TEXT.—“Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Who became for us wisdom from God and righteousness and sanctification and redemption.”—(Acts 16:30, 31; I Cor. 1:30)
There
should be no objection to putting these two passages together this way since
only one clause in the first passage is omitted which is not essential to its
meaning, and which is irrelevant to the purpose of tonight’s message.
In
the passage first quoted, the apostle tells the inquiring jailer who wanted to
know what he must do to be saved, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you
shall be saved”. And in the other
passage, Paul adds the explanatory remark, telling what a Savior Jesus Christ
is, “Who became for us wisdom from God and righteousness and sanctification and
redemption”. The following is the order
that I plan to discuss the subject tonight:
I.
Show what salvation is.
II.
Show the way of salvation.
I.
What is salvation?
Salvation
includes several things; sanctification, justification, and eternal life and
glory. The two prime ideas are
sanctification and justification.
Sanctification is the purifying of the mind, or making it holy. Justification relates to the way we are
accepted and treated by God.
II.
The way of salvation.
1.
Salvation is by faith, in opposition to works.
Here
I plan to take a brief view of the gospel plan of salvation, and contrast with
the original plan on which God proposed to save the human race.
Originally,
the human race was put on the foundation of law for salvation; so that, if
saved at all, they were to be saved on the ground of perfect and eternal
obedience to the law of God. Adam was
the natural head of the human race.
Many believe that there was a covenant made with Adam that if he continued
to obey the law for a limited period, all his descendants would be confirmed in
holiness and happiness forever. I don’t
know why so many people believe this. I
have never found this doctrine taught in the Bible. And if it is true, the condition of the human raced today does
not differ materially from what it was at the beginning. If the salvation of the human race
originally depended on the obedience of one man, I do not see how it could be
called a covenant of works as far as our race is concerned. If Adam’s descendants depended on the
conduct of Adam, it was a covenant of grace to them in the same way that the present
system is a covenant of grace. For
according to that view, everything related to works depended on one man, just
as it does under the gospel; and the rest of the race had no more to do with
works than they have now, but everything that related to works was done by the
one representative. Now, I believe, and
there is nothing in the Bible to the contrary, that if Adam had continued obeying
forever, his posterity would stand forever on the same ground, and, just like
Adam, they would also have to obey the law forever in order to be saved. It may have been that if Adam had always
obeyed, the natural influence of his example would have brought about such a
state of things, that, in fact, all his posterity would have continued in
holiness. But the salvation of each
individual would still depend on his own works. However, if the works of the first father were to be so set to
the account of the race, that on account of his obedience they would be secured
in holiness and happiness forever, I do not see where that differs materially
from the covenant of grace, or the gospel.
In
fact, Adam was the natural head of the human race, and his sin has involved us
in its consequences, but not on the principle that his sin is literally
considered our sin. The truth is simply
this; that from the relationship in which Adam stood as our natural head, his
sin has resulted in the sin and ruin of his descendants. I believe that mankind was originally all
under a covenant of works, and that Adam was not their head or representative
in such a way that his obedience or disobedience involved his descendents irresistibly
in sin and condemnation irrespective of their own acts. In fact, it turned out that “by one man’s
disobedience many were made sinners”; as the apostle tells us in the 5th chapter
of Romans. So that, after Adam fell,
there was no hope of saving any of mankind by the law. Then the plan was revealed, which had been
provided in the counsels of eternity on foresight of this event, for saving the
human race by a proceeding of mere grace.
A Covenant of Redemption now placed salvation on an entirely new
foundation. You will find this covenant
in the 89th Psalm, and other places in the Old Testament. Notice, that this covenant is a covenant
between the Father and the Son regarding the salvation of the human race; and
is the foundation of another covenant, the covenant of grace. In the covenant of redemption, man is no
party at all, but merely the subject of the covenant; the parties are God the
Father and the Son. In this covenant,
the Son is made the head or representative of His people. Adam was the natural head of the human
family, and Christ is the covenant head of His church.
