The Gift of God

"By grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God." —Ephesians 2:8 [KJV]

Sleep is the image of death; every morning we awake is a kind of new life. In sleep, how insensible of danger! how unable to prevent it! The Lord's mercies are renewed every morning; His watchful providence is our safety. Reflect, O my soul, upon the unmerited love of thy God! Happy for thee, daily to awake and arise from thy bed of slumber with the sense of free grace and sovereign love upon thy heart! 

Temporal mercies are heightened and improved by a sense of spiritual and eternal blessings. Disciple, thou livest in a space of time in which thou mayest look back upon eternal love, look forward to eternal glory, and look upon thyself and see what wonders grace has done. Thou art this day called to consider how thou ART saved. First, in the purpose of thy God, ere thou hadst a being, everlasting love which gave thee existence, decreed thy salvation. 

Secondly, in accomplishment, grace provides a LAMB for thy ransom; in the fulness of time, a Saviour is born in human flesh; He lived for sinners, died for sin, "made an end of sin," made reconciliation for iniquity, brought in an everlasting righteousness; His expiring breath proclaimed, salvation work is FINISHED; but thy poor soul lay in nature's darkness, in the sleep of death, and would have slept on till the arch-angel's dreadful sound of the trumpet had wakened thee to everlasting shame and confusion; but impossible this: being saved in love's decree, being redeemed by blood divine, grace challenged thy soul. 

Therefore, thirdly, thou art saved in enjoyment "through faith;" called by the word of truth; quickened by the Spirit of grace; Jesus's salvation become the desire of thy soul; God gave His Son for thee; the Spirit gave faith to thee: hence Jesus became precious, sin hateful, thyself vile, holiness lovely in thine eyes and to thy heart; thus sinners ARE saved by grace through faith; they have no hand, no share, no glory at all in this matter; in the believing, abiding views of this grace, this salvation, consist all our peace, love, joy, holiness, heaven. 

Why then, O believer, art thou not perfectly, uninterruptedly happy and holy? Verily, because thou art still in the flesh; thy old man is still alive; nature's pride and sinfulness daily resist the glory of grace and the exercise of faith: but in opposition to all, thou art to abide confident in the belief of the truth, daily study the love of thy God and Saviour; this tends to sink thee in humility; daily consider thy deserts to be hell, and adore the riches of sovereign grace; this will, through the blessing of the Spirit, keep thee from boasting in self, and cause thee to glory in the Lord only. "Salvation is of faith, that it might be by grace."— Romans 4:16.

-preacher William Mason (1724-1797 A.D.)

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