KenH
Well-Known Member
"By grace ye are saved." Ephesians 2:5
Oh! the volumes of blessed truth that are couched in these few words; thrown in out of the Apostle's full heart as if to give a moment's vent to his love of salvation by grace! Mercy, love, and grace are all in the bosom of God toward his saints; and yet they differ from each other, but how?
Mercy regards the criminal; love regards the object; grace, perhaps, is a blending of the two--the union of mercy and love. There is an object of love in which there is no mixture of mercy, for God loves his holy unfallen angels--having never sinned they have no need of mercy. God also shows no mercy to the fallen angels, and there we see his justice and wrath without mercy. In the case of the saints of God, the election of grace, we have not only mercy and love, but we have the joint attribute. That uniting mercy and love in one stream flows onward to the Church as the river of the water of life, the pure crystal river of grace.
Grace means the pure, unmerited favor of God, and, as such, is sovereign, distinguishing, free, and super-abounding. Every attribute of Jehovah is distinct, and yet so blended that the whole shines forth in one glorious effulgence. The rays of the sun united form one complete body of pure, bright light; but the prism or the rainbow separates out these rays into distinct colors. So the attributes of God are not confused though blended, and all shine forth in one pure bright glory. This is the peculiar character of grace, that any intermixture of worth or worthiness in the object would destroy it, for if the gospel require merit, we are damned by it as inevitably as by the law.
...
This pure, free, unadulterated grace is the joy of every soul that is able to receive it, for it comes as a blessed cordial when sinking and swooning under a sight and sense of the deserved wrath of God. When, then, the pure gospel of the grace of God comes as a cordial from the Most High, it lifts up his drooping head, revives his sinking soul, and pours oil and wine into his bleeding wounds. By this grace we are justified, pardoned, accepted, sanctified, and saved with an everlasting salvation. Oh! These are glad tidings to perishing sinners! What blessed news to those who are sinking under a sense of guilt and misery, in whom the law of God is discharging its dreadful curse!
When we get a view by faith, and a sweet taste of the pure grace of God, what a balm, what a cordial, what a sweet reviving draught it is. It is this which makes us prize so highly, and exalt so gladly the free grace of God; because it is so pure, so free, and so super-abounding over all the aboundings of sin, guilt, filth, and folly. It never can be laid down too clearly, it never can be too much insisted on that "by grace," and grace alone, "are ye saved." (Ephesians 2:8) If free grace has reached your soul, it has saved your soul. If free grace has come into your heart, it has blessed you with an everlasting salvation, and you will live to prove it when your happy soul joins the throng of the blessed.
If anything can lift up a drooping sinner, restore a backslider, break a hard heart or soften a stony heart it is grace. If anything can draw forth songs of praise and tears of contrition, produce repentance and godly sorrow for sin, humble a mind and make tender a conscience, it is the sweet experience of the super-abounding grace of God.
Can we then exalt it too much? Can we prize it too highly? Can we cleave to it too closely? No. In proportion as we feel our ruin and misery, we shall cleave to it with every desire of our soul, for it is all our salvation, as it is all our desire.
- excerpt from J.C. Philpot's Through Baca's Vale, October 31
Oh! the volumes of blessed truth that are couched in these few words; thrown in out of the Apostle's full heart as if to give a moment's vent to his love of salvation by grace! Mercy, love, and grace are all in the bosom of God toward his saints; and yet they differ from each other, but how?
Mercy regards the criminal; love regards the object; grace, perhaps, is a blending of the two--the union of mercy and love. There is an object of love in which there is no mixture of mercy, for God loves his holy unfallen angels--having never sinned they have no need of mercy. God also shows no mercy to the fallen angels, and there we see his justice and wrath without mercy. In the case of the saints of God, the election of grace, we have not only mercy and love, but we have the joint attribute. That uniting mercy and love in one stream flows onward to the Church as the river of the water of life, the pure crystal river of grace.
Grace means the pure, unmerited favor of God, and, as such, is sovereign, distinguishing, free, and super-abounding. Every attribute of Jehovah is distinct, and yet so blended that the whole shines forth in one glorious effulgence. The rays of the sun united form one complete body of pure, bright light; but the prism or the rainbow separates out these rays into distinct colors. So the attributes of God are not confused though blended, and all shine forth in one pure bright glory. This is the peculiar character of grace, that any intermixture of worth or worthiness in the object would destroy it, for if the gospel require merit, we are damned by it as inevitably as by the law.
...
This pure, free, unadulterated grace is the joy of every soul that is able to receive it, for it comes as a blessed cordial when sinking and swooning under a sight and sense of the deserved wrath of God. When, then, the pure gospel of the grace of God comes as a cordial from the Most High, it lifts up his drooping head, revives his sinking soul, and pours oil and wine into his bleeding wounds. By this grace we are justified, pardoned, accepted, sanctified, and saved with an everlasting salvation. Oh! These are glad tidings to perishing sinners! What blessed news to those who are sinking under a sense of guilt and misery, in whom the law of God is discharging its dreadful curse!
When we get a view by faith, and a sweet taste of the pure grace of God, what a balm, what a cordial, what a sweet reviving draught it is. It is this which makes us prize so highly, and exalt so gladly the free grace of God; because it is so pure, so free, and so super-abounding over all the aboundings of sin, guilt, filth, and folly. It never can be laid down too clearly, it never can be too much insisted on that "by grace," and grace alone, "are ye saved." (Ephesians 2:8) If free grace has reached your soul, it has saved your soul. If free grace has come into your heart, it has blessed you with an everlasting salvation, and you will live to prove it when your happy soul joins the throng of the blessed.
If anything can lift up a drooping sinner, restore a backslider, break a hard heart or soften a stony heart it is grace. If anything can draw forth songs of praise and tears of contrition, produce repentance and godly sorrow for sin, humble a mind and make tender a conscience, it is the sweet experience of the super-abounding grace of God.
Can we then exalt it too much? Can we prize it too highly? Can we cleave to it too closely? No. In proportion as we feel our ruin and misery, we shall cleave to it with every desire of our soul, for it is all our salvation, as it is all our desire.
- excerpt from J.C. Philpot's Through Baca's Vale, October 31