BY GRACE THROUGH FAITH
"By grace are ye saved, through faith" (Ephesians 2:8 ).
I THINK IT WELL to turn a little to one side that I may ask
my reader to observe adoringly the fountain-head of our
salvation, which is the grace of God. "By grace are ye saved."
Because God is gracious, therefore sinful men are forgiven,
converted, purified, and saved. It is not because of anything in
them, or that ever can be in them, that they are saved; but
because of the boundless love, goodness, pity, compassion, mercy,
and grace of God. Tarry a moment, then, at the well-head. Behold
the pure river of water of life, as it proceeds out of the throne
of God and of the Lamb!
What an abyss is the grace of God! Who can measure its
breadth? Who can fathom its depth? Like all the rest of the
divine attributes, it is infinite. God is full of love, for "God
is love." God is full of goodness; the very name "God" is short
for "good." Unbounded goodness and love enter into the very
essence of the Godhead. It is because "his mercy endureth for
ever" that men are not destroyed; because "his compassions fail
not" that sinners are brought to Him and forgiven.
Remember this; or you may fall into error by fixing your
minds so much upon the faith which is the channel of salvation as
to forget the grace which is the fountain and source even of
faith itself. Faith is the work of God's grace in us. No man can
say that Jesus is the Christ but by the Holy Ghost. "No man
cometh unto me," saith Jesus, "except the Father which hath sent
me draw him." So that faith, which is coming to Christ, is the
result of divine drawing. Grace is the first and last moving
cause of salvation; and faith, essential as it is, is only an
important part of the machinery which grace employs. We are saved
"through faith," but salvation is "by grace." Sound forth those
words as with the archangel's trumpet: "By grace are ye saved."
What glad tidings for the undeserving!
Faith occupies the position of a channel or conduit pipe.
Grace is the fountain and the stream; faith is the aqueduct along
which the flood of mercy flows down to refresh the thirsty sons
of men. It is a great pity when the aqueduct is broken. It is a
sad sight to see around Rome the many noble aqueducts which no
longer convey water into the city, because the arches are broken
and the marvelous structures are in ruins. The aqueduct must be
kept entire to convey the current; and, even so, faith must be
true and sound, leading right up to God and coming right down to
ourselves, that it may become a serviceable channel of mercy to
our souls.
Still, I again remind you that faith is only the channel or
aqueduct, and not the fountainhead, and we must not look so much
to it as to exalt it above the divine source of all blessing
which lies in the grace of God. Never make a Christ out of your
faith, nor think of as if it were the independent source of your
salvation. Our life is found in "looking unto Jesus," not in
looking to our own faith. By faith all things become possible to
us; yet the power is not in the faith, but in the God upon whom
faith relies. Grace is the powerful engine, and faith is the
chain by which the carriage of the soul is attached to the great
motive power. The righteousness of faith is not the moral
excellence of faith, but the righteousness of Jesus Christ which
faith grasps and appropriates. The peace within the soul is not
derived from the contemplation of our own faith; but it comes to
us from Him who is our peace, the hem of whose garment faith
touches, and virtue comes out of Him into the soul.
See then, dear friend, that the weakness of your faith will
not destroy you. A trembling hand may receive a golden gift. The
Lord's salvation can come to us though we have only faith as a
grain of mustard seed. The power lies in the grace of God, and
not in our faith. Great messages can be sent along slender wires,
and the peace-giving witness of the Holy Spirit can reach the
heart by means of a thread-like faith which seems almost unable
to sustain its own weight. Think more of Him to whom you look
than of the look itself. You must look away even from your own
looking, and see nothing but Jesus, and the grace of God revealed
in Him.
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