2. Grace. It is partly for the admiration of this grace that God intends
greater wonders; so this patience to Paul was but a little essay of his meekness, a little patience cut off from the whole piece, which should always be dealing out to some sinners or other, and would never be cut wholly out till the world had left being. This sample or pattern was but of the extent of a few years; for Paul was but young, the Scripture terms him a young man, Acts 7:58, about thirty-six years of age, yet he calls it all longsuffering. Ah, Paul! Some since have experienced more of this patience; in some, it has reached not only to thirty, but forty, fifty, or sixty years.
2. Grace. It is partly for the admiration of this grace that God intends the day of judgment. It is a strange thing: 'When he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe in that day,' 2 Thessalonians 1:10. What, does not Christ have enough glory in heaven with his Father? Will he come on purpose to seek glory from such unworthy creatures as his saints are? What is it that glorifies Christ in them? It is the gracious work he has done in them.
The word used is "to be glorified in his saints", which means that they will glorify Christ actively and objectively. Just as creatures glorify the wisdom and power of God by providing material for humans to do so, the work of God in saints provides matter for angels to praise and devils to admire. The apostle uses two words:
"glorified", which refers to the work of angels and saints, who will sing his praises for it, as a prince receives the congratulations of all his nobility after a great conquest; "admired", which the devil and the damned will do. Although their malice and condition will not allow them to praise him, his inexpressible love in making such dark souls so beautiful will astonish them.
In this sense, those things under the earth will bow down to the name of Jesus, a Saviour - a name which God gave him at first.
"Therefore God has highly exalted him and given him a name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow," Philippians 2:9-10. And upon his exaltation, he confirmed in Hebrews 5:9, when he was made perfect, that is, exalted, he became the author of eternal salvation and had the power of saving as well as
the name conferred upon him. They shall confess that he is Lord, Philippians 2:11, that is, he acted like a Lord when he prevailed over all the opposition which those great sinners made against him. The whole trial of the saints and the sentence of their blessedness shall be finished before that of the damned, Matthew 25:35-44. This is so that the whole scene of his love and the wonders of the work of faith being laid open might strike them with vast amazement. It is evident that this is the design of Christ to be thus glorified in his grace and power, as seen in the apostle's prayer in verses 11 and 12, that the Thessalonians might be among those Christ should be thus glorified in. Therefore he prays that God would "fulfil all the good pleasure of his goodness," that grace he so pleased and delighted to manifest, and carry on the work of faith with power; "that the name of Christ might be glorified in them" as well as in the rest of his saints.
Ordinary conversion is an act of grace; Barnabas so interprets it in Acts 11:21-23, when a great number believed. What an abundance of grace, then, is expended in converting a company of extraordinary sinners!
It is the glory of man to overlook an offence (Proverbs 19:11). This means that it is admirable for someone to have this characteristic. If it is an honour to overlook an offence in general, then the greater the offence and the more of them that a person can overlook, the greater their honour will be, as it shows that they have a stronger and more robust version of this quality. Therefore, it must be even more indicative of God's exceeding grace to forgive many and great sins in humans than to forgive only a few lesser ones.
(1.) The abundance of His grace. This demonstrates that God has more grace in Him than there can be sin in us or in the entire world.
He allows some sinners to run up a great debt on His account to show that though they are bankrupt, His grace is not. Even though they have spent all of their resources on their depraved desires, they have not exhausted His treasures, just as the sun is not weakened by the fumes of so many garbage heaps. This was His purpose in giving the moral law: the finis operis, or outcome of the law, was to increase
sin. But the finis operantis, or effect of the law, was to glorify His grace. "Moreover, the law entered that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound" (Romans 5:20).
When the law of nature was out of print and so smudged that it could hardly be read, God brought the moral law (the equivalent of the law of nature) into the world in a new edition. As a result, sin now has more aggravations, as it is a rebellion against a clearer light and a surge and flood over the mighty barrier of the law that was put in its way. But this was useful to the abundance of His grace, which had more abundant material to work with and a wider field to plant its endless seed in. It ὑπερεπερίσσευσεν, it super-abounded. Grace rose higher than sin and swept it away, just as the rolling tide of the sea rises higher than the river streams and pushes them back with all their dirt and filth. It was mercy in God to create us; it is abundant mercy to make any new creatures after they have forfeited their happiness (1 Peter 1:3), which is according to His abundant mercy
(κατὰ τὸ πολὺ). However, it was ὑπερπλεονάζουσα χαρις, overflowing, exceeding abundant, more than full grace, to make such misshapen creatures new creatures (verse 14 of this chapter).
(2.) Freely given grace. No one can imagine that Christ should owe anything to sin, except in punishment, and even less that he should owe something to the worst of sinners. But if Christ only chose people with moral and natural virtues, people might suspect that he was in some way obligated to them, and that the gift of salvation was limited to the endowments of nature and a person's own willpower.
