066. Sermon XXI: Ephesians 2:8-10
SERMON XXI For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.—Ephesians 2:8-10.
These words which I have now read unto you are an additional piece, added to that discourse of the Apostle before, concerning the cause and parts of our salvation, in shewing the exceeding riches of grace, in the application of salvation to us, laid forth by free grace from everlasting, and purchased by Christ. The words here are one of the great forts of the Protestant doctrine, a place which all our divines, in handling of justification, and salvation by faith and by free grace and not of works, have recourse unto, as wherein salvation by faith is spoken of tanquam in propria sede, as in its proper place. And therefore it is reckoned as the sum, as indeed it is, of all the Apostle had said concerning this, both in the 3d and 4th chapters to the Romans, and in the 3d to the Galatians.
I will not stand to repeat anything which I delivered for the opening of the words formerly, until I am over the 10th verse. I shall, though not much, yet somewhat more enlarge, because I conceive that the truths delivered therein are of exceeding great moment. To begin therefore with the exposition of each word apart:—
Here is the Apostle’s main assertion laid down, and that is, that by grace we are saved; and it is ushered in with this particle for. ‘For,’ saith he, ‘by grace are ye saved,’ which is a particle of coherence and connexion, and so must refer to the former words. The word is sometimes used for an introduction to an assertion, or further explication of a thing formerly asserted; sometimes as giving a reason of what had been said before. And I take it that both do stand here, in relation to two several references that these words have.
1. They refer to what he had said in the 5th verse, when he had but begun to mention the application of salvation to us, in quickening of us; his heart being big with it, saith he there, by way of parenthesis, ‘By grace ye are saved.’ He lets fall there a brief word, which yet was the centre that all his motions and rounds about the text were directed to. Now then, he having but hinted this by the way there, when he had made an end of that vein of discourse which he had in hand and was engaged in, he now comes to reassume that which he had before but scattered by the way, and to hold up this as the eminent thing, as the centre and the upshot of what he aimed at in his whole discourse. And so he enters upon a new commonplace of matter, to shew how by grace we are saved, in the application of salvation to us; he clears it by way of several short theses. And so now the word for hath relation to what he had said before in the 5th verse, ‘by grace ye are saved;’ and it is a note of reassuming the same thing again, and ushereth in a further clearing and explication of what he had there said, as if he should say, ‘For you must know that by grace ye are saved;’ and so he goes on to enlarge upon it.
2. If you take the words in reference more immediately to the words foregoing in the 7th verse, so they are a reason of what is delivered in that 7th verse. He had said there that the utmost end of God was, in the ages to come to shew forth the exceeding riches of his grace, in his kindness towards us in Christ: for, saith he, by grace ye are saved. One interpretation I gave of those words in the 7th verse was this: that to shew the exceeding riches of his grace was God’s utmost end in the salvation of men. Now here follows a demonstration and evidence of it. ‘For,’ saith he, ‘by grace ye are saved.’ This being the fountain, the original, the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and end, the contriver of all the salvation of man, he hath contrived all so that the whole shall manifest itself to be by grace. And to evidence it to them he instanceth in the salvation we have in this life, in the application of salvation to us, shewing how in the whole, and in every part of it, it is so contrived as it shall eminently appear that we are saved by grace. And by that also, says he, you may guess that even to eternity, and in all the ages to come, God still drives on the same design, even to shew forth his grace and the riches of it more and more; and by what you have now found in this work of application,—‘for ye are saved by grace,’—you may estimate what riches of grace in the world to come (which was another interpretation I gave of the words) are to be spent upon you. This as to the coherence in both these senses.
I may add this: I told you likewise, that in those words in the 7th verse, ‘that he might shew forth the exceeding riches of his grace in the ages to come,’ his scope was to shew forth the riches of his grace in converting us, in the example of these Ephesians. Now then the Apostle comes in with this word for as by way of exemplification, ‘for by grace ye arE saved;’ if ever there was an instance of the riches of grace to after-ages, it is in you. Because he had propounded them as the pattern, as the model of like kindness to others in after-ages, he doth now enlarge, and shew how that in them, and in their conversions, men that were so eminently wicked and sinful, God had shewn forth so great and rich a grace in saving of them. ‘For ye,’ saith he, ‘are saved by grace.’
