"Until I saw the blood 'twas Hell my soul was fearing;And dark and dreary in my eyes the future was appearing,While conscience told its tale of sinAnd caused a weight of woe within."But when I saw the blood, and looked at Him who shed it,My right to peace was seen at once, and I with transport read it,I found myself to God brought nighAnd 'Victory' became my cry."My joy was in the blood, the news of which had told me,That spotless as the lamb of God, my Father could behold me.And all my boast was in His nameThrough whom this great salvation came."
"Until I saw the blood 'twas Hell my soul was fearing;And dark and dreary in my eyes the future was appearing,While conscience told its tale of sinAnd caused a weight of woe within.
"But when I saw the blood, and looked at Him who shed it,My right to peace was seen at once, and I with transport read it,I found myself to God brought nighAnd 'Victory' became my cry.
"My joy was in the blood, the news of which had told me,That spotless as the lamb of God, my Father could behold me.And all my boast was in His nameThrough whom this great salvation came."
ETERNAL LIFE THE PRESENT POSSESSION OF THE BELIEVER
"Ye are not under the law."—Rom. 6:14."Ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus."—Gal. 3:26."Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God."—1 John 5:1."By grace have ye been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any one should boast."—Eph. 2:8, 9 (1911 Bible and R. V.)"He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life."—John 3:36."Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life."—John 5:24."God has given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath the life."—1 John 5:11, 12.
"Ye are not under the law."—Rom. 6:14.
"Ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus."—Gal. 3:26.
"Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God."—1 John 5:1.
"By grace have ye been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any one should boast."—Eph. 2:8, 9 (1911 Bible and R. V.)
"He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life."—John 3:36.
"Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life."—John 5:24.
"God has given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath the life."—1 John 5:11, 12.
It is an awe-inspiring thought, a wonderful, blessed reality, that every real believer on the Lord Jesus has, here and now,eternal life, not simply the promise of it, but the eternal life itself. The human mind cannot fully take it in, that every man, the moment he is redeemed from the curse of the law (Gal. 3:13), redeemed from all iniquity (Titus 2:14), redeemed from under the law (Rom. 6:14), and adopted as a child of God (Gal. 4:4-7), has then and thereeverlasting life(John 5:24), a new life that is never, never to end; a life that will outlast the stars; a life that he will be consciously enjoying when all the stars shall have burnt out. And yet when such a life is offered as a gift ("I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish,"—John 10:28) many men willnot repent and accept the gift. Religious prejudice, pride, secret sin, love of the world,—for what puny trifles do men turn from the greatest of all gifts, the greatest of all blessings, eternal life! Reader, will you be among the number who make this foolish, this fatal mistake?
But with some the greatness of this gift, and its blessed reality, are obscured by the teaching that the believer on Christ has not everlasting lifenow, but only thepromiseof it. When God's word tells us that the redeemed one, the believer on Christ, is not under the law (Rom. 6:14), is a child of God (Gal. 3:26),has beensaved (Eph. 2:8, 9, 1911 Bible and R. V.), notwill besaved, it would be strange that, after all, the believer should have only a promise for the beyond and no reality here and now. But God's word goes further and says, "Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christis born of God."—1 John 5:1.There cannot be birth without new life.It is not the old life; that would mean no birth. If, then, the new life is noteternallife,what life is it?
If language can be made to mean anything, God's word makes it plain that every redeemed man, every believer on Christ, hashere and now, eternal life; for God's word tells us, not only that "by gracehave ye been saved" (Eph. 2:8, 9, 1911 Bible and R. V.), but it states plainly, "he that believeth on the Sonhatheverlasting life" (John 3:36); "Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me,hatheverlasting life and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life."—John 5:24. That God's word does notmean that the believer on Christ has simply thepromiseof everlasting life, but that he really has the everlasting life, notice John 5:24, "Hatheverlasting life and shall not come into condemnation, butis passed[here and now] from death unto life." The Revised Version (the more exact translation) makes it much stronger,—"hath passedout of deathinto life." What life, if not eternal life? Before this plain, positive statement of God's word, the mere promise of eternal life theory cannot stand. But the fact that the believer on Christ really has now eternal life, is made plain by other Scriptures. "Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer; and ye know that no murderer hath eternal lifeabiding in him."—1 John 3:15. Here we are shown that when one "hath eternal life" it is "eternal lifeabiding in him"; for there would be no meaning to the language if no one has eternal life abiding in him. Again, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life."—John 6:53, 54. The Saviour had just taught in verse 35 what eating His flesh and drinking His blood meant: "I am the bread of life; he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst." Here in verses 53, 54, the Saviour shows clearly that the eternal life that the believer on Him "hath" is "in" you—here and now.
