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It has always been a danger in reformed thinking and preaching that we express the gospel in such a way that men have to merit grace by a degree of conviction experience. At the end of the day that is to make the offer of Christ conditional. When Christ bids all men to come and believe in Him freely and fully.
In His gracious providence God mightily uses conviction of sin in various ways and to various degrees to bring men and women to His Son. But He never bids us to go to preach conviction of sin as the warrant of faith. He bids us go and freely offer Jesus Christ and all His sufficiency as the warranty of faith to any man to come and bow before Him as a suppliant penitent, and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Conviction of sin is never a condition for the free offer of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
--Sinclair Ferguson
As [Paul] describes our dead condition before conversion, he realizes that dead people can’t meet conditions. If they are to live, there must be a totally unconditional and utterly free act of God to save them. This freedom is the very heart of grace.
What act could be more one-sidedly free and non-negotiated than one person raising another from the dead! This is the meaning of grace.
-- John Piper
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