“Having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh” (Gal.
iii. 3).
Grace literally means that which we do not have to earn. It has two great
senses always; it comes for nothing and it comes when we are helpless; it
doesn’t merely help the man that helps himself—that is not the Gospel; the
Gospel is that God helps the man who can’t help himself. And then there is
another thing; God helps the man to help himself, for everything the man
does comes from God. Grace is given to the man who is so weak and helpless
he cannot take the first step. That is the meaning of grace—a little of
the meaning of it; we can never know the fulness it has. Now, this river
is as free as it is full, but you know some people have an idea when they
get a little farther on they have got to pay an admission, and reserved
seats are very high, and they shrink back from the higher blessings of the
Gospel; ordinary Christians scarcely dare to claim them. If I understand
the meaning of this, God has not put the higher blessings apart for a
separate class who somehow are nearer to Him. God is no respecter of
persons.