Through Faith They Still Speak (8/31/05)

"Let Jesus be your all in all, and let free grace be the one line in which you live and move. There is no life like that of one who lives in the favor of God. To receive all as a free gift preserves the mind from self-righteous pride and from self-accusing despair. It makes the heart grow warm with grateful love. It thus creates a feeling in the soul which is infinitely more acceptable to God than anything that can possibly come of slavish fear. Those who hope to be saved by trying to do their best know nothing of that glowing fervor, that hallowed warmth, that devout joy in God which come with salvation freely given according to the grace of God. The slavish spirit of self-salvation is no match for the joyous spirit of adoption. There is more real virtue in the least emotion of faith than in all the efforts of legal bondslaves or all the weary machinery of devotees who would climb to heaven by means of ceremonies. Faith is spiritual, and God who is a spirit delights in it for that reason. Years of saying prayers and church or chapel going and ceremonies and performances may only be an abomination in the sight of Jehovah. But a glance from the eye of true faith is spiritual and is therefore dear to Him. 'The Father seeketh such to worship Him' (John 4:23). Look first to the inner man and to the spiritual; the rest will then follow in due course." (Charles Spurgeon, All of Grace [Springdale, Pennsylvania: Whitaker House, 1983], pp. 135-136)