|
In 1929 we wrote a booklet entitled "A Threefold Salvation" based upon
the instruction we had received during our spiritual infancy. Like most
of that early teaching, it was defective because inadequate. As we
continued our study of God’s Word further light has been granted us on
this subject—yet alas how ignorant we still are—and this has enabled us
to see that, in the past, we had started at the wrong point, for instead
of beginning at the beginning, we commenced almost in the middle.
instead of salvation from sin being threefold, as we once supposed, we
now perceive it to be fourfold. How good is the Lord in vouchsafing us
additional light, yet it is now our duty to walk therein, and, as
Providence affords us opportunity, to give it out. May the Holy Spirit
so graciously guide us that God may be glorified and His people edified.
The subject of God’s "so-great-salvation" (Heb. 2:3), as it is revealed
to us in the Scriptures and made known in Christian experience, is
worthy of a life’s study. Any one who supposes that there is now no
longer any need for him to prayerfully search for a fuller understanding
of the same needs to ponder "If any man think he knoweth anything, he
knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know" (1 Cor. 8:2). The fact is that
the moment any of us really takes it for granted that he already knows
all that there is to be known on any subject treated of in Holy Writ, he
at once cuts himself off from any further light thereon. That which is
most needed by all of us in order to a better understanding of Divine
things is not a brilliant intellect, but a truly humble heart and a
teachable spirit, and for that we would daily and fervently pray, for we
possess it not by nature.
The subject of Divine salvation has, sad to say, provoked age-long
controversy and bitter contentions even among Christians. There is
comparatively little agreement even upon this elementary vet vital
truth. Some have insisted that salvation is by Divine grace, others have
argued that it is by human endeavor. A number have sought to defend the
middle position, and while allowing that the salvation of a lost sinner
must be by Divine grace, were not willing to concede that it is by
Divine grace alone, alleging that God’s grace must be plussed by
something from the creature, and very varied have been the opinions of
what that ‘something must be—baptism, church-membership, the performing
of good works, holding out faithful to the end, etc. On the other hand,
there are those who not only grant that salvation is by grace alone, but
who deny that God uses any means whatever in the accomplishment of His
eternal purpose to save His elect —overlooking the fact that the
sacrifice of Christ is the grand "means’!
It is true that the Church of God was blessed with super-creation
blessings, being chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world and
predestinated unto the adoption of children, and nothing could or can
alter that grand fact. It is equally true that if sin had never entered
the world, none had been in need of salvation from it. But sin has
entered, and the Church fell in Adam and came under the curse and
condemnation of God’s Law. Consequently, the elect, equally with the
reprobate, shared in the capital offence of their federal head, and
partake of its fearful entail: "In Adam all die" (1 Cor. 15:22): "By the
offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation" (Rom. 5:18).
The result of this is, that all are "alienated from the life of God
through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their
hearts" (Eph. 4:18), so that the members of the mystical Body of Christ
are "by nature the children of wrath, even as others" (Eph. 2:3), and
hence they are alike in dire need of God’s salvation.
Even when there is fundamental soundness in their views upon Divine
salvation many have such inadequate and one-sided conceptions that other
aspects of this truth, equally important and essential, are often
overlooked and tacitly denied. How many, for example, would be capable
of giving a simple exposition of the following texts: "Who hat/i saved
us" (2 Tim. 1:9), "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling’
(Phil. 2:12), "Now is our salvation nearer than when we believed’ (Rom.
13:11). Now those verses do not refer to three different salvations, but
to three separate aspects of one, and unless we learn to distinguish
sharply among them, there can be naught but confusion and cloudiness in
our thinking. Those passages present three distinct phases and stages of
salvation: salvation as an accomplished fact, as a present process, and
as a future prospect.
So many today ignore these distinctions, jumbling them together. Some
contend for one and some argue against the other two; and vice versa.
Some insist they are already saved, and deny that they are now being
saved. Some declare that salvation is entirely future, and deny that it
is in any sense already accomplished. Both are wrong. The fact is that
the great majority of professing Christians fail to see that "salvation"
is one of the most comprehensive terms in all the Scriptures, including
predestination, regeneration, justification, sanctification, and
glorification. They have far too cramped an idea of the meaning and
scope of the word "salvation" (as it is used in the Scriptures),
narrowing its range too much, generally confining their thoughts to but
a simple phase. They suppose "salvation" means no more than the new
birth or the forgiveness of sins. Were one to tell them that salvation
is a protracted process, they would view him with suspicion; and if he
affirmed that salvation is something awaiting us in the future, they
would at once dub him a heretic. Yet they would be the ones to err.
