Saturday, August 23, 2008

Charles Spurgeon on God's grace.

"Last Sabbath morning I tried to show that the substance and essence of the true gospel is the doctrine of God's grace—that, in fact, if you take away the grace of God from the gospel you have extracted from it its very life-blood, and there is nothing left worth preaching, worth believing, or worth contending for. Grace is the soul of the gospel: without it the gospel is dead. Grace is the music of the gospel: without it the gospel is silent as to all comfort. I endeavoured also to set forth the doctrine of grace in brief terms, teaching that God deals with sinful men upon the footing of pure mercy: finding them guilty and condemned, he gives free pardons, altogether irrespective of past character, or of any good works which may be foreseen. Moved only by pity he devises a plan for their rescue from sin and its consequences—a plan in which grace is the leading feature. Out of free favour he has provided, in the death of his dear Son, an atonement by means of which his mercy can be justly bestowed. He accepts all those who place their trust in this atonement, selecting faith as the way of salvation, that it may be all of grace. In this he acts, from a motive found within himself, and not because of any reason found in the sinner's conduct, past, present, or future. I tried to show that this grace of God flows towards the sinner from of old, and begins its operations upon him when there is nothing good in him: it works in him that which is good and acceptable, and continues so to work in him till the deed of grace is complete, and the believer is received up into the glory for which he is made meet. Grace commences to save, and it perseveres till all is done. From first to last, from the "A" to the "Z" of the heavenly alphabet, everything in salvation is of grace, and grace alone; all is of free favour, nothing of merit. "By grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God," "So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy."

Charles Spurgeon

5 comments:

cybeRanger said...

Thanks for sharing..

Shalom,
http://bestchristianblogoftheweek.blogspot.com/

Mattityahu said...

The best thing about preaching this great news of Jesus Christ is that we don't have to try to change anyone. We simply proclaim God's grace in it's entirety with no fine print and set before them Life or death. They can either believe this wonderful news or reject it. I don't have to manipulate anyone or change anyone.

Freely we have received, so let us freely give. Whoever will come. All are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb. The requirement is to simply show up.

Craig Glenn said...

Good one Mat....you right, either they believe or not....still, thank you Lord for taking away the veil!!!

Bino M. said...

Great word by Spurgeon! I wonder why people don't see this truth.

Craig Glenn said...

Hey Bino m, Methinks, at best ignorance, at worst, controlling legalistic spirits...