God Loves… Himself

Nothing in man doth precede or prevent the grace of God. The light and beams of grace do dispel the clouds of our sins. Not for our sakes, but for his Name’s sake he covereth our sins. It is God’s prerogative to free us from sin by grace, and to remove them far from us. “As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.” {Ps.103:12} He only can remove sin against whom it is committed. He only can cast sin into the depths of the sea, who hath an ocean of grace in himself, in which he swalloweth them up. John Simpson {Perfection of Justification, 1648} Obtained from Supralapsarian.com

The Divine music is that of the glory of free-grace in saving sinners. God saves sinners to the praise of the glory of His grace (Eph 1:5-7) and that is the only hope of any awakened sinner. Those whose hearts have not been the object of the convicting work of the Spirit may indeed believe that grace saves, but only those whose hearts have been worked on by the Spirit and delivered from any hope in self and self-righteousness (including the self-righteousness of a self-wrought faith) truly look to Christ alone by free-grace alone. The words of Scripture are that God will have mercy upon whom He will have mercy and He will be gracious to whom He will be gracious. This is the Divine music to the ears of those who have seen the light and have no hope in self.

The so-called “Gospel” that is proclaimed today in conservative and Reformed circles is one that is contingent upon faith. That is important to note. What should be proclaimed in accordance with Scripture and the Reformation teaching is that faith is contingent upon the grace of God. The Gospel of Jesus Christ and of a true message of grace alone is not contingent upon anything in man or worked up by man. Man comes to God utterly undone and without anything in him or about him to commend himself to God. Man should seek the Lord for the gift of faith knowing that his seeking the Lord has no merit and will not make God more likely to save him, but it is fitting that man would seek the Lord and it is also one way the Lord uses to break man from his stubborn pride and hope in his own self-righteousness.

While the Scripture does teach the importance of faith, it never attributes salvation to men because they believe. The present preaching of the Gospel is all about what the Father has decided from eternity, what the Son has accomplished in time past, and what the Spirit applies in the present time. The Gospel is about the working of the triune God and must never focus on men and what he is to do in order to be saved. The sovereign work of the Spirit in regenerating sinners does not depend on the faith of men, but the faith of men can only come by the work of the Spirit in regenerating them and giving them believing (faithing) hearts. When we reverse the two things, faith and regeneration, we end up with something other than a free-grace and have a message where the salvation of men is contingent upon their own faith.

In the previous BLOG (Free Grace 15) I said that “Christ saves sinners quite apart from any faith they have in themselves or any faith they can place in Him.” What I meant by that statement is that sinners are not saved because of their faith and that they have no faith to put in Him. Instead of that, Christ saves sinners from their unbelieving hearts and gives them new hearts that are believing hearts. The Lord Jesus does not wait until sinners come up with a believing heart, but instead He gives them believing hearts and dwells in those hearts. Romans 4:16 is so clear that the reason we are saved by faith is in order that it may be by grace. This is an enormously important statement verse to grapple with. First, the word “by” must be understood. It can mean “because of” or it can mean “by means of” or “through.” If we say sinners are saved because of their faith, then obviously sinners are saved because of a work of faith that they have come up with. If we say that sinners are saved through faith, then even then we can mean at least a couple of different things.

What we must understand, however, is that God saves sinners and uses faith to save them in order that salvation would be by free-grace alone. Romans 4:5 puts it this way: “But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness.” It is only to those who do not work for salvation or try to work up something to be saved on account of that who really believe in Him who justifies the ungodly. It is only those who have a type of faith that does not work or trust in itself in any way that have a faith that is credited as righteousness. Why is that faith credited as righteousness? It is not because the person worked up faith by himself, but it is because a person with true faith that comes as a gift of God has Christ as his righteousness. The person with true faith does not look to himself for that faith, but instead that faith comes to him as a gift and once a person has true faith that person has Christ. A true faith, which is given as a gift, cannot be separated from Christ. Therefore, a person with true faith will always have Christ. The Gospel, then, is always by free-grace alone and can never come because a person has faith, but instead a person has faith given by free-grace and that person looks to no one but Christ alone as his righteousness and for all things.

Nothing in man doth precede or prevent the grace of God. The light and beams of grace do dispel the clouds of our sins. Not for our sakes, but for his Name’s sake he covereth our sins. It is God’s prerogative to free us from sin by grace, and to remove them far from us. “As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.” {Ps.103:12} He only can remove sin against whom it is committed. He only can cast sin into the depths of the sea, who hath an ocean of grace in himself, in which he swalloweth them up. John Simpson {Perfection of Justification, 1648} Obtained from Supralapsarian.com

Lamentations 2:14 Your prophets have seen for you False and foolish visions; And they have not exposed your iniquity So as to restore you from captivity, But they have seen for you false and misleading oracles.