Let the unredeemed reader pause: in a moment, here and now, he can haveeverlasting lifewith God's assurance that he "shall never perish" ("I give untothem eternal life, and they shall never perish."—John 10:28). It is a tremendous decision, and it may prove to be a fatal one, to turn away and not believe on Christ and have as a present possession eternal life. "Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me,hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life."—John 5:24.
FOR FURTHER STUDY:—Some who believe that the redeemed have only thepromiseof eternal life, but that they have not eternal life, as a real present possession, base this belief on such Scriptures as, "In hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised before the world began" (Titus 1:2), in connection with, "Hope that is seen is not hope; for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for what we see not, then do we with patience wait for it."—Rom. 8:24, 25. Their thought is, if we live "in hope of eternal life," then we have not really eternal life as a present possession; that we cannot hope for what we already have. But Jesus said positively that the believer "hath passed outof deathintolife" (John 5:24, R. V.), and He contrasts the one who "hatheternal life" with those to whom He says, "Ye have no lifein you." A man can have eternal life here, and at the same time hope for it beyond the grave. A man has his wife and childrennow, andhopesto have them next year; a man away from wife and children has his lifenow; and yet he lives in hope of his life (the same life, that part of it not yet lived) with his wife and children a month from now; an exile from home has his life now; yet lives in hope of his life (the same life, that part of it not yetlived) in his native land a year from now. So, the child of God's, the redeemed man's, citizenship is in Heaven (Phil. 3:20); he lives in hope of eternal life there; yet it is the same eternal life (that part of it not lived) that he has here and now.
Another cause of stumbling at eternal life being now the actual possession of the redeemed man, is that many who claimed to have had eternal life, also claim to have lost it; and if it had been actuallyeternallife it could not have stopped; for then eternal would not be really eternal; hence, it must have been simply thepromiseof eternal life that they had, and they therefore only lost thepromiseand not really eternal life itself. But Jesus, foreseeing this class of professing Christians, said that they were never really redeemed, never really had eternal life: "Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out demons? and in thy name done many wonderful works? and then will I profess unto them, I never knew you,"—Matt. 7:22, 23, not "you were redeemed, you did have eternal life, but you lost it; it stopped"; but "I never knew you," and John teaches the same thing in 1 John 2:19, "They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest that they all are not of us." (R. V.)
"There is no such thing as partly saved and partly lost; partly justified and partly guilty; partly alive and partly dead; partly born of God and partly not. There are but two states, and we must be in eitherthe one or the other."—Wm. Reid, in "The Blood of Jesus."
To many earnest men it seems dangerous to teach men that when they are redeemed from the curse of the law (Gal. 3:13), and adopted as God's children (Gal. 4:3-7), they then really have as an actual possessioneternallife, and that they shall never perish, "hatheverlasting life, and shall not come unto condemnation,"—John 5:24; "I give unto themeternallife, and they shall never perish,"—John 10:28; they think that such a belief will be a temptation to sin; that it is liable to lead to presumptuous, wilful sinning. They think it much safer for men to believe that they have not really the eternal life itself as an actual present possession, but only the promise of it; and that by their sinning hereafter they may forfeit that promise and be lost. They think that this fear of being lost will act as a check, a safeguard, a restraining power. To the extent that it does, it produces service from the motive of fear of Hell, fear of losing Heaven, and not from the motive of love to Christ for having redeemed them from all iniquity (Titus 2:14). But God's word on this point is clear: "The love of Christ [notthe fear of Hell, nor the fear of losing Heaven] constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then all died; and he died for all that they who live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him who died for them, and rose again."—2 Cor. 5:14, 15.
The teaching that the redeemed, saved man has now eternal life and shall never perish, will lead to wilful, presumptuous sinning on the part of hypocrites, andmay lead to indifference and sin on the part of those who honestly think they are redeemed, saved, but who really are not; for such are not born again (1 Peter 1:23), and have not the motive power of love, because really redeemed, prompting their action.
