Christ Offered

“Seeing Christ comes near you in this gospel, and this is one of the market days, I entreat you, while He is near, receive Him, call upon Him while He is near… open to Him, take Him in, give Him welcome… There is not a conscience in any man that hears this gospel, but that He will have this testimony from him in it, that He came near them, was in their sight and within their reach and grip, as it were, if they would have put out their hand to receive him… O receive this gospel, give him room; while He is content to sup with you, take Him in, make sure of your union with Him. This is the end [design] why this report is made, and Christ is laid before you, even that you may lay yourselves over on Him.”


- James Durham (1622-1658), a commissioner of the Church of Scotland to the Westminster Assembly, in his second sermon on Isaiah 53. In the same sermon Durham interprets Christ knocking at the door in Rev. 3:17 as “an earnest invitation to make way for Christ Jesus, wanting nothing but an entry into the heart.” Durham understands this appeal of Christ in the gospel to be gracious, according to 2 Cor. 6:1, “We beseech you not to receive this grace in vain, which is not meant of saving grace, but of the gracious offer of grace and reconciliation through Him.”