The
covenant of grace was based on this covenant of redemption. In the covenant of redemption, the Son
stipulated with the Father to work out an atonement; and the Father stipulated
that He should have a seed, or people, gathered out of the human race. The
covenant of grace was made with people and was revealed to Adam after the fall,
and more fully revealed to Abraham. Of
this covenant, Jesus Christ was to be the Mediator, that is, He should
administer the covenant. It was a
covenant of grace in opposition to the original covenant of works, that Adam
and his posterity were placed under at the beginning. Salvation was now to be by faith instead of by works, because the
obedience and death of Jesus Christ was to be regarded as the reason why any
individual would be saved, and not each one’s personal obedience. Now, strictly speaking, Christ’s obedience
was not performed for us. As a man,
Christ had to obey for Himself; because He had to put himself under the law,
and if he did not obey the law, he would have become a transgressor of the
law. And yet, there is a sense in which
we can say that His obedience is reckoned to our account. His obedience has so highly honored the law,
and His death has so fully satisfied the demands of public justice that grace
(not justice) has reckoned His righteousness to us. If He was free to obey the law strictly for us, and didn’t have
to obey for Himself, then I cannot see why justice should not have accounted
His obedience to us, and we could have obtained salvation on the ground of
justice, instead of asking it on the ground of grace or favor. But it is only in this sense accounted ours:
that He, being both God and man, having voluntarily assumed our nature and then
voluntarily laying down His life to make atonement, casts such a glory on the
law of God that grace is willing to consider His obedience in such a sense
ours, that, because of what He did, God treats us as if we were righteous.
Christ
is also the covenant head of those who believe. He is not the natural head as Adam was, but our covenant relation
to Him is such, that whatever is given to Him is given to us. Whatever He is, both in His divine and human
nature; whatever He has done, either as God or man, is given to us by covenant,
or promise, and is absolutely ours.
Please understand this. The
church, as a body, has never yet understood the fullness and richness of this
covenant, and all there is in Christ that is offered to us in the covenant of
grace.
We
receive this grace by faith. It is not
by works or by anything we do before we exercise faith, that we become
partakers in this righteousness. But as
soon as we exercise faith, all that Christ has done, all there is of Christ,
all that is contained in the covenant of grace, becomes ours by faith. That is why the inspired writers talk so
much about faith. Faith is our
voluntary compliance with the condition of the covenant. Faith is the eye that discerns, the hand
that takes hold, the medium by which we possess the blessings of the
covenant. By an act of faith, our soul
becomes actually possessed of all that is embraced by that act of faith. If we do not receive enough to break the
bonds of sin and set our soul free immediately, it is because our act has not
embraced enough of what Christ is and what He has done.
I
have quoted this verse from Corinthians to point out some of the fundamental
things contained in this covenant of grace.
“But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God
and righteousness and sanctification and redemption.” (I Cor 1:30) When Christ
is received and believed on, He is made to us wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption. But
what does this mean? How and in what
sense is Christ our wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption? I will spend a few moments discussing each.
This
is a very peculiar verse, and for a long time my mind has meditated on it with
great anxiety to know its exact and full meaning. I have prayed over it, as much as over any passage in the Bible,
that I might be enlightened to understand its real importance. I have long been in the habit, when my mind
is fastened on any passage that I did not understand, to pray over it until I
felt satisfied. I have never dared to
preach on this verse because I never felt fully satisfied that I understood it. I think I understand it now. Anyway, I am willing to give my opinion on
it. And if I have any right knowledge
concerning its meaning, I am sure I have received it from the Spirit of God.
1.
In what sense is Christ our wisdom?
Christ
is often called “the Wisdom of God”.
And, in the Book of Proverbs, He is called Wisdom. But how is He made to us wisdom?
