Gospel Guidebook: Getting and Keeping It Right 
Robert Sandeman Is Still Correct Despite the Slander
by Robert P. TerryUpdated June 29, 2026
Our only hope is that God, in Christ, saved a people, and if by the grace of God, we believe this and what it implies, namely, that we are in need of sheer mercy, unilaterally determined and administered on God's part (and not as ones making an approach toward Him, trusting in Him, concurring with Him, or appropriating anything from Him, regardless of whether such act is attributed to the Holy Spirit working in the heart or not, knowing that, rather, it is the ungodly who are recipients of his mercy, being those who are incapable of differentiating themselves from other sinners), so that we can say that He is our Savior if we are to be saved at all, then we may, by further enjoyment of His unmerited favor, progress to worship Him: "The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and to the fourth generation," rejoicing in Him who says, "I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy" and thus "making haste, and bowing our heads toward the earth, and worshiping," entreating Him saying, "If now we have found grace in thy sight, O Lord, let our Lord, I pray thee, go among us; for we are a stiffnecked people; and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for thine inheritance."
Robert Sandeman (1718-1771) wrote a book called Letters on Theron and Aspasio (available here) that created quite a stir in his day, and for which he is mostly regarded as being one of the founders of a sect called the "Sandemanians." However, having read his book cover to cover and having contemplated on it deeply and repeatedly, I have come to believe that most of the people who have written about Robert Sandeman and his teachings (including those who speak favorably of him) have never actually read his book, or read it only casually, or just completely misunderstood it. He wasn't aiming to start a new sect. Rather, his primary motivation was to proclaim the sufficiency of the work of Jesus Christ, something that put him at odds with the religious establishment of his day. In particular, he said things like "He who finds nothing that can give him any importance, but the work of Christ, rejoices in knowing that the Divine good pleasures rests there. So his happiness arises wholly from that which God hath provided, without his concurrence in any respect; and the grateful sense of his happiness always terminates in that work." I suspect that most people, upon casual reading, would have no problem with this quotation, but the real dagger lies in the phrase "without his concurrence in any respect," and it was because of this emphasis that he was hated. I can probably do no better than to quote Robert Sandeman's gravestone. It provides a succinct summary of his life and teachings. Here lies until the resurrection the body of Robert Sandeman, a native of Perth, North Britain; who in the face of continual opposition from all sorts of men long and boldly contended for the ancient faith that the bare work of Jesus Christ, without a deed or thought on the part of man, is sufficient to present the chief of sinners spotless before God; to declare this blessed Truth as testified in the Holy Scriptures, he left his country – he left his friends; and after much patient suffering, finished his labors at Danbury, April 2, 1771, AE (Age): 53 years." I highly recommend his book.