Ephesians 1:6

To the praise of the glory of His grace.

God’s glory in man’s salvation

1. All that God did from eternity intend about man has no end but His own glory. The reason is plain. God, who is wisdom itself, cannot work without an end. A wise man will do nothing but to some purpose. God’s object in making all things must be better than all those things which are done to attain that object, for the end is better than that which serves for it, as the body is better than food, raiment, etc. But, except God Himself, there is nothing better than the works of God; nothing better than every creature, save the Creator Himself. If, then, He must needs have an end why He makes things, and this end must needs be better than the things made for it, and nothing is better than all the creatures save only their Creator, it follows that God must needs have Himself as His end in everything he does. Since this is so, let us in all things labour to yield Him glory; whatever we are, let us be that in Him, and through Him, and for Him.

2. God generally intends the praise of His grace in all who are predestinated by Him. Let this stir us up to glorify Him in regard of His grace to us. Even as waters come from the sea, and return again to it, so from this Divine Ocean comes every blessing, and every benefit should, by praising this grace, be duly acknowledged with thankfulness.

3. The attributes of God are His essential glory. This should make us endeavour to know the properties of God, and view as far as we may the reflection which we have in His word and works of such infinite glory.

4. The grace which now works all good things for us, is the same which before all time purposed them to us.

5. The grace of God brings us to receive favour and grace in and through His Beloved. Christ has satisfied justice, so that grace may be freely bestowed upon us. (Paul Bayne.)

The grace of God

I. In salvation as a whole we see the glory of God’s grace. “The praise of the glory of His grace” in rescuing man from the deep ruin into which he had fallen, in leading our captivity captive, in uplifting us into heaven, and giving us to be partakers of His glory through the merit of Jesus Christ our Lord--in all this grace is as glorious as was power at the Red Sea. No stinted thing then, no small matter, but something great and grand and glorious will that salvation be, which is to the praise of the glory of so great and favourite an attribute as the grace of God. I have tried if I could to think of what grace at its utmost must be; but who by searching can find out God? It is not possible for the human mind to conceive of power at its utmost. Pharaoh’s overthrow gives you but a guess at what the omnipotence of the Lord can accomplish, it can shake all worlds to dust, dissolve the universe, and annihilate creation. Power at its utmost, who shall compass it? And grace, my brethren, grace at its utmost! When all the chosen ones shall be gathered together, and the Church of God in heaven shall be perfect, not one living stone lacking of the entire fabric, then across that edifice shall this inscription be written in letters of light, “To the praise of the glory of His grace.” The work of salvation from first to last, as a whole, was devised and carried out, and shall be perfected to the praise of the glory of the grace of God.

II. This is true of each detail of salvation. I gather that from the position of my text. The fifth verse speaks of predestination and adoption, and the sixth verse speaks of acceptance in the Beloved, and the position of my text puts all three of these under the same mark, they are all “to the praise of the glory of His grace.” Brethren, the sea is salt as a whole, and every drop of it is salt in its degree: if the whole work of salvation be of grace, every detail of that work is equally of grace. The rays of the sun as a whole possess certain properties, analyse one single sunbeam and you shall find all those properties there. I have just now said that the whole of salvation might be resembled to a great temple, and that across its front would be written, “To the praise of the glory of His grace”; now, some of the ancient Eastern buildings were erected by certain monarchs, and were dedicated to them, and not only was the whole pile set up to their honour, but each separate brick was stamped with the royal cartouche or coat of arms; not only the whole structure but each separate brick bore the impress of the builder; so is it in the matter of salvation: the whole is of grace, and each particular portion of it equally manifests in its measure the free favour of God.

1. Election.

2. Redemption.

3. Effectual calling.

4. Pardon and justification.

5. Mark you well that the next series of steps, which we call sanctification, or perseverance, or, better still, gracious conservation, all of these must be of grace too.

No man has any claim upon God to keep him from going into sin. Thus, from foundation to pinnacle, the temple of our salvation is all of grace.

III. The peculiar glories of this grace ought to be pointed out.

1. It is sovereign. Given to man according to the absolute will of the Almighty.

2. Free. Man is not expected to do anything to earn or obtain the grace of God; he would not, if he were expected; he could not, if he were required.

3. Full. Grace to cover all the man’s sins, whatever they may be.

4. Unfailing in continuance. The gifts of God are without repentance. Grace is no intermittent brook flowing today and dried up tomorrow, no fleeting meteor dazzling all beholders and then vanishing in thick darkness.

5. Unalloyed and unmingled. God’s grace in saving souls rules alone. Human merit does not intrude here and there to make a patchwork of the whole. Grace is Alpha, grace is Omega. It is grace’s glory that no mortal finger touches her work, and no human hammer is lifted up thereon.

