Salvation by Grace

Salvation by grace means that sinners are rescued from condemnation and given eternal life entirely by God's free favor, not by anything they do or deserve. This doctrine matters because it determines whether we look to ourselves or to Christ alone for acceptance with God. The authors gathered here agree that grace is the heart of the gospel, though they emphasize different aspects of how that grace reaches sinners and what it produces.

The law cannot save

Charles Spurgeon repeatedly warns against every scheme that mixes human works with salvation. He rejects the idea that people can be saved by benevolence, honesty, righteousness, or sobriety. He also rejects the teaching that the gospel is a new law with commands that people must obey to merit salvation. Still others, he says, teach that salvation comes partly by observing the law and partly by God's grace, and these are false teachers. Spurgeon insists that the law was never intended to save men, but to prove that salvation by works is impossible and to compel the elect to rely wholly on the gospel. The law, like a storm or an impassable mountain, is used by God to turn sinners back from attempting salvation by works and direct them to the way of mercy through Christ's cross. He adds that the law comes so that the whole world might see the impossibility of being saved by works. The law is a schoolmaster to bring sinners to Christ, and no works, fitness, or righteousness are required for salvation. When the sinner is brought to the end of himself under the law, that is the moment for turning from condemning law to abounding grace.

Matthew Henry agrees that the law was a great privilege but not a saving privilege unless lived up to. The Jewish opinion that all Jews, however badly they lived, would have a place in the world to come is false. Because man is depraved and sinful, he can never gain acceptance with God by his own works; justification must come purely from God's free grace through Jesus Christ received by faith (Romans 3:28). Henry also says that God does not save people based on external privileges or barren knowledge and profession of the truth, but according to their actual state and disposition (Romans 2:11).

Jonathan Edwards argues the same point from the nature of justification. Justification addresses a person as ungodly, not as one who has prior godliness or goodness that could serve as its ground (Romans 4:5). We are justified only by faith in Christ, not by any virtue or goodness of our own. To suppose we are justified by our own sincere obedience or goodness dishonors gospel grace. The view that God would be unjust to require perfect obedience makes Christ's death unnecessary, since God would already be obligated to accept imperfect obedience. Scripture opposes the idea that our own goodness or virtue puts us into God's acceptance and favor.

Justification is a free gift

Edwards defines justification as God counting or imputing righteousness to a sinner who has no righteousness of his own (Romans 4:3–5). God showed his free grace to Abraham by counting something for righteousness that was not righteousness in itself (Romans 4:3). In justification, the person is regarded as altogether hateful in himself, so an interest in Christ's merits cannot be given on account of any righteousness or virtue in him. Nothing in a sinner, including faith or any other qualification, makes it suitable for God to give him an interest in Christ on account of any excellency in him. God's acceptance of any goodness or loveliness in the person comes only after justification, not before it.

Henry stresses the same freeness. Justification is entirely by God's free grace, with nothing in us deserving it (Romans 3:24). God's grace to us is absolutely free and undeserved, unlike human favor which may have some cause in the person favored. Though justification comes to us freely, it comes through the redemption purchased by Christ, and this does not diminish the freeness of God's grace. If Abraham had earned his reward by works, it would have been owed as a debt, not given by grace (Romans 4:4–5). God justifies the ungodly person who does not rely on works but casts himself wholly on God's free grace in Christ through faith (Romans 4:5). The promise was made through faith so that it might be entirely by grace, giving all honor to God's free grace rather than to human merit or debt (Romans 4:16).

Spurgeon presents this as the wonder of the gospel. All people are guilty because all have sinned and fallen short of God's glory, yet they are justified freely by grace (Romans 3:23–24). The wonder of the gospel is that believers are proved guilty, yet are nevertheless justified. Justification is given freely, without any price or payment from us. Bringing our own deservings or merits disqualifies us from receiving justification. No plea based on being better than others, religious observance, or intended improvement can obtain justification, because it is by grace. Heaven cannot be bought with money, good works, prayers, or anything in the world. The sinner is forgiven and saved simply by believing the truth that Christ's blood has atoned for him.

