חֶסֶד

By N.H. SNAITH

Biblical scholars have often complained that the word חֶסֶד in the Hebrew Bible is difficult to translate into English, because it really has no precise equivalent in our language. English versions usually try to represent it with such words as "loving-kindness," "mercy," "steadfast love," and sometimes "loyalty," but the full meaning of the word cannot be conveyed without an explanation, such as the one given in the article below. This article, by Norman H. Snaith, is reproduced from A Theological Word Book of the Bible, edited by Alan Richardson (New York: MacMillan, 1951), pp. 136-7.

Loving-Kindness. This is a biblical word, invented by Miles Coverdale, and carried over into the English versions generally. It is one of the words he used in the Psalms (23 times, plus Hosea 2:19) to translate the Hebrew chesed when it refers to God's love for his people Israel. Otherwise he used 'mercy,' 'goodness,' and 'great kindness' in the Psalms for God's attitude to man; and, outside the Psalms, such words as 'mercy,' 'goodness,' 'favour' for God's attitude to man, and 'kindness' for man's attitude to man. It is important to notice that Coverdale takes pains to avoid using the word 'kindness' of God's attitude to man, though he is not followed in this respect by the Authorized Version and the Revised Version. There is one case in the Psalms (141:5) where the word chesed is used of man's attitude to man, and even here Coverdale avoids 'kindness' (so AV and RV), but has 'friendly.' The nearest New Testament equivalent to the Hebrew chesed is charis (grace), as Luther realized when he used the German Gnade for both words.

The word is used only in cases where there is some recognized tie between the parties concerned. It is not used indiscriminately of kindness in general, haphazard, kindly deeds; this is why Coverdale was careful to avoid using the word 'kindness' in respect of God's dealings with his people Israel. The theological importance of the word chesed is that it stands more than any other word for the attitude which both parties to a covenant ought to maintain towards each other. Sir George Adam Smith suggested the rendering 'leal-love.' The merit of this translation is that it combines the twin ideas of love and loyalty, both of which are essential. On the other hand, it does not sufficiently convey the idea of the steadfastness and persistence of God's sure love for his covenant-people. His other suggestion, 'troth,' is better in this respect, but the etymological core of the word is 'eagerness, keenness,' and, whilst there is considerable development from this, the word never belies its origins. In Isaiah 40:6, for instance, the word chesed is used to describe man's steadfastness, or rather the lack of it.[1] The English versions have 'goodliness,' following some of the ancient versions, but the Targum (old Jewish Aramaic paraphrase) was right when it said 'their strength.' The prophet is contrasting man's frailty with God's steadfast reliability. He says that all man's steadfastness is like the wild flowers, here today and gone tomorrow, whilst the Word of the Lord is steady and sure, firm and reliable.

God's loving-kindness is that sure love which will not let Israel go. Not all Israel's persistent waywardness could ever destroy it. Though Israel be faithless, yet God remains faithful still. This steady, persistent refusal of God to wash his hands of wayward Israel is the essential meaning of the Hebrew word which is translated loving-kindness. In Jeremiah 2:2 the word chesed is rendered 'kindness,' the reference being to 'the kindness of thy youth,' and this phrase is paralleled by 'the love of thine espousals.' The meaning is not that Israel was more tender in her attitude towards God or in her affections, but that in the first days after the rescue from Egypt she was faithful to the marriage-covenant with God. The charge of the prophets is that Israel's loyalty to her covenant with God (Hosea 6:4, 'goodness' in the English versions) is 'as the morning cloud, and as the dew that goeth early away,' a regular feature of the Palestinian climate when once the spring rains are past.

The widening of the meaning of the Hebrew chesed, used as the covenant word and especially of the covenant between God and Israel, is due to the history of God's dealings with his covenant-people. The continual waywardness of Israel has made it inevitable that, if God is never going to let Israel go, then his relation to his people must in the main be one of loving-kindness, mercy, and goodness, all of it entirely undeserved. For this reason the predominant use of the word comes to include mercy and forgiveness as a main constituent in God's determined faithfulness to his part of the bargain. It is obvious, time and again, from the context that if God is to maintain the covenant he must exercise mercy to an unexampled degree. For this reason the Greek translators of the Old Testament (third century BC onwards) used the Greek eleos (mercy, pity) as their regular rendering, and Jerome (end of fourth century AD and beginning of fifth) followed with the Latin misericordia.

The loving-kindness of God towards Israel is therefore wholly undeserved on Israel's part. If Israel received the proper treatment for her stubborn refusal to walk in God's way, there would be no prospect for her of anything but destruction, since God's demand for right action never wavers one whit. Strict, however, as the demands for righteousness are, the prophets were sure that God's yearnings for the people of his choice are stronger still. Here is the great dilemma of the prophets, and indeed the dilemma of us all to this day. Which comes first, mercy or justice? Rashi (eleventh-century AD Jewish commentator) said that God gave 'precedence to the rule of mercy' and joined it 'with the rule of justice.' But this much is clear: when we try to estimate the depth and the persistence of God's loving-kindness and mercy, we must first remember his passion for righteousness. His passion for righteousness is so strong that he could not be more insistent in his demand for it, but God's persistent love for his people is more insistent still. The story of God's people throughout the centuries is that her waywardness has been so persistent that, if even a remnant is to be preserved, God has had to show mercy more than anything else. It is important to realize that though the Hebrew chesed can be translated by loving-kindness and mercy without doing violence to the context, yet we must always beware lest we think that God is content with less than righteousness. There is no reference to any sentimental kindness, and no suggestion of mercy apart from repentance, in any case where the Hebrew original is chesed. His demand for righteousness is insistent, and it is always at the maximum intensity. The loving-kindness of God means that his mercy is greater even than that. The word stands for the wonder of his unfailing love for the people of his choice, and the solving of the problem of the relation between his righteousness and his loving-kindness passes beyond human comprehension.

Bibliography: N.H. Snaith, Distinctive Ideas of the Old Testament, London (1944).

Notes

1. Snaith maintains that in Isaiah 40:6 the word chesed should be translated "steadfastness," but others have concluded that here the word is used in the sense of "grace" or "beauty." I note that the RSV translators rendered the word "beauty" without giving a marginal alternative, and that in the most recent English edition of the Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament by Koehler and Baumgartner, the meaning at Isaiah 40:6 is explained as "charm" (vol. 1 [Leiden: Brill, 2001], p. 337). —M.D.M.

List of verses in which the word occurs

Gen 19:19; 20:13; 21:23; 24:12,14,27,49; 32:10; 39:21; 40:14; 47:29; Exod 15:13; 20:6; 34:6,7; Lev 20:17; Num 14:18,19; Deut 5:10; 7:9,12; Josh 2:12,14; Judges 1:24; 8:35; Ruth 1:8; 2:20; 3:10; 1 Sam 15:6; 20:8,14,15; 2 Sam 2:5,6; 3:8; 7:15; 9:1,3,7; 10:2; 15:20; 16:17; 22:51; 1 Kings 2:7; 3:6; 8:23; 20:31; 1 Chron 16:34,41; 17:13; 19:2; 2 Chron 1:8; 5:13; 6:14,42; 7:3,6; 20:21; 24:22; 32:32; 35:26; Ezra 3:11; 7:28; 9:9; Neh 1:5; 9:17,32; 13:14,22; Esther 2:9,17; Job 6:14; 10:12; 37:13; Psalms 5:7; 6:4; 13:5; 17:7; 18:50; 21:7; 23:6; 25:6,7,10; 26:3; 31:7,16,21; 32:10; 33:5,18,22; 36:5,7,10; 40:10,11; 42:8; 44:26; 48:9; 51:1; 52:1,8; 57:3,10; 59:10,16,17; 61:7; 62:12; 63:3; 66:20; 69:13,16; 77:8; 85:7,10; 86:5,13,15; 88:11; 89:1,2,14,24,28,33,49; 90:14; 92:2; 94:18; 98:3; 100:5; 101:1; 103:4,8,11,17; 106:1,7,45; 107:1,8,15,21,31,43; 108:4; 109:12,16,21,26; 115:1; 117:2; 118:1,2,3,4,29; 119:41,64,76,88,124,149,159; 130:7; 136:1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26; 138:2,8; 141:5; 143:8,12; 144:2; 145:8; 147:11; Prov 3:3; 11:17; 14:22,34; 16:6; 19:22; 20:6,28; 21:21; 31:26; Isaiah 16:5; 40:6; 54:8,10; 55:3; 57:1; 63:7; Jer 2:2; 9:24; 16:5; 31:3; 32:18; 33:11; Lam 3:22,32; Dan 1:9; 9:4; Hos 2:19; 4:1; 6:4,6; 10:12; 12:6; Joel 2:13; Jonah 2:8; 4:2; Micah 6:8; 7:18,20; Zec 7:9.

Glorious Grace

by Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758)

 "And he shall bring forth the headstone thereof with shouting, crying, grace, grace!"—Zachariah 4:7

The mercy of God is that attribute which we, the fallen, sinful race of Adam, stand in greatest need of, and God has been pleased, according to our needs, more gloriously to manifest this attribute than any other. The wonders of divine grace are the greatest of all wonders. The wonders of divine power and wisdom in the making [of] this great world are marvelous; other wonders of his justice in punishing sin are wonderful; many wonderful things have happened since the creation of the world, but none like the wonders of grace. "Grace, grace!" is the sound that the gospel rings with, "Grace, grace!" will be that shout which will ring in heaven forever; and perhaps what the angels sung at the birth of Christ, of God's good will towards men, is the highest theme that ever they entered upon.

In order to understand the words of our text, we are to take notice that the scope and design of the chapter is to comfort and encourage the children of Israel, returned out of their Babylonish captivity, in the building of Jerusalem and the temple: who it seems were very much disheartened by reason of the opposition they met with in the work, and the want of [the] external glory of the former temple before the captivity, so that the priests and the Levites, and the chief of the fathers, wept aloud as the rest shouted at the sight, as you may see in Ezra 3: 12, "But many of the priests and Levites, and chief of the fathers, who were ancient men, that had seen the first house, when the foundation of this house was laid before their eyes, wept with a loud voice, and many shouted aloud for joy." You may see a full account of their great oppositions and discouragement's in the fourth and fifth chapters.

The prophets, Haggai and Zechariah, were sent on this occasion to comfort them under those discouragement's. by foretelling the glories of the gospel should be displayed in this latter house, which should render the glories of it far beyond the glories of the former, notwithstanding it was so far exceeded in what is external. In Hag. 2:3­9,

Who is left among you that saw this house in her first glory? and how do ye see it now? is it not in your eyes in comparison of it as nothing? Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel, saith the Lord; and be strong, O Joshua, son of Josedech, the high priest; and be strong, all ye people of the land, saith the Lord, and work: for I; am with you, saith the Lord of hosts: according to the word that I covenanted with you when ye came out of Egypt, so my spirit; remaineth among you: fear ye not. For thus saith the Lord of hosts; Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, i and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land; And I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory, saith the Lord of hosts. The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the Lord of hosts. The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former, saith the Lord of hosts: and in this place will I give peace, saith the Lord of hosts.

See also, in the third chapter of this book, at the eighth verse, "Hear now, O Joshua the high priest, thou and thy fellows that sit before thee: for they are men wondered at; for behold, I will bring forth my servant, the Branch." And the same subject is continued in [his chapter, even the glorious grace of the gospel, which was to be manifested by Christ in this temple, particularly in our text, "and they shall bring forth the headstone with shouting, crying, Grace, grace unto it." The headstone is that which entirely crowns and finishes the whole work, signifying that the entire gospel dispensation was to be finished in mere grace.

