THE POWER OF THE WORD OF GOD TO SAVE.
By T.
"Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." 2 Cor. 5: 17. THE foregoing text states the possibility of a person becoming a "new creature." The individual who is loaded with sins, and defiled by wrong-doing may become a new person altogether. His desires and all his habits of life may become completely changed, so that he is not at all what he was before. Wrong-doing, the committing of sin, sooner or later brings into the life a sting of pain and remorse. The pleasure of sin, in fact, always has a sting in it, and there is always a voice in the soul of every man and woman, urging them to turn away from the paths of sin. Any one knows that this is so. To try to argue against it is to try to argue away the most palpable facts of every day life and experience. When this sting of remorse comes into the soul, and the agonies of death take hold of us because of the doom that hangs over us, then may we know that there is a way of escape; for a man may become a "new creature;" and this "new creature" is not to be fashioned according to our imperfect standards, but he is to be made new in Christ Jesus, which insures perfection. Jesus said to His disciples, "Now ye are clean thru the word which I have spoken unto you." John 15: 3. The real means of cleansing, then, is the word of God. Made "clean thru the word" is the plan, and it may be the experience of every one who will accept it. Just how God's words can make a man clean from sin, may be very difficult to understand. But there is the statement that it does it, and there are thousands who have felt this cleansing power and know by experience that it is so. There is nothing that draws out our admiration more than to see a man that is "as good as his word." And when the individual learns from experience that the God of the Bible "is as good as His word," it brings within his immediate reach the process by which he may be made "a new creature." He is made to know that what he reads in the Book of books may be depended upon, and then he goes to searching the word for the promises that will relieve him of his guilt. "Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before Mine eyes; cease to do evil; learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow. Come now, and let us reason together, said the Lord: tho your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; tho they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." Isa. 1: 16-18. First, there comes the turning away from evil. This can be done in only one way and that is by turning to the Lord. There is just one way that a man can cease from sinning and keep free from sin, and that is by the power of God. "Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against Thee." Ps. 119: 11. It is the word of God treasured in the mind and heart that gives one power over sin. This word is far more than good advice. The divine Father watches over this word, and when a man turns to it and receives it into his mind and meditates there upon, he finds to his infinite joy that it is charged with living power from the throne of God. Within the limitations in which men operate they have power to make their word good; but with all the infinite powers of His attributes our Father makes every word He speaks to be fully carried out. "Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times FOR YOU, who by Him do believe in God, that raised Him up from the dead, and gave Him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God. Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth thru the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently; BEING BORN AGAIN, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, BY THE WORD OF GOD, which liveth and abideth forever." 1 Peter 1: 18-23. We are redeemed by the blood of Christ. Christ was manifested, or sent into the world, where men could both see and talk with Him. This manifestation of Christ was all "for you." Then comes the new birth, "being born again," and this birth is accomplished "by the word of God," the word "which liveth and abideth forever." "By the word of Jehovah were the heavens made, and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth. . . . He spake, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast." Ps. 33: 6-9. God speaks to souls "by the word of His power." That is, the same power that upholds all things by His word, also speaks the words of our salvation. Look at this great world on which we stand; then look at the much larger worlds about us in space; then know that it is God's word that holds these worlds together, and also holds them in their sweeping onward courses in space. God has spoken to these worlds and they are obeying His voice. Now, when the Being who has power in His words to command the worlds and they obey Him, speaks to your sins and tells them to depart from you, it must be clear to your mind that there is power there to make you a new creature. For Him to speak the words of His Book into your life, means for Him to put a power into your life that cleanses you from sin, and to fill you with strength to walk in the ways of righteousness. But this must be no theory with us. We must make it a perfect reality if we would attain to its realization. We must learn to hate sin, and then as we turn to our God He will cleanse us by His word and make of us new creatures, fitted to walk in the perfect ways of Christ Jesus. "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." John 3: 16.