SERMON XIV. PRESENT SALVATION.

II. Corinthians, vi., 2.

Behold, now is the day of salvation.

St. Paul, having just quoted a prophecy of Isaiah, which relates to an accepted time and a day of salvation, in the text declares the fulfilment of that prophecy: “Now is the accepted time; now is the day of salvation.” That which was then promised, is now performed; that which was formerly but anticipated, and only embraced by faith, while yet afar off, is now realised and brought near. But the prophecy itself was mentioned by the Apostle, to enforce an entreaty, “We then as workers together with Him, beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain. For He saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee.” It is evident, then, that St. Paul would impress upon the Corinthians that men are in danger of receiving the grace of God in vain, of not benefitting by all the merciful and bountiful provision made through Christ for their redemption, and justification, and sanctification, by not recognising that this is the day of salvation, and so, not looking and preparing for, and receiving a present salvation.

Salvation is, as you know, the result—possible in all cases; certain, wherever the conditions are observed—of redemption by Christ. In its perfection, it is absolute freedom from the guilt, the taint, and the power of sin, and complete, effectual, and abiding holiness of heart and life. It belongs not to our proposed subject to consider at any length the destruction from which this is a salvation, nor the manner in which it was wrought out for lost sinners by Christ, nor the blessedness of its perfect possession and fruition, which can only be had in heaven. We have rather to do with what is present, than with the past and the future. We inquire not now, What has Christ done, or, What shall we reach by and by, but, What ought we to do now? What have we, or may we have now? In what respects, to what extent, is salvation a thing of the present?

First, then, it is present in the offer to bestow it, and the exhortations and influences to lay hold on it. When Christ rose victorious from the tomb, having paid the ransom for all the prisoners of the law, and purchased the right and power of being their Saviour, He did not immediately make all the men of His time actual partakers of the privileges, nor did He provide that all who should thereafter be born, should from their birth inherit the blessing, as from Adam they had inherited the curse. No man might say, “Christ has died and risen again, therefore, I am certainly saved, without any reserve or delay on His part, without any effort, almost without any desire, on my part.” Salvation was then provided; rather, the fountain was then opened, and began to flow; but each man in his turn, at the call of God, and in the way of God’s appointment, was, so to speak, to help himself to salvation. In other words, what Christ did, was not to take all who were then living into an ark, and to cause all that sprung from them to be born and brought up in that ark; but simply to build an ark, and leave it open for all ages, and to offer helps to reach it, and to urge an entrance into it upon all men, by the entreaties and promises of His love, and the threats of His wrath.

We want to be impressed with this. We are too apt to look upon salvation as an accomplished fact, belonging to the past; to speak of the blessedness of being born after the atonement has been made; to take for granted that we are actually saved, rather than that we have a present offer of salvation; and even to regard the ordinances of religion, as Baptism and Holy Communion, more as ceremonies of thankful faith, acknowledgments of obligation for past favours, than as means of laying hold on a now offered, and, as yet, unattained blessing.

Think a moment, brethren: look into your ways and thoughts about religion, and you will, perhaps, find that it is so with you; that, whatever may be your theory, your practice does not assent to the truth, that “Now is the day of salvation”; that you have now to be saved, yet to be washed from sin, to have its power destroyed in you, to be qualified for salvation, to lay hold on it, to work it out with fear and trembling, as that which, though commenced, is not certain to be completed—which, even when got, may again be lost. It may occur to you, as an objection to this statement, that you use means of grace, and somewhat diligently; that you exercise yourselves in prayer, and by Christian discipline; that you depend continually upon the ever-present grace of God; that you count not yourselves to have attained; that you seek to go on unto perfection. All this may be true, and yet—I beseech you ask yourselves whether it is not so with you—the latent feeling may be, that salvation is a thing inherited, already, in a measure, attained; and that what religion requires of you, and what you render, is gratitude to the Giver, and a due appreciation of the gift, sought to be testified and developed by a becoming life, and an enlarging of the spiritual faculties, which by and by will have so much more to exercise themselves upon.