Only I shall make this observation by the way. In that the Apostle doth reassume and dilate upon it; viz., salvation by grace, and that through faith, and not of works, &c.; in that he so indigitateth this, and insists on this, having let it fall before, and now again prosecuting of it,—you have scarce the like in any epistle,—it argues that this is the great point of the gospel, salvation by grace, through faith, and not of works, which is the sum of those verses. It is that great point which all the writings of the apostles, and of the prophets before them, centre in. There are two things to which all the prophets are said to give witness. And the one is, the coming of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and the glory which shall follow upon his coming; which you have in Acts 3:21, ‘As he hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.’ And it is called in Revelation 10:7, the mystery which shall be fulfilled, which, he saith, hath been spoken of by his servants the prophets. Now the other point that all the prophets have testified,—and if we search them we shall find,—it is salvation through grace, and through Christ, by faith alone. You have it in one place of Paul, in Romans 3:21, ‘The righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets.’ And, Acts 10:43, ‘To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins,’ or have justification by faith, or by believing, and without the works of the law; which is both Paul’s scope in that Romans 3 and Peter’s scope in this Acts 10. This is a point which all the prophets gave witness to, and therefore, in Romans 1:17, the sum of the gospel is delivered to us by this, that ‘the righteousness of God is therein revealed from faith to faith.’ For by grace ye are saved.—I confess, I thought I should have found no difficulty at all in this; for when I viewed the words, I thought the Apostle’s scope, when he said, ‘by grace ye are saved,’ had been comprehensively to mean all the benefits we have, which belong and appertain unto salvation, and all the standing works of God upon us, calling, and quickening, and sanctification, and whatever else that are all by grace. And so, ‘by grace ye are saved,’ runs currently from first to last, both because these are all things appertaining to salvation, and because that they are all by grace. That grace that justifies and adopts us sons, that grace it is that also calleth us, sanctifieth us; electing grace doth the one as well as the other: and all proceed immediately from that grace which is in the heart of God towards us, freely, and without works. And that which did incline me still to think this should be his meaning is, because that ‘by grace ye are saved’ comes in presently after quickening, Ephesians 2:5, and so it would seem here also to include the very work of regeneration, and the new creature, which he in this very paragraph speaks of, Ephesians 2:10.
Now the truth is, this interpretation would run currently but for one thing, and that is this, ‘by grace ye are saved through faith.’ Mark it, now this addition here crosseth it, taking salvation here for the whole work of God in us, and upon us, and towards us, comprehensively. Why? Because, first, faith itself is a part of salvation, it is a work toward salvation, and unto salvation in us. And though it is true, as the Apostle saith in Acts 18:27, that men believe through grace, as the efficient cause of their believing; yet notwithstanding we cannot be said to have faith through faith. And therefore at least here faith must be excluded out of these words, when he saith, ‘by grace ye are saved through faith;’ for otherwise there were a processus ad infinitum, as we use to say. But then again, I thought, as the Apostle saith in another case, when he saith, ‘all things are put under him,’ it is manifest that he is excepted which did put all things under him; so now faith is excepted here, because he saith afterwards, and that as an addition, ‘and not of yourselves.’ But then, on the other side, there are many things besides faith,—if you will take salvation for the whole, and all that God doth in us and for us,—that though all is by grace, yet all is not conveyed to us by faith, for regeneration itself is not. A man doth not first believe, and then is born again; but a man must first be born again before he believeth, as you have it in 1 John 5:1, ‘He that believeth is born of God.’ It is true indeed that regeneration, whereof one principle is the principle of faith, is not of works, it is wholly of grace; for the new creature is created unto good works; but yet still it is not through faith, (mark it,) unless you would make, as some do, which to me is unnatural, that the first act of faith is without any principle at all in us; which is to make a man see without having an eye. Now it is true, I say, that all these are by grace, but they are not through faith. You must give grace leave to go further than faith: and yet notwithstanding here, when he saith, ‘by grace ye are saved through faith,’ he makes them adequate and commensurable one to the other.
Then again, that which narrows the words yet more is, that take all the sanctification and new obedience that is wrought in us after we are born again, although it may be said in some sense it is through faith, yet it is not through faith alone; but the salvation which he speaks of here, it is by grace through faith. ‘We are justified freely by his grace through faith,’ &c. Now oftentimes in Scripture ‘saved’ is taken strictly for justification; as, ‘He shall save his people from their sins,’ in Matthew 1:21, and ‘saved from wrath to come,’ in Romans 5:9. And many like instances might be given, though here he states all under the first word, ‘saved.’ But then methinks this should be too narrow for the Apostle’s scope here, whereas we find that salvation may be taken more largely: and let us enlarge it as far as possibly we can, so we make these two meet together, ‘by grace ye are saved through faith,’ and through faith only.
I do lay, for the interpreting of these words, having shewn you wherein the stress lies, these three things, as premises to assoil this difficulty:—
1. That only that of our salvation is here spoken of, which, as it is given by grace, so it is received by faith, as I said before; these are both adequate. Therefore we must not extend salvation here further, or think anything is included in it further than what is conveyed to us by faith, though all be of grace.
2. That methinks the whole of our salvation should be here meant,—how, I shall show you by and by,—a whole and a complete salvation. ‘Ye are saved by grace,’ that is, ye are fully saved, or else the Apostle’s scope would not be here satisfied, and made fully up, unless his expression should reach to this; he having spoken such great things in the words before of God’s showing riches of grace in the world to come, and making this as a proof of what he had said before.
3. That he speaks of salvation as applied in this life; it is not the possession of salvation in heaven, that must necessarily be left out: for he speaks, I say, of salvation as it is applied; and it is manifest, because, saith he, it is through faith.
