Family and Terry,

In response to a question by Terry, I recently referred to an incident in my ministry in South Holland. The incident concerned my sermon on James 4:8, “draw nigh to God and he will draw nigh to you.” A member of the church, who considered himself the most orthodox member of the congregation and probably of the denomination, if not of the catholic church of all time, objected to my sermon because I did justice to the obvious truth that there is a sense—one, specific and very important sense—in which our drawing nigh to God, in the language of the text, precedes God’s drawing nigh to us and in which sermon I vehemently exhorted the congregation, including the ultra-orthodox member, to draw nigh to God. I thought then, and remain convinced, that this ultra orthodox member needed more than most of the others to hear and heed the exhortation. Proud church members need, more than any other, to draw nigh in the humility of true faith to God.

In any case a member of the new church, the Reformed Protestant Church, severely reprimanded me for the e-mail that I sent to Terry and to my family. Evidently, my e-mail gets around. She had two objections. The first and most serious was that by doing justice to the text’s having our drawing nigh to God precede God’s drawing nigh to us I was denying the gospel of salvation by grace. The second objection was to my stating that even an “idiot” can understand that in James 4:8 our drawing nigh to God precedes, in a certain, specific sense, God’s drawing nigh to us. As for my use of the word, “idiot,” consider that I distinctly was referring to the understanding of James 4:8, which was challenged in South Holland in the early 1980s. My point was that the right understanding of James 4:8, as I gave it in my sermon long ago, is clear to any believer with a modicum of mental ability. Even one who is “mentally challenged” can understand James to be teaching that it is our solemn, serious calling to draw nigh to God; that in a certain sense our drawing nigh to God precedes God’s drawing nigh to us; and that it is not Christian orthodoxy to deny our serious calling or that in a certain sense our drawing nigh to God precedes His drawing nigh to us. One may ask how our drawing nigh precedes God’s drawing nigh to us. But she may not wrest Scripture by denying it. A believing “idiot” can understand the clear teaching of the text. One who denies the explanation of the text as I have given it above does not deny it because the text is unclear, even to one who is “mentally challenged,” but because she deliberately closes her eyes to the clear teaching. And this is serious all by itself, very serious as is all setting aside the clear and important teaching of the Bible.

Then, there was her accusation that my explanation of James 4:8 was a corruption of the gospel of grace, exactly the charge against me in South Holland by the ultra-orthodox member of the South Holland Church. I did not run scared at that charge then, and I am less inclined to do so today. The perfectly orthodox explanation of James 4:8 and of similar passages of the Bible is as follows. First, to repeat, there is a vitally important sense in which, in our salvation, our drawing nigh to God precedes God’s drawing nigh to us. Let even the “idiot” Christians among us take note that the text plainly says so. Second, this sense has to do with our experience of salvation, which is not an unimportant aspect of our salvation. When we draw nigh to God, by faith including faith’s repentance, God draws nigh to us in our experience. We have the consciousness that God is our near-by friend and that we are close to Him, in His bosom, which is Jesus, so to say. Is this not an important aspect of our salvation—the enjoyment of it? Third, this is not departure from, or contradiction of, salvation’s being gracious, because, as I carefully explained in my sermon in South Holland, and repeat here, God’s call to us in James 4:8, “draw nigh to me,” is His efficacious call to the elect, that effectually draws him to Himself. By the call God savingly draws us to Himself so that we can and do experience His nearness to us. The call, “draw nigh,” is an aspect of His saving work, without which His drawing nigh to us in election and in the cross would be unknown to us. God does not only will our salvation; He wills also our experience of our salvation.

My antagonistic friend in the RPC was quick to charge my doing justice to the exhortation in James 4:8 as departure from grace. When I carefully explained to her what I am setting forth here, her response was, “I believe salvation by grace,” unkindly implying that I do not. But this response, of course, is no explanation of James 4:8. In fact, this thinking sets aside all the exhortations and admonitions of Scripture as opposition to the gospel of grace. Does the first table of the law in Exodus 20 call us not to take God’s name in vain, with the warning that God does not hold him guiltless who does take His name in vain? Somehow deny the reality of the command and deny the warning, because “I believe the gospel of grace.”

There is a vitally important sense in which, in our salvation, our drawing nigh to God precedes God’s drawing nigh to us…this sense has to do with our experience of salvation.

Does Hebrews 10:22ff. exhort us to draw nigh to God in His church with a true heart in full assurance of faith, adding the warning that if we sin willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth there remains no more sacrifice for sins? Orthodox Reformed believers ought to deny that the exhortation and admonition come to believers seriously as the Word of God that is to be taken seriously and obeyed, because “I believe the gospel of grace.”

In fact, one who denies James 4:8 is not believing and confessing the gospel of grace. The gospel of grace includes that God works savingly in us, so as to draw us to Himself and that He uses the exhortations and admonitions of the Bible to do so. There is no excuse for a Reformed church member to have trouble with this aspect of salvation. The Canons of Dordt in 5.14 confesses that God uses the exhortations and threatenings of His Word to save us. Grace does not deny admonitions, but uses them. Grace does not deny the call to draw nigh to God, but gives the effectual call. It is the one who denies admonitions who denies an important aspect of grace. The minister who cannot exhort his flock, including the belligerent ultra-orthodox member, to draw nigh to God, adding the promise that in this way it pleases God to draw nigh to them, must not flatter himself that he is the outstanding herald of grace. He strips the gospel of a vitally important aspect of its wonderful work and blocks the way as far as he is able to God’s drawing nigh to His people.

Let all us “idiots” look closely at James 4:8. And let us see with the eyes of faith, not blinded by a man-made scheme of ultra-orthodoxy, eyes that understand the clear teaching of God’s Word, that there is an important sense in which our drawing nigh to God, by the effectual allure of the promise that in this way God will graciously draw nigh to us (than which experience nothing is more precious), precedes God’s drawing nigh to us.

Cordially in Christ,

Dad and Prof. Engelsma