free offer of the gospel and the call to faith. Of course regeneration is prior to faith, but faith is still a requirement for the regenerate. “When Christ said to the man with the withered arm: Stretch forth thy hand; he did not wait to ascertain whether his arm was restored before he obeyed, although stretching forth his hand pre-supposed the restoration of his limb.” (10)
One should not wait or delay until they know they are regenerate. Rather, they should just believe. We are called to take God at His word – that He will fulfill His promise to those who believe. We do not wait for the ability to believe. We believe and then find that it was the Lord who granted that ability to us.
Third, and finally, we come to one of Hodge’s most lucid and profound statements on this dynamic between saving faith and the free offer of the gospel:
“All that the doctrine of the Reformers on this subject includes is, that the soul in committing itself to Christ does so as to one who loved it and died for its salvation. The woman healed by touching our Saviour’s garment, believed that she was an object of his compassionate love, because all who touched Him with faith were included in that number. Her faith included that conviction.” (11)
Union with Christ is one of the primary aims of the gospel. The Holy Spirit joins us to Christ, and we take hold of Christ by faith. The nature of saving faith includes this “conviction” that the One we reach out to touch is full of grace, goodness, mercy, love and compassion. This is a God who delights to receive those who reach out and cling to Him. The free offer of the gospel must be imbued and colored by these biblical realities. Otherwise, the faith we commend in the free offer may be stunted.
A Call To Offer Christ
As ministers of the gospel, we commend Christ and plead for hearers to respond with a faith that embraces Jesus as the compassionate Lamb of God who is the one source of salvation for any who would be saved. Jesus is the Savior of the world (1 Jn. 4:14) – His death is sufficient to save any and all. (12) Christ’s salvation is for all in the sense that the free offer of the gospel is sincere even for the reprobate. However, Christ died as a substitute only for the elect, and so there is a sense in which the elect are eternally united to Christ. (13)
Nonetheless, even the elect are children of wrath until they are experientially united to Christ in time by faith (Eph. 2:3). For Christ’s salvation to be actualized, for Christ to be my Savior, I must grasp Him as the One who is presently compassionate and merciful towards me. A full-orbed, saving faith is a gift of the Holy Spirit, who leads me to grasp Jesus as the Son of God who loves me and gave Himself for me personally (Gal. 2:20; Rom. 5:5; 8:16). (14)
Do we commend this Savior, this faith, this gospel? Or do we settle for someone more aloof, and something more generalized and abstract? May it be the former, and not the latter!
(1) John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, ed. John T. McNeill, trans. Ford Lewis Battles, vol. 1 (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 2011), 537.
(2) Charles Hodge, The Way of Life (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 2020), 149.
(3) Ibid., 154.
(4) Hodge picks this up from Turretin, but he is not so concerned to maintain Turretin’s more careful distinctions between the various facets of saving faith.
(5) Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, vol. 3 (Repr., 7th ed. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2016), 100.
(6) Ibid., 91.
(7) Charles Hodge, “Faith in Christ the Source of Life,” in The Princeton Pulpit, ed. John T. Duffield (New York: Charles Scribner, 1852), 92.
(8) I’ve often wondered about potential connections between Hodge’s approach and the Marrow Men – particularly Thomas Boston.
(9) Ibid., 90-91.
(10) Ibid., 92.
(11) Hodge, Systematic Theology, vol. 3, 104.
(12) See Canons of Dort, 2nd Head of Doctrine, Articles 3-6; William Symington, The Atonement and Intercession of Jesus Christ (Repr., Grand Rapids: Reformation Heritage Books, 2006), 208-14; A.A. Hodge, Outlines of Theology (Repr., Miami: HardPress, n.d.), 322-23; Curt Daniel, The History & Theology of Calvinism (Darlington, Durham: EP Books, 2019), 492-508.
(13) For this nuanced understanding of the word, “for,” see Charles Hodge, A Commentary on 1&2 Corinthians (Repr., Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 2023), 149-50.
(14) For the relationship between saving faith and the Holy Spirit’s inner call, see Hodge, Systematic Theology, vol. 3, 103.