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2 f?8> THE j
Salvation, Accora
BY KEV. c. O'n.
Phil. 1:6: "Being confident of this very thing,
that He who began a good work in you, will
perfect it until the day of Jesus Christ
(Psa. 121:7-8: "Jehovah will keep thee from
all evil.")
In this view nothing is so eminently practical
as salvation from sin through Jesus Christ
our Lord, because it is complete in meeting all
the demands.
That is a defective view of Jesus, and the
work lie does in saving men from their sins,
which makes it primarily, or chiefly, a deliverance
from evil in the next world, or but little
else than a clearance from the evil in the
life past. The text, in accordance with all Holy
Scripture, represents salvation as a work that
likewise deals with sin in one's present life.
We might put the case thus: Has man need
to be saved from the evil of the past? Does
he need to be saved from the evil in the present?
Will he need to be saved from the evil
of the future? We answer, "Yes, indeed!"
No view of the salvation which is of God revealed
in the Bible is complete that leaves out
of account any one or other of these aspects
of man's need. Salvation is a procession: "I
have been, or am, saved "I am being saved
"I shall be saved."
I. In our salvation there is a cancellation of
past claims: God begins a good work when He
saves a man from the evil of his past life, giving
a man a clean record behind him and before
God, a righteous standing with the Most High.
You note that God never settles a debt for a
man that he can settle for himself. God by His
Son squares our accounts with Him. Thus, in
Eph. 2:5, we read: "By grace have ye been
saved (A. V. are saved) through faith." Rom.
8:27, "Ye were saved by hope." 5:1, "Being
justified by faith, we have peace with God
through our Lord Jesus Christ."
Salvation in this view is an accomplished fact
already to the believer, whereby he is set right
with God, being pardoned of all his sins, and
accepted as righteous in God's sight, on the
ground of Christ's righteousness, imputed directly
to Him by God, and received on His part
by faith. In this aspect, salvation is something
done for us: Atonement of sin by Christ's
death for sinners by reason of which there is
justification from sin for the sinner repentant
and believing. So that he can say so far, "I
have been saved," or "I am saved," from the
guiltiness and penalty of sin.
From this standpoint there is something
wrong with our past life, it has not been what
it ought to have been, and somewhat is needful
to square accounts with God, and bring
our lives into a right state. The work of salvation
here is specifically an act of God, in
stantaneous on our exercise of faith.
Nobody is satisfied with himself as he is, a
sinner, nor can God be with him as such; hence
it is that Jesus has made satisfaction for us
with God, and God, through Jesus' satisfaction
of the law'8 demands against us, justifies us
from sin, when we turn to Jesus.
A physician who was anxious about his soul
once asked a believing patient of his how he
should find peace. His patient wisely replied:
"Doctor, I have felt that I could do nothing,
and I have put my case in your hands; I am
trusting in you. This is exactly what every
poor sinner must do in the Lord Jesus." The
doctor saw the simplicity and adequacy of the
way, and soon found peace in Christ.
II. In our salvation, there is a meeting of
present demands: There is somewhat to reeken
I
.
PRESBYTERIAN OF THE SC
ling to the Bible.
MARTINDALE.
with inside and outside, both within and about
us, no less than somewhat in God and the world
to live for. God perfects His good work, when
in the present lie saves us from evil, giving a
man an effective alterative?a new nature and
a new spirit, even of the Holy Spirit, showing
Himself in a changed life.
Thus, in Acts 2:47, we read, "The Lord
added to them day by day those that were being
saved." 1 Cor. 1:18. "Ye are being saved,"
2 Cor. 2:15. "We are a sweet savor of
jurist unto Uod in them that are being saved."
Phil. 2:12-13.
Salvation in this view is a fact in process of
ongoing in the believer, something done in us
and through us, a renewal and transformation
by stages into the likeness of Christ by the
Spirit of the Lord. It enables one to live more
truly, more richly, more effectively. Men need
to be saved here and now, and by Jesus they
are thus saved, saved unto their best, enabled
to make their lives count for the most. He it
was who said of Zacchaeus, "To-day is salvation
come to this house," adding?"For th?
Son of Mau came to seek and to save that which
was lost."
In our salvation our present earthly life becomes
different from what it was, a life of disappointing
struggle gives way to a life of satisfaction
and achievement, not so much with ourselves
or doings as in one, our personal Saviour
and leader to assured victory in Ilis service.
One who imparts to our lives a fulness and a
richness, a freedom and an aboundingness, not
otherwise possible.
People are "too much inclined to relegate
salvation to the next world as a kind of benefit
payable upon death, the definite securing of
which was finally accomplished when we stood
up and confessed the Saviour before men, and
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world than this. Our Lord said nothing about
men needing Him more after death than in the
present life." (C. G. Trumbull).
