|
Every man is born a Pharisee?
The following is from Spurgeon's sermon,
"Grace- the One Way of Salvation" No. 765.
"We believe that it is through the grace of our
Lord Jesus Christ that we are saved." Acts 15:11.
The creed of the world is, "Do your best,
and it will be all right with you." To question
this is treason against the pride of human
nature, which evermore clings to salvation
by its own merits.
Every man is born a Pharisee!
"What," says a man, "do you not believe that
if a man does his best, he will fare well in the
next world? Why, you know, we must all live
as well as we can, every man according to his
own light; and if every man follows out his own
conscience, as near as may be, surely it will be
well with us."
The apostle did not believe in self-righteousness.
"We believe that it is through the grace of our
Lord Jesus Christ that we are saved." Acts 15:11.
Salvation is not through our good works, not
through anything that we do, not by the merit
of anything which we feel or perform, but by
grace, that is to say, by the free favor of God.
We believe that if we are ever saved at all, we
must be saved 'gratis' -saved as the gratuitous
act of a bountiful God- saved by a gift, not by
wages- saved by God's love, not by our own
doings or merits.
This is the apostle's creed- salvation is all of
grace from first to last, and the channel of that
grace is the Lord Jesus Christ, who loved, and
lived, and died, and rose again for our salvation.
He takes the crown from off the head of man in
all respects, and gives all glory to the grace of
God. He extols God, the gracious sovereign, who
will have mercy upon whom he will have mercy,
and who will have compassion upon whom he
will have compassion.
Not by ritualism, not by good works, not by our
own unaided free will are we saved, but by the
grace of God alone!
Those who preach mere morality, or set up any
way except that of trusting in the grace of God
through Christ Jesus, preach another gospel,
and they shall be accursed, even though they
preach it with an angel's eloquence!
|