The subject of which various aspects are discussed in the following pages should need no introduction to the believers in our Lord Jesus Christ. That we are saved by grace, not by works, and that, therefore, salvation is the work of God, in no wise of man, is a truth that touches upon the very heart of the gospel. "For by grace are ye saved, through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God." (Ephesians 2:8) The doctrine of salvation by grace is one of those fundamental truths of the Christian faith of which the true knowledge and correct understanding are of great importance for the church of Christ in the world and for the believer individually. One who errs on this point must needs have a wrong conception of all the rest of Christian doctrine and corrupt the truth concerning God and man, concerning sin and redemption, concerning Christ and the church. Moreover, it is a subject of great practical' significance for the believer, one that never fails to arouse his interest. He realizes that it concerns his only comfort in life and death: either he is saved by grace only, or he must needs perish. Hence, he never grows weary of hearing the gospel of salvation by sovereign grace proclaimed and expounded unto him in all the riches of its implications. And as he grows in the knowledge of this truth, he will grow in the grace of the Lord Jesus.

Small wonder, then, that from the earliest period of the history of the New Testament church this subject occupied a central place of interest. It was the theme of millions of sermons. Many a volume was written to expound and defend this truth. It is the theme of thousands of hymns. Often it was the occasion of sharp controversy. Today one may hear of salvation by grace in sermon and song, from the pulpit and on the air, literally every day. And if, perhaps, it might seem well-nigh impossible to say anything about so thoroughly exhausted a subject that has not been said hundreds of times before, we may comfort ourselves with the thought that it may at least be possible to recall some very old truths in connection with our subject which are either forgotten or denied in modern times.

Our subject is, of course, rich in meaning and presents several aspects. To say that we are saved by grace expresses the truth that salvation is of the Lord. This should be emphasized from the outset. For grace is of God, and God is free and sovereign. To be saved by grace, then, means that grace is the only source, the sole explanation, the ultimate reason and ground of our salvation, the efficient cause of all that is implied in the work of our redemption and deliverance from sin and death. We are saved by grace only, without the work or cooperation of man, or we are not saved by grace at all. Hence, one who would speak of salvation by grace, must understand that he is speaking of a divine work throughout. But all the works of God are eternal. Hence, salvation by grace has its source in eternity, and one cannot properly treat the subject of grace without considering the fundamental truth of divine and sovereign election: we are chosen by grace. For God "hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world." (Ephesians 1: 3, 4) Grace is sovereign. It is divine and, therefore, eternal. From the inscrutable depths of eternity spring all the spiritual blessings that lift us from the dark depths of sin and death into the glory of eternal life: the blessings of atonement and reconciliation, of redemption and deliverance, of regeneration and calling, of justification and sanctification, of the forgiveness of sins and the adoption unto children of God, of preservation and perseverance, of the resurrection from the dead and the final glorification. All these blessings of salvation are of pure grace: for "it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy." (Romans 9: 16) And all these various aspects of salvation by grace demand our consideration.

However, we might do well, first of all, to consider"the general question: what is salvation? This question is by no means superfluous. For, on the one hand, on our answer to this question must needs depend our conception of the part grace has in our salvation; and, on the other hand, especially in modern times the truth concerning salvation is distorted and corrupted in more than one way.
Salvation is not the same as reformation, the improvement of man and of the world; it has nothing in common with the modern notion of the building of character. This modernistic conception recognizes, indeed, that man is not what he ought to be. There is something wrong with him and with the world he is making. Especially in our own times, now the whole imposing structure of human culture and civilization threatens to collapse, this is deeply felt. However, it is maintained that man is not inherently corrupt. He is fundamentally good. Bur he is in need of reform. We must apply ourselves to man's reformation, to the building of his character, as well as to the improvement of his environment. And in this noble effort we must take Jesus as our example and turn to His teachings, especially to the Sermon on the Mount, for our program of reformation. If man only learns to follow in His steps and to apply His teachings to all his life and relationships, he will be saved. He will then learn to acknowledge that, like Jesus, so he, too, is the son of God; that God is the loving Father of all, and all men are brethren. And thus he will become a good, peace-loving creature, capable of making of the present world a kindgom of God in which righteousness shall dwell. Needless to say, in such a view of salvation there is no room for grace. Salvation is the work of proud man, not of God. And it is quite superfluous to prove that this human philosophy has nothing in common with the Biblical gospel of salvation.