In salvation there is not only a justification
of the believing sinner, there is also a sanctification
of the same; a separating of one from sin,
in one or another form, and a making of one
sacred unto the Lord, so that he can justly say
?"I am being saved"?from the taint and
power of sin. Thus viewed, salvation is a progressive
work, going on all the while.
Here's a man who has been affected with one
evil habit or another, say, with an evil tendency,
who has had certain evil habitudes, etc.,
and by faith in Jesus is delivered from bondage
thereto, has a power from on high to come
into his life that is stronger than, and opposed
to the evil spirit once his master, and becomes
of service to God in the world, where before he
was absolutely of no use to the Master. Illustrations
of this abound on all sides.
In 1899, a Methodist preacher (Rev. Jno. S.
Moore), told me the following in point.
Said he?
"Some years ago, in one of the upper counties
of Alabama, as I was riding out of town
one afternoon, I overtook a man riding one
horse, and leading two others. He was considerably
under the influence of liquor, was very
profane in his language, and fretting very
much at the two horses he was leading. I looked
into his face, and a shudder passed over
me; and this was the cause of it: his face had
x - O a >. - '
a son 01 casi-iron expression that indicated to
my mind that he had successfully resisted all
the gracious, loving influence that God had
brought to baar upon him to induaa him to ra
) U T H [ January 31, 1212,
pent, and now had reached the point where all
such influences are vain. I had been hearing
all my life of men who, like Ephraim, were let
alone because joined to their idols, men with
whom the Spirit of God had ceased to strive,
men who were past feeling, men whom the
Father had ceased to draw to His Son, and
who therefore had no interest in the promise?
'Him that cometh unto Me I will in no wise
cast out,' 'for no man can come unto Me except
the Father which hath sent me draw him.' 1
had often trembled at the suggestion of the
possibility of my reaching that state myself.
The thought that passed my mind as I looked
into this man's face was this: 'If I ever saw a
man that looked as if he had reached this state,
this was the one!' My heart went out after
him, and 1 determined, if possible, to put him
to the test. I accordingly checked up my horse,
and rode alonsr with him for half an hour nr
more, not taking any notice of his profanity or
fretfulness, but talking with him as pleasantly
as circumstances would permit.
"At length, by that mysterious play of sympathy
between man and man that we sometimes
experience, 1 felt that I had his confidence, and
that 1 could say anything I wished to him without
fear of giving him offense. I accordingly
began: 'Have you any idea of the great hereafter
that lies beyond the grave, of the place
of torment into which the wicked shall be turned
to endure the wrath of God forever?' At
this question the expression of his face changed.
He assumed a sober, thoughtful look, and
he replied: 'Think of these things? I do not
think of anything else, and the feeling that I
am going to Hell makes me the most miserable
wretch upon earth.' 'Why do you not then
become religious? 1 am sent as a messenger
from God to tell you that He is willing to be
your Friend, and deliver you from this bondage
in which you are held through fear of
death,' said I. 'Ah,' said he, 'I want to be religious,
and I would be religious if I only knew
how to be, but I do not know how.' I replied,
'I never saw you until a half hour ago, and I
do not even know your name; but there are
several things that I have found out in that
short time that you will have to do to be religious.'
" 'What are they?' said he. 'In the first
place, you will have to stop swearing. There
is no sense in it; there is nothing in it but a
heaven-defiant spirit.' He assented to this very
readily, and then said, 'What next?' 'Sir, I
perceive tnat you are a peevish, fretful man, by
the way in which you scold your horses. When
you are at home you are a terror to your wife
and children, and your neighbors do not like
you. The second thing then for you to do is to
control your temper. Do you not see the propriety
of that?' 'Yes, sir,' he replied. 'What
next?' he asked. I replied, 'I perceive that you
are addicted to the habit of strong drink, and
you are now considerably under the influence
of whiskey. You will have to give it up; for
God has said: 'No drunkard shall inherit the
Kingdom of Heaven.'
Here he made a stubborn fight, and claimed
that he never used liquor beyond the bounds
of moderation, that he never drank enough to
make him drunk. I told him that he was deceiving
himself there, and that he was about
half drunk then; and that to be religious, he
would have to give it up. He said: 'I do not
know so well about that.' 'But I do, I replied.
And then, in substance, I went on to tell him
that his business was that of a hor?e trader,
and that I had often observed that such men
sometimes took advantage of others in trading;
and that if he had ever wronged any person
in a trade, either by making false statements,
or by withholding the truth about the defects
of his stook, he would have#t? make good all