Salvation Through The Blood Of Jesus, The Gift Of God

EAR READER: - AS I AM ANXIOUS that the one grand theme-salvation through the blood-shedding of Jesus alone-should be set before you in a variety of aspects, that, if you miss it in one, you may realise it in another, I would now present it as a gift of grace. " "For by grace are ye saved," (Eph. 2:8). "The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord," (Rom. 6:23). "For God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life," (John 3:16).

As one English reformer, Thomas Becon, said:

Here God, who is infinite and unspeakable, gives after such a manner as passeth all things. For that which He gives He gives not as the wages of desert, but of mere love. This sort of giving, which has its spring in love, makes this gift more excellent and precious. And the words of Christ are plain that God loveth us. And as God, the Giver, is exceedingly great, so is the gift that He giveth, which is His only Son. Let us understand that God is not said to be angry with the world, but to love it in that He gave His Son for it. God is merciful to us and loveth us, and of very love gave His Son unto us, that we should not perish, but have everlasting life. And as God giveth by love and mercy, so do we take and receive by faith and not otherwise. Faith only - that is, trust in the mercy and grace of God - is the very hand by which we take this gift. This gift is given to make us safe from death and sin. And it is bestowed upon the world, and the world signifies all mankind. Why shouldest thou not suffer thyself to be of this name, seeing that Christ with plain words saith, that God gave not His Son only for Mary, Peter, and Paul, but for the world, that all should receive Him that are the sons of men? Then if thou or I should receive Him as if He did not appertain to us, truly it would consequently follow that

Christ's words are not true, wherein He saith He was given and delivered for the world. Wherefore hereof appears that the contrary thereto is most assuredly true, that this gift belongs as well unto thee as to Peter and Paul, for as much as thou also art a man as they were, and a portion of the world. . . . Whatsoever I am, God is not to be taken as unfaithful to His promise. I am a portion of the world, wherefore if I take not this gift as mine, I make God untrue. But thou wilt say, 'Why does He not shew this to me alone? Then I would believe and think surely that it appertained to me.' But it is for a great consideration that God speaks here so generally; to the intent, verily, that no, man should think that he is excluded from this promise and gift. He that excludes himself must give an account why he does so. I will not judge them,' saith He, but they shall be judged of their own mouth.' . . . We are saved, then, only by the mercy of God; and we obtain this grace only by faith, without virtue, without merits, and without works. For the whole matter, that is necessary to the getting of everlasting life and remission of sins, is altogether and fully comprehended in the love and mercy of God through Christ."¹

Dr. Chalmers wrote the following words in a letter to a friend:

I must say that I never had so close and satisfactory a view of the gospel salvation as when I have been led to contemplate it in the light of a simple offer on the one side, and a simple acceptance on the other. It is just saying to one and all of us, There is forgiveness through the blood of my Son: take it and whoever believes the reality of the offer takes it.

It is not in any shape the reward of our own services; . . . it is the gift of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. It is not given because you are worthy to receive it, but because it is a gift worthy of our kind and reconciled Father to bestow.

We are apt to stagger at the greatness of the unmerited offer, and cannot attach faith to it till we have made up some title of our own. This leads to two mischievous consequences. It keeps alive the presumption of one class of Christians, who will still be thinking that it is something in themselves and of themselves which confers upon them a right to salvation; and it confirms the melancholy of another class, who look into their own hearts and their own lives, and find that they cannot make out a shadow of a title to the divine favour. The error of both lies in their looking to themselves when they should be looking to the Saviour. Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth,' (Isa. 45:22).

The Son of man was so lifted up that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life, (John 3:14,15). It is your part simply to lay hold of the proffered boon. You are invited to do so; you are entreated to do so; nay, what is more, you are commanded to do so. It is true you are unworthy, and without holiness no man can see God; but be not afraid, only believe! You cannot get holiness of yourself, but Christ has undertaken to provide it for you. It is one of those spiritual blessings of which He has the dispensation, and which He has promised to all who believe in Him.

