Saved by Grace in Modern English

By grace ye are saved (Eph 2:5).

In the first chapter, from the fourth to the twelfth verse, the apostle is dealing with the doctrine of election, with respect to the act itself, its end, and the means that lead to that end. The act, he tells us, was God’s free choice of some (Eph 1:4-5, 11). The end was God’s glory in their salvation (Eph 1:6, 14). The means leading to that end was Jesus Christ himself: “In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace” (Eph 1:7). Having done this, he deals with the Ephesians’ submission to the faith, as it was held out to them in the Word of the truth of the gospel, and also with their being sealed by the Holy Spirit of God for the day of redemption (Eph 1:12-14).

Moreover, he tells them how he gave thanks to God for them, mentioning them in his prayers, asking that God would make them see “what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead…” (Eph 1:15-20).

And so that the Ephesians, on hearing of all these privileges of theirs, would not forget how little they deserved them, he tells them that in time past they were dead in trespasses and sins, and that they then walked in them “according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience” (Eph 2:2-3).

Having called them back in this way to remember themselves, that is, what they were in their unregenerate state, he goes on to show them that they were first made alive by the resurrection of Christ their Head, in whom they had been chosen before, and that by him they were already seated in heavenly places (Eph 2:5-6). Along the way he inserts the true cause of all this blessedness, and of whatever else we shall enjoy in another world. That cause is the love and grace of God: “But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ (by grace ye are saved)” (Eph 2:4-5).

These last words seem to be the apostle’s conclusion, rightly drawn from the premises. It is as if he were saying: “If you Ephesians were indeed dead in trespasses and sins, if indeed you were by nature the children of wrath, even as others, then you deserve no more than others. Again, if God has chosen you, if God has justified and saved you by his Christ, and has left others, as good as you by nature, to perish in their sins, then the true cause of this blessed condition of yours is the free grace of God. But that is exactly how it is. Therefore ‘by grace ye are saved’; therefore all the good you enjoy more than others comes from mere goodwill.”

“By grace ye are saved.”

The method I shall choose for discoursing on these words is this. I will propose certain questions on the words and give particular answers to them. In these answers I hope I shall also meet, somewhat at least, the expectation of the godly and conscientious reader, and so shall draw toward a conclusion.

The questions are these:

1. What is it to be saved?

2. What is it to be saved by grace?

3. Who are those who are saved by grace?

4. How does it appear that those who are saved are saved by grace?

5. What might be the reasons that moved God to save us by grace, rather than by any other means?

Now the reason I propose these five questions on the words is that the words themselves allow for them. The first three are grounded on the several phrases in the text, and the last two are to make way for a demonstration of the whole.

This question assumes that there is such a thing as damnation due to man for sin. To save assumes that the person to be saved is at present in a sad condition. Saving means nothing to someone who is not lost, nor is it anything in itself. “To save,” “to redeem,” and “to deliver” are, in general terms, equivalent, and every one of them assumes that we are in a state of bondage and misery. Therefore this word “saved,” in the sense in which the apostle uses it here, is a word of great worth, since the misery from which we are saved is the most dreadful misery of all.

The miseries from which those who will be saved are delivered by their salvation are dreadful. They are nothing less than sin, the curse of God, and the flames of hell forever. What is more abominable than sin? What is more unbearable than the dreadful wrath of an angry God? And what is more fearful than the bottomless pit of hell? I say, what is more fearful than to be tormented there forever with the devil and his angels? Now, to “save,” according to my text, is to deliver the sinner from these, along with everything else that goes with them. Sinners may think it no hard matter to answer this question. But I must tell you that no one can truly feel what it is to be saved who does not know by experience something of the dread of these three things. This is evident, because everyone else, by their very practice, counts it a matter of no great concern, when in fact it is the highest concern of all among men. “For what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” (Matt 16:26).

But, I say, if this word “saved” includes our deliverance from sin, how can anyone tell what it is to be saved who has not groaned in his conscience under the burden of sin? Indeed, otherwise it is impossible that he should ever cry out with all his heart, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?” (Acts 2:37), that is, do to be saved. The man who has no sores or aches cannot know the virtue of the salve. I mean, he cannot know it from his own experience, and therefore he cannot prize it or hold it in such esteem as the one who has been cured by it. Clap a plaster on a healthy place, and that does not make its virtue appear; nor can the person whose flesh it is put on understand its worth by that application. Sinners, I mean you who are not wounded with guilt and oppressed with the burden of sin: you cannot, I will say it again, you cannot know, in this senseless condition of yours, what it is to be saved.

Again, this word “saved,” as I said, includes deliverance from the wrath of God. How, then, can anyone tell what it is to be saved who has not felt the burden of the wrath of God? He, the one who is astonished at the wrath of God and trembles at it, he knows best what it is to be saved (Acts 16:29).

Further, this word “saved” includes deliverance from death and hell. How, then, can anyone tell what it is to be saved who was never aware of the sorrows of the one, nor distressed with the pains of the other? The Psalmist says, “The sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of hell gat hold upon me: I found trouble and sorrow. Then called I upon the name of the Lord” (mark, then), “then called I upon the name of the Lord; O Lord, I beseech thee, deliver my soul” (Ps 18:4-5; Ps 116:3-4). Then, that is, in my distress. When he knew what it was to be saved, then he called; because, I say, then he knew what it was to be saved.

I say, this is the man, and he alone, who knows what it is to be saved. And this is evident, as is plain from the little regard the rest have for being saved, and the little dread they have of damnation. Where is the one who seeks and groans for salvation? I say, where is the one who has taken flight for salvation because of the dread of the wrath to come? “O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” (Matt 3:7). Alas! Do not most people make light of salvation? As for sin, how they love it, embrace it, and please themselves with it! They hide it still within their mouth and keep it close under their tongue. Besides, as for the wrath of God, they do not feel it, and they do not flee from it. And as for hell, many have come to doubt whether there is any such place, and those whose doubt has been settled by atheism make a mockery of it.

But to come to the question: What is it to be saved? To be saved may refer either to salvation as a whole, or to salvation in its parts, or to both. I think this text refers to both, that is, to salvation in the process of being completed, and to salvation completed. For “to save” is a work of many steps. Or, to put it as plainly as possible, “to save” is a work that had its beginning before the world began, and will not be completed before the world has ended.

1. We may be said, then, to be saved in the purpose of God before the world began. The apostle says that “he saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began” (2 Tim 1:9). This is the beginning of salvation, and all things work together and finally turn out according to this beginning: “He hath saved us according to his eternal purpose, which he purposed in Christ Jesus.” In saving us in this way, God may be said to save us by determining to make the means effective for the blessed completing of our salvation. And so we are said to be chosen in Christ to salvation. And again, it is said that in that choice he has given us the grace that will complete our salvation. Indeed, the text is very full: “He hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world” (Eph 1:3-4).

2. Just as we may be said to be saved in the purpose of God before the foundation of the world, so we may be said to be saved before we are converted, or called to Christ. That is why “saved” is put before “called”: “he hath saved us, and called us” (2 Tim 1:9). He does not say, he has called us and saved us; he puts saving before calling. So again, we are said to be “preserved in Christ and called” (Jude 1); he does not say, called and preserved. And therefore God says again, “I will pardon them whom I reserve” (Jer 50:20), that is, as Paul explains it, those whom I have elected and kept (Rom 11:4-5). And this part of salvation is accomplished through the forbearance of God. For Christ’s sake, God bears with his own elect all the time they are unregenerate, until the time comes that he has appointed for their conversion. If the judgment due for the sins we were guilty of before conversion had been carried out on us, we would not be in the world now to share in a heavenly calling. But by the patience of God the judgment due to them has been held back, and we have been saved, all the time of our ungodly and unconverted state, from that death and those many hells that we deserved at the hands of God for our sins.

And here lies the reason why long life is granted to the elect before conversion, and why all the sins they commit and all the judgments they deserve cannot drive them out of the world before they are converted. Manasseh, you know, was a great sinner. For the trespass he committed he was driven from his own land and carried off to Babylon; but kill him they could not, though his sins had deserved death ten thousand times. But what was the reason? Why, he was not yet called. God had chosen him in Christ and laid up in him a stock of grace, which had to be given to Manasseh before he died. Therefore Manasseh had to be convinced, converted, and saved.

That legion of devils that was in the possessed man, together with all the sins he had committed while he was unregenerate, could not take away his life before his conversion (Mark 5). How many times, as we may easily guess, was that poor creature attacked for his life by the devils that were in him! Yet they could not kill him. His dwelling was near the seaside, and the devils had power to drive him too, yet they could not drive him any further than the mountains by the seaside. Indeed, they could often help him break his chains and fetters. They could also make him as mad as any madman in Bedlam. They could also prevail on him to separate himself from other people and cut himself with stones. But kill him they could not; drown him they could not. He was saved to be called. In spite of all this, he was preserved in Christ, and called. As it is said of the young lad in the Gospel, he was often cast into the fire by the devil, and often into the water, to destroy him, but it could not be done (Mark 9:22). The devil has served others the same way, but they must be “saved to be called.”

How many deaths have some been delivered from and saved out of before their conversion! Some have fallen into rivers, some into wells, some into the sea, some into the hands of men. Indeed, some have been justly arraigned and condemned, like the thief on the cross, but they must not die before they have been converted. They were preserved in Christ, and called.

Christian, you who are now called, how many times have your sins laid you on a sickbed, at the very mouth of the grave, as you and others thought? Yet God said concerning you, “Let him live, for he is not yet converted.” See, then, that the elect are saved before they are called. “God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins,” has preserved us in Christ, and called us (Eph 2:4-5).

Now this “saving” of us arises from six causes.

(1) God has chosen us to salvation, and therefore he will not frustrate his own purposes (1 Thess 5:9).

(2) God has given us to Christ, and his gift, as well as his calling, is without repentance (Rom 11:29; John 6:37).

(3) Christ has purchased us with his blood (Rom 5:8-9).

(4) They are counted by God as being in Christ before they are converted (Eph 1:3-4).

(5) Before conversion they are ordained to eternal life; indeed, they are ordained to be called, to be justified, and to be glorified, and therefore all this must come upon them (Rom 8:29-30).

(6) For all this, he has also appointed them their portion and measure of grace, and that before the world began. Therefore, so that they may share in all these privileges, they are saved and called, preserved in Christ, and called.

3. To be saved is to be brought to Jesus Christ and helped to lay hold of him by faith. And this is called being saved by grace through faith. “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God” (Eph 2:8).

(1) They must be brought to Christ; indeed, they must be drawn to him. For “no man,” says Christ, “can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him” (John 6:44). Men, even the elect, have too many weaknesses to come to Christ without help from heaven. Inviting will not do it. “As they called them, so they went from them” (Hos 11:2); therefore he “drew them with cords” (Hos 11:4).

(2) As they must be brought to Christ, so they must be helped to lay hold of him by faith. For faith, like coming to Christ, is not in our own power. That is why we are said to be raised up with him “through the faith of the operation of God” (Col 2:12). And again, we are said to believe “according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead” (Eph 1:19-20). Now we are said to be saved by faith because by faith we lay hold of Jesus Christ, venture ourselves on him, and put him on for life. For life, I say, because God, having made him the Savior, has given him life to communicate to sinners (John 5:26). And the life he communicates to them is the merit of his flesh and blood. Whoever eats and drinks it by faith has eternal life (John 6:53-58), because that flesh and blood has merit in it sufficient to obtain the favor of God (Eph 4:32). Indeed, it has done so ever since the day it was offered through the eternal Spirit as a sacrifice of a sweet-smelling aroma to him (Eph 5:2). Therefore God imputes the righteousness of Christ to the one who believes in him. By that righteousness he is personally justified, and saved from the just judgment of the law that was due to him (Rom 4:23-25).

“Saved by faith.” For although salvation begins in God’s purpose and comes to us through Christ’s righteousness, faith is still not excluded from having a hand in saving us. Not that faith merits anything. Rather, it is given by God to those whom he saves, so that by it they may embrace and put on that Christ by whose righteousness they must be saved. Therefore it is this faith that here distinguishes those who will be saved from those who will be damned. That is why it is said, “He that believeth not, shall be damned” (Mark 16:16). And that is also why believers are called the children, the heirs, and the blessed with faithful Abraham, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe (Gal 3:6-9, 26; Rom 4:13-14).

And here let Christians carefully distinguish between the meritorious cause and the instrumental cause of their justification. Christ, with what he has done and suffered, is the meritorious cause of our justification. Therefore he is said to be made to us by God “wisdom and righteousness” (1 Cor 1:30), and we are said to be “justified by his blood, and saved from wrath through him” (Rom 5:9-10). For it was his life and blood that were the price of our redemption. “Redeemed,” says Peter, “not with corruptible things, as silver and gold” (alluding to redemption by money under the law), “but with the precious blood of Christ” (1 Pet 1:18-19). You must therefore, as I have said, make Christ Jesus the object of your faith for justification. For by his righteousness your sins must be covered from the sight of the justice of the law. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:31). “For he shall save his people from their sins” (Matt 1:21).