6. Need I say that it is one glory of this grace that while it thus reveals itself so fully, it never interferes with any other attribute of God? On the contrary, it only tends to illustrate all the other glories of the Divine character.

IV. This grace ought to be the subject of praise.

1. Praise God while your mind surveys the whole plan of salvation.

2. Let all men see the result of grace in you.

3. Add to your holy living your own personal testimony.

V. The great ground of hope for sinners. My last word shall briefly indicate what is the privilege of each sinner who would rejoice in the sovereign grace of God. Often as we explain faith, yet still we need to explain it again. I met with an illustration taken from the American war. One had been trying to instruct a dying officer in what faith was. At last he caught the idea, and he said, “I could not understand it before, but I see it now. It is just this--I surrender, I surrender to Jesus.” That is it. You have been fighting against God, standing out against Him, trying to make terms more or less favourable to yourself; now here you stand in the presence of God, and you drop the sword of your rebellion and say, “Lord, I surrender, I am Thy prisoner. I trust to Thy mercy to save me. I have done with self, I fall into Thy arms.” (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The glory of Jehovah’s grace

I. The glory of grace is its freeness: it fixes upon objects that are most unworthy; bestows upon them the richest blessings; raises them to the highest honour; promises them the greatest happiness; and all for its own glory. Nothing can be freer than grace.

II. The glory of grace is its power: it conquers the stubbornest sinners; subdues the hardest hearts; tames the wildest wills; enlightens the darkest understandings; breaks off the strongest fetters; and invariably conquers its objects. Grace is omnipotent.

III. The glory of grace is its benevolence: it never injured one; it has delivered, supplied, conducted, supported, and glorified thousands; it brings the inexhaustible fulness of God to supply the creature’s wants. Grace gives away all it has, reserving nothing for itself but the praise and glory of its acts. Jesus is grace personified; in Him it may be seen in all its beauty, excellence, and loveliness; by Him it is displayed in all its native dignity. O Jesus! glorify Thy free, powerful, and benevolent grace in me! (Essex Remembrancer.)

Grace is all

Payson, when dying, expressed himself with great earnestness respecting the grace of God as exercised in saving lost men, and seemed particularly affected that it should be bestowed on one so ill-deserving as himself. “Oh, how sovereign! Oh, how sovereign! Grace is the only thing that can make us like God. I might be dragged through heaven, earth, and hell, and I should be still the same sinful, polluted wretch, unless God Himself should renew and cleanse me.” (C. H. Spurgeon.)

We muse glorify God’s grace

Had I all the faith of the patriarchs, all the zeal of the prophets, all the good works of the apostles, the constancy of the martyrs, and all the flaming devotion of seraphs, I would disclaim them all in point of dependence, and rely only on free grace. I would count all but dung and dross when put in competition with the infinitely precious death and meritorious righteousness of my dear Saviour Jesus Christ; and, if ever a true and lasting reformation of manners is produced amongst us, it must (under the influence of the Eternal Spirit) be produced by the doctrines of free grace. Till these doctrines are generally inculcated, the most elegant harangues from the pulpit, or the most correct dissertations from the press, will be no better than a pointless arrow or a broken bow. (Hervey.)

Glorifying God’s grace

Dr. Kane, finding a flower under the Humboldt glacier, was more affected by it because it grew beneath the lip and cold bosom of the ice than he would have been by the most gorgeous garden bloom. So the most single, struggling grace in the heart of one far removed from Divine influence may be dearer to God than a whole catalogue of virtues in the life of one more favoured of heaven. (H. W. Beecher.)

Accepted in the Beloved.

Accepted of the great Father

God’s love of His dear Son covers all believers, as a canopy covers all who come beneath it. As a hen covereth her chickens with her wings, so God’s love to Christ covers all the children of promise. As the sun shining forth from the gates of the morning gilds all the earth with golden splendour, so this great love of God to the Well-beloved, streaming forth to Him, enlightens all who are in Him. God is so boundlessly pleased with Jesus that in Him He is altogether well pleased with us.

I. I will begin by treating the text by way of contrast. Brethren and sisters, the grace of God hath made us to be this day “accepted in the Beloved”; but it was not always so.

1. What a contrast is our present condition of acceptance to our position under the law through Adam’s fall. By actual sin we made ourselves to be the very reverse of accepted, for we were utterly refused. It might have been said of us, “Reprobate silver shall men call them, because God hath rejected them.” Mark, it is not said that we are “acceptable,” though that were a very great thing, but we are actually accepted; it has become not a thing possible that God might accept us, but He has accepted us in Christ. Lay this to your soul, and may it fill you with delight.

2. Think, again, of the contrast between what you are now, and what you would have been had not grace stepped in. Left out of Christ, we might at this time have been going on from sin to sin.

