Keep the gospel free.
May we never limit or put conditions on God’s gospel.
Here’s a beloved quote from Dr. Horatius Bonar’s Truth and Error, which is a compendium of some of his letters, written to unknown individuals on an array of pressing doctrinal matters. You’d do well to read this little book. Perhaps this paragraph will whet your appetite:
Let us not limit the gospel, nor abate aught of its absolute and unconditional freeness. Let us not cast any stumbling-block in the sinner’s way, nor tell him that he is not at liberty to come and be forgiven, just as he stands this very instant. Let us not tell him that he must get quit of his sins, and repent, and pray and wait, and do his best, in order that after all this he may be qualified for coming to the Saviour. Let us not allow him to suppose that there is any one thing required of him before coming, or that he is not welcome to his Father’s arms, even now, poor prodigal as he is . . . let us not be moved away, either from the gospel or its hope. We believe in a gospel free to all, and we preach it as such, — going up to every man with the message of peace on our lips, and the blessings of salvation in our hands, saying, “be thou reconciled to God.” (205)
Grace and peace, friends.
Works cited:
Horatius Bonar, Truth and Error; or, Letters to a Friend on Some of the Controversies of the Day (Edinburgh: W. P. Kennedy, 1847).