Those who think it is dangerous to teach a redeemed (1 Peter 1:18, 19), saved (Eph. 2:8, R. V.) man, a child of God (Gal. 4:4-7), that he has here and now, as an actual possession, eternal life, and shall never perish (John 10:28), shall not come into condemnation (John 5:24), lose sight of five facts inGod's plan with men:—
First, the redeemed man is born again, born of God, "Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God."—1 John 5:1. "Therefore if any one is in Christ he is a new creature."—2 Cor. 5:17. This is not a mere theory. All down the centuries since the Saviour came, there have been multitudes of notable cases where hardened men and women, deep down in sin, have actually become new creatures by being redeemed and being born again. Many are now living, whose names could be given, who are widely known, who were once notorious in sin, and they are now willingly and gladly wearing out their lives in God's service, and are living godly lives: and this change came in their lives, not by a gradual process, but in a moment. God's word says it is a new birth. There is no other explanation. But every one who is redeemed is thus born of God (1 John 5:1), and this new nature will lead one to hate sin, and prompt to a godly life.
Second, the redeemed man is under the new motiveof love to Christ ("if ye love me, keep my commandments,"—John 14:15) to prompt him to a faithful Christian life. On this point James Denny in "The Death of Christ" says, "The love which is the motive of it acts immediately upon the sinful; gratitude exerts an irresistible constraint; His responsibility means our emancipation; His death, our life; His bleeding wound, our healing. Whoever says, 'He bore our sins,' says substitution; and to say substitution is to say something which involves an immeasurable obligation to Christ, andhas therefore in it an incalculable motive power." Let the reader note well, that the purpose of God in saving men through Christ dying of their sins (1 Cor. 15:3) is topurify the motive powerandmake it effective. "He died for all, that they who live should not henceforth liveunto themselves, butunto him."—2 Cor. 5:15.
When men live in order that they may retain the promise of eternal life, that they may attain eternal life hereafter, from fear lest they should forfeit the promise and not attain eternal life hereafter, they "live unto themselves." When men live because they already have as an actual possession, eternal life, and realize that it is eternal, they live from love, and not unto themselves but "unto Him."
And God's plan is effective. "The love of Christ constraineth us" (2 Cor. 5:14),it does constrain. Hence, Jesus says, "if a man love me,he willkeep my words."—John 14:23. Again, "If God were your Fatherye wouldlove me."—John 8:42. So important is this fact of the new motive power and its effectiveness, that the reader's attention will now bedirected to the words of James Denny in "The Death of Christ" on this subject. That the reader may the better appreciate these words, his attention is first called to the estimates of Denny's great work by two of the leading religious editors of the world. ThePittsburg Christian Advocate: "To thoughtful students 'The Death of Christ' came as one of the most stirring books of the decade if not of the generation." TheNew York Examiner: "The most important contribution to the all-important doctrine of the atonement since the appearance of Dr. Dale's epoch-making book.... Exegetically considered, it is the most important book published within the memory of the younger generation of preachers." On the death of Christ for our sins (1 Cor. 15:3) being the motive power in the Christian life, and its being effective, Denny says: "The problem before us is to discover what it is in the death of Christ which gives it its power to generate such experience, to exercise on human hearts the constraining influence of which the apostle speaks; and this is precisely what we discover, in the inferential clause; 'so then all died.' This clause puts as plainly as it can be put the idea that His death was equivalent to the death of all; in other words, it was the death of all men which was died by Him."... "Their relation to God is not determined nowin the very least by sin or law: it is determined by Christ, the propitiation, and by faith. The position of the believer is not that of one trembling at the judgment seat, or of one for whom everything remains somehow in a condition of suspense; it is that of one who has the assurance of a Divinelove which has gone deeper than all his sins, and has taken on itself theresponsibility of them, andthe responsibility of delivering him from them."... "Take away the certainty of it and the New Testament temper expires. Joy in this certainty is not presumption; on the contrary, it is joy in the Lord, and such joy is the Christian's strength. It is the impulse and the hope of sanctification; and to deprecate it, and the assurance from which it springs, is no true evangelical humility, but a failure to believe in the infinite goodness of God who in Christ removes our sins from us as far as the east is from the west, and plants our life in His eternal reconciling love."... "An absolute justification is needed to give the sinner a start. He must have the certainty of 'no condemnation' of being, without reserve or drawback, right with God through God's gracious act in Christ, before he can begin to live the new life."... "It is not by denying the gospel outright, from the very beginning, that we are to guard against the possible abuse of it."... "To try to take some preliminary security from the sinner's future morality before you make the gospel available for him, is not only to strike at the root of assurance, it is to pay a very poor tribute to the power of the gospel. The truth is, morality is best guaranteed by Christ, and not by any precautions we can take before Christ gets a chance, or by any virtue that is in faith except as it unites the soul to Him."