However, when he makes no distinction between people with the least and the greatest wrongdoing, and even prefers the most sinful monsters as well as the fairest of nature's children, he builds triumphal arches to his grace on this rubbish, and makes both men and angels gaze admiringly upon these infinitely free mercies when he takes souls full of disease and misery into his arms. By doing so, he demonstrates that the God and Lord of nature is no more obligated to his servant (in regards to the gift of salvation) when she behaves most obediently, than when she rebels against him with the highest hand. And that Christ is completely free from any conditions
other than faith, and that he can and will accept the dirt and mud as well as the beauty and varnish of nature if they believe with the same precious faith.
Therefore, it is often God's approach in Scripture, just before offering pardon, to list out the sinner's debts, with their aggravations; to persuade them of their inability to satisfy such a large score, and also to reveal the generosity and vastness of his grace: "But thou hast not called upon me, O Jacob, but thou hast been weary of me, O Israel; thou hast not brought me the small cattle of thy burnt offering, etc., but thou hast made me serve with thy sins, thou hast wearied me with thine iniquities," (Isaiah 43:22–24). When he had informed them how indecently they had dealt with him and had made him a mere slave to their corrupt desires; at the end, when they and no creature else, but would have expected fireballs of wrath to be thrown in their faces; and that God should have dipped his pen in gall and have written their conviction to hell, he dips it in honey and cancels the debt; "I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins," verse 25. Could there be any merit here, when the offender, instead of favor, could expect nothing but harshness, as there is nothing but wrongdoing in him?
It is so free that the mercy we misuse, the name we have blasphemed, the name for which we have deserved wrath, opens its mouth with petitions for us; "But I had pity for mine holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the heathen whither they went," (Ezekiel 36:21). Not for their sakes. It should be entirely free, for he repeats their profaning of his name four times. This name he would sanctify, i.e., glorify. How? By purifying them from their filthiness, verse 25. His name, while it pleads for them, mentions their demerits, so that grace may appear to be truly gracious and triumph in its own liberality. Our sins against him cannot deserve more than our sufferings for him, and even they are not deserving of the glory that will be revealed, (Romans 8:18).
(3.) Extent of his grace. The mercy of God is called his abundance and exceeding abundance of grace. Now, as there is no end to his holiness, which is his honour, and no limit to his power, there is also no end to his grace, which is his wealth. There is no limit to his resources. Therefore, the worst and greatest sinners are the most suitable for Christ to reveal the abundant wealth of his grace upon. It must show a more vast wealth to forgive great debts and many thousands of talents than to forgive some smaller sins in people of more unblemished behavior. If it were not for the salvation of enormous sinners, we would not know so much about God's wealth; we would not know how wealthy he is or what he is worth. He forgives iniquities for the sake of his reputation, and who can read all the letters of his name or turn over all the pages in the book of mercy? Who can say to his grace, as he does to the sea, "This far shall you come and no farther"?
As the heavens have a vast expanse that, like a great circle, surrounds the earth, which lies in the center like a tiny atom in comparison to that vast body of air and ether, so are our sins compared to the extent of God's mercy. "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts," says the Lord. Men's sins are innumerable, yet they are but ciphers in comparison to the vast sums of grace that are spent every day, for they are finite, but mercy is infinite. Thus, all the sins in the world combined cannot be as extensive as mercy because each of them is finite, and if they are all combined, they still cannot amount to infinity.
The gospel is called "good-will to men"; to all sorts of men, with iniquities, transgressions, and sins of all sorts and sizes. God has stores of mercy lying by him. His treasury is never empty; "Keeps mercy for thousands," Exod. 34:7, in a readiness to deal it upon thousand millions of sins as well as millions of persons. Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob, and all that were before, have not wasted it; and if God were to proclaim his name again, it is the same still, for his name as well as his essence is unchangeable. His grace is no more
tied to one sin than it is to one person; he has mercy on whom he will, and his grace can pardon what sins he will; therefore he tells them, Isa. 55:7, that he would multiply pardons. He will have mercy to suit every sin of thine, and a salve for every sore. Though thy sin has its heights and depths, yet he will heap mercy upon mercy, till he makes it overtop thy sin. He will be as good at his merciful arithmetic as thou hast been at thy sinful, if thou dost sincerely repent and reform. Though thou multiply thy sins by thousands, where repentance goes before, remission of sin follows without limitation.
When Christ gives the one, he is sure to second it with the other.
Though aggravating circumstances be never so many, yet he will multiply his mercies as fast as thou canst the sins thou hast committed.
