In last month’s Tidings we pointed out that the Way of Salvation is more than jut worshipping God. It is the worship of God in the Way He has chosen. We cited as an example the Apostle Paul. He worshipped the same God prior to his conversion as he did after it and apparently with about the same amount of sincerity. But his former method of worship was not acceptable, because it was not the way that God had set forth, and so he learned a hard lesson. We believe God has provided a specific Way of Salvation for mankind. To be able to be saved from our present bondage of decay is indeed a very great blessing not to be taken lightly. All living people experience this bondage until eventually the decay brings on the final climax, which is death. Yet so many people avoid the blessings of such a plan by ignoring its recommendations, and in so doing they affront the goodness and mercy of God.
There is an exclusiveness to God’s Plan. Its salient demand is that the man coming to God must be of a humble and contrite spirit (see Isaiah 57 verse 15 and chapter 66 verse 2). This in itself is in general opposition to the desired attributes of the aggressive and successful man of today, yet this is what God demands from those seeking the blessings of this “Way of Salvation” which He has provided. We were able to see this virtue at work in Paul himself and just the opposite in the owners of the slave girl whose spirit of divination was bringing them much profit.
Now we want to look at some of the amazing statements of our Lord about the “Way of Salvation”, but before doing so let us consider the description given to Jesus by the writer to the Hebrews. In Hebrews chapter 12 verse 2, he calls him “The author and finisher of our faith,” and in Hebrews 5 verse 9, “The author of Salvation.” Then salvation from “this body of death” to use Paul’s words from Romans 7 verse 24, would only be possible through its author, and in no other way. Now this is exactly what Peter declared in Acts 4 verse 12. “There is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.”
Do you suppose that Jesus preached this sort of thing? That only through His name would salvation come ? Well in the Gospel of John are some of the amazing statements of our Lord. John 10 verse 1-2, “He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber.” These remarks begin the parable of the good shepherd to which he adds in verses 7-9. “I am the Door, by me if any man shall enter in he shall be saved, and shall go in and out and find pasture.” Jesus went further in the 11th chapter verse 25, “I am the resurrection and the life; he that believeth in me though he were dead, yet shall he live.” Then in chapter 14 verse 6, “I am the way, the truth and the life ; no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” Other claims by Jesus are equally astounding. Chapter 14 verse 24, “The word which ye hear is not mine but the Father’s which sent me.” Chapter 15 verse 1, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman,” and in chapter 6 verse 48, “I am the bread of life.” All of these claims indicate that Jesus and He alone is the Author of Salvation, and the veracity of these claims were borne out by his miraculous works, healing the sick, and raising the dead being the most notable.
Now what was the way of salvation taught by this man Jesus? To repeat John 14 verse 6, “No man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” This was the reason Paul failed before his conversion. He was trying to approach the Father without Christ. Since the advent of Christ the Way to God has been only through His Son, and Paul after learning his lesson, makes this truth very clear in his many Epistles. Especially with his, explanations of the Law of Moses and how it was a “schoolmaster” to bring them to Christ. Also with the true meaning of “baptism” as a “burial” into the death of Christ. It is to Paul that we are indebted for a more meaningful explanation of why Christ died and all that is significant about his sacrifice. He said in 1st Corinthians 2 verse 2, “For I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ and him crucified.” This was such an about face from Paul’s previous position. Quoting Acts 26 verse 5 he says, “after the most straitest sect of our religion I lived a Pharisee.” Only complete submission to that which God would have him do would cause a man like Paul to change his way of life as we find that he did. This is the lesson for us that we may with humility and an open mind, approach the Gospel of Salvation as taught by Jesus and his Apostle Paul.
This attitude of faith with humility was so well expressed by the blind man whose sight Jesus had restored. He answers the Pharisees in John 9 verse 32, “Since the world began was it not heard that any man opened the eyes of the blind. If this man (Jesus) were not of God he could do nothing.” In verse 35 Jesus asks, “Dost thou believe on the Son of God ?” He replies, “Who is he Lord that I might believe on him ?” Jesus answers, “Thou hast both seen him and it is he that talketh to thee.” The healed man says, “Lord I believe.” Yes friends, he believed. His faith through reason recognised that if Jesus were not of God he could nothing.
