By Grace Alone - My Chains Fell Off

(I stayed up quite late Christmas Eve so I could finish this book.  By Grace Alone is a warm, doctrinally rich book that clearly explains the facets of the grace of God as seen in the Gospel.  Dr. Ferguson's inspiration is a hymn, O How the Grace of God Amazes Me, written by Emmanuel T. Sibomana, an African pastor.  There was so much here that encouraged my soul.  Therefore, I'll be posting a brief excerpt from the 7 chapters, each based on a stanza of this hymn.)

O how the grace of God

Amazes me!

It loosed me from my bonds

And set me free!

What made it happen so?

His own will, this much I know,

Set me, as now I show,

At liberty

How, then, does Christ set us free?

John had answered that question earlier, in the most famous verse in his Gospel.  This God, this Father, so loved the world, this world in its sinfulness and bondage, that He sent His only Son into it.  He had only one Son, but He sent Him to die on a cross in order to save everyone who believes in Him (John 3:16).

The Son would be "lifted up" - lifted up on a cross exposed in public shame, hanging between heaven and earth, under the judgement of God against our sins - so that those who believe in Him should not perish but have everlasting life (John 12:32, 3:16).

Jesus Christ is able to set us free because He has dealt with the sin that enslaves us.

We can never atone for our own sin.  We can never break its power.  We can never come to God and say, "God, surely what I have done is enough to compensate for my sins."  Nothing we can do can possibly compensate.  But God sent His Son - think of it - His own Son - who stood in for us, in our place.  He lived a perfect life.  Since He had no sins of His own to atone for, He was qualified to atone for sin.  No sacrifice we could make could ever be adequate to atone for sin. But He was able and willing to do it. Because of that, we an be set free from guilt and from the bondage it creates.

 By Grace Alone, Sinclair Ferguson, Reformation Trust Publishing, page 8.