A Sermon by Andrew Thomson
Ephesians 2:8. For by grace are ye saved, through faith.
If any truth is more distinctly stated than another in the Bible, it is the truth contained in our text – that salvation flows entirely from divine grace, without anything in the sinner to deserve it, and without any ability on his part to bring it about. This truth is interwoven with every part of the gospel scheme. It stands forth as a leading declaration in the gospel record. This is what gives the gospel, as a message from God to our fallen race, all its meaning and consistency, all its value and effect.
It is indeed a truth the human mind does not readily accept; and even when it is received, that reception is not always as cordial and unreserved as we might expect it to be. We are unwilling to have our lofty imaginations brought down, to confess our ignorance, our unworthiness, our insufficiency. We are unwilling to assent to a plan which presupposes the mortifying thought that we can do nothing effectively for ourselves, and must have everything done for us through the intervention of another. We have pride of understanding and think ourselves competent to devise a scheme which might at least contribute to our salvation. We have pride of heart and will not acknowledge the moral depravity and guilt which make salvation necessary and incapacitate us for working it out ourselves.
We cannot bear to believe that, amid all our seeming excellences, there is nothing truly deserving in us – that we must lie down, under a sense of our utter nothingness, in the dust of deep, unfeigned humility, and be indebted exclusively to outside help for all our blessings and hopes. Not only must this high-mindedness be subdued so that we may be saved, but no statement is more easily proved than this: our salvation is wholly of grace. Men may treat it with ridicule, from misunderstanding its meaning or from an evil disposition. Or they may deny it, appealing to principles and modes of reasoning which reject the authority of revelation. But it will at once commend itself to our judgement, our belief and our submission, if we will consent to take our views from the Bible, which alone assures us that there is salvation, tells us what it is, urges us to seek it, and promises that it will certainly become
1This is the first part of a sermon – the exposition of the text and the first point of application – which was preached on 10 August 1828, at the introduction of John W Thomson, to the parish of Moneydie, Perthshire. Andrew Thomson (1779-1831) was the leader of the Evangelical party in the Church of Scotland, and was latterly minister of St George’s, Edinburgh. This sermon is taken, with editing, from a posthumous volume of the preacher’s Sermons and Sacramental Exhortations.
ours if we seek it as it is offered to us. It is to illustrate this truth that we mean to direct your attention at present.
How do the Scriptures represent our spiritual condition? They declare that man is guilty. But do they ever suggest that he has the wherewithal to atone for his guilt or that he can do anything to establish a claim to the pardon and absolution that he needs? They assert that he is ignorant. But do they assert that he can discover, by any exertion of his intellect, the way of reconciliation and eternal life? They describe him as in a state of inherent corruption. But do they teach that he has inherent power to change his heart and become a partaker of a divine nature? They represent him as led captive by Satan at his will. But do they anywhere ascribe to him either the wisdom or energy that is necessary to overcome this arch-enemy of his soul? They describe him as exposed to numerous difficulties and temptations. But do they give him the least encouragement to think that, if left to himself, he could struggle through the difficulties or resist the temptations?
No, my friends, you cannot read the Scriptures, however superficially, without perceiving that the answer to all these questions is, No. The Scriptures give a most melancholy picture of man’s fallen condition, but the most melancholy part of it is that he cannot, by any efforts of his own, deliver himself from ruin, for his wisdom is but folly, his strength weakness, his righteousness filthy rags. If left to himself, he must inevitably perish for ever. Thus we are told that Christ came “to seek and to save that which was lost”. As sinners we were “far off”, “having no hope and without God in the world”. And we were “without strength”, when “Christ died for the ungodly”.
These, and various other passages of holy writ, demonstrate that man as a sinner is, if abandoned to his own resources, utterly helpless and undone. And while they explicitly state his total inability to save himself, they as explicitly ascribe his salvation to the grace of God, and to no other source. “God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him”. “Being justified freely by [God’s] grace.” “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us.” “Grace reign[s] through righteousness unto eternal life, by Jesus Christ our Lord.” “By grace are ye saved.”