This stone was to [be] brought with repeated shouting or rejoicings at the grace of God, signifying the admirableness and gloriousness of this grace.

DOCTRINE.

The gospel dispensation is finished wholly and entirely in free and glorious grace: there is glorious grace, shines in every part of the great work of redemption; the foundation is laid in grace, the superstructure is reared in grace, and the whole is finished in glorious grace.

If Adam had stood and persevered in obedience, he would have been made happy by mere bounty [and] goodness; for God was not obliged to reward Adam for his perfect obedience any otherwise than by covenant, for Adam by standing would not have merited happiness. But yet this grace would not have been such as the grace of the gospel, for he would have been saved upon the account of what he himself did, but the salvation of the gospel is given altogether freely. Rom. 11:6, "And if by grace, then it is no more works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then it is no more grace; otherwise work is no more work."

That we may give you as full explication of this doctrine as we can in a little space, we shall first, show free grace shines forth in the distinct parts of this wondrous work of redemption; second, speak a little of the gloriousness of this grace.

I. But as to the first, every part of this work was performed of mere grace.

First. It was of free grace that God had any thoughts or designs of rescuing mankind after the fall. If there had not been an immense fountain of goodness in God, he would never have entertained any thoughts at all of ever redeeming us after our defection. Man was happy enough at first, and might have continued so to all eternity, if he would; he was not compelled to fall. If he had not willfully and sinfully rebelled against God, he would never have been driven forth like an unworthy wretch, as he was. But although God had been so overflowing in his bounty to him as to make him head over the lower creation and ruler of all other creatures, and had planted a garden on purpose for his delight, and would have fixed him in an eternal happiness only on the reasonable condition of his obeying the easy commands of his maker; but yet notwithstanding all, he rebelled and turned over, from God to the devil, out of a wicked ambition of being a god himself ­ not content in that happy state that he was in as man ­ and so rebelled against God's authority.

Now who but God of boundless grace, would not have been provoked, after this, to leave him as he was, in the miserable state into which he had brought himself by his disobedience; resolving to help him no more, leaving him to himself and to the punishment he had deserved, leaving him in the devil's hands where he had thrown himself, not being contented in the arms of his Creator; who, but one of boundless grace, would ever have entertained any thoughts of finding out a way for his recovery?

God had no manner of need of us, or of our praises. He has enough in himself for himself, and neither needs nor desires any additions of happiness, and if he did need the worship of his creatures, he had thousands and ten­thousands of angels, and if he had not enough, he could create more; or, he could have glorified his justice in man's eternal destruction and ruin, and have with infinite ease created other beings, more perfect and glorious than man, eternally to sing his praises.

Second. But especially was it of rich and boundless grace that he gave his only Son for our restoration. By our fall, we are cast down so low into sin and misery, so deeply plunged into a most miserable and sinful condition, that it may truly be said, although all things are infinitely easy to God with respect to his omnipotency, yet with respect God's holiness and justice, God himself could not redeem us with­ a great deal of cost, no, not without infinite costs; that is, not without the presence of that, that is of infinite worth and value, even he blood of his Son, and in proper speaking, the blood of God, of divine person.

This was absolutely necessary in order to our redemption, because here was no other way of satisfying God's justice. When we were alien, it was come to this: either we must die eternally, or the Son of God must spill his blood; either we, or God's own Son must suffer God's wrath, one of the two; either miserable worms of the dust that had deserved it, or the glorious, amiable, beautiful, and innocent Son of God. The fall of man brought it to this; it must be determined one way or t'other and it was determined, by the strangely free and boundless grace of God, that this his own Son, should die that the offending worms might be freed, and set at liberty from their punishment, and that justice might make them happy. Here is grace indeed; well may we shout, "Grace, grace!" at this.

The heathens used to reckon that an only son slain in sacrifice was the greatest gift that could be offered to the gods. It was that, that they used sometimes to offer in times of great distress, and in some parts of the world it is constantly at this day performed. But we have stranger thing than that declared to us in the gospel; not that men sacrificed their only sons to God, but that God gave his only Son to be slain, a sacrifice for man. God once commanded Abraham to offer his only son to him, and perhaps the faith and love of Abraham may be looked upon as wonderful, that he was willing to perform it- there are few that would do it in these days ­ but if you wonder at that, how wonderful is it that, instead of Abraham's offering his only son to God, God should give his only Son to be offered for Abraham, and for every child of Abraham. Certainly, you will acknowledge this to be a wonder not to be paralleled.

And beside, God did not do this for friends, but for enemies and haters of him. He did not do it for loyal subjects, but for rebels; he did not do it for those that were his children, but for the children of the devil; he did not do it for those that were excellent, but for those that were more hateful than toads or vipers; he did not do it for those that could be any way profitable or advantageous to him, but for those that were so weak, that instead of profiting God, they were not able in the least to help themselves.

God has given even fallen man such a gift, that He has left nothing for man to do that he may be happy, but only to receive what is given him. Though he has sinned, yet God requires no amends to be made by him; He requires of him no restoration; if they will receive His Son of Him, He requires neither money nor price; he is to do no penance in order to be forgiven. What God offers, He offers freely. God offers man eternal happiness upon far more gracious terms since he is fallen than before; before, he was to do something himself for his happiness; he was to obey the law: but since he is fallen, God offers to save him for nothing, only if he will receive salvation as it is offered; that is, freely through Christ, by faith in Him.

Third. It was of mere grace that the Son was so freely willing to undertake our salvation. How cheerfully, yea how joyfully, did he undertake it, although he himself was the very person that was to suffer for man. Though He himself was to bear his sin and be made sin for him, yet how cheerfully cloth He speak: Ps. 40:7­8, "Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do thy will, O Cod." He says, in Prov. 8:31, that his "delights were with the sons of men," for so did he love them that it seems he himself was willing to die in their room, rather than that they should be miserable. He freely undertook this out of mere love and pity, for he never was and never will be, repaid by them for his blood. 'Twas on that we might be happy.'

Fourth. The application of the redemption of the gospel, by the Holy Spirit, is of mere grace. Although God the Father has provide a savior for us, and Christ has come and died, and there is nothing wanting but our willing and hearty reception of Christ; yet we shall eternally perish yet, if God is not gracious to us, and don't make application of Christ's benefits to our souls. We are dependent on free grace, even for ability to lay hold in Christ already offered, so entirely is the gospel dispensation of mere grace. Eph. 2:8­10, "For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God." That is, we shall [be saved] freely and for nothing if we will but accept of Christ, but we are not able to do that of ourselves, but it is the free 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."

II. We shall briefly speak to the gloriousness of this grace. As the grace of the gospel is altogether free, so it is glorious; the angels stoop down, with eyes full of wonder and joy, to look into, and shout for gladness and admiration, at the sight of it. How did the multitudes of heavenly hosts shout at the birth of Christ, crying, "Glory to God in the highest; on earth peace and good will towards men!" Well may the topstone of this house be brought forth with shouting, crying, "Grace, grace!" to it.

All the attributes of God, do illustriously shine forth in the face of Jesus Christ: his wisdom in so contriving his power in conquering death and the devil, and the hard and rocky hearts of depraved men; his justice in punishing sins of men rather upon his own dear Son, than let it go unpunished; but more especially, [in] his grace, that sweet attribute, he has magnified his mercy above all his names.

The grace of God, exhibited in the gospel, is glorious,

First. Because of the greatness of it. Every circumstance of the gospel, grace surprisingly heightens it; let us look on what part we will, we shall see enough to fill us and all the angels in heaven with admiration forever. If we consider it as the grace of God the Father, and consider his greatness, his holiness, his power and justice, immensity and eternity; if we diligently consider how great a being he is, who took such pity and compassion on mankind, it is enough to astonish us. Or, if we consider ourselves, on whom this great God has bestowed this grace, we are nothing but worms, yea less than worms, before God; and not only so, but sinful worms, worms swollen with enmity against God. If we consider him by whom we receive [grace], the Son of God who made heaven and, by his almighty power, [is] equal with the Father; if we consider the greatness of what he did- he died most ignominiously and painfully in our nature ­ it all infinitely heightens the grace of the gospel.

Second. Because of the glorious fruit of this. No less than salvation and eternal glory are the fruits of this grace of the gospel; adoption, union with Christ, communion with God, the indwelling of the Holy Ghost, the heavenly happiness, the pleasure of the eternal paradise, the new Jerusalem, the glorious and triumphant resurrection of the body, and an everlasting reign with Christ in the height of glory, and pleasure and happiness: no less than these things are the effects of this marvelous grace.

What a vast difference is there between a poor, miserable sinner, full of sin, condemned to hellfire, and, a saint shining forth in robes of glory, and crowned with a crown of victory and triumph; but 'tis no less difference than this, is made in the same man by the grace of God in Christ.

APPLICATION.

I. Hence we learn, how they dishonor God and the gospel, who depend on anything else but mere grace. The gospel is far the most glorious manifestation of God's glory that ever was made to man, and the glory of the gospel is free grace and mere mercy. Now those that will not depend on this free grace, they do what they can to deprive the gospel of this glory, and sully the glory of God therein shining forth; they take away the praise, glory, and honor, that is due to God by his free grace and mercy to men, and set up themselves as the objects of it, as if their salvation at least partly, was owing to what' they have done.

This must needs be very provoking and highly affronting to God: For miserable sinners, after they are fallen into such a miserable estate that it is impossible they should be saved by any other means than pure grace, and God is so gloriously rich in his goodness, as to offer this free grace unto them out of pity to them: how provoking must it be to God for these miserable, helpless wretches to attribute any of their salvation to themselves!

It is not an opportunity to buy and procure our own salvation that God offers, but an opportunity to lay hold on that salvation which is already bought and procured for us; neither are we able to [do] this of ourselves, it is the gift of God.

There are some, that hope to be saved quite in another way than ever the gospel proposed; that is, by their own righteousness, by being so good and doing so well, as that God shall take their goodness as sufficient to counterbalance their sin, that they have committed, and thereby they make their own goodness to equal value with Christ's blood. This conceit is very apt to creep into the proud heart of man.

Some openly profess to be able to merit salvation, as papists. Others hold that they are able to prepare and fit themselves for salvation already merited, or at least are able to do something towards it of themselves, and it is to be feared that many that don't openly profess either their own righteousness or their own strength, do very much depend upon both. By this doctrine, how much they dishonor the free grace of the gospel!

II. Let all be exhorted to accept the grace of the gospel. One would think, that there should be no need of such exhortations as this, but alas, such is the dreadful wickedness and the horrible ingratitude of man's heart, that he needs abundance of persuading and entreating to accept of God's kindness, when offered them. We should count it horrible ingratitude in a poor, necessitous creature, to refuse our help and kindness when we, out of mere pity to him, offer to relieve and help him. If you should see a man in extremity of distress, and in a perishing necessity of help and relief, and you should lay out yourself, with much labor and cost, out of compassion to him, that he might be relieved, how would you take it of him, if he should proudly and spitefully refuse it and snuff at it, instead of thanking you for it? Would you not look upon it as a very ungrateful, unreasonable, base thing? And why has not God a thousand times the cause, to look upon you as base and ungrateful, if you refuse his glorious grace in the gospel, that he offers you? When God saw mankind in a most necessitous condition, in the greatest and extremist distress, being exposed to hellfire and eternal death, from which it was impossible he should ever deliver himself, or that ever he should be delivered by any other means, He took pity on them, and brought them from the jaws of destruction by His own blood. Now what hat great ingratitude is it for them to refuse such grace as this?

