“When God shows mercy to the miserable sinner, he does it without respect to any merit in him. He does it freely, ‘without money and without price.’ It is a pure act of grace on the part of God. ‘By grace ye are saved.’ If he were to deal with us according to our own deserving, we would never be saved. But we are saved because he is gracious. The doctrine of salvation by grace was early taught. God himself was the revealer of it, and was the first preacher of it, and he commanded his prophets, apostles, and ministering servants to the end of time to preach it. It is the only doctrine that can meet our case as sinful, unworthy, and lost in ourselves, the only doctrine that can give hope to the poor sinner struggling under a sense of sin and misery, and needing to be saved. God is graciously disposed to save sinners, and he made a provision of grace in the eternal covenant to save such as we are.”
So said Donald Macfarlane in a sermon on Exodus 34: 4-7, the account of what Jehovah said when he wanted Moses to know him and his character: “The Lord passed by before him and proclaimed, The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness in truth…”
[I’m only going to be at the computer sporadically from now until the start of next week. Just in case it matters.]
Donald Macfarlane, Sermons on the love of God and cognate themes. (Sermon VI, God’s Name Proclaimed.) FPP.
ninetysix and ten 
And, thank and praise God for the free grace and mercy that leads to salvation! Without it, we would be lost forever.
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cath,
I’m just gonna ask you what you mean by ” by grace ye are saved?”. does it meant ye are saved from judgment ?, or saved from the lake of fire ? or what ?
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Well now there’s a question.
Short answer – saved from sin … the guilt, power, pollution, and consequences of sin.
Why do you ask?
If a longer answer is in order …. it’ll have to wait i’m afraid :) Crazy week and things not going to calm down till i’ve submitted my thesis (if you’ve been reading for a while you’ll know the woes are ongoing)
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Ephesians 2 v 8: For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
Eph 2:9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.
From Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary:
[quote]
The grace that saves is the free, undeserved goodness and favour of God; and he saves, not by the works of the law, but through faith in Christ Jesus. Grace in the soul is a new life in the soul. A regenerated sinner becomes a living soul; he lives a life of holiness, being born of God: he lives, being delivered from the guilt of sin, by pardoning and justifying grace. Sinners roll themselves in the dust; sanctified souls sit in heavenly places, are raised above this world, by Christ’s grace. The goodness of God in converting and saving sinners heretofore, encourages others in after-time, to hope in his grace and mercy. Our faith, our conversion, and our eternal salvation, are not of works, lest any man should boast. These things are not brought to pass by any thing done by us, therefore all boasting is shut out. All is the free gift of God, and the effect of being quickened by his power. It was his purpose, to which he prepared us, by blessing us with the knowledge of his will, and his Holy Spirit producing such a change in us, that we should glorify God by our good conversation, and perseverance in holiness.
[/quote]
Long, but worth reading.
Hope it helps, Esword FTW
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Well said that Mr Henry. I’m going to try and match it with a quote from John Colquhoun coming up in a separate post :)
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