3. One more point I cannot quite pass over, and that is, the contrast between what we now are and all we ever could have been in the most favourable circumstances apart from the Beloved. If it had been possible for us out of Christ to have had desires after righteousness, yet those desires would all have run in a wrong direction; we should have had a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge, and so, going about to establish our own righteousness, we should not have submitted ourselves to the righteousness of God. At this moment the prayers we offered would never have been received at the throne; the praises we presented would have been an ill savour unto God; all that we could have aimed to accomplish in the matter of good works, had we striven to our utmost, would have been done in wilfulness and pride, and so must necessarily have fallen short of acceptance. We should have heard the voice of the Eternal saying, “Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto Me”; for out of Christ our righteousness is as unacceptable as our unrighteousness, and all our attempts to merit acceptance increase our unworthiness.

II. Secondly, we will say a little by way of explanation, that the text may sink yet deeper into your hearts, and afford you richer enjoyment. “He hath made us accepted in the Beloved.” Much went before this, but, oh, what a morning without clouds rose upon us when we knew our acceptance and were assured thereof. Acceptance was the watchword, and had troops of angels met us we should have rejoiced that we were as blest as they. Understand that this acceptance comes to us entirely as a work of God--“He hath made us accepted in the Beloved.” We never made ourselves acceptable, nor could we have done so, but He that hath made us first in creation, hath now new made us by His grace, and so hath made us accepted in the Beloved. That this was an act of pure grace there can be no doubt, for the verse runs thus, “Wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved,” that is, in His grace. There was no reason in ourselves why we should have been put into Christ, and so accepted; the reason lay in the heart of the Eternal Father Himself.

III. Can we get a step farther? Will the Holy Spirit help us while I say a few words by way of enlargement?

1. If we are “accepted in the Beloved,” then, first, our persons are accepted: we ourselves are well pleasing to Him. God looks upon us now with pleasure.

2. Being ourselves accepted, the right of access to Him is given us. When a person is accepted with God he may come to God when he chooses. He is one of these courtiers who may come even to the royal throne and meet with no rebuff. No chamber of our great Father’s house is closed against us; no blessing of the covenant is withheld from us; no sweet smile of the Father’s face is refused us.

3. And, being accepted ourselves, our prayers are also accepted. Children of God, can you sincerely believe this? When God delights in men He gives them the desires of their hearts.

4. It follows, as a pleasant sequence, that our gifts are accepted, for those who are accepted with God find a great delight in giving of their substance to the glory of His name. Then let us try what we can do for Him. Here is a great lump of quartz, but if the Lord can see a grain of gold, He will save the quartz for the sake of it. He says, “Destroy it not, for a blessing is in it.” I do not mean that the Lord deals thus with all men. It is only for accepted men that He has this kind way of accepting their gifts. Had you seen me, when a young man, and an usher, walking through the streets with rolls of drawings from a boys’ school, you would have guessed that I considered them of no value and fit only to be consigned to the fire; but I always took a great interest in the drawings of my own boy, and I still think them rather remarkable. You smile, I dare say, but I do so think, and my judgment is as good as yours. I value them because they are his, and I think I see budding genius in every touch, but you do not see it because you are so blind. I see it since love has opened my eyes. God can see in His people’s gifts to Him and their works for Him a beauty which no eyes but His can perceive. Oh, if He so treats our poor service, what ought we not to do for Him? What zeal, what alacrity should stimulate us! If we are ourselves accepted our sacrifices shall be acceptable.

IV. We have thus pursued our train of thought in a contrast, an explanation, and an enlargement; let us now indulge in a few reflections. “Accepted in the Beloved.” May not each believer talk thus with himself--I have my sorrows and griefs, I have my aches and pains, and weaknesses, but I must not repine, for God accepts me. Ah me! How one can laugh at griefs when this sweet word comes in, “accepted in the Beloved.” I may be blind, but I am “accepted in the Beloved:” I may be lame, I may be poor, I may be despised, I may be persecuted, I may have much to put up with in many ways, but really these troubles of the flesh count for little or nothing to me since I am “accepted in the Beloved.” Is not this a word to die with? We will meet death and face his open jaws with this word, “Accepted in the Beloved.” Will not this be a word to rise with amidst the blaze of the great judgment day?