One
idea contained in this is that we have all the benefits of His wisdom; and if
we exercise the faith we should, we will be directed by His wisdom, and it is
just as if we originally had the same wisdom that Christ has. Otherwise, it cannot be true that He became
for us wisdom. Since Christ is the infinite
source of wisdom, how can it say that He has become for us wisdom unless we
become partakers of His wisdom? How can
it say that He has become for us wisdom unless we have His wisdom guaranteed to
us, so that, at any time, if we trust in Him, we may have His wisdom as
certainly, and in any degree we need, to guide us as infallibly as if we originally
possessed it ourselves? This is what we
need from the gospel, and this is what the gospel must furnish to be suited to
our needs. And anyone who has not
learned this, has not known anything as he should know it. If he thinks his own theorizing and
speculating will bring him to any right knowledge on the subject of religion,
he knows nothing at all yet. His
carnal, earthly heart can no more understand enough of the realities of
religion to be of any good than the heart of an animal. “For what man knows the things of a man except
the spirit of the man which is in him?
Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God.” (I Cor 2:11)
What
can we know, without experience, about the character or Spirit of God? You can say, “We can reason about God”. What if we do reason about God? What can reason do here? Suppose we have a mind that was pure
intellect and had no other powers, and I should try to teach that pure intellect
what it is to love. I could lecture on
love, and instruct that pure intellect using words, so that it could reason and
philosophize about love, and yet anyone could see that it is impossible to put
that pure intellect in possession of the idea of what love is, unless it not
only has power to exercise love, but it actually exercises it! It is just as if I should talk about colors
to a man born blind. He hears the
words, but what idea can he attach to it unless he has actually seen? It is impossible to get the idea home to his
mind of the difference between colors.
To him, red, blue, and green are only words.
The
same is true with religion. Anybody who
has never experienced true religion may reason about it. He may demonstrate the perfections of God,
just like he would demonstrate a mathematical proposition. But that which is the spirit and life of the
gospel can no more be carried to the mind by mere words without experience,
than love can be carried to a pure intellect, or colors to a person born
blind. You may present to him the
letter of the law strong enough to crush him down to hell with conviction; but
to give him the spiritual meaning of things without the Spirit of God is as
absurd as to lecture to a blind man about colors.
These
two things then are contained in the idea of wisdom. 1. Since Christ is our
representative, we are interested in all His wisdom, and all the wisdom He has
is exercised for us. His infinite
wisdom is actually used for our benefit.
2. That just as much wisdom as
is needed, is guaranteed to be always ready to be imparted to us, whenever we
exercise faith in Him for wisdom. From
His infinite fullness, we may receive all we need. And if we do not receive from Him the wisdom that we need, in any
and every situation, it is because we do not exercise faith.
2.
He became for us Righteousness. What
does this mean?
My
mind spent a long time struggling to understand the difference that the apostle
intended to make between righteousness and sanctification. Righteousness means holiness or obedience to
the law; and sanctification means the same thing.
My
present view of the difference that Paul was trying to make is that, by Christ
being made unto us righteousness, Paul wanted to be understood that Christ is
our outward righteousness; or, that His obedience is, under the covenant of
grace, accounted to us. Not in the
sense that it is on the footing of justice.
He obeyed for us, and so God credits us, not just because our substitute
has obeyed, but because we have such a concern in His obedience, that as a
matter of grace, we are treated as if we had obeyed.
Are
you are aware that some have a view of this subject that is different from
this. There is a view that the
righteousness of Christ is so imputed to us that we are considered as having
always been holy. It was at one time
commonly believed that righteousness was so imputed to us, that we had a right
to demand salvation on the ground of justice.
My view of the matter is entirely different. I believe that Christ’s righteousness becomes ours by gift. God has so united us in Christ, that He
treats us with favor because of Christ.
It is just like a situation where, because a father had done a very important
service to his country, the government feels that it is proper for his whole
family to be rewarded because of what he had done. Human governments often do this, and the reason for this is very
clear. The same is true in God’s
government.
