KenH
Well-Known Member
Grace does not stand upon the distant mountain-top and call on the sinner to climb up the steep heights, that he may obtain its treasures; it comes down into the valley in quest of him; nay, it stretches down its hand into the very lowest depths of the horrible pit, to pluck him thence out of the miry clay. It does not offer to pay the ninety and nine talents, if he will pay the remaining one; it provides payment for the whole, whatever the sum may be. It does not offer to complete the work, if he will only begin it by doing what he can. It takes the whole work in hand, from first to last, presupposing his total helplessness. It does not bargain with the sinner, that if he will throw off a few sins, and put forth some efforts after better things, it will step in and relieve him of the rest by forgiving and cleansing him. It comes up to him at once, with nothing short of complete forgiveness as the starting point of all his efforts to be holy. It does not say, “Go and sin no more, and I will not condemn thee;” it says at once, “Neither do I condemn thee; go and sin no more.”
Indeed, otherwise it would not be grace, but a miserable mixture of grace and merit, a compound of God’s doings and man’s deservings. If grace does not meet the sinner just where he stands, just as he is, in all his helplessness and guilt, it is no grace to him; for it still leaves an impassable gulf between, a gulf which he has no means to fill up or to cross.
If grace wait for anything to be done or felt by man, before it will go forth to him, it will wait forever. If it had waited till Adam came out of the thicket and began to seek after God again, it would never have revealed itself at all. If it had waited till Saul had ceased to hate the Master and persecute the disciple, it would never have reached him. If it had waited till Jerusalem had somewhat purged itself from the innocent blood which it had shed, no Gospel would ever have been heard within its walls.
- from Horatius Bonar's The Story of Grace
Indeed, otherwise it would not be grace, but a miserable mixture of grace and merit, a compound of God’s doings and man’s deservings. If grace does not meet the sinner just where he stands, just as he is, in all his helplessness and guilt, it is no grace to him; for it still leaves an impassable gulf between, a gulf which he has no means to fill up or to cross.
If grace wait for anything to be done or felt by man, before it will go forth to him, it will wait forever. If it had waited till Adam came out of the thicket and began to seek after God again, it would never have revealed itself at all. If it had waited till Saul had ceased to hate the Master and persecute the disciple, it would never have reached him. If it had waited till Jerusalem had somewhat purged itself from the innocent blood which it had shed, no Gospel would ever have been heard within its walls.
- from Horatius Bonar's The Story of Grace
