By
grace, thus regarded, all true believers are saved: and in order
farther to explore it, as forming the sole basis and grand cause of
their salvation from beginning to end, we shall view it in four
different directions: or consider it as it appears I. In the eternal
purposes of God respecting them—II. In their redemption by Christ—
III. In the operations of the Spirit on their hearts: and IV. In the
ultimate glorification of their souls and bodies in heaven.
I.
Let us survey the grace by which true believers are saved, as it
appears in the eternal purposes of the Most High respecting them.
God, the sum of all possible excellence and perfection, has existed
from everlasting. Infinite knowledge and comprehension are essential
to him: one day is with him as a thousand years, and a thousand years
are as one day: consequently at no period of time, however distant,
can it be said, that he has acquired. knowledge. So boundless is his
intelligence, that all the events of time have always been naked and
open before his eyes.
I
am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me:
declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the
things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I
will do all my pleasure.
Foreseeing
the ruin and universal desolation which sin and Satan would spread
among our species, the great Omniscient determined and settled in his
eternal counsel, to rescue a remnant, of the fallen race of Adam,
from the horrible abyss of depravity and misery, into which all his
offspring have been thrown. And having first set apart his own Son to
be a Saviour, he chose them in him, before the foundation of the
world, that they should be holy and without blame before him in love.
Their election, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, was
personal, and was grounded on his own good pleasure and
distinguishing grace, without any conditions on their part to induce
his favor and oblige him to shrew mercy to them. Neither their good
nor their evil affected his mind and directed his choice, when he set
them apart for himself and gave them to his Son.
For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or
evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand; not
of works but of him that calleth; it was said unto her, The elder
shall serve the younger: as it is written, Jacob have 1 loved and
Esau have I hated; Also he saith unto Moses, I will have mercy on
whom 1 will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will
have compassion: So
then, as the apostle concludes, it is not of him that willeth nor of
him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.
This
choice of God's people is called
the
election of grace,
because sovereign grace forms the glorious basis of it. And according
to this grace, by which they were elected of God, they are saved; or
according
as they were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world,
they are called, justified, sanctified, preserved from falling, and
finally advanced to the fruition of eternal glory. Who
hath saved us, and called us with a holy calling, not according to
our works, but according to his ,own purpose and grace, which was
given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. For whom he did
foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of
his Son, that he might.be the first-born amongst many brethren.
Moreover, whom he did predestinate, them he also called; and whom he
called, them he also justified; and .whom he justified, them he also
glorified.
Thus
Christian believers, by grace ye are saved: not on account of any
merit that you possessed, nor by any works of righteousness which you
have done, but according to the mercy of God, who has loved you with
an everlasting love, and foreordained you to eternal life. Set apart
of him for himself in the election of grace, you now actually
participate the benefits of the redemption through the blood of
Christ, and in due time will inherit the celestial kingdom. You are
the sheep of Jesus, for whom he laid down his life, who shall never
perish; and whom none shall be able to pluck out of his hand and out
of his Father's hand. But take heed that you do not overlook and
disregard the immense obligation to love, self-denial, humility and
holiness conferred upon you by that grace, which has so kindly
distinguished you from thousands of your fellow sinners, and which
has laid so firm a foundation for your present and future happiness.
Be it the language of your hearts and lips,
Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us
with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ according
as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world.
