PREVENTING, ACCOMPANYING, AND FOLLOWING GRACE

Grace, we all know, has been defined as “the unmerited favor of the Lord; in essence,

God’s

Riches

At

Christ’s

Expense

But what did our forefathers mean when they hinged salvation to grace as preventing, accompanying, and following (cf. Hellenbroek)?

(1) The term preventing grace literally means “going before” grace, not hindering grace, (i.e. God’s quickening life outrunning our state of death, God’s irresistible grace outrunning our condition of misery, God’s mercies outrunning our necessities). Thus, the word “prevent” when used in our King James Version usually retains its original sense of “going before,” either actually or symbolically, rather than its more recently developed implication of hinderance. This is David’s confession in Psalm 59:10, “The God of my mercy shall prevent (go before) me,” and his petition in Psalm 79:8, “Let Thy tender mercies speedily prevent (go before) us.” Preventing grace sent Naomi to Moab, in order to bring Ruth into a saving relationship with the God of Israel; preventing grace obliged Christ to go through Samaria for one Samaritan woman; preventing grace sent Jesus on the very path and under the very tree which Zaccheus would climb to hide, to penetrate his place of concealment, and cry out, “Zaccheus, make haste, and come down!” Preventing grace seeks out lost but elect sheep until they are found (Lk. 15:4). Preventing grace causes Christ to confess, “Behold, I, even I, will both search my sheep and seek them out” (Ez. 34:11). Oh, what grace lies in preventing grace! What a world of meaning is contained in that truly shepherding word: until He find it! The “until” of grace formed the turning point for Asaph’s soul-condition in Psalm 73 (v. 16), but it also forms the turning point of every elect soul in the moment of regeneration. “Until” preaches the unwearied pursuit of the Savior-Shepherd’s love. Not begrudging the labor of a long journey, a Palestine shepherd will not leave the task of restoring any lost sheep into the hands of a hireling or servant, but will allow himself no rest until he clasps his own sheep in his own arms; likewise Christ, in unwearied pursuance of His elect sheep for days, weeks, months, and years, despite scornful rejection, stubborn waywardness, and persistent ingratitude, will not abandon His task in despair, but “goeth after until He finds.” His preventing grace is bounded by no distance, cooled by no difficulties, repulsed by no obstacles; indeed, the misery and depravity of His lost sheep under satanic shepherding only seems to quicken His desire to have His object of eternal love folded in His arms. This tale of wondrous patience, amazing forbearance, and sovereign love is the history of each believer pursued and saved by preventing grace; in a word, “The chief of sinners, but I obtained mercy!” (cf. I Tim. 1:13). Is this your biography also?

(2) Accompanying grace keeps alive the salvation preventing grace has made real. As it was His free sovereign love which led Christ to pay the ransom-price, so it is the sovereign, accompanying grace of the Shepherd which keeps His flock every hour from destruction, and will present each member of it at last faultless before the presence of Triune glory with exceeding joy. To avoid lapsing into a loose and indefinite theology, let us beware of how we speak of the “inherent power of the new nature.” Apart from the accompanying grace of Christ, and the indwelling, upholding energy of the Spirit of God, this inherent power does not exist. Why was Paul, for example, enabled to stand firm when the messenger of Satan was sent to buffet him? Why did not the thorn in the flesh get the better of his redeemed nature? It was solely because the same free grace which had predestinated, called, and justified him, was, in the hour of trial and temptation, made sufficient for him; God’s strength was “perfected in weakness,” yes, overcame weakness. Oh, for grace to ever admire this unmerited, undeserved, free, accompanying grace!

(3) To following or subsequent grace, God’s people owe, reverently speaking, the greatest and most humble thanksgiving of all; for the grace which placed them on right paths is great, the grace which keeps them on right paths is greater, but the grace that pursues them through the very denouement of their earthly race is greatest. The life of Jehovah’s true sheep is an ascending threefold wonder: the first and great miracle is that God condescended low enough to decree and place in their souls His seed of regeneration; the second and greater miracle is that God puts up with them despite all their iniquities committed against His gospel and His grace; the third and greatest miracle is that God will suffer His grace to pursue them all the way to glory. “Surely, goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life!”