... "If it is our death that Christ died on the cross, there is in the cross the constraint of an infinite love; but if it is not our death at all—if it is not our burden and doom that He hastaken on Himself there, then what is it to us?"... "He who has done so tremendous a thing as to take our death to Himself has established a claim upon our life. We are not in the sphere of mystical union, of dying with Christ and living with Him; but in that of love transcendently shown, and of gratitude profoundly felt."... "But this can only come on the foundation of the other; it is the discharge from the responsibilities of sin involved in Christ's death and appropriated in faith, which is the motive power in the daily ethical dying to sin."... "The new life springs out of the sense of debt to Christ."... "It is the knowledge that we have been bought with a price which makes us cease to be our own, and live for Him who so dearly bought us."... "But when its certainty, completeness, and freeness are so qualified or disguised that assurance becomes suspect and joy is quenched, the Christian religion has ceased to be."... "This is why St. Paul is not afraid to trust the new life to its own resources, and why he objects equally to supplanting it by legal regulations afterwards, or by what are supposed to be ethical securities beforehand. It does not need them, and is bound to repel them as dishonoring to Christ. To demand moral guarantees from a sinner before you give him the benefit of the atonement, or to impose legal restrictions on him after he has yielded to its appeal, and received it through faith, is to make the atonement itself of no effect."... "In any case, I do not hesitate to say that the sense of debt to Christ is the most profound and pervasive of all emotions in the New Testament, and that only a gospelwhich evokes this, as the gospel of atonement does, is true to primitive and normal Christianity."
Let the reader consider two statements just here from another great work, concerning the effectiveness of love as the motive power in the redeemed man's life (in the writer's judgment no greater work, excepting the gospel of John [John 20:30, 31], has ever been written for honest sceptics, than Walker's "Philosophy of the Plan of Salvation"). "Just in proportion as the soul feels its lost, guilty and dangerous condition, in the same proportion will it exercise love to the being who grants spiritual favor and salvation."... "It may be affirmed, without hesitancy, that it would be impossible for the human soul to exercise full faith in the testimony that it was a guilty and needy creature, condemned by the holy law of a holy God, and that from this condition of spiritual guilt and danger Jesus Christ suffered and died to accomplish its ransom,—we say, a human being could not exercise full faith in these truths and not love the Saviour."
Third, those who fear that if redeemed men, God's children, are taught that they have, here and now, eternal life as an actual present possession, and that it is eternal, it will be liable to lead them into presumptuous, wilful sin, lose sight of a third fact. The redeemed man, the real child of God, can be tempted, can be led into sin, and some of them do become backsliders, but God's word teaches that they will be chastised in this life. Let the reader turn back and read Chapter V. Two Scriptures there quoted make plain the chastening of God's disobedient children:"Also I will make him my firstborn, higher than the kings of the earth. My mercy will I keep for him forevermore, and my covenant shall stand fast with him. His seed also will I make to endure forever, and his throne as the days of heaven. If his children forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments, if they break my statutes and keep not my commandments, then will I visit their transgression with the rod and their iniquity with stripes. Nevertheless, my loving-kindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail. My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips."—Ps. 89:27-34. Equally explicit is the New Testament: "Ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto sons. My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him; for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastening, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards and not sons. Furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh, who corrected us, and we gave them reverence; shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live? For they verily for a few days chastened us as seemed right to them; but he for our profit,that we might be partakers of his holiness. Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous; nevertheless afterwards ityieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousnessunto them that are exercised thereby."—Heb. 12:5-11.So that, the disobedient child of God will suffer for his sins, not in Hell, but in this life; and not as a just penalty for violated law, for he is not under the law ("Ye are not under the law,"—Rom. 6:14), but as chastening, for correction. It is not a theory merely, for God's word declares that God's plan works—"It yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness."
Fourth, those who fear that teaching redeemed men, God's children, that they have, as a present possession, eternal life and not simply the promise of it, and who think that the safer course is to teach them that they have only the promise of eternal life and may forfeit it by unfaithfulness, lose sight of another fact, that the unfaithful redeemed one will lose his reward. Let the reader turn back and read Chapter VI. The Scripture teaching is plain, "If any man's work abide which he has built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss; but he himself shall be saved, yet so as through fire."—1 Cor. 3:14, 15. He loses his reward who is unfaithful, but not his eternal life, because it is eternal, and because he has been redeemed from all iniquity (Titus 2:14).
