The Grace
Our fountain-head of blessing here is GRACE. It was to this grace or free love of God that we came when first the consciousness of want and sin awoke within us. This grace of God we found to be large enough for us, and altogether suitable; so that while we felt ourselves unfit objects for any thing else, we were just the more, on that account, fit objects for grace. Either for wrath or for grace we were fit, but for nothing else — for nothing between. We shrank from the wrath, and we took refuge in the grace. Between the one and the other, the blood of the accepted sacrifice had made a way, a way of holiness i
Q 2
THE GRACE.
we saw that way, we saw it to be free and unchallenged, we fled along that way, and soon found ourselves beyond the reach of wrath, under the broad covering of grace, nay, under the very wdng of the gracious One, of him who is full of grace and truth.”
It was the knowledge of this grace that rooted up our doubts, that quieted our fears, and made us blush for our unbelief and suspicious mistrust. It is the knowledge of this grace that still keeps our souls in peace, in spite of weakness, and sin, and conflict. Being permitted to draw upon it without limit and without restriction, we feel that no circumstances can arise, in which we shall not be at liberty to use it, nay, in which it is not our chief sin to stand aloof from it, as if it had become less wide and free. With all this large grace placed at our disposal, to draw upon continually, what folly to be afraid of enemies, and evils, and days of trouble!
For thus saith the prophet, Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is. For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.” (Jer. xvii. 7, 8.)
It is in this grace that we continue.” (Acts xiii. 43.) It is in this grace that we stand.” (Bom. v. 2.) It is in this grace that we are to “be strong.” (2 Tim. ii. 1.) It is this grace that we are to hold fast.” (Heb. xii. 28, margin.) It is this grace that is sufficient for us.” (2 Cor. xii. 9.) It is this grace that we desire for others, saying, “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.” (Eph. vi. 24.) All is grace, from the beginning to the end, unmingled grace, in which no respect is had to aught of good done, felt, thought, spoken by us. So that the history of our life is wrapt up Q 3
THE GRACE.
in these blessed words, Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.” (Rom. V. 20.) We have found that the new sins of each hour, so far from closing the fountain of grace against us, opened new springs of grace for us — springs of grace which we should never otherwise have known, nor thought it possible to exist. Not as if sin were less vile on this account. David’s horrid sins were the occasions of opening up new depths of grace, unimagined before; yet his iniquity lost none of its hatefulness thereby. So grace is ever gushing forth upon us to sweep away each new sin, yet in doing so it makes the sin thus swept away to appear more hideous and inexcusable. The brighter the sun, the darker and sharper are the shadows; so the fuller the grace, the viler the sin appears.
And as our personal history, as saved men, is the history of abounding sin met by more abounding grace, so is the history at large of all things in this fallen world. What is all Israel’s history, every step of it, but the history of man’s boundless sin drawing out the more boundless grace of God? What is the church’s history but the same, so that each of the chosen and called ones who make up its mighty multitude, can say with him of old, whose name was chief of shiners, “The grace of our Lord was EXCEEDING ABUNDANT with faith and iove which is in Christ Jesus.” (1 Tim. i. 14.) And what is even the history of this material creation, on which the curse has pressed so long and heavily, but the history of grace abounding over sin and rescuing from the devouring fire this polluted soil?
All has been of grace hitherto. And all shall be of grace hereafter. In this respect there shall be no change.
Yet this is not the whole truth. For (he brightest disclosures are yet to come. The first coming of the Lord opened up to us heights and depths of most wondrous
THE GRACE.
grace; but his* second coming is to bring with it discoveries of grace as marvellous, and as yet unrevealed. That promise. The Lord will give grace and glory,” (Psa. lxxxiv. 11,) seems specially to refer to the time, when, after days of sad longing, (verse 2,) and weary journeying through the valley of Baca, (ver. 6,) we appear in Zion before God, and standing with the New Jerusalem we sing the song of blessed contrast, A day in thy courts is better than a thousand,” as if this new outburst of grace, which meets us as we enter the gates of pearl, overpassed all that we had tasted before. The apostle Peter also points forward to the same period for the full display of grace, when he speaks of the GRACE that is to be brought unto us at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter i. 13); indicating this to us, that in that day, new and larger circles of grace shall open out, just as the horizon widens when the sun ascends. To this same day the m
irropliet Zeehariah points when he says.