4. To be saved is to be preserved in the faith to the end. “He that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved” (Matt 24:13). Not that perseverance is a matter of chance in Christianity, or a thing achieved by human effort. Those who are saved “are kept by the power of God, through faith unto salvation” (1 Pet 1:3-6).

But perseverance is absolutely necessary to the complete saving of the soul, because whoever falls short of the state that the saved possess as saved people cannot arrive at that saved state. The man who goes to sea intending to reach Spain cannot arrive there if he is drowned on the way. Therefore perseverance is absolutely necessary to the saving of the soul, and so it is included in the complete saving of us: “Israel shall be saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation: ye shall not be ashamed nor confounded world without end” (Isa 45:17). Here perseverance is made absolutely necessary to the complete saving of the soul.

But, as I said, this part of salvation does not depend on human power, but on him who has begun a good work in us (Phil 1:6). This part of our salvation, therefore, is great, and calls for nothing less than the power of God to help us carry it out, as all will readily grant who consider:

(1) That all the power and policy, the malice and rage, of the devils and of hell itself are against us. Anyone who understands this will conclude that to be saved is no small thing. The devil is called a god, a prince, a lion, a roaring lion; it is said that he has death and the power of it, and more besides. But what can a poor creature whose dwelling is in flesh do against a god, a prince, a roaring lion, and the power of death itself? Our perseverance, therefore, lies in the power of God; “the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matt 16:18).

(2) All the world is against the one who will be saved. But what is one poor creature against all the world? Especially if you consider that with the world come terror, fear, power, majesty, laws, jails, gibbets, hangings, burnings, drownings, starvings, banishments, and a thousand kinds of death (1 John 5:4-5; John 16:33).

(3) Add to this that all the corruptions that dwell in our flesh are against us. And they are against us not only in their nature and being; they also lust against us (Gal 5:17) and war against us (1 Pet 2:11), to “bring us into captivity to the law of sin and death” (Rom 7:23).

(4) All the delusions in the world are against those who will be saved. Many of them are so cunningly woven, so plausibly handled, so finely polished with Scripture and reason, that it is ten thousand wonders the elect are not swallowed up by them. And swallowed up they would be, if they were not elect, and if God himself were not engaged, either by his power to keep them from falling, or by his grace to pardon them if they fall and to lift them up again (Matt 24:24; Eph 4:14; Rom 3:12).

(5) Every fall of the saved person is against the salvation of his soul; and a Christian who has once fallen does not rise again unless omnipotent power helps him (Ps 37:23). “O Israel, thou hast fallen by thine iniquity” (Hos 14:1), “but in me is thy help” (Hos 13:9), says God.

Christians, if you were awake, you would find matter for wonder here: to see a man assaulted with all the power of hell, and yet come off a conqueror! Is it not a wonder to see a poor creature who in himself is weaker than the moth (Job 4:19) stand against and overcome all devils, all the world, and all his lusts and corruptions? Or if he falls, is it not a wonder to see him, with devils and guilt upon him, rise again, stand on his feet again, walk with God again, and after all this persevere in the faith and holiness of the gospel? He who knows himself wonders; he who knows temptation wonders; he who knows what falls and guilt mean wonders. Indeed, perseverance is a wonderful thing, and it is managed by the power of God. For he alone “is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy” (Jude 24).

Those children of Israel who went out of Egypt and entered the land of Canaan: how did they get there? Why, the text says that “as an eagle spreadeth abroad her wings, so the Lord alone did lead them” (Deut 32:11-12). And again, “he bore them, and carried them all the days of old” (Isa 63:9). David also tells us that mercy and goodness would follow him all the days of his life, and so he would dwell in the house of the Lord forever (Ps 23:6).

5. To be saved calls for more than all this. The one who is saved must, when this world can hold him no longer, have a safe-conduct to heaven, for that is the place where those who are saved are to enjoy their salvation to the full. This heaven is called “the end of our faith,” because it is what faith looks toward. As Peter says, “Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls” (1 Pet 1:9). And again, “But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul” (Heb 10:39).

For, as I said, heaven is the place where the saved are to enjoy their salvation, with that perfect gladness which cannot be attained here. Here we are saved by faith and by hope of glory; but there we who are saved shall enjoy the end of our faith and hope, even the salvation of our souls. There is “Mount Zion, the heavenly Jerusalem, the general assembly and church of the firstborn”; there is the “innumerable company of angels, and the spirits of just men made perfect”; there is “God the judge of all, and Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant” (Heb 12:22-24). There our soul shall have as much of heaven as it is capable of enjoying, and that without interruption. So when we come there, we shall be saved indeed!

But now, for a poor creature to be brought there: this is the heart of the matter. How shall I get there? There are heights and depths to hinder me (Rom 8:38-39).

Suppose the poor Christian is now on a sickbed, beset with a thousand fears, and ten thousand more on top of that. Sickbed fears! And they are sometimes dreadful ones. There are fears bred by looking back over the sin of perhaps forty years of professing faith. There are fears bred by the dreadful and fearful suggestions of the devil, by the sight of death and the grave, and it may be of hell itself. There are fears bred by the withdrawing and silence of God and Christ, and, it may be, by the appearance of the devil himself. Some of these made David cry, “O spare me” a little, “that I may recover strength before I go hence, and be no more” (Ps 39:13). “The sorrows of death,” he said, “compassed me, and the pains of hell gat hold upon me; I found trouble and sorrow” (Ps 116:3). In another place he calls these things the bands that the godly have in their death, and the plagues that others know nothing of: “They are not in trouble as other men; neither are they plagued like other men” (Ps 73:5).

But now, out of all these the Lord will save his people. Not one sin, nor fear, nor devil shall hinder it; nor shall the grave or hell disappoint you. But how must this be? Why, you must have a safe-conduct to heaven. What kind of safe-conduct? An escort of angels: “Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?” (Heb 1:14).

These angels, therefore, are not to fail those who are saved. As commissioned by God, they must come down from heaven to do this service for them. They must come, I say, and take the care and charge of our soul, to conduct it safely into Abraham’s bosom. It is not our low condition in the world, nor our weakness of faith, that shall hinder this; nor shall the loathsomeness of our diseases make these delicate spirits shy of taking this charge upon them. Lazarus the beggar found this to be true. He was a beggar so despised by the rich glutton that he was not allowed to come within his gate, a beggar full of sores and foul putrefaction. Yet, look: when he dies, the angels come from heaven to fetch him there! “And it came to pass that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom” (Luke 16:22).

True, sickbed temptations are often the most violent, because then the devil plays his last game with us; he is never to assault us again. Besides, perhaps God allows it to be so, so that the entrance into heaven may be all the sweeter, and the ring of this salvation all the louder! Oh, it is a blessed thing for God to be our God and our guide even to death (Ps 48:14), and then for his angels to conduct us safely to glory; this is saving indeed. And he shall save Israel “out of all his troubles” (Ps 25:22; Ps 34:6), out of sickbed troubles as well as others.

6. To be saved, to be perfectly saved, calls for more than all this. The godly are not perfectly saved when their soul is in possession of heaven. True, their spirit is made perfect, and has as much of heaven as it can hold at present. But man, consisting of body and soul, cannot be said to be perfectly saved so long as only part of him is in the heavens. His body was bought with the blood of Christ as well as his spirit; his body is the temple of God, and a member of the body, and of the flesh, and of the bones of Christ. He cannot, then, be completely saved until the time of the resurrection of the dead (1 Cor 6:13-19; Eph 5:30).

Therefore, when Christ comes the second time, he will save the body from all those things that at present make it unfit for the heavens. “For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ; who shall change” this “our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body” (Phil 3:20-21). Oh, what a great deal of good God has put into this little word “saved”! We shall not see all the good that God has put into this word “saved” until the Lord Jesus comes to raise the dead. “It doth not yet appear what we shall be” (1 John 3:2). And until it appears what we shall be, we cannot see to the bottom of this word “saved.”

True, we have the earnest, the pledge, of what we shall be. We have the Spirit of God, “which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession” (Eph 1:14). The possession is our body. It is called “a purchased possession” because it was bought at the price of blood. Now the redemption of this purchased possession is the raising of it out of the grave, and this raising is called the redemption of our body (Rom 8:23). And when this vile body is made like his glorious body, and this body and soul together are in possession of the heavens, then we shall be saved in every way.

There are three things from which this body must be saved.

(1) There is the sinful filth and vileness that still dwells in it, under which we groan earnestly all our days (2 Cor 5:1-3).

(2) There is mortality, which subjects us to age, sickness, aches, pains, diseases, and death.

(3) And there is the grave, and death itself, for death is the last enemy that is to be destroyed. “So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory” (1 Cor 15:54).

So then, when this comes to pass, then we shall be saved. Then salvation, in all its parts, will meet together in our glory. Then we shall be saved every way: saved in God’s decree, saved in Christ’s undertakings, saved by faith, saved in perseverance, saved in soul, and in body and soul together in the heavens; saved perfectly, everlastingly, gloriously.

The State of Body and Soul in Heaven

Before I conclude my answer to the first question, I want to speak a little about the state of our body and soul in heaven, when we shall enjoy this blessed state of salvation.

1. As for the soul, it will then be filled in all its faculties with as much bliss and glory as it can ever hold.

(1) The understanding shall then be perfect in knowledge. “Now we know but in part”: we know God, Christ, heaven, and glory only in part; “but when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away” (1 Cor 13:10). Then we shall have perfect and everlasting visions of God, and of that blessed one, his Son Jesus Christ. Even a good thought of him sometimes so fills us while we are in this world that it causes “joy unspeakable and full of glory” (1 Pet 1:8).

(2) Then our will and affections shall be forever in a burning flame of love to God and his Son Jesus Christ. Our love here has ups and downs, but there it shall always be perfect, with a perfection that cannot be enjoyed in this world.

(3) Then our conscience will have such peace and joy as neither the tongue nor the pen of men or angels can express.

(4) Then our memory will be so enlarged to retain all the things that happened to us in this world that with unspeakable readiness we shall call to mind all God’s providences, all Satan’s malice, all our own weaknesses, all the rage of men, and how God made all work together for his glory and our good, to the everlasting rapture of our hearts.

2. As for our body, it shall be raised in power, in incorruption, a spiritual body, and glorious (1 Cor 15:44). Its glory is set forth by several things.

(1) It is compared to “the brightness of the firmament,” and to the shining of the stars “for ever and ever” (Dan 12:3; 1 Cor 15:41-42).

(2) It is compared to the shining of the sun: “Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear” (Matt 13:43).

(3) Their state is then to be equally glorious with the angels: “But they which shall be counted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage; neither can they die any more, for they are equal unto the angels” (Luke 20:35-36).

(4) It is said that then this vile body of ours shall be like the glorious body of Jesus Christ (Phil 3:20-21; 1 John 3:2-3).

(5) And now, when body and soul are united like this, who can imagine what glory they both possess? They will now both be fit, without any clashing, to serve the Lord with shouting thanksgivings, and with a crown of everlasting joy upon their head.

In this world there cannot be such harmony and oneness of body and soul as there will be in heaven. Here the body sometimes sins against the soul, and the soul in turn vexes and perplexes the body with dreadful apprehensions of the wrath and judgment of God. While we are in this world, the body often pulls one way and the soul the very opposite way. But there in heaven they shall have such perfect union as never to clash again. Rather, the glory of the body shall so suit the glory of the soul, and both shall so perfectly suit the heavenly state, that it passes words and thoughts.

3. Shall I now speak of the place where this saved body and soul shall dwell?

(1) Why, it is a city (Heb 11:16; Eph 2:19, 22).

(2) It is called heaven (Heb 10:34).

(3) It is called God’s house (John 14:1-3).

(4) It is called a kingdom (Luke 12:32).

(5) It is called glory (Col 3:4; Heb 2:10).

(6) It is called paradise (Rev 2:7).

(7) It is called everlasting habitations (Luke 16:9).

4. Shall I speak of their company?

(1) Why, they shall stand and live in the presence of the glorious God, the Judge of all (Heb 12:23).

(2) They shall be with the Lamb, the Lord Jesus.

(3) They shall be with an innumerable company of holy angels (Heb 12:22).

(4) They shall be with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of heaven (Luke 13:28).

5. Shall I speak of their heavenly clothing?

(1) It is salvation: they shall be clothed with the garment of salvation (Ps 132:16; Ps 149:4; Isa 61:10).

(2) This clothing is called white raiment, signifying their clean and innocent state in heaven. “And they,” says Christ, “shall walk with me in white, for they are worthy” (Rev 3:4; Rev 19:8; Isa 57:2).

(3) It is called glory: “When he shall appear, we shall appear with him in glory” (Col 3:4).

(4) They shall also have crowns of righteousness, of everlasting joy, and of glory (Isa 35:10; 2 Tim 4:8; 1 Pet 5:4).