Now then, to assoil this difficulty in a word, that I may make this clear to you, for upon it depends the understanding of these words in the text; I conceive that salvation imports two things, or, if you will, salvation hath two parts:— The one is, of such benefits as do consist merely in the actions of God upon us and towards us, which indeed and in truth are properly salvation, in comparison of the other, as making us sons and heirs, pronouncing us just, redeemed, reconciled, graciously accepting our persons in his Son, giving us a light to heaven and to life. And the other is of the workings of God in us, which are unto this salvation, as calling, and sanctification, and obedience, &c.
I find saved is thus distinguished, when he speaks, as here he doth, of grace, and not of works. And that text which we have often occasion to recur to in the point of free grace, is an opener of this place; it is in 2 Timothy 1:9, ‘Who hath saved us and called us, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus.’ Here, if you mark it, ‘saved us’ is made distinct from calling; he hath both saved us and called us, and both by grace, and not of works. Now if you take in the whole work of calling, God doth not call us by faith, not by faith alone, for calling includes sanctification and regeneration; we are saints by calling as well as believers by calling; yet we see that he distinguisheth salvation which is the work of God upon us, from calling which is the work of God in us. Or if you will, you may take this distinction to clear it, which may help your understandings more in it; and that is, that that salvation which is applied here in this world, for we exclude heaven, is not through faith, not through faith alone; for in 2 Thessalonians 2:13, we are chosen to salvation through faith and sanctification both: it is a medium through which he carries us. Or if you will, we may also distinguish thus of salvation itself; that there are two sorts of degrees of the application of it, and both called salvation:—
1. One is an investing us with a right, a title, a tenure, an interest in all benefits of salvation, be they what they will; to give us a formal, sure, legal, authentical interest, according to the rules of the word, to all benefits of salvation, whether in this world or in the world to come.
2. Or in the second place, there is an actual possession, or, if you will, rather call it an accomplishment of all the parts of salvation and works of God in us, which God carrieth on in us by degrees, works holiness in us by degrees, whereof quickening is the beginning; works glory in us by degrees, first raising us and then filling us with glory in heaven, as I shewed out of the 6th verse.
Now these are evidently distinct, and yet they are both called salvation. There is salvation in hope,—that is, having the title of it, Romans 8:24. And there is
Accordingly now you shall find that our divines do distinguish, and exceeding rightly. Say they, when we are said to be translated from death to life, and our state is altered from the state of nature to the state of grace, from damnation to salvation, there is a double change wrought in us.
One is a relative change, which consisteth merely in title. And— The other is a real change, which consisteth in works in us. The relative change in us consisteth in all those things which depend upon God’s accounting, and reputing, and actual reckoning as such. As now, go take justification, in Romans 4:5. It is said there to be an accounting and reckoning for righteousness to us; therefore it is opposed to condemnation, in Romans 8:32. Reconciliation, or reckoning us friends, it lies in accounting us so: 2 Corinthians 5:19, ‘Reconciling the world to himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them,’ but accounting them friends, for that is the position of it. So take adoption, it lies in reputing, in God’s accounting us sons, in giving us the right and title to it: 1 John 3:1, ‘That we should be called the sons of God;’ that is, reckoned such: as the child that is in the cradle hath the title, and interest, and right of a barony, or of a kingdom.
Now all these benefits, in which the main and indeed the whole of salvation lies in this life, are in a way of reputation, and consist in a right, in a title, before the possession; such a right as will bring all the possession after it. And therefore to see the wickedness of the Church of Rome, how one absurdity draws on another. They, to maintain that we are justified, not by being accounted righteous, but by being inherently righteous, say that our adoption doth not consist in a relation to God as a Father, but in the image of God wrought in us. Why, if that adoption did imply a real change in the person that is made a son, it must make a real change in the father, for father and son are relatives; and so when God becomes a Father to us, you must make a real change in him, for always for things that are relata there is the same reason, as we use to say. Therefore now being a son, what doth it lie in? It lies in a title, in an authority, in a charter, in a commission, as we say; as it is in John 1:12, ‘He gave them power’—that is, he gave them a charter, a commission—‘to be the sons of God:’ as the king gives a man a charter or a commission to be a nobleman or to be a judge; gives him a title to be so. In 1 Corinthians 8:9, and in 1 Corinthians 7:37, the same word is used for a privilege or for a liberty.
Now take salvation thus, as it is endowing us with all the title and interest of whatsoever God means to bestow upon us, and this is wholly by grace, and wholly through faith. These three are adequate:—1. Such benefits as are by imputation or reckoning; 2. by grace, out of us; 3. received only by faith.
