The Way of Salvation

Oome Scripture terms are forensic. Such are the expressions justified and cojidemned. Eniployed in courts of law, they call up to our minds the scene of a trial — the crowd of eager spectators; the prisoner standing alone, pale and anxious at the bar; the judges seated aloft in imposing state; the heavy indictment; the long array of witnesses; the sudden and breathless silence,, amid which — all bending forward to catch their words — the jury return into court with their verdict; the verdict itself, the Not Guilty or Guilty, that sends the accused away to life and liberty, or, falling from reluctant lips, and going like a knife to his heart, sends him to the scaffold and seals his doom. The expressions justified ’ and condemned, therefore, forewarn us of a day when, with God for his judge, an assembled world for spectators, and heaven or hell for his destiny, every man shall be put upon his trial; judged according to the deeds done in the body, whether they were good or evil. It is appointed, says an Apostle, ’ unto men once to die, but after this the judgment/

A solemn, but a certain prospect! — for none may hope to escape this ordeal. Universal as the sentence, judgment is inevitable as the scythe of death. It is often wonderful to see how human justice tracks the steps and doublings of a guilty fugitive, like a sleuth-hound; and how, with an arm that stretches over broad continents and seas, she will drag him to her bar from his hiding-place in the ends of the earth. Yet, cases ever and anon occur where the gallows, if I may use the expression, is cheated of its due, and the perpetrators of crimes that have struck society with horror escape detection, or elude the keenest pursuit. But escape from God and His judgment is impossible. Reconciled to Him through the blood of His Son, and recognizing their Saviour in the Judge before whose face — as He comes with ten times ten thousand angels — the heavens flee away, Gods people would not escape though they could; and as to His enemies, who vainly cry on the mountains and rocks to cover them they could not though they would. What says one who may be supposed, under a sense of guilt and dread of punishment, to have been racking his fancy for a way to elude the presence and escape the justice of God? Whither, he asks, ’ shall I go from thy Spirit? Whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up to heaven, thou art there; if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art also there; if I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, there shall thy hand lead me; if I say. Surely the darkness shall cover me, even the night shall be light about me, Nor do Gods own words, any more than these leave a chance, the shadow of a hope the smallest loophole of escape, to impenitent and unbelieving sinners. To alarm them to persuade them to abandon their sins and embrace the Saviour He uses the boldest figures. Speaking of the wicked. He says, ‘He that fleeth of them shall not flee away; and he that escapeth of them shall not be delivered; though they dig into hell, there shall mine hand take them; though they climb up to heaven, there will I bring them down; though they be hid from my sight in the bottom of the sea, there will I command the serpent, and he shall bite them.’

Another great difference between the administration of Divine and human justice, lies in this, that while none shall escape Gods judgment, its sentence, once passed, whether for good or evil, is irrevocable. A very weighty and solemn consideration! As the tree falls, so it lies; they that are filthy shall be filthy still, as they that are righteous shall be righteous still. At an earthly tribunal hope sustains the criminal, when, pity taking the place of horror every eye regards him with sorrow, and the voice of the judge trembles with emotion as amid an awful silence, he pronounces the words of doom. What though the ’ condemned cell ’ receives him now? He reads above its gloomy door no such words as Dante has inscribed on the gates of hell, Let them who enter here leave Hope behind! Abandon the wretch who may, hope does not; but goes with him from the bar, shining into his heart like the sunbeam that falls through his grated window on the floor. In other cases justice has relented somewhat of her sternness. Why may she not in his? So, down to the last post, and the last day, and the last hour, clinging to hope as a drowning man to a plank, many whom earthly tribunals have consigned to death, have illustrated and verified the saying —

‘As long as life its term extends,
Hope’s blest dominion never ends. ’

