Salvation
is by grace, by grace alone, for a fallen creature cannot possibly do
anything to merit God’s approval or earn His favor. Nevertheless,
Divine grace is not exercised at the expense of holiness, for it never
compromises with sin. It is also true that salvation is a free gift,
but an empty hand must receive it, and not a hand which still tightly
grasps the world! But it is not true that "Christ has done every thing
for the sinner." He did not fill His belly with the husks which the
swine eat and find them unable to satisfy. He has not turned his back
on the far country, arisen, gone to the Father, and acknowledged his
sins—those are acts which the sinner himself must perform. True, he
will not be saved for the performance of them, yet it is equally true
that he cannot be saved without the performing of them—any more than
the prodigal could receive the Father’s kiss and ring while he still
remained at a guilty distance from Him!
Something
more than "believing" is necessary to salvation. A heart that is
steeled in rebellion against God cannot savingly believe: it must first
be broken. It is written “except ye repent, ye shall all likewise
perish” (Luke 13:3). Repentance is just as
essential as faith, yea, the latter cannot be without the former:
“Repented not afterward that ye might believe” (Matthew 21:32). The
order is clearly enough laid down by Christ: “Repentye, and believe the
Gospe” (Mark 1:15). Repentance is
sorrowing for sin. Repentance is a heart-repudiation of sin. Repentance
is a heart determination to forsake sin. And where there is true
repentance grace is free to act, for the requirements of holiness are
conserved when sin is renounced. Thus, it
is the duty of the evangelist to cry “Let the wicked forsake his way,
and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord
(from whom he departed in Adam), and He will have mercy upon him”
(Isaiah 55:7) His task is to call on his hearers to lay down the
weapons of their warfare against God, and then to sue for mercy through
Christ.
The
way of salvation is falsely defined. In most instances the modern
"evangelist" assures his congregation that all any sinner has to do in
order to escape Hell and make sure of Heaven is to "receive Christ as
his personal Savior." But such teaching is utterly misleading. No one
can receive Christ as his Savior while he rejects Him as Lord. It is
true the preacher adds that the one who accepts Christ should also
surrender to Him as Lord, but he at once spoils it by asserting that
though the convert fails to do so, nevertheless Heaven is sure to him.
That is one of the Devil’s lies. Only those who are spiritually blind
would declare that Christ will save any who despise His authority and
refuse His yoke: why, my reader, that would not be grace but a
disgrace—charging Christ with placing a premium on lawlessness.
It
is in His office of Lord that Christ maintains God’s honor, subserves
His government, enforces His Law; and if the reader will turn to those
passages — Luke 1:46,47; Acts 5:31; 2 Peter 1:11, 2:20, 3:18 — where
the two titles occur, he will find that it is always “Lord and Savior,”
and not "Savior and Lord." Therefore, those who have not bowed to
Christ’s sceptre and enthroned Him in their hearts and lives, and yet
imagine that they are trusting in Him as their Savior, are deceived,
and unless God disillusions them they will go down to the everlasting
burnings with a lie in their right hand (Isaiah 44:20). Christ is “the
Author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey Him” Hebrews 5:9,
but the attitude of those who submit not to His Lordship is "we will
not have this Man to reign over us" (Luke 19:14). Pause then, my
reader, and honestly face the question: are you subject to His will,
are you sincerely endeavouring to keep His commandments?
