It is so easy for people to fall into ways of thinking of grace and holiness that are not according to the New Covenant, but rather are according to their own strength and a legal form of the law. It is so hard for people to come to the Gospel of grace alone and then to live by grace rather than by a self-righteousness in their own strength. It is so easy for believers to become frustrated by their own sin rather than look to Christ and His grace to overcome their sin and their guilt. It is easy for sinners to think that they are defeated when they battle sin with the power of self rather than by grace which is His strength. Believing sinners and unbelieving sinners need to understand that apart from Christ they can do nothing (spiritual or good). All true spiritual fruit must come from Christ (the Vine) first and come by His Spirit. All sinners have a great need to understand and experience the grace of God in their souls. We must taste and see that the Lord is good rather than just know about it.
God justifies (declares just or righteous) sinners by grace and grace alone, which is to say that it is by Christ and Christ alone. No amount of suffering conviction or pain or pricks of conscience can pay for one sin. No amount of seeking can pay for one sin or earn the slightest bit of merit or righteousness. But we seek in order to be loosened from self-righteousness and self-sufficiency, though it seems as if many are deceived into thinking that seeking brings God under obligation in some way. We come to God knowing that He saves by grace and grace alone knowing that all the acceptable sufferings for sin come to us by grace alone and all the acceptable righteousness comes to us by grace alone as well.
Our sins cannot overcome the blood of the cross and our unrighteousness cannot be greater than His righteousness, yet nothing else but Christ and His blood and righteousness are acceptable. This should dash all our hopes in self and grant us a great hope in Christ and Christ alone. We come to the throne of grace to receive nothing but grace and grace alone. This grace is free in the sense that it is totally uncaused by us. This grace comes on behalf of Christ and the glory of God. Men constantly look to themselves for some reason to receive grace and after they have received grace they will look to themselves to see if they can keep grace. No, grace is the spring of all true holiness and holiness is not the spring of grace.
In one sense there is no real preparation of the soul for grace if by preparing one means that one can merit a bit of it or become better in order to receive it. The soul is only prepared for grace when it is stripped of thinking that it has some merit or some righteousness that might move God to save it. No, no, no, but instead we come to God empty of all and simply look to grace alone. We come as poor, naked sinners with nothing but demerit in us yet knowing that God saves sinners and makes sinners holy and blameless in His sight because of Himself and His own glory. The Son died for sinners because He loved the Father thus fulfilling the Great Commandment on behalf of His people. We should never let our sin, though indeed it is terrible, stop us from seeking the grace of Christ since His grace is far greater than our sin. This is no excuse for sin, but we should know that in this live we will sin in all we do as all we do is less then perfect. We need grace for our very best acts and prayers.
For our whole of life we may be haunted by past sins and perhaps present sins when we see just how far short of His glory we have fallen and still fall. Yet God does not save because people are good, but because He is good. God does not save because people obtain some standard of holiness, but because He is holy. God does not save because people follow His law of love, but because He is love. God does not save because people obtain some form of sufficiency in themselves, but because He is self-sufficient. God does not save because of anything found in the person, but because of the glory He finds in Himself. The grace that saves sinners is uncaused by themselves and within themselves because grace has a far greater cause and that is the love God has for His own glory. The freeness of His grace should move us to flee to Him for refuge, but also to flee from sin and pursuse holiness. Grace teaches us to pursue holiness by the strength and power of grace rather than to pursue an outward form of righteousness in our own strength. The beauty and glory of grace is seen as it shines forth from God for the purposes of and glory of God. May we behold Him shining forth in the face of Christ and may we be instruments of glory in His gracious hands.
God Loves... Himself 
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