p. 5 | ONE SALVATION by Uriah Smith

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, Cal. · Sep 20, 1905

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 31, No. 38.

ONE SALVATION.

By Uriah Smith

THE world is needy—very needy. There are millions sitting in the gloom of a darkness through which they see shining no single ray of hope. There are other millions whose eyes are blinded by a false light that lures to the paths of death. The ways of Satan are many, and their windings devious. There is no possibility of a single soul escaping from the intricate maze except by the one way, through the one door, following the one safe Guide, Jesus Christ.

Fashionable religions have sought to eliminate this Guide as a nonessential. The way He leads they have declared too narrow, His sacrifice in man's behalf unnecessary; and then they have exalted man to the place of a saviour, and pointed out another way of salvation than that which our Lord established.

But as true as our Lord is Lord, there is disappointment and death in every way of human devising, no matter how acceptable it may appear to the natural heart. Christ declared: "I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life; no one cometh unto the Father, but by Me." If there were any other means of salvation than that provided in the sacrifice of Christ, that sacrifice was superfluous, and Christ could not be either "the way" or "the truth;" for His words declare as plainly as words can declare anything that through Him alone man can escape the penalty of transgression and gain an inheritance in glory. "In none other is there salvation; for neither is there any other name under heaven, that is given among men, wherein we must be saved." Acts 4:12.

The same truth is stated in these words:

"Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by the way which He dedicated for us, a new and living way, through the veil, that is to say, His flesh, . . . let us draw near with a true heart in fulness of faith." Heb. 10:19-22.

By the blood of Jesus, then, and by no other means; "by the way which He dedicated for us," and by no other way, is it possible for us to gain remission of sins and have a part in the resurrection of the just. Listen to our Lord's own declaration in the matter:

"Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the Door of the sheep. . . . I am the Door; by Me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and go out, and shall find pasture. . . . I came that they may have life, and may have it abundantly. I am the good Shepherd; the good shepherd layeth down his life for the sheep." John 10:7-11.

It is plainly apparent that our Lord foresaw the condition of these times; saw that men would be devising ways of salvation of their own; that they would be turning from the only way provided; and so these ringing words of truth were spoken and written for us "upon whom the ends of the world are come." The tempter will seek to beguile us with every plausible excuse, placing before us plans and schemes, and ways that look beautiful and feasible. Be not deceived. There is but one way of life—Jesus Christ. There is but one sacrifice that can avail for us—His life. Every way outside of Him is a way of death. It is worth more to us than all the gold and all the pleasures of earth to know that truth and walk in its light.