3539 - Saved by Grace by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Aug 29, 1911

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 38, No. 34.

3539 — Saved by Grace

By Editor

A letter lies before us from one who declares that he was saved by grace, and by grace alone; and then he wishes to know where there is one scripture in God's Word, from Genesis to Revelation, to show that God's law of commandments was ever given to Gentiles. He tells us further that they were counted "dogs and strangers by the Jews, who had no dealings with the Gentiles;" and he asks, "Could it be possible that the Jews and Gentiles were under the same law, and yet could have no dealings with one another?" R. J. C.

Now in the first place, there is not one single word in Scripture which shows that the Jews and Gentiles had no dealings with one another, for they had dealings with one another all the way through, even when the Gentiles were in gross idolatry and the Jews obedient to God. Of one class it is said that the Jews had no dealings with them, and that is the Samaritans (John 4:9); but the Samaritans professed to keep the same law that the Jews did. The only difficulty between the two peoples was that one held only to the books of Moses and the other to the entire Old Testament; one held that the holy mountain was Gerizim, and the other held that it was Zion. The Samaritans wanted to help build God's temple in the time of Ezra and Zerubbabel, which the Jews utterly refused, and therefore the enmity between the two factions. But these who were at enmity professed to keep the same law. See Ezra 4:1-3.

Secondly, if this brother will read Isaiah 56, he will there learn that the Lord gives great promises to the Gentiles who will unite with His covenant and keep His Sabbath. Note that the chapter applies to the Christian dispensation, when God's "salvation is near to come," and His "righteousness to be revealed." Then he tells us, "Blessed is the man that doeth this, and the son of man that layeth hold on it; that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it, and keepeth his hand from doing any evil." Verse 6: "Also the sons of the stranger [the Gentiles], that join themselves to the Lord, to serve Him, and to love the name of the Lord, to be His servants, every one that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it, and taketh hold of My covenant; even them will I bring to My holy mountain, and make them joyful in My house of prayer." Certainly this is very clear and definite.

Thirdly, there is not one single promise to the Gentiles, in all God's Word, of hope or salvation, save only as they become of the house of Israel. Therefore Paul, writing to the Ephesians who were once Gentile heathens, says, "Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called uncircumcision by that which is called the circumcision in the flesh made by hands; that at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world." That is the condition of all Gentiles, as such; but these Gentiles came to Christ, and so they became a part of Israel in coming to Him. Therefore he says: "But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were afar off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. . . . Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God; and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner-stone." Surely this is clear. There is abundance of testimony along the same line. Jesus declares, "Salvation is of the Jews;" and the apostle Paul declares that the true Jew is he that is one inwardly. Rom. 2:28, 29.

Fourth, the writer of this letter has an entire misapprehension of the teaching of the "Signs of the Times." We have never said we are saved by Sabbath-keeping, or by obedience to father or mother, or by abstaining from killing or stealing, or by the keeping of any of God's commandments. No Christian who understands the Word, ever teaches any such thing as that. Salvation is in Christ, and in Christ alone. By Him only are we saved; but we would press home this question upon the heart: Are we saved to sin and sinning, or are we saved to righteousness? Did the Lord Jesus Christ leave heaven and die, did He bring home His Spirit to our heart, and give us hope, in order that we might go on in sin and disloyalty? Was that the object of Christ's death? or did He die in order to save us from sin and sinning, to make us loyal children, children that would delight in God's commandments even as He delighted in them? This is the question that ought to face every Christian who is puzzled or troubled by the foolish objections which are brought up concerning the object of grace. The object of God's grace is to make men and women, obedient men and obedient women, true men and true women, loyal men and loyal women; and if the grace which we have received does not do that, we have received the grace of God in vain.

We would like to press home another question to the heart of our querist: Would he like to live near to neighbors who did not believe that their Christianity required them to keep God's law? Would he feel that his horse was safe in the barn, or his chickens in the chicken house, or his potatoes in the field? It seems as tho some of these questions are really practical. The Hon. Wm. J. Bryan remarked one time in one of his lectures, that he would feel it very unsafe to leave his pocketbook around among Christians who did not believe in the authority and binding obligations of God's commandments. It was a very wise and just remark. He does not know God's grace and its purpose who can not see that God's grace is given in order to bring us back to Him and into harmony with His holy law. Then His commandments are not a yoke of bondage, but a delight, and it is easier to observe His commandments and walk in them than it is to go the way of the world.