V. And now I wish to finish with this one practical use. If it be so that we are “accepted in the Beloved,” then let us go forth and tell poor sinners how they can be accepted too. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Accepted in the Beloved

There is implied here a twofold ground of acceptance--

1. On account of our relation to His person.

2. On account of His atonement for our sins. This word “accepted” only occurs twice in the New Testament. The Spirit of God applies it here to believers in Christ. The same expression is applied to the Virgin Mary, when He proclaims her “highly favoured” (Luke 1:28). He hath made us His Hephzibahs--made us dear to Him in the Beloved--made us His delights, a joy to Himself in the Beloved. Not “the Righteous One,” though that is true. Not “the Holy One,” though that is true; nor through His blood and merits, although He has so done. But there is a deeper truth still: “accepted in His person” before He became man. Accepted in Him who is “the brightness of the Father’s glory, and the express image of His person.” “Accepted in the Beloved.” It is not the whole truth that we are accepted for His merits and His atonement, though that is true. But here the record calls us back to a past eternity, and tells us of our being made “accepted in the Beloved.” And yet there are multitudes of professing Christians who do not trust, or know, or believe that they are accepted in Him, and who do not enjoy the blessedness and rest of looking up into their Father’s face and recognizing the love bestowed on them in the Father’s Beloved, and the security that that love has surrounded them with! They think they are only accepted according to the measure of their prayers, their merits, their good works, and their faith, instead of according to the measure of the Father’s everlasting love for His Son. Yes! we are here plainly taught that our acceptance in the first place was not even on account of Christ’s own merits, or prayers, or blood, or sacrifice, much less ours, but solely and only on account of our relation to His person as God’s Beloved One; and the subsequent interference of sin only brought out the resources of redemption, forgiveness, salvation, and adoption in Him “in whom all fulness dwells.” (M. Rainsford, B. A.)

Accepted in the Beloved

I. Positive union.

1. In the heart of Christ, and in His heart from all eternity. With prescient eye Christ beheld His people before they were yet formed. Hath He not said, “I have loved thee with an everlasting love; therefore with the bands of My kindness have I drawn thee.” “As the Father hath loved me, even so have I loved you.”

2. We are also in Christ’s book. Having loved us we were chosen in Him and elected by His Father. We were not chosen separately and distinctly, and as individuals alone and apart. We were chosen in Christ. Blessed fact! the same register which includes Christ as first born, includes all the brethren.

3. We are in Christ’s hand. All those whom the Father gave to Christ were bestowed upon Christ as a surety; and in the last great day, at the Redeemer’s hand will God require the souls of all that were given to Him. Just as the Apostle Paul argues concerning Levi, that Levi is inferior to Christ; for he says, Abraham was less than Melchisedec, for without doubt the less is blessed of the greater, so also Levi was less than Melchisedec, for he was in the loins of Abraham when Melchisedec met him. So, beloved, as Levi was in the loins of Abraham and paid tithes to Melchisedec, so we were in the loins of Christ and paid the debt due to Divine justice, gave to the law its fulfilment, and to wrath its satisfaction. In the loins of Christ we have passed through the tomb already, and have entered into that which is within the veil, and are made to sit down in heavenly places, even in Him. This day the chosen of God are one with Christ and in the loins of Christ.

5. As we are in the heart of Christ, in the book of Christ, in the hand of Christ, and in the loins of Christ, there is yet another thought dearer and sweeter still. We are in the person of Christ; for we are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones. By the mysterious operations of the quickening Spirit the sinner begins to live a spiritual life. Now, in the moment when the spiritual life was first given, there commenced in that soul a vital and personal union with the person of Christ Jesus. There had always been in that soul a secret mystical union in the Divine purpose; but now there comes to be a union in effect, and the soul is in Christ from that hour, in a sense in which it never was before.

II. Accepted in the Beloved. What does our acceptance include?

1. Justification before God. We stand on our own trial. When we stand in Christ we are acquitted; while standing in ourselves the only verdict must be condemnation.

2. Divine complacency.

3. Divine delight.

III. Divine operations; “made accepted.” All of God, not of man. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Jesus Christ the Beloved One, and sinners accented of God freely in Him

Jesus Christ is the Beloved, the eminently Beloved One. In discoursing from this doctrine, I shall--

I. Show in what respects Christ is the eminently Beloved One.

II. Make some improvement.

I. I am to show in what respects Christ is the eminently Beloved One.

1. He is the Beloved of the excellent ones of the earth. Who these are, ye may see (Psalms 16:3). They are “the saints.” Him all the saints love with a love above all persons and all things (Luke 14:26). And--

(1) They meet altogether in Him in love, however they are scattered through the world; hence is He called, “the desire of all nations” (Haggai 2:7). So that lovers of Christ and saints are of equal latitude (Ephesians 6:24); “Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity.”

(2) Each one of them loves Him with a superlative and transcendent love (Psalms 73:25).

(3) They love other persons and things for His sake (Romans 15:2; Titus 3:3).

(4) The liker anything is to Him, they love it the more.

2. Christ is the Beloved of the glorious ones in heaven. All eyes are upon Him there, for He is there the light of the pleasant land (Revelation 21:23), as the sun is in this world. And He is there--

(1) The Beloved of the glorified saints, who now love Him in perfection (Revelation 7:10).