But despair, more terrible than the devils old painters represent dragging away the lost, seizes those whom God condemns — let me say, condemns reluctant. He is not willing that any should perish; He ‘^ so loved the world that he gave up his only-begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him might not perish, but have everlasting life; yet, the great white throne once set, the books once opened, the sentence once passed, He hath forgotten to be gracious, and his mercy is clean gone for ever,’ it is idle quarrelling with that truth: ‘^ Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right? ’ and in our imperfect knowledge of the Infinite and of His ways, to challenge them is for the clay to say to the potter, Why hast thou made me thus? It is certain that with salvation purchased at an enormous cost, and not only freely offered, but earnestly and affectionately pressed on the chief of sinners, we shall not have to blame God, but ourselves, if we are lost. It is not by God’s hand, but our own — not from within, but from without, the door of heaven is barred. Ye will not come unto me,’ says Jesus. NoWj taking God’s word as it stands, what is the plain, practical conclusion to which the irrevocable nature of the sentence leads, but this, that unlike such as are arraigned at man’s bar, we are to apply for pardon, not after, but before our trial — before death has summoned, or the Judge has sentenced us. It is too late then. Then, in the words of the bridegroom to the foolish virgins, ‘The door is shut! ’

History relates the story of a man, a sagacious and far-sighted man, whose example it is our safety, our salvation to follow. He had committed heinous crimes against hi.s sovereign and the state. He knew his life to be forfeited; and that if, allowing events to take their course, he waited to be tried, he was certain to be condemned. The case is exactly ours. In these circumstances he repaired to the palace to fling himself at the feet of his sovereign, and making full confession of his crimes, to beg for mercy. Through the clemency of his king, and the intercession of a powerful friend at court, he found mercy; and, with a full pardon in his bosom, signed by the king’s own hand left the royal presence a happy man. In course of time, the day of trial arrives, gathering a great concourse of people. He repairs to the place. Ignorant of his secret,, anxious friends tremble for his fate; and the spectators wonder at his calm and placid bearing as he passes the scaffold where they think he is so soon to die, and enters the court, certain, as they fancy, to be condemned. He steps up to the bar as lightly as a bridegroom to the marriage altar; and, to all men’s surprise, looks boldly around, on the court, his judges, and his accusers. At this, however, they cease to wonder when, after listening unmoved to charges enough to hang twenty men in place of one, he thrusts his hand into his bosom to draw forth the pardon, to cast it on the table, and find himself, amid a sudden outburst of joy, locked in the happy embraces of his wnfe and children. Let us go and do likewise. The bar of Divine judgment is a place not to sue for mercv, but to plead it. Appearing there robed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ, justified, forliven, in our hands a pardon signed and sealed with bloody we shall look around us undismayed on all the terrors of the scene — to ask with Paul, ‘Who shall lay anything to the charge of Gods elect? It is God that justifieth; who is he that condemneth?

I remark that the way of salvation lies in being justif]ed, not through our own, but imputed righteousness.

All we like sheep have gone astray — The Scripture hath concluded all under sin — ‘By the offence of one, judgment came upon all men unto condemnation ’ — ‘■ Death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned — Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things written in the book of the law to do them — these, the words of Scripture, sound like the clank of fetters. In ^:he face of such declarations, what folly is it in a man to attempt to beguile his conscience; to quiet its fears; persuading himself that, safe in the mercy from the justice of God, he has no need to be alarmed at the prospect of death and judgment! Would that these words spoke as pointedly to our hearts as they speak plainly to our ears! Guilt has been incurred; there is a judgment to come, and a pressing necessity, if there be a way of escape, that we should take it; take it now; take it at whatever cost — as our Lord says, plucking out a right eye, and cutting off a right hand, and losing our life that we may find it.