He shall bring forth the headstone with shoutings, crying, Grace, grace unto it.” (Zech. iv. 7.) But especially is this truth taught us by the apostle Paul when he tells us, that God’s object in quickening us together with Christ, in raising us up together and making us sit together in heavenly places, is, that in the ages to come* he might show the exceeding RICHES OF HIS GRACE in his kindness towards us through Christ Jesus.” t Here he heaps word upon word, as if he could find none strong enough for his purpose;
* iv Tot« aivscTL ‘Tol i’lrepxofiivoiz, that is, “ill the ages that are coming upon us.** It is the same word as is used in those two places in Luke, “looking after those things that sLre coming on the earth,** and, “as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the earth.’* Not as if this were to millennial times. These
are called “the age to come,** but these others are
the ages to come.**
f Eph. ii. 7., The word “exceeding is a very strong one, virptaXkoifTa vXoutov, and is the same word used 2 Cor. iii. 10, “The glory that excelleth Eph. i. 19, “The exceeding greatness of his power; 19, “The love of Christ that pasð knowledge/®
THE GRACE.
it is not merely grace, but it is riches of grace; nay, it is not this only, it is exceed’^ ing riches of grace; riches of grace not only excelling all other riches, but excelling all those riches of grace that have hitherto been known, as if past grace were to be forgotten in the plenteousness of that which is to come.
How often in IsraeVs past days, when sin abounded, has grace come pouring in, obliterating it all as if it had never been! But in the day when the Redeemer shall come to Zion and turn away ungodliness from Jacob,” — at the moment when their cry of despair may be, Hath God forgotten to be gracious f” shall grace come in upon them like a flood, fuller and richer than any thing that they or their fathers knew, bearing down mightier obstacles, and levelling higher mountains of iniquity. For it is written, in reference to this time.
Therefore will the Lord wait, that he may be gracious to you .... he will be very gracious to thee at the voice of thy cry.” (Isa. XXX. 18.) In that day shall grace” not merely bring forgiveness to Israel, but raise her to a height of glory in the earth and eminence among the nations; so that the past shall not he remembered nor come into mind.
How often in the churches past history has grace been magnified! Each age has brought out to view new wonders of grace, because of which she has praised the God of all grace. But the abundance of the past is not all that is in store for her. Her returning Lord shall bring with him all the exceeding riches of his grace,” and upon her shall these riches be expended. When caught up into the clouds to meet her Lord in the air and to be for ever with him, she shall be led into the treasure-house of grace and get a glimpse of its vastness. Each step in her past course has drawn forth a fresh out-flow of abounding grace. Grace found her in the desert
Ibo
THE GRACE.
land and in the waste howling wildernes^ Grace drew her out of the horrible pit and out of the miry clay. Grace washed her and clothed” her and shod” her, and girded” her, and decked her with ornaments,” (Ezek. xvi. 9 — 11,) giving her beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garments of praise for the spirit of heaviness. Grace strengthened her for warfare, and hardship, and labour, making her more than conqueror through him that loved her. Grace comforted her in the evil day, wiped away tears, poured in fresh joys, and threw round her the everlasting arms. Grace taught her to pray, and praise, and love, and trust, and serve, in spite of the ever-revolting heart within. Grace kept her as a stranger and a pilgrim here, without a city and without a resting-place on earth, looking for the city of foundations, watching for her Lord’s appearing, amid all the heart-sickenings of hope deferred, and wearying for the Bridegroom’s embrace, undazzled and undistracted by the false splendour of a present evil world. But the grace that has brought her thus far is not exhausted. For it is absolutely boundless, like the heart of Him out of whom it comes; and as it raises the church from one level to another, its own circle is ever enlarging.
The resurrection-dawn, the morning of joy, brings with it new stores of grace. We had thought that grace could go no further than it had gone here, in forgiving so many sins, in saving us with so complete a salvation; but we then shall find that grace had only begun to display itself.
It was but the first draught from the deep well that we tasted here. Grace meets us as we come up from the tomb to load us with new blessings, such as eye hath not seen nor ear heard. It clothes us with the royal raiment. It seats us upon the throne. It gives us the crown of life” (Rev. ii. 10); the crown of right-THE GRACE.
eousness.” (2 Tim. iv. 8.) It makes us pillars in the temple of our God. It writes upon us the name of our God, and the name of the city of our God. It gives us the morning-star.” It gives us the white stone, and in the stone a new name written which no man knoweth, saving he that receiveth it. It makes us to eat of the hidden manna. It leads us back to the tree of life which is in the midst of the paradise of God. It brings us into the bridal chamber; it sets us down at the marriage table, teaching us to sing, “Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him, for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.” It carries us into the midst of that city which has no need of the sun, neither of the moon to shine in it; whose wall is of jasper, whose foundations gems, whose gates pearls, whose streets translucent gold. It gives us to drink of the pure river of the water of life, clear as crystal. proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.
All these things grace is yet to do for us in that morning which is to dawn when this night of weeping is at an end. All this glory — this exceeding and eternal weight of glory — we shall owe to the exceeding riches of that grace which is then so marvellously to unfold itself, heaping honour upon honour, and gift upon gift, and joy upon joy, without end for ever.