Fifth, those who, knowing that the redeemed man could not lose his eternal life, if he has it as a present possession, because it is eternal, believe that the redeemed have not really eternal life but only the promise of it and may forfeit the promise by unfaithfulness, and that it is dangerous to teach the redeemed that they really have eternal life because it might lead to wilful, presumptuous sin, lose sight of a fifth fact,that the child of God is not only redeemed from the curse of the law (Gal. 3:13), redeemed from under the law (Rom. 6:14), adopted as a child of God because redeemed from the law (Gal. 4:4-7), but that being redeemed, he is redeemedfrom all iniquity("Our Saviour Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us that he mightredeem us from all iniquity."—Titus 2:13, 14). How can God, because He is just, let the redeemed man, if he is redeemedfrom all iniquity, be lost? "A young minister was in the habit of visiting an aged Scotch woman in his congregation who was familiarly called 'Old Nanny.' She was bed-ridden and rapidly approaching the end of her 'long and weary pilgrimage,' but she rested with undisturbed composure and full assurance of faith upon the finished work of Christ. One day he said to her, 'Now, Nanny, what if, after all your confidence in the Saviour and your watching and waiting, God should suffer your soul to be lost?' Raising herself on her elbow, and turning to him with a look of grief and pain, she laid her hand on the open Bible before her, and quietly replied, 'Ah, dearie me, is that the length you hae got yet, mon? God,' she continued earnestly, 'would hae the greatest loss. Poor Nannie would lose her soul, and that would be a great loss indeed; but God would lose Hishonorand Hischaracter. Haven't I hung my soul upon His "exceeding great and precious promise"? and if He would break His word He would make Himself a liar,and a' the universe would rush into confusion.' This anecdote reveals the true ground of the believer's safety. It is as high as the honor of God; it is as trustworthyas His character; it is as immutable as His promises; it is as broad as the infinite merit of His Son's atoning blood."—J. H. Brookes, in "The Way Made Plain."
If God, "that he might be just and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus" (Rom. 3:26), set forth Jesus Christ as a propitiation through faith in his blood (Rom. 3:25), and then should let one be lost who had been redeemed from all iniquity (Titus 2:14), would He not be as unjust in so doing as He would have been had He justified sinners without Christ dying for their sins (1 Cor. 15:3)?
The blessed fact that the redeemed have as a present possession, here and now, eternal life, and that it is eternal, makes manifest another fact, that the redeemed are not unconscious, virtually out of existence, from death till the resurrection. The new life is eternal; it continues without cessation or intermission. Their bodies fall asleep; but their souls are still in conscious existence; it iseternal life. Paul makes this fact clear: "Whilst present in the body, we are absent from the Lord." "We are confident, I say, and well pleased rather to be absent from the body, and present with the Lord."—2 Cor. 5:6, 8. The same conscious life continues; it is eternal life. Again he makes it clear: "I am in a strait betwixt the two, having a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better: nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful on your account."—Phil. 1:23, 24. The same conscious life continues, the eternal life. To depart and to be with Christ he says "is far better." But even this is not the perfect state. It is the soul without the body, enjoying eternal life with Christ. ButGod's perfect being is a being of redeemed soul and redeemed body enjoying the reward of its labor. The body will not be redeemed until the resurrection (Rom. 8:23; 1 Cor. 15:42); and the soul, though enjoying eternal life and with Christ (Phil. 1:23) will receive no reward until the resurrection,—"Thou shalt berecompensed at the resurrection of the just."—Luke 14:14.
Paul further makes clear the distinction between the body sleeping and the soul not sleeping, because it has eternal life and is with Christ: "If we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also that sleep in Jesuswill God bring with him."—1 Thess. 4:14. Their bodies are asleep; their souls are "absent from the body and present with the Lord" (2 Cor. 5:8); but at the resurrection of their bodies, these "will God bring with him." Then, "at the resurrection of the just" (Luke 14:14) will "each man receive his own reward according to his own labor."—1 Cor. 3:8. Let this blessed teaching be a comfort to some hearts: the redeemed loved ones who have died are "present with the Lord" which "is far better." Then it is cruel selfishness to wish them back.