6. Shall I speak of their continuance in this condition?

(1) It is for ever and ever: “And they shall see his face, and his name shall be in their foreheads; and they shall reign for ever and ever” (Rev 22:4-5).

(2) It is everlasting: “And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life” (John 6:40, 47).

(3) It is life eternal: “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me; and I give unto them eternal life” (John 10:27-28).

(4) It is world without end: “But Israel shall be saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation; ye shall not be ashamed nor confounded world without end” (Isa 45:17; Eph 3:20-21).

O sinner! What do you say? How do you like being saved? Doesn’t your mouth water? Doesn’t your heart flutter at being saved? Why, come then: “The Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely” (Rev 22:17).

Now I come to the second question: What is it to be saved by grace? For these are the words of the text: “By grace ye are saved.”

1. But first I must touch a little on the word grace and show you the different ways it is used. Sometimes it is used for the goodwill and favor of men (Esth 2:17; Ruth 2:2; 1 Sam 1:18; 2 Sam 16:4). Sometimes it is used for those sweet ornaments that a life lived according to the Word of God puts around the neck (Prov 1:9; Prov 3:22). Sometimes it is used for the charity of the saints, as in 2 Corinthians 9:6-8.

But “grace” in the text means God’s goodwill, “the goodwill of him that dwelt in the bush” (Deut 33:16), and it is expressed in various ways. Sometimes it is called “his good pleasure.” Sometimes it is called “the good pleasure of his will,” which is the same as “the riches of his grace” (Eph 1:7). Sometimes it is expressed by goodness, pity, love, mercy, kindness, and the like (Rom 2:4; Isa 63:9; Titus 3:4-5). Yes, he calls himself “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty” (Exod 34:6-7).

2. As the word grace signifies all these things, so it shows us that all of them are free acts of God: free love, free mercy, free kindness. Hence we have other hints in the Word about the nature of grace, such as these:

(1) It is an act of God’s will, which must of necessity be free. It is an act of his own will, of the good pleasure of his will. Each of these expressions tells us that grace is a free act of God’s goodness toward the sons of men.

(2) Therefore it is expressly said, “Being justified freely by his grace” (Rom 3:24).

(3) “And when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both” (Luke 7:42).

(4) And again, “Not for your sakes do I this, saith the Lord God, be it known unto you” (Ezek 36:32; Deut 9:5).

(5) And therefore grace and the deservings of the creature are set in flat opposition to one another: “And if by grace, then is it no more of works; otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace; otherwise work is no more work” (Rom 11:6).

The word “grace,” then, once it is understood, sets forth most properly the true cause of man’s happiness with God. This is not to say that those other expressions (love, mercy, goodness, pity, kindness, and the like) do not also have their proper place in our happiness. If God had not loved us, grace would not have acted freely in our salvation. If God had not been merciful, good, compassionate, and kind, he would have turned away from us when he saw us in our blood (Ezek 16).

So then, when he says, “By grace ye are saved,” it is just as if he had said that by the goodwill, free mercy, and loving-kindness of God you are saved. The words joined with the text make this plainer still: “But God,” says Paul, “who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ (by grace ye are saved)” (Eph 2:4-5).

3. Understood in this way, the words yield us these few conclusions:

(1) In saving the sinner, God has no regard for the sinner’s goodness. That is why it is said that the sinner is freely forgiven and freely justified (Luke 7:42; Rom 3:24).

(2) God does this to whom he pleases and when he pleases, because it is an act of his own good pleasure (Gal 1:15-16).

(3) This is the reason great sinners are saved, for God pardons “according to the riches of his grace” (Eph 1:7).

(4) This is the true reason some sinners are so amazed and bewildered when they realize that they are saved. His grace is unsearchable, and by unsearchable grace God often puzzles and confounds our reason (Ezek 16:62-63; Acts 9:6).

(5) This is the reason sinners are so often recovered from their backslidings, healed of the wounds they get by their falls, and helped to rejoice in God’s mercy again. Why, he will be gracious to whom he will be gracious, and he will have compassion on whom he will have compassion (Rom 9:15).

4. But I must not close this point here. We are discussing the grace of God, and that by it we are saved; saved, I say, by the grace of God.

Now God is set before us in the Word in two ways:

(1) He is set forth in his own eternal power and Godhead. Seen in this way, we are to think of him by his attributes of power, justice, goodness, holiness, everlastingness, and so on.

(2) But then we also have him set forth in the Word of truth as consisting of Father, Son, and Spirit. Although this second way contains in it the nature of the Godhead, the first does not show the persons in the Godhead.

We are saved by the grace of God; that is, by the grace of the Father, who is God; by the grace of the Son, who is God; and by the grace of the Spirit, who is God.

Now we are said to be “saved by grace,” and that by the grace of God. We also find in the Word that in the Godhead there are the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. So we must conclude that it is by the grace of the Father, Son, and Spirit that we are saved. Therefore grace is attributed to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit distinctly:

(1) Grace is attributed to the Father, as these scriptures testify (Rom 1:7; 1 Cor 1:3; 2 Cor 1:2; Gal 1:3; Eph 1:2; Phil 1:2; Col 1:2; 1 Thess 1:1; 2 Thess 1:2; 1 Tim 1:2; 2 Tim 1:2; Titus 1:4; Phlm 3).

(2) Grace is also attributed to the Son. I show this first by all the texts mentioned above, and also by these that follow (2 Cor 8:9; 2 Cor 13:14; Gal 6:18; Phil 4:23; 1 Thess 5:28; 2 Thess 3:18; Phlm 25; Rev 22:21).

(3) Grace is also attributed to the Holy Spirit. In these places he is called the Spirit of grace, because he is the author of grace, as the Father and the Son are (Zech 12:10; Heb 10:29).

So then, it remains for me to show you, first, how we are saved by the grace of the Father; second, how we are saved by the grace of the Son; and third, how we are saved by the grace of the Spirit.

The Father’s Grace

First, then, how we are saved by the grace of the Father. I will open this to you as follows.

1. By his grace the Father has bound up those who will go to heaven in an eternal decree of election. And here indeed, as I showed at the start, is the beginning of our salvation (2 Tim 1:9). Election is counted as the Father’s act, not the Son’s: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world” (Eph 1:3-4). And this election is counted an act of grace: “So then, at this present time also, there is a remnant according to the election of grace” (Rom 11:5).

2. The Father’s grace ordains and gives the Son to undertake our redemption for us. The Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world (1 John 4:14; John 3:16; John 6:32-33; John 12:49): “In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace; that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace, in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus” (Eph 1:7; Eph 2:7).

3. The Father’s grace gives us to Christ, to be justified by his righteousness, washed in his blood, and saved by his life. Christ mentions this. He tells us that it is his Father’s will that they should come safely through at the last day, that he had kept them all the days of his life, and that they shall never perish (John 6:37-39; John 17:2, 12).

4. The Father’s grace gives the kingdom of heaven to those whom he has given to Jesus Christ: “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom” (Luke 12:32).

5. The Father’s grace provides and lays up in Christ, for those whom he has chosen, enough of every spiritual blessing. These blessings are to be given to them as they need them, to preserve them in the faith and keep them faithfully persevering through this life; “not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began” (2 Tim 1:9; Eph 1:3-4).

6. The Father’s grace saves us by the blessed and effectual call that he gives us into the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ (1 Cor 1:9; Gal 1:15).

7. The Father’s grace saves us by multiplying pardons to us, for Christ’s sake, day by day: “In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace” (Eph 1:7).

8. The Father’s grace saves us by exercising patience and forbearance toward us all the time we remain unregenerate (Rom 3:25).

9. The Father’s grace saves us by holding us fast in his hand and by keeping us from all the power of the enemy. “My Father,” said Christ, “that gave them me, is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand” (John 10:29).

10. What more shall I say? The Father’s grace saves us by accepting our persons and our services, by lifting up the light of his countenance upon us, by showing his love to us, and by sending his angels to bring us to himself when we have finished our pilgrimage in this world.

The Grace of the Son

Second, I come now to speak of the grace of the Son. For as the Father puts forth his grace in saving the sinner, so the Son puts forth his: “For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich” (2 Cor 8:9).

Here you see also that the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ is brought in as a partner with the grace of his Father in the salvation of our souls. Now this is the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ: he was rich, but for our sakes he became poor, that we through his poverty might be made rich.

Let us inquire, then, into this grace, this condescending grace of Christ. We will do it by searching out how rich Jesus Christ was, and then how poor he made himself, so that we through his poverty might have the riches of salvation.

1. How rich was Jesus Christ? I answer, first generally, and then particularly.

(1) Generally. He was rich as the Father is rich (John 10:30). “All things that the Father hath,” he says, “are mine” (John 16:15). Jesus Christ is the Lord of all (Acts 10:36), God over all, blessed forever (Rom 9:4-5). “He thought it not robbery to be equal with God” (Phil 2:6), being by nature and from eternity God, as the Father is; and of his Godhead he could not strip himself.

(2) Particularly. Jesus Christ had glory with the Father; yes, a manifold glory with him, and he stripped himself of it.

[1] He had the glory of dominion. He was Lord of all the creatures, and they were under him on a double account: (a) as he was their Creator (Col 1:16), and (b) as he was made the heir of God (Heb 1:2).

[2] Therefore the glory of worship, reverence, and fear from all creatures was due to him. The worship, obedience, subjection, and service of angels were due to him. The fear, honor, and glory of kings and princes and judges of the earth were due to him. The obedience of the sun, moon, stars, clouds, and all vapors was due to him. All dragons, deeps, fire, hail, snow, mountains and hills, beasts, cattle, creeping things, and flying birds: the service of them all, and their worship, was due to him (Ps 148).

[3] The glory of the heavens themselves was due to him. In a word, heaven and earth were his.

[4] But above all, the glory of communion with his Father was his. I say, the glory of that unspeakable communion that he had with the Father before his incarnation, which alone was worth ten thousand worlds, was always his.

[5] But again, as Jesus Christ possessed this, so besides this he was Lord of life. This glory also was Jesus Christ’s: “In him was life” (John 1:4). Therefore he is called the Prince of life (Acts 3:15), because life was in him originally, as it is in the Father. He gave to all life and breath and all things; angels, men, and beasts all had their life from him.

[6] Again, as he was Lord of glory and Prince of life, so he was also Prince of peace (Isa 9:6). By him was maintained that harmony and good order that existed among things in heaven and things on earth.

To put things briefly in these few particulars: (a) The heavens were his, and he made them. (b) The angels were his, and he made them. (c) The earth was his, and he made it. (d) Man was his, and he made him.

2. How poor he made himself. Now he forsook this heaven for our sakes: “He came into the world to save sinners” (1 Tim 1:15).

(1) He was made lower than the angels for the suffering of death (Heb 2:9). When he was born, he made himself, as he says, a worm (Ps 22:6), or one of no reputation (Phil 2:7). He became the reproach and byword of the people. He was born in a stable and laid in a manger (Luke 2:7), and he earned his bread by his labor, being a carpenter by trade (Mark 6:3). When he took up his ministry, he lived on the charity of the people (Luke 8:2-3). When other men went to their own houses, Jesus went to the Mount of Olives (John 7:53; John 8:1). Listen to what he himself says to make this plain: “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head” (Luke 9:58). He denied himself this world’s goods.

(2) Again, as he was Prince of life, so for our sakes he laid that down too. For this is how the matter stood: either he or we must die. But the grace that was in his heart moved him to lay down his life: “He gave his life a ransom for many” (Matt 20:28). He laid down his life that we might have life; he gave his flesh and blood for the life of the world; he laid down his life for his sheep.

(3) Again, he was Prince of peace, but he forsook his peace also.

[1] He laid aside peace with the world. On that account he chose to be a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and so he was persecuted from his cradle to his cross by kings, rulers, and others.

[2] He laid aside his peace with his Father and made himself the object of his Father’s curse, so much so that the Lord smote him, struck him, and afflicted him. And in the end the Lord hid his face from him at the hour of his death, as Christ expressed with great crying.

Objection. But perhaps someone may say, “What need was there for Jesus Christ to do all this? Could not the grace of the Father save us without this condescension of the Son?”

Answer. As there is grace in God, so there is justice in God. When man had sinned, God determined to save him in a way of righteousness. Therefore it was absolutely necessary that Jesus Christ should put himself into our very condition, sin only excepted.

(1) Now by sin we had lost the glory of God (Rom 3:23); therefore Jesus Christ lays aside the glory that he had with the Father (John 17:5). (2) By sin man had shut himself out of an earthly paradise (Gen 3:24), and Jesus Christ will leave his heavenly paradise to save him (1 Tim 1:15; John 6:38-39). (3) By sin man had made himself lighter than vanity (Isa 40:17), and this Lord God, Jesus Christ, made himself lower than the angels to redeem him (Heb 2:7). (4) By sin man lost his right to the creatures, and Jesus Christ will deny himself a whole world to save him (Luke 9:58). (5) By sin man had made himself subject to death (Rom 6:23), but Jesus Christ will lose his life to save him. (6) By sin man had brought upon himself the curse of God, but Jesus Christ will bear that curse in his own body to save him (Gal 3:13).

