Salvation is in the one who considered nothing human as alien and through his Holy Spirit joins us to himself through a word that is also fully human and wholly true… Jesus is Savior, and the reach of his grace extends as far as the effects of sin’s corruption.
~Herman Bavinck~
Reformed Dogmatics Vol. 1: Prolegomena (Grand Rapids, Michigan; Baker Academic; 2003) p. 389.
I have known some that, at first conversion, have not been very clear in the gospel, who have been made evangelical by their discoveries of their own need of mercy. They could not spell the word ‘grace.’ They began with a G, but they very soon went on with an F, till it spelt very like ‘freewill’ before they had done with it.
But after they have learned their weakness, after they have fallen into serious fault, and God has restored them, or after they have passed through deep depression of mind, they have sung a new song. In the school of repentance they have learned to spell. They began to write the word ‘free,’ but they went on from free, not to ‘will’ but to ‘grace.’ And there it stood in capitals, ‘FREE GRACE’. . . . They became clearer in their divinity, and truer in their faith than ever they were before.
~Charles Spurgeon~
The Forgotten Spurgeon (Edinburgh, Scotland; Banner of Truth Trust; 1966) p. 69-70. (HT: Dane Ortlund)
I suppose there are some persons whose minds naturally incline towards the doctrine of free-will. I can only say that mine inclines as naturally towards the doctrines of sovereign grace. Sometimes, when I see some of the worst characters in the street, I feel as if my heart must burst forth in tears of gratitude that if God had left me alone and had not touched me by His grace, what a great sinner I should have been! I should have run to the utmost lengths of sin, dived into the very depths of evil, nor should I have stopped at any vice or folly, if God had not restrained me. I feel that I should have been a very king of sinners, if God had let me alone.
I cannot understand the reason why I am saved, except upon the ground that God would have it so. I cannot, if I look ever so earnestly, discover any kind of reason in myself why I should be a partaker of Diving grace. If I am not at this moment without Christ, it is only because Christ Jesus would have His will with me, and that will was that I should be with Him where He is, and should share His glory. I can put the crown nowhere but upon the head of Him whose mighty grace has saved me from going down into the pit. It was He who turned my heart, and brought me down on my knees before Him.
~Charles Spurgeon~
A Defense of Calvinism (eBook. http://www.spurgeongems.org) p. 1.
The Old Guys 