Ask the average Christian, Are you saved? and he answers, Yes, I was
saved in such and such a year; and that is as far as his thoughts on the
subject go. Ask him, To what do you owe your salvation? and "the
finished work of Christ" is the sum of his reply. Tell him that each of
those answers is seriously defective, and he strongly resents your
aspersion. As an example of the confusion that now prevails, we quote
the following from a tract on Philippians 2:12: "To whom are those
instructions addressed? The opening words to the Epistle tell us: ‘To
the saints in Christ Jesus.’ . . . Thus they were all believers! and
could not be required to work for their salvation, for they already
possessed it." Alas that so few people today perceive anything wrong in
such a statement. Another "Bible teacher" tells us that "save thyself"
(1 Tim. 4:16) must refer to deliverance from physical ills, as Timothy
was already saved spiritually. True, yet it is equally true that he was
then in the process of being saved, and also a fact that his salvation
was then future.
Let us now supplement the first three verses quoted and show that there
are other passages in the New Testament which definitely refer to each
distinct tense of salvation. First salvation is an accomplished fact:
"Thy faith hath saved thee" (Luke 7:50); "by grace ye have been saved"
(Greek, and so translated in the R. V.—Eph. 2:8); "according to his
mercy he saved us" (Titus 3:5). Second, salvation as a present process,
in course of accomplishment; not yet completed: "Unto us which are being
saved" (1 Cor. 1:18—R. V. and Bagster Interlinear); "Them that believe
to the saving (not the ‘salvation’) of the soul" (Heb. 10:39). Third,
salvation as a future process: "Sent forth to minister for them who
shall be heirs of salvation" (Heb. 1:14); "receive with meekness the
engrafted Word, which is able to save your souls" (James. 1:21); "kept
by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed
in the last time" (1 Pet. 1:5). Thus, by putting together these
different passages we are clearly warranted in formulating the following
statement: every genuine Christian has been saved, is now being saved,
and will yet be saved—how and from what we shall endeavor to show.
As further proof of how many-sided is the subject of God’s great
salvation, and how that in Scripture it is viewed from various angles,
take the following: by grace are ye saved" (Eph. 2:8); "saved by his
(Christ’s) life," i.e., by His resurrection life (Rom. 5:9); "thy faith
hath saved thee" (Luke 7:50); "the engrafted Word which is able to save
your souls" (James 1:21); "saved by hope" (Rom. 8:24); "saved; yet so as
by fire" (1 Cor. 3:15); "the like figure whereunto baptism doth also now
save us" (1 Pet. 3:21). Ah, my reader, the Bible is not a lazy man’s
book, nor can it be soundly expounded by those who do not devote the
whole of their time, and that for years, to its prayerful study. It is
not that God would bewilder us, but that He would humble us, drive us to
our knees, make us dependent upon His Spirit. Not to the proud—those who
are wise in their own esteem—are its heavenly secrets opened.
In like manner it may be shown from Scripture that the cause of
salvation is not a single one, as so many suppose—the blood of Christ.
Here, too, it is necessary to distinguish between things which differ.
First, the originating cause of salvation is the eternal purpose of God,
or, in other words, the predestinating grace of the Father. Second, the
meritorious cause of salvation is the mediation of Christ, this having
particular respect to the legal side of things, or, in other words, His
fully meeting the demands of the Law on the behalf and in the stead of
those He redeems. Third, the efficient cause of salvation is the
regenerating and sanctifying operations of the Holy Spirit, which
respect the experimental side of it; or, in other words, the Spirit
works in us what Christ purchased for us. Thus, we owe our personal
salvation equally to each Person in the Trinity, and not to one (the
Son) more than to the others. Fourth, the instrumental cause is our
faith, obedience, and perseverance: though we are not saved because of
them, equally true is it that we cannot be saved (according to God’s
appointment) without them.