There is such a way; but certainly not by the works of the law. In perfect harmony with Him who pronounces our righteousnesses to be filthy rags, Paul says, ‘By the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified; and in that sets up such a notice as turns one back from a road where, though once frequented, the grass, growing rank and tall, has obliterated every footmark. Ever since the Fall, the gate to heaven by the law has stood shut, nor once turned on its hinges; the rust of long ages there, and over it a notice — No passage this way.^ Yet, blessed be God, there is a way of return to His favour, forgiveness, and the kingdom of heaven. Harlots pubhcans and sinners have found it; and why may not we? To make it Gods Son became a man, taking to Himself a body that He might be capable of suffering; — eyes to weep; a brow to bleed beneath the thorns; feet and hands, that, with the iron driven through the quivering flesh, He might hang, a sacrifice for sin, on the accursed tree. He was made under the law for the very purpose of answering its demands, both in the way of doing and of suffering. He became a man for the very purpose of being a man of sorrows; and shared in our nature for the very purpose of suffering in our stead. There is a story of a brave sacrifice once made to save the life of a king. The battle had gone against him. Separated by accident from his followers, he was hard bested; a swarm of foes pressed on him — their swords ringing on his helmet, and each eager to obtain the honours that were to reward his capture or death. He dies unless some one will die in his room. A chivalrous follower sees the peril; spurs his horse into the thick of the foe, shouting, as he whirled his bloody battle-blade above his head, I am the king! ’ and thus turned against his own bosom the swords that had otherwise been buried in his masters. A ii generous, heroic sacrifice 1 yet but a faint shadow !■ of what He offered who laid down His life a ran- ^. som, not for His friends, but His enemies; ] dying, the just for the unjust, that we might be saved.

Distinguished in death as in His life and divine nature from all other men, our Lord Jesus Christ, in dying, did not pay the debt of nature, or, as it may be properly called, the debt of sin, for Himself. He did not die because He was a sinner, but a substitute; because He was a debtor, but a surety — all the sufferings borne by Him from His cradle to the grave being ours, the payment of debts incurred by us and undertaken by Him. Fulfilling all the precepts it enjoined, and paying all the penalties it required. He rendered a perfect obedience to the Divine law. This constitutes His righteousness, or merits; and since God is pleased to accept that in lack and place of ours, there can be no condemnation for those who, rejecting all confidence in their own righteousness to trust in His, are in Jesus Christ, and prove themselves to be so by walking, not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

How there not only is, but can he no condemnation for them, I may illustrate by the case of two Greeks whom friendship had bound in the most endearing ties. One, condemned to die for some offence, wishes, ere he leaves the world, to go away that he may arrange his affairs, and see his family, and bid them a last farewell. In these circumstances, and with a love deserving: such a garland as David, saying, ‘Very pleasant hast thou been unto me, my brother Jonathan; thy love to me was wonderful, passing the love of women,^ laid on the grave of Jonathan — his friend undertook, in case he did not return, to suffer death in his stead. The offer was accepted; and was nearly attended with a tragic result.

The day of doom arrives but not the criminal. Nor was it till the very hour arrived and the procession with his surety ready to die had reached the scaffold, that he, detained at sea by adverse winds appears; shouts to them from afar to stay the execution; and forcing his way through the crowd leaps on the scaffold to push aside his substitute, and, like a brave, true man, bare his own neck to the sword. Touched by the display of such tender and rare affection — j the joy of the one that he was in time to save his surety, the grief of the other that he had lost the i opportunity of dying for his friend — the people, ‘, yielding to a generous impulse, and in honour of y such noble friendship, decreed that neither should perish. But suppose that things had fallen out ) otherwise, and that the substitute had suffered the penalty of the law before the true criminal had time to reach the scene, and arrest the stroke. What then? Why, then the law had nothing to say to him. Though guilty, he was free; and, as he looked with weeping eyes on the pale face and dead body of his generous friend,, he could raise his head to look around on spectators officers, and executioner, saying, Who shall lay anything to my charge? Nor had his prayer been granted though, unwilling to survive his friend and prolong a life that had lost its relish, he had implored death at their hands. Since his surety had paid the penalty, the justice that demanded his death before would refuse it now. The demands of the law had been satisfied; and had an angry crowd, suspecting that he had wilfully delayed his return, attempted violence against his person, the very sword that had been buried in the bosom of the substitute had been drawn in defence of his. The death of innocence had saved the life of guilt.