Christ’s
disciples are, in such a sense, considered one with Him and God is so highly
delighted with the single service Christ has done for the kingdom from the
circumstances under which He became a Savior, that God credits the
righteousness of Christ to His disciples as if it were their own righteousness. In other words, God treats them just as He
would treat Christ Himself; just like the government of a country under certain
circumstances, treats the son of a father who had greatly benefited the
country, just as they would treat the father, and bestow on him the same
favors. Remember, I am speaking about
what I call outward righteousness; I mean, the reason out of the individual,
why God accepts and saves those who believe in Christ. And this reason includes both the obedience
of Christ to the law, and His obedience unto death, or suffering on the cross
to make atonement.
3.
In what sense does Christ become for us sanctification?
Sanctification
is inward purity. This means that
Christ is our inward purity. Christ
exercises His control over us. His
Spirit works in us to will and to do.
He sheds His love abroad in our hearts, and so controls us that we,
through the faith that comes from the operation of God, are actually made holy.
I
want you to get the exact idea here.
When it says that Christ is our sanctification, or our holiness, it
means that He is the author of our holiness.
He is not only the procuring cause, by His atonement and intercession,
but because of His direct dealings with our soul, He Himself
produces holiness. He is not the remote
but the immediate cause of our being sanctified. He does not work our works in us by doing things in spite of
ourselves, but He sanctifies us by His Spirit within us by influencing us in a
way that is perfectly consistent with our free will. And this is also received by faith. It is by faith that Christ is received and enthroned as King in
our hearts; when our mind, from confidence in Christ, simply yields itself up
to Him to be led by His Spirit, and guided and controlled by His hand. The act of our mind that throws our soul
into the hand of Christ for sanctification is faith. Nothing is lacking except for our mind to break away from any
confidence in itself, and to give itself up to Him, to be completely led and
controlled by Him, just like the little daughter puts her little hand into her
father’s hand, to have him lead her anywhere he pleases. If she does not trust her father, or, if she
doesn’t want to be led, or if she has confidence in her own wisdom and
strength, then she will let go and try to run alone. But if all her self-confidence fails, her own efforts will cease,
and she will come and give herself up to her father again, to be led completely
at his will. I suppose this is similar
to the act of faith, by which an individual gives himself up to be led and
controlled by Christ. He no longer
tries to guide, control, and sanctify himself by his own efforts; and he gives
himself up, as yielding as air, and leaves himself in the hands of Christ as
his sanctification.
4.
It is said Christ becomes for us redemption.
What does that mean?
Here
Paul clearly refers to the Jewish practice of redeeming estates, or redeeming
relatives that had been sold for debt.
When an estate had been sold out of the family, or an individual had
been deprived of his freedom to pay a debt, they could be redeemed by paying
the price of redemption. There are many
references in the Bible to this practice of redemption. And, where Christ is mentioned as our redemption,
I suppose it means just what it says.
While we are in our sins under the law, we are sold as slaves in the
hand of public justice, bound over to death, and we have no possible way to
redeem ourselves from the curse of the law.
Now, Christ makes Himself the price of our redemption. In other words, He is our redemption money;
He buys us out from under the law by paying Himself as a ransom. Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the
law, being made a curse for us; and so He also redeems us from the power of
sin. However, I must leave this train
of thought, and return to considering the plan of salvation.
Under
this covenant of grace, our own works, or anything that we do or can do as
works of law, have no more to do with our salvation than if we had never
existed. I want your minds to clearly
understand the difference between salvation by works and salvation by
grace. Our salvation by grace is based
on a reason completely separate from and outside of ourselves. Before, salvation depended on ourselves. Now we receive salvation as a free gift,
solely because of Jesus Christ. He is
the sole author, ground, and reason for our salvation. Whether we love God or not, as far as it is
a ground of our salvation, doesn’t matter.