In reflecting upon the state of preaching in our modern world it would appear that God has sent His judgment upon us. It is with an aching heart that I have heard sermon after sermon in the past years and I wonder why the living God has not been preached and why Christ and His cross was not exalted. I have heard a series of sermons on external morality or things that I must believe, but even in ostensibly Reformed churches I leave hungry for Christ and for the glory of God in Christ. I leave hungry for spiritual food as the message or talk has been on what I should do. I leave hungry because I have heard of all the conditions that I must meet rather than the free-grace of God which alone can work in me to meet any condition at all. My soul is longs to feed upon Christ and the glory of God in Christ which comes to sinners by free-grace alone, but alas I leave with hunger pains.

It is also true that I long to have my sin exposed by a faithful preacher who will not only tell me the external sins, but will preach to the inner sins of the heart and of the soul. When preachers do not expose iniquity (as in Lamentations above), then there is no restoration into the presence of God. When preachers to not take pains with their own hearts as they deal with Scripture, they will not expose sin as it should be exposed and so sanctification is stifled. When preachers do not take pains to deal with the sinful hearts of people, they will not take pains to expose the sins of pride and self-righteousness in the hearts of men and women and as such there is simply no way for them to preach free-grace.

It is a sad thing in our nation (and world) today that sin is essentially thought of as outward morality. Linked with that, then, what we see is men teaching an outward repentance and virtually and outward grace. Conditional grace is the cry of the pulpit today and conditional grace is what is taught for both unbelievers and professing believer. Over and over I hear that unbelievers are to place their faith in Christ in order to be saved. What faith does an unbeliever have? An unbeliever only has faith in self and so is the unbeliever to place his faith in self to have faith in Christ? Oh what a terrible state we are in! Christ saves sinners quite apart from any faith they have in themselves or any faith they can place in Him, though indeed that will sound heretical to some people. In the glorious Gospel of Christ alone and His free-grace part of the full salvation that Christ gives is to give His people faith. This is an important and even vital distinction.

The reason that the point made in the previous paragraph is important is because Christ does not save sinners based on a condition that they meet or can meet. Sinners should be told that they must look to Christ to give them faith rather than to place their faith in Christ. If I have a faith that I already have before Christ and I am to place that faith in Christ, then that is no longer salvation by faith alone as Luther taught. Luther taught that salvation is by faith alone because it defended the doctrine of grace alone or sovereign grace alone. Salvation is by a free-grace alone and that means there is no condition on my part or condition that I can work up in my own strength. I have nothing to commend myself to Christ and I have nothing with which to come to Christ with. It is a free-grace alone that can work conviction of sin in my heart, break my heart from pride and self, and then regenerate that heart and make it a believing heart. The Bible does not tell us to place our faith in Christ, but it tells us to be believing (literally, faithing) in Christ. This is to say that faith is not a once and done thing, it is a continuing action because Christ is united to and lives in the hearts of those who have faith and He gives them that “faithing.”

The modern day knows something of the word “grace” and perhaps something of the theology of that “grace”, but the modern day seems to be virtually clueless about a real grace or a free-grace. In sermon after sermon I hear of the conditions of grace, though some do not use that language. However, the concept is clearly there. As long as ministers refuse to give up or simply remain in the darkness of a conditional grace, they will be delivering false and misleading oracles. When we understand that the group designated as “wicked sinners” includes religious sinners and very moral people (at least outwardly), we will begin to see the utter futility of most preaching today. The hearts of men are not stripped to sheer nakedness and people do not see the horror of their inability and so they keep striving in their own strength. Some who strive in their own strength are the modern Reformed people who are really Arminians in a different dress (using differing words). The modern Reformed and the Arminian can get along because they are basically preaching the same thing. The glorious doctrines of free-grace, however, will bring the wrath of the Arminian and the modern Reformed. The same thing (in a sense) happened in both the Old Testament, the New Testament, and the Reformation. Oh to hear the glorious Savior spoken of in the Divine language of free-grace alone!

