Pure grace.

It is of grace. It is not of works.

The apostle speaks of a remnant preserved according to the election of grace, so election is of grace and not of works. He speaks of that remnant as they knew God and in the face of death did not bow to Baal, so salvation is by grace and not of works. The apostle speaks of that remnant as preserved in those perilous times, so preservation is by grace and not of works.

Election by pure grace.

Enjoyment of God as our God by pure grace.

Preservation by pure grace.

Heaven by pure grace.

Salvation by pure grace.

So much are salvation and grace to be identified that the apostle simply calls salvation “grace.” Whatever you say of salvation, you say of grace. Whatever you say of grace, you say of salvation. Salvation is by pure grace. Salvation is pure grace.

Grace does not enable you to be saved. Grace does not enable you to do what you must do to be saved. Grace does not enable you to be active, so that by your activity of doing what is called for or is required, you are saved as a consequence. Grace does not bring salvation very near to you and leave it within your power whether you will be saved. Grace does not give to you only part of salvation and leave a part for you to accomplish. 

Grace brings salvation into your possession and grants to you all of salvation. As soon as you have grace, you have salvation. Grace saves. Grace is salvation.

Perhaps, it is especially preservation by pure grace that is on the forefront in Romans 11:6. All the day long God stretched forth his hands to a disobedient and a gainsaying people! To them he sent the prophets, rising up early and sitting up late and testifying against them. God sent to them many preachers. By that means he gave to them the gospel in its purest and most glorious expression. Some of the prophets the people killed. Other prophets they neglected, tortured, imprisoned, and ridiculed. The people pressed their prophets out of measure until they interceded against Israel! A nation wholly backslidden and apostate. Many in Israel were exposed in their unbelief. And unbelieving and carnal to the core, they were hardened and cut off under the preaching of the gospel. Before long the entire nation was carried away into captivity. Yet God’s people were not cut off. For there was always a remnant according to the election of grace.

Pure grace.

This was true of national Israel during the time of Elijah the prophet. Israel appeared wholly apostate. An inconceivably wicked queen stirred up her equally evil husband to commit unthinkable iniquity. The prophets of God were hunted like animals! The people of God were slaughtered like beasts! Baal was called the God of the covenant! The temple of Baal was the temple of the nation!

The elect church of God disappeared during those perilous times, hidden in caves and dens of the earth and fed surreptitiously by the faithful in high places. Even Elijah fled, and at Mount Sinai he made intercession against Israel: “Lord, they have killed thy prophets and thrown down thine altars; and I am left alone, and they seek my life.”

But what did God say? “I have reserved to myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal.”

Preserved by pure grace.

Saved by pure grace.

Elected of pure grace.

Even so, during the time of the apostle Paul, there was a remnant according to the election of grace.

The apostate nation of Israel showed herself to be an enemy of the gospel and of her own Messiah. The Jews saw with their eyes the very Word of God, they heard him with their ears, and they handled him with their hands. Being ignorant of God’s righteousness, they went about to establish their own righteousness by obedience to the law of Moses. When their Messiah made their righteousness nothing but condemnation and told them that they could not come to him except his Father draw them, they murdered their Messiah. When he made salvation to be all of grace and not of works, they killed the holy and the just one.

Yet there was a remnant according to the election of grace! Was not Paul an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham and of the tribe of Benjamin? Although the whole nation of Israel was destroyed, God’s people were never destroyed.

Such is God’s way always, the way of pure grace.

We are then justified in making a general application for this present time and for all time. Although denominations and institutions perish; although many mighty and learned men perish in their opposition to the truth, and whole multitudes follow them to perdition, there is always a remnant preserved by pure grace. When the gospel goes out to the ends of the earth and is rejected of many, there is always a remnant saved by pure grace.

Elected of pure grace.

Saved by pure grace.

Preserved by pure grace.

God and heaven by pure grace.

Not of works!