Salvation is entirely a matter of grace through Jesus Christ. I am not saying that there is no need to
love God or do good works. I know that
“without holiness no man shall see the Lord.”
(Heb 12:14) But the need for
holiness is not at all on this ground.
Our own holiness does not enter at all into the ground or reason for our
acceptance and salvation. We are not
going to be indebted to Christ for a while, until we are sanctified, and then,
all the rest of the time, we will stand in our own righteousness. No!
But, no matter how perfect and holy we may become in this life, or
throughout eternity, Jesus Christ will forever be the only reason in the
universe why we are not in hell.
Because, no matter how holy we may become, it will be forever true that
we have sinned, and in the eye of justice, nothing in us short of our eternal
damnation can satisfy the law. Now,
Jesus Christ has undertaken to help, and He will forever remain the sole ground
of our salvation.
According
to this plan, we have the benefit of His obedience to the law, just as if He
had obeyed it for us. Not that he did
obey for us as opposed to His own obedience, but we receive the benefits of His
obedience by the gift of grace. The
result is the same as if He had obeyed for us.
I
wanted to dwell on the idea of Christ as our Light, our Life, and our
Strength. However, there is not enough
time tonight. I want to spend a little
time on this question. “How does faith
put us in possession of Christ in all these relationships”?
Faith
in Christ puts us in possession of Christ as the sum and substance of the
blessings of the gospel. Christ was the
very blessing promised in the Abrahamic covenant. And throughout the scriptures, He is held forth as the sum and
substance of all of God’s favors to man.
He is the Bread of life, the Water of life, our Strength, and our
All. The gospel has taxed all the
powers of language to describe the vast variety of His relationships, and to
show that faith puts believers in possession of Jesus Christ in all these
relationships.
In
the same way that faith puts our mind in possession of all these blessings, it
annihilates all those things that stand in the way of our relationship with
Christ. Christ says, “Behold, I stand
at the door and knock. If anyone hears
My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he
with Me”. (Rev 3:20) Here is a door, an obstacle to our
fellowship with Christ, something that stands in the way. Take wisdom for example. Why don’t we receive Christ as our
wisdom? Because we depend on our own
wisdom and we think that we have some available knowledge of the things of God,
and as long as we depend on this available knowledge we keep the door
shut. That is the door. Now, let us just throw this all away and
give up all our own wisdom, and see how infinitely empty we are of any
available knowledge, as empty as a beast that perishes, as to the way of salvation,
until Christ teaches us. Until we feel
this, there is a door between Christ and us.
We have something of our own.
Instead of coming and instead of throwing ourselves perfectly into the
hands of Christ, we simply come to Him to help our own wisdom.
How
does faith put us in possession of the Righteousness of Christ? This is the way. Until our mind takes hold on the righteousness of Christ, we are
alive to our own righteousness. We are
naturally engaged in working out a righteousness of our own, and until we cease
entirely from our own works, by completely throwing ourselves on Christ for
righteousness, we do not come to Christ.
Christ will not patch up our own righteousness, so that we can solve all
our problems. If we depend on our
prayers, our tears, our charities, or anything we have done, or expect to do,
He will not receive us. We must not
depend on any of this. However, the
moment an individual grabs a hold of Christ, he receives and appropriates all
of Christ’s righteousness as his own as a perfect and unchangeable reason for
his acceptance with God by grace.
The
same is true concerning Sanctification and Redemption. I cannot dwell on them tonight as much as I
want to. Until an individual receives
Christ, he does not cease from his own works.
The moment he receives Christ, by this very act he throws the entire
responsibility on Christ. The moment
our mind yields itself up to Christ, the responsibility falls on Christ, just
as the person who decides to lead a blind man is responsible for his safe
conduct. The believer by the act of
faith pledges Christ for his obedience and sanctification. By giving himself up to Christ, all the
truthfulness of the Godhead are put at stake, that he shall be led aright or,
in other words, that he shall be made holy.
