Salvation as it Is Now Received

The greater benefits of salvation are usually classed among things to come, but indeed a large portion of them may be received here and now.

I. WHAT OF SALVATION IS RECEIVED HERE?

1. The whole of it by the grip of faith, and the grace of hope.

2. The absolute and final pardon of sin is ours at this moment.

3. Deliverance from slavish bondage, and from a sense of awful distance from God is a present relief.

   • Peace, reconciliation, contentment, fellowship with God, and delight in God, we enjoy at this hour.

4. Rescue from the condemning power of sin is now complete.

5. Release from its dominion is ours. It can no longer command us at its will, nor lull us to sleep by its soothing strains.

6. Conquest over evil is given to us in great measure at once.

   • Sins are conquerable. No one should imagine that he must necessarily sin because of his constitution or surroundings.
   • Holy living is possible. Some have reached a high degree of it. Why not others?

7. Joy may become permanent in the midst of sorrow.

   • The immediate heritage of believers is exceedingly great.
   • Salvation is ours at this day, and with it “all things.”

II. HOW IS IT RECEIVED?

1. Entirely from Jesus, as a gift of divine grace.

2. By faith, not by sight or feeling. We believe to see, and this is good. To require to see in order to believe is vicious.

3. By fervent love to God. This excites to revenge against sin, and so gives present purification. This also nerves us for consecrated living, and thus produces holiness.

4. By joy in the Lord. This causes us to receive peace unspeakable, not to be exaggerated, nor even uttered. Too great, too deep to be understood, even by those who enjoy it.

   • Much of Heaven may be enjoyed before we reach it.

III. HAVE YOU RECEIVED IT, AND HOW MUCH?

1. You have heard of salvation, but hearing will not do.

2. You profess to know it, but mere profession will not do.

3. Have you received pardon? Are you sure of it?

4. Have you been made holy? Are you daily cleansed in your walk?

5. Have you obtained rest by faith and hope and love?

   • Make these inquiries as in God’s sight.
   • If the result is unsatisfactory, begin at once to seek the Lord.
   • Look for the appearing of the Lord as the time for receiving in a fuller sense “the end of your faith.”

Breviates

An evangelist said in my hearing: “He who believes has everlasting life. H A T H—that spells ‘got it.’ ” It is an odd way of spelling, but it is sound divinity.—C. H. S.

This is the certainty of their hope, that it is as if they had already received it. If the promise of God and the merit of Christ hold good, then they who believe in him, and love him, are made sure of salvation. The promises of God in Christ “are not yes and nay; but they are in him yes, and in him amen.” Sooner may the rivers run backward, and the course of the heavens change, and the frame of nature be dissolved, than any one soul that is united to Jesus Christ by faith and love can be severed from him, and so fall short of the salvation hoped for in him; and this is the matter of their rejoicing.—Archbishop Leighton.

To fall into sin is a serious thing even though the guilt of it be forgiven. A boy who had often been disobedient was made by his father to drive a nail into a post for each offence. When he was well-behaved for a day he was allowed to draw out one of the nails. He fought against his temper bravely, and at last all the nails were gone from the post, and his father praised him. “Alas, father,” said the lad, “the nails are all gone, but the holes are left!” Even after forgiveness it will require a miracle of grace to recover us from the ill effects of sin.

In St. Peter’s, at Rome, I saw monuments to James III., Charles III., and Henry IX., kings of England. These potentates were quite unknown to me. They had evidently a name to reign, but reign they did not: they never received the end of their faith. Are not many professed Christians in the same condition?—C. H. S.