Here now is the solution of the text: here is whole salvation in the very lump, it is all given at once, given at first; the whole of it as it lay in the womb of God’s decree and free grace, it is completely, according to the right and title of it, bestowed upon us at once, and it is received through faith. ‘By grace ye are saved through faith,’ saith he; that now solves all the difficulty. They are, I say, all bestowed upon us at once; all that are, or as they are, acts of God upon us; that great salvation, ‘so great salvation,’ as as the Apostle calls it, is given all at once: and by grace ye are thus saved, completely and fully, and this as soon as you believe, eodem die, as Jerome speaks. Here is the greatest gift that ever was given; ‘not of yourselves,’ saith he, ‘it is the gift of God.’ The Apostle hath penned the words so that they will refer as well to salvation as to faith. It is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, the whole lump of salvation is. And by grace ye are thus saved; salvation in the lump of it, it is given to you by grace, and received by faith.
Now there is this difference between these two, that the one is given at once, and the other the Lord doth give by degrees, and go on to perfect it one after another: the one is an act of God upon us, towards us, and therefore is a mere act of free grace, immediately residing in God, and doth not import infusing anything into us. In Romans 3:22, the Apostle, speaking of justification, (mark his phrase:) ‘Righteousness,’ saith he, ‘unto all and upon all them that believe;’ not in all, but unto all and upon all.
Now then, this same right to salvation, and to the whole of salvation, and all that ever you shall have, it is truly and properly called salvation. Why? You were once sinners: for you to be saved from your sins, saved from wrath, to have a kingdom added to it, and to have a right to all the blessings that ever the grace of God means to bestow, and to have all this reputed yours, this is to be saved truly and properly; it is to be saved in title, as the other is to be saved in execution. You know the word ‘saved,’ in our ordinary phrase, is taken in a double sense: we either say a physician saveth a man’s life, or we say a king saveth a man’s life if he pardons him, and especially if he advanceth him to any great place. Now when he saith God saveth us, his meaning is, he saveth us as a judge, as the sovereign Lord of heaven and earth, by endowing us with the pardon of all sin, and righteousness, and adoption, and whatever else; which are all forensical actions, actions of a judge, without us. Therefore now when he saith, ‘by grace ye are saved,’ he means these acts, which indeed are properly salvation. As we use to say of institution and induction into a benefice, the man hath the whole given him by institution, but he hath not possession but by induction; so here, ‘by grace ye are saved;’ all that belongs to salvation comes immediately through the hands of free grace, and is communicated to you by faith.
And, my brethren, salvation taken thus, in this sense, agrees with the scope of the Apostle and the words of the text every way.
First, He saith, ‘Ye are saved,’ completely saved. This now can be no way meant but in respect of the whole title and tenure of salvation. He saith not, Ye shall be saved, but, Ye are saved, fully and completely saved. And then again, if you mark the words, the Apostle doth sever this salvation in the title, conveyed to us by faith, from the workings of God upon us. For after he had affirmed, ‘by grace ye are saved through faith,’ he then shews how over and above all that is wrought in us in this life, it is by grace also. He severs therefore the whole of salvation, in the title and in the right of it, from those things which are the means of salvation, as taken from the possession, which are both faith, and the new creature, and good works, and the like. This, I say, is natural to the text, that besides giving salvation by grace at first, which faith only receiveth, it shows that grace doth all in all in us besides; it maketh that faith, and the new creature, and everything else in us. And let me add this: you will not find a scripture where believing or where sanctification is called salvation itself; they are said indeed to be unto salvation, and they are means, but they are not called properly and strictly salvation. And accordingly as there is salvation in the title of it given to us in one lump, and the works of salvation wrought in us; so you shall find that the Scripture puts the same distinction between grace. There is either the grace that brings salvation, in the offer of it, as it is called in Titus 2:11, that is big with it, that hath all salvation in the lump to bestow, and which it offers to invest us with when we are called; and there is grace also taken for that dispensatory grace, as I may so call it, which doth work grace in us, and gives us a possession, by a power in us which grace sets a-work. And this is called grace too, in 1 Corinthians 15:10, ‘Not I, but the grace of God which was in me,’ or, ‘with me.’ He means there the grace of God as working in him, or with him. Therefore let me tell you this, though it is grace that saveth, and grace that sanctifieth, and it is grace that glorifieth, yet grace saveth not in the same manner that it sanctifieth and glorifieth. For how doth it sanctify? It is the same grace efficiently indeed, and immediately; the same grace that doth justify us doth adopt us, but how doth it sanctify us? It sanctifieth us by infusing grace into us; and there is, as the Apostle saith, the grace of God which is in me, and which is with me; which is in God working with what he puts into me, which is the grace of God with me, or in me. But when grace is said to save or to justify, there it is pure grace; that is, it is not by working anything in me, but by a mere act that resideth in God, yet entitling me and investing me to the whole of salvation. And this is said to be received through faith; all this whole salvation is so received. And as it cometh immediately and purely through the hands of free grace, and doth not consist, doth not mingle itself with any workings in me; so faith is that which doth immediately receive it, receive the whole of salvation, as I shall shew you anon. As now, take justification, being saved from wrath, and saved from sin, the Scripture is clear in it that you receive it by faith. ‘Being justified,’ saith he, ‘by faith.’ And so adoption and sonship, being made heirs of life, which you may in some sense make a part of justification, and so the Scripture doth, yet notwithstanding we are said to receive it by faith, Galatians 4:4-5, and Galatians 3:26.
