Salvation and Its Conditions.
By A. S. Hutchins
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” Matt. 3:16. The death of the Son of God sets before all men an open door of hope. But salvation is suspended upon conditions. Faith must be accompanied by obedience. For we read of Christ: “And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him.” He who devised the plan of salvation could alone reveal the conditions on which fallen and lost man can be saved, and by which he may develop a character whereby he may stand in the Judgment and secure to himself the gift of life eternal. Without a knowledge of the will of God, no one can understandingly serve him. Ignorance and unbelief may dress up and cherish popular and time-honored error, and adhere to it with the most ardent devotion, but this falls as far short of consistently worshiping the true and living God, as did the superstitious worship of the Athenians in the days of Paul. Again, it is necessary to have the spirit of submission and obedience to God. The submission and obedience required in the plan of salvation test the loyalty of man to his Creator, which must be proved before the Author of salvation can confer upon him the priceless gift of immortality and life eternal. Wisdom, personified, declares, “I lead in the way of righteousness, in the midst of the paths of judgment; that I may cause those that love me to inherit substance; and I will fill their treasures.” And again, “He that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul; all they that hate me love death.” Prov. 8:20, 21, 36. Here inspiration draws the strongest possible contrast between the results of obedience and disobedience, between a life of righteousness and a life of sin. The testimony of the apostle accords with this: “Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?” Obedience to the revealed will of God, as set forth in his holy law, indicates to the angels of Heaven, who watch the development of character, and to our fellow-men, over whom we are constantly exerting a savory or an unsavory influence (felt here, and to be fully realized in the Judgment of the great day), that we love God. “For,” says John, “this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments; and his commandments are not grievous.” It indicates a prudent choice, a choice between the broad, open road to death, and the narrow way to life; a choice dictated by unerring wisdom. “Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace.” Those who ever find themselves ready to walk in the light shining forth from the word of God, and to obey the promptings of the Holy Spirit, are constantly developing Christian characters. They are “the salt of the earth,” “the light of the world.” “They go on from strength to strength, every one of them in Zion appeareth before God.” They ascend the ladder of Christian graces, so vividly described by Peter in the first chapter of his second epistle, whereby we may attain Christian perfection, and gain the prize which is ever beckoning us onward and upward. But Peter describes another class—a class who have not grown in grace and in the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord. “But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.” They have lost a sense of the depths of sin, and of the guilt attached to a life of disobedience, and of their obligation to their Maker. “They have made them crooked paths;” they “stumble at noonday as in the night.” The first house of Israel, once honored as the chosen people of the Most High, separated from all the nations of the world by distinguishing marks of his divine favor and approval, through superstitious unbelief and disobedience to him, so far relapsed into a state of sin and stubborn rejection of the Saviour of the world, that Jesus, as he wept over their city, where so many gracious answers to their prayers had been received, and so many wonderful manifestations of God’s love and care for them had been experienced, exclaimed, “If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now are they hid from thine eyes.” How many occupy at present a similar position with respect to the blessings promised to the second house of Israel. How many will fail to secure the reward awaiting the well-developed Christian, and go down to death cherishing a false hope. As I write, I am reminded of a remark made by a very intelligent gentleman some years since, who is a writer and public speaker and a professed Christian. He had received light on Bible truth from reading the publications of Seventh-day Adventists. In contrasting this with the errors of his denomination, he said, “I do not see how I can be a well-developed Christian and remain where I am.” Yet here he remains, thereby sanctioning error, and robbing himself of peace and happiness, and the world of the good he might do if he were a well-developed Christian. Is there not a possibility that to such the scripture may apply, “If ye were blind, ye should have no sin; but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth”?