Faith is the instrument, not the merit

Edwards is especially careful to distinguish faith as the means of receiving grace from faith as a supposed ground of merit. We are not justified out of respect to the excellency or goodness of any qualification or act in us, including faith itself. God grants a right to Christ's merits based on faith as a uniting act, not as a reward for the worthiness of faith itself. Salvation and Christ himself are not given as a reward for anything in man, including faith. To make believing essential to a vital union on Christ's part is an erroneous conclusion derogatory to gospel grace. The immediate cause of vital union is the Spirit of Christ, not man, which secures salvation by grace and honors Christ's federal headship. The first union is the immediate effect of sovereign grace, while the consequent union by faith is the effect of exercised grace in obeying a moral duty.

Henry agrees that Abraham's faith was counted as righteousness purely by God's free grace, not because faith itself has the formal nature of righteousness (Romans 4:3). Because Abraham confidently trusted God's bare promise, God graciously accepted his faith as righteousness, though the faith itself did not merit such acceptance (Romans 4:22). A person's former ungodliness is no bar to justification upon believing, so there is no room for despair (Romans 4:5).

Spurgeon urges sinners to come to Christ just as they are, with nothing but sin, not waiting to improve themselves first. Trying to make yourself better before coming to Christ is impossible and actually makes your condition worse. Neither repentance nor leaving off sin can save; salvation is by Christ alone. Anyone who knows himself to be a sinner may have Christ simply by asking for him. Even the most sinful and debased person should come to Christ if he feels his sin and renounces it.

Christ's death and righteousness purchase salvation

Spurgeon explains that redemption means Christ paid a ransom price to set believers free from bondage to the law and divine justice (Romans 3:24). Christ's ransom payment for his people was complete and total, leaving no debt unpaid or any satisfaction for them to make. Christ paid the entire ransom at once, not by installments, leaving nothing for him to do or for us to accomplish. Because Christ suffered all that his people deserved, they are forever freed from hell and eternal punishment. God does not save sinners by overlooking or passing over the penalty of sin. Because Christ took the sinner's place, God now accepts the sinner as if he were Christ, his beloved Son. At the moment a sinner believes in Christ, all his sins are pardoned and removed from him, being laid on Christ. Justification is a perfect and complete washing, pardon, and imputation, making the believer fully accepted through Christ.

Edwards adds that believers obtain eternal life not merely through being freed from guilt by Christ's atonement, but through Christ's active obedience credited to them. If Christ only suffered to make atonement, he would be only half a Savior, delivering from hell but not purchasing heaven. Heaven is a purchased possession, not something acquired by our own obedience after Christ merely removes the penalty of sin (Ephesians 1:14). Believers are saved by Christ's death as an act of obedience just as much as they are saved by it as a propitiation for sins (Philippians 2:8). Christ's death both made atonement for sin and merited eternal life, so his blood purchases heaven as much as it redeems from hell. Being justified by Christ's righteousness rules out being justified by our own obedience, because Christ cannot be our Savior in a respect where we save ourselves (Galatians 5:4).

Henry emphasizes that forgiveness is not the absence of sin, but God not charging sin to the sinner's account (Romans 4:8). Because forgiveness is purely an act of grace, its acceptance and reward cannot be expected as debts owed (Romans 4:6). Pardoned people are the only truly blessed people, and this blessedness is the foundation of all other benefits (Romans 4:7). The blessedness David speaks of is not the character of the blessed person but the ground and foundation of that blessedness, namely forgiveness (Romans 4:7).