Nothing in man doth precede or prevent the grace of God. The light and beams of grace do dispel the clouds of our sins. Not for our sakes, but for his Name’s sake he covereth our sins. It is God’s prerogative to free us from sin by grace, and to remove them far from us. “As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.” {Ps.103:12} He only can remove sin against whom it is committed. He only can cast sin into the depths of the sea, who hath an ocean of grace in himself, in which he swalloweth them up. John Simpson {Perfection of Justification, 1648} Obtained from Supralapsarian.com

Acts 2:36 “Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ– this Jesus whom you crucified.” 37 Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brethren, what shall we do?” 38 Peter said to them, “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 “For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself.” 40 And with many other words he solemnly testified and kept on exhorting them, saying, “Be saved from this perverse generation!” 41 So then, those who had received his word were baptized; and that day there were added about three thousand souls.

It is easy for people to get tripped up by this passage since it says that a person is to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and one then one receives the Holy Spirit. This passage is interpreted to say that one is to turn from his sin and be baptized so that he will be forgiven and so that he will receive the Holy Spirit. This can be looked at a couple of ways from the text, but it can also be looked at in light of theology and free grace. If one is baptized and on that basis forgiven for sins, then salvation is contingent on baptism rather than free (uncaused) grace. If one is given the Holy Spirit because one is baptized, then one does not receive the Holy Spirit as a gift of free grace but as a result of being baptized.

One can also look at the text itself in a few ways. One, the KJV puts it this way: “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.” This translation puts a comma after repent and as such repent and believe are considered the same thing, and so one is baptized after repentance and faith. Two, when one looks at the word “for” in its context, it is no stretch to use the phrase “on account of.” This would give the idea that people are baptized on account of the forgiveness of sin. People can argue about when a person received the Holy Spirit as a gift and when one receives the Holy Spirit now. The point is that the text itself does not demand that one believe that baptism leads to the forgiveness of sin.

What would be the theological issues if we are baptized in order to be forgiven? It would utterly overthrow the teaching of Scripture that God shows mercy to whom He will show mercy and is gracious to whom He will be gracious. Instead of the sovereignty of God in showing free grace to sinners quite apart from anything they are and anything they can do, this text could then be used to show that something does precede grace. However, when a text does not command a meaning, we should interpret it in light of the clear and obvious teachings of the rest of Scripture. Romans 3:24 (being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus) is quite clear that there are no acts and no works that a man can do that precede grace. This gift of grace points to the fact that nothing can come as a cause of His grace but Christ. The justification of sinners is not moved by the baptism of sinners, but it is moved by the love of God from eternity past and is given to them completely through the redeeming work of Jesus Christ.

We must be absolutely clear on this point. The promises of verse 38 are not because sinners decide of their own will to be baptized, but the promises of God come to those He draws to Himself. God does not promise the benefits of the Gospel to those who are willing to be baptized, but He promises His grace to those He draws to Himself by grace. It is only when God shows grace to those He draws to Himself that the Gospel is by grace alone. It is only when God shows grace to those He draws to Himself that the Gospel is by Christ alone. Romans 4:16 tells us that faith receives grace, but it does not tell us that faith earns grace or makes it more conducive for a person to receive grace. Faith is also not expressed in baptism and as such our sins are forgiven by baptism or by faith, but instead our sins are forgiven by the grace of God alone. Baptism does not precede grace because nothing precedes grace. As in the context, God draws sinners to Himself and grants them the promises. They do not bring themselves. It is free grace along that brings them.

Nothing in man doth precede or prevent the grace of God. The light and beams of grace do dispel the clouds of our sins. Not for our sakes, but for his Name’s sake he covereth our sins. It is God’s prerogative to free us from sin by grace, and to remove them far from us. “As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.” {Ps.103:12} He only can remove sin against whom it is committed. He only can cast sin into the depths of the sea, who hath an ocean of grace in himself, in which he swalloweth them up. John Simpson {Perfection of Justification, 1648} Obtained from Supralapsarian.com

Acts 2:36 “Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ– this Jesus whom you crucified.” 37 Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brethren, what shall we do?” 38 Peter said to them, “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 “For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself.” 40 And with many other words he solemnly testified and kept on exhorting them, saying, “Be saved from this perverse generation!” 41 So then, those who had received his word were baptized; and that day there were added about three thousand souls.

Behold the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. While the religious world is panting after John 3:16 as the greatest verse on the subject of salvation, though indeed they are looking at an idolatrous view of the text, the glory of God shines forth in the freeness of His grace rather than in His looking for something a human heart can do so that He can respond to it in salvation. We are told in this text and the context as well that salvation is the work of a sovereign God. In this we must bow to His sovereign grace, which is the only kind of grace there is.