(7) By sin man had lost peace with God, but Jesus Christ would lose this too, so that man might be saved. (8) Man should have been mocked by God; therefore Christ was mocked by men. (9) Man should have been scourged in hell, but to prevent that, Jesus was scourged on earth. (10) Man should have been crowned with disgrace and shame, but to prevent that, Jesus was crowned with thorns. (11) Man should have been pierced with the spear of God’s wrath, but to prevent that, Jesus was pierced both by God and by men. (12) Man should have been rejected by God and angels, but to prevent that, Jesus was forsaken by God, and denied, hated, and rejected by men (Isa 48:22; Prov 1:24-26; Matt 27:26, 39, 46; Ps 9:17; Ps 11:6; Ps 22:7; Dan 12:2; John 19:2-5, 37; Num 24:8; Zech 12:10; Luke 9:22).

I might enlarge on this, and do so with authority from this text: “He became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich.” All the riches he stripped himself of, he stripped off for our sakes. All the sorrows he underwent, he underwent for our sakes. Down to the least circumstance of the sufferings of Christ, it was necessary that it should be so; all was for our sakes: “For our sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich.”

And you see the motive that prevailed with Christ to do this great service for man: the grace that was in his heart. As the prophet also says, “In his love and in his pity he redeemed them” (Isa 63:9). This agrees with what is said in Corinthians: “Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Cor 8:9). And both of these agree with the text: “By grace ye are saved.”

This, I say, was the grace of the Son, and this was how he exercised it. So the Father shows his grace one way, and the Son shows his another. It was not the Father but the Son who left his heaven for sinners; it was not the Father but the Son who spilled his blood for sinners. The Father indeed gave the Son, and blessed be the Father for that; and the Son gave his life and blood for us, and blessed be the Son for that.

But it seems to me that we should not be done yet with this grace of the Son. O Son of the Blessed, what grace was shown in your condescension! Grace brought you down from heaven; grace stripped you of your glory; grace made you poor and despised; grace made you bear such burdens of sin, such burdens of sorrow, such burdens of God’s curse as are beyond words. O Son of God! Grace was in all your tears; grace came bubbling out of your side with your blood; grace came forth with every word of your sweet mouth (Ps 45:2; Luke 4:22). Grace came out where the whip struck you, where the thorns pricked you, where the nails and spear pierced you. O blessed Son of God! Here is grace indeed! Unsearchable riches of grace! Unthought-of riches of grace! Grace to make angels wonder, grace to make sinners happy, grace to astonish devils! And what will become of those who trample this Son of God underfoot?

The Grace of the Spirit

Third, I come now to speak of the grace of the Spirit, for he also saves us by his grace. The Spirit, as I told you, is God, as the Father and the Son are, and so he too is the author of grace. Yes, and it is absolutely necessary that he put forth his grace also, or else no flesh can be saved. The Spirit of God has a hand in saving us in many ways. Those who go to heaven must be indebted to the Father and the Son, and so must they be to the Spirit of God. The Father chooses us, gives us to Christ, gives heaven to us, and the like. The Son fulfills the law for us, takes the curse of the law from us, bears our sorrows in his own body, and sets us justified in the sight of God. The Father’s grace is shown in heaven and earth; the Son’s grace is shown on the earth and on the cross; and the Spirit’s grace must be shown in our souls and bodies before we come to heaven.

Question. But someone may ask, “In what does the saving grace of the Spirit appear?”

Answer. In many things.

It appears in his taking possession of us as his own, and in his making us his house and dwelling place. So although the Father and the Son have both gloriously put forth gracious acts toward our salvation, still the Spirit is the first to lay hold of us (1 Cor 3:16; 1 Cor 6:19; Eph 2:21-22). That is why Christ, when he went away, did not say that he would send the Father, but the Spirit, and that the Spirit would be in us forever: “If I depart,” said Christ, “I will send him, the Spirit of truth, the Comforter” (John 14:16; John 16:7, 13).

The Holy Spirit, coming into us and dwelling in us, works out many salvations for us now, and each of them also leads toward our being saved forever.

1. He saves us from our darkness by enlightening us. That is why he is called “the Spirit of revelation” (Eph 1:17, 19): because he opens blind eyes, and so delivers us from that darkness which would otherwise drown us in the depths of hell.

2. It is he who convinces us of the evil of our unbelief and shows us the necessity of believing in Christ. Without being convinced of this, we would perish (John 16:9).

3. This is the finger of God by which the devil is made to give way to grace (Luke 11:20-22). Otherwise the devil’s power would carry us headlong to hell.

4. This is he who works faith in our hearts (Rom 15:13), and without faith neither the grace of the Father nor the grace of the Son can save us: “For he that believeth not, shall be damned” (Mark 16:16).

5. This is he by whom we are born again; and whoever is not born in this way can neither see nor inherit the kingdom of heaven (John 3:3-7).

6. This is he who sets up his kingdom in the heart, and by that means keeps the devil out after he has been cast out. Whoever lacks this kingdom of the Spirit lies open to a worse possession by the devil than ever before (Matt 12:43-45; Luke 11:24-25).

7. By this Spirit we come to see the beauty of Christ. Without a sight of it we would never desire him, but would certainly live in neglect of him and perish (John 16:14; 1 Cor 2:9-13; Isa 53:1-2).

8. By this Spirit we are helped to pray to God acceptably; but without the Spirit it is impossible to be heard unto salvation (Rom 8:26; Eph 6:18; 1 Cor 14:15).

9. By this blessed Spirit the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts (Rom 5:5), and our hearts are directed into the love of God (2 Thess 3:5).

10. By this blessed Spirit we are led out of the ways of the flesh into the ways of life (Gal 5:18, 25), and by him our mortal body, as well as our immortal soul, is made alive in the service of God (Rom 8:11).

11. By this good Spirit we keep that good thing, the seed of God, which was first planted in us by the Word of God. Without it we are liable to the worst damnation (1 John 3:9; 1 Pet 1:23; 2 Tim 1:14).

12. By this good Spirit we have help and light against all the wisdom and cunning of the world, which puts itself forward in its most cursed sophistries to overthrow the simplicity that is in Christ (Matt 10:19-20; Mark 13:11; Luke 12:11-12).

13. By this good Spirit our graces are kept in life and vigor: faith, hope, love, a spirit of prayer, and every grace (2 Cor 4:13; Rom 15:13; 2 Tim 1:7; Eph 6:18; Titus 3:5).

14. By this good Spirit we are sealed to the day of redemption (Eph 1:14).

15. And by this good Spirit we are made to wait with patience until the redemption of the purchased possession comes (Gal 5:5).

Now all these things are so necessary to our salvation that I do not know which of them we could do without. Nor can any of them be obtained by any means except by this blessed Spirit.

And so I have shown you in a few words the grace of the Spirit, and how it puts itself forth toward the saving of the soul. And truly, friends, it is necessary that you know these things distinctly: the grace of the Father, the grace of the Son, and the grace of the Holy Spirit. For it is not the grace of one, but of all three of these, that saves the one who will be saved indeed.

The Father’s grace saves no one without the grace of the Son; nor do the Father and the Son save anyone without the grace of the Spirit. For as the Father loves, so the Son must die and the Spirit must sanctify, or no soul will be saved.

Some think that the love of the Father, without the blood of the Son, will save them; but they are deceived, for “without shedding of blood is no remission” (Heb 9:22).

Some think that the love of the Father and the blood of the Son will do, without the holiness of the Spirit of God; but they are deceived also. For “if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his” (Rom 8:9); and again, “without holiness no man shall see the Lord” (Heb 12:14).

There is a third sort, who think that the holiness of the Spirit is sufficient by itself; but they (if they had it) are deceived also. For it must be the grace of the Father, the grace of the Son, and the grace of the Spirit, jointly, that saves them.

But still, as these three put forth grace jointly and truly in the salvation of a sinner, so they put it forth, as I have also shown you before, in different ways. The Father designs us for heaven, the Son redeems us from sin and death, and the Spirit makes us fit for heaven. The Spirit does this not by electing, for that is the work of the Father; not by dying, for that is the work of the Son; but by revealing Christ and applying Christ to our souls, by shedding the love of God abroad in our hearts, by sanctifying our souls, and by taking possession of us as a pledge of our possession of heaven.

I come now to the third particular, namely, to show you who they are that are to be saved by grace.

1. Not the self-righteous, not those who have no need of the physician. “The whole have no need of the physician,” says Christ. “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Mark 2:17). And again, “He hath filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he hath sent empty away” (Luke 1:53). Now when I say not the self-righteous nor the rich, I do not mean that they are utterly excluded, for Paul was one of them. But God does not save such people unless he first awakens them to see that they need to be saved by grace.

2. The grace of God does not save the one who has sinned the unpardonable sin. There is nothing left for him “but a certain fearful looking for of judgment, … which shall devour the adversaries” (Heb 10:26-27).

3. The sinner who perseveres in final impenitence and unbelief will be damned (Luke 13:3, 5; Rom 2:2-5; Mark 16:15-16).

4. The sinner whose mind the god of this world has blinded, so that the glorious light of the gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, can never shine into him, is lost and must be damned (2 Cor 4:3-4).

5. The sinner who makes religion his cloak for wickedness is a hypocrite, and if he continues so, he must certainly be damned (Ps 125:5; Isa 33:14; Matt 24:50-51).

6. In a word, no sinner who perseveres in his wickedness will inherit the kingdom of heaven. “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Cor 6:9-12). And, “Let no man deceive you with vain words; for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience” (Eph 5:5-6).

Question. But then what kind of sinners will be saved?

Answer. Those of all these kinds whom the Spirit of God brings to the Father by Jesus Christ. These, I say, and none but these, can be saved; otherwise sinners might be saved without the Father, or without the Son, or without the Spirit.

Now, in all that I have said, I have not in the least suggested that any sinner is rejected because his sins, in their nature, are great. Christ Jesus came into the world to save the chief of sinners. It is not, therefore, the greatness of sins but the continuing in them that really damns the sinner. But I always except the one who has sinned against the Holy Spirit. That it is not the greatness of sin that shuts the sinner out is evident:

1. From the words before the text, which give an account of what kind of sinners were saved by grace here: namely, those who were dead in trespasses and sins, those who walked in those sins, “according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others” (Eph 2:2-3).

2. It is evident also from the many sinners whom we find, by the revealed will of God, to have been saved. For in the Word we find the salvation of great sinners mentioned, where their names and their sins stand recorded for our encouragement.

(1) You read of Manasseh, who was an idolater, a practicer of witchcraft, a persecutor, yes, a rebel against the word of God sent to him by the prophets; and yet this man was saved (2 Chr 33:2-13; 2 Kgs 21:16).

(2) You read of Mary Magdalene, in whom were seven devils. Her condition was dreadful, yet she was saved (Luke 8:2; John 20).

(3) You read of the man who had a legion of devils in him. Oh, how dreadful his condition was! And yet by grace he was saved (Mark 5:1-10).

(4) You read of those who murdered the Lord Jesus, and how they were converted and saved (Acts 2:23).

(5) You read of the exorcists, how they embraced Christ and were saved by grace (Acts 19:13).

(6) You read of Saul the persecutor, and how he was saved by grace (Acts 9:15).

Objection. “But,” you say, “I am a backslider.”

Answer. So was Noah, and yet he found grace in the eyes of the Lord (Gen 9:21-22). So was Lot, and yet God saved him by grace (Gen 19:35; 2 Pet 2:7-9). So was David, yet by grace he was forgiven his iniquities (2 Sam 12:7-13). So was Solomon, and a great one too; yet by grace his soul was saved (Ps 89:28-34). So was Peter, and a dreadful one at that; yet by grace he was saved (Matt 26:69-74; Mark 16:7; Acts 15:7-11). Besides these, for further encouragement, read Jeremiah 3; Jeremiah 33:25-26; Jeremiah 51:5; Ezekiel 36:25; and Hosea 14:1-4. Then stop, and wonder at the riches of the grace of God.

Question. But how are we to find out which sinners will be saved? Not all, it seems, will be. Besides, as far as anyone can gather from what you have said, some who are saved are as bad as those who are damned, leaving aside the one who has sinned the unpardonable sin.

Answer. True, some who are saved are as bad as those who are damned. But to this question: those who are effectually called are saved. Those who believe on the Son of God will be saved. Those who are sanctified and preserved in Christ will be saved. Those who take up their cross daily and follow Christ will be saved.

Take a list of them like this: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Mark 16:16; Acts 16:31). “If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved” (Rom 10:9). Be justified by the blood of Christ, and you will be saved (Rom 5:9). Be reconciled to God by the death of his Son, and you will be saved by his life (Rom 5:10). “And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Acts 2:21).