Besides a multitude of Scriptures to the same effect, we see from the whole strain of the gospel that it is a scheme of mercy, free and undeserved, for the benefit of creatures who have both forfeited all title to the divine favour and wholly lack the means of regaining it. The tidings it brings are good tidings, which could have no other source but the compassion of Him who, though a just God, is yet a Saviour. And as a Saviour He is rich in mercy and plenteous in redemption.
Not only has the grace of God brought salvation to the world, it has also proclaimed that grace to us and placed it within our reach. Multitudes of our fellow creatures have never heard of a Saviour; they are still ignorant of the true God and of Jesus Christ whom He has sent – living in the abominations of pagan idolatry, aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenant of promise. But it is not so with us. Unto us the word of salvation has been sent. The light of divine revelation has been made to shine on our dwellings. The record God has given of His Son, whom He sent to save sinners, has been put into our hands. The way of eternal life and the means by which we may walk in it have been there distinctly unfolded to us.
Now what has made us thus to differ? What has secured for us superior privileges over myriads of human beings in the dark places of the earth? Did we possess any claims to God’s favour, so that it would have been unjust to leave us in a state of spiritual darkness? Was it possible for us to have done anything to deserve such a high distinction as that to which we have been raised by the knowledge of Christianity? Or shall we attribute it to mere chance, which equally excludes God’s interposition and what man deserves?
No, we do not find an adequate cause, in any of these things, for the great privilege of having the gospel communicated to us. We are to seek for it in God’s sovereign grace. In Him the plan of human salvation originated, and He alone could determine those to whom it should be subsequently made known and those from whom it should be withheld. We cannot tell why it has been kept back from such a large proportion of our race; the reason has not been revealed to us, and we have no means of discovering it. Perhaps in this, as in many other cases, it becomes us to look up to God and say, “Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Thy sight”. But whatever the explanation may be, it is obvious that, as far as we are concerned, it is God’s favour, which we neither deserved or asked for, that has blessed us with the light and mercy of the gospel.
And we should observe that it is by the operation of divine grace that the salvation of the gospel is brought to us individually and effectively. We are all permitted to hear its joyful sound, but it is a mournful fact that we do not all listen to it and do not all obey it. Among the multitude to whom its message comes, only some give it a cordial welcome and embrace the deliverance which it offers and comply with the terms which it prescribes. This is an undeniable fact, but it is also true that, if we have embraced the deliverance, we must assign this blessing to the grace without which we can do nothing.
Looking at the powers of the natural understanding and the attitudes of the heart, as these are described in Scripture, we may well ask, Can these dry
bones live? The only answer that can be given is this: They cannot live unless the Spirit of God will breathe on them. In our character there is no power to put into effect that redemption from sin, or any merit to procure that restoration to the hope of heaven and that change in the moral constitution of our nature which are denied to many of our fellow creatures who live in the same neighbourhood, associate under the same roof, and receive the same instruction.
We must search somewhere else for the cause of this phenomenon. It is the doctrine of Scripture that it is God Himself who begins the good work in us, carries it on and brings it at last to perfection. This is effected in a way that corresponds to the rational nature He has given us. Our understanding is convinced by sufficient reasons; our will is moved by suitable motives; and we act on principles and exercise affections which have the full concurrence of our own minds. But the necessities of our spiritual condition require the whole to be under the awakening, guiding, constraining, overruling influence of divine grace, and this is what the scheme of the gospel has provided. It is grace – whatever instrument is used – which first brings us from darkness into light and from the power of Satan unto God; it is grace which enlightens us, renews us and makes us an obedient people.
If we have faith to embrace the Saviour, this faith has been wrought in us; it is the gift of God. If we have repented, so that our sins are blotted out, this repentance is given to us, as well as the remission with which it is accompanied. If we are taught to love God, this love is shed abroad in our hearts by the power of the Holy Ghost. Indeed, if there is anything good in our soul, if there is anything valuable in our Christian experience, if any change has been effected in our character or our condition as accountable beings before God, if we are living in any measure as the children of God – cultivating their temper and enjoying their privileges – and if we can appropriate to ourselves any of the promises of the gospel or any of the blessings of salvation, the sentiment which we hold and the language we employ must be that of Paul: “By the grace of God that I am what I am”.