However, it is not only in modernistic circles that one meets with a perverted presentation of the truth of salvation. On the contrary, also they who ostensibly preach the gospel of Christ, but in the meantime present the matter of salvation as something that ultimately depends for its realization on the will of man, distort the doctrine of sovereign grace. Salvation, according to this view, is something like a present that is all prepared and that is freely and graciously offered, but which one may either refuse or accept. Or it is like a kind invitation to some party or banquet, with which one may either comply or politely decline. So the sinner is offered salvation, chiefly consisting in escape from hell and entrance into heaven after this life, on condition that he will accept Christ. This salvation is all prepared for the sinner. In himself he is damned, worthy of eternal death. But Christ died for every sinner, and merited for all the forgiveness of sins, righteousness, and eternal glory.

So far it is all of grace.

And that the gospel is preached to sinners and this glorious redemption is offered them freely, that, too, is of grace.

But it is at this point that salvation as a work of divine grace and power ends. For beyond the merited redemption of Christ and the offered salvation, grace is not sovereign and efficacious: it is powerless to save and actually to deliver from the dominion of sin and death, except by the sinner's consent. If the sinner only accepts the salvation that is offered to him, if only he will say, "I accept Christ as my personal Savior," all will be well with him, and grace can proceed; but if he is recalcitrant and stubbornly declines the earnest invitation to be saved, grace can do nothing with him. Many a preacher does not hesitate openly and boldly to declare that God is powerless to save the sinner unless the latter gives his consent, and that Christ can do no more than He did unless the sinner permits Him to proceed with His work of salvation. Jesus is willing to save, but His willingness must suffer shipwreck on the rock of man's contrary and refractory will. He stands at the door of the sinner's heart and knocks; but the key of the door is on the inside, and the Savior cannot enter, unless the sinner opens the door.

From this arises that very common form of preaching that is erroneously called evangelical and that always reaches its climax in the well-known, extremely sensational "altar call" I say erroneously, for "evangelical preaching" is preaching of the gospel; and the true gospel never presents a powerless God or a Christ impotent to save. Since the grace of God is dependent on the choice of the sinner's will, it follows that the persuasion of human language, of the voice of the preacher, pleading and begging, may assist him to make the right choice and induce him to let Jesus into his heart!

Thus Christ is travestied!

0, to be sure, salvation is deliverance from hell and damnation. "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life, but he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him." (John 3:36). But, first of all, salvation is much more than the mere escape from punishment and hell and a check on the bank of heaven that is to be cashed after death. It is a wonderwork of the Almighty, Who quickeneth the dead and calleth the things that are not as if they were. (Romans 4: 17) It is a work in which God becomes revealed unto us in "the exceeding greatness of his power to usward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in heavenly places." (Ephesians 1: 19, 20) It is a work no less divine, and even more glorious, than the work of creation. All that is required to make of the sinner, dead in sin, filled with enmity against God, cursing the Almighty and raising his rebellious fist in the face of the Lord of heaven and earth, walking in darkness and hating the light - to make of such a sinner a righteous and holy child of God, humbly asking what God wills that he shall do, filled with the love of God, and for ever singing His praises, and to place ,that sinner, thus redeemed and delivered, in living fellowship with the glorious company of all the redeemed and glorified sinners, so that they together constitute a church, a beautiful house of God, a holy temple in the Lord, to the praise of the glory of His grace in the beloved - all this belongs to the work, the mighty work of God that is called salvation!

Secondly, salvation by grace means that it is an exclusively divine work, absolutely free and sovereign, in which man has no part at all and which does not in any sense depend upon the choice of man's will. Even as the work of creation is of God alone, which He accomplished without the cooperation of the creature, so the work of salvation is exclusively God's work, in which man has no part whatever. Even as Adam lived and was an active creature, not in or before his being created, but by virture of this marvelous work of God, so the sinner lives, and becomes positively active, so that he wills to be saved and embraces Christ, not in cooperation with God Who saves him but as a result of the wonder of grace performed upon him. Salvation by grace implies that grace is always first. True, "whosoever will may come," but the will to come is not prevenient to grace but subsequent to it as its fruit.

