Horatius Bonar, Champion Of The Gospel

By John Y. May [1]

His Life And Writings

Horatius Bonar (1808-1889) is recognized as an outstanding Scottish author, minister, and exponent of the gospel. The son of an Edinburgh solicitor, Horatius was educated at Edinburgh University under the gifted Thomas Chalmers and where Robert Murray M’Cheyne was a fellow classmate. Licensed as a preacher in 1833, Bonar was appointed assistant to Rev. John Lewis at St. James parish in Leith, the port of Edinburgh. Ordained in 1837, he became a minister of the North Church in Kelso, a border town fifty-two miles southeast of Edinburgh. Under his ministry the church became what one visitor described as a center of “life and refreshing to all the district.”

He later joined the newly formed Free Church of Scotland as a result of the Disruption of 1843. In 1853 Aberdeen University conferred on him the D.D. degree. He was called in 1866 as pastor of the Chalmers Memorial Church, Edinburgh, where he served the rest of his life. Horatius was elected moderator of the General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland in 1883.

His preaching was very powerful and influential. Like his contemporary pulpit giant Charles H. Spurgeon, he had an unusual ability to express great truths in plain and understandable words. Two of his brothers, Andrew and John, were also well-known preachers.

Bonar wrote over six hundred hymns, of which some one hundred are still available. Among his more familiar hymn titles are: “I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say,” “Thy Way, Not Mine, O Lord,” “I Hear the Words of Love,” “Here, O My Lord, I See Thee Face to Face,” and “Go, Labor On: Spend and Be Spent.”

As an author, Bonar wrote extensively and edited several journals during his lifetime, including The Christian Treasury, a highly regarded periodical. Scholar-biographer Ian H. Murray maintains that Horatius was one of the finest writers Scotland ever produced. His numerous books were clearly written and often reflected either a devotional tone or an evangelistic thrust.

For the purpose of this essay, we depend heavily on four of his book titles: God’s Way of Holiness, The Everlasting Righteousness, God’s Way of Peace, and Christ is All.

Special mention needs to be made, however, of God’s Way of Holiness. In some respects, this is a mistitled work. While it does indeed deal with holiness, it is very much broader in scope. Regarded as a classic, it is a brilliant and substantive treatment of many biblical themes.

His chapter, for example, on “The Saint and the Law” is a definitive comment on the relationship of the law to the gospel. The two concluding chapters—“The True Creed and the True Life” and “Counsels and Warnings”—contain exceptional, significant insights of both a practical and deeply spiritual nature. This masterful volume, in particular, exhibits Bonar’s careful, seasoned thought and his keen discernment.

Let us turn our attention now to Horatius Bonar’s view of the gospel.

The Gospel: The Proclamation Of Truth

First, the gospel is seen by Horatius Bonar as a presentation of truth. Only if perceived as truth can its message be regarded as “good news.” The reliability and trustworthiness of that proclamation is of preeminent importance to a proper understanding of the gospel.

“There is good news for the sinner,” he said, for “his case has really been taken up in earnest by God.” [2] Furthermore, this “gospel is in itself good news…. “It is good news whether I receive it or reject, whether I believe it or disbelieve it.” [3]

What God expects, who man is, and what Christ has done make up the core content of the gospel. Christ the substitute, giving up his life for ours upon the cross, is the special object of gospel statement. Bonar insisted, “The message concerning this sacrificial work is the gospel, the belief of which brings pardon to the guilty.” [4]

The gospel, then, deals with knowledge and truth. “It is through the knowledge of the truth concerning Him [Christ],” Bonar explained, “that we become connected with Himself.” [5] In this sense, it is through the knowledge of Christ that we may obtain his forgiveness. “His revealed truth is the channel through which this peace finds its way to us.” [6]

Note that the source of this truth is the biblical record. “In it God speaks to us,” Bonar reminds us, and “He speaks as One uttering only truth, and expecting to be believed.” [7] “God has written a Volume for the purpose of making Himself known: and it is in this…that the sinner is to find the rest that he is seeking.” [8] Written here, Bonar found not only the facts of the gospel, but also the “authentic exposition” of those facts.

