The Grace of Salvation

By Reformation Heritage Books

A single beam of God’s grace can fill the soul with awe, wonder, and holy fear. This grace is most brilliantly seen in his work of saving sinners through Jesus Christ. Saving grace displays all the attributes of God. Saving grace creates worshipers. Saving grace sets us free.
The authors of this book marvel together over various aspects of God’s saving grace, from the first promise of saving grace in Genesis to the glory of everlasting grace in Revelation. Contributors include Michael P. V. Barrett, Joel R. Beeke, Gerald M. Bilkes, Jonathan Gibson, Hensworth W. C. Jonas, David B. McWilliams, Adriaan C. Neele, Paul M. Smalley, and Daniel C. Timmer.
 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Reformation Heritage Books
• Release date: May 12, 2023
• ISBN: 9798886860306

Book preview

Grace-of-Salvation-front-cover.jpg

THE GRACE OF

SALVATION

Edited by

Joel R. Beeke and Paul M. Smalley

REFORMATION HERITAGE BOOKS

Grand Rapids, Michigan

The Grace of Salvation

© 2023 Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. Direct your requests to the publisher at the following addresses:

Reformation Heritage Books

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Scripture taken from the King James Version. In the public domain.

Printed in the United States of America

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ISBN 979-8-88686-029-0 (paperback)

ISBN 979-8-88686-030-6 (e-pub)

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Table of Contents

Preface – Joel R. Beeke and Paul M. Smalley

Part 1: God’s Grace in the Old Testament

1. The Promise of Grace (Gen. 3:15)

Joel R. Beeke

2. The Grace of Divine Dwelling (Exod. 25–30)

Jonathan Gibson

3. The Day of All Grace (Lev. 16)

Michael P. V. Barrett

4. Weeping Turned to Joy by Unmerited Grace (Zech. 12:10–13:9)

Daniel C. Timmer

Part 2: God’s Grace in Christ Crucified

5. The Christ of Grace (Luke 23:27–34)

Jonathan Gibson

Part 3: God’s Grace in Saving the Lost

6. The Grace of Regeneration (Eph. 2:1–10)

Adriaan C. Neele

7. Justification by Grace through Faith Alone (Rom. 3:19–31)

David B. McWilliams

8. The Grace of Adoption (Eph. 1:5–6)

David B. McWilliams

Part 4: God’s Grace in Christian Experience and Hope

9. The Maturation of Grace in Sanctification (Col. 3:5–11)

Hensworth W. C. Jonas

10. The Endurance of Grace in a Temporary World (Isa. 51:6)

Hensworth W. C. Jonas

11. The Glory of Everlasting Grace (Rev. 22:1–5)

Gerald M. Bilkes

Editors and Contributors

Preface

It is a truism in Christianity that by grace are ye saved (Eph. 2:8). But God’s grace is too often sentimentalized into unconditional acceptance, a bland tolerance for everyone and everything. Sadly, even in the church we may remain somewhat blinded to what Paul called the glory of his grace (Eph. 1:6). God’s infinite greatness shines in His grace so brilliantly that a single beam of it can fill the soul with awe, wonder, and holy fear. Saving grace displays all the attributes of God. Saving grace creates worshipers. A true knowledge of grace does not make us complacent in spiritual mediocrity but energizes us to pursue holiness while longing for Christ’s return (Titus 2:11–14).

It was the privilege of Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary to host its annual conference in August 2022 on the theme of The Grace of Salvation. Eight gospel ministers delivered eleven messages on aspects of God’s saving grace to His people. Recordings of these messages are available online.¹ This book reproduces the contents of those biblical and theological reflections for the edification of our readers.

God announced His saving grace in Christ immediately after the fall of man, and Joel Beeke opens this study of grace with an exposition of that promise in Genesis 3:15. Jonathan Gibson walks us through a description of the ancient tabernacle, showing how God’s gracious presence with His people shines in the seemingly obscure details of old covenant ceremonial law. Michael Barrett continues this typological theme with a rich meditation on the glory of Christ revealed in the Day of Atonement. Daniel Timmer gives us a tour of Zechariah that culminates in the marvelous promises of cleansing and renewing grace in Zechariah 12:10–13:9.

Of course, all saving grace is in Jesus Christ, God the Son incarnate. In a previous conference, we focused especially on The Beauty and Glory of Christ.² In this year’s conference, Jonathan Gibson seats us at the foot of the cross to marvel at our Lord’s personal grace in His prayer, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do (Luke 23:34).

When we think of God’s saving grace from a theological perspective, our minds naturally go to the order of salvation to consider regeneration, justification, adoption, and sanctification. Adriaan Neele helps us to bring that theology from our heads down into our hearts with his meditation on being made alive together with Christ (Eph. 2:1–10). David McWilliams leads us in the exploration of the graces of justification and adoption—two sparkling diamonds in the crown that God places on the heads of all who are in union with Christ.