Acts 2:22 “Men of Israel, listen to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through Him in your midst, just as you yourselves know– 23 this Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death. 24 “But God raised Him up again, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for Him to be held in its power.

In Acts 2:36 we are told that God has made Jesus both Lord and Christ (Messiah, the Anointed One). When the living God made Jesus Lord, that meant that He was indeed Lord. Peter then told them that it was that Jesus that they had crucified. One aspect of the glory of this is that this shows that God Himself is an ocean of grace and needs nothing but Himself as a motive to show grace to sinners, but another aspect shows the sovereignty of this grace in a different way. Yes, it was the Jews who put Jesus to death on the cross. But it was God Himself who delivered Him over by His predetermined plan and foreknowledge. It was by God’s predetermined plan, then, for these wicked men to put Christ to death by the cross.

But we should stand back in utter astonishment as we behold the glory of God and the utter freeness of His grace. God has known all things from eternity because all things happen according to His plan. In accordance with that plan He sent His Beloved Son to be rejected and then crucified by sinful men, but in the carrying out of that wicked plan the salvation of sinners was accomplished. For the Father to send the Son to suffer and die for angels would be beyond our comprehension. For the Father to send the Son to suffer and die for a man who had sinned only one time (if one could be found) would be an amazing thing, as indeed one sin is enough to make one worthy of eternal flames. But the Father sent His Son for vile sinners who hated His Beloved Son and longed to kill Him for a long time before they did. The Father sent His Son for those who rejected Him who was love incarnate.

Beholding the freeness of the grace of God for those who had crucified His Beloved Son should be of great comfort for the greatest of sinners. For God so loved His elect people that He sent His Son to be mocked, tortured, and crucified so that they would not perish, but instead have eternal life. Behold the freeness of grace to the worst of sinners and the power of grace to those without any strength. It is by grace alone that Christ died for sinners and took the wrath of the Father upon Himself and fully satisfied perfect justice because of who He is. It is by grace alone that Christ has purchased eternal life for sinners by free grace and applies it by free grace as well. Where is the man who will boast in light of that? Where is the man who can have pride in self after that? Where is the man who will take credit for anything good coming from himself in light of that? Oh sinner, behold the glory of free grace and know that you need nothing but Christ and free grace in Him.

Nothing in man doth precede or prevent the grace of God. The light and beams of grace do dispel the clouds of our sins. Not for our sakes, but for his Name’s sake he covereth our sins. It is God’s prerogative to free us from sin by grace, and to remove them far from us. “As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.” {Ps.103:12} He only can remove sin against whom it is committed. He only can cast sin into the depths of the sea, who hath an ocean of grace in himself, in which he swalloweth them up. John Simpson {Perfection of Justification, 1648} Obtained from Supralapsarian.com

Acts 2:36 “Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ– this Jesus whom you crucified.” 37 Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brethren, what shall we do?” 38 Peter said to them, “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 “For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself.” 40 And with many other words he solemnly testified and kept on exhorting them, saying, “Be saved from this perverse generation!” 41 So then, those who had received his word were baptized; and that day there were added about three thousand souls.

In looking at Acts 2 we see that about three thousand souls were converted in one day. What was it that moved God to save them? Those who were converted were the Jews who had called for Jesus to be crucified. Peter spoke to them quite specifically and told them that they had crucified Jesus. In hearing this, they were pierced to the heart as only the Spirit can pierce in His work of conviction. This is quite an amazing text in that we can see what preceded saving grace (in one sense) in the conversion of these people.

We have to go back to the Gospels and see what these people did. When Pilate offered to turn Jesus loose, the people wanted Barabbas, who was a notorious criminal, turned loose instead of Jesus. It is true that they were “inspired” to this horrible crime by the religious leaders, but still they wanted a true criminal turned loose and Jesus (who had never sinned) put on the cross and suffer until He died. These were the hearts of the men and women that Christ saved.

While we are looking (in one sense) at what preceded grace in the context of men, in this context we can look at this in a different light as well. As the men and women were yelling to crucify Christ, some of them were on the heart of Christ and He died for them. Some that mocked Him while on the cross were saved by His work on that same cross. Some who laughed at Him and wished Him ill on that cross were pitied by Him as He wished the best for their soul and then accomplished what was best for their soul. It was grace that preceded grace rather than something good that could be found in men. We can find no good reason for God to show men grace as found in themselves, but we can find a very good reason that some men find grace. It is because that grace was purchased for them by Christ when they were clearly and obviously His enemies and they hated Him thoroughly.

