We continue with Part 2 for the next 2 weeks. You can always review Part 1. Hope you have found much to study and contemplate.
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It avails me nothing that Christ has atoned for my sins, if I am then cast on my own resources. Holy beings fell before the wiles of that subtle tempter, who, like a roaring lion, seeks to devour me , and my evil heart will surely make me a willing prey. I am eternally damned unless I can find a Saviour from sin. {1839 CF, VOS 6.5}
I shall never save myself from sin. My spiritual foes stand ready to devour me, and my own evil heart will thrust me into the lion’s mouth-into the wide-open jaws of hell. Help! Help! Oh, help! is the cry that comes up from my inmost soul. Is there, in the universe of God, any way to save a poor, lost sinner from his own love of sin? Any way to cleanse his polluted heart, and fill it with holiness-pure, perfect, perpetual holiness; without which such an one never can be received to heaven? {1839 CF, VOS 7.1}
With this inquiry, my dear brother, I approach the Bible. Has God revealed any such thing as a way of salvation from sin? If such a salvation can anywhere be found, it must be in the Bible; and if I cannot find it in the Bible, then every ray of light goes out from the horizon of my soul, and the eternal night of despair shuts in upon me. {1839 CF, VOS 7.2}
I am indeed told that I may be saved from sin at death; but that is the hope of the Universalist. I may be told that the Universalist has never been born again, and that he who has been born again will surely be saved from sin when he leaves the world; but I know of nothing on which I can safely rest the belief, that death is to be regarded as the means or the time of sanctification. I believe that “as the tree falleth, so it lieth ,” that “there is neither work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither we go :” and that if a man leaves the world in his sins, he remains a sinner forever. I believe that this is my only probation, that I must here be saved from sin, or never see God’s face in peace. I believe, therefore, that my everlasting interests are pending on the question, whether God has made provision to save me from sin, before I leave this world. To prevent all misconception, I will here say, that I am very far from believing that the regenerate man with the remains of sin, is in the same condition with the Universalist who has never been renewed; but that neither has any reason to believe that death will make any change in his character. If there is no salvation from sin before death, I expect to be lost. Here, then, to make the whole subject plain as possible, in the light in which it is apprehended by my own mind, I will make three inquiries. {1839 CF, VOS 7.3}
IV. Has God, in the economy of his grace, made provision to save his people from their sins? {1839 CF, VOS 7.4}
II. If such provision has been made, can christians avail themselves of it in this life? {1839 CF, VOS 7.5}
III. In what way may the provisions of God’s grace become available, to save his people from their sins? {1839 CF, VOS 7.6}
I. Has God, in the economy of his grace, made provision to save his people from their sins? {1839 CF, VOS 7.7}
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I find it said to Joseph, by the angel, in relation to the promised Messiah. Matthew 1:21. “Thou shalt call his name Jesus:” (i.e., Saviour) ” for he shall save his people from their sins.” For this very purpose, then, he is my Saviour, to save me from my sins; and this is just the Saviour that I need. {1839 CF, VOS 8.1}
When John the Baptist pointed out Christ, he said, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world .” This is what I need, a Saviour to take away my sins. We read also in the Epistle to the Ephesians, that his people were “chosen in him from before the foundation of the world, that they should be holy and without blame before him in love .” That he “loved the church, and gave himself for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish .” {1839 CF, VOS 8.2}
In the Epistle to Titus, we read that “the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works .” In the Epistle to the Hebrews, we find Christ presented as the Mediator of the New Covenant, which is this-quoted from Jeremiah 31:33.-found Hebrews 10:16. “I will put my laws into their heart, and in their minds will I write them; and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.” In the 3rd Chap. of the 1st Epistle of John we find it thus written: “Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law. And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins,” i.e. to take away our transgressions of the law, and leave us in a state of obedience. “And in him is no sin. Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him .” {1839 CF, VOS 8.3}
Now, my dear brother, I believe that Christ came “to save his people from their sins, to make them holy and without blame before him in love, to present them to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but holy and without blemish- to redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works, to write his law in our hearts- and to take away our sins , that we might abide in him and sin not .” This therefore I believe to be the salvation of the gospel-that Christ came, according to the words of the angel to Daniel-“to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins;” as well as to “make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness,” on the ground of which, we might have deliverance from the punishment which sin deserves. I do find then, most clearly, and satisfactorily to my own mind that God, in the economy of his grace, has made provision to “save his people from their sins .” I hail this salvation, therefore, as a salvation exactly adapted to my necessities as a fallen being, and while I utterly despair
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of ever saving myself from sin, I hail the Lord Jesus Christ as a Saviour, manifested to take away my sins, to write His law in my heart, to redeem me from all iniquity, to make me holy and without blame before Him in love, to sanctify and cleanse me with the washing of water by the Word, that He may present me to himself, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but holy and without blemish. {1839 CF, VOS 8.4}
I have found, therefore, the Saviour and the salvation I need, plainly revealed to me in God’s Word; and on the Saviour I cast my soul, my being for time and eternity; in myself a hopeless, helpless sinner, but trusting in a Saviour ” in whom dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead,” and who has made me “complete in Him ,” so that I may expect, through His salvation, to “stand perfect and complete in all the will of God.” This is my hope of everlasting life, that Christ Jesus my Redeemer will save me from my sins: and in comparison with this hope, the whole material universe is to me of less value than “the small dust of the balance.” Take away this hope from me, and you blot out the light of my soul, and leave me in the blackness of darkness forever. {1839 CF, VOS 9.1}
I believe, then, that full provision is made in the gospel to save God’s people from their sins. {1839 CF, VOS 9.2}
II. I am now to inquire whether Christians can avail themselves of this provision of the grace of God so as to be saved from sin in this life? {1839 CF, VOS 9.3}
In the first chapter of Luke, I find that Zacharias, being filled with the Holy Ghost, prophesied, saying, “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for He hath visited and redeemed His people, and hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of His servant David; as He spake by the mouth of his holy prophets, which have been since the world began: that we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us; to perform the mercy promised unto our fathers, and to remember His holy covenant; the oath which He sware unto our father Abraham, that He would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve Him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life .” Now I believe, that he who serves God “without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of his life,” is saved from sin, all the days of his life . I believe that God “sware to Abraham, our father, that He would grant unto us, that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness, before Him , all the days of our life;” and that He hath raised up an horn of salvation for us, to perform this mercy promised to our fathers, to remember this holy covenant, this oath which He swore. I believe all this on the testimony of a man filled with the Holy Ghost. Since, therefore, I believe that God’s oath can be relied on, especially since Christ came on purpose to fulfill that oath, and since that oath does pledge the grant of walking before God in holiness and righteousness all the days of our life, I am bound to believe it. I dare not sin against God by believing that God is not ready to be faithful to His oath; an oath, too, which Christ came on purpose to fulfill. I read that “he that believeth not God hath made Him to be a liar .” I must not make God a liar by saying He is not true to His oath. {1839 CF, VOS 9.4}
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