Saved by Works

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Dec 10, 1894

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 20, No. 57.

"Behold, I come quickly; and My reward is with Me, to give every man according as his work shall be." Rev. 22:12.

"Saved by Works."—Are we saved by works?—Yes, and no; it depends on whose works. We are not saved by our works, or by the works of man or men. Saved means eternal life and living in the kingdom of God; but man's best and greatest works come short of God's glory, because marred by sin.

"For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God." Man sinned and fell from his highest and perfect plane of creation. When man came from his Maker's hand he was created in righteousness and true holiness. He sinned and fell from the highway of holiness to the low level of sin, misery, suffering, and death. He could go no lower, for sin is the end of death. James 1:15. He can go no higher, for a sinful nature, a nature born in sin, delighting in sin, wedded to sin, holds him down. In fact, he is bound by the cords of his iniquities, a slave of sin, and doomed to death. He is "without strength" so far as his own salvation is concerned, and "none of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him." Ps. 49:7.

This is the condition of all men. "All have sinned and come short of the glory of God." Man has never risen from his low plane of sin and death by his own power, and never can. The ceaseless treadmill of human effort has been wheeling its wearied round through all the variations and vicissitudes of ages, but man is still at the bottom. He hopes—he has ever hoped—to rise on the wings of resolve and purpose, on the pedestal of effort or sacrifice, but his "feet still cling to the heavy clay." Through fasting and scourging and beating and isolation and every manner of self-discipline and torture, man has sought to "climb up" to the plane of God's righteousness and life, but has pitiably and pitifully failed. He is still treading the same weary round, and for the most part is unsaved. Of himself he is "without strength," and therefore without hope. "By the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified in His sight."

But there is hope. Although man could not in the weakness of the flesh keep the law, God has provided a Law Keeper, who is able to save to the uttermost. "For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God [did by] sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh; that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." Rom. 8:3, 4. Christ left heaven, with all its glory, emptied himself of all his majesty, came down to earth as a man, was "made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law." Gal. 4:4, 5. Having taken upon himself the form of man, the likeness of sinful flesh, he became "obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." He came down to the low plane of man's level. But to do this "he emptied himself" (Phil. 2:7, Revised Version), and God filled him with all his fullness (Col. 1:19; 2:9). His coming down to man's level by taking upon himself the nature of man, yet filled with the fullness of God, was God coming down to dwell with man. And that is what Christ came for,—to manifest God to the world. "And they shall call his name EMMANUEL, which being interpreted is, God with us." And again, "Thou shalt call his name JESUS; for he shall save his people from their sins." It is God come down to us in order to lift us up to him.

"In him ye are complete," says the apostle. Just as Christ emptied himself and God filled him, so when we renounce self, yield up all our sins, our ambitions, our righteousnesses (which at the best are but filthy rags, webs of garments), our wills, our all to God, subject to his will and his alone, Christ enters the heart yielded to him and fills us with his Spirit, clothes us with the righteousness of God in him, and makes us complete in his completeness. Col. 2:9, 10. Christ was complete with God in him (John 14:10), and we are complete with Christ in us the hope of glory (Col. 1:27; 1 John 4:2, 4; John 17:21). As the life of God was manifest in him, so the life of Jesus is made manifest in our mortal flesh. 2 Cor. 4:10, 11.

But the life of Jesus is what Jesus lived; it is his character while here upon the earth. Here he went about doing good (Acts 10:38); he did the Father's will (John 6:38); he kept the Father's commandments (John 15:10), in other words, was obedient to all the holy law of God in its absolute perfection and fullness; for he "did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth" (1 Peter 2:22). That righteousness of Christ, the righteous works of his life, is imputed to the sinner through faith, and God accepts it as though the sinner had, as did Christ, obeyed all the law for all time. Thus we are saved from all past sin and accepted of God, not because of our works, but because we believe in Jesus. See Rom. 4:3-8. Nevertheless, the works have been wrought, the law has been kept, not by us, but by Jesus Christ. We are saved by works, by the works of Christ, wrought in his life.

But Christ's works do not stop here. He is not satisfied by placing to our credit his blameless life of righteousness for our sins of the past. He covers our sins of the past, that he may give us deliverance and victory for the future. Therefore he puts within us his Spirit, his life, that we may live it here even as he lived it here. "A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you. . . . And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them." Eze. 36:26, 27. "That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." Rom. 8:4. "That the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh." 2 Cor. 4:11. And will not the life of Christ, who is "the same yesterday, and to-day, and forever," be manifest in keeping God's commandments now as much as it was nearly nineteen hundred years ago? Will it not observe all of God's commandments now as much as it did then? Of course, this will be no glory to us, no cause of boasting, that we keep his law; it will be all of Christ, only different manifestations of the same life in works. It will be Christ's righteousness covering our past sins; it will be Christ living in us his life of righteousness, willing and working in us to his own pleasure. But it is Christ's work in all. Reader, by whose works are you seeking to be saved? Whose life are you living? Whose will are you doing?