Now as, on such a supposition, it had happened in that case, it does happen in the case of all who, through faith in our surety, the Lord Jesus Christ, receive the righteousness that makes the sinner just. His perfect merits imputed to them — His work and sufferings accounted theirs

—the justice that demanded their condemnation once demands their acquittal now; the law, with all its requirements now fully satisfied, is no longer against, but for them; all Guds attributes are on their side now; and so, instead of fleeing from justice, like Adam when he fled for. shelter to the bush, they claim protection now from their enemies — Satan, and hell, and fear, and guilt — as much from Jehovahs justice as from Jehovahs mercy. No creditor can righteously demand that a debt be twice paid; nor magistrate that a crime be twice punished; nor sovereign that a tax be twice exacted. And ’ shall man be more just than God? Is that justice on the part of man? and ‘Are not my ways equal ?^ saith the Lord. Jesus has once for all paid the debt of. His people to the uttermost farthing; fulfilled their duties, and made full atonement for their crimes. And hence their joy and peace in believing; hence the happy confidence with which, like the dying Wesley, when his spirit was hovering on the verge of another

THE WA V OF SAL VA TION. i ‘^’j

world, they who have made their caHing and election sare, can sing —

‘I the chief of sinners am;
But Jesus died for me.’

Regarding the method of salvation by faith in the righteousness of Jesus Christ as a way, here are some of its peculiar and gracious and happy features, borrowed from the lights of prophecy.

It is a high ivaxj.

A highway, or the King’s highway,’ as it Lised to be called, is distinguished from private roads by an important difference. Gates, walls, and warnings may exclude from these all but members or visitors of the family to whose mansions they lead; but this is free to the public — the whole public. Here, no man challenges my right to walk, or, holding the gate in hand, and saying Back, back,^ compels me with wearied feet and disappointed hopes to retrace my steps. Here, no distinctions of noble or mean, of rich or poor, of virtuous or vicious, of good or bad, of sect, or rank, or party, are recognized. Here all classes — master and servant the peer in his robes and the beggar in his rags — meet on common ground; the road below as free to every foot as the air above to birds of every wing.

Nor less free is salvation by faith in Jesus Christ. Not that men, encroaching as well on the prerogatives of the Sovereign as on the rights and privileges of His people, have not wickedly attempted to restrict the blessings of grace. For example — denying the free use of the Scriptures to the laity, claiming for her priests a monopoly of spiritual power, and, for her adherents, the exclusive benefits of the kingdom of heaven, this Popery does. And other churches, retaining her spirit, though they repudiate her name, show themselves hardly less exclusive. Some confining the flow of grace to the channel of vihat they call Apostolical Succession;^ others regarding their own as the only true and faithful church, without whose pale, often of the narrowest limits, there is little hope of a blessing either on sermons or sacraments, take from salvation by faith in

Christs righteousness the characteristic features of a highway. But in the face of invitations so free as these — Ho every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, — ‘Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest, — in the face also of declarations so gracious as these, — ‘Whosoever cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out, — Whosoever believeth in me shall not perish, but hath everlasting life, it is bold, and nothing less than impious presumption to attempt to dam up the living waters of the sanctuary, and confine to the narrow limits of their own sect or party the benefits of Christ’s death. God be praised, they cannot. They may as well prescribe a narrower course for the great sun as he goes forth in the heavens to shine on every land; or control the tides, that, rising to celestial influences, roll over the bosom of the ocean to visit every continent and wash every phore. Inviting all, without respect to birth or baptism, to character or church, addressing as much the vilest sinners, the outcasts, the scum and dregs of society, as those whose virtues have won universal esteem, Jesus says, Look unto me and be ye saved, all ye ends of the earth — I am the way — I have set before you an open door, And neither deterred by the voice of bigotry nor scared by the fears of guilt, let us crowd the gates of mercy; enter — enter joyfully in. Blessed be God, He who shutteth and no man openeth, openeth and no man shutteth.

It is a plain ivaij.

The Bible has had innumerable commentators. Some, by their books or sermons, remind us of him who lighted a candle to show the sun; and others, like the fog-bank through which the sun shines shorn of his beams, ‘darken counsel by words, and make what was clear obscure. By their labours, some have diluted, while others, making their sermons or commentaries a vehicle for error, have adulterated the truth of God the wine of life. But however this may be, more pens have been worn, more breath spent, more printing-presses employed, in explaining the Bible than all other books whatever; so that were all the books collected which have been written to throw light on the Scriptures, they would — not excepting that of Alexandria, which it took many weeks to reduce to ashes — form the largest libraiy the world ever saw. Are we to infer from this that the way of life is obscure? Bv no means. All that it is necessary to know in order to be saved, it is easy to know. ‘The wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein,^ says the Prophet; and without disparaging the labours of pious and able divines to explore the mysteries and shed light on the obscurities of the sacred volume, the simple Bible, blessed by God, has proved to unlettered thousands a safe and sufficient guide. Whatever genius and arduous study it may require to rise to a place in the temple of fame, many a humble Christian, hardly able to spell his way through the Word of God, has reached one in the temple of heaven. Thousands so deficient in talent or energy as never to have been able to make their way in this world.

