Q.-" Did Christ die to save all mankind, and predicate their salvation individually on their repentance towards God, and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ?"
A.-The testimony of Scripture is very plain on this point. "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." The love of God, and the cross which is the proof of this love, looks towards the whole world, and all being sinners, excludes none- from the benefits it offers. This is God's side, so to speak. Man's side comes in on the ground of his responsibility to acknowledge his need and believe in what the love of God sets before him as the means of his salvation. Nothing can be simpler than the way in which these two points are put together in the commission to preach the gospel, in Mark. "Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature." This is God's side, and then we have man's side put thus, "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned." But perhaps the most direct statement as to these points is in 1st Tim. II. The desire of God for the salvation of all men, and the aspect of the cross of Christ with reference to all men, could riot in words be more directly stated, " who will have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus; who gave Himself a ransom for ail, to be testified in due time." Then salvation comes individually through faith in the testimony rendered. " We are saved by faith." A great many other scriptures might be brought forward in support of these two truths, but these will suffice for any mind willing to be subject to the word of God.
Q.-" Is the heart of men so good that he can of himself exercise that repentance which is unto life, and that faith which brings the pardon of sins and a standing before God in holiness and righteousness?"
A.-God's word says that the heart of man " is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked." This does not mean the heart of some men, but of all men, as speaking of the race. The Lord says, " There is none good but God," and that " it is the Spirit that quickened'; the flesh profiteth nothing." The nature of man in the flesh has nothing in it for God. This is what the Lord means to teach, and that it is alone by the direct action of the Spirit, as using His word, that the slightest movement of the soul towards God is produced. Faith, too, is the gift of God to a quickened soul, and repentance is the fruit of faith. A dead sinner has no faith, and cannot of himself repent, and though " repentance and remission of sins" is to be preached in Christ's name, still we read in Acts 5 that He is exalted as a Prince and a Savior, " to give repentance" as much as to give "forgiveness of sins." Grace alone produces anything in the heart of man for God. Without the grace that quickens, and bestows faith, man is simply "dead in trespasses and sins."
Q.-"Can any be saved by a conditional salvation? We are taught generally that if one works hard enough he will get salvation, and when he has attained it, he has to work hard to keep it, is this so?"
A.-Salvation is the pure grace of God to man, and has no condition attached save faith. It is "to him that worketh not but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly his faith is counted for righteousness." Man's salvation in no way depends upon himself; whether before or after conversion. As a question of man, and what he can see, who can't see faith, James asks the question, "Can faith save him?" But this plainly is no question of anything God-ward. " Show me," he says, "thy faith without thy works and I will show thee my faith by my works." For men to see we are saved we must show them our works, with God all is faith, as simply resting on His word for everything. The Lord says, "My sheep hear My voice and I know them, and they follow Me, and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of My hand." All here depends on what Christ does. He has given His sheep eternal life, and wrought the work that saves them. He says " they shall never perish." If Christ were to let go His sheep all were over, but He says, "none shall pluck them out of My hand." Hence we no more keep ourselves afterward, than we save ourselves at the beginning.