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The sermon teaches that God’s grace is infinite because it arises from His own nature and eternal covenant purpose. The Father gives the Son, the Son gives Himself for His people, and the Spirit brings them safely to completion. Forgiveness is full, free, and grounded not in reformation or human merit but in Christ’s blood and righteousness. Those who trust Christ may know present pardon, enjoy peace and joy, and face death with confidence in the Savior’s unfailing presence.
Theological center: Salvation rests on God’s sovereign covenant grace, accomplished through Christ’s atoning death and received by faith alone.
Applications: Trust Christ for forgiveness · Believe in Jesus Christ · Consider grace’s infinite riches · Reject self-reliance
Primary texts: Ephesians 1:7 · Ephesians 3:8
“The forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace.” Ephesians 1:7 AS is Isaiah among the prophets, so is Paul among the apostles, each stands forth with singular prominence, raised up by God for a conspicuous purpose, and shining as a star of extraordinary brilliance. Isaiah spoke more of Christ, and described more minutely His passion and His death than all the other prophets put together. Paul proclaimed the Grace of God—free, full, sovereign, eternal grace—beyond all the glorious company of the apostles. Sometimes he soared to such amazing heights, or dived into such unsearchable depths, that even Peter could not follow him. He was ready to confess that “our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given unto him,” had written “some things hard to be understood.” Jude could write of the judgments of God and reprove with terrible words, “ungodly men, who turned the grace of God into lasciviousness.” But he could not tell out the purpose of grace as it was planned in the eternal mind, or the experience of grace as it is felt and realized in the human heart, like Paul. There is James again, he, as a faithful minister, could deal very closely with the practical evidences of Christian character. And yet he seems to keep very much on the surface, he does not bore down deep into the substratum on which must rest the visible soil of all spiritual graces. Even John, most favored of all those apostles who were companions of our Lord on earth—sweetly as the beloved disciple writes of fellowship with the Father and His Son Jesus Christ—even John does not speak of grace so richly as Paul, “in whom God first showed forth all longsuffering as a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting.” Not, indeed, that we are at any liberty to prefer one apostle above another. We may not divide the church, saying, I am of Paul, I of Peter, I of Apollos, but we may acknowledge the instrument which God was pleased to use, we may admire the way in which the Holy Ghost fitted him for his work, we may, with the churches of Judea, “glorify God in Paul.” Among the early fathers, Augustine was singled out as the “Doctor of Grace,” so much did he delight in those doctrines that exhibit the freeness of divine favor. And surely we might affirm the like of Paul. Among his compeers, he outstripped them all in declaring the grace that brings salvation. The sense of grace pervaded all his thoughts as the lifeblood circulates through all the veins of one’s body. Does he speak of conversion, “he was called by grace.” Nay, he sees grace going befo…