It was grace that sought men out and it was grace that convicted them and gave them ears to hear. There was nothing in man that would move him to seek grace, but instead only grace can precede grace or the Gospel is not of grace alone. The promise of the Gospel is for helpless sinners who can do nothing to help themselves, while so many teach that the Gospel is for those who will help themselves by some act or actions. Oh no, the Gospel of grace alone knows of nothing that can precede saving grace but grace. If Christ did not purchase grace for sinners who were totally and completely unworthy of it and could do absolutely nothing to obtain it, then the cross of Christ is not all that saves sinners.

As we look at those who were saved on the Day of Pentecost, it should remind us of the Gospel of grace alone. There were people there who crucified Christ and surely nothing preceded grace in their case, but of course we must remember that if anyone else could be saved Christ had to die for them and so they put Christ on the cross as well. We must also remember that before we were converted there was nothing in our hearts but enmity toward the true God. Grace preceded grace and nothing in us preceded grace nor could it possibly precede grace or grace would no longer be grace. Behold the glory of the grace of God in its freeness to helpless sinners.

Nothing in man doth precede or prevent the grace of God. The light and beams of grace do dispel the clouds of our sins. Not for our sakes, but for his Name’s sake he covereth our sins. It is God’s prerogative to free us from sin by grace, and to remove them far from us. “As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.” {Ps.103:12} He only can remove sin against whom it is committed. He only can cast sin into the depths of the sea, who hath an ocean of grace in himself, in which he swalloweth them up. John Simpson {Perfection of Justification, 1648} Obtained from Supralapsarian.com.
Acts 9:1 Now Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest, 2 and asked for letters from him to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, both men and women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. 3 As he was traveling, it happened that he was approaching Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him; 4 and he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” 5 And he said, “Who are You, Lord?” And He said, “I am Jesus whom you are persecuting,

Phi 3:4 although I myself might have confidence even in the flesh. If anyone else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh, I far more: 5 circumcised the eighth day, of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the Law, a Pharisee; 6 as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to the righteousness which is in the Law, found blameless.

The conversion of Saul (later Paul) is a great lesson to all who will think through it. In this great teaching we can easily see that there was nothing in Saul that preceded the grace of God. There was absolutely nothing in Saul that would move a thrice holy God to save a wretch like Saul and the only thing that could possibly move God to save a wretch like Saul was God Himself. Only God could move God to save Saul. There was also nothing that could prevent God from saving Saul if He so desired. The sin of Saul could not prevent God from saving Saul if Christ died for that sin and purchased a new heart for him. The unbelief of Saul was nothing that the resurrection power of Christ could not overcome.

We see in Saul absolutely nothing but a man who was proud in his own zeal and self-righteousness. We see in Saul an unbridled confidence in his flesh in terms of his bloodline and lineage. We see in Saul that all the proper rites had been done and he trusted in that as well. We see in Saul that he was a man who trusted that he was righteousness and even blameless according to the Law. We see in Saul that he was a man who persecuted the church and in doing so he was proud of his zeal for God and the orthodox religion he thought he had. This highly educated man was so zealous to keep the Law and protect his religion. This highly educated man had such zeal for the Law and the honor of God, yet in the eyes of God this man was a vile and wretched man who hated God. Saul spent his days hated and being hated by men (Titus 3:3) and his zeal was fueled and stoked by enmity toward the true God and the true Gospel.

In the conversion of Saul we can almost hear a “behold your God” to all who read about this conversion. We can see that Saul was reached with some truth in the murder of Stephen who stood firm and preached the Gospel as Saul was there. We can see that Saul was knocked to the ground by a God who had decided to convert this man for His own glory and not because of anything in Saul. God saved Saul be a free and sovereign grace because Saul was set against the Gospel with all of his will. He had no free-will in relation to the true and living God. It was the will of God that was set to save Saul by a free-grace and a sovereign grace. This conversion was indeed all to the glory of His grace and there was nothing in Saul that shared in the glory and beauty of God. The conversion of Saul was a glorious event in which grace shone brighter than the light which knocked Saul off of his donkey and make him bow to the true Lord. The living God had set His sights and intents upon Saul from all eternity and God was going to save that man and there was nothing that could prevent it, even Saul himself. God will be gracious to whom He will be gracious and He was gracious to Saul as He pleased. In other words, nothing preceded the grace of God in order to save Saul and nothing could prevent it. It was all for His glory and only His.