(2) The Beloved of the holy angels (Revelation 5:11). In the Temple the cherubims were posted, looking towards the ark or mercy seat, a type of Christ; which signified the angels looking to Jesus with love and admiration (1 Peter 1:12). They behold His glory, and cannot but love Him.

(3) The Father’s Beloved (Matthew 17:5).

(a) In respect of His Person.

(b) In respect of His office. I shall conclude this point with a word of application.

I. Hereby ye may try whether ye be saints or not, partakers of the Divine nature. If so, Christ will be your eminently Beloved One.

II. Of reproof to those who love Him not eminently, above all. It is an evidence, that--

1. Ye know Him not (John 4:10). None can be let into a discovery of Christ in His glory, but must love Him (Matthew 13:44). It is to the blind world only there is no beauty in Him for which He is to be desired.

2. That ye are in love with your sins and a vain world. For who would loath the physician but he that loves his disease and cannot part with it?

III. Let him be your Beloved then, and give Him your heart.

1. He is best worth your love. None has done so much for sinners as Christ has, dying for them.

2. If ye love Him not, ye will be constructed haters of Him, and enemies to Him (1 Corinthians 16:22). Doctrine

II. The way how a sinner comes to be accepted of God is freely in Christ.

1. What is implied in this.

I. A state of non-acceptance, or unacceptableness with God, that sinners are in while they are not in Christ. And we may take up this in these following things:

1. They are offenders.

(1) Sinners in Adam (Romans 5:12). The root was corrupted, and all the branches withered and rotted in him.

(2) Sinners in their own persons, who are capable of actual sinning.

2. Unpardoned offenders.

3. God is not pleased with them; for His being pleased with any of mankind is in His Son Jesus Christ, and without Him He can be pleased with none of them (Matthew 3:1, ult.; Hebrews 11:5).

4. He is highly displeased with them. There is a cloud of Divine displeasure ever upon them (John 3:1, ult.).

5. He cannot endure to have any communion or intercourse with them, farther than in the way of common providence (Psalms 5:5). He and they are at enmity, He legally, they really; so there can be no communion (Amos 3:3). And they cannot have it till they come to Christ (John 14:6).

6. He loathes them, His soul abhors them, as abominable. They are abominable in their persons unto God, as wholly corrupt and defiled (Titus 1:15).

7. The wrath of God is upon them, and they lie under His curse.

II. A way provided how sinners may be accepted.

1. God is ready to accept of them now that will come to Him in His own way (2 Corinthians 5:19).

2. There is ready for sinners what may procure them acceptance with a holy God (Matthew 22:4).

3. There is open proclamation made in the gospel, that all may have the benefit of that sacrifice, and be accepted of God.

III. The sinner’s bestirring himself for acceptance with God. There is a way to acceptance, but the sinner must take that way, else he will not get acceptance. He cannot sit still careless, and be accepted. The sinner’s bestirring himself in this matter, takes in these three things.

1. A conviction of unacceptableness to God (John 16:8). Men must be convinced of their being unacceptable to God, ere they will come to Christ. It is their not seeing their own loathsomeness, that makes them slight the sacrifices of sweet savour; and think to be accepted of God, while yet they are not in Christ.

2. A weighty concern and uneasiness about it.

3. Anxiety of heart for it (Acts 2:37). There must be earnest longings to be accepted of Him, yea, the soul must be brought to esteem and so prize it, as to be content with it upon any terms (Acts 9:6).

IV. The next general head is to consider the nature of a sinner’s acceptance with God.

1. I shall consider the nature of a sinner’s acceptance with God in itself. And in itself it is a great and unspeakable benefit, and implies these following things:--

(1) In general, it implies an acceptance of the sinner with God, as a righteous person. The Lord reputes, accounts, and accepts him into favour as a righteous person (2 Corinthians 5:21; Romans 4:6; Romans 5:19).

(2) More particularly it implies--

1. The ceasing of wrath against the soul (Hosea 14:4).

2. The curse is removed (Galatians 3:13).

3. He is fully pardoned (Isaiah 43:25).

4. He is reconciled to God (Romans 5:1).

5. God is pleased with him (Hebrews 11:5).

6. He is admitted to communion with God.

7. God has a delight and complacency in him.

He looks on him in His own Son, and takes pleasure in him, as covered with His righteousness.

V. Let us consider this acceptance in its effects and consequents. It is in these an unspeakable privilege. By means of it--

1. The springs of mercy are opened to the sinner, that rivers of compassion may flow towards him (Romans 5:1, etc.).

2. He is adjudged to eternal life (2 Thessalonians 1:6; Acts 26:18). Life was promised in the first covenant, upon the fulfilling of the law; now the believer being accepted of God as a righteous person, for whom the law is fulfilled, is accordingly adjudged to live forever.