In the opening paragraph, we have stated that in our earlier effort we
erred as to the starting point. In writing upon a threefold salvation we
began with salvation from the penalty of sin, which is our
justification. But our salvation does not begin there, as we knew well
enough even then: alas that we so blindly followed our erring
preceptors. Our salvation originates, of course, in the eternal purpose
of God, in His predestinating of us to everlasting glory. "Who hath
saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our
works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in
Christ Jesus before the world began" (2 Tim. 1:9). That has reference to
God’s decree of election: His chosen people were then saved completely,
in the Divine purpose, and all that we shall now say has to do with the
performing of that purpose, the accomplishing of that decree, the
actualization of that salvation.
[TOC]
[Top of Page]
It is here that God begins His actual application of salvation unto His
elect. God saves us from the pleasure or love of sin before He delivers
us from the penalty or punishment of sin. Necessarily so, for it would
be neither an act of holiness nor of righteousness were He to grant full
pardon to one who was still a rebel against Him, loving that which He
hates. God is a God of order throughout, and nothing ever more evidences
the perfections of His works than the orderliness of them. And how does
God save His people from the pleasure of sin? The answer is, By
imparting to them a nature which hates evil and loves holiness. This
takes place when they are born again, so that actual salvation begins
with regeneration. Of course it does: where else could it commence?
Fallen man can never perceive his desperate need of salvation nor come
to Christ for it, till he has been renewed by the Holy Spirit.
"He hath made everything beautiful in his time" (Eccl. 3:11), and much
of the beauty of God’s spiritual handiwork is lost upon us unless we
duly observe their "time." Has not the Spirit Himself emphasized this in
the express enumeration He has given us in "For whom he did foreknow, he
did also predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he
might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom he did
predestinate, them he also called; and whom he called, them he also
justified; and whom he justified, them he also glorified" (Rom.
8:29-30). Verse 29 announces the Divine foreordination; verse 30 states
the manner of its actualization. It seems passing strange that with this
Divinely defined method before them, so many preachers begin with our
justification, instead of with that effectual call (from death unto
life, our regeneration) which precedes it. Surely it is most obvious
that regeneration must first take place in order to lay a foundation for
our justification. Justification is by faith (Acts 13:39; Rom. 5:1; Gal.
3:8), and the sinner must be Divinely quickened before he is capable of
believing savingly.
Does not the last statement made throw light upon and explain what we
have said is so "passing strange"? Preachers today are so thoroughly
imbued with free-willism that they have departed almost wholly from that
sound evangelism which marked our forefathers. The radical difference
between Arminianism and Calvinism is that the system of the former
revolves about the creature, whereas the system of the latter has the
Creator for its centre of orbit. The Arminian allots to man the first
place, the Calvinist gives God that position of honor. Thus the Arminian
begins his discussion of salvation with justification, for the sinner
must believe before he can be forgiven; further back he will not go, for
he is unwilling that man should be made nothing of But the instructed
Calvinist begins with election, descends to regeneration, and then shows
that being born again (by the sovereign act of God, in which the
creature has no part) the sinner is made capable of savingly believing
the Gospel.
Saved from the pleasure and love of sin. What multitudes of people would
strongly resent being told that they delighted in evil! They would
indignantly ask if we supposed them to be moral perverts. No indeed: a
person may be thoroughly chaste and yet delight in evil. It may be that
some of our own readers repudiate the charge that they have ever taken
pleasure in sin, and would claim, on the contrary, that from earliest
recollection they have detested wickedness in all its forms. Nor would
we dare to call into question their sincerity; instead we point out that
it only affords another exemplification of the solemn fact that "the
heart is deceitful above all things" (Jer. 17:9). But this is a matter
that is not open to argument: the plain teaching of God’s Word decides
the point once and for all, and beyond its verdict there is no appeal.
What, then, say the Scriptures?
So far from God’s Word denying that there is any delight to be found
therein, it expressly speaks of "the pleasures of sin," it immediately
warns that those pleasures are but "for a season" (Heb. 11:25), for the
aftermath is painful and not pleasant; yea, unless God intervenes in His
sovereign grace, they entail eternal torment. So too the Word refers to
those who are "lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God" (2 Tim. 3:4).