Nothing in man doth precede or prevent the grace of God. The light and beams of grace do dispel the clouds of our sins. Not for our sakes, but for his Name’s sake he covereth our sins. It is God’s prerogative to free us from sin by grace, and to remove them far from us. “As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.” {Ps.103:12} He only can remove sin against whom it is committed. He only can cast sin into the depths of the sea, who hath an ocean of grace in himself, in which he swalloweth them up. John Simpson {Perfection of Justification, 1648} Obtained from Supralapsarian.com
Isaiah 40:17 All the nations are as nothing before Him, They are regarded by Him as less than nothing and meaningless.

Acts 9:1 Now Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest, 2 and asked for letters from him to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, both men and women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. 3 As he was traveling, it happened that he was approaching Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him; 4 and he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” 5 And he said, “Who are You, Lord?” And He said, “I am Jesus whom you are persecuting,

The conversion of Saul is very instructive if the issue is pressed upon our souls. Why did God regenerate Saul? Was it because of anything good in Saul? Was it because of the religion of Saul? Was it because Saul was so very zealous for God as a Pharisee? Was it because Saul was born a Jew or of the right parents? Was it because Saul was blameless according to the Law? Was it because Saul was so educated in a religious system? Was it because Saul knew the Old Testament so well?

As we think on these things it may come to mind how Paul (formerly Saul) answered all of these questions in his epistles. But if God did not regenerate Saul because of those things, then He will not be moved to regenerate sinners in our day for similar things either. We must not think that Paul wrote about the Gospel and gave reasons why he was not saved and yet think we are okay for the same reasons that Paul was clearly not saved on account of. We must read Paul as the sent one of Christ, yes, but also as one who was converted and knew the things that he was not converted on account of.

Phi 3:4 although I myself might have confidence even in the flesh. If anyone else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh, I far more: 5 circumcised the eighth day, of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the Law, a Pharisee; 6 as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to the righteousness which is in the Law, found blameless.

Saul had reason to be confident in the flesh more than anyone alive today. He said that he had far more reason for confidence in the flesh than those in his own day, so we can make the deduction that he would have even more reason to have more confidence than people today. If Saul and then Paul realized that he had nothing that could precede the grace of God, then no one has any reason to find hope that God will find a reason in them to move Him to show them grace. This is not simply a theological game for people to play; this is deadly serious and is eternally serious. All those who think that they can find something in them that will move God to show grace to them are not looking to grace alone and Christ alone for salvation.

The conversion of Saul should stand as a monument and a sign to all who think that they understand the Gospel. It should boom with a great and loud noise that no sinner has anything in him or her that will move God to save him or her. God saves by grace alone and for no other reason. God saves according to Himself and for no other reason. Yet while this is a warning to those who look for something in themselves to move God, this is also great hope for those who see nothing in themselves. Those who see nothing in themselves are those who should hope because they have eyes that have been illuminated by the Spirit. Oh poor and trembling sinner, Christ does not look to you for anything to save you, He only looks to Himself to save you. He is all a sinner must have. Nothing else.

Nothing in man doth precede or prevent the grace of God. The light and beams of grace do dispel the clouds of our sins. Not for our sakes, but for his Name’s sake he covereth our sins. It is God’s prerogative to free us from sin by grace, and to remove them far from us. “As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.” {Ps.103:12} He only can remove sin against whom it is committed. He only can cast sin into the depths of the sea, who hath an ocean of grace in himself, in which he swalloweth them up. John Simpson {Perfection of Justification, 1648} Obtained from Supralapsarian.com
Isaiah 40:17 All the nations are as nothing before Him, They are regarded by Him as less than nothing and meaningless.

Acts 9:1 Now Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest, 2 and asked for letters from him to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, both men and women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. 3 As he was traveling, it happened that he was approaching Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him; 4 and he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” 5 And he said, “Who are You, Lord?” And He said, “I am Jesus whom you are persecuting,

In looking at the conversion of Saul (became Paul) we see the glory of free-grace and in doing so we see the only hope for sinners. The conversion story of Saul not only gives hope to unconverted sinners, it gives hope to converted sinners who have had their eyes opened to their sin and see themselves as so sinful that they have lost hope and mourn that they are without Christ. The conversion story of Saul should give hope to those who see nothing in themselves that would make them worthy of the least mercy of God and cannot see anything in themselves that makes them think that they are saved. Saul, who was later the apostle Paul, called himself the chief of sinners and said that he was shown mercy as the foremost of sinners so that the perfect patience of Christ would be seen in him as an example for those who would believe in Him for eternal life (I Timothy 1:15-16).