Consider from what depths of darkness and death salvation delivers man and unto what heights of life and glory it exalts him, and judge for yourselves whether at any particular stage of this marvelous work of God man could be a cooperating party with God. Popularly, salvation has often been defined as that wonderwork of God whereby He delivers the sinner from the greatest evil and makes him partaker of the highest good. But what is the greatest evil from which grace delivers the sinner? Listen to the words of Scripture in Ephesians 2:1-3: "And you ... who were dead in trespasses and sins; wherein in times past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others." That is the evil from which grace saves us!

And what does it mean that, apart from grace, we are dead in trespasses and sins?

0, it signifies exactly what it says: that by our sins we are, by nature, just as dead unto God and righteousness, unto all good works, as the corpse in the grave is dead unto all activity of any kind. It means that, apart from grace, we are wholly incapable of doing any good, or even of thinking and willing anything that is pleasing to God. We are bound from within with unbreakable shackles of darkness and corruption. We are slaves of sin, willing slaves to be sure, but slaves withal, loving darkness rather than the light. And this spiritual, ethical death is God's own wrath upon us: the punishment for sin. For we are children of wrath from our birth, guilty and damnable because of Adam's transgression. And we can only daily increase our guilt and our damnation.

Such is our miserable plight! There is a debt we can never pay, nor do we care to pay it. There is a power of corruption from which we cannot and will not deliver ourselves. There is wrath and damnation from which we can never escape, nor do we care to, or seek to escape: for we are enemies of God, and the carnal mind is death!

In that horrible depth of misery grace finds the sinner.

Do you imagine, then, that he is capable or willing to cooperate with God to his own salvation, or that any emotional and sentimental plea of a preacher will persuade him to desire to seek salvation in Christ? I tell you Nay. Before grace takes hold of that sinner and raises him from the dead, he will always refuse to accept the proffered salvation and will prefer death to life, sin to righteousness, the devil to God! He must be saved by grace as a divine wonder!

Consider, too, unto what heights of glory grace saves the sinner.
He is made partaker of the highest good! But what is the highest good? It is eternal life! Yes, but what is eternal life? Is it a sort of carnally conceived everlasting state of bliss in a beautiful place called heaven? God forbid! 0, to be sure, heaven is blessed and beautiful. But it is so principally because God is there, and Christ is there, and the saints in Christ are there. And the blessedness of heaven consists in this, that it is the house of God, and that in that house we may dwell in fellowship with the living God, a fellowship that is more intimate than the first man Adam ever tasted: for it has its center in the incarnated Word of God, our Lord Jesus Christ! To be the perfect sons of God, knowing God even as we are known, righteous as He is righteous, holy as He is holy, loving and beloved forever, seeing Him face to face, and having our delight in the doing of His will and the keeping of His precepts, loving Him with all our heart and mind and soul and strength in heavenly perfection and glory -- that is the blessedness of heaven, and that is the height of glory to which grace raises us in Jesus Christ our Lord! But do you imagine that there could be any cooperation on the part of that miserable sinner we just described to reach that height of perfection? Or would you say that the sinner who is an enemy of God even longs for that perfect fellowship with God, that he who loves darkness is capable of yearning for that state of perfect and everlasting light? I tell you Nay. He is saved by grace, and by grace only, as a wonderwork of Him Who raises the dead and calleth the things that are not as if they were!

Saved by grace! Delivered from wrath, guilt, damnation, corruption, and death --all by grace! Clothed with righteousness, holiness, life, and glory - by grace only! Translated into light, from death into life, from shame into glory, from hell into heaven - all by the power of God's wondrous grace! And all because of the eternal, sovereign love of Him Who chose the things that are not to bring to nought the things that are; that no flesh should glory in His presence!

1. The Idea of Salvation by Grace
2. Chosen by Grace
   
3. Reconciled by Grace
   
4. United With Christ by Grace
   
5. Regenerated by Grace
   
6. Called by Grace
   
7. Believing Through Grace
   
8. Justified by Grace
   
9. Converted by Grace
   
10. Working Out Our Salvation by Grace
    
11. Good Works Through Grace
    
12. Suffering Through Grace
    
13. Victory Through Grace
    
14. Assurance of Grace
    
15. Glorified Through Grace