3. The channel of sanctification is cleared for him, and the dominion of sin is broken in him (Romans 6:14).

4. He is privileged with peace of conscience.

5. Access to God with confidence.

6. His works accepted.

7. The sting removed from afflictions and death.

8. All things working for good (Romans 8:28).

VI. I proceed to show the way of a sinner’s acceptance with God.

First, It is “freely.” There is nothing in the sinner himself to procure it, or move God to it (Romans 3:24). It is done freely, in that--

1. It is without respect to any work done by the sinner (Titus 3:5). Grace and works are inconsistent in this matter.

2. It is without respect to any good qualification or disposition wrought in the sinner (Romans 4:5). For--

(1) The way of a sinner’s acceptance with God excludes all boasting (Romans 3:27).

(2) What good qualities can there be in the sinner before he be accepted in Christ? (Hebrews 11:6).

(3) When the man comes to be endued with gracious qualities, as he is by that time already accepted, so if his acceptance depended on them, he would come short; for still they are imperfect, having a great mixture of the contrary ill qualities, that need to be covered another way. And how can one expect acceptance on that, for which he needs a pardon?

Secondly, It is in Christ the sinner is accepted. It implies--

1. The cause of a sinner’s acceptance with God. It is for Christ’s sake (Romans 3:24).

2. The state of acceptableness of a sinner, wherein he may, and will be, and cannot but be accepted of God; it is being in Christ, united to Him by faith. One must not think to be accepted for Christ’s sake while out of Christ; no more than the branch of one tree can partake of the sap of another, while not ingrafted into it; or the slayer could be safe, while he was not yet got within the gates of the city of refuge. But in Christ the sinner is in a state of acceptableness to God.

We take up this in these five things following:--

1. In Christ the sinner may be accepted of God (2 Corinthians 5:19).

2. In Christ the sinner will be accepted. Any, even the worst of sinners shall certainly be accepted in Christ (Acts 16:31). Whosoever shall make their escape into this city of refuge shall be safe. Christ will refuse none that come to Him; and God will reject none that are in Christ.

3. In Christ the sinner cannot but be accepted. It is impossible it should fail or miscarry (Hebrews 6:18).

4. That moment a sinner is in Christ, he is accepted (Romans 8:1, “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus”)

I come now to the improvement of this subject.

1. Then the door of acceptance with God is open to all; none are excluded (Isaiah 55:1).

2. Seek then acceptance with God, that ye may find favour with Him. This should be your main aim (2 Corinthians 5:9). Here your happiness lies in time and eternity.

3. Seek it freely, without pretending to anything in yourselves to recommend you to His acceptance or favour.

4. Seek it through Jesus Christ only, that is, by faith in Him, laying the whole stress of your acceptance on His righteousness.

5. Therefore as ever ye would have acceptance or favour with God, seek to be in Christ; to be united to Him. For as there is no acceptance with God, but for His sake; so there is no acceptance for His sake, but to those that are in Him (Colossians 1:27). There is salvation in Christ, but none partake of it that are not in Him; a righteousness in Him, but it covers none but the members of His body. (T. Boston, D. D.)

