By the late Rev. JONATHAN R. ANDERSON.
THE grace of Christ is His free favour to sinners, His love to enemies, His kindness to His murderers. My friends if you deny this then you deny the grace of Christ altogether: it is either for sinners, absolute sinners, atheists, idolaters, etc., or it is not grace. To talk, therefore about your sins, no matter what they be, though they were higher than the heavens, though they were deeper than hell, though they were blacker than the grave, though they were as old as Methuselah, as wide as the earth, as broad as the sea, to talk about your sins as objections, is to talk not for; but against the grace of Christ. And will you be found contradicting and blaspheming that very grace from which salvation flows? But, you will ask. Is it true that the grace of Christ is for sinners, the chief of sinners? Hearken to His own words, “For when we were yet without strength in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die, yet preadventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth His love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
But perhaps you will say, your case is altogether peculiar; none have sinned as you have sinned, and it is not one, but innumerable evils, that compass you about. Now, brethren, if you will sit down and recount your ills, I shall undertake to show that there is grace in Christ for them all. Is it the wrath of God that pursues you? In Christ is “a hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest.” Is it the curse of a broken covenant that oppresses you? Christ hath redeemed from the curse of the law. Is it the demands of a holy law that trouble you? In Christ there is a perfect obedience to it; for this is the name by which He shall be called, the Lord our righteousness.” Is it the power of sin that harasses you? In Christ there is freedom from this enemy, for “if the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.” Is it the temptations of Satan that overwhelm you? In Christ there is victory over him; for “He shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly.” Is it the cares, the vanities, the reproaches of the world that distract? “Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?” Is it spiritual darkness that overwhelms you? In Christ there is light: “I am the light of the world.” Is it spiritual deadness that has scared you? In Christ there is life: “I am the resurrection and the life.” Is it the fear of death that haunts you? “Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He, also, Himself likewise took part of the same, that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.” Are you all wrong together? The Lord Jesus Christ hath all grace. Have you nothing? Christ has everything. Are you absolutely helpless? Christ is all-sufficient. To every poor distressed soul, be its case what it may, He says, My grace is sufficient for thee.”
To this you may reply, I doubt not of the sufficiency of His grace, but I question whether it is for me. Now, to obviate this difficulty, the Spirit of grace shows the freeness of the grace of Christ. And I beg you distinctly to observe, that if you will not have it as absolutely free, you will not get it at all. The grand source of the difficulties you have in closing with Christ is something in yourselves. In Christ you profess to believe there is everything you can desire, there is nothing wanting on His part, but you look at this, and that and the other thing in yourselves, and you first fear then doubt, then despond, and perhaps at last give way to the most gloomy despair and sinking of heart. Now all this would be well, if the grace of Christ were ever bestowed on sinners on account of anything in them, except indeed their guilt and pollution and misery. I entreat you to observe that His grace is absolutely, infinitely, immutably free grace. And the source and foundation of it are to be found in Himself, and not in sinners. What then remains for you but to look to Christ—attempt to look, cry out, or groan that you cannot look—but oh! let your groaning be to Him and let it be vented in the view of His free grace, for He will be gracious unto whom He will be gracious.” But you may still say, I am not only vile and unworthy, but I have no disposition to accept of free grace, and that is my chief burden. I care not about the wrath that is to come, for I see Christ is a sufficient shelter: I care not about a burden of guilt, for I see Christ is a sufficient surety: I care not about a persecuting world, and a tempting devil, and all manner of conflicts, for Christ is more than a match for them all. But oh! what is to become of me here, a guilty perishing sinner, and I cannot get Christ—nay—I seem as if I would not have Him, and the more that is said about the light of His glory, the deeper I sink in darkness, and the more that is said of His love, the stronger becomes my obduracy; and the nearer He is brought to me, the further I seem to run away from Him? Now dear brethren, this is the very position in which we rejoice to see you, because it serves to bring to light what otherwise must remain concealed—the infinite efficacy of the grace of Christ. Let others preach grace to those who are believing, and penitent and obedient, and no grace to those who are bound in unbelief, and hardness of heart and rebellion. The gospel which this holy Word unfolds and which in my ministry I desire to publish, is the gospel of efficacious, infinitely efficacious and irresistible grace. And now, O poor, troubled oppressed sinner, the contest lies not between you and your blindness, and unbelief and enmity, but between Christ and all the opposition which sin can maintain. And though, therefore, your corruption should rage like the stormy sea, in the omnipotence of His grace, Christ can say, “Peace be still.” And though your souls should be covered with sin as with the most loathsome leprosy, in the infinitude of His grace, Christ can say, “I will, be thou clean.” And though your eyes be shut in triple darkness, Christ can say in the omnipotence of His grace, “Ephphatha, be open.” And though Satan should shut you up in the deepest dungeon of hellish ingenuity and power, Christ in the omnipotence of His grace can say to the prisoners, “Ho, come forth, and show yourselves.” And though in your single soul were accumulated the guilt of myriads of the human race, in the omnipotence of His grace, Christ can say, “Son, daughter, be of good cheer, thy sins be forgiven thee.” And, therefore, despair not, despond not, fear not, but to every cloud and every terror and every corruption and every difficulty and every danger say, “Behold God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid.” “Surely shall one say, In the Lord have I righteousness and strength.”
But your fears are not yet allayed, nor your difficulties removed; for you plead that you have resisted the grace of Christ so long, and have abused it so often, that you conclude He has given you up to blindness of mind and hardness of heart. Now, brethren, I would come to you in your distress and say to you, Man, Woman, why weepest thou? Whom seekest thou? And can you answer sincerely that it is for the want of Christ you mourn, or, at least, that it is for not mourning the want of Him you are disquieted? Then this proves, He has not cast you off, but only hides Himself from you for a little, for wise and gracious purposes which you will hereafter learn: “For a small moment have I forsaken thee; but with great mercies will I gather thee. In a little wrath I hid my face from thee; but with great mercies will I gather thee. In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee.” But whether you possess this evidence or not, I have still to declare the grand, the consolatory truth, that the grace of Christ is irresistible. The devil may plot against the just, and bring them into the greatest troubles, as in the case of Job; and he may rage against them with the most awful fury, and threaten to rend them in a thousand pieces, as in the case of Peter; the world may put forth its utmost efforts, the corruptions of the heart may swell into a flood of blasphemy and wickedness and rebellion, sufficient to deluge a whole city as was the case with David in the matter of Uriah. But none of these, nor all of them put together can alter or even shake the purpose of the Redeemer’s love; on His throne of glory, He watches the tumults of the enemy, and controls all their operations, until the appointed hour of deliverance arrives: then though Saul be on the way to persecute the disciples, and be breathing out threatenings and slaughter, the Lord manifests Himself to his soul, and converts the ravening wolf into the gentle lamb; and though David be lying in the lap of sensuality, stained with the guilt of murder and adultery, the Lord appears, and washes him, and makes him whiter than the snow.
Now the Spirit of grace makes this known to the soul concerning the grace of Christ, and thereby silences its objections, and quietens its apprehensions; for the idea is very ready to arise in the heart, even of the man who is seeking salvation, that he has wearied the patience of the Saviour by his unfruitfulness, his obstinacy of heart, his unbelief, his perverseness. But what saith the Lord to all this? I am the Lord; I change not: therefore, ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.” “Considering the end of their conversation: Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever.”