When people hear about Jesus and the possibility of salvation, it can all seem very remote and as if it doesn’t necessarily mean anything for them personally. Perhaps this is because they aren’t really interested, or perhaps because they don’t dare to imagine that Jesus really would save them. Either way, the Covenanting minister Patrick Gillespie (1617–1675) wants everyone to grasp how imperative it is to believe in Jesus. The force of the gospel command should both embolden the hesitant to embrace the Lord Jesus as their Saviour and also compel those who are dismissive to reckon with the authority of God underlying the good news of the gospel. In the following updated extract, Gillespie refers to believing in Jesus in terms of making a “personal covenant” with Him. We mustn’t stay at a distance from the Lord, we mustn’t take it for granted that we will somehow get to heaven eventually, but each of us must personally, particularly, individually embrace Him for salvation.

When I say “personal covenanting with God,” I mean an individual soul taking hold of the covenant of grace, explicitly covenanting with God, by choosing and taking God for his or her portion, and giving himself or herself to Him by a marriage covenant, on the terms of the covenant of grace.

The command

This is a commanded duty. Each one personally and formally for themselves must enter into covenant with God through Christ, on the terms of grace. This is not only a thing which we may do, but which we ought to do (and must do, if we obey the call of the gospel). We should look at it, not only as a privilege and happiness to which we should aspire, but as a duty, which we ought to do by the command and call of the gospel, if we want to escape the “vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel” (2 Thessalonians 1:8).

Three things about the nature of the gospel covenant show this to be the case, in three ordinary figures of speech.

A treaty of peace

For one thing, the gospel covenant is a treaty of peace. When God sends ambassadors to negotiate with us, is it not our duty to negotiate with Him? When He proposes good conditions to rebels, is it not our duty to accept them? “God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God” (2 Corinthians 5:19–20).

A marriage covenant

“And I will betroth thee unto me for ever; yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness” (Hosea 2:19). “I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ” (2 Corinthians 11:2). “The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, which made a marriage for his son” (Matthew 22:2).

When Christ has sent ambassadors to woo us, and has come and offered Himself and His love to us, who can dispute but it is our duty to wed with Him — to accept of His love, and to give ourselves in marriage to Him by this covenant? “And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come” (Revelation 22:17).

A free proclamation

It is announced in an open, free market, where all good things are offered without price. “Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price” (Isaiah 55:1). Is it not beyond dispute, that when all good things are offered freely, it is the duty of those who need them to come and buy, and make them their own? “Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David” (Isaiah 55:3). This is personal covenanting with God.

The saints in their practice and experience have found personal covenanting with God, or closing with God formally in a covenant, to be their duty, and accordingly they have been very much in the practice of it. See 2 Samuel 23:5; Lamentations 3:24; Psalm 16:2, Psalm 119:57, 94, 111; Matthew 19:27. All such Scriptures hold forth the sum and substance of a personal covenant with God.

To put the matter out of question, there are many exhortations and commands, with promises and threatenings annexed, which show plainly that personal covenanting with God is a duty. We can observe in Deuteronomy 30:11 that the proposition of life and death made there is to a people that were already in covenant with God as to their visible church state, and therefore it must be understood of a particular, personal covenanting with God, each one for his own soul. “One shall say, I am the Lord”s” (Isaiah 44:5). “Thou shalt call me Ishi”, i.e., “my husband” (Hosea 2:16). “Thou shalt abide for me” (Hosea 3:3). “Thou shalt call me, My father … the guide of my youth” (Jeremiah 3:19,4). “They shall say, The Lord is my God” (Zechariah 13:9; Jeremiah 3:22–23; 31:19; 50:5). “Come out from among them … and I will receive you, and I will be a father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters” (2 Corinthians 6:17–18). “I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people” (Hebrews 8:10). “The Spirit and the bride say, Come” (Revelation 22:17). (See also Romans 7:4; 2 Corinthians 11:2; 13:5; Luke 9:23).

The chief command

This is not only a duty, but it is the chief duty which the gospel calls for, i.e., that particular souls should make a covenant with God.

For this end, God has sent the ministers of the gospel as His ambassadors, to parley with the unreconciled world, and to woo a bride to Christ. “For I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ” (2 Corinthians 11:2). “Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God” (2 Corinthians 5:20). (See also John 3:28–29; Luke 1:17; Acts 26:18.)

The chief duty

If the command to believe in Christ is the chief gospel command, then the duty of individual souls covenanting personally, each one for themselves, is the chief gospel duty, for personal covenanting consists in the acting of sound, lively faith on Christ. “This is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ” (1 John 3:23); “And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:31; see also Romans 10:6–8).

The same may be gathered from how obedience to the gospel call and command is described in Scripture. It is called receiving Christ (John 1:12), coming to him (John 6:37), being in him (2 Corinthians 5:17), and being brought in (Luke 14:21). It is called taking hold of the covenant (Isaiah 56:4). It is called coming into subjection to the gospel (2 Corinthians 9:13). It is called marrying another husband, that is, Christ (Romans 7:4).

A command for everyone who hears the gospel

(1) The duty must be as large as the gospel offer. As the gospel is offered generally (“whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely;” Revelation 22:17), so the duty is called for from every one who hears the joyful sound.

(2) This gospel duty must be as large as the command of believing, for it is the very obedience of that command. The command to believe is universal and general: “And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ” (1 John 3:23); “Whosoever believeth in him should not perish” (John 3:16). All who are included in “whosoever” are called to make a personal covenant with God.

There are frequent expostulations, and evidences of God’s displeasure, with all who have had the offer of the gospel, and have not personally for themselves made a covenant with God. “If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes. For the days shall come upon thee …” (Luke 19:42–43; see also Matthew 23:37; 2 Corinthians 6:12).

The implications

If personal covenanting with God is the duty of those to whom the offer of the gospel has come, then neglecting to do it must be the sin of these who live under gospel ordinances. “If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloak for their sin” (John 15:22; see also John 16:9).

If this is your duty, then it is no presumption for you to do your duty (in the order and way which He has appointed). Rather, it is presumption to draw back from such a command and any offer of Christ’s favour. Christ had no time for this kind of false humility in Peter (John 13:8,9).

If this is our duty, then God has wrapped up our highest privilege in our duty. How this should provoke and encourage us in going about it! — that God has turned our happiness, and what is so desirable in itself into a command of duty! “Happy is that people, whose God is the Lord” (Psalm 144:15)! It would have dazzled our eyes as the sun to look at it, if He had not commanded it.

If it is our duty, then however high a privilege it is also, we may be bold with it. It cannot be displeasing to God that we should be in our duty — in fact, He counts it obedience! “This is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ” (1 John 3:23).

If it is our duty, then we may expect strength and assistance to get it done, if only we would set about doing it, for the commands of the gospel covenant convey and bring life and strength for obeying them. “Incline your ear, and come unto me; hear, and your soul shall live” (Isaiah 55:3); “This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent” (John 6:29). “He saith unto the man, Stretch forth thine hand. And he stretched it out: and his hand was restored whole as the other” (Mark 3:5).

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