Most of the material in this booklet first appeared in Sound of Grace, a Bible study paper published by New Covenant Media. The basic idea expressed in this material came from a message given by Pastor James Gables of Birmingham, Alabama. The thesis of his message was that the word grace, as used in the Bible, has more than one component. Until we recognize the multi-faceted meanings of grace, we will not be able to understand it. My use of Pastor Gables’ idea and material in no way means that he agrees with everything in this book.

Appendix A consists of a chapter from Horatius Bonar’s excellent book, God’s Way of Holiness. Bonar wrote this book to refute the doctrine of preparationism, a doctrine that first appeared among New England Puritans in the seventeenth century and that was prevalent among some Calvinists in his day. In this book, Bonar insisted that true holiness grows out of assurance of salvation.

Appendix B is a short article by John Bunyan entitled “Of the Law and the Christian.” This article did more to teach me the biblical relationship between law and grace than anything I have ever read or heard preached. Bunyan shows that true holy living is possible only after the conscience has been set completely free from the law. I gladly claim John Bunyan as my mentor on the subject of law and grace.

Bonar, Bunyan, and Spurgeon were outspoken critics of both “easy-believism” and “hard-believism.” Just as we dare not preach Christ as anything less than Lord as well as Savior, so too, we cannot have poor sinners looking inside themselves to find sufficient evidence for assurance of justification. We must not build justification on grace and sanctification on the law. Both are impossible apart from grace. Spurgeon referred to the “white devil of antinomianism and the black devil of legalism” as equal enemies of the gospel of grace.

Our prayer is that many of God’s hurting sheep will read this booklet, understand its message, and as a result, find their souls set free and filled with thanksgiving for God’s amazing grace as revealed in the New Covenant.

John G. Reisinger
May 2008