Take both in, remission of sins, and being heirs of life, you receive them both through faith, and through faith alone. You have a place for it in Acts 26:18, a speech of Christ, since he went to heaven, unto Paul. Saith he there, ‘That they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me.’ He divides the whole of salvation into these two things—into forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified; he cuts off from these two faith and sanctification; he makes sanctification a qualification of that person God means to save; but he makes faith the thing that receiveth the right and title, and so receiveth salvation completely, both the one and the other, and this from the hands of free grace immediately. But I will not stand to enlarge these things, being clear and evident. And therefore, although I might shew you that faith hath a great hand in all parts of salvation, yet I could not shew you that it had a sole hand. I could shew you how it causeth repentance, how it is the spring of all good works, of all obedience, how it is that which goeth out unto Christ to fetch in holiness and strength, how it sanctifieth and purifieth the heart, how it brings in assurance of salvation, which is called salvation: all this might be shewn that faith doth; how you are kept by the power of God unto salvation, and that through faith. But none of these, or the most of these which I have named, are through faith alone; they are not, I say, communicated to us through faith alone. Faith alone doth not sanctify us, as the Papists would slander us, though faith alone justifieth us and saveth us. Now here the Apostle sheweth what faith alone doth, and therefore we must exactly keep to that whole lump of salvation which at first is bestowed upon us. And so now you have the meaning of these words, ‘for ye are saved.’ By grace.—It implies the principal cause. By grace is meant the free favour in the heart of God out of us, as I shewed at large when I opened that scripture, ‘by grace ye are saved,’ Ephesians 2:5. And therefore to add but a confirmation or two to it. In Titus 2:11, where he saith, ‘The grace of God hath appeared to us;’ in Titus 3:4, he saith, ‘The kindness and love of God hath appeared.’ And in Exodus 33:19, that which is said there, ‘I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy:’ in Romans 9:15, it is, ‘I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion;’ implying not a grace in us, but a grace that is in God. The Papists anathematise those qui statuunt gratiam quâ justificamur, esse tantum favorem Dei. (Conc. Triden., Sess. vi., c. 11.) Now when we say, ‘by grace,’—that is, the favour of God out of us,—the question is not, Whether, first, grace in Scripture be taken sometimes for the gifts of grace to us? We grant it. Nor, secondly, is the question, Whether inherent holiness, &c., be joined with salvation, or to flow from grace? but, Whether we are saved thereby? And therefore it is the greatest height of the mystery of iniquity that ever was among the Papists, who do not hold that we are justified at all by the grace of God out of us; no, not so much as the forgiveness of sins, not that part of salvation. Although they seem to pretend to it, and talk of forgiveness of sins, yet in truth they do not hold forgiveness of sins to consist in a free favour, pardoning as one man pardons another; but they make remission of sins to be nothing else but the deletion, the blotting out of a man’s sins. And therefore Vasques, one of their greatest school-men, speaks out; for he saw it is that which must necessarily come upon them, according to their tenets. For what do they say? They tell you that there is but one cause of justification, and that is the infusion of holiness into us. Now mark it, if they held a forgiveness of sins by grace, then they must hold two parts or two causes of justification: one to lie in remission of sins by the free grace and favour of God, and the other in God’s making us righteous inherently in ourselves. And so our justification should have two heterogeneal, two uniform parts, which were not like one to the other; one part of their justification must lie in the grace of God, without them wholly and merely, and the other part must lie in inherent righteousness infused into them. Now, to avoid this absurdity, they do clearly and plainly say, and argue for it, that the true remission of sins lies in the blotting out of sin; and as darkness is done away by the coming in of light, so there is no other pardon of sin but holiness and righteousness infused, which doth expel it. And this, I say, their greatest school-man, Vasques, doth expressly and clearly say. I do not say, saith he, that sin is pardoned by a grace and favour out of ourselves, but it lies in this, (he says it expressly, without an addition of a new favour,) in having an inherent holiness infused into us. What a damnable and desperate doctrine is this! (besides the derogation that is in it to the grace of God,) for no man then can believe that his sin is pardoned until he see it expelled out of him. And therefore, my brethren, hate Popery, for this is the tenet of it.
‘By grace ye are saved,’ not only by having sin pardoned, but being accounted sons, and being accounted righteous. When you come to have the whole of salvation bestowed upon you, it is merely the grace that is in the heart of God about which faith deals immediately.