DEVELOPMENT OF CHARACTER IN THE REDEEMED
"The God of Jacobis our refuge."—Ps. 46:7."Happy is he that haththe God of Jacobfor his help."—Ps. 146:5."That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise, and honor, and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ."—1 Peter 1:7."Let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing."—James 1:14."And we know thatall thingswork together for good to them that love God, to those who are the called according to his purpose."—Rom. 8:28.
"The God of Jacobis our refuge."—Ps. 46:7.
"Happy is he that haththe God of Jacobfor his help."—Ps. 146:5.
"That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise, and honor, and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ."—1 Peter 1:7.
"Let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing."—James 1:14.
"And we know thatall thingswork together for good to them that love God, to those who are the called according to his purpose."—Rom. 8:28.
"The God of Jacob!" Not the God of Israel. Wonderful God! Blessed assurance, that "the God of Jacobis our refuge,"—the God who saves the man without character, irrespective of character,—makes of him,—Israel. Jacob, the supplanter, the trickster, the weak character, the warped character, the sinner, God takes, and through trials, tests, develops him and makes of him Israel,—a prince of God. That isGod's plan with men. Consider it.
There are two theories, the poles apart. The one is, salvation by character; that by acquiring a suitable character, by developing the right kind of a character, man can be saved, can go to Heaven; that one's character, if of the proper kind, entitles him to Heaven; that if one has lived right, he will go to Heaven. The other theory is, that God by grace, pure unmerited favor, saves irrespective of character.It is a tremendous issue. It is vital; one or the other is fatal. If those who hold one theory go to Heaven, all who hold to the other will be lost, will go to Hell. We would as well face the issue. They are two widely different ways of salvation, and God has but one. Jesus said, "I am the way" (John 14:6), not one way,The Way. And He leaves no possible ground for misunderstanding the meaning, "No man cometh unto the Father, but by me."—John 14:6. Either, then, He isthe only way, or He was the vilest deceiver the world ever knew, or He was a simple-minded, ignorant fanatic, who honestly thought Himself "The Way" when He was not.
Against this theory of salvation by character there are four serious, fatal charges:—
First, it is utterly cruel, heartless and selfish. It is cruel, because to the weakest, most needy, most helpless class, the vast body of men, born of vicious, debased parents, reared amidst vice and sin, weakened by appetite and tied by habit, it does not give one-millionth the chance to be saved, to go to Heaven, that men have who were born of noble, godly parents, reared amidst moral, uplifting surroundings, and strengthened by noble aspirations and splendid training. Stand before you two young men representing these two classes, and tell them of life beyond this life, and of Heaven; and then tell them of salvation by character. To the one it would mean a bright, hopeful anticipation; to the other, it would mean but taunting him with his hopeless condition and prodding him with despair.
The theory of salvation by character is heartless,because, wrapt in the robe of its own self-righteousness, it coolly condemns to hopeless despair a vast body of the human race. Go stand by the helpless, hopeless drunkard, and the drunken, sinful woman, and tell them of salvation by character, and hear the sob of despair or see the jeering look on their faces at the thought of salvation by character for such as they! Before a pastors' conference, the polished, brilliant, highly educated pastor of a wealthy, refined, intellectual congregation read a seemingly learned paper on "Salvation by Character." When he had finished reading the paper, some of his fellow-pastors endorsed the paper and gave it high praise. Finally, the pastor of a people who had been unfortunate in life, many of whom had gone far down in sin, and were fettered by habit, arose and said, "Brother Moderator, the brother has given us his wonderful paper on salvation by character. I would like to ask him, what would he preach if he were the pastor of a people who have no character?" The author of the paper arose and made the heartless reply, "Brother Moderator, my brother and I have been raised in such different intellectual atmospheres, that I don't suppose I could make it plain to my brother." The other replied, "That is doubtless true, Brother Moderator; but the trouble is, that he can never make it plain to any one else."
It is selfish, because those who teach this theory are generally men of intelligence, refinement, and are considered, and they consider themselves, men of moral character. They thus provide for themselves by their theory, but leave a vast body of the racewith a very slight hope or with no hope whatever.
The second charge against those who hold this theory is that by their own theory none will be saved. If salvation is by character, by what kind of character, a perfect character, or an imperfect character? If by a perfect character, no one has it; no one even claims it. If by an imperfect character, how imperfect may it be and the man yet be saved? Where is the standard? If a man's character, in order to be saved by it, must be the best he can make it, no one has even that character,—no one's character is the best he could have made it. Hence, salvation by character is a chimera.