Bonar highlighted the point that our receiving of the gospel must include a full acceptance of the content of that gospel. He observed that God “speaks truly when He published the gospel of His grace…. He wished us…to treat Him as One who means what He says.” [9] “There is first, then, a believed gospel…which, after all, is nothing but the acceptance of the promise which is everywhere coupled with the gospel message.” [10] Again, “deliverance becomes an actual thing to us immediately upon our consenting to allow Him [Christ] to undertake our case…. [This] is properly the gospel.” [11]

Finally, with the proclamation of this life-transforming truth, comes the warning: “The reception of this gospel is eternal life; the non-reception or rejection of it is everlasting death.” [12]

The Gospel: Sin Recognized And Forgiven

Appreciation of the significance of the gospel must begin with recognition of the reality and consequences of human sin. Not unlike our times, Bonar indicated that the “tendency of the present day is to underestimate sin and to misunderstand its nature.” [13] And, man’s “ideas of human guilt are so superficial, his thoughts of himself so high.” [14]

By contrast, Bonar stated, “the divine testimony concerning man is, that he is a sinner.” [15] “He [God] declares man to be a lost one, a stray one, a rebel, a ‘hater of God’ (Rom. 1:30)…and therefore under condemnation; an enemy of God, and therefore ‘under wrath.’” [16] He advised:

“[T]hat which God calls sin is something infinitely terrible;…something which the law curses and the judge condemns; something which needs a righteous pardon;…something which can destroy a soul…and fill hell eternally.” [17]

Genuine “conviction of sin is just the sinner seeing himself as he is, and as God has all along seen him.” [18] It is well, contended Bonar, that we receive this divine verdict as such, and then act upon it.

In short, man “does not really…discern the malignant character of that evil which he yet feels to be a barrier between him and God.” [19] He is “guilty of death, under wrath, sentenced to the eternal curse.” [20] Additionally, sin brought to man a moral paralysis to do what is good.  [21]

Seen from this standpoint, Bonar concluded on biblical grounds that “sin is too great an evil for any but God to deal with…in an effectual way.” [22] Fortunately for us, “God has done it all, and He has done it effectively and irreversibly.” [23] “His answer is final…. He will give no other, nor will He deal with these questions in any other way than He has done.” [24]

So Christ presents himself “as the one gift, the reception of which, by us, would deliver us from sin.” [25] He is “the only effectual remedy for the deadly disease of an alienated heart and stubborn will.” [26] Under Christ’s full, redemptive provision, Bonar believed “no sin can be too great for pardon, and no sinner can be too deep or old in sin to be saved.” [27]

Trusting in Christ alone, Bonar felt, is the sole avenue for a person to gain “the settlement of the great question between himself and God.” [28] “Forgiveness of sins, in believing God’s testimony to the finished propitiation of the cross, is not simply indispensable to…liberating the soul from the pressures of guilt, but of imparting an impulse, and a motive, and a [moral] power which nothing else can do.” [29]

Forgiveness of sin initiates a necessary jump-start to living a life pleasing to God. “The question of pardon,” Bonar claimed, “must be settled before we proceed to others.” [30] Then, “it is only by continual recourse to Him that we are strong” in overcoming sin on an ongoing basis. [31]

The Gospel: Faith Focused On Christ

In the gospel, the focus of faith and reliance is on the person and work of Jesus. In placing the focus here, it puts the emphasis on the grace of God rather than on man’s self-efforts or achievement. Bonar commented, “God has declared Himself to be gracious…. He has embodied this grace in the person and work of His beloved Son.” [32]

“It [the gospel] sets aside the vain thoughts of those who think that they must bring Him [God] near by their prayers and devout performances,” Bonar announced. [33] “That which makes it safe for you to draw near to God, and right for God to receive you, must be something altogether away from you and independent of yourself.” [34] The individual who is in compliance with the gospel makes “Christ, not self, the basis and center of his new being.” [35]

In summary, Bonar remarked, “A description of Jesus, and the things concerning Him—His person, His life, His death, His resurrection—this is the gospel.” [36] In particular, he cited the significance of his reconciling death. “The very essence of Christ’s deliverance is the substitution of Himself for us” in which there is “the transference of the wrath from the sinner to his representative.” [37]

Horatius Bonar went to great pains to identify the absolute, biblical necessity of exercising faith in Christ alone in order to receive God’s saving provision. But he stressed that ultimately it is not our faith that saves; only Christ can save. He made the important distinction between the one who is the object of faith (Christ) and the act demanded of the believing person (faith). “Thus God,” he noted, “connects salvation with ‘believing,’ ‘trusting’…. Yet the salvation is not in our act of believing, trusting…. It is in the thing or person believed on, trusted.” [38]

He affirmed, “Faith can expiate no guilt, can accomplish no propitiation, can pay no penalty, can wash away no stain, can provide no righteousness. It brings us to the cross, where there is…cleansing, and righteousness.” [39]

Again, Bonar suggested, “It is the object of faith—the person, or thing, or truth of which faith lays hold—that is the soul’s peace and consolation.” [40] “It is not the excellence of our act of faith that does anything for us, but the excellence of Him who suffered for us—the just for the unjust.” [41] This distinction that Bonar made in no way whatsoever diminishes the required role of faith. He merely put the accent in the right place and at the same time preserved the biblical understanding of redemptive grace. The proper use of faith is in connecting us for justification with what Christ has already done. [42]

Correctly understood, “faith, then, is the link, the one link, between the sinner and the Sin-bearer.” [43] In Bonar’s conception, real faith receives the gospel account concerning Christ alone and agrees in recognizing the complete adequacy and unrivaled uniqueness of his great sacrifice for sin.

