SAVED IN THE CHILD-BEARING.
IT is true, as stated by the apostle Peter, that there are some things in Paul's writings "hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other Scriptures, unto their own destruction." 2 Peter 3:16. It is not that these things may not be understood, but the meaning does not lie on the surface. By faithful study he who is stable (that is, he who is grounded in the truth of God, which is clearly revealed—learned in the Scriptures) may understand them. Those who go astray by such passages are those who wrest or tear them from their connection and from other plainly-revealed principles of truth, and form from them an opinion contrary to the truth. This is true of the expression found in 1 Tim. 2:15, "Notwithstanding she shall be saved in child-bearing." Let us examine it. Paul's subject is that we should labor and pray for the salvation of all mankind. The two classes into which the race is divided—man and woman—are referred to. Verses 8-12. To illustrate, the apostle referred to the two classes in the beginning, the father and mother of the race, and the cause of the fall. "Adam [the man] was first formed, then Eve [the woman, 'the mother of all living.'] Gen. 3:20]. And Adam [the man, for Adam means man] was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression. Notwithstanding she shall be saved in child-bearing, if they continue in faith and charity [love] and holiness with sobriety." The woman was deceived by Satan. The man yielded because the woman had yielded. Satan deceived the woman through his subtility; the woman beguiled the man. The race had fallen. But a ray of hope pierced the darkness. Through her, who had been first in transgression, should salvation come. We read in the history given: "I will put enmity between thee [Satan] and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it [he] shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." Gen. 3:15. Salvation, then, was to come through the seed of the woman. Pains and sorrows would accompany births, and the number would be greatly multiplied. Gen. 3:16. Yet through these pains and sorrows would come Him who would redeem the earth race. And this is just what is stated in 1 Tim. 2:15: "Notwithstanding she shall be saved in child-bearing." The Revised Version reads according to the literal Greek, "the child-bearing." This points us back to the beginning of the race and its fall, as do also the previous verses. She who through her sin brought sin upon her seed, or those to whom she would give birth, would be saved by her Seed, who should come through the child-bearing. The promised Seed of the woman would be the One through whom existence, fruiting, and life would come to all. The Seed of the seed, the "holy Child" of the child-bearing, is the "Way, the Truth, and the Life." But are not all saved through the Seed? Then why is it said that "she [woman] shall be saved in the child-bearing"?—They are words of comfort to woman, through whom sin first came. Altho she was in the transgression, she may be comforted that, through her, through the means of child-bearing, is to come the One who not only saves her but the race. But the fact that through woman was to come the Redeemer, is not all that is requisite to her salvation. Faith and charity (love) and continuance therein, are necessary on her part, as well as upon the part of all who are saved. All, male or female, must have that faith which purifies the heart (Acts 15:9), that love which obeys all of God's commandments and counts them not grievous (1 John 5:3), the faith that worketh by love (Gal. 5:6). All who have such faith are in Christ, it matters not their sex, or race, or nation. "For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female; for ye are all one in Christ Jesus." Gal. 3:27, 28. And any theory which makes a woman's salvation depend on her individual child-bearing is contrary to the Word of God, and is of the devil. But all who have faith and love and continue therein, the child-bearing, through which has been manifested God's matchless grace and boundless love—the gift of His Son and our Saviour—will save and save forever. And this text, like all others which speak of salvation, brings us to the only way of salvation,--our Lord Jesus Christ.