The Divine Side
of Our Salvation
We must now
enter into a little fuller detail of the Divine side of our salvation from the
power and pollution of sin. When a sinner truly receives Christ as his Lord and
Saviour, God does not then and there take him to Heaven; on the contrary, he is
likely to be left down here for many years, and this world is a place of
danger, for it lieth in the Wicked one (1Jo. Rom_5:19) and all
pertaining to it is opposed to the Father (1Jo. Rom_2:16). Therefore the
believer needs daily salvation from this hostile system. Accordingly we read
that Christ "gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this
present evil world, according to the will of God our Father (Gal_1:4).
Not only is the sinner not taken to Heaven when he first savingly believes,
but, as we have seen, the evil nature is not taken out of him; nevertheless God
does not leave him completely under its dominion, but graciously delivers him
from its regal power. He uses a great variety of means to accomplish this.
First, by
granting us a clearer view of our inward depravity, so that we are made to
abhor ourselves. By nature we are thoroughly in love with ourselves, but as the
Divine work of grace is carried forward in our souls we come to loathe
ourselves; and that, my reader, is a very distressing experience — one which is
conveniently shelved by most of our modern preachers. The concept which many
young Christians form from preachers is, that the experience of a genuine
believer is a smooth, peaceful, and joyous one; but he soon discovers that this
is not verified in his personal history, but rather is it completely falsified.
And this staggers him: supposing the preacher to know more about such matters
than himself, he is now filled with disturbing doubts about his very salvation,
and the Devil promptly tells him he is only a hypocrite, and never was saved at
all.
Only those who
have actually passed through or are passing through this painful experience
have any real conception thereof: there is as much difference between an actual
acquaintance with it and the mere reading a description of the same, as there
is between personally visiting a country and examining it first hand and simply
studying a map of it. But how are we to account for one who has been saved from
the pleasure and penalty of sin, now being made increasingly conscious not only
of its polluting presence but of its tyrannizing power? How explain the fact
that the Christian now finds himself growing worse and worse, and the more
closely he endeavours to walk with God, the more he finds the flesh bringing
forth its horrible works in ways it had not done previously? The answer is
because of increased light from God, by which he now discovers filth of which
he was previously unaware: the sun shining into a neglected room does not
create the dust and cobwebs, but simply reveals them.
Thus it is with
the Christian. The more the light of the Spirit is turned upon him inwardly,
the more he discovers the horrible plague of his heart (1Ki_8:38), and
the more he realizes what a wretched failure he is. The fact is, dear
discouraged soul, that the more you are growing out of love with yourself, the
more you are being saved from the power of sin. Wherein lies its fearful
potency? Why, in its power to deceive us. It lies to us. It did so to Adam and
Eve. It gives us false estimates of values so that we mistake the tinsel for
real gold. To be saved from the power of sin, is to have our eyes opened so
that we see things in God’s light: it is to know the truth about things all
around us, and the truth about ourselves. Satan has blinded the minds of them
that believe not, but the Holy Spirit hath shined in our hearts "unto the
light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" (2Co_4:4-6).
But further:
sin not only deceives, it puffs up, causing its infatuated victims to think
highly of themselves. As 1Ti_3:6 tells us, to be "lifted up with
pride" is to "fall into the condemnation of the devil." Ah, it
was insane egotism which caused him to say, "I will ascend into heaven, I
will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of
the congregation, in the sides of the north. I will ascend above the heights of
the clouds: I will be like the Most High" (Isa_14:13-14). Is there
any wonder then, that those in whom he works are filled with pride and
complacency! Sin ever produces self-love and self-righteousness: the most
abandoned of characters will tell you, "I know that I am weak, yet I have
a good heart." But when God takes us in hand, it is the very opposite: the
workings of the Spirit subdues our pride. How? By giving increasing discoveries
of self and the exceeding sinfulness of sin, so that each one cries with Job
"Behold! I am vile" (Job_40:4): such an one is being saved
from the power of sin — its power to deceive and to inflate.
No comments:
Post a Comment