For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Ephesians 2:8

How does faith properly respond to grace for the salvation of a sinner? Or put differently, how do a sinner through faith receive grace of salvation?

Some almost make the personal exercising of their faith their own work that saved them from sin. In this we see profound ignorance as to the teaching of Scriptures regarding man’s helpless moral depravity as a result of the fall in sin. It comes to light most clearly in their preaching of repentance. It is preached thus: “Man must by repentance tear himself loose from his former sins and cease to love sin.” If the sinner is not able to accomplish this, it is therefore that his accepting Christ is not a wholehearted one. Their preaching of faith shows the same thing: Man, by his faith, must draw grace unto himself. Grace is, indeed, free. That is, he who seeks it can get it. Faith is the hand, as it were, by which the sinner reaches out for grace and appropriates it.

If repentance and faith are understood in this way, they are the soul exertion which, according to this conception, are absolutely necessary in order that the grace of God may be transferred to the heart of the sinner.

In Scriptures this is not corroborated. Scriptures present it all differently. Man is lost because of sin; can’t find his way back to God. He is dead in sin (Eph 2:5), can’t draw anything by himself for his resurrection from spiritual death in sin. He possesses no power to tear himself loose from his old sins, still less to cease loving sin (Rom 7:23-24). Scripture tells us, moreover, that Christ came to release the captives. It tells us, likewise, that the mind of the flesh is enmity against God, and “that which is born of the flesh is flesh” until it is born of God.

Repentance, therefore, does not consist in this, that man is able by the power of his own will to tear himself loose from his former sins; neither in this, that man is able to compel himself to hate sin and to love God. No, repentance consists in this, that the sinner, convicted by the Holy Spirit of his sins, submits to this conviction and confesses that he is bound by the chains of sin and that he loves sin and not God.

Faith is not a soul-exertion or a condition of the soul which makes us worthy to receive the grace of God. Neither is it a power by which we should draw the grace of God unto ourselves. That is not necessary, because grace is free. Not only in the sense that all may seek it. It is as free as the air which envelopes us on every hand and forces itself in upon us as soon as it secures the least access. Such is the grace of God in Christ. This is made clear when we understand the propitiation which Christ made by his life and death.

The propitiation which Christ made by his life and death he made as the representative of and the substitute for the human race just as Adam stood as representative of the human race in the fall and moral depravity came upon everyone by natural birth, so grace by Christ as the last Adam in his representation of the human race, rush in to save when it has the least access. Therefore this propitiation is the property of the race.

The covenant which God made in the death of Christ consists in this, that he takes upon himself to impart to each member of the race the salvation which through Christ belongs to the race. See 2 Cor. 5:18-19, where Paul mentions “the word of “reconciliation” as a part of the dispensation of salvation which God perfected in and by the death of Christ.

As a consequence of this covenant, God provides that grace searches for the individual sinner. It is not the sinner, therefore, who first seeks grace. No, grace has already found the sinner the moment the sinner begins to seek grace. Because grace searches for the sinner long before the sinner thinks of grace.

Romans 5:8
But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Grace therefore searches for man as soon as he is born.

We can clarify this further by considering the statement of Jesus that if any do not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he or she shall in no wise enter therein.

Luke 18:17
Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child shall in no wise enter therein.

But why do we have to be like infants who cannot exercise faith to enter the kingdom? It is because the little child can do something that we adults first learn through repentance and faith. Namely, It remains passive, not opposing the grace of God. Jesus gains unimpeded access to this little human life with all his grace and gifts.

But how shall we adults get to the point where we, like the child, become submissive and do not hinder Jesus from entering with all his salvation? Of a truth, says Jesus, through repentance we become as children (Matt. 18:3).

Here we see, consequently, what purpose repentance should serve a sinner. It is to remove the opposition by which he opposes Christ from coming to him with all his grace. He must stop fighting and surrender in defeat to the conviction of the Holy Spirit. Repentance and faith in the sinner consist, therefore, simply in this, that the sinner realizes and acknowledges his sinfulness and helplessness and therefore surrenders himself unconditionally to the Savior. For Jesus needs no help from the sinner. All he needs is access. Jesus said behold I stand at the door and knock if you grant me access, I will come in.

Revelation 3:20
Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.

Thus we see that the sinner’s saving faith is not to pull Jesus in, but to allow him an unhindered access to come in with his saving grace.