Now there is the grace of God in election, which is the original grace; and there is the grace of God which doth make application of all to us. It is for substance the same love, only I make this distinction, as the Scripture also doth. I say, there is first the grace of God in election, which doth bestow all that salvation upon us, and that in Christ; so you have it in 2 Timothy 1:9, ‘He hath saved us according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began.’ There was a grace given us, and bestowed upon us in Christ, before the world began; this is the original grace. Now, saith he, when God comes to save you actually, he doth it according to that grace. Mark that phrase; it is used there, and it is likewise in Titus 3:5, ‘According to his mercy he saveth us:’ so in 1 Peter 1:3, ‘According to his abundant mercy he hath begotten us again;’ that is, according to that original grace which from everlasting he bestowed upon us, that favour which he did cast upon us in his Son, that love continued now, the very same, according to the model, purpose, and design thereof, is salvation bestowed upon us. And of this grace he speaks here, a dispensatory grace, as I may so call it; that is, when elective love continued to us, doth upon the same terms out of which he first chose us bestow all that salvation upon us. The use of this distinction you shall see afterwards in the next discourse.
I will not stand to lay open to you the riches and greatness of this grace, for that I did before. I shewed how all of salvation depended upon it; I showed you the riches of this grace; I have done it again and again.
Now when he saith, ‘by grace,’ yon must take in the grace of all the three Persons, the favour of them all. He doth not say by the grace of God only; he doth not mention Jesus Christ in this; therefore, I say, take all in, the grace of the Father, which is called the grace of God, who is said to be the Saviour, in Isaiah 43:3, ‘I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour:’ and the grace of Jesus Christ; it is his favour also that we are saved by. It was the grace of God that gave Jesus Christ, he died by the grace of God; so you have it in Hebrews 2:9. It was his love, or a grace in the heart of Jesus Christ, that caused him to become the author and purchaser of all salvation to us. ‘You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,’ saith the Apostle in 2 Corinthians 8:9, ‘that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich.’ And, Galatians 1:6, it is called the grace of Christ. And then it is the grace of the Holy Ghost likewise, for all three Persons concur in it; and because the Apostle doth fasten it neither upon the Father, nor upon the Son, nor upon the Holy Ghost, let us take them all in. Revelation 1:4, ‘Grace be unto you from the seven Spirits,’—that is, from the Holy Ghost. For, to say that grace should be wished from any creature, or to take ‘seven Spirits’ for created gifts, or for angels, as some have done, and to join them to the other two Persons which he had spoken of before, is extremely absurd; therefore he means the Holy Ghost, who is therefore called the ‘Spirit of grace,’ in Hebrews 10:29. Now it is grace alone—that is, the free favour of God the Father, and of God the Son, and of God the Holy Ghost—that bestows all salvation upon us. Why? Because this whole of salvation consisteth in a reckoning us to be heirs and sons; now, whatsoever is thus by way of reckoning and account, it is by grace. When he comes to bestow salvation upon us, is it not an infinite thing, my brethren, that that God who loved us from everlasting, when he comes to will us and work faith in us, should in a moment, in an instant, respecting nothing in us, possess us of all salvation? Respecting nothing in us, it is therefore grace. Romans 3:24, ‘We are justified freely by his grace.’ The word there, freely, is to shew that it is merely grace; it is without cause, it is grace dyed in grace, as I use to say, gracious grace: for so that phrase, ‘freely by his grace,’ will warrant such expressions; prorsus gratis, as Austin calleth it, that bestows all of salvation. And as it doth do it without respecting anything in us, so he doth do it notwithstanding all that he seeth in us. A soul may say, O Lord, thou dost freely give, not finding something why thon shouldest save, but all why thou shouldest damn, and yet bestowest the whole of salvation upon us. And what an infinite gift is this! that the poorest believer that is hath the whole of that salvation in that moment that he believeth, and he receiveth by it the whole of salvation! It may not only be said of him that he shall be saved, but that he is saved. It is made sure to all the seed of grace, as the Apostle’s expression is in Romans 4. But I will not stand to enlarge upon these things now.
You have had these two things expounded:—
1. What is meant by saved.
2. What by grace; and how the whole of salvation is given to us by the free grace of God towards us. The next thing now that I should come to is, to shew you how all this is conveyed to us by faith; that the whole of it, I say, is conveyed to us by faith. In the opening of this I shall—because it is the main—spend a little time upon it now, and in the next sermon. And, first, I shall open to you all these particulars which are natural and proper to the text—
1. That as the whole of salvation is given by grace, so it is wholly received by faith, and by faith only; and there is nothing in man that could have received this whole gift of salvation, or lay hold on it, or apprehend it, or have been capable of it, but only faith, not works, nor anything else.
2. I must shew you what this faith is, and that out of the text, that this faith which hath the grace of God and the grace of Christ for its object, and hath salvation for its aim, this faith and no other doth receive and doth possess us of the whole of salvation.
3. I must likewise shew yon how this faith doth possess us of all this, that it is conveyed through this faith, and what kind of consideration this faith should have in our being saved by it, whether as a condition, or an instrument, or what.
I shall speak to all of these things briefly: and the first two are implied in the word faith, and the other in the word through faith; and so I shall clear it to you what is meant by this, through faith, and shew you how through faith it is conveyed to us, which indeed are some of the controversies and agitations of these times. That which I shall do at this present is only this,—for I see I cannot finish it,—that as the whole of salvation doth come immediately out of the hand of God and his free grace, so there is no principle in man, or that can be supposed to have been in man, which could have received this whole of salvation, but only faith. As grace, I say, is the thing that gives all, so this principle in man, faith, is that which suits this grace wholly and fully, and nothing else could.