But so it is: multitudes will not accept a free gift at the hands of the King of the World. They have the daring, horrible presumption as [to] refuse a kindness offered by God himself, and not to accept a gift at the hands of Jehovah, nor not his own Son, his own Son equal with himself. Yea, they'll not accept of him, though he dies for them; yea, though he dies a most tormenting death, though he dies that they may be delivered from hell, and that they may have heaven, they'll not accept of this gift, though they are in such necessity of it, that they must be miserable forever without it. Yea, although God the Father invites and importunes them, they'll not accept of it, though the Son of God himself knocks and calls at their door till his head is wet with the dew, and his locks with the drops of the night, arguing and pleading with them to accept of him for their own sakes, though he makes so many glorious promises, though he holds forth so many precious benefits to tempt them to happiness, perhaps for many years together, yet they obstinately refuse all. Was ever such ingratitude heard of, or can greater be conceived of?

What would you have God do for you, that you may accept of it? Is the gift that he offers too small, that you think it too little, for you to accept of ? Don't Cod offer you his Son, and what could Cod offer more? Yea, we may say God himself has not a greater gift to offer. Did not the Son of God do enough for you, that you won't accept of, him; did he [not] die, and what could he do more? Yea, we may say that the Son of God could not do a greater thing for man. Do you refuse because you want to be invited and wooed? You may hear him, from day to day, inviting of you, if you will but hearken. Or is it because you don't stand in need of God's grace? Don't you need it so much as that you must either receive it or be damned to all eternity, and what greater need can there possibly be?

Alas, miserable creatures that we are, instead of the gift of God offered in the gospel's not being great enough for us, we are not worthy of anything at all: we are less than the least of all God's mercies. Instead of deserving the dying Son of God, we are not worthy of the least crumb of bread, the least drop of water, or the least ray of light; instead of Christ's not having done enough for us by dying, in such pain and ignominy, we are not worthy that he should so much as look on us, instead of shedding his blood. We are not worthy that Christ should once make an offer of the least benefit, instead of his so long urging of us to be eternally happy.

Whoever continues to refuse Christ, will find hereafter, that instead of his having no need of him, that the least drop of his blood would have been more worth to them, than all the world; wherefore, let none be so ungrateful to God and so unwise for themselves, as to refuse the glorious grace of the gospel.

III. Let those who have been made partakers of this free and glorious grace of God, spend their lives much in praises and hallelujahs to God, for the wonders of his mercy in their redemption. To you, O redeemed of the Lord, cloth this doctrine most directly apply itself; you are those who have been made partakers of all this glorious grace of which you have now heard. 'Tis you that God entertained thoughts of restoring after your miserable fall into dreadful depravity and corruption, and into danger of the dreadful misery that unavoidably follows upon it; 'tis for you in particular that God gave his Son, yea, his only Son, and sent him into the world; 'tis for you that the Son of God so freely gave himself; 'tis for you that he was born, died, rose again and ascended, and intercedes; 'tis to you that there the free application of the fruit of these things is made: all this is done perfectly and altogether freely, without any of your desert, without any of your righteousness or strength; wherefore, let your life be spent in praises to God. When you praise him in prayer, let it not be with coldness and indifferency; when you praise him in your closet, let your whole soul be active therein; when you praise him in singing, don't barely make a noise, without any stirring of affection in the heart, without any internal melody. Surely, you have reason to shout, cry, "Grace, grace, be the topstone of the temple!" Certainly, you don't want mercy and bounty to praise God; you only want a heart and lively affections to praise him with.

Surely, if the angels are so astonished at God's mercy to you, and do even shout with joy and admiration at the sight of God's grace to you, you yourself, on whom this grace is bestowed, have much more reason to shout.

Consider that great part of your happiness in heaven, to all eternity, will consist in this: in praising of God, for his free and glorious grace in redeeming you; and if you would spend more time about it on earth, you would find this world would be much more of a heaven to you than it is. Wherefore, do nothing while you are alive, but speak and think and live God's praises.

GRACE

By: Sam Storms

What is at stake in the debate between Calvinism and Arminianism is far more than a disagreement over terminology. At the heart of all this is the grace of God and how we understand it. I am not suggesting that Arminian Christians are deliberately impugning the grace of God in salvation. Nevertheless, by making election conditional upon something that man does, even if what he does is simply to repent and believe the gospel, God’s grace is seriously compromised. To say that something is done by grace is simply to say it is done by God. If salvation is from beginning to end a manifestation of God’s grace then it is from beginning to end a work of God. To inject any human effort or contribution whatsoever is to reject divine grace. Either election is unconditional and altogether of God and his grace or it is conditional and therefore a cooperative venture in which God and man both contribute. Let us consider this in more detail, first by defining what I mean by “grace”.

We happily speak of God as triune, eternal, omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent, and immutable. The God of whom these things are true is indeed a great and majestic Being. Who is like unto the Lord and with whom may we compare Him? Is there another whose knowledge and power are without limit, whose life is everlasting, whose will and ways do not change, and for whom the boundaries of the universe offer no barrier? Indeed, this God is a great God!

But to say of God that He is great is not enough. For as Millard Erickson has reminded us, God, though great, "might conceivably be an immoral or amoral being, exercising his power and knowledge in a capricious or even cruel fashion” (I:283-84). We must proceed further in our description of God; we must proceed from His greatness to His goodness. This God whose power and presence are illimitable, whose wisdom and will are incomparable, is a God no less abounding in love and longsuffering, mercy and grace. Therefore, although simple, yet profound is the child's dinner prayer: "God is great, God is good, and we thank Him for this food. Amen."

When we refer to the "goodness" of God we mean very simply that He is benevolent. God's goodness is but the inclination and resolve of His nature to promote the welfare and happiness of His creatures. This more general attribute of goodness may be manifested in the delay of penal judgment, in which case we speak of God's longsuffering. God's goodness as manifested in the restoration of the wretched is what the Bible calls mercy. Likewise, God's goodness as manifested toward the guilty and undeserving is referred to in Scripture as grace. It is this latter display of the goodness of God, in which His love for the hell-deserving sinner is most keenly evident, that concerns us in this lesson.

Grace has traditionally been defined as God's goodness toward sinners and mercy as God's goodness toward sufferers. As a result, mercy does not appear to be as free as grace. John Piper explains:

"when we show mercy, it looks as if we are responding to pain and being constrained by a painful condition outside ourselves. It is a beautiful constraint. But it does not seem to be as free as grace. Grace, however, contemplates the ugliness of sin, and, contrary to all expectation, acts beneficently. This looks more free. Pain seems to constrain mercy, but guilt does not seem to constrain grace. Grace looks more free. I don't mean that God's mercy is in fact less free than his grace. No one deserves God's mercy. And God is not bound to be merciful to any of his creatures. What I do mean is that 'freeness' lies closer at the heart of the meaning of grace. Grace, by definition, is free and unconstrained. It even lacks the seeming constraint of naturalness that exists between suffering and mercy. If God's grace is 'natural' in response to sin, it is owing entirely to something amazing in God, not in the constraining power of sin. Suffering constrains pity; but sin kindles anger. Therefore grace toward sinners is the freest of all God's acts” (Future Grace, 78).

The elect of God are recipients not only of all the benefits of common grace, but also of special grace. In fact, it is precisely the bestowal of special grace which constitutes them as the "elect" as over against those from whom it is withheld, namely, the "non-elect." Special grace is, of course, saving grace, and thus contrary to common grace does have as its design and effect the bestowal of eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ. Herman Bavinck defined the special or saving grace of God in this way:

"Ascribed to God, grace is his voluntary, unrestrained, unmerited favor toward guilty sinners, granting them justification and life instead of the penalty of death, which they deserved” (208).

Berkhof defined it simply as "the free bestowal of kindness on one who has no claim to it” (71). Packer expressed it this way:

"The grace of God is love freely shown towards guilty sinners, contrary to their merit and indeed in defiance of their demerit. It is God showing goodness to persons who deserve only severity, and had no reason to expect anything but severity” (Knowing God, 120).

The doctrine of God's grace is a vast and multifaceted subject. Because of this, I have chosen to focus in on ten principles or characteristics relating to the special grace of God, especially as it is found in the Pauline literature.

The first and possibly most fundamental characteristic of divine grace is that it presupposes sin and guilt. Grace has meaning only when men are seen as fallen, unworthy of salvation, and liable to eternal wrath. It is precisely because people today have lost sight of the depths of human depravity that they think so little of divine grace. What makes Paul's declaration that we are saved "by grace" so significant is his earlier declaration that we were "dead" in trespasses and sins, "gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature," "following its desires and thoughts," and were by nature the children of divine wrath (Eph. 2:1-10).

Second, grace does not contemplate sinners merely as undeserving, but as ill-deserving. So often we are inclined to think of ourselves prior to our salvation as in some sense "neutral" in the sight of God. We are willing to admit that we .have done nothing to deserve His favor. Our works, regardless of their character, are unacceptable in His glorious presence. But this is entirely insufficient as a background to the understanding of divine grace. It is not simply that we do not deserve grace: we do deserve hell! Fallen and unredeemed humanity is not to be conceived as merely helpless, but as openly and vehemently hostile toward God. It is one thing to be without a God-approved righteousness. It is altogether another thing to be wholly unrighteous and thus the object of divine wrath. It is, then, against the background of having been at one time the enemies of God that divine grace is to be portrayed (Rom. 5:10).

Third, grace is not to be thought of as in any sense dependent upon the merit or demerit of its objects. This may be expressed in two ways. In the first place, grace ceases to be grace if God is compelled to bestow it in the presence of human merit. According to Lewis Chafer:

"If God should discover the least degree of merit in the sinner, this, in strict righteousness, He must recognize and duly acknowledge. By such a recognition of human merit, He would be discharging an obligation toward the sinner and the discharge of that obligation toward the sinner would be the payment, or recognition, of a debt” (Grace, 8).

Furthermore, grace ceases to be grace if God is compelled to withdraw it in the presence of human demerit. Indeed, grace is seen to be infinitely glorious only when it operates, as Packer says, "in defiance of" human demerit. Therefore, grace is not treating a person less than, as, or greater than he deserves. It is treating a person without the slightest reference to desert whatsoever, but solely according to the infinite goodness and sovereign purpose of God.

Fourth, grace cannot incur a debt, which is to say that it is unrecompensed. Since grace is a gift, no work is to be performed, no offering made, with a view to repaying God for His favor. The biblical response to grace received is faith to receive yet more.

Fifth, in respect to justification, grace stands opposed to works (Rom. 4:4-5; 11:6). However, in respect to sanctification, grace is the source of works. This simply means that whereas we are saved by grace and not of works, we are saved by grace unto good works. Good works are the fruit, not the root, of God’s saving grace (see esp. Eph. 2:8 -10). It thus comes as no surprise that in Scripture grace and salvation stand together as cause is related to effect. It is the grace of God which "brings" salvation (Titus 2:11). We are saved by grace through faith (Eph. 2:8-9).

