When the Saviour appeared among men, it was not as one lifted up from the ranks to procure station for Himself, but as one who descended from the heavens to convey blessings to the people. The ignorant and the illiterate find in Him their best friend. He is no stern law-giver, who, wrapped up in His own integrity, looks upon the transgressor with the eye of justice; neither is He simply the bold enunciator of penalty and punishment, nor the pitiless denouncer of crime and iniquity. He is the gentle lover of our souls; the good Shepherd coming forth, not so much to slay the wolf, as to save the sheep. As the nurse tenderly watches over her child, so He watches for the souls of men; and like as a father pitieth his children, so does Jesus pity poor sinners. It is not so much drawing sinners up to Him, as coming down to them; not standing on the mountain-top and bidding them ascend, but coming down from the mountain, and mingling in social intercourse with them; coming down from the high pastures after His sheep in the glens, and in the ravines, that He may lay hold of them, lift them on His mighty shoulders, and bear them up to the place where He shall fold them in purity, bless them with all grace, and preserve them unto future glory.
All of Grace.
God's people, after they are called by grace, are preserved in Christ Jesus; they are "kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation;" they are not suffered to sin away their eternal inheritance, but as temptations arise, they have strength given with which to encounter them; and as sin defiles them, they are washed afresh, and again cleansed. But mark, the reason why God keeps His people, is the same as that which made them His people—His own free, sovereign grace. If you have been delivered in the hour of temptation, pause and remember that you were not delivered for your own sake. There was nothing in you which deserved the deliverance. If you have been fed and supplied in your hour of need, it is not because you have been a faithful servant of God, or because you have been a prayerful Christian; it is simply and only because of God's mercy. He is not moved to anything He does for you by anything which you do for Him; His motive for blessing you lies wholly and entirely in the depths of His own bosom. Blessed be God, His people shall be kept.
"Nor death nor hell shall e'er remove
His favorites from His breast;
In the dear bosom of His love
They must forever rest."
But why? Because they are holy? Because they are sanctified? Because they serve God with good works? No, but because He, in His sovereign grace, has loved them, does love them, and will love them to the end. Thus, salvation from first to last is all of grace. Then how humble a Christian ought to be! We have nothing whatever to do with our salvation; God has done it all. It is mercy undeserved which we have received. It is His boundless, fathomless love which has led Him to save us; and it is the same love and mercy which upholds us now. To Him be glory!