Chapter 2
What a great word salvation is! It includes the cleansing of our conscience from all past guilt and the delivery of our soul from all those inclinations to evil which so strongly work in us. In fact, it accomplishes the undoing of all that Adam did. Salvation is the total restoration of man from his fallen condition, yet it is something more than that, because God’s salvation makes our standing more secure than it was before we fell. It finds us broken in pieces by the sin of our first parent – defiled, stained, accursed – and it heals our wounds. It removes our diseases, takes away our curse, and puts our feet upon the rock, Christ Jesus. Having done all this, it also lifts our heads far above all principalities and powers, to be crowned forever with Jesus Christ, the king of heaven.
Some people, when they use the word salvation, understand nothing more by it than deliverance from hell and admittance into heaven. That is not salvation. Those two things are the effects of salvation. We are redeemed from hell because we are saved, and we enter heaven because we have been saved. Our everlasting state is the effect of salvation in this life. Salvation, it is true, includes all that, because salvation is the mother of it, but it would be wrong for us to think that is the entire meaning of the word.
Salvation begins with us as wandering sheep. It follows us through all our mazy wanderings. It puts us on the shoulders of the shepherd and carries us into the fold. It calls together the friends and neighbors and rejoices over us. It preserves us in that fold through life. Then, at last, it brings us to the green pastures of heaven, beside the still waters of bliss, where we lie down forever in the presence of the Chief Shepherd, never more to be disturbed.
Neither is there salvation in any other (Acts 4:12). Did you ever notice the intolerance of God’s religion? In ancient times, the heathen, who had different gods, all respected the gods of their neighbors. For instance, the king of Egypt confessed that the gods of Nineveh were true and real gods, and the prince of Babylon acknowledged that the gods of the Philistines were true and real gods. But Jehovah, the God of Israel, put this as one of His first commandments: Thou shalt have no other gods before me (Exodus 20:3). He would not allow them to pay the slightest possible respect to the gods of any other nation: Ye shall destroy their altars, break their images, and cut down their groves (Exodus 34:13).
All other nations were tolerant of one another, but the Jewish people could not be so. One part of his religion was Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD (Deuteronomy 6:4). As the consequence of his belief that there was only one God, Jehovah, he felt it was his duty to call all pretend gods by nicknames, to spit upon them, and to treat them with insult and contempt. The Christian religion is just as intolerant as this. If you ask a Hindu priest the way of salvation, he will very likely tell you that all people who follow their sincere religious convictions will undoubtedly be saved.
The Hindu priest might give some examples. He says that if Muslims obey Mohammed and sincerely believe what he has taught, without doubt, Allah will glorify them in the end. He will say to the Christian missionary “What is the use of bringing your Christianity here to disturb us? Our religion is quite capable of carrying us to heaven if we are faithful to it.”
Now hear how intolerant the Christian religion is: Neither is there salvation in any other (Acts 4:12). The Hindu priest might admit that there is salvation in fifty religions besides his own, but we admit no such thing. There is no true salvation outside of Jesus Christ. The gods of the heathens may approach us with their false charity and tell us that everyone may follow his own conscientious conviction and be saved. We reply in no such way. Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men in which we can be saved (Acts 4:12).
Now, what do you suppose is the reason for this intolerance? I believe it is just because the Jew and the Christian both hold to the truth. A thousand errors may live in peace with one another, but truth is the hammer that breaks them all in pieces. A hundred lying religions may sleep peaceably in one bed, but wherever the Christian religion goes as the truth, it is like a burning ember. It tolerates nothing that is not more substantial than the wood, the hay, and the stubble of carnal error.
All the gods of the heathen and all other religions are born of hell. Therefore, being children of the same father, it would seem wrong that they would fall out, condemn, and fight each other, but the religion of Christ is from God. Its pedigree is from on high, and therefore, when it is thrust into the midst of an ungodly generation in opposition to God’s truth, it has neither peace nor compromise nor treaty with them, for it is truth, and truth cannot afford to be yoked with error. It stands upon its own rights and gives to error its due, declaring that it has no salvation except in the truth, and salvation is only to be found in the truth.