It is indeed striking to observe how often this discordant note is
struck in Scripture. It mentions those who "love vanity" (Ps. 4:2); "him
that loveth violence" (Ps. 11:5); "thou lovest evil more than good" (Ps.
52:3); "he loved lies" (Prov. 1:22); "they which delight in their
abominations" (Isa. 66:3); "their abominations were according as they
loved" (Hos. 9:10); who hated the good and loved the evil" (Micah 3:2);
"if any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him" (1
John 2:15). To love sin is far worse than to commit it, for a man may be
suddenly tripped up or commit it through frailty.
The fact is, my reader, that we are not only born into this world with
an evil nature, but with hearts that are thoroughly in love with sin.
Sin is our native element. We are wedded to our lusts, and of ourselves
are no more able to alter the bent of our corrupt nature than the
Ethiopian can change his skin or the leopard his spots. But what is
impossible with man, is possible with God, and when He takes us in hand
this is where He begins—by saving us from the pleasure or love of sin.
This is the great miracle of grace, for the Almighty stoops down and
picks up a loathsome leper from the dunghill and makes him a new
creature m Christ, so that the things he once hated he now loves. God
commences by saving us from ourselves. He does not save us from the
penalty until He has delivered us from the love of sin.
And how is this miracle of grace accomplished, or rather, exactly what
does it consist of? Negatively, not by eradicating the evil nature, nor
even by refining it. Positively, by communicating a new nature, a holy
nature, which loathes that which is evil, and delights in all that is
truly good. To be more specific. First, God save His people from the
pleasure or love of sin by puffing His holy awe in their hearts, for
"the fear of the Lord is to hate evil" (Prov. 8:13), and again, "the
fear of the Lord is to depart from evil" (Prov. 6:16). Second. God saves
His people from the pleasure of sin by communicating to them a new and
vital principle: ‘the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the
Holy Spirit" (Rom 5:5), and where the love of God rules the heart, the
love of sin is dethroned. Third, God saves His people from the love of
sin by the Holy Spirit’s drawing their affections unto things above,
thereby taking them off the things which formerly enthralled them.
If on the one hand the unbeliever hotly denies that lit is in love with
sin, many a believer is often hard put 10 persuade himself that he has
been saved from the love thereof With an understanding that has in part
been enlightened by the Holy Spirit, he is the better able to discern
things in their true colors. With a heart that has been made honest by
grace, he refuses to call sweet bitter. With a conscience that has been
sensitized by the new birth, he the more quickly feels the workings of
sin and the hankering of his affections for that which is forbidden.
Moreover, the flesh remains in him, unchanged, and as the raven
constantly craves carrion, so this corrupt principle in which our
mothers conceived us, lusts after and delights in that which is the
opposite of holiness. It is these things which occasion and give rise to
the disturbing questions that clamour for answer within the genuine
believer.
The sincere Christian is often made to seriously doubt if he has been
delivered from the love of sin. Such questions as these plainly agitate
his mind: Why do I so readily yield to temptation? Why do some of the
vanities and pleasures of the world still possess so much attraction for
me? Why do I chafe so much against any restraints being placed upon my
lusts? Why do I find the work of mortification so difficult and
distasteful? Could such things as these be if I were a new creature in
Christ? Could such horrible experiences as these happen if God had saved
me from taking pleasure in sin? Well do we know that we are here giving
expression to the very doubts which exercise the minds of many of our
readers, and those who are strangers thereto are to be pitied. But what
shall we say in reply? How is this distressing problem to be resolved?
How may one be assured that he has been saved from the love of sin? Let
us point out first that the presence of that within us which still lusts
after and takes delight in some evil things, is not incompatible with
our having been saved from the love of sin, paradoxical as that may
sound. It is part of the mystery of the Gospel that those who be saved
are yet sinners in themselves. The point we are here dealing with is
similar to and parallel with faith. The Divine principle of faith in the
heart does not cast out unbelief. Faith and doubts exist side by side
within a quickened soul, which is evident from those words, "Lord, I
believe; help thou mine unbelief" (Mark 9:24). In like manner the
Christian may exclaim and pray, "Lord, I long after holiness, help Thou
my lustings after sin." And why is this? Because of the existence of two
separate natures, the one at complete variance with the other within the
Christian.