He has a cleansing virtue and a pardoning grace for all iniquities and transgressions; "And I will cleanse them from all their iniquity, whereby they have sinned against me: and I will pardon all their iniquities, whereby they have sinned, and whereby they have transgressed against me," Jer. 33:8. It is three times repeated, to show that his mercy should be as large as their sin, though there was not a more sinful nation upon the earth than they were. His justifying and sanctifying grace should have as vast an extension, for he would both pardon and cleanse them. Why? Ver. 9, that it might be a name of joy and praise, and an honour to him before all the nations of the earth.
It is so great that self-righteous people complain about it, that such despicable people should be chosen over them, just as the eldest son was angry that his father should show more kindness to the prodigal than to him, Luke 15:28.
(4.) Compassion of his grace. The formal nature of mercy is tenderness, and the natural effect of it is relief. The more miserable the object, the more compassionate human mercy is, and the more willing to help. Now, in God, mercy is not just a quality but a nature.
How would the infinite tenderness of His nature be revealed if there
were no objects to bring it forth? It would not be recognized as mercy unless it were displayed, nor as tender mercy unless it relieved great and oppressive miseries, for mercy is a quality in humans that cannot be kept at home and locked away in one's own heart, much less in God, in whom it is a nature. The greater the disease, the more compassion is revealed from God, who is so abundantly full of it.
As his purpose in allowing the devil to inflict so many hardships on Job was to show his compassion and tender mercy in relieving him;
"You have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord, that the Lord is very compassionate and merciful," James 5:11; so, in permitting the devil to draw his chosen ones into so many sins, he has the same purpose. And he is more compassionate in helping people under sin than under affliction because the guilt of one sin is a greater misery than the burden of a thousand crosses. If forgiveness is a part of tenderness in people, it is also so in God, who is set, Eph. 4:32, as a pattern of the compassion we are to show to others; "And be ye kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake has forgiven you." The lower a person is brought, the more tender is that mercy that relieves them:
"Let thy tender mercies speedily prevent us; for we are brought very low," Ps. 79:8. To visit those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, and to pardon their sins, is called mercy, with this descriptor of tender; "Through the tender mercy of our God, whereby the dayspring from on high has visited us," Luke 1:77–79. And so it is indeed when he visits the most forsaken sinners.
(5.) Sincerity and pleasure of his grace. Ordinary pardon proceeds from his delight in mercy; "Who is a God like unto thee, that pardons iniquity, and passes by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage. He does not retain his anger forever, because he delights in mercy," Micah 7:18. Therefore, the more of his grace he dispenses upon anyone, the more exceeding delight he has in it because it is a larger effect of that grace. If he were not sincere in it, he would never mention people's sins, which would scare them from him rather than entice them to him. If he were not sincere, he would never change
the heart of an enemy and show kindness to them in the very act of enmity; for the first act of grace upon us is quite against our wills.
And man is so far from being active in it that he is contrary to it. In the first act of the matter, it is thus with a person, though not in the first moment of that act. But for God to bestow his grace upon us against our wills and when he can expect no appropriate recompense from us, demonstrates the purity of his affection; that when he endured so many contradictions of sinners against himself day by day, yet he is determined to have them, and he does seize upon them, though they struggle and resist in his face and provoke him to cast them off.
It is so much God's delight that it is called by the very name of his glory: "The glory of the Lord shall follow thee," Isaiah 58:8; that is, the mercy of the Lord shall follow them at the very heels. And when they call, it should answer them; and when they cry, He would, like a watchful guardian servant, cry out, "Here I am." So that He never lets a great sinner, when changed into a penitent, wait long for mercy, though He sometimes lets them wait long for a sense of it. This mercy is never so delightful to Him as when it is most glorious, and it is most glorious when it takes hold of the worst sinners. For such black spots which mercy wears upon its face, makes it appear more beautiful.
Christ does not care for staying where He has not opportunities to do great cures, suitable to the vastness of His power, Mark 6:5. When
He was in His own country, He could do no great work there, but only laid His hands upon a few sick people. He had not a suitable employment for that glorious power of working miracles. So when people come to Christ with lighter guilt, He has but an under opportunity given Him, and with a kind of disadvantage, to manifest the greatness of His charity. Though He has so much grace and mercy, yet He cannot show more than the nature and exigence of the opportunity will bear; and so His pleasure does not swell so high as otherwise it would do, for little sins, and few sins, are not so fit an object for a grace that would ride in triumph. Free grace is God's
darling, which He loves to advance; and it is never more advanced than when it beautifies the most misshapen souls.
3.Power. The Bible describes conversion as a remarkable work and compares it to creation and the resurrection of Christ from the dead.
