There is no other reason why God should save a man but for His name’s sake. There is nothing in a sinner which can entitle him to salvation or recommend him to mercy. It must be God’s own heart that dictates the motive why men are to be saved.
One person says, “God will save me because I am so upright.” Sir, He will do no such thing! Says another, “God will save me because I am so talented.” Sir, he will not. Your talent? Your talent is nothing compared with that of the angel that once stood before the Throne of God! They sinned and were cast into the bottomless Pit forever! If He would save men for their talent, He would have saved Satan. For he had talents enough.
As for your morality and goodness, it is but filthy rags and He will never save you for anything you do! None of us would ever be saved if God expected anything of us—we must be saved purely and solely for reasons connected with Himself and lying in His own bosom!
He saves us for “His name’s sake.” What does that mean? I think it means this: the name of God is His Person, His attributes, and His Nature. For His Nature’s sake, for His very attributes’ sake, He saved men and, perhaps, we may also include this—“My name is in Him”—that is, in Christ. He saves us for the sake of Christ, who is the name of God. And what does that mean? I think it means this: He saved them, first, that He might manifest His Nature. God is love, and He wanted to manifest it. He showed it when He made the sun, the moon, and the stars and scattered flowers over the green and laughing earth. He showed His love when He made the air balmy to the body and the sunshine cheering to the eye. He gives us warmth even in winter, by the clothing and by the fuel which He has stored in the heart of the earth, but He wanted to reveal Himself still more.
Adapted from Spurgeon's Sermons, Why Are Men Saved? (No. 115), by Charles Spurgeon.