The sixth principle is that this grace that saves is eternal but is manifested in the historical appearance of Christ. Paul speaks of the power of God by which we have been saved and called to holiness, "not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel" (2 Tim. 1:9-10).

Seventh, this grace is free! Just think of it - free grace! But, of course, if grace were not free it would not be grace. True indeed, but what a glorious tautology it is: “justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus[!]" (Rom. 3:24).

Eighth, and something we will dwell on in more detail later, grace is sovereign. That is to say, it is optional in its exercise and extent. Although God is gracious in His eternal being, He need not be gracious or shower His grace upon anyone. If grace were at any time an obligation of God, it would cease to be grace. God's grace, therefore, is distinguishing. He graciously saves some but not all, not based on anything present in the creature either possible or actual, foreseen or foreordained, but wholly according to His sovereign good pleasure.

The ninth thing to note is that grace is described in Scripture as the foundation or the means of among other things, our election (Rom. 11:5), our regeneration (Eph. 2:5; Titus 3:5-7), our redemption (2 Cor. 8:9; Eph. 1:7), our justification (Rom. 3:24; Titus 3:5-7), indeed, the whole of our salvation (Eph. 2:8).

Finally, grace is certainly free, but it isn't always unconditional. The grace of election is unconditional (Rom. 9:11). But many of God's acts and blessings are conditional. For example,

"Grace be with all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ with a love incorruptible" (Eph. 6:24). 

"[God] gives a greater grace . . . God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble" (Js. 4:6; cf. 1 Pt. 5:5). 

"The Lord your God is gracious and compassionate, and will not turn His face away from you if you return to Him" (2 Chron. 30:9).

"He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry; when He hears it, He will answer you" (Isa. 30:19). 

"Let Thy lovingkindness [i.e., grace], O Lord, be upon us, according as we have hoped in Thee" (Ps. 33:22). 

"The lovingkindness [i.e., grace] of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting . . . to those who keep His covenant" (Ps. 103:17-18).

But conditional grace is not earned grace. Why? Because "when God's grace is promised based on a condition, that condition is also a work of God's grace. . . . God's freedom is not reduced when he makes some of his graces depend on conditions that he himself freely supplies” (Piper, Future Grace, 79). Or again, "conditional grace is free and unmerited because ultimately the condition of faith is a gift of grace. God graciously enables the conditions that he requires” (235). Or again, "this covenant-keeping condition of future grace does not mean we lose security or assurance, for God has pledged himself to complete the work he began in the elect (Philippians 1:6). He is at work within us to will and to do his good pleasure (Philippians 2:12-13). He works in us what is pleasing in his sight (Hebrews 13:21). He fulfills the conditions of the covenant through us (Ezekiel 36:27). Our security is as secure as God is faithful” (248).

Grace is more than an attitude or disposition in the divine nature. It is surely that, but an examination of the usage of this word in Scripture reveals that grace, if thought of only as an abstract and static principle, is deprived of its deeper implications.

The grace of God, for example, is the power of God's Spirit converting the soul. It is the activity or movement of God whereby He saves and justifies the individual through faith (see esp. Rom. 3:24; 5:15,17). Therefore, grace is not something in which we merely believe; it is something we experience as well.

Grace, however, is not only the divine act by which God initiates our spiritual life, but also the very power by which we are sustained in, nourished, and proceed through that life. The energizing and sanctifying work of the indwelling Spirit is the grace of God. After Paul had prayed three times for God to deliver him from his thorn in the flesh, he received this answer: "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness" (2 Cor. 12:9). Although Paul undoubtedly derived encouragement and strength to face his daily trials by reflecting on the magnificence of God's unmerited favor, in this text he appears to speak rather of an experiential reality of a more dynamic nature. It is the operative power of the indwelling Spirit to which Paul refers. That is the grace of God.

We should also consider in this regard the many references to the grace of God in Paul's opening greetings and concluding benedictions (Rom. 1:7; 1 Cor. 1:3; 2 Cor. 1:3; Gal. 1:3; Eph. 1:2; Phil. 1:2; Col. 1:2; 1 Thess.1:1; 2 These. 1:2; Titus 1:4; 2 Cor. 13:14). This no mere literary formality, but an earnest and constant wish of Paul that his converts may continue to experience grace, that they may know afresh the gracious power of God moving in their lives, that they may find in that grace the spiritual resources by which to live in a way pleasing to Him.

It is interesting to observe that without exception the blessing at the beginning of each of Paul's letters says, "Grace [be] to you," while the blessing at the end of each letter says, "Grace [be] with you." Why? Piper suggests that "at the beginning of his letters Paul has in mind that the letter is a channel of God's grace to the readers. Grace is about to flow 'from God' through Paul's writing to the Christians. So he says, 'Grace to you’” (66).

But what becomes of this grace after his readers are done with his letter? The answer is that grace is now to be with you. "With you as you put the letter away and leave the church. With you as you go home to deal with a sick child and an unaffectionate spouse. With you as you go to work and face the temptations of anger and dishonesty and lust. With you as you muster courage to speak up for Christ over lunch” (Future Grace, 66-67). Thus we learn that "grace is ready to flow to us every time we take up the inspired Scriptures to read them. And we learn that grace will abide with us when we lay the Bible down and go about our daily living” (67).

Besides the general soteriological usage of the word with which everyone is familiar, grace can also denote the particular acts of God whereby He grants enablement for some service or authorization for a specific duty or mission (Rom. 12:3; 15:15-18; 1 Cor. 3:10). It is not without significance that the word grace and its derivatives are used in the description of what we call "spiritual gifts." We read in Romans 12:6: "We have different gifts [charismata], according to the grace [charin] given us."

Finally, the word grace is used in a variety of ways in the course of Paul's discussion of Christian stewardship (2 Cor. 8-9). It is used with reference to the supernatural enablement bestowed by God, as a result of which one gives despite poverty (2 Cor. 8:1,9). It refers to the ministry of giving (2 Cor. 8:6, 7, 19), the privilege of giving (2 Cor. 8:4) and even to the gift itself (1 Cor. 16:3).

So, how is all this relevant to the subject of divine election? It is relevant in that it would seem that only the doctrine of unconditional election preserves the integrity of divine grace. According to the notion of conditional election, God graciously makes possible, but not certain, the election of all people by restoring to each that power and freedom of will of which they had been deprived by Adam’s fall into sin. Whether or not God elects any person is therefore dependent on the way in which he or she makes use of this ability. By establishing the condition for election as faith, God is thereby obligated to elect all those who, by means of their now purportedly free wills, believe in the gospel of Christ. But surely, then, election itself can be neither of grace nor according to God’s good pleasure.

I suppose one might say that it was gracious of God to restore in all people sufficient ability to believe and that it was gracious of God to impose the condition of faith in Christ (by which one qualifies for election). But it is certainly not possible to say that election is itself gracious. To choose men because they believe is an obligation to which God is bound; it is a debt he must pay.

If it would be unjust of God, having made faith the condition of election, not to elect those who believe, then election is a matter of giving man his due. Election would be the divine response to what a person deserves. He deserves being chosen because by a free act of will he has fulfilled the condition (faith) on which election was suspended

But grace is, by definition, treating a person without any regard whatsoever to his or her merits or demerits. How can election be gracious if it is something God must do because justice requires it? Election is gracious precisely because it is the bestowal of life on those who deserve only death.

The same may be said of election as an act according to the divine “good pleasure” (See Matt. 11:25-30; Rom. 9:11,16,18; Eph. 1:3-11; 2 Tim. 1:9-10). If election is conditional, if it is an act required of God in response to man’s free will faith, then it cannot be according to God’s “good pleasure.” Why? Because it is impossible that God might have willed not to elect such a man. In other words, if it is conditional, election cannot be a matter of God willing or not willing the salvation of a man in accordance with his (that is, God’s) desires. An election that occurs only and always in response to a fulfilled condition is a matter of law, of debt, of obligation. If election is conditional God cannot will either to elect or not to elect. If the condition is met, that is to say, if there is faith, God must elect.

Of course, it is true that even in the Calvinistic understanding of election God must save if a person believes in Christ. But there is an eternally significant difference. According to Calvinism, the faith of a person in response to which God saves is itself the gracious gift of God. Simply put, saving faith is the effect, not the cause, of God’s sovereign good pleasure in election. Paul Jewett explains:

“If those in the Reformed [Calvinistic] tradition insist on the ‘divine condition’ of salvation, as obviously they do, why, it might be asked, do they speak of ‘unconditional election’? The answer has been given that election is not conditioned on any foreseen merit in the sinner – that is, faith is not the condition but the gift of grace. The grace of salvation secures – if we might so speak – the condition of salvation” (Paul K. Jewett, Election and Predestination [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1985], p. 112, n. 87).

Let me now apply all this to our hypothetical twin brothers, Jerry and Ed. Arminians who believe in the doctrine of total moral depravity insist that although both Jerry and Ed are by nature unable to come to Christ, the Holy Spirit graciously restores in them the power they need to act in faith by their own free will. I will forego making much of the fact that there is no clear and unequivocal text of Scripture which affirms the idea, a point that I will take up in more detail in a subsequent lesson. I will assume merely for the sake of argument (but against Scripture, in my opinion), that it is true.

Our situation, then, is this. Both Jerry and Ed (like every other human being, says the Arminian), have been endowed from on high with equal ability to believe the gospel. Neither has an advantage over the other. If Jerry acts and improves upon this power of will so as to repent and believe the gospel, but Ed does not, to whom or to what do attribute the difference between them? It seems clear enough to me that if Jerry avails himself of the opportunity, but Ed does not, the reason or cause must be something in Jerry that is not in Ed. It cannot be because of something the Holy Spirit graciously did in and for Jerry that he refused to do in and for Ed. The Arminian insists that if God, according to his sovereign good pleasure, does for one (Jerry) what he declines to do for another (Ed), he is guilty of partiality and injustice. To restore a greater and more effective power of will in Jerry than in Ed is unfair, says the Arminian. Justice demands that God must do the same for both.

Therefore, the fact that Jerry believes and Ed does not can be explained only by what Jerry is and does in himself, as over against his twin brother. That Jerry should suddenly be sorrowful for his sin and repent can be due only to Jerry. That Jerry should suddenly understand the gospel, humbly repudiate all reliance upon self, and embrace by faith the redemptive merits of Jesus Christ can be due only to Jerry. It cannot ultimately be because of God the Holy Spirit; otherwise Ed and every other human being would repent and believe in like manner, since they have received from God as much help as Jerry has.

It would appear that, if the Arminian scenario is correct, in answer to the apostle’s question, “Who maketh thee to differ?” (1 Cor. 4:7a, KJV), Jerry can justifiably (and with pride of heart?) say, “I did!” It will not do to say that were it not for the Holy Spirit no one at all, neither Jerry nor Ed, would have been able to believe in Christ. For if it is not the Holy Spirit who guarantees and secures Jerry’s belief in Christ, he has eternal life because of what he, not God, has done.

At best, the Arminian may say that the opportunity to be saved is of grace. At best, he may insist that the possibility for Jerry and Ed to get to heaven is of grace. But he simply cannot say that salvation itself is wholly of grace. In the Arminian scheme, God has said all that he can say and has done all that he can do once he has restored in all people an equal ability to believe. From that point on, the reason one person believes and another does not is a human reason. To that degree, salvation is not of the Lord, but of man, and we could with sincerity no longer sing:

“Pause, my soul! adore, and wonder!
 Ask, ‘Oh, why such love to me?’
Grace hath put me in the number
Of the Saviour’s family:
Hallelujah!