See some other scriptures: “He shall save the humble person” (Job 22:29). “Thou wilt save the afflicted people” (Ps 18:27). “He shall save the children of the needy” (Ps 72:4). “He shall save the souls of the needy” (Ps 72:13). “O thou, my God, save thy servant that trusteth in thee” (Ps 86:2). “He will fulfil the desire of them that fear him, he also will hear their cry, and will save them” (Ps 145:19).

But, sinner, if you really want to be saved, beware of these four things.

1. Beware of delaying repentance. Delays are dangerous and damnable. They are dangerous because they harden the heart; they are damnable because their tendency is to make you outstay the time of grace (Ps 95:7; Heb 3:12-13).

2. Beware of resting in the word of the kingdom without the spirit and power of the kingdom of the gospel. For the gospel coming in word only saves nobody, since the kingdom of God, or the gospel, where it comes to salvation, is not in word but in power (1 Thess 1:4-6; 1 Cor 4:19).

3. Take care not to live, while making a profession of faith, a life that provokes God; for that is the way to make him cast you away in his anger.

4. Take care that your inside and your outside are alike, and both conformed to the Word of his grace. Work hard to be like the living creatures you may read of in the book of the prophet Ezekiel, whose appearance and themselves were one (Ezek 10:22).

In all this I have warned you not to be content without the power and Spirit of God in your hearts. For without him you share in none of the grace of the Father or the Son, but will certainly miss the salvation of the soul.

This fourth question requires that some demonstration be given of the truth of this doctrine, namely, that those who are saved are saved by grace.

What has been said before has already given some demonstration of the truth. So, after first repeating in a few words the sum of what has been said already, I shall come to further proof.

1. That this is true, the Scriptures testify, because God chose those who are saved to salvation before they had done any good (Rom 9:11).

2. Christ was ordained to be their Savior before the foundation of the world (Eph 1:4; 1 Pet 1:19-21).

3. All things that concur and contribute to our salvation were also, in that same eternal purpose, laid up in Christ, to be communicated in the dispensation of the fullness of times to those who shall be saved (Eph 1:3-4; 2 Tim 1:9; Eph 1:10; Eph 3:8-11; Rom 8:30).

Again, as their salvation was devised by God, so, as was said, this salvation was undertaken by one of the three, namely, the Son of the Father (John 1:29; Isa 48:16).

Suppose there had been a plan drawn up in heaven about the salvation of sinners on earth. Even so, if the outcome of that plan had been that we should be saved by our own good deeds, it would not have been proper for an apostle, or an angel, to say, “By grace ye are saved” (Eph 2:5). But now, when a council is held in eternity about the salvation of sinners in time, and when the outcome of that council is that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit will themselves accomplish the work of this salvation, this is grace. This is grace by its very nature, grace that is rich and free; yes, this is unthought-of grace. I will say it again: this is unthought-of grace. For who could have thought that there was a Savior in the bosom of the Father, or that the Father would give him to be the Savior of men, since he refused to give him to be the Savior of angels (Heb 2:16-17)?

Again, if anyone could have thought that the Father would send his Son to be the Savior, we would reasonably have thought, too, that the Son would never take the work wholly upon himself, especially that fearful, dreadful, soul-astonishing, and amazing part of it! Who could ever have imagined that the Lord Jesus would make himself so poor as to stand before God in the nauseous rags of our sins, and subject himself to the curse and death that were due to our sin? But this is what he did, to save us by grace.

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the Beloved; in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace” (Eph 1:3-7).

Again, if we consider the terms and conditions on which this salvation is made over to those who are saved, it will appear still further that we are saved by grace.

1. The things that immediately concern our justification and salvation are offered, yes, given to us freely, and we are commanded to receive them by faith. Sinner, hold up your lap! God so loved the world that he gives his Son (John 3:16), he gives his righteousness (Rom 5:17), he gives his Spirit (2 Cor 1:21-22), and the kingdom of heaven (Luke 12:32).

2. He also gives repentance (Acts 5:30-31), he gives faith (Phil 1:29), and he gives everlasting consolation and good hope through grace (2 Thess 2:16).

3. He gives pardon (Acts 5:31), and he gives more grace to keep us from sinking into hell than we have sin to sink us there (Prov 3:34; Jas 4:6; 1 Pet 5:5).

4. He has made all these things over to us in a covenant of grace. We call it a covenant of grace because it is set in opposition to the covenant of works, and because it is established for us in the doings of Christ, founded in his blood, and established upon the best promises, made to him, and to us by him. “For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him amen, to the glory of God by us” (2 Cor 1:20).

But to pass over these, and to come to some other demonstrations that make this clear, let us consider a little what man is, upon whom the Father, the Son, and the Spirit bestow this grace.

1. By nature he is an enemy to God, an enemy in his mind. “The carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be” (Rom 8:7; Col 1:21).

2. So the state of man was this: he was not only overpersuaded, all of a sudden, to sin against God, but he drank this sin like water into his very nature, and mingled it with every faculty of his soul and every member of his body. By this means he became alienated from God, and an enemy to him in his very heart. And will you, O Lord? As the Scripture puts it, “And dost thou open thine eyes upon such an one?” (Job 14:3). Yes, will you open your heart, and take this man, not into judgment, but into mercy with you?

3. Further, man by his sin had not only given himself up to be a captive slave to the devil, but, continuing in his sin, he rose up against his God, struck up a covenant with death, and made an agreement with hell. But for God to open his eyes upon such a one, and to take hold of him by the riches of grace, this is amazing (Isa 28:16-18)!

See where God found the Jew when he came to look upon him to save him. “As for thy nativity,” says God, “in the day thou wast born thy navel was not cut, neither wast thou washed in water to supple thee; thou wast not salted at all, nor swaddled at all. None eye pitied thee, to do any of these unto thee, to have compassion upon thee; but thou wast cast out in the open field, to the loathing of thy person, in the day that thou wast born. And when I passed by thee, and saw thee polluted in thine own blood, I said unto thee, when thou wast in thy blood, Live; yea, I said unto thee, when thou wast in thy blood, Live. … Now when I passed by thee, and looked upon thee, behold, thy time was the time of love: and I spread my skirt over thee, and covered thy nakedness; yea, I sware unto thee, and entered into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord God, and thou becamest mine” (Ezek 16:4-6, 8). Sinner, look further into the chapter (Ezek 16). All this is the grace of God; every word in this text smells of grace.

But before I pass on from this, let us take a little notice of how God conducts himself toward man, and again how man conducts himself toward God, in his conversion.

1. God’s conduct toward man. He comes to man while he is in his sins, in his blood. He comes to him now, not in the heat and fire of his jealousy, but “in the cool of the day” (Gen 3:8), in unspeakable gentleness, mercy, pity, and tender love. He does not come clothing himself with vengeance, but in a way of entreaty, and he meekly begs the sinner to be reconciled to him (2 Cor 5:19-20).

Among men it is expected that the one who gave the offense should be the first to seek peace. But, sinner, between God and man it is not so. It is not that we loved God, nor that we chose God; but “God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them” (2 Cor 5:19). God is the first to seek peace. And, as I said, in a way of entreaty he bids his ministers plead with you in Christ’s place: “as though God did beseech you by us, we pray you, in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God” (2 Cor 5:20). O sinner, will you not open? Look! God the Father and his Son Jesus Christ both stand at the door of your heart, begging you there for a favor: that you will be reconciled to them. And they promise, if you will comply, to forgive you all your sins. O grace! O amazing grace! To see a prince entreat a beggar to receive alms would be a strange sight. To see a king entreat a traitor to accept mercy would be a stranger sight than that. But to see God entreat a sinner, to hear Christ say, “I stand at the door and knock” (Rev 3:20), with a heart full and a heaven full of grace to bestow on the one who opens, this is a sight that dazzles the eyes of angels.

What do you say now, sinner? Is not this God rich in mercy? Does not this God have great love for sinners? No, more than that: so that you may not have any ground to doubt that all this is mere empty compliment, it is also declared to you here that God has made his Christ “to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (2 Cor 5:21). If God would have balked at anything, he would have balked at the death of his Son. But he “delivered him up for us” freely; “how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?” (Rom 8:32).

But this is not all. God does not only beg you to be reconciled to him. Further, for your encouragement, he has pronounced in your hearing exceeding great and precious promises, “and hath confirmed it by an oath, that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us” (Heb 6:17-18; Isa 1:18; Isa 55:6-7; Jer 51:5).

2. Let us come now to how these sinners conduct themselves toward God, from the first day he begins to deal with their souls until the time they are to be taken up into heaven.

(1) To begin with God’s ordinary way of dealing with sinners: when he first brings conviction to them by his Word, how strangely they behave! They do not love to have their consciences touched. They do not like to ponder what they have been, what they are, or what is likely to become of them hereafter. Such thoughts they count unmanly, hurtful, and against their interests. Therefore “they refused to hearken, and pulled away the shoulder, and stopped their ears, that they should not hear” (Zech 7:11). And now they are for anything rather than the Word: an alehouse, a whorehouse, a playhouse, sports, pleasures, sleep, the world, and what not, so long as they can stave off the power of the word of God.

(2) If God now comes up closer to them, and begins to fasten conviction upon the conscience, then, though such conviction is the first step to faith and repentance, yes, and to eternal life, what shifts they will use to forget their convictions and wear them off! Yes, although they now begin to see that they must either turn or burn, yet often, even then, they will do their best to put off conversion for now. They object that they are too young to turn yet; seven years from now will be time enough, when they are old, or come to a sickbed. O what an enemy man is to his own salvation! I am persuaded that God has visited some of you often with his Word, even twice and three times, and you have thrown water on your conscience as fast as he has cast fire on it by the Word. Christian, what would have become of you if God had taken your denial for an answer, and said, “Then I will carry the word of salvation to another, and he will hear it”?

“Sinner, turn,” says God. “Lord, I can’t attend to it,” says the sinner. “Turn or burn,” says God. “I’ll risk that,” says the sinner. “Turn, and be saved,” says God. “I can’t leave my pleasures,” says the sinner. “Sweet sins, sweet pleasures, sweet delights!” says the sinner. But what grace it is in God to parley with the sinner like this! O the patience of God toward a poor sinner! What if God should now say, “Then go to your sins, go to your delights, go to your pleasures. Take them for your portion. They shall be all your heaven, all your happiness, and all your portion”?

(3) But God comes again, and shows the sinner the necessity of turning now: now or not at all. Yes, he gives the sinner this conviction so strongly that he cannot put it off. But look, the sinner still has one spark of enmity left. If he really must turn now, he will turn from one sin to another, from great sins to little ones, from many to few, or from all to one, and stop there. But perhaps his convictions will not let him go like that. Why, then he will turn from profaneness to the law of Moses, and will dwell as long as God will let him upon his own seeming goodness. And now watch him: he is a great stickler for legal performance. Now he will be a good neighbor. He will pay every man what is his. He will give up his swearing, the alehouse, his sports, and his carnal delights. He will read, pray, talk of Scripture, and be a very busy one in religion, such as it is. Now he will please God and make amends to him for all the wrong he has done him. He will feed God with chapters, and prayers, and promises, and vows, and a great many more such dainty dishes as these, persuading himself that now he must surely be well on his way to heaven. Besides this, he thinks he serves God as well as any man in England can.

But all this while he is as ignorant of Christ as the stool he sits on, and no nearer heaven than the blind Pharisee was. The only difference is that he has gotten onto a cleaner road to hell than the rest of his neighbors are on. “There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes, and yet is not washed from their filthiness” (Prov 30:12).

Might not God now cut off this sinner and cast him out of his sight? Might he not leave him here to his own choice, to be deluded by his own righteousness and to fall in it, because he “trusteth to it, and commits iniquity” (Ezek 33:13)? But grace, grace that goes before him, preserves him. It is true, as I said, that this turn of the sinner is a turning that falls short of Christ. But:

(4) God will mercifully follow the sinner in this way of his, and show him the shortness of his performances (Isa 28:20), the emptiness of his duties, and the uncleanness of his righteousness (Isa 64:6). I am speaking here of the sinner whose soul’s salvation God has graciously intended and planned. For by the light of the gospel he shall be wearied out of all of it. He shall be made to see the vanity of it all, and that the personal righteousness of Jesus Christ, and that alone, is what God has ordained to save the sinner from the due reward of his sins.

But look: the sinner now, at the sight and sense of his own nothingness, falls into a kind of despair. For although he has it in him to presume upon salvation, through the delusion of his own good opinion of himself, he does not have it in himself to have a good opinion of the grace of God in the righteousness of Christ. So he concludes that if salvation is of the grace of God alone, through the righteousness of Christ, and if everything of a man’s own is utterly rejected as far as the justification of his person with God is concerned, then he is cast away.

Now the reason for this sinking of heart is the sight God has given him, a sight of the uncleanness of his best performance. The earlier sight of his immoralities did distress him somewhat, and made him turn to his own good deeds to ease his conscience. So this was his prop, his support. But look, now God has taken this out from under him, and now he falls. So his best now forsakes him too, and flies away like the morning dew, or a bird, or like the chaff that is driven with the whirlwind, and the smoke out of a chimney (Hos 9:11; Hos 13:3).