But, secondly, is not this, it may be urged, a right view and feeling? Is not this what the ministers of religion should labour to impress upon the baptized: that they have received salvation—the grace of God, which bringeth salvation? Are we not taught by the Church, and by the Bible, that in baptism we were born again, that we then became children of God—and if children, then heirs, joint heirs with Christ; that we are, therefore, from that new birth as actually the inheritors of a blessing, as naturally we were inheritors of a curse; and that, thenceforth, it is proper for us to say, “I heartily thank my Heavenly Father that he hath called me to this state of salvation through Jesus Christ”? It is even so, brethren. “Now is the day of salvation,” may mean to us Christians, “now we have salvation,” rather than “now it is only offered to us.” It may be intended to stir us up to a consideration of our high calling, to an appreciation of the great gift already bestowed, to a remembrance of what God has already done for us, to a sense of His abiding presence. There is no doubt—whether this text teaches it or no is another question—that the disciples of Christ have a present possession, as well as a present offer of salvation; and what I meant in the first part, was not to hide this truth, but to guard against the error, to correct whatever amount you might have of the feeling, that we have already a final gift, so complete that nothing can be added to it, so altogether of the past, that we can do nothing in the present, but acknowledge the goodness of God in bestowing it, and wait on Him patiently and holily till He is pleased to reveal to us the full excellencies of the gift, and to enable us to enjoy them in the eternal heaven. Above all, I meant to protest against, to awaken from the fearful delusion, that Christ has conferred absolutely on mankind, or upon any chosen number—the elect—the salvation which, by His precious merits, He procured; that it is ours independently of means of grace, without closing with present offers of it, and making present exertions, and showing present appreciation of it; that it can be ours at all, without earnest seeking and praying for it, and strivings, and workings, and self-denials, and crucifyings of evil, and growth in grace, and perseverance unto the end. “By grace are ye saved, and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God.” Work out your own salvation, each individual of you; make that your own which was once procured for all that would have it; work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Your salvation (I speak to the baptized) is begun, you have present salvation—i.e., you are in the way which leads to salvation. You have guaranteed to you, on conditions, the helps necessary to attain perfect salvation. You may derive, and should be deriving, present benefits from your salvation, and you should experience present joy in it.

You have, I say, present salvation. You have been made members of that One Body, which was sanctified, and which is able to sanctify all other bodies that are joined to it: you are branches of that glorious tree, whose sap, pervading every healthy branch, gives it present strength and develops its beautiful growth, and by and by will produce the fruit of everlasting life. You have the life of Christ kindled in your souls. Your bodies are the temple of the Holy Ghost. Now is the day of salvation, and present salvation, too; not merely past salvation applied, not that you are washed in a lake whose waters once flowed from a glorious Fountain; not that you partake of a store of sanctification, long ago laid up; but that now each individual of you is operated upon by a present influence, deriving directly from the source, the water of life, having sanctification produced in you by the now-working and influencing Spirit. Creatures of the present, there is a present salvation for you; and that does not mean merely that you have for yourselves to seek and lay hold of a ready salvation, but that a merciful and grace-giving God, a loving Saviour, an indwelling Spirit, are present with you, and personally operating upon you for your salvation.

Dear brethren, try to understand and feel this. Do not suppose that God’s gifts are in any way separated from the Giver by time or by distance. Once for all, He resolved to give, but severally as each needs and rightly seeks, He gives; and when He gives, it is not by messengers, through long mediums, but out of His own hand. The bread which we break and the cup which we bless, are the communion of the Body and Blood of Christ. The bread is not the Body, nor the wine the Blood, nor is the reception of them the way of applying to us any stored up blessings; but when we keep the ordinance which Christ has appointed, then He fulfils His promise of blessing us, and, with the sign, Himself the reality enters into our souls.

There present in the heart, Not in the hands, th’ eternal Priest Will His true self impart.

And so of all other ordinances. They are nothing, and give nothing of themselves. Their whole value—but what an unspeakable value it is—consists in their being appointed ways of bringing us into direct communication with a present God, our Father, our Saviour, our Sanctifier!

