Heirs of God

The following is taken from “Heirs of God” in Practical Religion: Being Plain Papers on the Daily Duties, Experience, Dangers, and Privileges of Professing Christians by John Charles Ryle. In the Forward to the 1959 edition of Practical Religion, J.I. Packer notes that John Charles Ryle, Bishop of Liverpool from 1880 to 1990, was one of the ablest Evangelical leaders and writers of his day. C. H. Spurgeon considered him ‘the best man in the Church of England.’ While Bishop Ryle wrote for a 19th century readership, most of what he wrote speaks to us today—in the 21st century. It is clear from Ryle’s writings that the false teaching that besets the Episcopal Church and other churches in our time also troubled the Church of England in Ryle’s day.

I warn you to beware of the delusive notion that all men and women are alike children of God, whether they have faith in Christ or not. It is a wild theory which many are clinging to in these days, but one which cannot be proved out of the Word of God. It is a perilous dream, with which many are trying to soothe themselves, but one from which there will be a fearful waking up at the last day.

That God in a certain sense is the universal Father of all mankind, I do not pretend to deny. He is the Great First Cause of all things, He is the Creator of all mankind, and in Him alone, all men, whether Christians or heathens, “live and move and have their being.” All this is unquestionably true. In this sense Paul told the Athenians, a poet of their own had truly said, “we are His offspring.”(Acts xvii. 28.) But this sonship gives no man title to heaven. The sonship which we have by creation is one which belongs to stones, trees, beasts, or even to the devils, as much as to us. (Job i. 6.)

That God loves all mankind with a love of pity and compassion, I do not deny. “His tender mercies are over all His works.”—“He is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”—“He has no pleasure in the death of him that dieth.” All this I admit to the full. In this sense our Lord Jesus tells us, “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.” (Ps. cxlv. 9; Peter iii. 9; Ezek. xviii. 32; John iii. 16.)

But that God is a reconciled and pardoning Father to any but the members of His Son Jesus Christ, and that any are members of Jesus Christ who do not believe on Him for salvation,--this is a doctrine which I utterly deny. The holiness and justice of God are both against the doctrine. They make it impossible for sinful men to approach God, excepting through the Mediator. They tell us that God out of Christ is “a consuming fire.” (Heb. xii. 29.) The whole system of the New Testament is against the doctrine. That system teaches that no man can claim interest in Christ unless he will receive Him as his Mediator, and believe on Him as his Saviour. Where there is no faith in Christ it is a dangerous error to say that a man may take comfort in God as Father. God is a reconciled Father to none but the members of Christ.

It is unreasonable to talk of the view I am now upholding as narrow-minded and harsh. The Gospel sets an open door before every man. Its promises are wide and full. Its invitations are earnest and tender. Its requirements are simple and clear. “Only believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and, whosoever thou art, thou shalt be saved.” But to say that proud men, who will not bow their necks to the easy yoke of Christ, and worldly men who are determined to have their own way and their sins,--to say that such men have a right to claim an interest in Chris, and a right to call themselves sons of God, is to say what can never be proved from Scripture. God offers to be their Father; but He does it on certain distinct terms:--they must draw near to Him through Christ. Christ offers to be their Saviour; but in doing it He makes one simple requirement:--they must commit their souls to Him, and give Him their hearts. They refuse the terms, and yet dare to call God their Father! They scorn the requirement, and yet dare to hope that Christ will save them! God is to be their Father,--but on their own terms! Christ is to be their Saviour,--but on their own conditions! What can be more unreasonable? What can be more proud? What can be more unholy than such a doctrine as this? Let us beware of it, for it is a common doctrine in these latter days. Let us beware of it, for it is often speciously put forward, and sounds beautiful and charitable in the mouth of poets, novelists, sentimentalists, and tender-hearted women. Let us beware of it, unless we mean to throw aside our Bible altogether, and set up ourselves to be wiser than God. Let us stand fast on the old Scriptural ground: No sonship to God without Christ! No interest in Christ without faith!

