Not everyone will believe the gospel, but everyone should be invited.
We know from Scripture, and experience, that not everyone will trust in Jesus and be saved. In fact, many will not. Many today sitting in churches across this country are cold to Christ, harboring impenitent hearts, deceived into thinking their works will get them to heaven. And even more not in churches. They will refuse Jesus, so why should we invite them to trust him?
Why should the gospel go to everyone? Here are three reasons.
1. We don’t know who will or won’t believe.
This relates to God’s two ways of willing. There is God’s “will of command” and his “will of decree”—that is, what God desires generally (his published will) and what he sovereignly effects (his mostly hidden resolve).
We know two things: 1) that God desires all people to be saved (1 Timothy 2:4).
The latter truth is a secret to us. We cannot look at someone and know whether his or her heart will be hardened. Indeed, the gospel—with its knock-Saul-off-his-horse power—demands we never presume to know that. God desires for all to be saved, and that’s what we are about. J.I. Packer writes, “We are to order our lives by the light of his law [his will of command], not by our guesses about his plan [his will of decree]” (Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God, 96).
We offer the gospel universally because, as far as we can discern, every person we encounter could believe. God knows whom he will draw (John 6:44). We don’t, so we just preach.
2. Jesus really can save anybody.
The invitation to believe the gospel, writes Packer, “is God’s summons to mankind generally to come to the Savior and find life” (92). And anybody who does that—who comes to the Savior—will find life.
“Everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved” (Romans 10:13). This verse tells us two things about “everyone.” First, it is not simply everyone, but everyone who calls. Everyone will not be saved, but everyone who calls on the name of Lord will certainly be saved. Second, part of the “everyone who calls” can be anyone at all.
It doesn’t matter how messed up your life is, or what mistakes you’ve made, or how dismal you see your tomorrow. If you—hardened criminal, zealous abortionist, reckless teen—if you call on the name of the Lord, you will be saved. It doesn’t matter what language you speak or what color of skin you have or how much money is in your bank account, if you turn from your sins and trust in Jesus, you will be saved.
And, therefore, since Jesus can save anybody, we offer this message to everybody.