In this let us mark the difference between Christ and his church, the Bridegroom and the bride. The same glory invests both; but the way of receiving it is widely different. To him it is a reward of righteousness, to her of grace. Righteousness crowns him, grace crowns her. These marvellous honours are in his case the claim of righteousness, in hers the mere award of grace. Of him it is written,
Thou hast loved righteousness and hated iniquity, therefore God, even thy God, hath
THE GRACE.
anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows” (Psa. xlv. 7); while of her it is said, Who hath saved us and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and GRACE, given us in Christ Jesus before the world began.” (2 Tim. i. 9.) What righteousness does for him, grace does for her. And oh how boundless must that grace be, when it can do for her all that righteousness can do for him!
That coming day of grace sheds light upon the present, by showing us how vast and inexhaustible that grace is which is pouring itself out from the bosom of the Father through the blood of the Son. If these riches of grace he so exceeding great, then how is it possible for us to entertain the suspicion that so often haunts us now.
Is there grace enough for the pardon of sins like mine, — grace enough to secure welcome and acceptance to a sinner like me?” What! is there grace enough to re ceive myriads washing them clean and presenting them blameless in the day of the Lord with exceeding joy, and is there not enough for one? Is there grace enough to pour out such wondrous glory upon the multitudes of the undeserving hereafter, and is there not enough to bring forgiveness to one undeserving soul just now? So that in thus telling of the grace which the ages to come are to unroll, we are proclaiming good news to the chief of sinners, — good news concerning the infinite largeness of grace, — good news concerning Him out of whom this blessed stream is flowing. Oh, what a rebuke to fear, to doubt, to suspicion, to unbelief, is the truth concerning these exceeding riches of grace yet to be developed! Is it possible that we can go on, fearing, doubting, suspecting, misbelieving, with the assured knowledge that grace is so free and large, so sufficient to embrace the whole circumstances of our case, so suitable to each special want, each
1S6
THE GRACE.
special burden, each special sin? Shall we dare to make more of the sin than of the grace, of the want than of the supply, of the burden than of the relief? Shall we not be ashamed to magnify our sin beyond the grace of God, and to reason as if the grace that can confer on us the kingdom and the crown of Christ were not large enough in compass to cover our sins? Oh the folly of unbelief! — folly without a name and without an equal, to believe in a grace willing to place us on the throne of the universe by the side of the everlasting Son, yet not willing to pardon us, — a grace large enough to say, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you before the foundation of the world,” yet not large enough to say, Be of good cheer, thy sins are forgiven thee 1”
It doth not indeed yet appear what we shall be.” Yet, as the womb of grace knows no abortions, we know that he who has begun the good work in us will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.” The grace has not had full room to expand itself and show all the vastness of its compass. Our life is hid; our glory is hid; our mheritance is hid; our city has not yet come down out of heaven from God. In the pit of Dothan it did not appear what Joseph was to he. His strange dreams did betoken something, yet who could have thought that he was to sit upon Pharaoh’s throne? It did not appear what Ruth was to be when she lived in Moab, a stranger to the true God, or even when she left home and kindred to cast in her lot with Israel. That blessed scene of love and faith when Orpah kissed” and “Ruth clave,” giving forth a heart of no common mould, did intimate something, but who could have thought that she was to be a mother in Israel, from whom Messiah was to spring?
So we do not now wear the aspect of that which we shall be. We do not look like kings. And though at times, when
THE GRACE.
we get a glimpse of the promised crown, and when a vision of its nearness passes before ns, our face flushes, our eye kindles, our gait unconsciously assumes unusual dignity, yet in general we look very unlike that which we shall be. Sometimes the star of nobility — the badge of our order — flashes out from the sordid covering and glitters on our breast, yet this is seldom; more seldom now in these last days than formerly. For religion, even the best, has sunk down from its primitive loftiness into a tame, second-rate, inferior thing, and the still- clinging garments of the old man cover in or quench every rising ray of anticipated glory.
What different beings grace would make us would we but allow it! Yet, instead of allowing it, we put it from us, content with just as much of it as will save us from the wrath to come. We shrink from its fulness, as if we should thereby stand committed to a far holier walk and higher style of
THE GRACE.
living than we are prepared for. For “the grace of God that bringeth salvation teacheth us to deny ungodliness and w’orldly lusts and to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world, looking for that blessed hope, even the glorious appearing of the great God, and our Saviour Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works.”
The grace that flowed in upon us during our long night has been large and manifold; but it is not ended with the night. The morning brings with it new stores of grace. When that grace unfolds itself, then shall it appear what we really are. Our present guise will fall from us, we shall stand forth as heirs of God,” and he who hath given us grace shall also give us glory; he who led us through the night shall bring us forth to the joy of the morning.