5. The commission Christ gave to his apostles was to this purpose.
and better bunches of it than at that time sprouted out of any branches of the Jewish vine, so well planted, and so often watered by Christ himself. When he came to act his last part in the world, he saved a thief who was at the gates of hell, ready to be pushed in by the devil. Do you find examples among the Pharisees? No, wretched sinners take heaven by force, while the proud Pharisees lose it through their own righteousness. Scribes and doctors continue to act as devils in power, while harlots begin as saints from the stews, and the thief becomes a convert on the cross.
Since there was only one person whom he converted after he went to heaven, what was he? He was someone who "breathed out slaughters and threatenings against the church," Acts 9:1. Doing so was as common and natural to him as breathing in air and breathing it out again. This man, galloping to hell as fast as his mad rage and passion could carry him, stopped in his career and ordained a preacher of persecution; he gave him as large a commission as he had given any of his favorites, for he made him the chiefest apostle of the Gentiles.
What bogs and miry places did Christ drain and make fruitful gardens! What barren and thorny wildernesses did he change into pleasant paradises! He made subjects of vengeance objects of mercy; he told the woman of Samaria, who lived in fornication, that he was the Messiah. "The woman said to him, 'I know that Messiah cometh, which is called Christ': Jesus said to her, 'I that speak unto thee am he,'" John 4:25, which he never revealed to the self-righteous
Pharisees, nor indeed in so many words to his disciples, until Peter's confession of him.
5. The commission Christ gave to his apostles was to this purpose.
He instructed them to proclaim the promise free to all: "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature," Mark 16:15.
Everyone, regardless of their appearance or character, should be offered salvation if they will receive it. The treasures of grace should be opened to them and they should be offered nothing but faith for justification and salvation through a profession of faith.