Once I thought there was salvation in good works, and I labored hard and strove diligently to safeguard my character in integrity and uprightness; but when the Spirit of God came into my heart, sin revived, and I died (Romans 7:9). That which I thought had been good proved to be evil, and where I thought I had been holy, I found myself to have been unholy. I discovered that my very best actions were sinful, that my tears needed to be wept over, and that my very prayers needed God’s forgiveness.
I discovered that I was seeking salvation by the works of the law and that I was doing all my good works from a selfish motive – namely, to save myself – and therefore, my works could not be acceptable to God. I found out that I could not be saved by good works for two very good reasons. First, I didn’t have any. Secondly, if I had any, they could not save me.
After that, I thought that certainly salvation could be obtained partly by reformation, or changing my behavior, and partly by trusting in Christ. So I labored much again, thinking that if I added a few prayers here and there, a few tears of remorse, and a few vows of change, all would be well.
After trudging on for many weary days like a poor blind horse toiling around the mill, I found I had no improvement, because the curse of God was still hanging over me. Cursed is every one that continues not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them (Galatians 3:10). There was still an aching void in my heart that the world could never fill. It was a void of distress and concern. I was very troubled because I could not achieve the rest that my soul desired.
Have you tried those two ways of getting to heaven? If you have, I trust that the Lord, the Holy Spirit, has made you thoroughly sick of them, because you will never enter the kingdom of heaven by the correct door until you have first been led to confess that all the other doors are closed to you. No one ever went to God through the strait and narrow way until he had tried all the other ways. When we find ourselves beaten, frustrated, and defeated, it is then that, pressed by pure necessity, we take ourselves to the one open fountain, where we wash ourselves and are made clean.
I will tell you that surely there must be salvation available in Christ for you, for I have found salvation in Christ for myself. I will never doubt the salvation of anyone as long as I know that Christ has accepted me. Oh, how dark my despair was when I first sought His mercy seat. I thought that even if He had mercy on the whole world, He would never have mercy on me. The sins of my childhood and of my youth haunted me. I tried to get rid of them one by one, but I was caught as in an iron net of evil habits, and I could not escape them.
Even when I could abandon my sin, the guilt still clung to my garments. I could not wash myself clean. I prayed for three long years. I bent my knees and sought Him in vain, but found no mercy. At last, blessed be His name, when I had given up all hope and thought that His swift anger would destroy me and the pit would open its mouth and swallow me up, He revealed Himself to me and taught me to cast myself simply and solely upon Him. It will be the same with you. Just trust Him, because you can be assured that there is salvation in Him.
If you do not find salvation in Christ, you will not find it anywhere. What a dreadful thing it will be for you if you miss out on the salvation provided by Christ! How shall we escape, if we belittle such great saving health? (Hebrews 2:3). Whether we are blatant sinners or not, how fearful a thing it will be for us to die without first having found an interest in the Savior! O sinner, this should motivate you to go to the mercy seat – that if you find no mercy at the feet of Jesus, you will not find it anywhere.
If the gates of heaven never open to you, remember there is no other gate that can ever be opened for your salvation. If Christ refuses you, you are refused. If His blood is not sprinkled on you, you are lost indeed. If He keeps you waiting a little while, still continue in prayer. It is worth waiting for, especially when you have this thought to keep you waiting – that there is none other, no other way, no other hope, no other ground of trust, no other refuge.
There I see the gate of heaven, and if I must enter it, I must crawl on my hands and knees, because it is a low gate. There I see it, it is a strait and narrow one. I must leave my sins and my proud righteousness behind me, and I must crawl in through that gate.
Come sinner, what do you say? Will you enter through this strait and narrow gate, or will you reject eternal life and refuse eternal joy? Come, sinner, and humbly go through it, trusting that He who gave Himself for you will accept you in Himself. He will save you now, and He will save you everlastingly.