As to sanctification by grace, Hensworth Jonas gives a stirring call to move beyond superficial acts of repentance and to really grow in maturity by building our lives on the grace of Christ. Dr. Jonas also lifts up our eyes to consider that this world is passing away under the curse against sin, but God, His grace, and His saved people will endure forever.

The book concludes with a sparkling exposition of the church’s return to Paradise in Revelation 22, offered by Jerry Bilkes. His opening up of Revelation’s symbols draws us into the very heart of grace—God’s purpose to bring us to Himself to glorify Him and enjoy Him forever.

Therefore, we invite you to this feast of grace. Take up, read, and feed your heart upon grace by faith in Jesus Christ. We also invite you to join Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary and its friends as we gather for future conferences, God willing, to declare the truths of Scripture alone concerning salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone for the glory of God alone.

—Joel R. Beeke and Paul M. Smalley

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1. For video and audio recordings, go to https://conference.prts.edu/archive/2022-grace-of-salvation/, or search under PRTS Conference 2022 at www.sermonaudio.com.

2. See Joel R. Beeke, ed., The Beauty and Glory of Christ (Grand Rapids: Reformation Heritage Books, 2011). See also the 2010 conference recordings at https://conference.prts.edu/archive/2010-the-beauty-and-glory-of-christ/.

PART I

God’s Saving Grace in the Old Testament

1

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The Promise of Grace (Gen. 3:15)

Joel R. Beeke

We begin our study of the grace of salvation with the first promise of grace in the Holy Scriptures. Our text is Genesis 3:15: And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

Genesis 3 has rightly been called the black chapter of Scripture. Our fall in Adam is the blackest reality of human history. Genesis 3 tells us sad truth about ourselves.

Any attempt to exclude ourselves from Genesis 3 is futile. Through the fall of Adam as our representative head in the covenant of works, we all have become children of the devil and servants of sin. Adam’s sin is imputed to us in its guilt, and its pollution is passed on to us through our parents. We have subjected ourselves to the sentence of death, the infinite wrath of God, the curse of the law, and the dominion of Satan. Experientially, we must become Adam, as it were, standing before God. The fall is our fall, our guilt.

Genesis 3 unlocks the secrets of numerous tragic truths. How did we break God’s covenant, scorn His majesty, trample His law underfoot, challenge His attributes? It was through this fall that we turned our backs on our worthy Creator. Through this fall, we cast away the heart of His image, exchanging knowledge for ignorance, righteousness for unrighteousness, and holiness for perversity. Genesis 3 informs us succinctly, graphically, and tragically.

Genesis 3 unveils how we have become what we are by nature: lost, condemnable, rejectable sinners; dead in sins and trespasses; worthy of death and hell. When I was a teenager, a girl in our youth group said that she had a hard time believing in reprobation. I replied that I had a hard time believing in election! Why would God choose anyone? We are all sinners. We all deserve damnation. Total depravity, separation from God, slavery to Satan, the origin of sin and evil, the cause of all misery and death, the stain upon all creation—Genesis 3 explains it all.

Who can comprehend the depth of our fall and its consequences for our natural hearts and daily lives? The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? (Jer. 17:9).

By nature, we do not truly know ourselves. Daily we live out our fall unaware of it in our actions, thoughts, words, motives, and perceptions. We are blind to our blindness. We are such slaves of Satan that this enslaver’s hold over us passes us by largely unnoticed. As L. G. C. Ledeboer (1808–1863) said, our greatest misery is that we do not know our misery (Rev. 3:17).¹ We think that we are not too bad, indeed, better than many other people.

Grace, however, changes all this. Then, sin becomes sin. As Jeremiah Burroughs (c. 1600–1646) said, There is more evil in any sin, the least sin, than in the greatest affliction.² When the Holy Spirit works in our hearts, the burden of original sin becomes ten times greater experientially than the burden of actual sins. Our problem of original sin means I can never love God above all or my neighbor as myself. With every tick of the clock I am sinning, sinning, sinning. I am missing the target of the purpose for which God made me. Paul expresses this burden well when he exclaims, For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do…. O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? (Rom. 7:18, 19, 24).

Happily, Genesis 3 also speaks about this grace of self-awareness, of self-abasement, as well as the grace of divine intervention and provision. Genesis 3 may also rightly be called the red chapter of Scripture, for three reasons: First, in verse 15 the Father unfurls the first gospel promise of the coming, blood-shedding Son. Second, the first exercise of faith in God’s promise of life is expressed by Adam in the naming of his wife Eve, which means in Hebrew life or living! We read in verse 20, And Adam called his wife’s name Eve; because she was the mother of all living. Third, the first sacrificial blood is spilled, pointing to the gospel, when God slew animals to make Adam and Eve coats of skins. We read in verse 21, Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them.