God has promised that with His Son He will freely give you all things, (Rom. 8:32), -that He will walk in you, and dwell in you, (2 Cor. 6:16), - that He will purify your heart by faith, (Acts 15:9), - that He will put His law in your heart, and write it in your mind, (Heb. 8:10).

These are the effects of your believing in Christ, and not the services by which you become entitled to believe in Him. Make a clear outset in the business, and understand that your first step is simply a confiding acceptance of an offer that is 'Most free, most frank, most generous, and most unconditional.

If I were to come as an accredited agent from the upper sanctuary with a letter of invitation to you, with your name and address on it, you would not doubt your warrant to accept it. Well, here is the Bible, your invitation to come to Christ. It does not bear your name and address, but it says Whosoever that takes you in; it says all - that takes you in; it says if any - that takes you in. What can be surer or freer than that?"

Old Traill of London said:

"We glory in any name of reproach (as the honourable reproach of Christ) that is cast upon us for asserting the absolute boundless freedom of the grace of God, which excludes all merit, and everything like it; the absoluteness of the covenant of grace, for the covenant of redemption was plainly and strictly a conditional one, and the noblest of all conditions was in it.

The Son of God's taking on Him mans nature, and offering it in sacrifice, was the strict condition of all the glory and reward promised to Christ and His seed, (Isa 53:10-11), - wherein all things are freely promised, and that faith that is required for sealing a mans interest in the covenant is promised in it, and wrought by the grace of it, (Eph 2:8). That faith at first is wrought by, and acts upon, a full and absolute offer of Christ, and of all His fulness; an offer that hath no condition in it, but that native one to all offers, acceptance: and in the very act of this acceptance, the acceptor doth expressly disclaim all things in himself, but sinfulness and misery.

That faith in Jesus Christ doth justify (although, by the way, it is to be noted that it is never written in the Word that faith justifieth actively, but always passively, that a man is justified by faith, and that God justifieth men by and through faith; yet admitting the phrase) only as a mere instrument, receiving that imputed righteousness of Christ for which we are justified ; and that this faith, in the office of justification, is neither condition, nor qualification, nor our gospel righteousness, but in its very act a renouncing of all such pretences.

We proclaim the market of grace to be free (Isa. 55:1-3). It is Christ's last offer - and lowest, (Rev. 22:17). If there be any price or money spoken of, it is no price, no money. And where such are the terms and conditions, if we be forced to call them so, we must say that they look liker a renouncing, than a boasting of any qualifications or conditions. Surely the terms of the gospel bargain are, Gods free giving, and our free taking and receiving.

It is quite natural for us, born as we are, under the law, and brought up under the restraining influences of religion and civilisation, to suppose that we can be saved only by conforming to certain rules and implementing certain conditions. It is difficult to lay aside the performing of all duties as a means of being accepted graciously by God, and to submit to be sought and saved simply as lost sinners, by a loving Redeemer, who delivers us from guilt, corruption, and perdition, "without money and without price," (Isa. 55:1).

An eminent writer of last century says truly:

The gospel is much clouded by legal terms, conditions, and qualifications. If my doctrine were, Upon condition that you did so and so-that you believe, and repent, and mourn, and pray, and obey, and the like then you shall have the favour of God -I dare not for my life say that is the gospel. But the gospel I desire to preach to you is, Will you have a Christ to work faith, repentance, love, and all good in you, and to stand between you and the sword of Divine wrath? Here there is no room for you to object that you are not qualified, because you are such a hardened, unhumbled, blind and stupid wretch. For the question is not, Will you remove these evils and then come to Christ ? but, Will you have a Christ to remove them for you? It is because you are plagued with these diseases that I call you to come to the Physician that He may heal them. Are you guilty? I offer Him unto you for righteousness. Are you polluted ? I offer Him unto you for sanctification. Are you miserable and forlorn? I offer Him as made of God unto you complete redemption. Are you hard-hearted? I offer Him in that promise, I will take away the heart of stone,' (Ezek. 36:26). Are you content that He break your hard heart ? Come, then, and put your hard heart into His hand."

1) Works of Thomas Bacon, born 1510.