Moreover, this revelation of the emptiness of his own righteousness also brings with it a further discovery of the wickedness of his heart: its hypocrisies, pride, unbelief, hardness of heart, deadness, and backwardness toward all gospel and new-covenant obedience. This sight of himself lies like millstones on his shoulders and sinks him still further into doubts and fears of damnation. For if you bid him receive Christ now, he answers that he cannot; he dares not. Ask him why he cannot, and he will answer that he has no faith and no hope in his heart. Tell him that grace is offered to him freely, and he says, “But I have no heart to receive it.” Besides, he finds no gracious disposition in his soul (or so he thinks), and so he concludes that he does not belong to God’s mercy and has no share in the blood of Christ, and therefore he dares not presume to believe. And so, as I said, he sinks in his heart, he dies in his thoughts, he doubts, he despairs, and he concludes that he will never be saved.

(5) But look: the God of all grace does not leave him in this distress, but now comes closer to him than ever. He sends the Spirit of adoption, the blessed Comforter, to tell him that “God is love” (1 John 4:8), and therefore is not willing to reject the broken in heart. He bids him cry and pray for some evidence of mercy to his soul, and says, “Perhaps you may be hid in the day of the Lord’s anger” (Zeph 2:3). At this the sinner takes some encouragement. Yet he can get no more than what hangs on a mere probability, and the next doubt that rises in his heart blows it quite away. Then the soul is left again in its first plight, or worse. There he lamentably bewails his miserable state and is tormented with a thousand fears of perishing, for he hears not a word from heaven, perhaps for several weeks together.

So unbelief begins to get the mastery of him. It takes off the very edge and spirit of prayer, and his inclination to hear the Word any longer. Yes, and the devil chimes in with these thoughts too, saying, “All your prayers, and hearing, and reading, and the godly company you keep will rise up in judgment against you at last. So if you must be damned, it is better to choose as easy a place in hell as you can.” At this the soul is quite discouraged, and it thinks to do as it has been taught. With dying thoughts it begins to faint whenever it goes to prayer or to hear the Word. But look: when all hope seems to be quite gone, and the soul concludes, I die, I perish, in comes the Spirit of God again, all of a sudden, with some good word of God that the soul never thought of before. That word of God commands a calm in the soul, makes unbelief give way, and encourages it to hope and wait on God again. Perhaps it gives the soul some little sight of Christ and of his blessed undertaking for sinners.

But look again: as soon as the power of these things begins to wear off the heart, the sinner gives way to unbelief once more. He questions God’s mercy and fears damnation again. He also entertains hard thoughts of God and Christ, and thinks his former encouragements were fancies, delusions, or mere think-so’s. And why does God not now cast the sinner into hell for abusing his mercy and grace like this? Oh no! “He will have mercy on whom he will have mercy, and he will have compassion on whom he will have compassion” (Rom 9:15); and therefore “goodness and mercy shall follow him all the days of his life, that he may dwell in the house of the Lord for ever” (Ps 23:6).

(6) So God, after all these provocations, comes to the soul by his Spirit again and brings sealing grace and pardon to the conscience, testifying to it that its sins are forgiven, and that freely, for the sake of the blood of Christ. And now the sinner has such a sight of the grace of God in Christ that it breaks his heart, in the kindest way, with joy and comfort. Now the soul knows what it is to eat promises; it also knows what it is to eat and drink the flesh and blood of Jesus Christ by faith. Now the power of his grace drives it to its knees, to thank God for the forgiveness of sins and for the hope of an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Christ. Now it has calm and sunshine. Now “he washeth his steps with butter, and the rock pours him out rivers of oil” (Job 29:6).

(7) But after this, perhaps the soul grows cold again. It forgets the grace it has received and becomes carnal. It begins again to itch after the world, loses the life and relish of heavenly things, grieves the Spirit of God, and backslides woefully. It casts off private devotions entirely, or else keeps only the formality of them. It is a reproach to religion, and it grieves the hearts of those who are awake and tender toward God’s name, and so on.

But what will God do now? Will he take this advantage to destroy the sinner? No. Will he let him alone in his apostasy? No. Will he leave him to recover himself by the strength of his now languishing graces? No. What then? Why, he will seek this man out till he finds him, and bring him home to himself again. “For thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I, even I, will both search my sheep, and seek them out. As a shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that he is among the sheep that are scattered; so will I seek out my sheep, and will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered. … I will seek that which was lost, and bring again that which was driven away, and will bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which was sick” (Ezek 34:11-12, 16).

This is how he dealt with the man who went down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among thieves (Luke 10:30-35), and this is how he dealt with the prodigal you read of as well (Luke 15:20).

I will not discourse now on God’s ordinary way of fetching the backslider home: namely, whether he always breaks his bones for his sins, as he broke David’s; or whether, for this, he will leave them under guilt and darkness all the days of their life; or whether he will kill them now, so that they may not be damned in the day of judgment, as he dealt with those at Corinth (1 Cor 11:30-32). He is wise, and knows how to make backsliding bitter to those he loves. He can break their bones, and save them. He can lay them in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deep, and save them. He can slay them as to this life, and save them. And here again wonderful grace appears, in that “Israel is not forsaken, nor Judah of his God, though their land was filled with sin against the Holy One of Israel” (Jer 51:5).

(8) But suppose God deals with the backslider in neither of these ways, but shines on him again and seals to him the forgiveness of his sins a second time, saying, “I will heal their backslidings, and love them freely” (Hos 14:4). What will the soul do now? Surely it will walk humbly now, and holily all its days. It will never backslide again, will it? It may happen that it will not; it may happen that it will. It is just as his God keeps him. For although his sins are of himself, his standing is of God. I say, his standing while he stands, and his recovery if he falls, are both of God. So if God leaves him a little, at the next gap he finds, away he goes again. “My people,” says God, “are bent to backsliding from me” (Hos 11:7).

How many times did David backslide (2 Sam 11; 2 Sam 24)! Yes, and Jehoshaphat (2 Chr 19:1-3; 2 Chr 20:35-37) and Peter (Matt 26:69-71; Gal 2:11-13)! As it is also said in Jeremiah 3:1, “But thou hast played the harlot with many lovers, yet return unto me, saith the Lord.” Here is grace! As many times as the soul backslides, so many times God brings him back again (I mean the soul that must be saved by grace). He renews his pardons and multiplies them. “Lo, all these things worketh God oftentimes with man” (Job 33:29).

(9) But see still more grace. I will speak here of heart-wanderings and of daily failings: I mean those common infirmities that befall the best of saints and that cling to them in their best performances. Not that I intend to mention them in detail, for I cannot; that would be an impossible task. But such there are: worldly thoughts, unclean thoughts, too low thoughts of God, of Christ, of the Spirit, and of the words, ways, and ordinances of God. By these a Christian transgresses many times. May I not say, sometimes many hundreds of times a day? Yes, for all I know, there are some saints (and those not long-lived either) who must receive millions of pardons from God for these before they enter into life. And every pardon is an act of grace, through the redemption that is in Christ’s blood.

Sometimes we sin against our brother seventy times seven times a day (Matt 18:21-22); but how many times in that day do we sin against God? Lord, “who can understand his errors? cleanse thou me from secret faults” (that is, sins), said David (Ps 19:12). And again, “If thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? But there is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared” (Ps 130:3-4).

But to mention some of them. Sometimes they question the very being of God, or foolishly ask how he came to be at first. Sometimes they question the truth of his Word and suspect its harmony, because their blind hearts and dull heads cannot reconcile it. Yes, all the fundamental truths sometimes lie open to the censure of their unbelief and atheism: whether there is any such one as Christ, any such thing as the day of judgment, or whether there will be a heaven or hell hereafter. And God pardons all these by his grace.

Even when they do believe these things, they sin by not having such reverent, high, and holy thoughts of them as they ought. They sin also by having too, too good thoughts of themselves, of sin, and of the world. Sometimes (let me say, often) they wink too much at known sin. They do not bewail the infirmities of the flesh as they should. The itching inclinations after vanity that they find in their hearts too often go from them unrepented of. I do not say that they do not repent of them in general. But all these things, oh, how often God forgives through the riches of his grace!

They sin by not walking in a way that answers to the mercies they have received. Yes, they come short in their thanks to God for them, even when they most heartily acknowledge how unworthy of them they are. And how little of the strength those mercies give is spent to the praise of him who freely pours them into their bosoms! But from all these sins they are saved by grace.

They sin in their most exact and spiritual performance of duties. They do not pray, they do not hear, they do not read, they do not give alms, they do not come to the Lord’s Table or to the other holy appointments of God, except in and with much coldness, deadness, wandering of heart, ignorance, misapprehension, and the like. They forget God while they pray to him; they forget Christ while they are at his table; they forget his Word even while they are reading it.

How often they make promises to God, and afterward break them! Or if they keep their promise in outward show, how much their heart even grudges performing it! How they shrink back from the cross! And how unwilling they are to lose the little they have for God, though all they have was given them to glorify him with!

All these things, and a thousand times as many more, dwell in the flesh of man. People may as soon go away from themselves as from these corruptions. Yes, they may sooner cut the flesh from their bones than these stirrings of sin from their flesh. These will be with them in every duty (I mean, some or other of them); yes, as often as they look, or think, or hear, or speak. These are with them especially when a man intends good in what he is doing. “When I would do good,” says Paul, “evil is present with me” (Rom 7:21). And God himself complains that “every imagination of the thoughts of the heart of man is only evil,” and that “continually” (Gen 6:5).

By these things, therefore, we continually defile ourselves and every one of our performances (I mean in the judgment of the law), even mixing iniquity with the things we hallow to the Lord. “For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness; all these evil things come from within, and defile the man” (Mark 7:21-23). Now what can deliver the soul from these but grace? “By grace ye are saved” (Eph 2:5).

I come now to answer the fifth question, namely, to show why God saves those he saves by grace rather than by any other means.

1. God saves us by grace because, since sin is in the world, he can save us no other way. Sin and transgression cannot be removed except by the grace of God through Christ. Sin is the transgression of the law of God, who is perfectly just. Infinite justice cannot be satisfied with any recompense that man can make; for if it could, Christ Jesus himself would not have needed to die. Besides, since man has sinned and defiled himself by it, all his acts are the acts of a defiled man. No, more than that, even the best of his performances are defiled by his hands. These performances, therefore, cannot be a recompense for sin. Besides, every work of his hand is defiled, I say. So to affirm that God saves defiled man for the sake of his defiled duties, what is that but to say that God accepts one sinful act as a recompense and satisfaction for another (Hag 2:14)? But God, even of old, has declared how he abhors imperfect sacrifices. Therefore we can by no means be saved from sin except by grace (Rom 3:24).

2. To assert that we may be saved any other way than by the grace of God, what is that but to object against the wisdom and prudence of God, in which he abounds toward those whom he has saved by grace (Eph 1:5-8)? His wisdom and prudence found out no other way; therefore he chooses to save us by grace.

3. We must be saved by grace, because otherwise it follows that God is changeable in his decrees; for this is what he determined before the foundation of the world (Eph 1:3-4; Eph 3:8-11; Rom 9:23). Therefore he does not save us, nor choose to save us, by any other way than by grace.

4. If people could be saved any other way than by grace, God would be disappointed in his design to cut off boasting from his creature. But God’s design to cut off boasting from his creature cannot be frustrated or disappointed; therefore he will save man by no other means than by grace. He has designed, I say, that no flesh should glory in his presence, and therefore he refuses their works: “Not of works, lest any man should boast” (Eph 2:8-9). “Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay; but by the law of faith” (Rom 3:24-28).

5. God has ordained that we should be saved by grace so that he might have the praise and glory of our salvation, so that we should be “to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the Beloved” (Eph 1:6). Now God will not lose his praise, and his glory he will not give to another; therefore God chooses to save sinners only by his grace.

6. God has ordained, and chooses, to save us by grace because, even if another way were available, this is still the safest way and the one that best secures the soul. “Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise,” that is, the promise of eternal inheritance (Heb 9:14-16), “might be sure to all the seed” (Rom 4:16). No other way could have been sure. This is evident in Adam, in the Jews, and, I will add, in the fallen angels. They were turned over to another way than grace, and you see what became of them in a short time.

To be saved by grace supposes that God has taken the salvation of our souls into his own hand; and, to be sure, it is safer in God’s hand than in ours. That is why it is called “the salvation of the Lord,” “the salvation of God,” and “salvation, and that of God.”

When our salvation is in God’s hand, he himself is pledged to accomplish it for us. (1) Here the mercy of God is pledged for us (Rom 9:15). (2) Here the wisdom of God is pledged for us (Eph 1:7-8). (3) Here the power of God is pledged for us (1 Pet 1:3-5). (4) Here the justice of God is pledged for us (Rom 3:24-25). (5) Here the holiness of God is pledged for us (Ps 89:30-35). (6) Here the care of God is pledged for us, and his watchful eye is always over us for our good (1 Pet 5:7; Isa 27:1-3).

