A COMMON AND PRESENT SALVATION
[p. 27] A COMMON AND PRESENT SALVATION
Everybody knows that a common is a piece of ground open to all, and to which no one has an exclusive right. One of the chief glories of the salvation of God, which He is sending to the Gentiles in this day of grace, is that it is a “common salvation” (Jude 3). Not restricted or confined to any particular class, but presented to all, not as a reward of merit, or as wages in return for a certain amount of work, but as a free gift to sinners whose common ruin and need makes them require a “common salvation”.
Many people greatly disliked the preaching of a “common salvation”. It might be thought that the announcement of a salvation available for all was a generous display of divine grace which must secure the admiration of every heart. But such is not the case, and the reason is not difficult to find. If God provides salvation for all it must be because all are lost. If only some had been lost, there would have been no need to provide salvation for all. “The grace of God that bringeth salvation to all men hath appeared”. High and low, rich and poor, learned and ignorant, refined and depraved, sensitive and sensual find themselves here on a common level, and God writes over them “Arm have sinned and come short of the glory of God”.
This is an unwelcome truth to man’s proud heart, because it tears every rag of human righteousness to tatters, makes an end of human boasting, and puts the extinguisher on every spark of human pride. That a poor slave of Satan who was steeped in lust and crime was a lost sinner many would be free to admit; but few really consider that a moral, decent, respectable, and religious man is also a lost sinner. Yet both classes stand on precisely the same platform before God. It is written, “There is no difference, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God”. No doubt there was a great difference between people in Noah’s day, as far as their [p. 28] character and conduct went, but there was no difference as to their state before God. Outside the ark all perished. Just so in the night of Egypt’s judgment. Some of the Egyptians might be very wicked and others very moral, but there was no difference in respect to the destroying angel. The firstborn died in every house where the blood of the lamb was not sprinkled. The fact of a common salvation being provided proves that there is a common need. From the King on his throne to the beggar in his wayside cabin — prince, peer, and peasant — all alike are involved in the same condemnation, and, if saved at all, must be saved by the “common salvation”.
We have a beautiful and very simple type of this in Exodus 30: 15. In many of the other offerings a man might give according to his ability, and as his heart stirred him up — consequently the rich were able to give greater offerings than the poor — but every distinction was levelled down when the atonement offering was in question. The rich might not give more than half a shekel, and the poor might not give less. The half-shekel offering was common to all the tribes of Israel.
Then the grand question is, Where can this “common salvation” be found? and how can a sinner become possessed of it? Let us read Acts 16: 30, 31. The jailor “brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to ht, saved? and they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house”. Here was an anxious sinner — one who wanted to be saved — and mark the Simplicity of the direction given him by the apostle: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved”. Salvation is wrapped up in a Person. “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son”, and Simeon took up the infant Jesus — a babe of six weeks — saying, “Now, Lord, lettest thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy word, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation” (Luke 2: 25 - 32)
[p. 29] More than thirty years afterwards Jesus said, as He entered the house of Zacchaeus, the rich publican of Jericho, “This day is salvation come to this house”. The Lord Jesus Christ, having accomplished the work of redemption, and having been exalted to the very throne whose claims He has vindicated with His blood, is presented to us as the salvation of God, “neither is there salvation in any other”. Nothing more than Christ is needed by the vilest sinner who breathes God’s air, and nothing less than Christ will avail for the most decent sinner in the world. This is the “common salvation”. It is provided by God; it is wrapped up in the Lord Jesus Christ; and it is for any sinner who will accept it.
PRESENT SALVATION.
Salvation is a present thing. It is something to be received and enjoyed now. It is sad to see so many hearing the gospel, who put it away from them time after time, because their convenient season has not come. It is God’s convenient season Now. He says, Come Now, and let us reason together: though your sins be scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.
God is at the present moment a Justifier and a Saviour God, but those who make light of His grace will be destroyed. In the parable of the great supper the invitation went out, “Come, for all things are now ready”. But the guests were not ready. “They all with one consent began to make excuse”, and the insulted giver of the feast uttered the solemn words, “None of those men which were bidden shall taste of my supper”.
