I met with a friend last night and we were discussing the difficulty at times of accepting the grace we know to be truely ours in Christ, and the difference between conviction and self-acusation. Combined with this discussion was a consideration of how conviction of the gospel message cannot be separated from the desire to bear witness of Christ, to be intentional about sharing our faith.

I was reminded of a little book by C.H. Spurgeon (right), entitled All of Grace. I had mentioned, in a brief note in 2006, how this evangelistic book had moved me when I brought it along to my short term missions trip to Moldova. Well I pulled it of the shelf this morning, flipped to the final section, and in this one passage I found a summary of the balance of the very topics going through our minds last night—the freedom of grace, the narrowness of the path of a life lived unto God, and the carrying out of grace in evangelism. I felt compelled to capture these brief quotes somewhere.

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, and thus it 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.

If you are saved yourself, be on the watch for the souls of others. Your own heart will not prosper unless it is filled with intense concern to bless your fellow men. The life of your soul lies in faith; its health lies in love. He who does not pine to lead others to Jesus has never been under the spell of love himself. Get to the work of the Lord—the work of love. Begin at home. Visit next your neighbors. Enlighten the village or the street in which you live. Scatter the word of the Lord wherever your hand can reach.

Spurgeon summarizes his gospel book with a desperate plea that demonstrates that he was under the spell of the love of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Would that we as well would not attempt to separate faith from this kind of love for the lost:

Reader, meet me in heaven! Do not go down to hell. There is no coming back again from that abode of misery. Why do you wish to enter the way of death when Heaven's gate is open before you? Do not refuse the free pardon, the full salvation which Jesus grants to all who trust Him. Do not hesitate and delay. You have had enough of resolving, come to action. Believe in Jesus now, with full and immediate decision. Take with you words and come unto your Lord this day, even this day. Remember, O soul, it may be now or never with you. Let it be now; it would be horrible that it should be never.
Again I charge you, meet me in heaven.

You can read the entirety of this little treasure of a book online, and find out why initial faith, repentance itself, confirmation and assurance are all of grace, may it never be otherwise thought.