THE WAY OF SALVATION
[p. 441] THE WAY OF SALVATION
Acts 16: 16 - 40; Philippians 2: 12 - 16
It is of importance to observe that what the apostle pressed upon the saints at Philippi was that which had been pressed upon himself, and we can apprehend from him what we are to be here according to the mind of God.
There are two ways in which the christian can be viewed: namely, as in Ephesians, in an abstract way in relation to what is collective, or as in Philippians, where he is viewed individually and as running a race, The church does not run a race, but each individual christian is here in the faith, and running a race from one point to another, from earth to heaven. We run to the goal.
In regard to what we are to be here, let me say, we are to answer to God’s mind. We have an illustration of this in the apostle himself; he pressed upon others what he practised himself. “Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you”.
First of all we have to find our true level, and that is low enough. In our chapter it comes out in Christ. The death of the cross was man’s level. The Jew was disobedient to death and under the curse of a broken law. Christ became obedient to death, the death of the cross; and each one of us has to come down in mind to that, because it is the true level of every one, and is the way of our deliverance. We are permitted to see how Paul came down to this level. He could say, “I am crucified with Christ”. He apprehended that Christ, in grace and obedience, had come down to the cross, and was in mind identified with Him. Now, the end for which Christ came [p. 442] down to the cross was this: that another world might be introduced in the place of this one, and in Hebrews 11 we find that faith always had in view the world to come. In the world to come there are three features which appear in our chapter, (1) glory to the Father, (2) Jesus as Lord, (3) everything bowing to Him.
It is evident that this world is not for the glory of the Father, but, on the contrary, it is a system in which man seeks his own glory and not the glory of God. There is a world in view where the Father’s glory is secured, where Christ is Lord, and where the confession of Him as Lord is universal. In the meantime, while we wait for that world, we have to accept the cross. Christ does not revive this world, because His object in going into death was to bring in another world altogether. He is not Lord for this world. He is the Lord of glory, entirely unknown by the princes of this world.
It is painful to man to come down to his level, and no one could thus come down if Christ had not been crucified; but Christ having been crucified makes it possible for one to say, “I am crucified with Christ”. If we do by grace come down to our true level, we are only accepting what really belongs to us. Christ came there in grace in order that we might be enabled to accept it, and if we accept it the result is deliverance. We disappear from the world.
When a man is converted he properly disappears from the world’s stage. As unconverted, being God’s enemy and doing the will of the flesh, one’s place was under the curse, the curse of a broken law. The flesh cannot be changed for God, and therefore the man must go, and in order for that we have to accept our place, the death of Christ; but in the acceptance of His death we get salvation from the influences here.
[p. 443] Many christians have accepted a place in the world, but in doing so they have never been free from worldly influences. If a man occupies a place on this world’s stage he is bound to be affected by its influences. To be a disciple is to be free from every influence here. No influence of this world could affect Christ. He overcame the world, and we are free by being disciples. Influences are subtle and indefinable. They are satanic and worldly; they are, so to speak, in the air, and we feel them at every moment, and in reality to be on the world’s stage is to be under them. The only way to be free is as crucified with Christ. He died that we might accept that place, and thus obtain salvation. A man free from influences has salvation. Salvation is to be free from bondage. Israel were saved from the Egyptians, and we are saved from influences in the world. Christ has said, “I have overcome the world”.
The prison at Philippi was a low place, and the apostle Paul was not the kind of man to be cast into a prison. Government is for evil-doers, but it was from prison that Paul was to be exalted. No one would have thought that to be cast into prison was the way of exaltation from God; yet it was so. Christ was exalted from the cross, and the thief alone knew it. Paul was exalted from prison, and it was proved in that they prayed and sang praises to God. Their spirits were so free from bondage and from every influence that they could praise God.
They were in prison because of God’s testimony and we see in them the characteristics of Christ coming out. Paul and Silas were not murmuring and disputing. They were lights in the world morally, holding forth the word of life, and were conspicuous as such. Their hearts were light, and they shone out as lights to the jailor. We see in the apostle here the expression of his exhortation to the saints, and this is to come out in us. We are to be free from [p. 444] worldly influences, and the only place for this is crucifixion with Christ.
In a world where there was nothing morally for God, Christ accepted crucifixion to bring about another world, another order of things for the glory of God the Father. The Spirit of God is here, and He brings us to righteousness, holiness, and eternal life. Righteousness is the maintenance in integrity of every divinely established relationship. Holiness must be maintained in a world of defilement. Evil is repugnant to holiness. Grace brings us to righteousness, and holiness is connected with love. If righteousness and holiness are maintained in the believer, then he is without rebuke.
Paul was brought to prison for rebuking evil. If we are in the new man we are without rebuke, because he is created in righteousness and holiness of truth. The Jew, gentile, and christendom are all crooked and perverse. The flesh cannot be otherwise. We are to be lights in the world, holding forth the word of life. Man without light within himself cannot shew it out to others.
We are kept by light because it exposes all. Christ is light to us. The word of life is Christ; it is the testimony committed to us. We can present to men Christ, the Head of every man. He has met every liability of man in order that He may impart living water to man.
Paul preached the word of the Lord to the jailor. We see in Paul the moral excellence of christianity coming out. He was brought into the reality of salvation from influences here, and we, having put on the new man, are to come forth as children of God.
Christianity is morally excellent, because it is of God. It is not in mere dogma. Any christian with a sense of what the flesh is would desire to be delivered from it in order to be exalted morally before God.
[p. 445] God would have all this to be fulfilled in us now. Israel had to go down to the Red sea to acquire salvation, but in our case we acquire it by going down to the cross, Christ having first gone there to make it possible for us.