And
concerning Redemption, as long as the sinner believes that his own sufferings,
his prayers or tears, or his mental agony, can do some good, he will never
receive Christ. But as soon as he receives
Christ, he sinks down as lost and condemned, as in fact a dead person, unless
redeemed by Christ.
REMARKS.
I.
There is no such thing as spiritual life in us, or anything acceptable to God,
until we actually believe in Christ.
The
very act of believing, receives Christ as just that influence which alone can
wake up our mind to spiritual life.
II.
We are nothing, as Christians, any more than we believe in Christ.
III.
Many seem to be waiting to do something first before they receive Christ.
Some
wait to become deader to the world.
Some wait to receive a broken heart.
Some try to get their doubts cleared up before they come to Christ. This is a deadly mistake. They are expecting to do those things that
only come from faith, before they exercise faith. If you expect to do these things before you come to Christ, your
heart will not be broken, your doubts will not be cleared up, and you will
never die to the world until you believe.
The moment you grasp the things of Christ, your mind will see, as in the
light of eternity, the emptiness of the world, of reputation, riches, honor and
pleasure. To expect this first, before
you exercise faith, is beginning at the wrong end. It is seeking, as a preparation for faith, those things that
result from faith.
IV.
Perfect faith will produce perfect love.
When
our mind truly recognizes Christ, and receives Him in His various
relationships; when our faith is unwavering and our views are clear, there will
be nothing left in our mind contrary to the law of God.
V.
Abiding faith will produce abiding love.
Increasing
faith will produce increasing love.
Love may be perfect at all times, and yet, love may have different
degrees at different times. An
individual may love God perfectly and eternally, and yet his love may increase
in vigor throughout all eternity, as I believe it will. As the saints in glory see more and more of
God’s excellencies, they will love Him increasingly, and yet they will have
perfect love all the time. In other
words, there will be nothing inconsistent with love in their mind, even though
their degree of love will change as their views of God’s character
unfolds. As God opens to their view the
wonders of His glorious unselfish love, they will have their souls thrilled
with fresh love for God. In this life,
the exercises of love vary greatly in degree.
Sometimes God unfolds to His saints the wonders of His government, gives
them awesome views that prostrate them, and greatly increases their love. Yet, their love may have been perfect
before; that is, their love of God was already supreme and single, without any
mixture of inconsistent affections. It
is not unreasonable to believe that this will be true throughout all eternity;
that occasions will occur in which the love of the saints will be raised to new
and higher levels by new revelations of God’s glory. As God reveals to them wonder after wonder, their love will be
increased indefinitely, and they will continually reach new heights of its
strength and fervor throughout all eternity.
I
planned to mention some things on the subject of instantaneous and progressive
sanctification. However, there is not
enough time tonight.
VI.
Can you see, beloved, from what I have shared with you this evening, how you
can be made holy, and when you can be sanctified?
Whenever
you come to Christ, and receive Him for all that He is, and accept total
salvation by grace, you will have all that Christ is to you, wisdom,
righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.
There is nothing but unbelief to keep you from enjoying all of it right
now. You don’t have to wait or
prepare. There is no preparation that
will do you any good. You must receive
complete salvation as a free gift.
When will you completely grab a hold of Christ? When will you believe? Faith, true faith, always works by love. True faith purifies the heart, and overcomes
the world. Whenever you find any problems
in your way, you can know what’s the matter.
It’s a lack of faith. No matter
what may befall you outwardly: if you find yourself withdrawing from religion,
or your mind thrown into confusion, unbelief is the cause, and faith the
remedy. If you grab a hold of Christ,
and hang on tightly to Him, all the devils in hell can never drive you away
from God, or put out your light. But if
you let unbelief prevail, you may go on in your miserable, halting way, talking
about sanctification, using words without knowledge, and dishonoring God until
you die.