Thanks, eternal thanks, to Thee!”

ABOUT SAM STORMS

I am an Amillennial, Calvinistic, charismatic, credo-baptistic, complementarian, Christian Hedonist who loves his wife of 47 years, his two daughters, his four grandchildren, books, baseball, movies, and all things Oklahoma University. In 2008 Sam became Lead Pastor for Preaching and Vision at Bridgeway Church in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Sam serves as a member of the Council of The Gospel Coalition. Sam is a past President of the Evangelical Theological Society, and currently serves on its Executive Committee.

Misunderstandings of Grace

By Tom Wells

I have sometimes wished we didn’t use the word “grace.” Isn’t that heresy? Consider for a moment what I mean.

We desperately need the content of the word grace, of course. The word stands for an idea that we cannot live without. I have no quarrel with that. But the word “grace” creates a problem for us. The problem is this: the use to which Christians put the word “grace” is not the use the word has in daily English. Our everyday English use of “grace” suggests a human virtue or quality of attractiveness. That leads to constant misunderstanding. For most believers, I think, grace is a rather hazy idea. That will be true even for those who have learned the little acrostic: God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense. The acrostic tells us what grace gives us, but not what grace is.

Now someone may say, quite rightly, that we have lots of theological words of which this is true. They are used in everyday English in a somewhat different way than they are used in the Bible and in our theological systems. Why then single out the word “grace”?

The answer is this: in many of those cases there is no plain synonym that one might use for the biblical or theological idea. We don’t have that problem with “grace.” A clear and easy synonym for “grace” is “favor.” Simply put, God’s grace is God’s favor. When Paul, for example, describes himself as called by God’s grace in Galatians 1:15, he means that it was by God’s favor that he was called. It was a favor from God that Paul became both a Christian and an apostle.

Let’s bring this closer home. If you have been saved by God’s grace, then you have been saved by His favor. Salvation is yours because He favored you. The gift of salvation is one of His favors to you. This is what the Bible means when it speaks of salvation by grace. It means that you and I and all other believers are saved because God favored us over others. We have often heard that God has no favorites, but that is not true. He has millions of favorites, and the phrase “God has no favorites” would never have arisen if our English translators had given us the word “favor” where they have substituted the word “grace.” It is important to add, however, that God does not practice “favoritism,” a word that carries the idea of injustice with it in English usage. God is just. God gives every man and woman what that person deserves, or God treats him better than he deserves.

This article, however, is not intended to be a comment on the quality of our English translations of the Bible. I’m sure that whatever faults they may have, I could not have done as well. My point is quite different. It is this: there are many misunderstandings of the idea contained in the word “grace,” and some of them can be traced to our unfamiliarity with the way the word is used in Scripture.

A Theological Misunderstanding

Let’s start with a theological misunderstanding. This misconception is a bit difficult to explain, but widespread. It treats grace as a kind of substance that God pours into us. This may inspire the prayer, “Lord, give me Your grace.” That prayer should mean, “Lord, give me Your favor,” or perhaps, “Lord, show me Your favor.” In actual practice, however, the person praying the prayer may think of himself as lacking some spiritual substance within that makes him ineffectual in his Christian life. If he just had more of this stuff called “grace,” he could do a much better job.

What is missing in this understanding? The missing element is the fact that grace or favor is not primarily something that is passed over to us from God. Grace is an attitude in God Himself, an attitude of favor that reassures and strengthens the Christian. To paraphrase Romans 8:31: “If God favors us, who can be against us?”

Some theologians have traced this misconception of grace to the influence of the Latin word gratia which began by meaning “favor” but which, over time, came to convey the idea of a spiritual power that makes for right living. We can illustrate this change in the way the Roman Catholic Church has understood the Virgin Mary. The King James Version refers to her as “full of grace” (Luke 1:28). At first this meant “highly favored” (NIV). But in the course of centuries Mary came to be looked on as a repository or storehouse of spiritual power. She had “graces” that she could distribute to others. What at first was a description of God’s attitude toward Mary became a description of Mary’s qualities as a mediator between God and man. Of course Protestants never adopted this view of Mary, but many have come to look upon grace, not as an attitude of God but as a spiritual substance or power which He gives.

Practical Misunderstandings

In this article, however, I am interested in what we might call practical misunderstandings of grace. I hope to discuss two: (1) the misunderstanding that causes men to presume on God’s favor or grace, and (2) the misunderstanding that causes men to fear or to despair of God’s favor or grace.

Let’s begin with the misunderstanding that leads men to presume on God’s favor. Men misunderstand God’s favor or grace when they think of it as unconnected with good works.

Through the years there have been men and women who have claimed to know God’s saving favor and who have thought that salvation had nothing to do with good works. In the second century a religion arose that is called Gnosticism, one branch of which claimed to be Christian. Some Gnostics treated morality very lightly. They reasoned that God will destroy this mortal body we live in, and what we had done with it would prove to be a matter of indifference to Him.

Ideas of this kind were already afloat when John wrote his first Epistle. He may have had this attitude in mind when he wrote, “If we claim to have fellowship with Him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth” (1:6). People who held this view would profess to be “without sin” (1:8). Against such people John wrote, “The man who says, ‘I know Him,’ but does not do what He commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him” (2:4).

Many today seem to think that grace is unconnected with good works. A man once said from my pulpit, “My religion has nothing to do with good works.” At the time I took him to mean that his justification did not depend on good works. If that is what he meant he certainly was right, as I hope to show shortly. Later, however, I saw reason to think that he meant exactly what he said, though I hope I misjudged him.

The doctrine of the security of the believer is sometimes preached in a way that leaves a godly life as an option for the Christian. It is looked upon as a desirable option, to be sure, but an option nevertheless. No doubt many pastors who hold this idea do so to protect the freeness of justification. Many of them also are zealous to see their people become more holy, and they preach with that in mind.

But the effect of such preaching is often to harden people in their sins. Pulpits where this misunderstanding exists never ring with the words, “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith” (2 Cor. 13:5). They do not often sound the note of Peter, “Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure” (2 Peter 1:10). If a godly life does not necessarily go hand-in-hand with God’s salvation by grace, these texts are robbed of their force. After giving a long list of virtues that the Christian must eagerly pursue, Peter says, “Make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never fall, and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (1:10b–11).

The man who believes he has received the grace of God and yet does not pursue godliness deceives himself. He is not a characteristically carnal Christian; he is lost. His profession of faith is mere presumption.

Some preachers do not grasp this fact. I know this well, since I was once one of them. They are ready to reassure such a fellow that he need not have “a rich welcome” into God’s kingdom; he may have a poor welcome, a welcome in which he will lose his rewards but gain his soul. To bolster this view they may cite Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 3:14–15. Paul wrote there, “If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames.” Clearly these verses picture some men losing rewards and making it to heaven.

Oddly enough, however, these verses do not apply to the man who professes to have received the grace of God and yet lives an ungodly life. In a marvelous bit of irony, they apply to the preacher or teacher who reassures such a man that he is a Christian!

The passage in First Corinthians is not about any and every work. It is about one thing: the quality of our teaching. Paul wrote these words of those who sought to build up the church of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ, he said, is the foundation of the church (3:11). Those who preach and teach are adding others to this foundation. As teachers they must be careful that they are adding true converts to the church. If they are careless in this matter, their work (their converts) will be destroyed, though they themselves will be saved. [1]

Once more: those who think that the grace of God is unconnected with good works are deceived. Further than that, they may be presuming on the grace or favor of God. If their lives are characterized by ungodliness, they are lost. They have misunderstood the grace of God.

Let’s come finally to the other misunderstanding of the grace of God, the misconception that leads men to fear or despair of God’s grace. Men misunderstand God’s favor or grace when they think of it as dependent upon good works.

“Now wait a minute,” someone may object. “Haven’t you just told us that grace depends on good works? Are you reversing fields?”

No, I am not reversing fields. Grace does not depend on good works in any way. What I have insisted on is this: Good works always accompany saving grace. But that does not tell us which depends on which. Grace does not depend on good works, but good works depend on grace.

Let’s put it another way: Salvation is not by works, but works are by salvation. Or again, grace does not wait for works, but works come from grace. I repeat: Men misunderstand God’s favor or grace when they think of it as dependent upon good works. Good works arise from grace, not the other way around.

The view that God’s favor toward us depends on our works (or lack of works) takes various forms. Here are a few: [2]

1) Christians misunderstand God’s grace when they “live with a vague sense of God’s disapproval.” The operative words here are “a vague sense.” If we know we have sinned a specific sin we must confess, and, God being our helper, determine to forsake it. But a vague sense of God’s disapproval probably arises from not understanding grace.

The truth is: God does not withdraw His favor because we sin. That, of course, does not mean that He approves of sin. Not at all! It simply means that He knew all about your sin and took it into consideration before He ever extended His grace or favor to you. To live with a sense that the Lord disapproves of you is to misunderstand grace. God receives you as He receives His Son. He receives you in Christ. This is true of every believer. To be sure, believers vary. But God’s acceptance of believers does not vary; His favor rests on each of them all the time.

Someone may ask, however, “If that were true, He wouldn’t punish us, would He? Doesn’t punishment show that we are no longer in His favor?” If we understand the word “punishment” properly, we will see the fallacy in this argument.

God has punished all the Christian’s sins in Christ. There is no punishment left for us to suffer. All has been borne by Jesus. Notice this, however: here I am using “punishment” in its primary meaning, “A penalty imposed for violating law.” None of this falls on the believer; all of it fell on Christ.

But God does discipline His children. Sometimes His discipline is painful. We may also call that punishment. What we must not do is think of it as God no longer favoring us. Just the opposite is the case! “The Lord disciplines those He loves, and He punishes everyone He accepts as a son.’ Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons” (Heb. 12:6–7). See the argument? God’s discipline is an evidence of God’s love!

2) Christians misunderstand God’s grace when they “feel sheepish bringing their needs before the Lord when they have just failed Him.” Here is a common problem that I suppose none of us escapes. We need to pray for something and we have just failed the Lord badly. Better postpone that prayer!

Do our failures make it less likely that the Lord will hear our prayers? Perhaps, if we are trying to hide our failure or sin from God. In that case we may need to be disciplined by having the heavens seem as brass. Even then, however, it only seems so. The Lord is as attentive to prayer after sin and failure as He is to any other prayer. He does with that prayer what He does with every prayer offered by a believer: He answers it as seems best to Him.

Grace and the Forgiveness of Sin

Why then do we have the impulse to avoid praying after sin? This gets to the heart of the issue. We feel that a certain amount of suffering and remorse must take place to restore us to God’s favor or grace. It just doesn’t seem right that He simply forgives our sin! It doesn’t seem right to us; it does seem right to Him.

This raises a larger question too. When does God forgive our sin? Did He forgive the sin of all His people when Christ died for that sin? Does He forgive all our sin, past, present and future, when we first come to Christ? Does He forgive our sin when we commit it? Or does forgiveness wait on our confession of sin? Which is it? This is a hard question, but I want to give you my judgment.

It seems clear to me that God forgives our sins as we commit them. Of course He forgave all our past sins when we came to Christ. That much seems beyond controversy.[3] Beyond that, however, the question becomes more difficult. Let me show you why I believe as I do, and then let’s look at the difficulties connected with my position.