What merits did Saul obtain before he was converted? He was a very religious man, but in that he was persecuting Christ he was a very vile and wicked man. Saul was persecuting Christ by going after the body of Christ (the Church, the people of God) and killing some and putting others in prison. Saul was righteous in the eyes of men and in the eyes of very religious men, but in the eyes of God he was an unregenerate hater of God who was persecuting Christ. Saul had no merit in the eyes of God and there was nothing in him that would move God to save him based on himself.

But surely, some would argue, that is going too far. Saul was a very religious man and followed the law stringently. Surely there was something in Saul that would have moved God to save him. Well, by nature Saul was a child of wrath. He was born dead in trespasses and sins and he was a child of the devil. All of the intents of his heart was wicked and that continually. All of his religion, therefore, was really a way of suppressing the truth of God in unrighteousness and so all of the religion of Paul was done in service of the idol of self rather than the living God. But again, what would have moved God to have saved a wretch like Paul?

As stated in the paragraph at the top, “He only can cast sin into the depths of the sea, who hath an ocean of grace in himself, in which he swalloweth them up.” God saved Paul on the only basis that a sinner can be saved and that is the basis of Himself. God covers our sins by the blood of Christ and clothes us in the perfectly white linen robes of the righteousness of Christ for His own name’s sake. Here is the ground of confidence that we have before the living God. We are not saved because of our righteousness or merit, and we are not kept in His hands by our own works or goodness. We are saved by the free-grace of God which means that God saves sinners based on Himself and His own glory rather than anything found in the sinner. Oh here is hope for poor sinners. Here is hope for sinners who find nothing in themselves to hope in. Here is hope for sinners who see no merit and no righteousness in themselves. The hope is that God does not save them or keep them saved because of anything found in themselves, but because of His own glory. Sinners, look to Christ and to Christ alone for grace and by grace.

Nothing in man doth precede or prevent the grace of God. The light and beams of grace do dispel the clouds of our sins. Not for our sakes, but for his Name’s sake he covereth our sins. It is God’s prerogative to free us from sin by grace, and to remove them far from us. “As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.” {Ps.103:12} He only can remove sin against whom it is committed. He only can cast sin into the depths of the sea, who hath an ocean of grace in himself, in which he swalloweth them up. John Simpson {Perfection of Justification, 1648} Obtained from Supralapsarian.com
Isaiah 40:17 All the nations are as nothing before Him, They are regarded by Him as less than nothing and meaningless.

The vastness of God and the fullness of God are in stark contrast with the smallness and emptiness of man. The sin of man is directly against God which means that the sin of man is far greater than he can imagine. God created man holy and good, yet man has fallen into unholiness and evil. God created the soul with light and beauty, yet man fell and the soul became darkness and deformed. The soul of man is now deformed both morally and intellectually, though the two are so related that one cannot be deformed in one without being deformed in the other.

The fall and sin has taken the soul as it came from the hand of God and has changed it to where it is thought of in terms of physical maladies and diseases. The soul is said to be crippled, by which it refers to its utter inability to do what it was created to do much as a person which is struck down with some malady cannot walk as the body was created to do. The soul is said to be diseased when it is full of sin which makes its comparison to leprosy and other diseases of the body. A diseased body in the Old Testament meant that one was unclean, as then as now a person can have diseases of the soul which makes it unclean to be in the presence of God. As with leprosy, sin is contagious and has terrible effects on others and can be passed on to them with terrible results.

The fallen soul is pictured as having problems much as the body has with its senses when diseases take over. The soul is said to be blind. The soul is said to be deaf and cannot hear. The soul is said to be in such a state that its odor is like that of an open grace. The soul is said to have tastes that are foul. The soul is said to be apart from God and cannot sense His presence. What we must understand by all of these pictures is that the soul has nothing in it that can precede grace. There is nothing in the soul that is anything but against God and is fighting God with enmity and hatred. The soul has absolutely and utterly nothing in it but what would repel a holy God.

So we are left with a being that is beneath nothing, which is to say that it has sinned and it is worse than nothing. It is not at level zero which is to have done nothing good or bad, but instead the soul is by nature worthy of the wrath and anger of God and even more the soul is sinning against God in all that it is, thinks, desires, or does. All the motivations of the soul are not out of love for God but are out of love for self. All the intentions of the soul are for self rather than love for God. There is not only nothing good in the soul, but there is nothing but sin in the soul. The soul, once again, has nothing that would move God to save it, but even more it has done nothing but sin against the God with enmity and hatred in all it does.