The third charge against salvation by character is, that even if a man's character were perfect from man's standpoint, in the sight of God his character would still be corrupt. "All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags."—Is. 64:6. Why? Because motive is the measure of the character. "They that are in the flesh cannot please God."—Rom. 8:8. Why? Because they have not, and cannot have, the right motive. "Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not love, I am become as sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not love, it profiteth me nothing."—1 Cor. 13:1-3. And no man has this love, no man can havethis love, until he is saved by Christ dying for his sins (1 Cor. 15:3). "The love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then all died; and he died for all, that they who live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him who died for them, and rose again."—2 Cor. 5:14, 15.
The fourth serious, fatal charge against the theory of salvation by character is that it is contrary to the teaching of the Saviour. "Jesus saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, that the publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you."—Matt. 21:31. Certain it is that the publicans and the harlots had worse characters than those to whom the Saviour was speaking; the fact is therefore evident that Jesus taught salvation without character, irrespective of character.
Let the reader consider two cases that will show conclusively that the teaching of salvation by character is absolutely contrary to the teaching of the Saviour. "The chief priest, mocking him, with the scribes and elders, said: He saved others; himself he cannot save. If he is the King of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe him. He trusted in God; let him deliver him now, if he will have him; for he said, I am the Son of God. The thieves also that were with him, cast the same in his teeth."—Matt. 27:41-44. Let the reader notice that both the thieves "that were with him, cast the same in his teeth." Then "one of the malefactors that were hanged railed on him, saying, If thou be Christ, save thyself and us. But the other answeringrebuked him, saying, Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? And we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds; but this man hath done nothing amiss. And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To-day shalt thou be with me in Paradise."—Luke 23:39-43. From the time that both thieves "cast the same in his teeth," to the time the one made his earnest plea, "Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom," there had been no time in which this thief could have formed, developed a character that merited salvation. Hence, when Jesus said, "To-day shalt thou be with me in Paradise," to this thief, He branded the teaching of salvation by character as not from Heaven. The one who does not see from this case that the cruel, heartless, selfish teaching of salvation by character contradicts the Lord Jesus, will never see anything contrary to his own preferences and preconceived opinions.
The second case is just as conclusive. As the Saviour was reclining at meat in the house of Simon the Pharisee, a woman, noted as a sinner, came in and stood behind him weeping. "And he said to the woman, Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace."—Luke 7:50. The Saviour said the woman was saved, yet she was of notorious character,—she had no character.
That the Saviour saved irrespective of character is shown by two cases in the book of Acts. We have the accounts of the salvation of two men of opposite characters. One was "A devout man, and one thatfeared God with all his house, who gave much alms to the people and prayed to God always,"—Acts 10:2, a man of most excellent character. Among all the unredeemed men of the earth, not one could show a better character. If any man could be saved by character, here is the man. God sends word to him, "Send to Joppa and call for Simon, whose surname is Peter, who shall tell the words whereby thou and all thy house shalt be saved."—Acts 11:13. Notwithstanding his noble, unusual character, God tells him that he is unsaved. If he, with his character unexcelled among unredeemed men, was yet unsaved, how can any other unredeemed man hope for salvation by character? Peter's message to this man of irreproachable character was, "To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth on him shall receive remission of sins."—Acts 10:43. Why is it necessary for this man of character to believe on Christ in order to be saved? Because, though of unusual character, he had sinned, "for all have sinned" (Rom. 3:23); and sin once committed can only be atoned for by blood, "apart from shedding of blood there is no remission" (Heb. 9:22), and there is no blood of atonement in a noble character.
Over against this case is that of the Philippian jailor, a man of hardened character; for he took two helpless, bleeding preachers who had been beaten by a mob, and "thrust them into the inner prison, and made their feet fast in the stocks" (Acts 16:24), and left them with their backs bloody and gave them no supper. When the earthquake came and the doors were opened, the hardened jailor started to commitsuicide. Paul having called to him and prevented the suicide, the jailor "came trembling and fell down before Paul and Silas and brought them out and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?"—Acts 16:30. If ever a man should be told of salvation by character, here was the opportunity, that he might at once begin the tremendous and all but hopeless task of changing, so late in life, a hardened character into one that would enable him to merit Heaven. Instead, they said, "Believe on the Lord Jesus, and thou shalt be saved."—Acts 16:31. How similar the answer to the instructions of Peter to Cornelius, and yet how widely different the characters of the two men! Why this similarity? Because God has but one way of salvation, and that is irrespective of character. "He gathereth togetherthe outcastsof Israel" (Ps. 147:2), the God of Jacob.
