On C. H. Spurgeon’s “Seven Wonders of Grace.”
On C. H. Spurgeon’s “Seven Wonders of Grace.”
Never is there a limit to the depths and heights of God’s unmerited favor.
Perhaps the most revered Christian speaker and writer of all time is the renowned Charles Haddon Spurgeon. His profound ability to convey truth and grace through the spoken word coupled with his perceptive insight into men’s hearts through the written word are what make his ministry continue to thrive, even to this day. Spurgeon’s skill at delving into the core of man’s persistent problems with iniquity is nearly unparalleled. He would not dampen the message of God to remain unoffensive — he wasn’t afraid of coarse words if they served to awaken the conscience to its great need for Christ.
Yet, despite his gruff ministry at times, his grace and compassion always ruled the day. His hunger was for men’s souls and he greatly understood that it was through love, not coercion, that they are won for the glory of God. Such is the case in Spurgeon’s Seven Wonders of Grace. It’s almost an unknown work today but surely one that should receive due attention and adoration for its extraordinary consolation for the sinner. Throughout its pages, Spurgeon endeavors to take the reader through seven distinct portraits of God’s miraculous grace as it is manifested in the lives of Paul, Mannaseh, and Onesimus, among others. It’s through these different pictures of redemption that the glory of God’s grace is uniquely found and understood. What each passage shows is the remarkable fact that we’re never too far gone from God to be forgiven.
You can never out-sin the coverage of Jesus’s forgiving grace! Or, as Spurgeon himself notes, we should “never dare to doubt the possibility of your being forgiven!” (31). Notwithstanding the phase of life you’re in, there’s grace enough for you, grace that brings immediate freedom and “instantaneous liberty.” Whatever sin holds you in bondage, whatever immoral thought holds you captive, you’ll be pointed and directed to a greater, wonder-working Savior by digesting this work.
The audience of this little work will easily be assessed as those who are without Christ and remain yet unsaved. But the influence of Spurgeon’s words isn’t limited to a singular group — everyone can benefit from the reading and re-reading of these pages. We “cannot have too large ideas of divine grace, for where sin abounded grace does much more abound” (40). Never is there a limit to the depths and heights of God’s unmerited favor. Always there is another unexplored, undiscovered cavern waiting to be found.
This short book uncovers seven of such caverns, each a unique instance of the Father’s saving mercy, and each a display of God’s wonderful grace. Spurgeon’s chief desire is to exalt God’s gospel of grace above everything else, and this he does in expert fashion. Read and be encouraged.
Works cited:
Charles Spurgeon, Seven Wonders of Grace (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1877).