I would to God there was not so much cause for giving warnings of this kind. I have reason to think they need to be given clearly and unmistakably. There is a school of theology rising up this day, which appears to me most eminently calculated to promote infidelity, to help the devil, and to ruin souls. It comes like Joab to Amasa, with the highest professions of charity, liberality, and love. God is all mercy and love, according to this theology:--His holiness and justice are completely left out of sight! Hell is never spoken of in this theology:--its talk is all of heaven! Damnation is never mentioned:--it is treated as an impossible thing:--all men and women are to be saved! Faith, and the work of the Holy Spirit, are refined away into nothing at all! “Everybody who believes anything has faith! Everybody who thinks anything has the Spirit! Everybody is right! Nobody is wrong! Nobody is to blame for any action he may commit! It is the result of his position. It is the effect of circumstances! He is not accountable for his opinions, anymore than for the colour of his skin! He must be what he is! The Bible is a very imperfect book! It is old-fashioned! It is obsolete! We may believe just as much of it as we please, and no more!”—Of all this theology I warn men solemnly to beware. In spite of big swelling words about “liberality,” and “charity,” and “broad views,” and “new light,” and “freedom from bigotry,” and so forth, I do believe it to be a theology that leads to hell.

(a) Facts are directly against the teachers of this theology. Let them visit Mesapotamia, and see what desolation reigns where Nineveh and Babylon once stood. Let them go to the shores of the Dead Sea, and look down into its mysterious bitter waters. Let them travel in Palestine, and ask what has turned that fertile country into a wilderness. Let them observe the wandering Jews, scattered over the face of the earth, without a land of their own, and yet never absorbed among other nations. And let them tell us, if they dare, that God is so entirely a God of mercy and love that he never does and never will punish sin.

(b) The conscience of man is directly against these teachers. Let them go to the bedside of some dying child of the world, and try to comfort him with their doctrines. Let them see if their vaunted theories will calm his gnawing, restless anxiety about the future, and enable him to depart in peace. Let them show us, if they can, a few well-authenticated cases of joy and happiness in death without Bible promises,--without conversions,--and without that faith in the blood of Christ, which old-fashioned theology enjoins. Alas! When men are leaving the world, conscience makes sad work of the new systems of these latter days. Conscience is not easily satisfied, in a dying hour, that there is no such thing as hell.

(c) Every reasonable conception that we can form of a future state is directly against these teachers. Fancy a haven which should contain all mankind! Fancy a haven in which holy and unholy, pure and impure, good and bad, would be gathered together in one confused mass! What point of union would there be in such a company? What bond of harmony and brotherhood? What common delight in a common service? What concord, what harmony, what peace, what oneness of spirit could exist? Surely the mind revolts from the idea of a heaven in which there would be no distinction between the righteous and the wicked,--between Pharaoh and Moses, between Abraham and the Sodomites, between Paul and Judas Iscariot, between a man who dies in the act of murder or drunkenness, and men like Baxter, George Herbert, Wilberforce, and M’Cheyne! Surely an eternity in such a miserably confused crowd would be worse than annihilation itself! Surely such a heaven would be no better than hell!

(d) The interests of all holiness and morality are directly against these teachers. If all men and women alike are God’s children, whatever is the difference between them in their lives,--and all alike going to heaven, however different they may be from one another here in the world,--what is the use of labouring after holiness at all? What motives remain for living soberly, righteously, and godly? What does it matter how men conduct themselves, if all go to heaven, and nobody goes to hell? Surely the heathen poets and philosophers of Greece and Rome could tell us something better and wiser than this! Surely a doctrine which is subversive of holiness and morality, and takes away all motives to exertion, carries on the face of it the stamp of its origin. It is of earth, and not of heaven. It is of the devil, and not of God.

(e) The Bible is against these teachers from first to last. Hundreds of texts might be quoted which are diametrically opposed to their theories. These texts must be rejected summarily, if the Bible is to square with their views. There may be no reason why they should be rejected,--but to suit the theology I speak of they must be thrown away! At this rate the authority of the Bible is soon at an end. And what do men give us in its place? Nothing,--nothing at all! They rob us of the bread of life, and do not give us in its stead so much as a stone.

Once more I warn all into whose hands this volume may fall to beware of this theology. I charge you to hold fast the doctrine which I have been endeavouring to uphold in this paper. Remember what I have said, and never let it go. No inheritance of glory without sonship to God! No sonship to God without an interest in Christ! No interest in Christ without your own personal faith! This is God’s truth. Never forsake it.