(1.) Creation. Conversion, when considered simply, is considered by theologians to be a greater work than creation; because in conversion, God exerts more moral power than He did physical power in creation. The world was created by a word; but conversion requires many words and many acts. The heavens are called the work of God's fingers, Psalm 8:3, but the gospel, in its effects, is called the arm of the Lord, Isaiah 53:1. Men only use their arm when a task requires more strength than their fingers possess. Conversion is "the power of God for salvation," and the faith it produces is initiated and completed with power, 2 Thessalonians 1:11. God created the world from nothing, and nothing could contribute objectively to His design, as matter does to a workman's purpose. However, it does not oppose
Him, as it is nothing. As soon as God spoke, this nothing gave birth to the sun, moon, stars, earth, trees, flowers, and all the adornments of nature from its barren womb. But sin is actively disobedient, challenges God's commands, disregards His power, fortifies itself against His entry into the heart, and does not give up an inch of ground without a fight. Not only is there a passive unwillingness, but there is also active resistance. His creating power drew the world out of nothing, but His converting power shapes the new creature from something worse than nothing.
Naturally, there is nothing but darkness and confusion in the soul.
We have not the slightest spark of divine light, no more than the chaos had, when God commanded light to shine out of that darkness
(2 Corinthians 4:6), shone in our hearts. To bring a principle of light into the heart and to set it up despite all the opposition that the devil and a person's own corruption make is greater than creation. As the power of the sun is more seen in scattering the thickest mists that triumph over the earth and mask the face of the heavens than in
melting the small clouds compacted of a few vapours, so it must needs argue a greater strength to root out those great sins that were twisted and inlaid with our very nature and become as dear to us as our right eye and right hand than a few sins that have taken no deep root. Every person naturally possesses a hatred of God and opposes everything that would restore God to his right; and since the fall, being filled with a desire of independency that is daily strengthened with new recruits and loath to surrender himself to the power and direction of another, it is a more difficult thing to tame this unruly disposition in a person's heart, I say more difficult than to annihilate him and recreate him again; as it is more easy often for a craftsman to make a new piece of work than to repair and patch up an old one that is out of frame.
Conversion simply is so called: 'Quickened us when we were dead'
(Ephesians 2:5). And the power that effects it is the same power that raised Christ from the dead, which was a mighty power that could remove the stone from the grave when Christ lay with all the sins of the world upon him (Ephesians 1:19-20); so the greater the stone is upon them, the greater is God's power to remove it. For if it is the power of God simply to regenerate nature and put a new law into the heart and to qualify the will with a new bias to comply with this law, and to make them that could not endure any thoughts of grace not to endure any thoughts of sin, it is a greater power, surely, to raise a person from that death wherein they have lain thirty or forty years rotten and putrefied in the grave; for if conversion in its nature is creation and resurrection, this must need to be creation and resurrection with an emphasis.
The more severe any illness is and the more deeply rooted it is in the vital organs, and the more complicated it is with other diseases, the greater the power needed to cure it. A disease is easier to treat at the first onset than when it has infected the entire bloodstream and become chronic. Similarly, it is harder to uproot a sin or many sins that have spread their roots deep and withstood many threatening storms, than one that is newly planted.
(3.) Traction or drawing. Drawing implies strength. If conversion is a traction, then more strength is required to draw one who is bound to a post by thick cables than one who is tied only by a few threads, one who has millions of weights upon him than one who has only a few pounds.
(4.) It is the only miracle Christ has left standing in the world and declares Him more to be Christ than anything. When John sent to inquire what He was (Luke 7:20), He returned no other account but a list of His miracles; and the last and greatest of them was the poor being evangelized. It is not to be taken actively as the preaching of the Gospel but passively, that they were transformed by the Gospel and became an evangelized people, conformed to it, for otherwise, it would have no analogy with the other miracles. The deaf heard and the dead were raised, they had not only the exhortations to hear but the effects were worked upon them. So these words not only imply the preaching of the Gospel to them but also the powerful operation of the Gospel within them. It is not as great a work to raise many thousands killed in a battle as to evangelize one dead soul. It is a miracle of power to transform a ravenous wolf into a gentle lamb, a furious lion into a meek dove, a filthy sink into a clear fountain, a stinking weed into a fragrant rose, a toad, or a viper into a man endowed with rational faculties and moral attributes, and so to transform a filthy swine into a king and a priest unto God. Divine power appears glorious in conquests of this nature. It is some strength to polish a rough stone taken out of the quarry and carve it into the statue of a great prince, but it is more to make this statue a living man. God makes children out of worse stones than these, not only to Abraham but also to Himself, even the Gentiles who were considered stones by the Jews and are referred to as stones in Scripture for worshipping idols.
What power must that be which can stop the tide of the sea, and make it suddenly recoil back! What vast power must that be that can change a black cloud into a glorious sun? This and more does God do in conversion. He does not only take smooth pieces of the softest