Yes, Christian friends, if the grace of God had not brought you salvation, you must be still in your sins, and in your sins you must perish. As it was in that grace that the economy of redemption took its rise, it is by the same grace that you have not only been made acquainted with it, but led also to acquiesce in it. It is thus that you have been persuaded to accept Him who is mighty to save, that you are conducted along the path of righteousness, that you are cheered, upheld and animated amid your manifold trials, that you are enabled to rejoice in the hope of glory. And at every step you take in your heavenward pilgrimage, you have reason to stand still, so that you
may not only see the salvation of the Lord your God, but exclaim with mingled feelings of humility and gratitude: Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto Thy great name be all the praise.
It is true that we speak of the merits of Christ as procuring our salvation, and some may be inclined to think that such a position is not altogether consistent with the statement that our salvation is wholly of grace. There is no real inconsistency, however. Christ certainly did fulfil the law in our stead – He finished transgression, made reconciliation for iniquity and brought in an everlasting righteousness. But then you will observe that all this – the thing which He did, His manner of doing it and the success which crowned His labours – all this was the gracious appointment of God.
It is not according to Scripture to state that Christ stepped forward and, by a work of spontaneous suffering and obedience, asserted for sinners a title to what God was not already inclined to bestow, or had not already determined to give. He came from God to execute a plan which God had devised in the counsels of eternity: it was by God that He was qualified for the great undertaking, and by Him the work was accepted, because it was the result of what He Himself ordained, and He performed it according to the direction of His own will. And the satisfaction which Christ offered to divine justice was a necessary measure for attaining the purposes of divine love – a step which mercy must take in its glorious march towards the salvation of perishing sinners.
In considering the manifestation of the free grace of God, we must pay attention to His other attributes; the glory of each of His perfections is concerned in the harmonious exercise of them all. Accordingly Christ’s obedience was appointed so that His holiness and justice might be fully vindicated, while His pity operated for the pardon and redemption of rebellious men. But this was His own appointment. It was an expression of His grace; and you may judge of the extent of the grace it exhibited, when you remember that to deliver sinners from guilt and ruin, He did not spare His own Son, but sent Him into the world so that He might come under the law and pour out His soul an offering for sin.
This arrangement secured the authority of God’s government and the glory of His character, as well as accomplishing the salvation of His fallen offspring. But it also magnifies His grace much more than if our iniquities had been blotted out, and our restoration effected, by an almighty act of His will. Thus, when the Scriptures speak with particular emphasis of the love of God, they refer to the mission, incarnation and death of Christ as its greatest and most overpowering manifestation.
It is also true that we say that sinners are justified and saved through faith.
And no doubt it is the plain doctrine of Scripture that without faith we can have no well-grounded hope of forgiveness and acceptance with God. But what is faith? Not only is it a gift of God, one of the fruits of His Holy Spirit – wrought in His people and maintained by His energy, not theirs – it is that very exercise of the mind which refers the whole of redemption to the love of God, as manifested in Jesus Christ. Faith does not merit redemption, and it cannot do so. It has no efficient virtue in itself. It no more deserves good than any other quality which belongs to the renewed mind.
Faith is the appointed means of becoming experimentally related to the Saviour, who is offered to us. It implies giving up all dependence on anything in ourselves. It is fixing our dependence on Him who has been set forth as a propitiation for human sins. And as that propitiation has been instituted solely by divine mercy, faith can be considered as nothing more than trust in that mercy, as the only ground on which we may expect to be saved – as the only source from which all the blessings of the gospel may proceed to us. It is in this sense that believers are said to be “justified by faith”. It is in this sense also that they are said to be “the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus”. And it is in this sense, finally, that they are said to be “chosen to salvation, through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth”.
It is also true that we insist on the necessity of personal righteousness in those who shall finally be saved. But this too is compatible with the doctrine of free grace, as stated in my text. Holiness and happiness are inseparably connected; so unless you possess the one, you cannot be restored to the other. You cannot be happy unless you are qualified to enjoy what constitutes happiness; and the qualification consists in being holy. Scripture therefore declares that holiness is indispensable. But this very holiness must be considered a part of the salvation which is wrought out for His people by the grace of God.