The soul is left in the hands of Divine grace. There is nothing in the soul that would move a holy, holy, holy God to save it, but instead the sinfulness of the soul is repulsive to such a thrice holy Being. Yet the statement above is that nothing can prevent the grace of God. Oh how this is good news to vile sinners who see themselves as what they really are. They know that their wills are not free from depravity and they don’t want to be free from grace. They look to Christ alone who can save them despite of who they are. Because God saves sinners for the sake of His own name and out of love for Himself He can save sinners and nothing can prevent His saving sinners if He is pleased to do so. The motivations and intents of God are perfectly pure and holy, so it must be His own glory and name that moves Him. But when He is moved by Himself to save sinners, there is nothing that can hold Him back or prevent Him. Oh poor sinner, look to Christ as your all. If you look to self you will see nothing that would motivate God to save or sanctify you. Look to Christ and you will see Him who for His name’s sake alone can move God to save you and sanctify you. Oh what hope there is for sinners who die to self and simply look to Christ by grace alone and for grace alone.

Nothing in man doth precede or prevent the grace of God. The light and beams of grace do dispel the clouds of our sins. Not for our sakes, but for his Name’s sake he covereth our sins. It is God’s prerogative to free us from sin by grace, and to remove them far from us. “As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.” {Ps.103:12} He only can remove sin against whom it is committed. He only can cast sin into the depths of the sea, who hath an ocean of grace in himself, in which he swalloweth them up. John Simpson {Perfection of Justification, 1648} Obtained from Supralapsarian.com
Isaiah 40:17 All the nations are as nothing before Him, They are regarded by Him as less than nothing and meaningless.

The comfort that a poor sinner comes to when s/he arrives at the utter end of all trust in the worth of self and the merits that self can possibly obtain is beyond measure. Until sinners arrive at that utter end of all trust in self sinners will trust in themselves to some measure or degree. The heart of man is in a constant war to trust in self to some degree or even just a little bit, but note that the heart of man knows that it must not trust in self for all. But how deceptive it is for man to think that he must trust in self just a little, though indeed that is not how the heart would lie to self about it, but when a person trusts in self just a little a person is trusting in self as the trigger of the whole event.

The heart of man is constantly clinging to something or someone to obtain the slightest bit of something that will move God to save him. This is part of the horror of Arminian theology. It tells men that it is up to them to make a choice, pray a prayer, or to do something so that God will save them. This is what is so repulsive to those who strongly protest Arminian theology and practice. “Nothing in man doth precede or prevent the grace of God” is the statement of theology on which grace alone rests. God does not look to man for anything to move Him to show grace. There is nothing in man that precedes grace but sin and that is nothing to move God in a positive way. The Arminian doctrine of free-will teaches us that the will is free of depravity and of grace enough to where the will is free. That means that there is something in man that precedes grace. As long as it is taught that there is something in man that man needs to do in order to receive grace, that teaching is not biblical and denies grace alone.

When the Scriptures teach that “All the nations are as nothing before Him, They are regarded by Him as less than nothing and meaningless,” this destroys the hope of any sinner to find something in self that precedes grace. If all the nations are regarded by Him as less than nothing, then not only is there nothing to be found in any single sinner that is pleasing to God or will move God, but there are things that are less than nothing that are found. The sinner must be broken from any hope or trust in himself by the teaching ministry of Christ that he may look to Christ alone for His grace alone. The sinner cannot look to Christ alone if the sinner looks to himself to make a choice or to pray a prayer in order to move God to save him or her. Until the sinner sees self as nothing and even less than nothing, the sinner will always be looking to self for something.

The Scriptures are remarkable clear on this subject though man has muddied the waters. God saves for His name’s sake alone and there is nothing in man that can move Him since He is only self-moved. As long as man is trusting in self for even some little something, then man is not trusting in God to save himself in accordance with God’s grace alone or salvation for the sake of God’s name and glory alone. Unregenerate man has sinned against God by having a nature that is opposed to God and is at enmity with God as well as his deeds are opposed to God in every way. Even if man had never sinned, God would not owe man anything as man can never bring God to a point where God is obligated to man. Even apart from sin, could man ever have done anything good apart from receiving it first from God? So at his best man was utterly dependant upon God for all good that he would do. But now that man has sinned, man is less than nothing since nothing has never had a being to sin. Being a sinner is far worse than man can realize at any point, but the unbeliever’s sin is upon him and blinds him as well. Oh how sinners should give up all hope in themselves, their merits, and their worth. They will only be saved by grace alone and that for the sake of His name alone. Looking to themselves for any part of that is a terrible pride and is greatly opposed to the Gospel of grace alone. Nothing can possibly precede the grace of God.