Against the black backdrop of Genesis 3’s tragedy, God paints a red chapter of atonement and a white chapter of hope. Genesis 3 declares that God is always ahead of Satan. It preaches amazing, staggering grace to lost sinners.

In Genesis 3:15, we find God’s first promise of grace. In this verse, we will consider, first, the enmity announced by God, I will put enmity between thee and the woman. Second, we will examine the conflict waged by Satan, it [that is, Satan] shall bruise thy head. Third, we will conclude with victory assured in Christ, and thou [that is, Christ] shalt bruise his heel.

Enmity Announced by God

Remarkably, God’s first promise of grace begins with the word enmity, which means hostility or the state of being enemies. In the original Hebrew, which sometimes accents the first word of a sentence, we read: "Enmity will I put…. Enmity" introduces Scripture’s first gospel promise and sets the tone for the entire verse!

For lost, fallen sinners, deliverance and enmity are inseparable. Some do not believe it. They say the gospel should contain nothing but love. Still others do not understand. They ask, Why does God begin with enmity? Wasn’t enmity already present? Didn’t Satan show enmity when he tempted Eve? Didn’t Eve show enmity when she gave fruit to Adam? Didn’t Adam show enmity when he ate the forbidden fruit and then blamed God and Eve for his sin? Why would God bring more enmity into a world which only moments prior knew nothing of enmity?

Enmity itself was not the problem in Paradise. Adam and Eve should have been at holy enmity with the serpent and full of holy hatred toward the serpent for even suggesting that they eat of the forbidden tree. They knew well that such eating entailed challenging God’s authority, calling Him a liar, violating His covenant, and breaking fellowship with Him.

Adam and Eve had a misdirected enmity. They directed their enmity against God instead of Satan. Mercifully, the Lord came to redirect their enmity to its proper focus, namely, to hate sin and Satan. The Lord said, as it were, Enmity will I place between the serpent and his seed (that is, Satan and unbelievers) and the woman and her seed (that is, representing the elect church in Jesus Christ). I will reverse your newly acquired values. I will cause you to hate what you now love, and love what you now despise. I will plant new enmity—an enmity that hates sin. I will give you a new heart.

God’s surprising intervention in Paradise was not a request to the free will of man. It was a declaration, an announcement of His irresistible free grace: "Enmity I will put." God did not stir up enmity already present. He did not request Adam and Eve to put enmity into exercise. In fact, he was not even addressing Himself directly to them, for He was speaking to the serpent.

All of this underscores one solemn truth: We are not able to put enmity against sin in our own heart. Only God can do what we cannot do for ourselves. God takes the initiative. This is our only hope as fallen creatures: divine initiative, sovereign intervention, and amazing grace.

God takes salvation into His own hands, allowing for no uncertainty: "I will put enmity. Hence, the new birth always does and must bring new enmity. This enmity is against sin, the old-man" nature, Satan, the pride of life, the lusts of the flesh and the eyes—enmity against anything that dishonors the Lord.

Are you experientially acquainted with this sovereign grace? Dear believer, you know that you not only could not, but also would not, have placed enmity in your own heart against sin. Is not sovereign grace your only hope—that grace which does all for a sinner who can do nothing rightly? That grace which turns around those who are rushing to hell and plants their footsteps in the narrow pathway to heaven?

Conflict Waged by Satan

The fruit of the divine planting of enmity will always be conflict. Spiritual life is a struggling, bruising battle. It is holy warfare. Scripture’s first gospel promise is plain: It [that is, the Seed of the woman, the Messiah] shall bruise thy [that is, the serpent’s, Satan’s] head, and thou [Satan] shalt bruise His [Jesus Christ’s] heel.

The Lord never promised His Son or His people an easy way of salvation. How can the enmity He placed between the devil’s seed and the woman’s seed, between Satan and Christ, between the world and the church, between the wicked and the righteous, between the flesh and the Spirit not lead to conflict?

Where God builds His church on the foundation of the proclamation of His Son, Satan will build His temple next door. To the end of time, Satan will wage war against all that is of God and Christ. Satan cannot attack Christ anymore. So, he attacks the people of God. Every true believer is a target of Satan. This is especially true of office bearers (Luke 22:31). But if the image of God is renewed in you, Satan hates you and does everything he can to destroy you.

We must not minimize the power of Satan. He never stops bruising the heels of the church of God. Though he will not conquer the living Church, he knows that a church without heels, so to speak, will be handicapped and severely weakened in battle. Satan will never keep a child of God out of heaven, but he may be able to keep heaven out of a child of God. The devil can leave