p. 7 | Salvation Through Christ Alone

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Mar 4, 1915

Salvation Through Christ Alone

SALVATION does not come through Christ and something else, but through Christ alone. Salvation does not even come through good works, but through simple faith in the atoning sacrifice. Good works will follow in the life of the believer as the natural fruits of a new experience, and afford evidence of the genuineness of the believer’s faith. But good works should never be depended upon to secure righteousness in this life or immortality in the life to come. Our very best endeavors can never earn salvation. Having done all that we can do, we are still unworthy servants, and must fall back upon the unmerited grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.

WHILE we cannot of ourselves earn salvation, it is necessary that we co-operate with God in order to secure it. Heaven has made us free moral agents. We stand between opposing elements,—the influences of good and the influences of evil,—each seeking our cooperation. The decision remains with us. We must decide whether we shall enlist under the banner of Prince Immanuel or under the banner of the Prince of Darkness. Deciding to enlist on the side of God, we may open our hearts and yield our lives fully to divine influences. Our energy and our will power, every faculty of mind and body, should be dedicated to the service of God. The same as in our rebellion we yielded our members as instruments of unrighteousness, so in our new relationship we must yield our members as instruments of righteousness unto God to do his bidding and to work out his purposes. “Choose you this day whom ye will serve.”

No human power or devising can change the human heart. Good resolutions will not do it; education will not do it; environment will not do it; eugenics will not do it. There is but one name under heaven given among men whereby we may be saved, and that is the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. The power of that name and faith in that name will make us whole, even as it made whole the lame man whom Peter and John found at the gate of the temple. Man must take hold of a power outside of himself. God has reached down his mighty arm to save sinners, and whosoever will may avail himself of the help provided. The king and his subject, the master and the slave, the scholar and the illiterate, the civilized man and the untutored savage, all have access to this source of power, and all who would be saved must accept salvation in God’s appointed way. Sin is a universal disease, and God has provided a universal remedy—the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let us turn from our strivings and agonizings, from our failures and defeats, from our discouragement and despair, to the source of help in Christ Jesus. He declares, “Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.” Poor sinner, whoever you are or wherever you live, this word is for you.