Grace is magnified by human unworthiness

Edwards argues that God's kindness and love appear most triumphant and wonderfully great when the receiver is not only without all excellency but altogether vile and hateful. Whatever expresses the abundant benevolence of the giver and obliges gratitude in the receiver magnifies free grace. Showing kindness without any goodness or excellency in the object demonstrates more abundant benevolence in the giver and enhances the receiver's obligation to gratitude. God's goodness appears more abundant when He shows kindness without any excellency in the receiver to draw it forth, because abundant goodness flows from within rather than needing external attraction. Justifying a person who is ungodly and without any goodness increases that person's obligation to gratitude more than justifying someone who has some virtue. Scripture itself argues that human sinfulness and undeservingness increase the obligation to love God and acknowledge his kindness. The doctrine that justification respects a person as ungodly exalts God's free grace more than the view that justification is conditioned on something good in the person.

Spurgeon makes the same point from Romans 5:8. God commends his love by Christ dying for us while we were still sinners, not after we became penitent. Christ died for people who are continual sinners, not those who have committed only one fault. Christ's love can forgive even the greatest transgressors, including those who crucified him. Even those who have blasphemed Christ and mocked his people may find him to be their Savior if they repent and feel their need of him. Christ's death for sinners shows that God considered our sin and ill desert, not any merit or righteousness in us. Christ died for people considered as sinners in their loathsomeness and misery, not as saints or good people. God commends his love by the fact that we had no merit and only ill desert when Christ died for us. God had no self-interest in sending Christ to die for sinners, since sinners could do nothing to serve or repay him. Christ died for us unasked, when we had neither the power nor the will to pray or seek him. Christ died for us while we were hardened and rebellious, not seeking his grace, which magnifies God's love.

Henry adds that God chooses to save people when they are without strength so that his own power and grace are magnified (Romans 5:6). Christ died for sinners while they were yet sinners, not to save them in their sins but from their sins, implying a change would be wrought (Romans 5:8). If God justified and reconciled us while we were still enemies, then certainly he will save us now that we are justified and reconciled (Romans 5:9–10).

Grace surpasses sin

Spurgeon celebrates the superabundance of grace. Despite the devastations of sin, grace superabounds, which is the more pleasing part of the subject. The number of the saved will exceed the number of the lost, so grace wins the day over sin. Grace has never been entirely absent from the world since the fall, but sin has never been universal. A time is coming when grace will fill the whole world, whereas sin never filled it completely. Christ died for the whole world, and he will possess the whole world after purifying it. What we lost in Adam is more than restored in Christ, including a better habitation, immortality, and righteousness. Grace surpasses sin in its measure and power, so that one act of divine pardon can cancel even the most numerous and enormous sins. Grace surpasses sin in its origin, because while sin traces its parentage to the human heart, grace traces its origin to God himself. Grace removes the sorrow and misery that sin and the law produce, giving the believer joy and freedom. Grace makes the worst sinner fit for heaven, giving him a crown and a place among the glorified. The very fact that a person is a law-condemned sinner who acknowledges iniquity is a sign that they are a vessel of mercy.

Henry agrees that the law entered so that grace might abound even more, making gospel comforts sweeter by the terrors of the law (Romans 5:20). Where sin was great among converted Jews, grace abounded even more in forgiving guilt and subduing corruption. The greater the strength of the enemy, the greater the honor of the conqueror, so sin's strength magnifies grace. The reign of sin serves as a dark backdrop that makes the reign of grace appear more glorious (Romans 5:21). Sin reigned as a cruel tyrant ending in death, but grace reigns to eternal life through righteousness. The righteousness and grace of Christ, who is the Lord from heaven, have more power to justify and save than Adam's sin had to condemn (Romans 5:15). The gift of righteousness from Christ not only removes the guilt of Adam's one offence but forgives many other offences, even all trespasses (Romans 5:16). By Christ's righteousness believers are not only pardoned but advanced to reign in life, receiving more and greater privileges than were lost by Adam's offence (Romans 5:17).