But there is another view to take of present salvation—namely, that from its very nature, it cannot be received at any one time in perfection, in such a state as to need no care to preserve it, no sustentation and renewal, no constant direction and blessing from the Author, and Regulator, and Finisher of it. It is spiritual life. Who does not know to what hazards life may be exposed, and how, from its very nature, it requires to be fed with proper food, and kept in health, and exercised, and developed? It is a spiritual sap. And what a mockery of life and support to the branch, would be one single, separated, unrenewed imparting from the vine, of the sap, which indeed ceases to be sap when the flow from the trunk is interrupted! The work of salvation is God’s work, begun by Him, continued by Him, and to be completed by Him—therefore, it must have His continued personal superintendence. He must work in us to will and to do of His good pleasure.

Thus is salvation present as distinguished from the past.

But in another sense it is now the day of salvation. We have not to expect it as a thing wholly future, we must not delay to close with it as though there were a better time and way of doing that to be afforded hereafter. Salvation is present in its rewards and effects.

This, again, is a truth we need to be impressed with. We are wont to look too much to the future, to hope to be with God hereafter, to long for salvation, to sigh for the season of sanctification. By and by we shall be comforted. By and by we shall be strengthened. By and by we shall be holy and happy! Thus it is that we only expect salvation, that we persuade ourselves that we are not to receive anything here by way of real spiritual joy and blessing, and that we are not required to reach any high degree of spiritual excellence here! But, brethren, how unreasonable is this persuasion. To believe that God is present with us and operating upon us, and pouring out His benefits upon us all our lives, and yet that we are none the better, that we do not derive any blessedness from Him: or, again, to believe that God has given us spiritual life, that He imparts to us, and constantly superintends, the grace which justifies and sanctifies; and yet that we can, or at least need make no use of this grace, not grow in it, not become purer, and holier, that it is ineffectual, that we may consent to its being ineffectual till life is over—O is not such a persuasion unreasonable, are we not ashamed of it? Imagine a mother not feeding or taking care of her infant, and yet counting on its thriving! or, fondly and diligently tending, taking care of her infant, and continuing to do so year after year, yet perfectly satisfied though it gained no strength, did not grow, nor walk, nor speak, nor show the slightest sign of getting out of babyhood! Imagine, I say, satisfaction with such a state, and hope all the while, yea, conviction, that presently, when the usual number of years were over the child would somehow be a man! Or, imagine the husbandman expecting a harvest without sowing, or ploughing; or planting his field diligently, and rejoicing in refreshing rains, and ripening suns, yet not disappointed if the ear did not ripen, or even if the blade did not spring up; not concerned about it, not expecting it, sure of harvest at the usual time, even if that usual time should be next week, and there were yet no sign of a crop! Imagine this! you say. Such imagination is idle; it is a mockery of common sense to suppose such a thing possible. Well, then, my brethren, what is to be said of the spiritual nurses of the new life of God in the soul, of the spiritual husbandman of the seed of grace in the heart, who do nothing towards, or who expect nothing of present salvation? Brethren, NOW is the day of salvation, the day in which salvation is offered, in which it is actually conferred, in which it should be working and growing, yea, and bestowing its joy and peace. If in aught of this it fails, be sure there is some fault in yourselves—it is not that grace is of itself unreal, or unproductive, but that you receive it in vain, that you do not sufficiently heed and reverence it, that you do not sufficiently guard it, and sustain and refresh it, that you do not sufficiently use it.

There ought to be in every baptized Christian, a gradual, steady, and even perceptible Christian progress. Our salvation ought to be ever nearer and nearer than when we believed, not only in the expectation of our complete adoption and removal to glory, but in our fitness for glory, and desire and hope of it. If we have the same evil tendencies, are as easily overcome by the same temptations, have the same dislike or imperfect taste for spiritual occupations, the same poor appreciation of religious privileges and hopes as we had a year, a month, a week ago, then assuredly our salvation stagnates, we are not using what God has given us, we are not yielding to, we are resisting His living influence! Grace, my brethren, is an useless gift, if it is to effect nothing: a time of probation is an idle space, if there is no trial. Faith is little entitled to be called “the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen,” if it produces no spiritual conviction: and as for hope—what kind of anchor is it to the soul, if it is ever shifting, if it grasps nothing?

