Grace of God in Conversion – Charles Spurgeon

IF every convert were brought in through the usual means of grace, we should come to regard conversion as a necessary result from certain fixed causes, and attribute some mystic virtue to the outward means; but when God is pleased to distribute the blessing entirely apart from these, then he shows that he can do without means as well as with means, that nothing is too mighty a work for him, that his arm is not shortened at all, so that he needs to use an instrument to make up the length of it; neither has he lost any strength, so as to be forced to appeal to us to make up the deficiency. If it were God’s will he could by a word convert a nation. If so he chose, he is such a master of human hearts, that as readily as the corn waves in the breath of the summer’s wind, so could he make all hearts bow before the mysterious impulses of his Holy Spirit. Why he does it not we know not, it is among his secrets; but when he works in a marked and decided way beyond all expectation, he does but give us a proof of how he is able to work as he wills among the armies of Heaven and the inhabitants of this lower world. Oh! the richness, the freeness, the power of the grace of God! The richness of it, that it comes to those who sought it not! The freeness of it, that it waits not for preparation on man’s part! The power of it, that it makes the unwilling willing when the appointed hour has come!