BY GRACE, THROUGH FAITH “By grace are ye saved, through faith” Ephesians 2:8
That the salvation of sinners is by the free grace of God alone is without argument as one pursues the doctrine in the teachings of Scripture, especially as we study the Epistles of the Apostle Paul. Consider statements such as “Being justified freely by His grace” (Romans 3:24). The word translated “freely” is from a Greek word meaning “without cause” and is translated so in John 15:25. 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 at the wellhead and behold the pure river of the 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 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 is the very essence of the Godhead. It is because “His mercy endureth forever” that men are not destroyed, and because “His compassion’s 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; grace is the fountain and the stream; faith is the aqueduct along which the flood of mercy flows down to refresh the thirsty souls of sinners. Someone said “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.” Even so, faith must be true and sound, leading right up to God and coming right down to ourselves that it may become a channel of mercy to our souls. Again I remind you that faith is only the channel 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 alone. Never make a Christ out of your faith, nor think of it as if it were the independent source of your salvation. Salvation is found in “looking unto Jesus” not looking unto our faith (Hebrews 12:2).
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