The central doctrine--accepted in the Beloved

The doctrine of justification by faith, the central doctrine of Protestantism as it is sometimes called, is, as it is often presented, a hard, dry, formal statement of a most precious and inspiring truth. The truth is in its very nature so full of tenderness, of affection, of the most sacred and intimate experience, that it is quite impossible to put it into a formula. Let us imagine some doctor of the law going to the home of the prodigal after the feast was over, taking the father and the son aside, and questioning them, notebook in hand: “A very remarkable and beautiful reconciliation has taken place here,” he says: “the rebel against parental authority is pardoned: the wanderer has returned to his home; favour and plenty and peace have been restored to one who has long been deprived of them; will you not have the goodness now to condense into a statement not more than five or six lines in length the real nature of this transaction?” The crude and stupid absurdity of such a proposition would be evident enough to all who have read the touching story. As if all the regret, the gratitude, the hopes, the fears, the doubts, the confidences, the anguish, the dread, the thankfulness, the peace of that deep human experience could be reduced to a logical definition! And yet men undertake to put into concise theological propositions the whole truth concerning the return of the sinner to the favour of God. “What is justification?” asks the Shorter Catechism. “Justification,” answers the Shorter Catechism, “is an act of God’s free grace, wherein He pardoneth all our sins, and accepteth us as righteous in His sight, only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us and received by faith alone.” That is the scientific definition of justification by faith, perhaps as good a definition as ever was framed. And it may help us a little toward a right understanding of what justification is, just as Weisbach’s great books on hydraulics might help us a little toward understanding the ministry of water; just as Bishop’s two big volumes on marriage and divorce may throw some light on the nature of the family relation; but he who depends on such a formulary as this for his knowledge of the way in which the sinner is restored by faith in Christ to the favour of God, must remain in profound ignorance of the whole matter. In some way, it is clear, the New Testament represents God as accepting men through Christ. In some way Christ is regarded by the believer as his substitute. He is the Mediator between God and men. By faith in Him we are justified. These words meant something to the men who used them, and they ought to mean something to us. What is their meaning? They cannot, of course, describe any legal transfer of moral qualities. Moral qualities cannot be legally transferred from one person to another. My demerits cannot be lawfully transferred to another, nor can the merits of another be lawfully transferred to me. My guilt is my own, and can by no possibility be imputed to another being. Can anyone else in the universe be blamed for a sin of mine in which he had no part? On the other hand it is equally impossible that I should be regarded as entitled to praise for a good act performed by another person, of which I had no knowledge, and in which I had no part. “Every one of you shall give an account for himself unto God.” The entire and absolute personality of moral qualities, of guilt or innocence, of praise or blame, is the fundamental truth of morality. Any legal interference with this fundamental principle would be subversive of all righteousness. But it is said that though moral quality cannot be transferred, legal liability can be; that though Christ cannot be morally guilty on account of our sins, God regards Him as legally responsible for them; that though His merits cannot be legally transferred to us, God does consider us as blameless before the law on His account. We are justified because we claim Him as our substitute. Now there is under all these phrases a great truth. Take the following story as an illustration of it. John Goodman is a citizen of noble character and of large philanthropy. He has a son, whom he loved as the apple of his eye, and who is justifying his father’s affection by growing up into blameless manliness One night a young desperado, the offspring of criminals, whose life has been spent among the worst classes of our cities, breaks into John Goodman’s house, with the intent of robbery, and nearly kills his son. The father comes to the rescue, captures the young burglar, binds him fast, and waits for the morning to deliver him up to justice. In the meantime the son revives, and, seeing the youth of the criminal, is touched with pity for him, a sentiment that has already begun to kindle the father’s heart. Before morning father and son have resolved to make a great venture to save this wretched boy from his life of crime and shame. They tell him that if he will turn from his evil ways, he may have a home with them, sharing their comfort and their plenty; that they will protect him, so far as they can, from the consequences of his past misdeeds; that they will guard him from bad influences, and open to him paths of integrity and honour; that he shall be recognized as an equal in the family, and shall be joint heir to the estate. All this is offered him by the father, and urged upon him, even with tears, by the son whose life he had attempted. Of course it is very difficult for the wretch to believe that these assurances are sincere. He thinks at first that they are mocking and taunting him, and his lips curl with scorn and resentment as he listens. But by and by he perceives that they are in earnest, and he is overwhelmed by their marvellous goodness. He casts himself down before them; he kisses their feet; he tells them in broken words the story of his gratitude. And he does honestly try to live the better life toward which they seek to lead him. It is the deepest purpose of his life to be upright and faithful and pure. But, as anyone might easily foretell, this is a purpose hard for such a boy to shape in act. He is indolent, and profane, and reckless by habit; his mind is full of gross and foul thoughts: his temper is untamed; his whole nature has been warped and corrupted by his early training. This ingrained evil finds expression in many ways. After a time the good man begins to despair of ever making anything of this unfortunate youth; he begins to regret that, instead of trying to reclaim him, he had not handed him over to the police. But while he is thus wavering in his purpose, he chances to enter the room of his protege, and there he finds upon the table a picture of his own son, soiled with much handling, evidently left in sight by accident--and on the back of it, in the rude handwriting and doubtful orthography of the waif, these words written: “I want to be like him. I pray God to help me to be nearer like him. I’m far enough from it now, God knows; but I watch him all the while, and try to live as good a life as he lives. God bless him for all his goodness to me!” The father’s eyes fill with tears as he reads these simple words. He discerns in them the deep purpose of the poor boy whose faulty performance has so tried him. His heart cannot but be touched by the lad’s choice of a hero. He knows that the choice is a worthy one, and he knows that the lad’s love for his own son will have in it a regenerating power. He has no more misgivings concerning the wisdom of his attempt to save this lost one; and always after this he couples the lad in his thoughts with his own son; and feels toward him something of the tenderness with which he regards his own son. Since the poor lad cherishes for the other this passionate friendship, since he takes the father’s pride as his own ideal and pattern, how else can the father regard him? He is accepted in the belayed. (Washington Gladden, D. D.)

Provision for eternity

Accepted in the Beloved. The phrase is simple, but not, at a mere glance, immediately obvious. To feel its force, we must enter in and survey its interior, and see as far as our short-sighted faculties can reach, what it takes within its range. It is a summary and simple form for gathering up everything we need to have, in a provision for the world to come.

