5. Grace
5. Grace
By grace (that is to say, by favor) we are plucked out of Adam, the ground of all evil, and grafted in Christ, the root of all goodness. In Christ God loved us, His elect and chosen, before the world began, and reserved us unto the knowledge of His Son and of His holy gospel. And, when the gospel is preached to us, [He] opens our hearts, and gives us grace to believe, and puts the Spirit of Christ in us. And we know Him as our most merciful Father, and consent to the law, and love it inwardly in our heart, and desire to fulfill it, and sorrow because we cannot: which will (no matter how much we sin through weakness) is sufficient, till more strength be given us. The blood of Christ has made satisfaction for the rest; the blood of Christ has obtained all things for us of God. Christ is our satisfaction, redeemer, deliverer, savior from vengeance and wrath. Observe and mark in Paul’s, Peter’s, and John’s epistles, and in the gospel, what Christ is unto us.