These two—grace and works—are contrasted. The contrast is absolute. If salvation is of grace, then you may never attribute salvation to works; otherwise you deny grace. If salvation is of works, then you may never talk about grace; otherwise work is not work. It does not matter in what sense someone attributes salvation to works. If someone says that salvation is of works, then he may never talk about grace. If salvation is of grace, then salvation cannot be by works at all. Salvation by grace and salvation by works are antithetical. Salvation is either of pure grace alone, or salvation is all of works.

Especially forbidden is a toxic mingling of grace and works. Salvation is either of pure grace or of pure works. It is never of grace and works because then grace is no more grace, and work is no more work. If salvation is in the slightest of works, then it cannot in the slightest be by grace.

Grace and works?

No!

Grace or works.

They are antithetical.

Grace either brings salvation to you entirely, or you must labor for salvation entirely. Grace either gives to you salvation entirely and wholly apart from your works, or you must work for your salvation wholly and entirely apart from grace.

And concerning your works—any and all works—your works are determined for you and given unto you, so that they are fruits of salvation. Works gain and obtain no blessing of salvation. Either that, or you must earn your salvation wholly by your works. You either gain, obtain, receive, and are given your salvation by pure grace; or you gain, obtain, receive, merit, and are given your salvation by pure works. Either God gives you his blessing by pure grace; or you obey the law, and then you receive God’s blessing. Either God gives you his blessing wholly and completely apart from your law-keeping, or you receive his blessing for your law-keeping. Then also, the more you obey, the more blessings you receive; and if you fail in the least—if you are not perfect in all that you are and in all that you do—you must go to hell. Remember that: if your doctrine is that the more you obey, the more you are blessed, this is also true of you: if you fail in the least thing, you must certainly perish forever in hell.

Grace or works.

Absolute antithesis.

Grace is one thing.

Work is an entirely different and mutually exclusive thing.

By grace can never include by works. And by works can never include by grace.

Otherwise, grace is not grace, and works are not works.

Surely, there was work involved in your salvation. Work must be pure work to be work. Your salvation was by work. Grace and work cannot be mingled at this point either. Salvation was by pure work. Christ earned salvation. He established everlasting righteousness for his people on the perfect and unassailable foundation of his own obedience. Work was work for Christ Jesus. He finished his work. His is the only work that is necessary for salvation. His righteousness, holiness, and perfection imputed to his people. Perfect in God’s counsel. Perfect at the cross. Perfect to all eternity. Perfect work. Pure work. God did not spare his Son any punishment, and Christ Jesus spared no labor in order to accomplish the whole will and counsel of God for our redemption.

And now from heaven, as the living Lord, he works our salvation. The whole application of salvation is his work by his Holy Spirit. All his work to accomplish salvation was God’s work. All his work to apply salvation is God’s work. Oh, yes, pure work. His work! Not yours! How could someone say without being accused of the grossest blasphemy, “This is my activity, which is not God’s work”?

Salvation, given to us by pure grace. Salvation was appointed to us in the counsel of God, so that it was really ours in eternity. Salvation is given to us in our own hearts and minds and consciences and experiences, so that we taste that the Lord is good, partake of his grace, and enjoy his salvation. We are preserved in the enjoyment of that salvation unto heavenly glory among the assembly of the elect in life eternal.

By pure grace.

Not of works at all: not because of our works; not by our works; not in the way of our works. Salvation is not in the way of works.

The way of salvation is one of pure grace. But it is strange that when many speak of that way of salvation, they shout, “In the way of work!” Covenant fellowship on the basis of Christ’s obedience, by faith alone, and in the way of works is their mantra about their gospel. It is not gospel at all, and their mantra transgresses the fundamental law of Romans 11:6, which forbids the mingling of grace and work.

Understand now that salvation and covenant fellowship are the same. Covenant fellowship is not in the way of works. The experience of covenant fellowship is not in the way of works. In the way of works is an evil denial of the apostle’s antithesis and the Holy Spirit’s doctrine that the way of salvation is the way of pure grace. In the way of works, in the way of obedience, in the way of labor, and in the way of working are all synonymous.