It seems to me clear that justification, which includes the forgiveness of sins, is a present possession of believers. It is possible to think of justification as future only, something God will do for us on the judgment day. But that does not seem to me to agree with Scripture. We will, of course, be justified at the judgment, but justification is also a present possession of Christians. Yet if we had even one sin unforgiven, we would not be justified; we would be condemned before God.

The only way to have all our sins forgiven at any given moment is for God to forgive them as we commit them. This would be true if sin consisted only of outward acts that we shortly confessed. There would still be a time lapse in which we were not justified, not forgiven. The upshot would be that we would be justified part of each day and condemned part of each day.

But the problem is more serious than that. Sin extends beyond the outward acts that are obviously sinful. It is a heart condition. It dwells especially in our motives and intentions. It is sometimes hidden from us as it propels us toward a wicked act. It may be working for days or weeks before it bears its outward fruit. The result? Given this fact, we would never be justified. We would always have sin that needed to be forgiven. Only if our sin is forgiven as we commit it can we be really just in the eyes of God.

That’s my understanding. Let’s look at the difficulties.

Two verses in the New testament spring to mind immediately. The first is 1 John 1:9: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” This verse seems to say as plainly as possible that forgiveness awaits our confession. Isn’t that what it teaches?

Not quite.

It teaches that those whose sins are forgiven are people who confess their sins. That is what characterizes those who are forgiven. If a man is not in the habit of confessing his sins, he is a lost man; his sins are not forgiven. The verse does not, however, tell us when his sins are forgiven—whether when he commits them, or later.

This point seems to me to be immensely important. Every one of my sins is forgiven or I am lost. But, whatever my intention, I will never confess all my sins in this life. Yet I remain justified. The Lord does not impute my sin to me. As Paul said, quoting Psalm 32, “Blessed are they whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him” (Rom. 4:7–8).

Does this seem to be too good to be true? It is the teaching of God’s Word. It is for every believer. It applies to you.

Someone may object, however, that the Lord Jesus has told us in the Lord’s Prayer to pray that our sins will be forgiven. Doesn’t that imply that God doesn’t forgive us until we ask Him?

No, it doesn’t.

You can see the truth of this if you compare the request for forgiveness with the other requests. When we pray for God’s kingdom to come, we are praying for a future event. When we ask for His will to be done on earth as it is in heaven, that is, perfectly, we are again looking to the future. When we ask for our daily bread, we mean for the day or days in front of us. The prayer for forgiveness, then, may be a prayer for the pardon of our future sins. And that, I think, is what it is.

But let’s listen to one further objection. Someone may say, “If it’s certain that God forgives our sins when we commit them, why pray about it at all? Why ask God to do what He is certain to do anyway?” The answer is this: God delights to be asked to do things He has already made up His mind to do. The Lord’s Prayer bears witness to this fact throughout. Review its requests once more. What do you find? You find that the prayer is largely about things God is sure to do. His kingdom will come, for example. It is not in doubt at all.

Why ask God to do such things? What better prayer could a Christian pray? It amounts to “Your will be done!” It is like cheering our team on to victory. If eternal wisdom has decided to do something, a wise child will say, “Go for it, Lord!” And a wise child will say that about the forgiveness of his own future sins. Knowing his sins are forgiven, he will not hesitate to bring his needs before God even when he has sinned.

Let’s look back for a moment. We have seen how it is possible to misunderstand the word “grace.” We may think of grace in salvation as a kind of substance or energy poured into us by God. But in this context the word itself means “God’s favor.”

Once we have grasped the meaning of the word, we may still have one of two misconceptions. We may think of grace, or God’s favor, as unconnected with godly works, allowing us to live in sin. But those whose lives are characterized by sin are not Christians. They do not truly believe in Christ.

On the other hand, we may despair of God’s grace and fear Him if we think of grace as dependent on works. That too is both false and dangerous. God gives us His grace freely. He forgives believers’ sins freely. All of their sins! No amount of works can make us right with God.

The truth lies between these two extremes. Believers, sins are forgiven. There is no need for servile fear when we come into God’s presence, not even if we have just sinned. The man or woman, however, who refuses to confess his or her sin has another problem. Even that person’s sin is forgiven, if his lack of confession is the exception and not the rule. Otherwise he has a problem greater than a single unforgiven sin. If his life is not characterized by confession, he is not a Christian at all!

Grace means favor. Every believer has God’s favor already; it is not something he somehow has to find. Yet by God’s favor every Christian’s life is a life of good works. They may not be remarkable works, either in the sight of the world or in the esteem of the Christian himself. That’s not necessary at all!

Our Lord Jesus spoke of a cup of cold water given in His name. That doesn’t sound like much, but the operative phrase is “in His name.” What the Christian does He seeks to do for the glory of God and of Christ. That is what makes his works good in the sight of God.

A Christian is not a perfect man, or a man on the verge of perfection. But take his average act and you will find a godly act, an act done to please his Lord. The Christian life, the life of grace or favor from God, is a life characterized by righteousness and marred by sin. If it’s not that, it’s not the Christian life.

About the Author

Rev. Tom Wells is pastor of King’s Chapel, West Chester, Ohio. He is author of several books including: God is King (1992), A Price for a People (1992), and Come Home ... Forever(1992). He is a regular contributor to Reformation & Revival Journal, and is a conference speaker.

Notes

1. This passage may be understood in a slightly different way that gives the same result. The foundation may be taken as the teaching concerning Christ, rather than as Christ Himself. In that case the preacher or teacher will be adding further truths to the foundation, or what appear to him to be truths. Then, to the extent that what he has taught is false, to that extent his work will be burned up, though he will be saved. Either understanding is possible. Both preserve the clear intent of Paul here to describe the work of teaching that he and Apollos engaged in, in raising “God’s building” (3:9). What is plain in either case is that Paul is not endorsing the idea that men may lead ungodly lives and still be saved.
2. I have an unidentified clipping from Sound of Grace, edited by John Reisinger, to thank for the way this and the following misunderstanding are worded.
3. But nothing is beyond controversy. History shows that some few theologians have held to what is called “eternal justification,” the view that God never held His elect guilty, even before He created them.

A WORD TO THE UNREPENTANT

by John Colquhoun (1748-1827) 

“And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent: because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.” —Act 17:30-31 

THE following directions how to attain evangelical repentance I would now offer to the unrepentant sinner. 

1. Look upon it as the gift of Christ, and trust that your iniquities were laid on Him, and that He was pierced for them (Zec 12:10). Trust also in Him for true repentance, and in God through Him for pardoning mercy and renewing grace. You should attempt believing in order to the exercise of evangelical repentance, and should rely on the grace of God in Christ for the renovating influences of His Holy Spirit. 

2. Choose God in Christ for your covenant-God and portion, and then you will be both disposed and encouraged to return to Him. To return to God as the Lord your God is the essence of evangelical repentance (Isa 55:7). 

3. Be frequent and persistent in prayer to Him for the gift of true repentance, saying with Ephraim, “Turn thou me, and I shall be turned; for thou art the Lord my God” (Jer 31:18). Pray in faith for the performance of this absolute promise to you: “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh” (Eze 36:26). 

4. Endeavor to see sin in its own hateful colors, to see what an evil and bitter thing it is (Jer 2:19). To see the sin of your heart and life in its exceeding sinfulness and odiousness would be a means of making you flee from it with deep abhorrence. And if you would discern spiritually the hateful deformity of sin, consider the infinite majesty and holiness of God that are insulted by sin, the good things that impenitent continuance in sin deprives you of, the dreadful evils to which it exposes you, the infinite wrath of God that awaits you if you live and die impenitent, and the infinite obligation under which you lie to keep all His commandments. 

5. Study to see and to be suitably affected with the deep depravity or sin of your nature, as well as with the innumerable transgressions of your life; and call yourself every day to a strict account for your sins of omission and commission on that day—[all] in order to see what great reason you have to repent of them. 

6. Meditate frequently and attentively on the awful anguish and astonishing death of the Lord Jesus, [so] that you may see the exceeding sinfulness of sin, and the everlasting punishment which the sinner deserves. 

7. Dwell much on the thoughts of death and of judgment to come. Consider seriously how uncertain is the continuance of your life in this world. Be assured that if death surprise you in T unbelief and impenitence, you are forever undone. Think also of the awful tribunal of that righteous, uncompromising Judge—Whose eyes are as a flame of fire, before Whom you must appear—where every finally impenitent sinner shall, according to the demerits of his deeds done in the body, be sentenced to everlasting punishment. Oh! How tremendous, how overwhelming will be the sentence pronounced on the impenitent: “Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels” (Mat 25:41)! Oh, consider this, and by faith and repentance flee speedily from the wrath to come. If you say, “I am not able to repent,” this will be no excuse; for true repentance is a part of salvation, offered and promised in the gospel—and the offer and promise are directed to you (1Jo 5:11; Pro 1:23; Act 2:38-39). 

If you say, “I cannot believe those offers and promises with application to myself,” neither will this be accepted as an excuse, for the offer and promise of faith to believe them are also addressed to you (Rev 22:17; Mat 12:21; Heb 4:1). Upon the ground of the offer, then, trust in Christ Jesus for the grace of true repentance; and [based on] the promise, attempt frequently the exercise of faith. 

Oh, be persuaded, while it is called today, to repent and turn from all your transgressions so [that] iniquity shall not be your ruin. “As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die” (Eze 33:11)! “Therefore also now, saith the Lord, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God; for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil” (Joel 2:12- 13). 

Oh, comply with these compassionate and tender invitations! And if you would return to the Lord by true repentance, believe in order to repent. Believe, with application to yourself, the commands and curses of the Law as a violated covenant of works, in order to obtain true conviction of your sin and misery. And then believe with particular application the declarations, offers, and promises of the blessed gospel; in order to obtain such a faith-view of the mercy of God in Christ, as will dispose and encourage you to exercise that evangelical repentance which will be acceptable to Him. Trust in the Redeemer, that exalted Prince and Saviour, for repentance unto life; and pray in His name to the God of all grace for “the spirit of grace and of supplications,” to enable you to look upon Him Whom you have pierced, and to mourn for Him (Zec 12:10). 

“Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord.” (Act 3:19) 

“Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backslidings shall reprove thee: know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and bitter, that thou hast forsaken the LORD thy God, and that my fear is not in thee, saith the Lord GOD of hosts.” (Jer 2:19) 

“Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.” (Isa 55:7) 

“Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins.” (Act 5:31) 

“Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.” (Luk 13:3, 5)

Repentance – what does it look like?

BY: CLARENCE BOUWMAN

PUBLISHED MAY 7, 2020

Rev. Clarence Bouwman is a pastor in the Smithville Canadian Reformed Church.

It’s embarrassing but true: all around us we see people seriously messing up, ourselves included. It happened to people in the Bible too. If Noah could get drunk and lie naked, if Abraham could lie about his wife being his sister, if Moses could kill the Egyptian, if David could commit adultery with Bathsheba and then kill her husband to cover his tracks, if Peter could deny the Lord three times in a row, then on what grounds would we think we are above similar sins? We too yield to the lusts of the flesh; murder (abortion or suicide), drunkenness (think also of drug abuse), adultery, consumerism, hedonism, wasting one’s time or talents or resources, and so many more sins appear among godly people who regularly attend church.

