HOW am I to know God’s way of salvation?
How can I distinguish it, for certain, from ways which, though perhaps specious, are not the one true way?
A more important question could not be asked. Its answer is of eternal moment. The salvation of the soul is an awfully serious matter. There is, thank God, a distinguishing mark, and one which is extremely plain; there need be no difficulty in finding it out.
The human way, no matter who its deviser may be, demands the gradual improvement of the man. It assumes that he is sinful, and calls for the extermination of what is sinful in him―its gradual elimination until he is fit for the presence of God.
The divine way is the sitter condemnation of “the flesh” as inherently and unimprovably corrupt, so that the man can by no means fit himself for the presence of God.
These two systems are diametrically opposed to each other.
Never has a philosopher started a school having for the oasis of its doctrines such a statement as, “They that are in the flesh cannot Alease God.”
Every one of them has held the idea that there is in man some latent spring of good which is cultivable, and which can be developed under certain conditions.
God’s Word traverses the idea, and brands it as radically wrong. It declares that “in me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing”; that” there is none righteous; no, not one”; and” that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”
On these diverse but fundamental points the Word of God and human philosophy are at hopeless variance. Agreement between them is no more possible than it is between fire and water.
It may be possible to reform the drunkard, and so on; but reformation does not touch the spring. What is called “the old man” is “corrupt,” and the heart is “desperately (incurably) wicked.” These are the facts of Scripture and of all true experience; and until this is owned, there can be no peace with God. The human family is divided into two large classes―Cain headed the one, and Abel the other; the farmer repudiated God’s judgment on man, but the latter accepted it by abjuring the flesh wholly, and “he being dead yet speaketh.”
The one was self-righteous; the other obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying to his gifts. Self was Cain’s witness; God was Abel’s.
You can trace these two fines of religion right down the course of time, until you see their advocates standing before the throne of the King, in the judgment of the nations (Matt. 25); the one set justifying, and the other condemning themselves. We find the human and the divine clearly marked out all the way through.
Self-justification, in some form, marks the human and the false way; whilst self-condemnation, full and unsparing, marks out the divine and right way.
Those marks are very plain and simple. The Pharisee represents the one, and the publican, who cried, “God be merciful to me the sinner,” and who consequently went to his house justified, represents the other.
Have you, my reader, ever condemned yourself before God? If not, you are as yet in the wrong way, and the sooner you repent and own your guilt the better.
This is no mere act of penance, no purchasing the favor of a sin-hating God by so-called meritorious conduct―nay, it is self-judgment; it is repentance by the hearty acknowledgment of personal guilt. It is the prodigal coming to himself and clearing his sin-laden soul on the bosom of his Father. Then, and then only, is there forgiveness and peace and salvation.
Turn to Buddha, to Confucius, to Mahomet-the system of each is a hereafter merited by the mortification of the flesh here. The conditions are unsatisfactory, and so must be the result.
To all this, and to the enormous principle it involves, Christianity stands in bright and lovely contrast; and it stands absolutely alone in solitary grandeur. It is God’s method, and it is perfect. It glorifies Him, and it suits most admirably the case of the poor guilty sinner.
In the cross of Christ the flesh is utterly condemned, sins are atoned for, and a ransom is given by One who is of infinite moral value, by whom every claim of the Throne is met, sin’s awful penalty borne, and divine justice against it satisfied.
Further, in the resurrection of Christ the grave loses its prey, and is shorn of its victory; death is annulled, and the power of Satan broken.
And now, thank God, man is permitted—nay, welcomed—to step by faith into all the benefits of Christ’s victory.
He is justified by faith, and the faith that justifies produces repentance and self-judgment, and leads in ways of practical holiness. It is of God. And therefore, dear reader, in your quest after the right way, begin by self-condemnation, and then rest by faith in Christ’s victory.
J. W. S.