How, then, is the presence of faith to be ascertained? Not by the
ceasing of unbelief, but by discovering its own fruit and works. Fruit
may grow amid thorns as flowers among weeds, and yet it is fruit
nonetheless. Faith exists amid many doubts and fears. Notwithstanding
opposing forces within as well as from without us, faith still reaches
out after God. Notwithstanding innumerable discouragements and defeats,
faith continues to fight. Notwithstanding many refusals from God, it yet
clings to Him and says, Except Thou bless me I will not let Thee go.
Faith may be fearfully weak and fitful, often eclipsed by the clouds of
unbelief, nevertheless the Devil himself cannot persuade its possessor
to repudiate God’s Word, despite His Son, or abandon all hope. The
presence of faith, then, may be ascertained in that it causes its
possessor to come before God as an empty-handed beggar beseeching Him
for mercy and blessing.
Now just as the presence of faith may be known amid all the workings of
unbelief, so our salvation from the love of sin may be ascertained
notwithstanding all the lustings of the flesh after that which is evil.
But in what way? How is this initial aspect of salvation to be
identified? We have already anticipated this question in an earlier
paragraph, wherein we stated that God saved us from delighting in sin by
imparting a nature that hates evil and loves holiness, which takes place
at the new birth. Consequently, the real question to be settled is, How
may the Christian positively determine whether that new and holy nature
has been imparted to him? The answer is, By observing its activities,
particularly the opposition it makes (under the energizings of the Holy
Spirit) unto indwelling sin. Not only does the flesh (that principle of
sin) lust against the spirit, but the spirit (the principle of holiness)
lusts and wars against the flesh.
First, our salvation from the pleasure or love of sin may be recognized
by sin’s becoming a burden to us. This is truly a spiritual experience.
Many souls are loaded down with worldly anxieties, who know nothing of
what it means to be bowed down with a sense of guilt. But when God takes
us in hand, the iniquities and transgressions of our past life are made
to lie as an intolerable load upon the conscience. When we are given a
sight of ourselves as we appear before the eyes of the thrice holy God,
we will exclaim with the Psalmist, "For innumerable evils have compassed
me about: mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able
to look up; they are more than the hairs of mine head:
therefore my heart faileth me" (Ps. 42:12). So far from sin being
pleasant, it is now felt as a cruel incubus, a crushing weight, and
unendurable load. The soul is "heavy laden" (Matthew 11:28) and bowed
down. A sense of guilt oppresses and the conscience cannot bear the
weight of it. Nor is this experience restricted to our first conviction:
it continues with more or less acuteness throughout the Christian’s
life.
Second, our salvation from the pleasure of sin may be recognized by
sin’s becoming bitter to us. True, there are millions of unregenerate
who are filled with remorse over the harvest reaped from their sowing of
wild oats. Yet that is not hatred of sin, but dislike of its
consequences—ruined health, squandered opportunities, financial
straitness, or social disgrace. No, what we have reference to is that
anguish of heart which ever marks the one the Spirit takes in hand. When
the veil of delusion is removed and we see sin in the light of God’s
countenance; when we are given a discovery of the depravity of our very
nature, then we perceive that we are sunk in carnality and death. When
sin is opened to us in all its secret workings, we are made to feel the
vileness of our hypocrisy, self-righteousness, unbelief, impatience, and
the utter filthiness of our hearts. And when the penitent soul views the
sufferings of Christ, he can say with Job, "God maketh my heart soft"
(23:16).
Ah, my reader, it is this experience which prepares the heart to go out
after Christ: those that are whole need not a physician, but they that
are quickened and convicted by the spirit are anxious to be relieved by
the great Physician. "The Lord killeth, and maketh alive; he bringeth
down to the grave, and bringeth up. The Lord maketh poor and maketh
rich; he bringeth low, and lifteth up" (1 Sam. 2:6-7). It is in this way
that God slayeth our self righteousness, maketh poor and bringeth low—by
making sin to be an intolerable burden and as bitter wormwood to us.
There can be no saving faith till the soul is filled with evangelical
repentance, and repentance is a godly sorrow for sin, a holy detestation
of sin, a sincere purpose to forsake it. The Gospel calls upon men to
repent of their sins, forsake their idols, and mortify their lusts, and
thus it is utterly impossible for the Gospel to be a message of good
tidings to those who are in love with sin and madly determined to perish
rather than part with their idols.
