Life On the Highest Plane
But God leaves it to the sinner to decide whether he will cross this bridge or not. What God's grace has provided man's faith must possess. The salvation made potential by grace God expects to be made experimental by faith. Salvation is not something to be purchased or earned or gained through merit of any kind, for salvation is a gift and a gift is received. Salvation is for all men and women but only those who believe and receive are saved. "By grace are ye saved through faith."
1 Timothy 4:10, "For therefore we both labor and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe."
Ephesians 2:8-9, "For by grace are ye saved through faith: and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, lest any man should boast."
While man has had nothing to do with the building of the bridge yet he has everything to do with regard to the use of it for he decides whether or not he will cross it. Have you crossed this bridge? Has God's gracious invitation met with a glad response on your part? I must press the question home for it it one that will have to be answered either here and now, or yonder at the great white throne. No decision you will ever be called upon to make can begin to compare with this one in importance because upon it hangs your happiness and usefulness in this life and your destiny in the life to come.
Perhaps among our readers are some earnest enquirers who are saying in their hearts, "But what does crossing the bridge involve?" and "What must I do to be saved?" Let us together now consider these questions in turn.
Crossing the bridge means a decisive break with all that pertains to the old creation in the old sphere. If, then, one decides to become a Christian, his first step will be to turn his back on sin, and turn his face toward Christ his Saviour. In that first step he will renounce his sin and receive God's Son. The first step out of the life on the plane of the natural life on the plane of the spiritual involves a twofold reversal in the sinner's relationship to God which the Bible calls repentance and faith.
Acts 20: 21 "Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ."
Acts 26:18, "To open their eyes and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me."
1 Thess. 1:9, "For they themselves shew of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God."
The Cross of the Lord Jesus Christ is the place at which this decisive break with the old life is made. It is the birthplace of real repentance and true faith.
In the parables of the Kingdom, (Matt. 13:1-52) Christ likened the Kingdom of Heaven unto a field in which there were both wheat and tares, and unto a net in which were both good and bad fish. He states that no attempt will be made to separate them until the harvest time at the end of the age. False professors and true possessors are in the visible Church today and will continue to be until Christ comes again.
The false professor has never genuinely repented, for let us remind ourselves that repentance means a change of mind, a complete reversal of attitude toward God and consequently a change of mind toward all that is opposed to God. There is much in Christian experience today that is called repentance which is sheer camouflage. It is not genuine abhorrence and loathing of sin as something hateful and heinous in the sight of God, but is selfish and sinful regret in having sin exposed or in having to suffer its punishment. It is not a real turn about face but it is a pretence at looking Godward while walking sinward. A repentance that makes one a possessor of God's gift through grace is born of a consciousness of sin that deepens into conviction and compels one to cry out in honesty of heart, "What must I do to be saved?"
Such a repentance has its birth at the Cross of Christ. Gazing upon the spotless, sinless, Son of God crucified upon a criminal's cross, bearing the sin of the world with all its stain: drinking the cup of suffering even to its bitter dregs; enduring the penalty and punishment of sin even unto death; the sinner comes to a realization of the sinfulness of sin. With the light of God's holiness and the warmth of God's love streaming into his own soul the sinner has his first real revulsion toward sin. Repentance which is "not only a heart broken for sin but from sin" follows. To see sin as God sees it in the light of the Cross is to have the taste for it and the delight in it taken away.
Neither has the false professor ever truly believed for let us remember that to believe is to receive a Person into the life to possess and to control it as His own. There is much in Christian experience today that is called faith which is not faith at all. Sometimes one is deceived into thinking emotional feeling is faith. The emotions are played upon by sentimental appeals and a superficial response is made. But the seed sown has not taken root so a change of feeling results in a casting away of faith. That is sometimes called faith which is merely the assent of the mind to the great historical facts regarding Jesus Christ but is wholly divorced from any intention of accepting Him as Saviour, yielding to Him as Lord, and appropriating His as Life. But, a faith that makes one a possessor of God's gift through grace is born of a consciousness of helplessness and hopelessness that compels the sinner to cry out in sincere longing of heart, "God, be merciful to me a sinner."
Such a faith has its birth at the Cross of Christ. The Holy Spirit having brought the sinner to acknowledge his own helpless and hopeless condition then fixes his gaze upon the all-sufficient Saviour. He points him to the One who bore his sins in His own body on the tree; to the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world which included his sin. He reveals Christ Jesus as the One who tasted death for him and enables him to say, "He loved me and gave Himself for me." He assures the sinner now burdened by the guilt and pollution of his sins that there is forgiveness and cleansing for him in the blood of the slain Lamb. Then He leads him to put his trust in Jesus Christ as his own personal Saviour and by an act of his will to receive Hi into his life as such.
~Ruth Paxson~
(continued with # 3)
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