In the exercise of grace, believer, to which you had no rightful claim, God sent His Son to redeem you from your iniquities, purify you as a special people, and make you zealous of good works. It is in the exercise of grace that He communicates to you the Holy Spirit, for the very purpose of sanctifying your souls. It was by a work of grace that God established those holy ordinances which go to improve your mind and character, that He puts it into your heart to embrace the ever-recurring opportunities of engaging in them, and that He blesses them effectually for your good. It is by a work of grace that He overrules the dispensations of His providence to teach you lessons of spiritual wisdom, and train you to habits of piety and heavenly-mindedness.
Even in your seasons of holiest resolution and most devoted zeal, and in the most favourable circumstances in which you can be placed, you are unable
of yourselves to resist temptation, to perform your duty and continue steadfast in the path of obedience. But His grace is given that it may be sufficient for you, and His strength is made perfect in your weakness. Thus in this part of the arrangement also, salvation is wholly of the grace of God. He not only restores you to the hope of eternal life, when He might have left you to perish, but He produces in you that holy suitability for its exercise and its joys, which you could never have produced in yourselves, and without them it never could possibly have been yours.
In every point of view therefore it is by grace that you are saved. It was the grace of God which provided salvation for the fallen race of Adam. It was His grace that made you acquainted with salvation and brought it within your reach. It is by His grace that you were effectually persuaded to embrace it and prepared for that eternal blessedness in which it ends. And even in those circumstances which at first sight may be thought to modify that grace, and to limit its freeness and fulness, we can trace not only additional proofs of its existence, but also the most gratifying illustrations of its tenderness, riches and all-sufficiency.
- To those of you, my friends, in whose personal experience the remarks now made find an echo, I need scarcely say that the subject should inspire you with gratitude. You know what it is to be afar off, and what it is to be brought near; you know the value of that salvation in which you rejoice, and you know that it all emanates from the grace of that God whom you had done everything to offend and could do nothing to conciliate. Knowing these things, and feeling them, gratitude must be a prevailing and habitual feeling in your minds; you must be conscious that it cannot be too deeply cherished or too strongly expressed; you must lament that it is so disproportionate to the riches of that saving grace of God, for which it is so justly due – in its warmth, in its constancy and in its practical influence.
That you may be grateful, as you ought to be, meditate much and meditate often on this great truth: that all your safety, all your blessings, all your expectations, all that is precious to you in time and in eternity, comes from God’s grace alone. And especially, when you think of that sacrifice of His own Son, let your souls rise in the most lively and devout fervour to the merciful Being by whose grace you are saved. In that sacrifice you are called to behold at once the reality of His love, its operation in redeeming you, its vast extent as exhibited in the costliness of that work, and the wisdom and efficacy of those means by which it has secured for you the salvation which it so liberally bestows. Let your souls magnify the Lord, and let your spirits rejoice in God your Saviour.
In your private devotions, you hold communion with the Father of your
spirits and the Author of your salvation; at family worship you present to Him your morning and evening sacrifices; in His house, you unite with His people in offering to Him the tribute of adoration and praise; and in the house, or in the field, or by the way, you converse with one another of the beauties of His character and of the greatness of your privileges and your hopes. As you do so, do not forget to celebrate the magnitude and the liberality of that mercy which He has shed on you spiritually, and with which he has brightened your eternal prospects.
Though the infidel disbelieves it all and the profligate scoffs at it all and the worldling despises it all, let the contemplation of it elevate your minds with emotions of wonder and delight. Let your experience of its inestimable value kindle in your hearts the ardour of devoted affection; let it be the song of your pilgrimage, whose path it enriches with its bountiful gifts, and whose darkest passages it cheers with its great and precious promises. And in the thanksgiving of every day and of every hour, let there be a preparation for enjoying the halleluiahs of that rapturous, everlasting anthem which all the redeemed from the earth shall sing in that blessed abode which mercy has provided for them, “Unto Him that loved us and washed us from our sins, in His own blood, and made us kings and priests unto God and His father; to Him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.”