Nor is this experience of sin’s becoming bitter to us limited to our
first awakening —it continues in varying degrees, to the end of our
earthly pilgrimage. The Christian suffers under temptations, is pained
by Satan’s fiery assaults, and bleeds from the wounds inflicted by the
evil he commits. It grieves him deeply that he makes such a wretched
return unto God for His goodness, that he requites Christ so evilly for
His dying love, that he responds so fitfully to the promptings of the
Spirit. The wanderings of his mind when he desires to meditate upon the
Word, the dullness of his heart when he seeks to pray, the worldly
thoughts which invade his mind on the Holy Sabbath, the coldness of his
affections towards the Redeemer, cause him to groan daily; all of which
goes to evidence that sin has been made bitter to him. He no longer
welcomes those intruding thoughts which take his mind off God: rather
does he sorrow over them. But, "Blessed are they that mourn: for they
shall be comforted: (Matthew 5:4).
Third, our salvation from the pleasure of sin may be recognized by the
felt bondage which sin produces. As it is not until a Divine faith is
planted in the heart that we become aware of our native and inveterate
unbelief, so it is not until God saves us from the love of sin that we
are conscious of the fetters it has placed around us. Then it is we
discover that we are "without strength," unable to do anything pleasing
to God, incapable of running the race set before us. A Divinely drawn
picture of the saved soul’s felt bondage is to be found in Rom. 7: "For
I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing: for to
will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good I find
not. For the good that I would, I do not; but the evil which I would
not, that I do . . . For I delight in the law of God after the inward
man: but I see another law in my members, waning against the law of my
mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin" (vs. 18, 19, 22,
23). And what is the sequel? this the agonizing cry "O wretched man that
I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" If that be the
sincere lamentation of your heart, then God has saved you from the
pleasure of sin.
Let it be pointed out though, that salvation from the love of sin is
felt and evidenced in varying degrees by different Christians, and in
different periods in the life of the same Christian, according to the
measure of grace which God bestows, and according as that grace is
active and operative. Some seem to have a more intense hatred of sin in
all its forms than do others, yet the principle of hating sin is found
in all real Christians. Some Christians, rarely if ever, commit any
deliberate and premeditated sins: more often they are tripped up,
suddenly tempted (to be angry or tell a lie) and are overcome. But with
others the case is quite otherwise: they— fearful to say—actually plan
evil acts. If any one indignantly denies that such a thing is possible
in a saint, and insists that such a character is a stranger to saving
grace, we would remind him of David: was not the murder of Uriah
definitely planned? This second class of Christians find it doubly hard
to believe they have been saved from the love of sin.
[TOC]
[Top of Page]
This follows upon our regeneration which is evidenced by evangelical
repentance and unfeigned faith. Every soul that truly puts his trust in
the Lord Jesus Christ is then and there saved from the penalty—the
guilt, the wages, the punishment—of sin. When the apostle said to the
penitent jailor, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be
saved," he signified that all his sins would be remitted by God; just as
when the Lord said to the poor woman, "thy faith hath saved thee: go in
peace" (Luke 7:50). He meant that all her sins were now forgiven her,
for forgiveness has to do with the criminality and punishment of sin. To
the same effect when we read "by grace are ye saved through faith" (Eph.
2:8), it is to be understood the Lord has actually "delivered us from
the wrath to come" (1 Thess. 1:10).
This aspect of our salvation is to be contemplated from two separate
viewpoints: the Divine and the human. The Divine side of it is found in
the mediatorial office and work of Christ, who as the Sponsor and Surety
of His people met the requirements of the law on their behalf, working
out for them a perfect righteousness and enduring Himself the curse and
condemnation which are due them, consummated at the Cross. It was there
that He was "wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our
iniquities" (Isa. 53:5). It was there that He, judicially, "his own self
bare our sins in his own body on the tree" (1 Pet. 2:24). It was there
that He was "smitten of God and afflicted" while He was making atonement
for the offenses of His people. Because Christ suffered in my stead, I
go free; because He died, I live; because He was forsaken of God, I am
reconciled to Him. This is the great marvel of grace, which will evoke
ceaseless praise from the redeemed throughout eternity.
