HOW few comparatively know anything of the grace of God! Even those who do, how feeble their apprehension of its fullness! My reader, what do you know about it?
We are living in a day of grace. The word of God tells us that grace is reigning through righteousness (Rom. 5:21). Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ (John 1:17). God tried man for some forty centuries, from Adam onwards, and he proved a complete failure. The law given by Moses, a perfect expression of what was due from man to God and his neighbor, only served to make his case worse, as he utterly lacked power to keep it. He was thus manifested both as a sinner and as a transgressor.
But God is love; and though man richly deserved judgment, He so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life (John 3;16). The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us... full of grace and truth (John 1:14). But if God is to be glorified as to the question of sin, man's deep need met, and creation delivered, the Son of man must be lifted up upon the cross (John 3:14). Christ went into death, offering Himself through the eternal Spirit without spot to God, and by the grace of God tasted death for every man (or thing) (Heb. 2:9).
And God raised Him from the dead! The man Christ Jesus in the glory is God's testimony to accomplished redemption. The Man who might have come down from the cross, gave up the ghost, was buried, rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, and sat down triumphant in glory, His work done. And now God sends forth the gospel of His grace to a lost and guilty world (Acts 20:24). Grace comes clown from the glory of God. God says to man now, Jew and Gentile alike, there is no difference (Rom. 3:22), for “All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" (Rom. 3:23). But side by side with this solemn statement we read the precious words, "Being justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 3:24).
Wondrous declaration I May God write it upon the table of your heart with the point of a diamond. All have come short of the glory of God. But grace—the absolute, perfect grace of God—comes in, and makes you fit then and there. God alone could conceive so blessed a thing. You are a sinner, lost and guilty, and God presents to you a Saviour in glory, His well-beloved Son, the Lord Jesus Christ Do you believe on Him? Yes. Then God says you are justified, cleared. Who by? God Himself It is God that justifieth (Rom. 8:33). When? Now. How? Freely. Yes, without a single good work, fleshly effort, experience, or prayer. Freely, without money and without price, the moment you believe. What by? By His grace. Mark, God's grace; the undeserved, unmerited, free favor of God. Through what? Through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
A perfect man, Jesus, the Son of the living God, wrought a perfect work. God is perfectly satisfied, yea, glorified; and if you believe, you are perfectly justified, —perfectly, eternally saved.
Read the verse again. Ponder on each word. Remember it is the word of God, who cannot lie (Titus 1:2). It is written, that sinners might believe and be saved. “Being—justified—freely—by his grace— through the redemption—that is in Christ Jesus." Is not that enough? Rest there and be happy.
Perhaps you look in at yourself, bewailing your sinful state. Maybe you say inwardly (if not with your lips), “But I am such a sinner, I feel I must do something. Surely it cannot be quite so easy as you say." Ah! there it is. Self, instead of Christ. Your righteousness, instead of God's. Your thoughts, instead of the Word. Let me be plain with you. Now, don't shrink. All that you are, all that you have done, all you are trying to do, and all that you ever may do of yourself, is so mixed with sin, that if your salvation in any form or shape whatever depends upon you, to hell you certainly must go. God has given us all up, given you up, and the sooner you own it the better. When you give yourself up, then God will take you up. When you find out you are not only a lost sinner, but your case utterly hopeless as regards what you can do or be, then you are a fit subject for the grace of God, and not before.
Man is a sinner. The law made sin to abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound; that as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord (Rom. 5:20, 21). Now, give up self at once, and believe God. Grace is reigning through righteousness—not at the expense of righteousness. If God dispenses grace, He is righteous in so doing. You are a sinner, without righteousness; but God has raised Christ to glory, and now righteously proclaims grace. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you can take to yourself that blessed scripture, " He hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (2 Cor. 5:21). How wondrous the grace of God Yet is there something better still.