What shall I say? Grace can take us into favor with God, and that when we are in our blood (Ezek 16:7-8). Grace can make children of us, though by nature we have been enemies to God (Rom 9:25-26). Grace can make those God’s people who were not God’s people (1 Pet 2:9-10). Grace will not trust our own salvation to our own hands: “He putteth no trust in his saints” (Job 15:15). Grace can pardon our ungodliness and justify us with Christ’s righteousness. It can put the Spirit of Jesus Christ within us. It can help us up when we are down, it can heal us when we are wounded, and it can multiply pardons as we, through frailty, multiply transgressions.

What shall I say? Grace and mercy are everlasting. They are built up forever. They are the delight of God. They rejoice against judgment. And therefore this is the safest and most secure way of salvation, and therefore God has chosen to save us by his grace and mercy rather than by any other way (Isa 43:25; Rom 3:24-25; Isa 44:2, 4; Ps 37:23; Luke 10:33-34; Isa 55:7-8; Ps 136; Ps 89:2; Mic 7:18; Jas 2:13).

7. We must be saved by the grace of God, or else God will not have his will. Those who are saved are “predestinated unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace” (Eph 1:5-6).

(1) But if it is his will that people should be saved by grace, then to think of another way is against the will of God. That is why those who seek to establish their own righteousness are counted as standing out in defiance against the righteousness of God and refusing to submit to it, that is, to the righteousness which he has willed to be the only one through which we are saved by grace (Rom 10:3).

(2) If it is his will that people should be saved through grace, then it is his will that they should be saved by faith in that Christ who is the design of grace. Therefore those who have sought to be justified another way have come short of that salvation which God has provided for people by grace, and have perished in spite of it (Rom 9:31-33).

(3) God is not willing that faith should be made void and the promise of none effect (Rom 4:14); therefore those who are of the righteousness of the law are excluded: “for if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise, but God gave it to Abraham by promise” (Gal 3:18).

(4) God is not willing that people should be saved by their own natural abilities. But all the works of the law that people do in order to be saved by them are the works of their natural abilities, and are therefore called the work of the flesh. God is not willing that people should be saved by these; therefore there is no way but by his grace (Rom 4:1; Gal 3:1-3; Phil 3:3).

8. We must be saved by grace, or else the main pillars and foundations of salvation are not only shaken but overthrown, namely, election, the new covenant, Christ, and the glory of God. But these must not be overthrown; therefore we must be saved by grace.

(1) Election, which lays hold of people by the grace of God: God has purposed that it shall stand. The election of God stands sure; therefore people must be saved by virtue of the election of grace (Rom 9:11; 2 Tim 2:19).

(2) The covenant of grace, that must stand: “Brethren, I speak after the manner of men. Though it be but a man’s covenant, yet if it be confirmed,” as this one is, by the death of the testator (Heb 9:16-17), “no man disannulleth, or addeth thereto” (Gal 3:15). Therefore people must be saved by virtue of a covenant of grace.

(3) Christ, who is the gift of the grace of God to the world, must stand, because he is a sure foundation (Isa 28:16), “the same yesterday, today, and for ever” (Heb 13:8). Therefore people must be saved by grace, through the redemption that is in Christ.

(4) God’s glory, that also must stand, namely, the glory of his grace; for that he will not give to another. Therefore people must be saved from the wrath to come in such a way that their salvation brings praise to the glory of his grace.

9. There can be only one will that is master in our salvation; but that shall never be the will of man, but the will of God. Therefore man must be saved by grace (John 1:13; Rom 9:16).

10. There can be only one righteousness that shall save a sinner; but that shall never be the righteousness of men, but the righteousness of Christ, who imputes this righteousness to whom he will. Therefore people must be saved by grace.

11. There can be only one covenant by which people must be saved; but that shall never be the covenant of the law, because of its weakness and unprofitableness. Therefore people must be saved by the covenant of grace, by which God will be merciful to our unrighteousness, and will remember our sins and iniquities no more (Heb 8:6-13).

I will add a few words by way of application, and then I will close.

1. Is the salvation of the sinner by the grace of God? Then here you see the reason why God has no regard for people’s personal virtues in bringing them to glory. Did I say personal virtues? How can those who are enemies to him in their minds by wicked works have any virtues toward God? It is true that, compared with one another, some people seem better by nature and some worse; but to God they are all alike, dead in trespasses and sins.

We will therefore state it again. Are people saved by grace? Then here you may see why conversion goes the way it does among the sons of men. None are converted for their good deeds, and none are rejected for their bad. Rather, exactly as many of both, and only as many, are brought home to God as grace is pleased to bring home to him.

(1) None are received for their good deeds, for then they would not be saved by grace, but by works. As I have shown, works and grace are opposite to each other in this matter: if a person is saved by works, then not by grace; if by grace, then not by works (Rom 11). That God receives none for their good deeds is evident. Not only does he declare that he abhors the very supposition of such a thing, but he has also rejected the people who at any time have tried to present themselves to God in their own good deeds for justification. I have shown you this before.

(2) People are not rejected for their bad deeds. This is evident from Manasseh (2 Chr 33:2, 13), from the murderers of our Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 2:23, 41), and from the men you read of in the nineteenth chapter of Acts (Acts 19:19), along with many others whose sins were of as deep a dye as the sins of the worst of men.

In saving a sinner, grace looks chiefly to the purpose of God. So those whom grace finds under that purpose, it justifies freely, through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ. At Saul’s conversion, Ananias of Damascus brought a most dreadful charge against him to the Lord Jesus Christ, saying, “Lord, I have heard by many of this man, how much evil he hath done to thy saints at Jerusalem; and here he hath authority from the chief priests to bind all that call on thy name.” But what did the Lord say to him? “Go thy way, for he is a chosen vessel unto me” (Acts 9:13-15). This man’s cruelty and outrage must not hinder his conversion, because he was a chosen vessel. People’s good deeds are no argument with God for converting them; people’s bad deeds are no argument with him for rejecting them. I mean those who come to Christ by the drawing of the Father. Besides, Christ also says, “I will in no wise cast” such “out” (John 6:37-44).

2. Is the salvation of the sinner by the grace of God? Then here you see the reason why some sinners who were wonderfully averse to conversion by nature are nevertheless made to stoop to the God of their salvation. Grace takes them in hand, because grace has designed them for this very thing. That is why some of the Gentiles were taken from among the rest. God granted them repentance unto life, because he had taken them from among the rest, both by election and by calling, for his name (Acts 11:18; Acts 15:14). In this way these men who were not a people have become the people of God; these men who were not beloved for their works were nevertheless beloved by the grace of God: “I will call them my people which were not my people; and her beloved which was not beloved” (Rom 9:25).

But, you say, their minds are averse. Yes, but are they the people on whom God magnifies the riches of his grace? Why, then, in the day of his power they will be made willing (Ps 110:3), and will be able to believe through grace (Acts 18:27). But does the guilt and burden of sin keep them down so that they can by no means lift themselves up? Why, by the exceeding greatness of that power by which he raised Christ from the dead, God will work in their souls also by the Spirit of grace, to cause them to believe and to walk in his ways (Eph 1:18-20).

Paul tells us in his epistle to the Corinthians that it was by grace that he was what he was. “By the grace of God I am what I am,” he says, “and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain” (1 Cor 15:10). This man always kept in his mind a warm remembrance of what he had formerly been by nature, and also of how he had added to his vileness by practice. Yes, moreover, he rightly concluded in his own soul that if God had not, by unspeakable grace, put a stop to his wicked proceedings, he would have perished in his wickedness. That is why he lays his call and conversion at the door of the grace of God: “When it pleased God,” he says, “who separated me from my mother’s womb, and called me by his grace, to reveal his Son in me” (Gal 1:15-16). And that is also why he says he obtained grace and apostleship: grace to convert his soul, and the gifts and authority of an apostle to preach the gospel of the grace of God.

This blessed man ascribes everything to the grace of God. (1) His call he ascribes to the grace of God. (2) His apostleship he ascribes to the grace of God. (3) And all his labor in that charge he also ascribes to the grace of God.

It was this grace of God that saved from the beginning. (1) Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord, and was therefore converted and preserved from the flood (Gen 6:8). (2) Abraham found grace in the sight of the Lord, and therefore he was called out of his country (Gen 12:1-2). (3) Moses found grace in the eyes of the Lord, and therefore he must not be blotted out of God’s book (Exod 33:12, 17).

Nor may anyone imagine that these men were better than other men before grace laid hold of them. For then they would not have been saved by grace; grace would not have had the dominion and the glory of their salvation. But Paul says of himself, and of those who were saved by grace in his day, “What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise; for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles that they are all under sin” (Rom 3:9). The same may be said of these blessed ones. Indeed, this conclusion is general and reaches all the children of men, Christ Jesus alone excepted.

3. But is the salvation of the sinner by the grace of God? Then here you may see the reason why one backslider is recovered, and another is left to perish in his backsliding.

There was grace for Lot, but none for his wife; therefore she was left in her transgression, but Lot was saved nevertheless. There was grace for Jacob, but none for Esau; therefore Esau was left in his backsliding, but Jacob found mercy nevertheless. There was grace for David, but none for Saul; therefore David obtained mercy, and Saul perished in his backsliding. There was grace for Peter, but none for Judas; therefore Judas is left to perish in his backsliding, and Peter is saved from his sin. That text holds good for none but those who are elect by grace: “Sin shall not have dominion over you; for ye are not under the law, but under grace” (Rom 6:14).

Someone will say that repentance was found in the one but not in the other. Well, but who granted and gave repentance to the one? The Lord turned and looked upon Peter; he did not turn and look upon Judas. Yes, before Peter fell, the Lord told him that Peter would follow him to the kingdom of heaven, but told him that Peter would deny him first. Yet along with this he also told him not to let his heart be troubled, that is, utterly dejected, for he would go and prepare a place for him, and come again and receive him to himself (John 13:36-38; John 14:1-3). That is a blessed word of God: “The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and he delighteth in his way. Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down; for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand” (Ps 37:23-24).

My second use is for those who are dejected in their souls at the sight and sense of their sins.

First. Are those who are saved, saved by grace? Then those who want their guilty consciences quieted must study the doctrine of grace.

It is Satan’s great design either to keep the sinner from feeling his sins at all, or, if God makes him feel them, then to hide the sweet doctrine of the grace of God and keep it out of his thoughts. Yet it is by that doctrine alone that the conscience gets health and cure, for “everlasting consolation, and good hope” is given “through grace” (2 Thess 2:16). How, then, will the conscience of the burdened sinner ever be rightly quieted if he does not see the grace of God?

So study this doctrine of the grace of God. Suppose you have a disease that cannot be cured except by certain particular medicines. The first step to your cure is to know those medicines. I am sure this is true in the case at hand: the first step to the cure of a wounded conscience is for you to know the grace of God, and especially the grace of God as it concerns justification from the curse in his sight.

A man with a wounded conscience naturally leans toward the works of the law. He thinks God must be pacified by something that he himself should do. But the Word says, “I will have mercy and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Matt 9:13).

Therefore you must study the grace of God. “It is a good thing,” says the apostle, “that the heart be established with grace” (Heb 13:9). By this he implies that there is no right establishment in the soul except by the knowledge of the grace of God.

I said that when a man is wounded in his conscience, he naturally leans toward the works of the law. That is why you must be all the more careful to study the grace of God. Yes, study it so that you rightly distinguish it from the law, not only in your head but in your practice. “The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ” (John 1:17). Study it, I say, so as to distinguish it, and that not only from the law, but from all those things that men blasphemously call this grace of God.

There are many things that men call the grace of God that are not the grace of God:

1. The light and knowledge that are in every man.

2. That natural willingness that is in man to be saved.

3. That power that is in man by nature to do something, as he thinks, toward his own salvation.

I name these three, but there are many others besides that some would have called the grace of God. But you must remember that the grace of God is his good will and great love to sinners in his Son Jesus Christ. “By the which will,” that is, this good will, “we are sanctified, through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (Heb 10:10).

Again, when you have sniffed out this grace of God and can tell it apart from what is not grace, then labor to strengthen your soul with the blessed knowledge of it. “Thou therefore, my son,” said Paul, “be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus” (2 Tim 2:1). Fortify your judgment and understanding. But above all, labor to get it all down into your conscience, so that your conscience may be “purged from dead works, to serve the living God” (Heb 9:14).

Second. And to press this use on you still further, consider that a man gains yet more advantage by knowing this grace of God and by growing strong in it.

1. It gives him matter for joy. For he who knows this grace rightly knows that God is at peace with him, because he believes in Jesus Christ, who by grace tasted death for every man, “by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God” (Rom 5:2). And indeed, what joy or rejoicing is like the rejoicing here? To rejoice in hope of the glory of God is to rejoice in the hope of enjoying him forever, with that eternal glory that is in him.

