God Makes Men Sensible

— continued —

2. Unless a man be thus convinced of his sin and misery before God makes him sensible of His redeeming love and mercy, he cannot be sensible of that love and mercy as it is, namely, that it is free and sovereign. When God reveals His redeeming grace to men and makes them truly sensible of it, He would make them sensible of it as it is.

God’s grace and love towards sinners is in itself very wonderful, as it redeems from dreadful wrath. But men cannot be sensible of this until they perceive in some adequate degree how dreadful the wrath of God is. God’s redeeming grace and love in Christ is free and sovereign, as it is altogether without any worthiness in those who are the objects of it. But men cannot be sensible of this until they are sensible of their own unworthiness. The grace of God in Christ is glorious and wonderful, as it is not only as the objects of it are without worthiness, but as they deserve the everlasting wrath and displeasure of God. But they cannot be sensible of this until they are made sensible that they deserve God’s eternal wrath. The grace of God in Christ is wonderful, as it saves and redeems from so many and so great sins, and from the punishment they have deserved. But sinners cannot be sensible of this until they are in some measure sensible of their sinfulness and brought to reflect upon the sins of their lives and to see the wickedness of their hearts.

It is the glory of God’s grace in Christ that it is so free and sovereign. And doubtless it is the will of God that when He reveals His grace to the soul, it should be seen in its proper glory, though not perfectly. When men see the glory of God’s grace aright, they see it as free and unmerited, and contrary to the demerit of their sins. All who have a spiritual understanding of the grace of God in Christ have a perception of the glory of that grace. But the glory of the divine grace appears chiefly in its being bestowed on the sinner when he is in a condition so exceedingly miserable and necessitous.

In order, therefore, that the sinner may be sensible of this glory, he must first be sensible of the greatness of his misery, and then of the greatness of the divine mercy. The heart of man is not prepared to receive the mercy of God in Christ as free and unmerited until he is sensible of his own demerit. Indeed, the soul is not capable of receiving a revelation or discovery of the redeeming grace of God in Christ, as redeeming grace, without being convinced of sin and misery. He must see his sin and misery before he can see the grace of God in redeeming him from that sin and misery.

3. Until the sinner is convinced of his sin and misery, he is not prepared to receive the redeeming mercy and grace of God, as through a Mediator, because he does not see his need of a Mediator until he sees his sin and misery. If there were on the part of God any exercise of absolute and immediate mercy towards sinners bestowed without any satisfaction or purchase, the soul might possibly see that without a conviction of its sin and misery. But there is not. All God’s mercy to sinners is through a Savior.

The redeeming mercy and grace of God is mercy and grace in Christ. And when God discovers His mercy to the soul, He will discover it as mercy in a Savior; and it is His will that the mercy should be received as in and through a Savior, with a full consciousness of its being through His righteousness and satisfaction. It is the will of God that as all the spiritual comforts which His people receive are in and through Christ, so they should be sensible that they receive them through Christ, and that they can receive them in no other way.

It is the will of God that His people should have their eyes directed to Christ and should depend upon Him for mercy and favor, that whenever they receive comforts through His purchase, they should receive them as from Him. And that because God would glorify His Son as Mediator, as the glory of man’s salvation belongs to Christ, so it is the will of God that all the people of Christ, all who are saved by Him, should receive their salvation as of Him, and should attribute the glory of it to Him; and that none who will not give the glory of salvation to Christ should have the benefit of it.

Upon this account God insists upon it, and it is absolutely necessary, that a sinner’s conviction of his sin and misery, and helplessness in himself, should precede or accompany the revelation of the redeeming love and grace of God.

4. By this means the redeeming mercy and love of God are more highly prized and rejoiced in, when discovered. By the previous discoveries of danger, misery, and helplessness, and desert of wrath, the heart is prepared to embrace a discovery of mercy. When the soul stands trembling at the brink of the pit, and despairs of any help from itself, it is prepared joyfully to receive the tidings of deliverance. If God is pleased at such a time to make the soul hear His still small voice, His call to Himself and to a Savior, the soul is prepared to give it a joyful reception.

The gospel then, if it be heard spiritually, will be glad tidings indeed; the most joyful which the sinner ever heard. The love of God and of Christ to the world, and to him in particular, will be admired, and Christ will be most precious. To remember what danger he was in, what seas surrounded him, and then to reflect how safe he now is in Christ, and how sufficient Christ is to defend him and to answer all his wants, will cause the greater exultation of soul. God, in this method of dealing with the souls of His elect, consults their happiness as well as His own glory. And it increases happiness to be made sensible of their misery and unworthiness before God comforts them; for their comfort, when they receive it, is so much the sweeter.

5. The heart is more prepared and disposed to praise God for it. This follows from the reasons already mentioned; as they are hereby made sensible how free and sovereign the mercy of God is towards them and how great His grace in saving them. And as they more highly prize the mercy and love of God made known to them, all will dispose them to magnify the name of God, to exalt the love of God the Father in giving His Son to them, and to exalt Jesus Christ by their praise, who laid down His life for them to redeem them from all iniquity. They are ready to say, “How miserable I should have been, had not God had pity upon me and provided me a Savior! In what a miserable condition should I have been, had not Christ loved me and given Himself for me! I must have endured the dreadful wrath of God; I must have suffered the punishment which I had deserved by all that great sin and wickedness of which I have been guilty.”

The Power and Triumph of Faith

Supported by the Word,
Though in himself a worm,
The servant of the Lord
Can wondrous acts perform:
Without dismay he boldly treads
Where’er the path of duty leads.

The haughty king in vain,
With fury on his brow,
Believers would constrain
To golden gods to bow:
The furnace could not make them fear,
Because they knew the Lord was near.

As vain was the decree
Which charged them not to pray;
Daniel still bowed his knee
And worshipped thrice a day:
Trusting in God, he feared not men
Though threatened with the lions’ den.

Secure they might refuse
Compliance with such laws;
For what had they to lose
When God espoused their cause?
He made the hungry lions crouch,
Nor durst the fire His children touch.

The Lord is still the same,
A mighty shield and tower,
And they who trust His Name
Are guarded by His power;
He can the rage of lions tame,
And bear them harmless through the flame.

Yet we too often shrink
When trials are in view;
Expecting we must sink,
And never can get through:
But could we once believe indeed,
From all these fears we should be freed.

— J. Newton

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