not, by trusting to the works of the law, make it in vain that God has provided a gratuitous method of salvation.' That great grace or favour he did not make a thing of naught. In Gal. 5, 4, he says, " Whosoever of you are justified by the law, are fallen from grace." That is, ' ye have renounced the gra- tuitous method of salvation, and are debtors to do the whole law.' So in Kom. 6, 14, it is said, "We are not under law, but under grace." In no one of these cases does " grace " mean either the actual pardon of sin, or inward divine influ- ence. It means the favour of God, and in this connection the great favour of redemption. The Lord Jesus Christ having died for our sins and procured eternal redemption for us, the apostle was most earnest in exhorting men not to allow this great favour, as regards them, to be in vain. It is the more evident that such is the meaning of the passage because it is not so much a direct exhortation to the Corinthians, as a declaration of the method in which the apostle preached. He announced the fact that God had made Christ who knew no sin to be sin for us, and he exhorted all men not to receive the grace of God in vain, that is, not to reject this great salvation. And finally, this interpretation is required by the following verse. " Behold, now is the accepted time ; now is the day of salvation." This is appropriate as a motive to receive the offer of pardon and acceptance with God, but it is not appro- priate as a reason why a renewed and pardoned sinner should not fall from grace. There is therefore no necessity to as- sume, contrary to the whole analogy of Scripture, that the apostle here teaches that those who have once made their peace with God and experienced his renewing grace can fall away unto j)erdition. If reconciled by the death of his Son, much more shall they be saved by his life. Nothing can ever separate them from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus. Whom he calls, them he also glorifies. They are kept by the mighty power of God through faith unto salvation.
2. (For he saith, I have heard thee in a time ac- cepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee ; behold, now (is) the accepted time ; behold, now (is) the day of salvation.)
The Scriptures ^ontain abundant evidence that inspiration did not interfere with the natural i)lay of the powers of the