Hallelujah ~ The Lord God omnipotent reigneth!
"By
grace ye are saved"
-EPHESIANS
2:5 [KJV]
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. God loves the holy unfallen angels; there is an
object of sovereign, distinguishing, free, and superabounding.
Every
attribute of Jehovah is distinct, and yet so blended that the whole
shine 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 these rays into distinct colours. So the attributes
of God are not confused though blended, and all shine forth in one
pure bright glory. But 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 Luther felt when, racked and torn by
the words "THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD WITHOUT THE LAW IS
MANIFESTED,” he cried out in the agony of his soul, "What!
am I damned not only by the law, but damned by the gospel
also!"
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! glad tidings to perishing sinners! Oh! blessed news to those who are sinking under a sense of guilt and misery, in whom the law of God is discharging its awful curse!
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! glad tidings to perishing sinners! Oh! blessed news to those who are sinking under a sense of guilt and misery, in whom the law of God is discharging its awful 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 superabounding
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, "YE
ARE SAVED."
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, or soften a
stony heart; draw forth songs of praise, and tears of contrition;
produce repentance and godly sorrow for sin; a humble mind and a
tender conscience; it is a sweet experience of the superabounding
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.
-Gospel
report by preacher J.C. Philpot (1802-1869 A.D.)
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