Christ is the true Zerubbabel, who has laid the foundation, and who also will finish it. His hand is in each part of the spiritual building of His elect — beginning, carrying on, completing; the Alpha, the Omega; the Justifier, the Sanctifier, the Glorifier. As the pearl would remain forever in the depths of the ocean unless the diver descended for it, so, unless He who purchased His treasured people as gems and jewels for His crown had taken them from the depths, they would have remained forever un-rescued. And as Christ rescues His pearls, so He keeps them, polishes them, and inserts them into His mediatorial diadem. As His is the glory of the commencing work and the sustaining work, so His is the glory of the crowning and consummating work. The branch cannot live severed from the vine. The limb cannot live severed from the body. True believers live only by virtue of Christ their life. It is not their repentance or prayers, or habits of grace, or long standing in grace, which keeps them; but only the sustaining arm of an omnipotent Savior seated at the right hand of His Father. “The Lord is thy Keeper. He that keepeth Israel doth not slumber” (Ps. 121:4–5). It is the Rock Christ that follows them through the wilderness of this life, makes them thirsty, quenches their thirst, and keeps them thirsty. When faith may embrace this truth, then all that the Lord does is well. Then faith only sees goodness and mercy in its past, present, and future despite innumerable earthly sorrows, troubles, and impossibilities, for it can then believe the Christ makes no mistakes.

Is it not this preventing, accompanying, and following grace, true believer, to which you owe everything for time and eternity? Was it not this inescapable grace that first revealed to you that you were without God, Christ, and hope in the world? Was it not inescapable grace that stopped you from drinking in iniquity like an ox drinks in water — that stopped you from plunging even deeper into the world, and planted within you a desire to live holy in the sight of an All-knowing God? Was it not inescapable grace that uncovered within you the sinfulness of sin, the spirituality of the law and the seriousness of its curse, the unpreparedness of your soul for the solemn and notable day of eternal judgment, and the spotlessness of the attributes of God? Was it not inescapable grace that hindered you from establishing your own righteousness — that showed you that your heart was nothing but a fountain of all pollution, corruption, and filth by bringing you back to our deep fall in Adam? Was it not inescapable grace that showed you so fully the total depravity of your heart that you were brought to confess that you had no more strength to produce one good thing than the very devils themselves; indeed, that all your self-manufactured religion could bring you no further than their religion, for “the devils also believe, and tremble” (James 2:19b)? Was it not inescapable grace that brought you to a spiritually cutting-off point with respect to your salvation, so that your very repentance, your real humility, your unfeigned unworthiness, yes, all your darling Benjamins had to be taken away from you, causing you to be brought to the brink of spiritual despair with Jacob, “Joseph is not, and Simeon is not, and ye will take Benjamin away: all these things are against me” (Gen. 42:36b)? Was it not inescapable grace that brought salvation within you to the intersecting point of necessity/impossibility — that persuaded you “I must be saved” as well as “I cannot be saved,” for there is no hope in me, and how can there be hope in a holy and just God? Was it not inescapable grace that brought you to love the very justice and holiness of God by which you were summoned to come before God’s holy tribunal, and led to sign your own death sentence that God was righteous and just to cast you away forever? Was it not inescapable grace that granted you an open ear for a way of escape in Christ Jesus — that caused you to pant after Him and his righteousness, and plead on the very Word of God: “I bring near my righteousness; it shall not be far off, and my salvation shall not tarry; and I will place salvation in Zion for Israel my glory” (Is. 46:13)? Was it not inescapable grace that revealed Jesus Christ to your dying, hell-bound soul, in all His sweetness, fullness, suitability, and saviorhood, causing you to behold in Him the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of chief sinners? Was it not inescapable grace that would not let you rest with a revealed Christ, but pursued you with inward yearnings and pantings after full assurance of faith, until you could exper-ientially confess, following personal justification, “Christ is mine, and I am His”? Is it not inescapable grace that is still pursuing you to beg for more light and access into the Persons of the Divine Trinity, for more strength to fight the daily battles of faith, for more tokens of God’s goodness and mercy to shine before you, beside you, behind you, and throughout all your earthly pilgrimage?

If not estranged from this inescapable grace, mercy and goodness shall surely follow you until your least breath, whether you can believe it or not, for you have been made to wholeheartedly subscribe to the way of free grace so richly portrayed in the following poem:

GRACE! ‘tis a charming sound!
Harmonious to the ear:
Heaven with the echo shall resound,
And all the earth shall hear.

Grace first contriv’d a way
To save rebellious man,
And all the steps that grace display,
Which drew the wondrous plan.

Grace first inscribed my name
In God’s eternal book:
‘Twas grace that gave me to the Lamb,
Who all my sorrows took.

Grace taught my soul to pray,
And pard’ning love to know;
‘Twas grace that kept me to this day,
And will not let me go.

Grace all the work shall crown,
Through everlasting days;
It lays in heaven the topmost stone,
And well deserves the praise.

Surely, God’s Asaphs may then say, “Thou shalt guide me with Thy counsel, and afterward receive me into glory”; for I, yes, “I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever” (Ps. 73:24; 23:6).

“By grace ye are saved.”

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