4
SALVATION
The subject before us is elemental, basic, indispensable. All controversy concerning theological matters is a
waste of time, if man, after a brief and troubled existence for a few fleeting years, goes down to `dusty death'. If
there be no deliverance from sin and its dread consequences, then all is vanity. To be in need of salvation implies
that one is `lost'. To be in need of deliverance implies that one is in bondage or in danger. To discover that `no man
can redeem' either himself or his brother, makes the question `What must I do to be saved?' the most imperative
question mortal man can utter.
Israel, God's chosen people, are represented as being `lost sheep' (Matt. 10:6) and Christ said of Himself and of
His mission :
`The Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost'
(Luke 19:10).
Gentiles too are in the same category :
`If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost' (2 Cor. 4:3).
The world is looked upon as `lost', for the word `perish' in John 3:16 is the same in the original. On the other hand,
those who believe and are saved, `shall never perish' (John 10:28). This is elemental salvation. To fill in some of
the needful details and make the subject live is the purpose of this book.
SALVATION IMPLIES A SAVIOUR.
Eight days after a Child named Jesus was born in Bethlehem over nineteen hundred years ago, an old man
named Simeon, who waited for the consolation of Israel, went into the temple at Jerusalem under the influence of
the Holy Spirit at the moment when this Child was brought in `to do for him after the custom of the law', and taking
Him in his arms, he blessed God and said :
`Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace, according to Thy Word: For mine eyes have seen Thy
salvation' (Luke 2:25-30).
Salvation is an abstract term, but here it is the name given to an infant of eight days old, a Person, a Saviour.
Luke 1:26-35 reveals the message of the angel to Mary, and says concerning the Child about to be born, `Thou ...
shalt call His name Jesus'. By reading Luke 1:26-35 together with Matthew 1:18-23 we learn that this Child Jesus
was of miraculous conception, His mother being a virgin, and that this virgin birth fulfilled a prophecy uttered years
before by Isaiah (7:14) and anticipated in Genesis 3:15. The purpose for this miraculous intervention we must
consider later; here we are assembling some important facts relating to salvation.
In Matthew 1:21 we are told why this Child was called `Jesus' :
`For He shall save His people from their sins'.
In addition a second name is given to Him, `Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us' (Matt. 1:23). We
are referred back to Isaiah 9:6 and 7:14 where we read :
` For unto us a child is born,
unto us a Son is given ...
and His name shall be called ...
The mighty God'!