Grace and holiness belong together

Henry is clear that the doctrine of justification by grace must never be used as an excuse to continue sinning (Romans 6:1). Any teaching that encourages sin, even under the pretense of promoting free grace, must be rejected with abhorrence (Romans 6:2). Being delivered from the law is an encouragement to holiness because believers are under grace, which promises strength to obey and pardon upon repentance when they fall short (Romans 7:6). Sins that believers sincerely strive against will not be laid to their charge, and through grace the victory over remaining corruption is sure at last (Romans 7:24–25). Eternal life is the gift of God, not earned by obedience; sinners merit hell, but saints do not merit heaven (Romans 6:23). Eternal life comes through Jesus Christ our Lord, who purchased it, prepares it, prepares us for it, and preserves us to it.

Edwards also holds grace and holiness together without making holiness the ground of justification. Scripture interweaves human obligation with sovereign grace, teaching that believers work out salvation because God works in them, and that faith itself is God's gift (Philippians 2:12–13, John 6:44, John 6:37, John 15:16, Ephesians 2:8). Promises of salvation made to obedience only prove that obedience and salvation are connected in fact, not that obedience is the ground on which a title to salvation is granted (Romans 2:7). God may already be disposed by Christ's righteousness to make believers perfectly happy, yet still choose to bestow that happiness as a reward for their subsequent holiness and obedience. A believer's title to heaven by faith comes before obedience, but the actual giving of heaven can still testify to God's regard for obedience performed afterward (Genesis 22:16–18). The worthiness of believers for glory is a moral fitness arising from the value God places on their persons purely for Christ's sake (Revelation 3:4, Luke 20:35). The preciousness or worthiness of believers that makes them morally fit for reward is entirely founded on the righteousness of Christ, not on any excellency in themselves (Luke 20:35, Luke 21:36, 2 Thessalonians 1:5).

The law never came to save men. It never was its intention at all. It came on purpose to make the evidence complete that salvation by works is impossible, and thus to drive the elect of God to rely wholly on the finished salvation of the gospel Charles Spurgeon, sermon “Law and Grace” Man, in his depraved state, under the power of such corruption, could never, by any works of his own, gain acceptance with God; but it must be resolved purely into the free grace of God, given through Jesus Christ to all true believers that receive it as a free gift Matthew Henry, “Exposition of the Old and New Testaments” It is by his grace, not by the grace wrought in us as the papists say, confounding justification and sanctification, but by the gracious favour of God to us, without any merit in us so much as foreseen Matthew Henry, “Exposition of the Old and New Testaments” It is all he asks of thee, to feel thy need of him, this thou hast, and now the blood of Jesus lies before thee. “The law has entered that sin might abound.” Thou are forgiven, only believe it; elect, only believe it; ‘tis the truth that thou are saved Charles Spurgeon, sermon “Law and Grace” God commendeth his love towards us,” not only because Christ died for us, but that CHRIST DIED FOR US WHILE WE WERE YET SINNERS Charles Spurgeon, sermon “Love's Commendation” When a prisoner has been taken captive, and has been made a slave by some barbarous power, it has been usual, before he could be set free, that a ransom price should be paid down Charles Spurgeon, sermon “Justification by Grace” Now, the wonder of wonders is, that we are proved guilty, and yet we are justified: the verdict has been brought in against us, guilty; and yet, notwithstanding, we are justified Charles Spurgeon, sermon “Justification by Grace” This is the way we are saved, “Being justified freely by his grace, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus Charles Spurgeon, sermon “Justification by Grace” Sin reigned unto death; it was a cruel bloody reign. But grace reigns to life, eternal life, and this through righteousness, righteousness imputed to us for justification, implanted in us for sanctification; and both by Jesus Christ our Lord Matthew Henry, “Exposition of the Old and New Testaments” The gift of God is eternal life. Heaven is life, consisting in the vision and fruition of God; and it is eternal life, no infirmities attending it, no death to put a period to it. This is the gift of God. The death is the wages of sin, it comes by desert; but the life is a gift, it comes by favour. Sinners merit hell, but saints do not merit heaven Matthew Henry, “Exposition of the Old and New Testaments”