These all must be cast from you as a poisonous snake that will bite you and whose venom will slowly but surely destroy your Reformed nerves until your Reformed heart stops beating, and your Reformed mind becomes numbed and eventually dies by the venom of in the way of obedience. Once bitten and without the antidote of pure grace, you will think that covenant fellowship is in the way of your works, until in the way of works destroys all the gospel truth of salvation by pure grace. Once the venom sets in, you cannot conceive of, you cannot stand to hear preached, and you cannot stand to read grace without works. Grace without works angers you, and you will fight against it and blaspheme it as the lie of antinomianism. Then, that venom of in the way of works has destroyed your Reformed sensibility and taken your spiritual life. In the way of obedience is a deadly injection.

It is venom injected by vipers. And those vipers are ministers who cannot themselves stand to hear, to read, to preach, and to write about grace without works. They blaspheme it as antinomian and show that they themselves have never tasted the sweetness of the gospel.

They may speak of grace. They may say that you do not work for your salvation. They may deceptively whisper in their sermons that you do not contribute even one sigh to your salvation. But they say that covenant fellowship is in the way of works, in the way of obedience, in the way of your activity, which is not God’s act. They cannot say grace, preach grace, teach grace, or write grace without including works. Always it is by grace and in the way of works. Their venom is the toxic combination of grace and works. For those vipers grace and works always belong together. This breed is very old. It is as old as Cain’s sacrifice and ancient Israel’s idolatry; as old as the false apostles in Galatia, who mingled grace and works; as old as the self-righteousness of Rome; and as old as the faith of the Arminians. “We do this all by grace,” they say. But doing by grace is the only grace they know. See what grace makes of a man! Grace that makes something of man is the only grace they know. Grace that enables man to do is the only grace they preach. The old error seeks to cloak itself in a deceptive camouflage, but it is the same toxic venom of grace and works.

That venom eats at the whole truth of salvation by pure grace as slowly but as surely as the poison of asps destroys the body. When that venomous error of grace and works achieves the ascendency in the church, it will kill or drive out salvation by pure grace. For these two—salvation by pure grace and salvation by works—are absolutely antithetical. The one is of God. The other is of the devil. The one gives all the glory to God. The other gives all the glory to man. The one saves. The other damns.

For when the apostle says, “By works,” he speaks of us. He speaks of man’s obedience to the law. The apostle refers also to all of man’s spiritual activities. Therefore, you must add not of works to all man’s spiritual activities, such as faith and repentance. Salvation does not have its explanation in man’s obedience or in man’s performance of spiritual activities, even required and necessary activities. Salvation and blessing and goodness from God are not by works, efforts, activities, and labors of man. Since salvation is covenant fellowship with God, covenant fellowship is not in the way of obedience to the law, in the way of works, efforts, activities, and labors of man. Since the blessing of God is salvation, the blessing of God is not in the way of obedience, in the way of works, efforts, activities, and labors of man. If you say that salvation and blessing and God’s goodness are in the way of these things, then you may not speak of grace anymore. Then all is only by works.

Salvation is not by works!

Hallelujah! Not by works!

Contrasting with works is grace. Grace is the beauty of God and his divine loveliness as the God who is perfect and the implication of every perfection. He is the God of grace. He is all grace. That beauty and loveliness of God toward sinners is his attitude of favor toward them. He delights in them. He loves them and is merciful toward them. And that grace of God is, then, the power of God that works their salvation. Grace is God. What you say of grace, you say of God. Grace is the power of God to work, give, grant, and affect all of the salvation that he wills for his people in his grace. That grace is shown to the undeserving, to those who have no right to it, to those who by their sins have totally forfeited grace, to those in whom there is neither will nor ability to do that which is good and pleasing to God. Grace is opposed to working. Grace is not shown to the working. Grace does not save the working, the obedient, the good, the lovely, or those who try their best. Grace saves the sinner, the ugly, the ungodly, the wicked, and the rebellious.

Salvation is by pure grace not mingled with works.

Elected of pure grace.

A remnant existed at the time of Ahab and at the time of the apostle Paul. A remnant exists at this present time, and a remnant will exist in every age.