Better still? Yes, better still. Supposing you were penniless, and I gave you a sovereign, it would be cause for thankfulness on your part, would it not? But suppose that I gave you a heap of sovereigns, would not that be better still? Surely. And this is the manner of God's dealings with sinners. I read in Rom. 5:17 of those who believe receiving not only grace, but abundance of grace, and the gift of righteousness. Think of that. Abundance of grace. May God give you to know it and enjoy it. But even this is not all. In 1 Tim. 1:13, 14, I read of something better still.
Paul is there describing his conversion to God, and speaking of the blessing of which he had become partaker, which is true of every one that believeth. Says he, “And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus." Yes, indeed. Well may he call it exceeding abundant grace, when we look at the awful depths of sin to which man has sunk, and the wondrous fullness of the blessing which God bestows. But even this is exceeded in the thoughts of God, for in Eph. 1:7 the apostle speaks of something better still.
Addressing believers in Jesus, he writes, “In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace” (Eph. 1:7). Who can estimate these? The unsearchable riches of the grace of our God. No figures known to man can compute them. A million lifetimes would never exhaust them. The riches of this world soon melt away. Death comes, and the wealthiest are laid low, leaving their treasures behind for others, who in their turn are called to give them up and meet God. But the riches of His grace are our eternal provision, that stretches infinitely beyond this scene. And the possessor of this heavenly wealth will find, when he arrives in glory, that the blessing, notwithstanding all his anticipations, is something better still.
In the ages to come, God is going to show to poor sinners who believe on the name of His Son, the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness towards us through Christ Jesus (Eph. 2:7). Thus our God heaps up the blessing-piles up the grace, if I may so speak-until the soul is lost in wonder at its measure, and even then discovers wider, fuller, richer promises, yea, even something better still.
The destined blessing of the heirs of God shall be to the praise of the glory of His grace. Well may God say, “My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts" (Isa. 55:8, 9). Will you then, poor sinner, forfeit such infinite and eternal blessing for the paltry pleasures of sin for a season? Accept Christ now, and the perfect grace of God will hand it all over to you. And yet there is something better still.
In Eph. 3:18, the Spirit of God tells of blessing so marvelous that language fails to describe. “That ye may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height.” Of what? We are not told. Breadth, length, depth, height, alone express it. My reader, can you explore the breadth? can you search the length? can you fathom the depth? can you scale the height? No, it is all beyond your loftiest thought. When finite can grasp infinite, then can you grasp the fullness of the blessing brought to believing sinners by the grace of God. But Paul, His chosen instrument to bring out these precious things, himself was cognizant of something better still.
Caught up into Paradise, he heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter. Beloved reader, ponder this, I beseech you. A man like ourselves, caught up into the third heaven (whether in or out of the body he could not tell God knoweth, said he), and there hears things said that are not allowed to be spoken by the lips of men. Marvelous communications fell upon the ear of that honored servant of the Lord in that glorious scene beyond all human thought. Ali! dear reader, Christ is there. What inconceivable joy and bliss must His blest presence give! What must it be to be there with Him!
In conclusion, I plead with you once again. Will you have Christ? As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them which believe on His name. Grace has mounted the throne, and reigns through righteousness. Grace brings salvation—present, full, and free—to every one that believeth. Despise or neglect it at your peril (Acts 13:41; Heb. 2:3). Christ is coming quickly (Rev. 22:12). The believer rejoices at the thought. To him it is a good hope through grace. The sinner trembles at the thought. Why? Because that solemn moment will close the day of grace. The doom of the Christless shall then be sealed. Sinner, have you felt your need of a Saviour? Believe now, ere it be too late. Then by faith shall you have access into the grace of God. There is much that is false and deceptive in this world. But the Christian can say, this is the true grace of God in which we stand (1 Peter 5:12).
And do you think for a moment that such grace as this gives license, and leads to sin? What, shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid. Nay, nay, my reader; but the grace of God, which brings salvation, teaches us to deny ungodliness, and wait for glory (Titus 2:12). May you partake of this marvelous grace, and learn its lessons. E. H. C.