have found their way to a better one; nor are there wanting interesting and well-attested cases of imbeciles, who though destitute of capacity for ordinary knowledge, have known Him whom to know is life .eternal — so plain the way through child-like faith in Christ — so easy as well to the unsteady gait of simpletons as to the tottering foot of childhood, as to verify the words, ‘The wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein, With this simple answer to the great question, What shall I do to be saved?’ Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved,^ none need be excluded from heaven because of ignorance; as with virtue in Christ’s blood to cleanse the chief of sinners, none need be excluded because of sin. It needs no learning to learn this way.

What has the Church seen? God ordaining strength out of the mouth of babes and sucklings; grey-haired men learning wisdom at the feet of childhood; the death-beds of the humble poor like the very gates of heaven; the child learning the way to life on a mother’s knee; the thief learning it on his dying cross; the mantle of prophets falling on ploughmen; heaven revealing its glories to humble shepherds; rude fishermen of Galilee called to the apostleship; grace polishing the roughest men; roaming savages tamed by the voice and sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in their right mind. Simple faith in Him is all that is required — such confidence as the little child, lying in its mother’s arms, hanging on her neck, looking up in her face, reposes in the power of a mother’s arm and the tenderness of a mother’s heart. It is a holy way,

* Just as I am, without one plea,
But that Thy blood was shed for me.
And that Thou bid’st me come to Thee,
O Lamb of God, I come.’

As is expressed in these well-known and beautiful

lines, we are to go to Christ as sinners — guilty,

polluted, wretched, miserable sinners. We are

to go as we are; not, however, to continue as we

are, but to obtain deliverance as well from the power as from the punishment of sin. Regarding it as a disease, hereditary in our family, deadly as the leprosy, and as loathsome in its features as it is fatal in its issue, the Church may be regarded as an hospital — but by no means an hospital for incurables. To those asylums where pity seeks to shelter the hopeless and alleviate the sufferings of hngering but inevitable death, the gospel presents no counterpart. With a physician in Christ, of whom I can say that He never refused a case, never charged a fee, and never lost a patient, it opens its doors to receive the sick, men and women, even in the very hour and article of death; but it is to cure them — send them out healed; through the sanative and sanctifying influence of the Holy Spirit, cured of ‘whatsoever manner of disease they had.’

Neither requiring nor recognizing any merit in us, but resting our acceptance with God entirely on the merits of His Son, the gospel does not dispense with personal holiness, nor afford any pretext to such as say, Let us continue in sin, that grace may abound. The same authority that declares Whosoever believeth on the Lord Jesus Christ shall be saved declares that without holiness no man shall see God. A prominent feature that, of salvation by faith in the righteousness of Jesus Christ — it shall be called, says the prophetj ’ the way of holiness: the unclean shall not pass over it.^ In regeneration, this way is entered on by a holy change; in the saints of God, it is frequented by a holy company; and in that pure and blessed heaven, above whose portals is written. There entereth nothing here to hurt or to defile, it conducts to a holy place.

Where are you going? said Malan, of Geneva, to an English lady who was introduced to him. I am on my way to visit Rome, was her reply. Oh, he answered, that is not what I mean; startling her with this plain, pointed question. Is it to heaven or to hell, madam, you are going? Abrupt, indiscreet perhaps, as such a mode of address may be considered, the question is one which every person should put to themselves — proving their own work trying the foundation of their hopes, and giving all diligence, as the Apostle says, to make their calling and election sure. For this object, what better, plainer, surer test than the holiness which the Scriptures invariably associate wdth true living faith? There sanctification and justification are inseparably connected; and what God hath joined together, let none attempt to put asunder. To live in the unrestrained, unrepented indulgence of any sin, and talk of faith in Christ, and indulge in hopes of heaven, is a mockery and a miserable delusion; one of the strongest proofs that ’ the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.^ To be holy as God is holy, to be perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect, to have the same mind in us that was in Jesus Christ, though not yet the attainment, is the aim and wish, the object of the prayers and efforts, of every child of God — No holiness, no heaven, being an adage as true as the more common saying, No cross, no crown. It is a safe way.

