The text divides itself into two branches: first, what does not; secondly, what does; move God to save us. To the first question our answer is Not anything in us; to the second His regard to His own holy Name.
I. The doctrine that God is not moved to save man by any merit or excellence of his, is a truth of the highest importance and consequence to sinners. Man must be emptied of self before he can be filled with grace. We must be stripped of our rags, before we can be clothed with righteousness; we must be unclothed, that we may be clothed upon; wounded, that we may be healed; killed, that we may be made alive; buried in disgrace, that we may rise in grace.
II. It is as important for the saint as for the sinner to remember that he is not saved through personal merit or for his own sake. When age has stiffened its bark and fibres, if you bend a branch into a new direction, it is long before it loses the tendency to resume its old position. Even so, when God has laid hands upon us, and grace has given our earthly soul a heavenward bent, how prone it is to start back again! Who, that has endeavoured to keep his heart with diligence, has not felt and mourned over the tendency to be working out a righteousness of his own, to be pleased with himself, and, by taking some satisfaction from his own merits, to undervalue those of Christ?
III. This doctrine, while it keeps the saint humble, will help to make him holy. As the tree grows best skyward that grows most downward, the lower the saint grows in humility. the higher he grows in holiness. Piety and pride are not less opposed to each other than light and darkness.
T. Guthrie, The Gospel in Ezekiel,p. 116.
In entering upon the question, What moved God to save man? let us
I. Attend to the expression "My Name's sake." This is a most comprehensive term. It indicates much more that what, in common language, is involved in a name. The Name of God comprehends everything which directly or remotely affects the Divine honour and glory.
II. We are to understand that the motive which moved God to save man, was regard to His own glory. Grace glorifies man, no doubt; but for what purpose? that he may glorify God. It saves man, but saves him that he may sing, not his own praises, but a Saviour's. It exalts man, but exalts him that, like an exhalation, sun-drawn from the ground and raised to heaven, each of us may form a sparkling drop in the bow which encircles the head that God crowns with glory, and man once crowned with thorns.
III. Observe, that in saving man for His "holy Name's sake," or for His own honour and glory, God exhibits the mercy, holiness, love, and other attributes of the Godhead. The truth is, that God saves man for much the same reasons as at first He made him. The whole fabric of creation appears to prove that Jehovah delights in the evolution of His powers, in the display of His wisdom, love, and goodness; and just as it is to the delight which God enjoys in the exercise of them that we owe this beautiful creation, so it is to His delight in the exercise of His pity, love, and mercy, that we owe salvation, with all its blessings.
T. Guthrie, The Gospel in Ezekiel,p. 99.