Effect

The effect of sin is devastating.  As children of God, unconfessed sin has a way of getting inside our hearts so that we feel guilty – thankfully. But not every child of God immediately admits their sin in repentance.  Then it becomes difficult to pray, and the desire to open the Bible evaporates, and they end up going to church and to the Lord’s Table because you don’t want to draw attention to themselves, and God seems so far away – until they return to the right way through sincere repentance. (See David’s experience of the effect of sin after his affair with Bathsheba in 2 Samuel 11 & 12.)

For that’s the gospel of the perseverance of the saints: even when His people fall into terrible sins, God will not desert His own! Rather, He works upon them through His Holy Spirit so that repentance comes about – eventually.  That’s our God: He does not forsake the work His hand has begun.

Dying of the old nature

What, though, does repentance actually look like?

Scripture speaks often about repentance. It consists of two parts, the dying of the old nature and the coming to life of the new. The dying of the old nature in turn is built on three aspects: it is 

1. to grieve with heartfelt sorrow that we have offended God by our sin, and
2. more and more to hate sin and
3. flee from it.

David speaks of his repentance from his affair with Bathsheba in Psalm 51:

“For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment.” (Psalm 51:3-4) And, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.” (Psalm 51:10-12)

1. Grief

The grief we’re talking about here is not a sense of “oops.”  Rather, it’s anguish of the heart: “heartfelt sorrow” that we’ve offended our holy God. Peter “went outside and wept bitterly” (Mt 26:75) – and that’s obviously grief from a broken and contrite heart. His sin bothered him: deep inside he felt absolutely rotten.

2. Hate

Sorrow for the sin one has committed comes coupled with a sense of hate. No, it’s not hatred for the neighbor, but hatred of the sin and all that led to the sin. It’s a loathing of self too in the sense that one is far from proud of one’s accomplishments and abilities. The hate leads to a deep sense of humiliation.  It’s what the psalmist called a “broken and contrite heart” (Ps. 51).

3. Flee

The result, in turn, is that one flees, gets away from the proximity to whatever led to the sin – for he doesn’t want to fall again into the snare of the devil or the world, or succumb to the weaknesses of his own flesh. Yet it’s not just a fleeing from; it’s also a fleeing to – to Christ in whose blood there is abundant forgiveness.

Actually, it takes quite a man to flee.  One can assume that any true man will stand his ground and conquer his opponent.  Yet any General out to win the war knows that there comes the moment when he has to retreat – and that’s not an admission of failure but a display of prudence.  The child of God knows he has no chance against enemies such as the devil, the world, and his own flesh, and so flees to Christ who has defeated the devil and the world, and has poured out His Holy Spirit so that the fight against the flesh is possible.  To stand and fight on our own in this instance is actually a display of pride – and the taller one’s pride the harder one’s fall shall be.

Coming to life of the new nature

Repentance is more than the dying of the old nature; the other side of the coin is that a new nature is increasingly made alive. This coming to life of the new nature has two aspects:

1. a heartfelt joy in God through Christ, and
2. a love and delight to live according to the will of God in all good works.

1. Joy

Fleeing to Christ brings one into the arms of the Savior who conquered sin and Satan, and reconciled sinners to God.  His good news is that my atrocious sin is washed away like gravy off a plate – irretrievably gone.  Holy God, then, does not look upon me as the murderer or adulterer or thief or drunkard I am, but sees me as washed clean in Jesus’ blood.  Instead of anger and judgment, there is mercy and grace.  That reality cannot leave the heart untouched, but fills it with grateful joy and songs of thanksgiving.

2. Live

That sense of gratitude for deliverance from the righteous judgment of God results in a renewed determination to live for God in all I do.  Instead of the environment that led to the sin, the repentant child of God actively pursues a different environment, one that promotes a lifestyle pleasing to the Lord God.  He surrounds himself with friends and activities that encourage praise for the Redeemer and discourage another relapse.

Repentant people grieve from the heart with a godly sorrow for the sins they have committed; they seek and obtain through faith with a contrite heart forgiveness in the blood of the Mediator; they again experience the favor of a reconciled God and adore His mercies and faithfulness. And from now on they more diligently work out their own salvation with fear and trembling.

Important?

Is the doctrine of repentance worth repeating for general consumption?  I’d argue that the answer is Yes, simply because our culture does not know what repentance is.  One “apologizes,” one says “sorry,” but the grief and the hate and the fleeing and the joy and the delighting to live God’s way is a rare thing in our country’s public and not so public life.

To cry buckets of tears is not the same as repentance, and an expression of remorse is not the same as repentance either.  Judas Iscariot “was seized with remorse” when he saw that Jesus was condemned, and “returned the 30 silver coins to the chief priests”, and even admitted that “I have sinned, for I have betrayed innocent blood” (Mt 27:3,4).  But his remorse and his admission did not amount to repentance; for he did not flee to the Christ he betrayed and pursue a life of godliness. Similarly, Esau’s tears at missing out on the first-born blessing did not amount to repentance (Hebrews 12:17).

Repentance is so much more than saying “sorry,” for it involves the heart. Repentance goes beyond remorse, for it involves a changed lifestyle. Repentance is not shallow, for it involves a deep awareness that none less than holy God has been offended. Repentance fills one with joy, because God’s declaration of forgiveness-for-Jesus’-sake heals and thrills the heart broken on account of sin.

How merciful my God: He restores the undeserving!

Faith and Repentance

by John Murray

REGENERATION is inseparable from its effects and one of the effects is faith. Without regeneration it is morally and spiritually impossible for a person to believe in Christ, but when a person is regenerated it is morally and spiritually impossible for that person not to believe. Jesus said, “All that the Father giveth me shall come to me” (John 6:37), and he was referring in this case surely to the giving of the Father in the efficacious drawing of the Father mentioned in the same context (John 6:44, 65). Regeneration is the renewing of the heart and mind, and the renewed heart and mind must act according to their nature.

FAITH

Regeneration is the act of God and of God alone. But faith is not the act of God; it is not God who believes in Christ for salvation, it is the sinner. It is by God’s grace that a person is able to believe but faith is an activity on the part of the person and of him alone. In faith we receive and rest upon Christ alone for salvation.

It might be said: this is a strange mixture. God alone regenerates. We alone believe. And we believe in Christ alone for salvation. But this is precisely the way it is. It is well for us to appreciate all that is implied in the combination, for it is God’s way of salvation and it expresses his supreme wisdom and grace. In salvation God does not deal with us as machines; he deals with us as persons and therefore salvation brings the whole range of our activity within its scope. By grace we are saved through faith (cf. Eph. 2:8).

If we are to have a better understanding of what faith is we must examine it as to its warrant and as to its nature.

The Warrant. Faith, as we shall see later, is a whole-souled movement of self-commitment to Christ for salvation from sin and its consequences. It is not unnecessary to ask the question: what warrant does a lost sinner have to commit himself to Christ? How may he know that he will be accepted? How does he know that Christ is able to save? How does he know that this confidence is not misplaced? How does he know that Christ is willing to save him? These are urgent questions, perhaps not urgent for the person who has no true conception of the issues at stake or of the gravity of his lost condition, but exceedingly urgent and pertinent for the person convicted of sin and in whose heart burns the reality and realization of the wrath of God against sin. There are the following facts which constitute the warrant of faith.

1. The Universal Offer of the Gospel. This offer may be regarded from several viewpoints. It may be regarded as invitation, as demand, as promise, and as overture. But from whatever angle we may view it, it is full, free, and unrestricted. The appeals of the gospel cover the whole range of divine prerogative and of human interest. God entreats, he invites, he commands, he calls, he presents the overture of mercy and grace, and he does this to all without distinction or discrimination.

It may surprise us that this universal offer should receive such prominence in the Old Testament. Under the Old Testament the revelation of God’s saving grace was given to a chosen people and to them were committed the oracles of God. The psalmist could sing, “In Judah is God known: his name is great in Israel. In Salem also is his tabernacle, and his dwelling place in Zion” (Psalm 76:1, 2). And Jesus could say of this Old Testament period, “Salvation is of the Jews” (John 4:22). There was a middle wall of partition between Jew and Gentile. But it is in the Old Testament we find such an appeal as this: "There is no God else beside me; a just God and a Saviour; there is none beside me. Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God and there is none else” (Isa. 45:21, 22). Again we read: “As I live saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?” (Ezek. 33:11; cf. 18:23, 32). Here is the most emphatic negation—“I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked,” affirmation—“but that the wicked turn from his way and live,” asseveration—“as I live saith the Lord God,” exhortation—“turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways,” protestation—“why will ye die?”

If there is universality of exhortation and appeal when God’s covenant grace was concentrated in Israel, how much more apparent must this be when there is now no longer Jew nor Gentile and the middle wall of partition is broken down, when the gospel is proclaimed in terms of Jesus’ commission, "Go ye therefore and disciple all the nations” (Matt. 28:19). The words of Jesus are redolent of this indiscriminate invitation, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28); “him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out” (John 6:37). And the words of the apostle are unmistakably clear: “And the times of this ignorance God winked at, but now he commandeth men that they should all everywhere repent, inasmuch as he hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness, by the man whom he hath ordained, having given assurance unto all men in that he hath raised him from the dead” (Acts 17:30, 31). It is not simply that God entreats men everywhere that they should turn and repent; he commands them to do so. It is a charge invested with the authority and majesty of his sovereignty as Lord of all. The sovereign imperative of God is brought to bear upon the overture of grace. And that is the end of all contention. From his command to all no one is excluded.

2. The All-Sufficiency and Suitability of the Saviour Presented. Christ presented himself in the glory of his person and in the sufficiency of his saviourhood when he said, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28), and again, “Him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out” (John 6:37). It is this truth that is enunciated when it is written, “Wherefore he is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them” (Heb. 7:25). The sufficiency of his saviourhood rests upon the work he accomplished once for all when he died upon the cross and rose again in triumphant power. But it resides in the efficacy and perfection of his continued activity at the right hand of God. It is because he continues ever and has an unchangeable priesthood that he is able to save them that come unto him and to give them eternal life. When Christ is presented to lost men in the proclamation of the gospel, it is as Saviour he is presented, as one who ever continues to be the embodiment of the salvation he has once for all accomplished. It is not the possibility of salvation that is offered to lost men but the Saviour himself and therefore salvation full and perfect. There is no imperfection in the salvation offered and there is no restriction to its overture—it is full, free, and unrestricted. And this is the warrant of faith.

The faith of which we are now speaking is not the belief that we have been saved but trust in Christ in order that we may be saved. And it is of paramount concern to know that Christ is presented to all without distinction to the end that they may entrust themselves to him for salvation. The gospel offer is not restricted to the elect or even to those for whom Christ died. And the warrant of faith is not the conviction that we are elect or that we are among those for whom, strictly speaking, Christ died but the fact that Christ, in the glory of his person, in the perfection of his finished work, and in the efficacy of his exalted activity as King and Saviour, is presented to us in the full, free, and unrestricted overture of the gospel. It is not as persons convinced of our election nor as persons convinced that we are the special objects of God’s love that we commit ourselves to him but as lost sinners. We entrust ourselves to him not because we believe we have been saved but as lost sinners in order that we may be saved. It is to us in our lost condition that the warrant of faith is given and the warrant is not restricted or circumscribed in any way. In the warrant of faith the rich mercy of God is proffered to the lost and the promise of grace is certified by the veracity and faithfulness of God. This is the ground upon which a lost sinner may commit himself to Christ in full confidence that he will be saved. And no sinner to whom the gospel comes is excluded from the divine warrant for such confidence.