I. Where is the provision laid up? It is laid up in a living Person. It is with a living Person that we have to do from first to last. And the fulness and suitableness of that Person comes forth here in a vivid and peculiar manner--for you observe how He is named. By a name of holy endearment and of Divine tenderness He is called here, “the Beloved.” “Lovely” and “Beloved” He is in Himself, because from Him emanate whatever qualities of good are possible in a creature--because in Him, as the God-man mediator, all excellencies, both created and uncreated, are centred and combined. In the prospect, moreover, of what He was to fulfil on earth, as the Redeemer of mankind, beheld and set apart from all eternity as the object of the Father’s infinite complacency and delight--the name in the text belongs to Him in a peculiar manner. But further observe, He is “the Beloved,” because through Him alone could a holy God find the fitting channel for His love to man. He is “the Beloved,” moreover, specially because of the perfect fulfilment in Him of the relations in which He stands, at once to God and to man; for whatever is due to God, and everything requisite for the deliverance and happiness of man, are found in infinite fulness in Him. His person communicates to everything He did and still does, in our stead, a value, a worth, which never can be measured, and to which no limits can be set.

II. What provision has been laid up for us “in the Beloved.” The text proclaims it in terms so simple, that some may be apt to pass them by without much consideration. It is acceptance “in the Beloved.” To be “accepted”--to have our acceptance before God--what is this? It is first of all--

1. To be cleared and acquitted in the eye of the law--to be, in the judgment of a holy God, discharged and set free. It has its foundation broad and deep in the precious fact, which is immediately connected with it in the words following the text, at verse seven--it rests upon “Redemption”--“Redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace.” You see how deep down it goes--as deep as the humiliation of the Son of God from heaven to earth, even to the utmost extremity of His abasement beneath the curse!

2. But there is something more in the acceptance wherewith we are accepted in Christ. It is also to be fitted for service. It is to be put into the position of those whose worship, whose free-will offerings of grateful obedience are well pleasing to God. It is to have liberty to serve Him all our days “without fear,” and from the blessed motives of love and thankfulness.

3. The holiness of character which has its beginning in the acceptance of our persons. To be “accepted in the Beloved” is to begin to be holy. To have your feet planted on the “foundation of God,” which “standeth sure,” is to depart from iniquity. (J. S. Muir.)

The acceptation of free grace

A ship was sailing in the southern waters of the Atlantic, when another was sighted which was making signals of distress. They bore towards the distressed ship, and hailed them. “What is the matter?” “We are dying for want of water,” was the response. “Dip it up then,” was the answer, “you are in the mouth of the Amazon River.” Those sailors were thirsting, and suffering, and fearing death, and longing intensly for water, and all the while they were supposing that there was nothing but the ocean’s brine around them; when, in fact, they had sailed unconsciously into the broad mouth of the mightest river on the globe, and did not know it: and though to them it seemed that they must perish with thirst, yet there was at least a hundred miles of fresh water all around them; and they had nothing to do but as they were bidden to “dip it up.”

The freeness of grace

If you say, “I do not know why He should save me; I am not worthy to be saved,” that is a fact; you are not. If you say, “I do not think I have a right to look to Him for salvation; I have not done anything that should give me a claim on Him for so great a blessing,” that is true; you have not. It is not because you deserve Divine mercies that you have a right to expect them. I take a dozen beggar boys out of the street, and they say, “I do not know why you should like me; I am unlovely, and there is nothing attractive about me.” That is so. And I take you that you may become lovely. “But I am filthy and ragged.” Yes, you are; and I take you that you may be washed and clothed. “But I am stupid and ignorant.” So you are; and I take you to educate you. “But I am full of all manner of wickedness.” I know that; and it is because you are so wicked that I am determined, with God’s help, to rescue you. Now, Christ does not take us because we are so pure and sweet, and virtuous and lovely. He takes us because He cannot bear to see a soul that is destined to immortality less than high and noble; and because He means to make us what He would have us to be, He sends us to school. “They that are well,” He tells us, “need not a physician; but they that are sick.” If you are sick, and will accept Him for your physician, He will cure you. (H. W. Beecher.)

Christ a propitiation

Plutarch tells us that when Themistocles in the hour of his exile wished to be reconciled with Admetus, King of the Molossians, whom he had previously offended, he took the king’s son in his arms, and kneeled down before the household gods. The plea was successful, in fact it was the only one the Molossians looked upon as not to be refused, and so the philosopher found a refuge among them. And do not we come in this way when we approach the Majesty on High? We take hold of the King’s Son, and hope to find acceptance through Him alone--we hope to be “accepted in the Beloved.”