Securing Salvation by F. M. W.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · May 18, 1911

Securing Salvation

By F. M. W.

THE way of righteousness is the way of simple faith. How blessed that this is the case! God does not require wealth, fame, worldly position, or great scholarship as a condition of salvation; if he did, the great mass of humanity could never hope to gain eternal life. Instead, he makes the conditions so simple that the little child, equally with the wisest philosopher, the servant in the field as well as the king on his throne, rich and poor, learned and illiterate,—all alike must come in the same way, and in a way so simple that all may come. This is the blessed part of it. “For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness.” “If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.”

Israel of old sought, through the works of the law, by their own wisdom, and through human effort, to make themselves righteous. They signally failed in all their efforts. Says the apostle: “But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness. Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law.” Seeking righteousness by faith, however, involves something more than mere mental assent to the fact that we are sinners, and that Christ is our Saviour. It means the forsaking of sin, a surrender of the will to God.

Surrender of the will does not mean that there must be no exercise of the individual mind; it is the placing of the will on the side of God’s will. Says the Scripture: “Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.” The child of God after his conversion still possesses mind, intellect, ambitions, aspirations, will-power, etc. He still possesses his individuality. He is still a free moral agent. The difference after his conversion is that his ambitions are subordinated to God; he lays his plans daily at the feet of Jesus, to be given up or carried out as his Spirit shall indicate. His highest aspirations are found in copying in his life the perfect Pattern; his will-power is used to work the works of God instead of the works of sin; and the motive power in it all is simple faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and trust in the power of the Holy Spirit. He loves God because God first loved him. He prays because he loves to commune with his new-found Master; he studies the Scriptures of truth because he finds in them a message of love from his dearest Friend. He labors, sometimes in weariness, in painfulness, when the flesh itself is weak and faltering, rejoicing because his life’s service is a service of love,—love for him who has become in his affections the Chiefest among ten thousand, and the One altogether lovely.

To this experience of Christian love and service every soul may attain. If one finds himself weak through inheritance, or through environment, there will be given him, if he has a willing mind and a heart fully set on doing his Master’s will, added grace to enable him to come off more than conqueror in Christ Jesus.

God is no respecter of persons. We are assured that in every nation, he that worketh righteousness is accepted by him.

Dear reader, whatever may be your name, your nationality, your environment, even though you live in a place as wicked as Nazareth of old, out of which Nathanael thought no good thing could come, God stands ready to prove your deliverer. If you will open your heart to receive his grace, if you will reach up your weak, feeble hand and implore his help, his strong and mighty hand will be reached down to save. He will take your feet from the miry clay, and set them upon the solid rock; he will take away the lusts of the flesh, the old desires for sin, and put within your heart a new song, even praise unto our God. This is the attitude of God toward every one of his creatures. This he will do for every willing soul. The willingness must be of us; the power is of God. All heaven desires our salvation; let us heartily unite with the heavenly agencies in securing its accomplishment.

F. M. W.