"Salvation is of the LORD." -Jonah 2:9

"But God commendeth His love towards us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." -Romans 5:8 [KJV] It is a very blessed heightening of divine mercies, when we behold them as not only bestowed upon those that deserved them not, but upon those that deserved the reverse of them. It is not enough, in our account of God's love, to say that God was gracious when we had done nothing to merit His favour, but that God was gracious when we had done every thing to merit His displeasure. This is among the sweet features of the gospel. And the reason is very plain. God Himself is an infinite Being, and therefore His love must be an infinite love. All the properties of it are infinite; it must be exercised to suit an infinite power; it must be such as corresponds to infinite wisdom; and its effects must be such as shall be suited to infinite goodness.   Hence, therefore, in the display of it, such manifestations must be given as shall set forth, that the love of God, a...

"Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you."   -I Peter 1:20 [KJV] By "these last times" is meant this present dispensation, the dispensation of grace under which we live, and they are called the last times chiefly for two reasons:   1. Because Christ was manifested in the last days of the legal dispensation of the old covenant, which now, as decaying and waxing old, was ready to vanish away (Hebrews 8:13) , which it did when at the destruction of Jerusalem the whole of the temple service, including the sacrifices offered there, was brought to an end.  2. Another reason why the dispensation under which we live is called "the last days" is because it is the final revelation of God. It is "the time accepted," "the day of salvation," of which all the prophets have spoken (2 Corinthians 6:2; Acts 3:24) .  Christ is now upon His throne of grace; the great, the glorious, th...