In election God appointed his people to salvation. Salvation is his living and eternal will for them, and in eternity he gave salvation to them. God gave his elect to Christ, the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world and thus the Lamb who in eternity had perfect salvation. He called his people his church and gave to each one his specific place in the church. Christ redeemed them; reconciled them; regenerated them; and called, justified, sanctified, and glorified them before the world was. They are the apple of his eye. They are graven on the palms of his hands. They are perfect in his sight. There is no condemnation to them. He does not behold iniquity in them. The reality of their salvation was before the world.

That election is determinative for salvation. Elected of pure grace, they are and must be saved by pure grace. Not by works.

Why is one saved and another not? The election obtained it.

Why does one believe and another not? Election determined it.

Why does one repent and another not? Election gave it.

Why is one regenerated and another not? Election!

Why is one justified, sanctified, and glorified and another not? Election!

Election is the source of salvation and of every benefit of salvation, of grace and of every blessing, and of all spiritual life and activity. Election is the eternal and living source. Election gives God’s people their salvation in eternity, and election is the guarantee and the power by which salvation comes into their possession in time. The living will of God brings to them what God has appointed to them. God works and brings to pass all that God has willed for them.

And this eternal decree of God is one decree with reprobation. It is this that particularly highlights God’s graciousness in election. Not all are elect. God did not will salvation for everyone, but he willed damnation for many. He passed by many with the grace of election. In passing by them, he also in his sovereign and just purpose appointed them to damnation. That decree is also carried out as the work of God in which he is glorified.

Those passed by cannot believe because they are not of his sheep. There is an activity of God to blind them. He gives the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear. There is a living word of God spoken over them: “Let their table be made a snare, and a trap, and a stumblingblock, and a recompence unto them: let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see, and bow down their back alway” (Rom. 11:9–10). That activity of God flows from his appointment of them to damnation and his eternal will for their destruction.

Herein is also the offense of grace. Many will have grace as long as grace leaves to man a choice, an activity, a work, a decision, an effort, a labor, or a sigh.

But election and reprobation mean that salvation is decided by God, and damnation is decided by God.

The coming of the gospel makes the will of God clear and is the power of God by which he carries out his will. No man can come to Christ, believe in Christ, and be saved by Christ unless the Father who sent Christ draw him. In both the salvation of some and in the stumbling of others, God is glorified in his goodness and severity. It is the reprobation of many that shows the pure grace of election.

The motivation of God in choosing one in distinction from another was his own will and nothing in the ones chosen. There was no worth in them. In them is found no cause for their being chosen. His choice, indeed, confounds the mighty and wise, for not many mighty, noble, and wise are chosen; but he chose the foolish things, the weak things, the base things, the things that are despised, and the things that are not, that no flesh glory in his presence.

Election was not of works. That choice of God was not based on and did not proceed from a consideration of the works of the sinner. There is an eternal election that determines one’s eternal destiny. There is no election by result. There is no looking ahead to see who will believe and obey. Election determines those who will believe and obey and gives to them their faith and obedience.

If someone says that election is of works, then he may not speak of grace anymore. Indeed, if someone says that there is any part of salvation that is by works, then he may not speak of election anymore. By works in any part of salvation is the complete denial of election. Works as the way to the Father, blessedness in the way of obedience, and obeying more and receiving more blessings are all denials of election. Ministers who teach and preach these things invariably begin to stop teaching and preaching election. Ministers who teach and preach these things may not speak of grace.

But if election is by grace, all of salvation is by grace, for the election obtains it.

Salvation by pure grace.

Salvation is the deliverance of the elect sinner from the misery of his sin and his deliverance into covenant fellowship with God.

God appointed his people to that salvation. God accomplished that salvation in Jesus Christ at the cross. You were as saved at the cross as you were saved in eternity and as saved as you ever will be. At the cross Christ paid the debt for the sins of all God’s elect. Christ made a perfect atonement, satisfaction, and propitiation in the place of each elect child of God and the whole elect church and for them only. At the cross Christ accomplished all righteousness. That righteousness is worthy of life and of every blessing of salvation. Salvation—every bene-
fit of salvation and the perfection of salvation—was merited by Christ. By the cross of Jesus Christ, believers are made perfect forever. We were saved at the cross, saved fully and completely by that cross. There, at that cross, we were reconciled to God.

