The salvation of the elect was as certain before His advent, though accomplished by it, as afterwards.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
It was of the greatest moment, and consequence, that they should believe in him when he came, for they could receive no benefit from him without believing him to be their Messiah.
Thus first of all in His own person He sanctified, restored, and blessed human nature.
There was nothing then but the revelation of the spirit-of God that could make any of the Israelites understand and believe that he was their proper Messiah.
But this Christ or Redeemer took not upon him the nature of angels, but the seed of Abraham, that is, human nature, that in the nature which sinned he might make the expiation required.
Even those of us who have tasted the radical saving grace of God find it intuitively difficult not to put conditions on grace.
Salvation is from our side a choice, from the divine side it is a seizing upon, an apprehending, a conquest by the Most High God. Our 'accepting' and 'willing' are reactions rather than actions. The right of determination must always remain with God.
He came by a leap to the goal of purpose, not by the toilsome steps of reason. On the instant his headlong spirit declared his purpose: this was the one being for him in all the world: at this altar he would light a lamp of devotion, and keep it burning forever.
He spends his life explaining from his pulpit that the glory of Christianity consists in the fact that though it is not true it has been found necessary to invent it.
Remove grace, and you have nothing whereby to be saved. Remove free will and you have nothing that could be saved.
No one was ever saved because his sins were small; no one was ever rejected on account of the greatness of his sins. Where sin abounded, grace shall much more abound.