The Nature. There are three things that need to be said about the nature of faith. Faith is knowledge, conviction, and trust.

1. Knowledge. It might seem very confusing to say that faith is knowledge. For is it not one thing to know, another thing to believe? This is partly true. Sometimes we must distinguish between faith and knowledge and place them in contrast to each other. But there is a knowledge that is indispensable to faith. In our ordinary human relations do we trust a person of whom we know nothing, especially when that for which we trust him is of grave importance for us we must know a good deal regarding his identity and his character. How much more must this be the case with that faith which is directed to Christ; for it is faith against all the issues of life and death, of time and eternity. We must know who Christ is, what he has done, and what he is able to do. Otherwise faith would be blind conjecture at the best and foolish mockery at the worst. There must be apprehension of the truth respecting Christ.

Sometimes, indeed, the measure of truth apprehended by the believing person is very small, and we have to appreciate the fact that the faith of some in its initial stages is very elementary. But faith cannot begin in a vacuum of knowledge. Paul reminds us of this very simply when he says, “Faith is of hearing, and hearing of the word of Christ” (Rom. 10:17).

2. Conviction. Faith is assent. We must not only know the truth respecting Christ but we must also believe it to be true. It is possible, of course, for us to understand the import of certain propositions of truth and yet not believe these propositions. All disbelief is of this character, and the more intelligently the import of the truths concerned is understood the more violent may be the disbelief. A person who rejects the virgin birth may understand well what the doctrine of the virgin birth is and for that very reason reject it. But we are now dealing not with disbelief or unbelief but with faith and this obviously implies that the truths known are also accepted as true.

The conviction which enters into faith is not only an assent to the truth respecting Christ but also a recognition of the exact correspondence that there is between the truth of Christ and our deeds as lost sinners. What Christ is as Saviour perfectly dovetails our deepest and most ultimate need. This is just saying that Christ’s sufficiency as Saviour meets the desperateness and hopelessness of our sin and misery. It is conviction which engages, therefore, our greatest interest and which registers the verdict: Christ is exactly suited to all that I am in my sin and misery and to all that I should aspire to be by God’s grace. Christ fits in perfectly to the totality of our situation in its sin, guilt, misery, and ill-desert.

3. Trust. Faith is knowledge passing into conviction, and it is conviction passing into confidence. Faith cannot stop short of self-commitment to Christ, a transference of reliance upon ourselves and all human resources to reliance upon Christ alone for salvation. It is a receiving and resting upon him. It is here that the most characteristic act of faith appears; it is engagement of person to person, the engagement of the sinner as lost to the person of the Saviour able and willing to save. Faith, after all, is not belief of propositions of truth respecting the Saviour, however essential an ingredient of faith such belief is. Faith is trust in a person, the person of Christ, the Son of God and Saviour of the lost. It is entrustment of ourselves to him. It is not simply believing him; it is believing in him and on him.

The Reformers laid special emphasis upon this element of faith. They were opposing the Romish view that faith is assent. It is quite consistent with Romish religion to say that faith is assent. It is the genius of the Romish conception of salvation to intrude mediators between the soul and the Saviour—the Church, the virgin, the sacraments. On the contrary, it is the glory of the gospel of God’s grace that there is one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. And it was the glory of our Protestant Reformation to discover again the purity of the evangel. The Reformers recognized that the essence of saving faith is to bring the sinner lost and dead in trespasses and sins into direct personal contact with the Saviour himself, contact which is nothing less than that of self-commitment to him in all the glory of his person and perfection of his work as he is freely and fully offered in the gospel.

It is to be remembered that the efficacy of faith does not reside in itself. Faith is not something that merits the favour of God. All the efficacy unto salvation resides in the Saviour. As one has aptly and truly stated the case, it is not faith that saves but faith in Jesus Christ; strictly speaking, it is not even faith in Christ that saves but Christ that saves through faith. Faith unites us to Christ in the bonds of abiding attachment and entrustment and it is this union which insures that the saving power, grace, and virtue of the Saviour become operative in the believer. The specific character of faith is that it looks away from itself and finds its whole interest and object in Christ. He is the absorbing preoccupation of faith.

It is at the point of faith in Christ that our responsibility is engaged to the fullest extent, just as it is in the exercise of faith that our hearts and minds and wills are active to the highest degree. It is not our responsibility to regenerate ourselves. Regeneration is the action of God and of God alone. It is our responsibility to be what regeneration effects. It is our responsibility to be holy. But the act of regeneration does not come within the sphere of our responsible action. Faith does. And we are never relieved of the obligation to believe in Christ to the saving of our souls. The fact that regeneration is the prerequisite of faith in no way relieves us of the responsibility to believe nor does it eliminate the priceless privilege that is ours as Christ and his claims are pressed upon us in full and free overtures of his grace. Our inability is no excuse for our unbelief nor does it provide us with any reason for not believing. As we are presented with Christ in the gospel there is no reason for the rejection of unbelief and all reason demands the entrustment of faith.

REPENTANCE

The question has been discussed: which is prior, faith or repentance? It is an unnecessary question and the insistence that one is prior to the other futile. There is no priority. The faith that is unto salvation is a penitent faith and the repentance that is unto life is a believing repentance. Repentance is admirably defined in the Shorter Catechism. "Repentance unto life is a saving grace, whereby a sinner out of a true sense of his sin, and apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ, doth, with grief and hatred of his sin, turn from it unto God, with full purpose of, and endeavour after new obedience.” The interdependence of faith and repentance can be readily seen when we remember that faith is faith in Christ for salvation from sin. But if faith is directed to salvation from sin, there must be hatred of sin and the desire to be saved from it. Such hatred of sin involves repentance which essentially consists in turning from sin unto God. Again, if we remember that repentance is turning from sin unto God, the turning to God implies faith in the mercy of God as revealed in Christ. It is impossible to disentangle faith and repentance. Saving faith is permeated with repentance and repentance is permeated with faith. Regeneration becomes vocal in our minds in the exercises of faith and repentance.

Repentance consists essentially in change of heart and mind and will. The change of heart and mind and will principally respects four things: it is a change of mind respecting God, respecting ourselves, respecting sin, and respecting righteousness. Apart from regeneration our thought of God, of ourselves, of sin, and of righteousness is radically perverted. Regeneration changes our hearts and minds; it radically renews them. Hence there is a radical change in our thinking and feeling. Old things have passed away and all things have become new. It is very important to observe that the faith which is unto salvation is the faith which is accompanied by that change of thought and attitude. Too frequently in evangelical circles and particularly in popular evangelism the momentousness of the change which faith signalizes is not understood or appreciated. There are two fallacies. The one is to put faith out of the context which alone gives it significance and the other is to think of faith in terms simply of decision and rather cheap decision at that. These fallacies are closely related and condition each other. The emphasis upon repentance and upon the deep-seated change of thought and feeling which it involves is precisely what is necessary to correct this impoverished and soul-destroying conception of faith. The nature of repentance serves to accentuate the urgency of the issues at stake in the demand of the gospel, the cleavage with sin which the acceptance of the gospel entails, and the totally new outlook which the faith of the gospel imparts.

Repentance we must not think of as consisting merely in a change of mind in general; it is very particular and concrete. And since it is a change of mind with reference to sin, it is a change of mind with reference to particular sins, sins in all the particularity and individuality which belong to our sins. It is very easy for us to speak of sin, to be very denunciatory respecting sin, and denunciatory respecting the particular sins of other people and yet not be penitent regarding our own particular sins. The test of repentance is the genuineness and resoluteness of our repentance in respect of our own sins, sins characterized by the aggravations which are peculiar to our own selves. Repentance in the case of the Thessalonians manifested itself in the fact that they turned from idols to serve the living God. It was their idolatry which peculiarly evidenced their alienation from God and it was repentance regarding that that proved the genuineness of their faith and of their hope (I Thess. 1 :9, 10).

The gospel is not only that by grace are we saved through faith but it is also the gospel of repentance. When Jesus, after his resurrection, opened the understanding of the disciples that they might understand the Scriptures, he said unto them, “Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: and that repentance unto the remission of sins should be preached in his name unto all the nations” (Luke 24:46, 47). When Peter had preached to the multitude on the occasion of Pentecost and they were constrained to say, “Men and brethren what shall we do?”. Peter replied, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ unto the remission of your sins” (Acts 2:37, 38). Later on, in like manner, Peter interpreted the exaltation of Christ as exaltation in the capacity of “Prince and Saviour to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins” (Acts 5:31). Could anything certify more clearly that the gospel is the gospel of repentance than the fact that Jesus’ heavenly ministry as Saviour is one of dispensing repentance unto the forgiveness of sins? Hence Paul, when he gave an account of his own ministry to the elders from Ephesus, said that he testified "both to the Jews and also to the Greeks repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus” (Acts 20:21). And the writer of the epistle to the Hebrews indicates that “repentance from dead works” is one of the first principles of the doctrine of Christ (Heb. 6:1). It could not be otherwise. The new life in Christ Jesus means that the bands which bind us to the dominion of sin are broken. The believer is dead to sin by the body of Christ, the old man has been crucified that the body of sin might be destroyed, and henceforth he does not serve sin (Rom. 6:2, 6). This breach with the past registers itself in his consciousness in turning from sin unto God “with full purpose of, and endeavour after new obedience.”

We see, therefore, that the emphasis which the Scripture places upon faith as the condition of salvation is not to be construed as if faith were the only condition. The various exercises or responses of our spirits have their own peculiar function. Repentance is that which describes the response of turning from sin unto God. This is its specific character just as the specific character of faith is to receive and rest upon Christ alone for salvation. Repentance reminds us that if the faith we profess is a faith that allows us to walk in the ways of this present evil world, in the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, in the fellowship of the works of darkness, then our faith is but mockery and deception. True faith is suffused with penitence. And just as faith is not only a momentary act but an abiding attitude of trust and confidence directed to the Saviour, so repentance results in constant contrition. The broken spirit and the contrite heart are abiding marks of the believing soul. As long as sin remains there must be the consciousness of it and this conviction of our own sinfulness will constrain self-abhorrence, confession, and the plea of forgiveness and cleansing. Christ’s blood is the laver of initial cleansing but it is also the fountain to which the believer must continuously repair. It is at the cross of Christ that repentance has its beginning; it is at the cross of Christ that it must continue to pour out its heart in the tears of confession and contrition. The way of sanctification is the way of contrition for the sin of the past and of the present. The Lord forgives our sins and forgiveness is sealed by the light of his countenance, but we do not forgive ourselves.

Author

John Murray was a graduate of the University of Glasgow (1923) and of Princeton Theological Seminary (1927), and he studied at the University of Edinburgh during 1928 and 1929. In 1929-1930 he served on the faculty of the Princeton Theological Seminary. After that he taught at the Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia where he served as Professor of Systematic Theology.

He was a frequent contributor to theological journals and is the author of Christian Baptism (1952), Divorce (1953), Redemption Accomplished and Applied (1955), Principles of Conduct (1957), The Imputation of Adam's Sin (1960), Calvin on the Scriptures and Divine Sovereignty (1960), and The Epistle to the Romans (1968).