You read in Romans 3:24 of three causes, as I may so express them, but I will not call them all causes; I shall shew you what influence faith may be said to have into our salvation by and by. ‘Ye are justified,’ saith he, ‘freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ, whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood.’ You have these three—‘by grace,’ ‘through the redemption that is in Christ,’ and ‘through faith in his blood.’ Now by ‘grace’ there is meant all the favour in God’s heart toward us, which did contrive and intend all sort of benefits to us, to the praise of itself. But yet this grace that was in the heart of God needed Jesus Christ as a Mediator (if you will have me so speak) in respect of compounding it with justice; therefore it is added there, ‘through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ.’ And grace pitched upon the fittest instrument, the fittest servant it could have, to execute all its will, and to derogate nothing from itself; that is, Jesus Christ. Look what salvation you do design, saith Christ, I will purchase, and notwithstanding my purchase you shall give all freely; for though it be given through the redemption that is in Christ, and so as in respect of Christ it is not free, yet as it is to us it is free: and, saith he, grace shall not be robbed by me one whit, but advanced; the revenue of it shall not be one whit impaired by me; no, the giving of me, and that I die by grace, (as the phrase is, Hebrews 2,) shall magnify grace so much the more, and make it double grace. So that now the grace that was in God hath a Saviour for us fitted to his own heart. Well, but now saith God,—that I may express it in this familiar manner,—I see how that the giving of Jesus Christ, and his redemption, will very well stand with my grace and advance it. But I must come and apply this salvation, the whole of salvation, out of mere pure grace, respecting nothing in the creature; and I must make the creature sensible of this, and what is it that I shall do it by that shall magnify both my grace and this Christ? If I can now but get an instrument, something in man’s heart, that doth no more derogate from grace than Christ’s redemption doth, then grace is advanced indeed. Now, my brethren, as Jesus Christ was so fit an instrument, and a servant to all free grace’s ends and purposes, the truth is, so is faith every whit; it is suited to the very spirit and strain, it is according to free grace’s own heart too, let me tell you so. As grace is the eminent thing in God, so faith in us, suited to it, doth serve all its ends. As grace gives all that is in God without us, so it is pure faith that receives it. As the whole of salvation bestowed, the right to it, is out of us, and consisteth in God’s reckoning and accounting of it to us, so this faith is a mere going out of a man’s self to grace for this salvation; it is conformed to all the contrivements of grace, to give glory to it. As it is not of a man’s self, so faith doth not look to a man’s self. Even, as I may so express it, as the marigold opens and shuts with the sun, and turns continually round, and holds a correspondency with it, so doth faith to grace. The Papists say, wickedly and wretchedly, that love is the form and soul of faith. The truth is, the free grace of God is as the form of faith, if we may so speak; and what is faith in a man? It is just like the first matter God created, in Genesis 1. It hath no form, no shape in itself at all, but capable to take in and to receive all the free grace that is in God, and all that salvation which he hath proposed to bestow, and to give unto free grace the glory and honour of it, that nothing but grace shall shine and be as the soul of it. It will take no form and impression but what free grace stamps upon it, and it will return its own impression to himself again in glory. Free grace can say nothing to magnify itself, but that faith in the heart of a believer, acted by the Spirit, can take it in, and give him the glory of it his own way. The truth is,—that I may in a way of similitude make a parallel in this case,—as the human nature of Christ, being united to the Son of God, had that instinct, and that law in his heart, as it is called in Psalms 40, that he did not act as a person by himself, he had not a will of his own, but was resolved wholly in the Godhead, being united to it; so faith doth not take upon it as a grace, and as a work, or any of these things; it loseth itself, it resolves itself, and merely takes the forms and impressions that the free favour of God moulds it into. And the property of it is thus to advance the grace of, God, and that is the reason—I shall give you a scripture for it by and by than which to me nothing is stronger—that grace in bestowing the whole of salvation will brook faith well enough. It will go and save through faith; it riseth up against works as all rebels. Salvation, saith he, is of grace, through faith, not of works. And free grace will trust faith with all its glory in bestowing of salvation, when it will not endure works to come in sight, not in point of giving salvation and the right of it. In Romans 4:4-5, and compared with Romans 4:16, saith the Apostle, ‘Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt.’ Why, might not a man say, I wrought it? But works, you see, will not stand with grace, and grace will not stand with works; but if God means to bestow salvation out of grace, by way of reputation, and accounting us righteous, and sons, and heirs, &c., faith will quickly serve the turn of free grace; therefore it follows, ‘But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly.’ But there is a more full expression in the 16th verse, which is more clear than this, and truly to me it is a strange one, and I wondered at it when I considered it. ‘It is of faith,’ saith he, ‘that it might be by grace,’ speaking of the whole inheritance of salvation; for as he calls it ‘saved’ here, he calls it an inheritance in the 13th and 14th verses. I take the meaning of the words to be this, that when God was to apply salvation, and to give the right of it, and that purely and merely out of grace, he did as it were consult with himself, what in man he should take that still it might be grace, and nothing of it might be impaired, and so he pitched upon faith; for that is clearly the Apostle’s scope; he ordained faith, saith he, that it might still be of grace. That look, as it was merely grace when it was in God’s own heart to give, so when he works faith in a man, and causeth him to believe, it is as much grace as it was before, and nothing is derogated from grace at all. It is therefore of faith, saith he; therefore God chose and singled out faith, that still it might be by grace, that grace might stand unimpaired, and be as fully by grace as if there were no faith, as if grace had saved a man without working anything in him. Though God doth work faith, which is an act of his, and an act of the soul too, yet it is as much by grace, saith he, as ever. My brethren, although we hold all the tenure and actual right to all of salvation ‘through faith,’ (for so the Scripture speaks, it is ‘of faith,’ and ‘through faith,’ &c.,) yet still it alters not the tenure one whit; it is only and merely by grace still, it holds as much upon the original grace as before. And faith is taught to cause the heart to do so, even as if God had wrought no faith, nor nothing else as an instrument, but had saved him without any act of his at all. Thus you see that faith suits with grace, and it suits with grace in bestowing salvation.