The human side of our salvation from the penalty of sin respects our
repentance and faith. Though these possess no merits whatever, and
though they in no sense purchase our pardon, yet according to the order
which God has appointed, they are (instrumentally) essential, for
salvation does not become ours experimentally until they are exercised.
Repentance is the hand releasing those filthy objects it had previously
clung to so tenaciously; faith is extending an empty hand to God to
receive His gift of grace. Repentance is a godly sorrow for sin; faith
is receiving a sinner s Saviour. Repentance is a revulsion of the filth
and pollution of sin; faith is a seeking of cleansing therefrom.
Repentance is the sinner covering his mouth and crying, "Unclean,
unclean!"; faith is the leper coming to Christ and saying, "Lord, if
thou wilt, thou canst make me clean."
So far from repentance and faith being meritorious graces, they are
self-emptying ones. The one who truly repents takes his place as a lost
sinner before God, confessing himself to be a guilty wretch deserving
naught but unsparing judgment at the hands of Divine justice. Faith
looks away from corrupt and ruined self, and views the amazing provision
which God has made for such a Hell-deserving creature. Faith lays hold
of the Son of God’s love, as a drowning man clutches at a passing spar.
Faith surrenders to the Lordship of Christ, rests upon the merits and
efficacy of His sacrifice, his sins are removed from God’s sight "as far
as the east is from the west": he is now eternally saved from the wrath
to come.
We cannot do better here than quote these sublime lines of Augustus
Toplady:
From whence this fear and unbelief?
Hast Thou, O Father, put to grief
Thy spotless Son for me?
And will the righteous Judge of men
Condemn me for that debt of sin
Which, Lord, was laid on Thee?
If Thou hast my discharge procured,
And freely in my place endured
The whole of wrath Divine;
Payment God cannot twice demand
First at my bleeding Surety’s hand,
And then again at mine.
Complete atonement Thou hast made,
And to the utmost farthing paid,
What e’er Thy people owed;
How then can wrath on me take place,
If sheltered in Thy righteousness,
And sprinkled with Thy blood?
Turn, then, my soul, unto thy rest,
The merits of thy great High Priest
Speak peace and liberty.
Trust in His efficacious blood,
Nor fear thy banishment from God,
Since Jesus died for thee.
While deliverance from the love of sin has to do entirely with the
experimental
side of our salvation, remission of the penalty of sin concerns the
legal aspect
only, or in other words, the believer’s justification. Justification is
a forensic term
and has to do with the law-courts, for it is the decision or verdict of
the judge.
Justification is the opposite of condemnation. Condemnation means that a
man
has been charged with a crime, his guilt is established, and accordingly
the law pronounces upon him sentence of punishment. On the contrary,
justification means that the accused is found to be guiltless, the law
has nothing against him, and therefore he is acquitted and exonerated,
leaving the court without a stain upon his character. When we read in
Scripture that believers are "justified from all things" (Acts 13:39),
it signifies that their case has been tried in the high court of Heaven
and that God, the Judge of all the earth, has acquitted them: "There is
therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus" (Rom.
8:1).
But to be without condemnation is only the negative side: justification
means to declare or pronounce righteous, up to the Law’s requirements.
Justification implies that the Law has been fulfilled, obeyed,
magnified, for nothing short of this would meet the just demands of God.
Hence, as His people, fallen in Adam, were unable to measure up to the
Divine standard, God appointed that His own Son should become incarnate,
be the Surety of His people, and answer the demands of the Law in their
stead. Here, then, is the sufficient answer which may be made to the two
objections which unbelief is ready to raise: how can God acquit the
guilty? How can He declare righteous one who is devoid of righteousness?
Bring in the Lord Jesus Christ and all difficulty disappears. The guilt
of our sins was imputed or legally transferred to Him, so that He
suffered the full penalty of what was due them; the merits of His
obedience are imputed or legally transferred to us, so that we stand
before God in all the acceptableness of our Sponsor (Rom. 5:18, 19; 2
Cor. 5:21, etc.). Not only has the Law nothing against us, but we are
entitled to its reward.
[TOC]
[Top of Page]
[Go to Page 2]
|
