By C.H Spurgeon
It is a great mercy to begin the Christian life grounded in solid and biblical doctrine. Many people have accepted one “gospel” after another—twenty different messages in as many years—and it is hard to say how many more they will receive before they reach the end of their journey. I thank God that He taught me the gospel early. I have been fully satisfied with it ever since, and I have no desire to know another. Constant change in creed is certain loss. A tree that is uprooted several times a year will never bear much fruit. Likewise, those who continually shift their doctrinal foundations will not produce much fruit for the glory of God.
Young believers especially should take firm hold of the great and fundamental doctrines taught in Scripture. If I believed the kind of temporary, fragile salvation that some preach—a salvation that can be lost—I would scarcely be grateful for it. But when I know that those whom God saves, He saves with an everlasting salvation; when I know that He clothes them with an everlasting righteousness, establishes them upon an everlasting foundation of love, and brings them into His everlasting kingdom—then I marvel. I am astonished that such a blessing should ever have been given to me.
Pause,
my soul! adore and wonder;
Ask, “Oh why such love to
me?”
Grace hath put me in the number
Of the Saviour’s
family.
Hallelujah!
Thanks, eternal thanks, to Thee!
Some minds naturally lean toward the doctrine of free will. Mine inclines, just as naturally, toward the doctrines of sovereign grace. When I look upon some of the most hardened sinners, I am overwhelmed with gratitude that God restrained me. Had He left me to myself, I would have plunged into the deepest depths of sin. There is no vice I would not have embraced, no folly I would not have pursued, had God not intervened. I would have been a king among sinners.
I can find no explanation for my salvation except this: God willed it. I cannot discover any reason within myself why I should be a recipient of divine grace. If I am in Christ today, it is because Christ determined to have me with Him—to share His glory. The crown belongs nowhere else but on the head of Him whose mighty grace rescued me from destruction.
Looking back, I see clearly that the beginning of my spiritual life was entirely of God. I did not light the sun; the sun enlightened me. I did not begin my spiritual life—I resisted it. I struggled against the things of the Spirit. Warnings were ignored, thunders despised, and the gentle whispers of love rejected. Yet now I can say with full conviction, “He only is my salvation.” He turned my heart. He brought me to my knees.
Grace
taught my soul to pray,
And made my eyes o’erflow;
’Tis
grace has kept me to this day,
And will not let me go.
I remember distinctly the moment when the doctrines of grace opened to my soul. Like all men by nature, I was an Arminian. I thought I came to Christ by my own efforts, never realizing that He was seeking me first. Then one evening, the thought struck me: How did you come to seek the Lord? And in an instant, I saw it—if God had not worked in me first, I would never have sought Him at all. From that moment, I have never departed from this confession: my salvation is wholly of God.
We must all admit God’s providence in the circumstances of our birth. We did not choose our parents, our nation, or our upbringing. God appointed them all. He could have placed us in darkness, ignorance, or paganism—but He did not. This alone testifies to sovereign grace.
As John Newton once said, “The Lord must have loved me before I was born, for He could not have found anything in me afterward to love.” I believe the doctrine of election because I am certain that if God had not chosen me, I would never have chosen Him. His choice was not based on anything foreseen in me, but upon His own gracious will.
Before the foundation of the world—before space, time, or angels existed—God loved His people. Their names were written on His heart. Christ loved His own from eternity, and in time He purchased them with His blood. He did not die because I believed; I believed because He died.
Faith itself is a gift of God, wrought by the Holy Spirit. I have never met a believer who could truly say that he believed apart from divine grace.
I am bound to the doctrine of human depravity because I find it written in my own heart. Salvation, from beginning to end, is entirely of grace. As one text beautifully summarizes: “Salvation is of the Lord.” That is the essence of the gospel.
Any system that adds human merit to Christ’s finished work undermines the gospel. Any doctrine that allows a believer to fall finally from grace destroys all assurance. If one saint could be lost, then all could be lost—and God’s promises would fail. But God does not change. His purposes stand forever.
My
name from the palms of His hands
Eternity will not erase.
I cannot imagine how those who deny the perseverance of the saints find comfort. Without it, joy collapses into fear. True happiness rests in trusting God’s promises as they stand. Heaven, earth, and hell together cannot produce a single witness against the faithfulness of God.
Christ’s atonement possesses infinite merit. Its value is limitless, though its application is according to divine purpose. The blood of Christ is an ocean without shore or bottom. God’s redeemed will be an innumerable multitude, and Christ will have the preeminence. His kingdom will triumph.
These doctrines do not lead to sin—they are the greatest safeguard against it. The holiest men in history believed them. Grace produces gratitude, and gratitude produces holiness. Error leads to corruption, but truth leads to godliness.
Those who know they are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, live not carelessly—but thankfully, reverently, and obediently.