‘He laid his carcase in his own grave, and they mourned over him, saying, Alas, my brother! ‘That grave received one vho was returning to a home he never reached. Contrary to his instructions, this prophet of God had ate and drunk in Bethel to learn that when he left the path of duty, he left the path of safety. On his way homeward, a lion, the messenger of divine wrath, met and slew him. This was no accident, but a special providence — as appeared from the circumstance that the beast which he rode was found standing fearless on one side of his body, and the lion that had killed him quietly on the other; yet such accidents were not uncommon in the lands of the Bible. Jacob, for instance, when the coat of many colours was produced, all stained with blood, instantly and bitterly exclaimed, It is mv sons coat, an evil beast hath devoured him; Joseph, without doubt, is rent in pieces. So also David, describing the greatness of his danger, says, My soul is among lions; ’ and hence, also, the figure employed to describe the difficulty or peril of an enterprise ‘There is a lion in the path! ’

Blessed be God, this cannot be said of the path opened to heaven by the blood of Christ. ‘No lion shall be there, says the prophet, ‘nor any ravenous beast shall go up therein; it shall not be found there — words these that describing the state of those who are justified through faith in the righteousness of Jesus Christ, assure us of their safety, of the care the Lord takes of them; preserving them; defending them; and securing this, that come what may in the form of trials and temptations, they shall not come short of eternal life. Were it otherwise, what though salvation were freely offered, and offered to all, if any honestly seeking and pursuing it might nevertheless perish! What though Christ died, if any for whom He died could be plucked out of His hands! Farewell then to the peace that passeth understanding; farewell to the calm tranquillity that is careful for nothing, but by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving in all things, makes its wants known unto God. It is with cautious steps we tread the grass where the serpent Hes coiled ready for the spring; it is with beating hearty and anxious eye, and hushed and breathless silence, travellers skirt the brake where the lion, watching for his prey, lies crouching for the leap; and, if exposed without protection to such dangers, how is the pilgrim to Zion to go up with songs? how is he to respond to the glorious call, Rejoice in the Lord alway, and again I say. Rejoice?

‘Let not your heart be troubled,’ said Jesus; ye believe in God, believe also in me, So He says to His people; and what says He of them? — I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish.’ There were lions once in the way. Satan was one — a roaring lion walking about seeking whom he might devour: but he is chained now, and able to do little more than roar against the saints; he may alarm, but cannot harm them. The justice of God also was once a lion in the way: but the Good Shepherd having given His life for the sheep, justice has been satisfied, and now the hon and the lamb dwell together. Death also was once a lion in the way; but sin, the sting of death, atoned for, he has lost his terrors; direst foe is changed into truest friend; death has become gain, and in its darkness faith hails the aurora of eternal day. No doubt, they who are united by faith to Christ, accepted and forgiven of God, have evils to endure in this life; a sore battle to fight; perhaps heavy burdens to bear. But though they may be cast down, they cannot be destroyed. With Jesus at the helm, their ship may be tossed on the billows but it cannot founder. In reward of what He did and suffered for them, God hath promised to His Son what He promised to His servant, Paul, ‘I have given thee all them that sail with thee! so — as when the ship took the ground, and her masts went by the board, and the waves made a clean breach over her, some swimming, some on boards, some drifting through the wild sea on broken pieces of the ship, all that company escaped safe to land.

THE IVA V OF SAL VA TION. 2or

all who believe in Jesus shall reach the heavenly shore. I say, therefore, with Paul, Wherefore, sirs, be of good cheer!

* Through Him all dangers we’ll defy,
And more than conquer all.’