Then do not put off this question. The Spaniards have a proverb that the road of By-and-by leads to the town of Never. An old writer said that procrastination was the recruiting officer of hell. Thousands are now in hell who fully intended to be saved. But they trifled with their opportunities, and neglected salvation until it was too late.
[p. 30] Thank God, it is not yet too late for the reader of this book. “Behold, Now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6: 2). “Today, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts”.
Then the salvation of God is a present salvation, because its benefits are to be enjoyed now. Two things are essential to salvation — the forgiveness of sins and the knowledge of God; and both are present things. When a man says that it is not possible to have the knowledge of salvation in this world, you may be sure of one thing, that he has it not himself. If a blind man were to say that nobody could see, or a deaf man were to say that nobody could hear, we should pity their misfortune and smile at their folly. And when we hear people say that it is impossible in this life to be saved and know it, we can only regard it as an evidence of their own unhappy state, and a practical confession that they are strangers to grace and to God. When human opinions are laid aside, and the gracious testimony of God in His glad tidings received, all uncertainty departs from the soul. The Saviour of whom the Bible speaks is a real Saviour, and the blessings which He imparts to those who believe on Him are present realities. Faith enjoys them now; doubt and uncertainty are the miserable children of that guilty parent — unbelief. The knowledge of salvation is, through grace, the portion of the believer.
“To give knowledge of salvation unto his people, by the remission of their sins” (Luke 1: 77). The way in which God approaches men in grace is entirely consistent with Himself, but it is also divinely suited to the guilty condition in which men are found. The only possible way in which God could approach men in grace is as “a God ready to pardon” (Nehemiah 9: 17). Our first knowledge of Him must be in this character. We could have no relations with God in grace except on the ground of the remission of sins. We are justly chargeable with the guilt of many sins, but God has [p. 31] taken this into account, and His grace meets us with full and free forgiveness.
Yet the ground on which the proclamation of forgiveness is based forbids the thought that there is unrighteousness, or indifference to sin, with God. Grace reigns indeed, but reigns through righteousness. “The man Christ Jesus ... gave himself a ransom for all” (1 Timothy 2: 6), and it is because He has “once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust”, that “repentance and remission of sins” are “preached in his name among all nations” (Luke 24: 47). Those who receive the forgiveness thus proclaimed obtain the “knowledge of salvation ... by the remission of their sins”. They are brought to the knowledge of God in grace, and they rejoice in Him as the God of their salvation.
Then in Hebrews 5: 9 we read of
“ETERNAL SALVATION”.
Many souls are robbed of peace and joy because they have no assurance of eternal security. They find such weakness in themselves that they cannot be sure that they will endure unto the end. Such an exercise is not without value if it leads to absolute self-distrust, and constrains the soul to “cleave with purpose of heart unto the Lord”. All our security as saints is in divine Persons, and the more entirely our hearts are assured of this, the more free shall we be from doubts and fears.
If we have started out in Christian profession by an act of our own will, we may depart from it in like manner. But if GOD has by His Spirit convicted us of sin, and called us by the gospel to the knowledge of Himself and of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, we are conscious that we owe all to His grace and sovereign mercy. We have neither goodness, strength, security, nor blessing of any kind in ourselves. GOD has been pleased to make Himself known to us as a Justifier and a Saviour God, and all the blessing that He has given us is secured in Christ risen, “who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption that, according as it is written, he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 1: 30, 31).
And God, having thus secured blessing for us in Christ Jesus, “shall also confirm you unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 1: 8). “He which hath begun a good work in you, will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1: 6). God’s designs of grace and sovereign mercy do not break down. “Whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified” (Romans 8: 30).
We need not only to be assured by knowing the stability of God’s eternal purpose, but we need practical security from all the power of evil along the pathway here. There is a tremendous power of evil here, but Christ knows it all. He has met it and triumphed over it, and now, as risen and glorified, He has become “the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him”. He, and He alone, can carry His people through, with suited grace for each hour of need. If we attempt to tread the path of faith in self-confidence we are sure to break down. If we realise our total weakness and cleave to Him, He will not fail to succour and sustain us. Our security lies in the fact that we are conscious of having no strength or resources in ourselves, but that we have all support and succour in One who cannot fail us. He says, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of my hand” (John 10: 27, 28). “Now unto him that is able to keep,;: from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen” (Jude 24, 25).