Because Jesus was the Son of God, then all that he said and did, received the sanction of God, for God had declared, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him.” (Matthew 17 verse 5) If then we too will hear him and have the faith to believe all that he has said ; we will then know of the Way of Salvation. We would like to mention a few of His sayings that are pertinent to this Way of Salvation. One of them Jesus told his disciples, “Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel, he that believeth and is baptised shall be saved, and he that believeth not shall be damned.” (Mark 16 verses 15-16).
Here we see three clear requisites. First, knowledge of the Kingdom of God as declared in the Gospel of Glad Tidings. Then belief in that knowledge that it is a declaration of the truth concerning a kingdom which is not of men but of God. Finally after the first two requisites have been filled a recognition of this faith by an act of obedience called baptism. Now to obtain a complete knowledge of the Kingdom of God that we might believe in it, requires a study of all that our Lord said about it. The Apostles including Paul also gave us considerable information concerning this Kingdom, and we must remember they were directed by the Holy Spirit. Much of this information shows the relation of the New Testament with the Old. In fact our Lord, after his resurrection explained to the disciples how the Old Testament spake of him. Luke 24 verses ?5-27, “Then he said unto them, 0 fools and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken ; ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory? And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself,” Now the Scriptures to which Jesus referred are the same collection of writings that are contained in our present day Old Testament Scriptures. It is in these Holy Writings that we find many informative details regarding the Kingdom of God, and the Lord Jesus Christ.
To enumerate just a few, we find that the Kingdom of God is to be a Kingdom established on this earth with Jesus as the King. It is to be a Kingdom ruling over all others and one in which only the righteous will live forever. Finally it is to be given over to God when as Scripture states, “God will be all and in all.” Indicating that everything is to be eventually a total reflection of the goodness of God. It will be a time when there will be no more opposition to Him. Now if this is the Gospel of Glad Tidings of the Kingdom of God then surely we would wish to participate in its blessings. This is where the Way of Salvation comes in. We must know the way to this Kingdom, the way of salvation which provides something so much better than our present state of distress which eventually culminates in death. The Way, is a way of life, dictated by the commands of Christ, most of which are to be found in the chapters in Matthew known as the “beatitudes”. But this is not always the answer as one young man found out when he asked Jesus what he should do to gain eternal life. (Matthew 19) Jesus told him to keep the commandments, the rich man said he had and wanted to know what else he should do. Jesus said, “Go sell that thou hast and give to the poor.” We find in this command the same lesson that was taught Paul. Keeping the commandments was not the complete answer. Self righteous pride had to be abased. Both of these cases called for complete abandonment of pride and complete faith in the words of Jesus.
Remember Isaiah 66 verse 2, “but to this man will I look, even to him that is of a contrite spirit and trembleth at my word,” saith the Lord. Apparently the rich young man lacked this virtue or he would have done as the Lord requested. Such action would have proved his faith, not only in the Lord Jesus himself, but in what he said, in his very words. Paul, when confronted by the Lord as he was on his way to Damascus, did what he was instructed. He obeyed the words of Jesus by continuing to Damascus to await further instructions. Paul repented of his previous erroneous way, having learned the greatest lesson of all. The lesson of humility and obedience before the Son of God.
These records in Scripture are given for our learning and surely for us the lesson is clear. We must approach God in the Way that He has chosen. The Way of humility before Him. Being humble with an earnest desire to learn of Him. To emulate His Son, who learned obedience by the things that he suffered. Who, when under trial said, “Not my will but thine be done.” We too must seek the will of God which has been made clear to us through the preaching of the Glad Tidings of the Kingdom of God, by His only begotten Sen. Today we rely on the written records of His servants the Apostles. These men were given the Holy Spirit to prove with power the veracity of their further enlightenment of the Way, the only way of Salvation given among men whereby we must be saved. (Acts 4 verse 12).
May we then all seek it and find it. Having found it may we with God’s help remain in it, that we may be saved in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ. (Romans 2 verse 16)
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One