I should now enlarge upon this, giving you the reason why by faith. And then, secondly, by what faith: the faith that is pitched upon grace, this faith. And then, how through faith, and how that nothing is derogated from grace by it. As the whole of salvation is a mere free gift of grace, so is faith a mere receiver, and faith only could receive. For if there be anything given by grace, and grace be acknowledged the giver, you must have something that must receive, and in receiving must give all back again to grace, and that is nothing else but faith;—for now I am shewing you the reason why grace pitched upon faith when it would bestow the whole of salvation upon us;—I say, as faith suiteth with grace only, so it is faith only that can receive; it is that grace alone that can receive the whole of salvation from God. And therefore you shall observe in the Scripture, how that still receiving is put upon faith, as giving upon grace. ‘They received abundance of grace, and the gift of righteousness.’ The gift of righteousness, the whole of salvation is of grace; now what in the Scripture is it that is said to receive it? Not your love, nor your works, nor your holiness; no, they have nothing to do with it in the point of salvation, but that principle of faith doth it. You shall find it through the whole Scripture. ‘As many as received him,’—and that is interpreted to be those that believed on him,—‘to them he gave power to be the sons of God.’ Sonship is said to be received by faith, Galatians 4:5 Remission of sins, which is a part of salvation out of mere grace, is said to be received by faith, Acts 26:18. The inheritance of heaven and life, the whole estate of it, is a free gift of God, purely and merely; it is said to be received by faith, in the same place. The righteousness of Christ is called the gift of righteousness, in Romans 5:17. Faith is said to be that which apprehends it; it is called an apprehension or laying hold of righteousness.
I say, run throughout the whole New Testament, you shall find mention of this act of receiving, and it is only ascribed unto faith. And how doth it receive? It merely receiveth, it doth not give to God anything, it doth not return, as love doth. It was a speech of the ancients, that faith only is the apprehending and receiving principle, takes all in; but charity is that which gives out, and returns something to God. Now God did not like that; he would not go and say grace should save us by that which should return something to him, but by that which should be only a receiver. If he had said he had saved us through love, or saved us through holiness, and given us the whole of salvation through these, or any part of them, or the right unto it, what would love have said? I have given you love again for your love. God doth not like that; for who hath given unto him, and it shall not be recompensed unto him again? But God takes that which is but a mere receiver, that returns nothing again; and that is faith.
Therefore though you would say, Is not faith an act?—
It is true, it is, in a grammatical signification, an act; but in the sense, in the true, real import of it, it is merely passive. Faith doth not give anything to God, as charity and love doth, but it only suffers God to be good to it; it takes in that salvation which grace would bestow upon it. My brethren, the hands of all other graces are working hands, but the hands of faith are merely receiving hands; now saith the Apostle, ‘Not to him that worketh, but believeth.’ So that this faith, as it believeth to salvation, it is not reckoned a worker, nor doth it look upon itself as such, but a mere receiver, a mere emptiness, a mere first matter and chaos, the form whereof is grace, if I may so allude. No grace could have been chosen in the heart of man suitable thus to the grace that giveth, and to the gift itself, as this grace of faith is. And there is nothing in man that answers the promise. For this grace hath put itself out into promises; as the original lies in the heart of God, so he hath made a copy out of himself in the promises, and nothing answers this but faith.
And, indeed, nothing could have given the entire glory unto grace but only faith. It is just as a mere looking-glass, when the sun shines it is a glorious tiling. Oh, how glorious is that looking-glass when it shineth! But what is the glory? It is nothing else but the very sun’s shining on it: so is faith, and the soul believing the free grace of God in Christ, receiveth salvation from him.