May 16

The grace of God that bringeth Salvation. - Titus 2:11.

IT is of the gospel the Apostle here speaks. Observe its name: “the grace of God.” This is a name often applied to it in the Scripture, as for instance, we read, “This is the true grace of God wherein we stand.” “Receive not the grace of God in vain.” “It is a good thing that the heart he established with grace.” This designation of it is intended chiefly to remind us of its source, as it could only arise from the good pleasure of his goodness. Surely we contributed nothing towards this dispensation by our desert, or preparations to receive it, or desires after it. The gospel also reveals and testifies of the grace of God. This is the communication it makes concerning his treatment of a world of rebels: that “God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved.” Herein he shows us the “exceeding riches of his grace, in his kindness towards us through Jesus Christ.”

Observe its subject. The gospel is not employed on a trifle. Its infinite importance is to be inferred from the subject it brings, which is salvation. This is a blessing we can never too highly extol. It is called “a great salvation.” Other salvations have been produced by an exertion of Divine power only, but this was achieved by nothing less than the incarnation, sufferings, and death of the Son of God. Those were for the body, this for the soul; they were for time, this for eternity. We can look into Blackstone to know how to save our property; into Galen to know how to save our health; into Seneca to know how to save our reputation.

Yet, if we would attain a knowledge of the way to obtain the salvation of our souls in the day of the Lord Jesus with eternal glory, we must come to the Scripture. Here are the “words of eternal life,” which “show unto men the way of salvation.” I am expiring, here is a remedy; I am in bondage, here is redemption; I am perishing, here is “balm in Gilead” and a physician; I am destitute, here is “the bread of life;” naked, here is Christ’s “robe of righteousness;” poor, here are “unsearchable riches;” I am nothing, here I can “possess all things,” and exclaim, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.”