The Gospel: An Invitation To Decision

While the saving work of Christ on our behalf is a completed reality, it is of no benefit to the condemned person until he reaches out and accepts Christ’s offered provision of salvation. Bonar asserted that God does “invite us to act in coming to Him,” [44] and “He hinders no man from coming.” [45]

That invitation—yes, even command—of God requires a decisive, intentional response on our part. “He speaks truth when He invites,” Bonar assured, “and He means what He says when He cries, ‘Come unto Me.’” [46] “For the reception of all that it [the gospel] contains, each man is responsible.” [4]7 Bonar explained, “God provides the basis of this reconciliation…. The consent of the parties to the acceptance of this basis is required…. The law consents; the lawgiver consents;…and man…is asked for his consent.” [48]

Bonar was especially passionate about the urgency to immediately repent of our sin and trust Christ and the gospel’s provision. There is “urgency in obtaining it [pardon] without delay,” he exclaimed. [49] What is required, he insisted, is “your immediate compliance with the call of God,” “the immediate faith of all who hear His testimony.” [50]

In Bonar’s writing and preaching, he repeatedly pressed for immediate, believing trust on our part to Christ’s offered plan of forgiveness. “You are to trust Him as you are,” he pleaded, “not as you hope to be made before long.” [51] “He has nowhere told you to wait.” [52] “Why tarry one single moment?” [53]

It is appropriate, then, to conclude Bonar’s clear, compelling presentation of the life-changing gospel with his appeal:

God demands immediate acceptance of His Son, and immediate belief of His gospel. 

Take the free pardon now…without one moment’s delay…. Go transact the great business for eternity with Him; go, receive life. [54]

Notes

1. John May is a retired evangelical Christian writer who lives in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
2. Horatius Bonar, God’s Way of Peace (London: Evangelical Press, 1968), 44 [hereafter referred to as Peace].
3. Horatius Bonar, “A Believed Gospel,” The Christian Treasury 17 (1861): 73 [hereafter: Gospel].
4. Horatius Bonar, The Everlasting Righteousness (Unicoi, TN: Trinity Foundation, 1994), 77 [hereafter: Everlasting].
5. Horatius Bonar, Christ is All (Pensacola, FL: Chapel Library, 2003), 14 [hereafter: All]. This material previously appeared as a preface to Honey Out of the Rock by Thomas Wilcox.
6. Peace, 23.
7. Horatius Bonar, “The Truthfulness of God,” The Christian Treasury 20 (1864): 277 [hereafter: Truthfulness].
8. Peace, 23.
9. Truthfulness, 278.
10. Everlasting, 59.
11. Everlasting, 77.
12. Everlasting, 88.
13. Horatius Bonar, God’s Way of Holiness (Chicago: Moody Press, 1930), 18 [hereafter: God’s Way].
14. Everlasting, 1.
15. Peace, 11.
16. Peace, 11.
17. God’s Way, 17.
18. Peace, 15.
19. Everlasting, 1.
20. Peace, 14.
21. All, 12.
22. Everlasting, 4.
23. Everlasting, 3.
24. Everlasting, 4.
25. All, 3.
26. Everlasting, 99.
27. Everlasting, 37.
28. Everlasting, 78.
29. God’s Way, 47.
30. God’s Way, 34.
31. All, 12.
32. Peace, 24.
33. Peace, 7.
34. Peace, 17.
35. Everlasting, 82.
36. All, 18.
37. Peace, 40; Everlasting, 11.
38. Peace, 65.
39. Everlasting, 61.
40. Peace, 64.
41. Everlasting, 41.
42. Everlasting, 94.
43. Peace, 61.
44. Everlasting, 12.
45. God’s Way, 11.
46. Truthfulness, 278.
47. God’s Way, 61.
48. Everlasting, 3.
49. God’s Way, 35.
50. Gospel, 74; Peace, 64.
51. Peace, 55.
52. Peace, 56.
53. Peace, 74.
54. Peace, 57; Everlasting, 76.