If any man is in Christ, he is a new creature, that is, he is becoming a new creature, with new life, and powers, and energies, and tastes, and aims, and hopes. He will grow in grace if he has rightly received it, and in the knowledge and love of Christ. He will manifestly (at least to himself manifestly) be putting off the old man with his affections and lusts, and putting on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. He will endure trials more and more patiently, as seeing more clearly Him who is invisible. He will resist temptations more easily, and do good more consistently and gladly, and be more pained and more penitent after every sin. He will have a growing love of searching God’s word, and speaking to Him in prayer and praise, and receiving Him in Holy Communion. He will gradually be raised above the world, and will soar higher in imagination and affection and hope towards heaven. Each day will have witnessed some advance—or some more than recovery if there has been a relapse. And when the night cometh, the end of the day of attaining salvation, he will want but little to complete his resemblance to Christ, his pattern, and to perfect his salvation.

If, then, brethren, you would obtain an answer to the momentous question, Whether you shall be saved, whether there is a good hope that you are in the way of salvation, I would bid you not so much look back to your Baptism and Confirmation, and count the number of your attendances on Holy Communion, of the sermons you have heard, the prayers and praises you have offered—though these are all great things—but rather, I would say, ascertain whether you have present salvation, for the future depends on the present; and to ascertain this, examine well whether you are putting off the old man and putting on the new, as I have just described. As another test—and a very great help in godliness, to which there is no equal in feelings and exercises—inquire into your hope of future salvation (by which I do not mean only your expectation, but also your eager desire), and into your joy for present salvation.

If religion is a reality, it is a great reality. Its immediate blessings are so precious, and its prospects so transcendently glorious, that the man who is not filled with joy and desire on their account, has no part or lot in them, or is strangely culpably ignorant of his privileges and his hopes. No wonder that he easily yields to sin, that he finds spiritual employments wearisome, that he makes no progress in salvation. If God touches him and he feels not, if heaven has come down to him and he knows it not, if glory is revealed to him, and he does not burn for it, if Christ has put him in the ark and he is not comforted by the immediate deliverance and counting on the perfect salvation—then, surely, he has received the grace of God to little sanctifying, and so to little saving purpose!

O let him beseech God earnestly and perseveringly to give him spiritual sight and feeling, to fill him with joy and peace in believing, to make him rejoice, not only for what he has, but for what he expects of salvation; working, like St. Paul, in view of the crown laid up, confident that, whether absent or present, he is accepted by God, knowing that to depart is to be with Christ.

But, lastly, let him guard and pray against mistaking present for perfect salvation, the road and discipline and growth for heaven, for heaven itself. The possession which he has, precious as it is, is not a perfect one; and, moreover, he may lose it. Remember Paul’s care, lest he should be a castaway, his caution to take heed lest we fall, his fearful sayings about forfeited grace. O brethren, seek as the best immediate blessing and the best stimulus to godliness, an assurance of hope in perfect salvation. But be sure that it is founded upon the reception and right use and evident growth of grace, upon present salvation; and, withal, be not high-minded, but fear. You know your own frailties, the influences of the world, the subtlety and tremendous power of Satan’s temptations. Any of these is sufficient to make you wander out of the right way, or stand still, or turn back, or to cause you to faint in your spiritual course, and even to threaten the destruction of your spiritual life. You are sure of God, of His favour, of His upholding, of His preserving you unto the day of perfect redemption; but you are not sure of your observance of the conditions on which only you may count on Him. And if you disregard these conditions, then are you plainly taught, by precept and example, that a neglected God will not abide with you, and a resisted Spirit will not strive with you, and that grace received in vain will be taken away. Remember this, let it keep you from presumption, make you watchful against temptation, always clothed in the armour of God, and wielding the sword of the Spirit, and abounding in the work of the Lord; praying, too, always, that the present may be an earnest of the future, that the Spirit will sustain, and sanctify, and perfect you, and that God, Who has begun a good work in you, will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.