While the Saviour saves without character, and irrespective of character, God the Father does not leave them without character, but develops in them the right kind of a character. The man redeemed, saved, without character, does not remain without character. "And suchweresome of you" (1 Cor. 6:11), but they did not remain such characters,—but "sanctified, called to be saints."—1 Cor. 1:2.God's plan with men, then, is to save irrespective of character, and then develop in the redeemed, saved man a character that shall "be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ."—1 Peter 1:7.
Three ways in which God develops character in the redeemed are:
First, by purifying themotiveof the life. Character is not formed by deeds, but by the motives prompting the deeds. Two men flag the night express train on two railroads; the deeds are the same, but one flags the train that he may warn, and save the lives of the people, because a bridge has been destroyed; the other flags the train that he may rob it. While the deeds are the same, the character of the deeds is different, and that difference is in the motive prompting the deed, and that motive affects, moulds the character of the one who performs the deed. No deed is right in the sight of God that is not performed from the motive of love (1 Cor. 13:1-3); hence, no character can be right in the sight of God if the deeds that formed that character were not prompted by the motive of love. All deeds performed from simply the motive of duty, or from the desire to be saved, to go to Heaven after this life, or from fear of Hell, are, in the sight of God, unworthy deeds, and the characters formed by such deeds are unworthy characters. And the Saviour defines clearly what love is: "There was a certain creditor who had two debtors; the one owed five hundred pence, and the other fifty. And when they had nothing to pay he frankly forgave them both. Tell me, therefore, which of them will love him most? Simon answered and said, I suppose that he to whom he forgave most. And he said unto him, Thou hast rightly judged."—Luke 7:41-43. And John likewise defines love: "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins."—1 John 4:10. This explains why Godsays: "They that are in the flesh cannot please God."—Rom. 8:8. Their motive is wrong and they cannot have the right motive, because they have not been "forgiven most." Hence all characters are wrong in the sight of God that were formed by deeds whose prompting motive was a simple sense of duty, a desire to be saved, to go to Heaven, or from fear of Hell. And all who have such a character are lost, have never been redeemed, are not real Christians.
Second, God develops character in the redeemed, His real children, by chastisements. Our earthly fathers "verily for a few days chastened us as seemed right to them; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous; nevertheless afterwards it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them that are exercised thereby."—Heb. 12:10, 11.
Third, God moulds the character of the redeemed by afflictions, burdens, sorrows, etc. "Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory."—2 Cor. 4:17. "Let patience have its perfect work, that ye may be mature and complete, lacking in nothing."—James 1:14.
The shallow conception ofGod's plan with menthat makes it His ultimate purpose simply to save men, leaves the life of the redeemed man here on earth an unsolved riddle, often an inexplicable tragedy. The heartaches, the disasters, the burdens, the afflictions, the sorrows,—what of all these, when God assures us that "all things work together for good to those thatlove God, to those who are the called according to his purpose" (Rom. 8:28), if the ultimate purpose is simply salvation? "He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver." The silver has been mined, digged from the earth, but there is dross in it. The redeemed have been redeemed from the curse of the law (Gal. 3:13); have had the spirit sent into their hearts ("because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father,"—Gal. 4:6); but there are defects from heredity, from environment. The purifying process, the development of character, comes, not in order to be saved, but after we are saved, because we are saved.
With God as the Father of the redeemed, many of the afflictions, and sorrows of real Christians can be accounted for as chastisements; many of the severe, heavy afflictions in the lives of real Christians can be accounted for in this way. "Ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto sons, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him; for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, andscourgeth every sonwhom he receiveth."—Heb. 12:5, 6. Scourging is severe, yet God says it is forevery son.
But there are many, many trials, afflictions, burdens, sorrows, which cannot be explained by chastisements; for chastisements are for wilful sins of God's children: "If his childrenforsakemy law ... then will I visit their transgression with the rod and their iniquity with stripes."—Ps. 89:30-32. In the lives of many of the redeemed who are living obedient lives there are some of the most severe trials and afflictions.If God is their Father and loves them, what can these severe trials and afflictions mean?