That salvation, which Christ accomplished at the cross, he must also make ours so that we have it and enjoy it. It is the salvation of the sinner in his own mind, heart, experience, and whole being. Christ enters into his people by his Spirit, and he regenerates them, calls them to faith, works in them faith, justifies them by that faith alone, renews them by his Holy Spirit according to his image, and causes them to walk in all good works that he ordained for them from before the foundation of the world.

Salvation, which in a word is the eternal covenant of grace. God appointed his people in election as his covenant friends, and he establishes that covenant with them. In that covenant he gives to them salvation and every benefit of salvation to have and to enjoy, to experience and to be thankful for.

By pure grace, not of works.

Christ came by grace. By grace God wrought in the womb of Mary. For the salvation of those whom God had elected, Christ came to perfectly accomplish that salvation, to earn for them perfect righteousness and eternal life, the Spirit, and every blessing of the Spirit. And having accomplished salvation at the cross, Christ ascended to heaven to make his people partakers of that salvation by the gift of the Spirit. The covenant and all the benefits of salvation that are given to them in the covenant come to them by grace. The favor of God that chose them is the same favor of God by which he works in them to make them partakers of Christ and of all his benefits.

Not by works, not the Spirit-wrought works of the believer. It is precisely this thought that the apostle Paul banishes from the confession that it is by grace and not of works. Works—real, genuine, Spirit-wrought works—are not that because of which God’s people receive anything from God: not salvation, the experience of salvation, the knowledge of God, the love of God, the grace of God, or the assurance of salvation from God. It is not because of works, any and all works.

God’s relationship to his people is a covenant of friendship and not a contract for work. Works, the works that God works in them, are not that because of which he gives anything to his people. It—salvation, the experience of salvation, the covenant, and every benefit of the covenant—is not of works. Works cannot be a part or the whole of the explanation of their blessedness from God. If it is of works, then there may never be talk about grace again; otherwise work is not work, and grace is not grace.

And those whom God elected of grace and saved of grace, he also preserves by pure grace. If left to themselves, it is not only possible that they would perish, but it is also an absolute certainty that they would perish. Upon God they are absolutely dependent from moment to moment. He reserved them for himself, and he so preserves them by himself. So what is true of your election and your salvation both in its accomplishment and in its application is also true of your preservation: it is all of pure grace. The preservation of the child of God in his salvation is his continuance in the enjoyment of that salvation all his life long and his perfection in that salvation in eternal glory in heaven.

When God says that he reserved to himself, he speaks of the intimate communion of his children with himself, their dwelling in the secret place of the Most High, their protection and preservation from bowing the knee to Baal and kissing that foul idol. So God is talking about their preservation in faith and their preservation by faith in the experience of God as their God and in a holy life of obedience to God.

He reserved to himself during the perilous times of Ahab; he reserved to himself at the time of the apostle Paul; and he reserves to himself at this time and always, as long as the world shall last, a remnant according to the election of grace. When God confronts his people in their lives with the choice of God or Baal, of truth or lie, by grace or by works, God preserves to himself a remnant that says, “God, truth, by grace,” and they keep on saying that until they are killed for saying that.

God keeps them in peace in the covenant and in the fellowship of his covenant. He keeps them from sin, evil, and temptation and from perishing in their sins. He keeps them, even if by enormous sins they depart from him. God keeps them because he infallibly renews them to repentance; and by that infallible and irresistible power of grace, he preserves them for himself until he presents them without spot or wrinkle in the assembly of the elect in life eternal.

By pure grace!

Elected of grace.

Saved of grace.

Preserved of grace.

God is ours; heaven is ours; and everlasting blessedness, life, and glory are ours by pure grace.

All glory to God, of whom and through whom and to whom are all things!