2. As it shows us matter for joy and rejoicing, so it produces much fruitfulness in all holiness and godliness. “For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world” (Titus 2:11-12). Yes, it tends this way so naturally that it no sooner appears to the soul than it produces this blessed fruit in the heart and life. “We ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another. But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour appeared…” What then? Why, then he who believes, being justified by his grace and expecting to be an heir according to the hope of eternal life, is “careful to maintain good works” (Titus 3:3-8).

See also what Paul writes in his letter to the Colossians: “We give thanks,” he says, “to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love which ye have to all the saints, for the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, whereof ye heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel; which is come unto you, as it is in all the world; and bringeth forth fruit, as it doth also in you, since the day ye heard of it, and knew the grace of God in truth” (Col 1:3-6).

3. The knowledge of the grace of God, and the strength that comes by it, is a sovereign antidote against each and every kind of delusion that is in the world or may yet come into it. That is why Peter, urging believers to take heed that they are not carried away with the errors of the wicked and so fall from their own steadfastness, adds this exhortation as their only help: “But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ” (2 Pet 3:18).

(1) Suppose someone should argue that a man’s own righteousness saves the sinner. Why, then, we have this at hand: God “hath saved us, and called us, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ…” (2 Tim 1:9).

(2) Suppose someone should argue that by the doctrine of free grace we must not understand God extending free forgiveness as far as we have sinned or do sin. The answer is: “But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound: that as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness,” that is, through the justice of God being satisfied by his Son, “unto eternal life” (Rom 5:20-21).

(3) Suppose someone should argue that this is a doctrine that leads to looseness and lewd living. The answer is ready: “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?” (Rom 6:1-2). For the doctrine of free grace, when it is believed, is the most sin-killing doctrine in the world.

(4) Suppose men should try to burden the church of God with unnecessary ceremonies and impose them, just as the false apostles of old urged circumcision, saying that unless you do these things you cannot be saved (Acts 15:1). Why, the answer is ready: “Why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the necks of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even as they” (Acts 15:10-11). But I will not enlarge on this.

Third. This doctrine, “By grace ye are saved” (Eph 2:5), is the only remedy against despairing thoughts when we grasp our own unworthiness. For example:

1. You cry out, “O cursed man that I am! My sins will sink me into hell.”

Answer. Stop there, man! There is a God in heaven who is “the God of all grace” (1 Pet 5:10), and yet you are not the man of all sin. If God is the God of all grace, then even if all the sins in the world were yours, the God of all grace can still pardon. Otherwise it would seem that sin is stronger in a penitent man to damn him than the grace of God can be to save him.

2. “But my sins are of the worst sort: blasphemy, adultery, covetousness, murder, and the like.”

Answer. “All manner of sins and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men, wherewithsoever they shall blaspheme” (Matt 12:31; Mark 3:28). “Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon” (Isa 55:7-8).

3. “But I have a stubborn and rebellious heart, a heart that is far from good.”

Answer. “Hearken unto me,” says God, “ye stout-hearted, that are far from righteousness: I bring near my righteousness” (Isa 46:12-13). That is, he brings near the righteousness of Christ, by which stout-hearted sinners are justified, though ungodly (Phil 3:7-8; Rom 4:5).

4. “But I have a heart as hard as any stone.”

Answer. “A new heart also will I give you,” says God, “and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh” (Ezek 36:26).

5. “But I am as blind as a beetle; I cannot understand anything of the gospel.”

Answer. “I will bring the blind by a way that they know not; I will lead them in paths that they have not known: I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them, and not forsake them” (Isa 42:16).

6. “But my heart will not be moved by the sufferings and blood of Christ.”

Answer. “I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his first-born” (Zech 12:10).

7. “But though I see what is likely to become of me if I do not find Christ, yet while I am in this state my spirit keeps running after vanity, foolishness, uncleanness, and wickedness.”

Answer. “Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols will I cleanse you” (Ezek 36:25).

8. “But I cannot believe in Christ.”

Answer. But God has promised to make you believe. “I will also leave in the midst of thee an afflicted and poor people, and they shall trust in the name of the Lord” (Zeph 3:12). And again, “There shall be a root of Jesse, and he that shall rise to reign over the Gentiles, in him shall the Gentiles trust” (Rom 15:12).

9. “But I cannot pray to God for mercy.”

Answer. But God has graciously promised a spirit of prayer (Zech 12:10): “Yea, many people and strong nations shall come to seek the Lord of hosts in Jerusalem, and to pray before the Lord” (Zech 8:22). “They shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people; and they shall say, The Lord is my God” (Zech 13:9).

10. “But I cannot repent.”

Answer. “The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged on a tree. Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins” (Acts 5:30-31).

I could go on enlarging like this, for the holy Bible is full of this exceeding grace of God. Oh, these words, “I will” and “you shall”! They are the language of a gracious God. They are promises by which our God has pledged himself to do for poor sinners what would otherwise be left undone forever.

Are those who are saved, saved by grace? Then let Christians labor to advance God’s grace: first, in the heart; second, in the life.

In Heart

First, in the heart, and in this way:

1. Believe in God’s mercy through Jesus Christ, and so advance the grace of God. I mean, venture on it heartily, venture on it confidently, for there is enough in the grace of God. Abraham magnified the grace of God when “he considered not his own body now dead … neither yet the deadness of Sarah’s womb: he staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God” (Rom 4:19-20).

2. Advance it by raising it high in your thoughts. Always have good and great thoughts of the grace of God. Narrow and slender thoughts of it are a great disparagement to it.

And to help you in this, consider:

(1) This grace is compared to a sea: “And thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea” (Mic 7:19). Now a sea can never be filled by casting things into it.

(2) This grace is compared to a fountain, an open fountain: “In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for uncleanness” (Zech 13:1). Now a fountain can never be drawn dry.

(3) The psalmist cries out concerning the grace and mercy of God, “It endureth for ever”; he says so twenty-six times in one psalm (Ps 136). Surely he saw a great deal in it; surely he was greatly taken with it.

(4) Paul says the God of all grace can do more than “we ask or think” (Eph 3:20).

(5) Therefore, as God’s Word speaks, so you should conclude about the grace of God.

3. Come boldly to the throne of grace by heartfelt prayer, for this also is the way to magnify the grace of God. This is the apostle’s exhortation: “Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need” (Heb 4:16).

Look at this a little, and wonder.

We have been talking all this while about the grace of God, and now we have come to his throne, as Job says, “even to his seat” (Job 23:3). And look, it is a throne of grace! Oh, when a God of grace is on a throne of grace, and a poor sinner stands by and begs for grace, and does it in the name of a gracious Christ, in and by the help of the Spirit of grace, can it be otherwise than that such a sinner must obtain mercy and grace to help in time of need?

But let us not forget the exhortation, “Come boldly.” Indeed, we are apt to forget this exhortation. We think that, since we are such abominable sinners, we should not presume to come boldly to the throne of grace. Yet that is exactly what we are told to do; and to break a commandment here is as bad as to break it anywhere else.

You may ask me, “What is it to come boldly?” I answer:

(1) It is to come confidently: “Let us draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water” (Heb 10:22).

(2) To come boldly is to come often: “At morning, at noon, and at night, will I pray” (Ps 55:17). We are used to calling those who come often to our door bold beggars.

(3) To come boldly is to ask for great things when we come. The bold beggar is the one who will not only ask, but also choose the thing he asks for.

(4) To come boldly is to ask for others as well as ourselves, to beg mercy and grace for all the saints of God under heaven as well as for ourselves: “Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit … for all saints” (Eph 6:18).

(5) To come boldly is to come and not take no for an answer. This is how Jacob came to the throne of grace: “I will not let thee go except thou bless me” (Gen 32:26).

(6) To come boldly is to plead God’s promises with him, both by way of justice and by way of mercy, and to take it for granted that God will give us whatever we ask in the name of his Son, because he has said so.

4. Labor to advance God’s grace in your heart by often admiring, praising, and blessing God in secret for it. God expects it: “Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me,” he says (Ps 50:23). “By Jesus Christ therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually; that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name” (Heb 13:15).

In Life

Second, as we should advance this grace in our hearts, so we should also do it in our lives. In our conduct we should “adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things” (Titus 2:10). The apostle has a great saying: “Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ” (Phil 1:27), and that is the gospel of the grace of God. God expects that in our whole life there should be a blessed tang of the gospel; or, put another way, that the grace of the gospel of God should be preached to people by the way we live among them.

The gospel shows us that God wonderfully stooped and condescended for our good; and to act in keeping with this is to stoop and condescend to others.

The gospel shows us that there was an abundance of pity, love, tenderness, and compassion in God toward us; and so we should be full of tenderness, pity, love, and compassion toward others.

The gospel shows us that in God there is a great deal of willingness to do good to others.

The gospel shows us that God acts toward us according to his truth and faithfulness, and so should we be in all our dealings with one another.

By the gospel, God declares that he forgives us ten thousand talents, and we ought likewise to forgive our brother the hundred pence.

And now, before I conclude this use, let me give you a few considerations to endear your heart to so good and so happy a work.

Heart-Endearing Considerations

1. Consider that God has saved you by his grace. Christian, God has saved you! You have escaped the lion’s mouth; you are delivered from the wrath to come. Advance the grace that saves you, in your heart and life.

2. Consider that God left millions in their sins on the day he saved you by his grace. He left millions out and set his choice on you. It may be that hundreds also, yes, thousands, were lying before him under the preaching of the word on the day of your conversion, as you were, and yet he took you. Considerations of this kind deeply affected David; and God would have them affect you too, so that you advance his grace in your life and conduct (Ps 78:67-72; Deut 7:7).

3. Consider that perhaps most of those whom God refused on the day he called you by his grace were, as far as conduct goes, far better than you ever were. As Paul says, “I was a blasphemer, I was a persecutor, I was an injurious person, but I obtained mercy!” (1 Tim 1:13-15). Oh, this should affect your heart! This should move your heart to make it your study to advance this grace of God.

4. Perhaps on the day of your conversion you were more unruly than many. Like a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke, hard to tame, you were brought home by strong hands. You would not be driven, so the Lord Jesus had to take you up, lay you on his shoulder, and carry you home to his Father’s house (Luke 15:1-6). This should move your heart to make it your study to advance the grace of God.

5. It may be that many even took offense at God for converting and saving you by his grace, just as the elder son was offended with his father for killing the fatted calf for his brother (Luke 15:21-32). And yet that did not hinder the grace of God, nor make God lessen his love to your soul. This should make you study to advance the grace of God in your heart and life.

6. Consider again that God has allowed you only a little time for this good work, just the few days you now have left to live. I mean, for this good work among sinful men; and then you will go to receive the wages that grace will also give you for your work, to your eternal joy.

7. Let this also have some place in your heart: every man shows subjection to the god he serves, yes, even though that god is none other than the devil and his lusts. And will you not, O man saved by the Lord, be much more in subjection to “the Father of spirits, and live” (Heb 12:9)? Alas, they are pursuing their own damnation, yet they frolic and dance all the way they go. They serve that “god” (Satan) with cheerfulness and delight, who at last will plunge them into the everlasting gulf of death and torment them in the fiery flames of hell. But your God is the God of salvation, and to God your Lord belong the issues from death (Ps 68:20). Will you not serve him with joyfulness in the enjoyment of all good things, even him by whom you are to be made blessed forever?

Objection. “This is what kills me: honor God I cannot! My heart is so wretched, so spiritless and so desperately wicked, I cannot.”

Answer. What do you mean by “cannot”? First, if you mean you have no strength to do it, you have said something untrue, for “greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world” (1 John 4:4). Second, if you mean you have no will, then you are wrong there too; for every Christian in his right mind is a willing man, and the day of God’s power has made him so (Ps 110:3). Third, if you mean that you lack wisdom, that is your own fault: “If any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not” (Jas 1:5).

Objection. “I cannot do things as I want to.”

Answer. Neither could the best of the saints of old. “To will is present with me,” said Paul, “but how to perform that which is good I find not” (Rom 7:18). And again: “The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other, so that ye cannot do the things that ye would” (Gal 5:17).

And here indeed is a great demonstration of this truth, “ye are saved by grace.” For the children of God, while they are here, are still infirm and weak, despite their conversion to God and their salvation by Christ through grace, because a body of death still remains in them. They are so weak that if even the sin in the best of their performances were laid to their charge according to the terms of a covenant of works, they would find it impossible ever to get into glory.

But why do I talk this way? It is impossible that those who are saved by grace should have their infirmities laid to their charge in that way, “for they are not under the law.” By the grace of God they are included in the death and blood of the Son of God, who always lives to make intercession for them at the right hand of God. His intercession so prevails with the Father that it takes away the iniquity of our holy things from his sight, and presents us holy, and above reproach, and blameless in his sight. To him, by Christ Jesus, through the help of the blessed Spirit of grace, be given praise, and thanks, and glory, and dominion, by all his saints, now and forever. Amen.