When were you saved? is one of the questions asked me many times over the years, and I'm sure the same is true of many of you.
What an important question. Salvation is, after all, "the one thing needful", the only thing that will really matter "in the great day". But until the Lord came along and began to teach me about this subject I didn't realize how erroneous my views on this "so great Salvation" subject were; as it turns out now, in hindsight, they were fatally so.
And, after I was the subject of "efficacious Grace", it was many years before I understood the place of, and difference between "the call", efficaious, versus general, and, in turn, "regeneration" in the process of conversion and sanctification. Even today, Satan attempts to trip me up, and I have to go back and restudy and rethink these things, and as Peter said, be "stirred up by way of reminder".
The following quote from "A Fourfold Salvation" has been a great help to me in dealing with the assaults of the Adversary as to the validity of my own regeneration and conversion. A sad and confused victim for many years of the "Christianity Light" version of the gospel, first in thinking I was saved when I wasn't (Satan's number one Lie) and then thinking I wasn't when I was (Satan's number two lie, when the Spirit has dealt with the first).
A member of this Forum recently asked about hypocrisy and Pharisaism and how to evaluate oneself in that regard. It is an excellent question and one which I believe God plants in the hearts of all true believers as a symptom of "the fear of God" which "is the beginnig of wisdom". In my own case, once I was indeed regenerated, many things changed, not the least of which was a search for the marks of true conversion. I wanted to know, for the first time, more than anything else, was I, Am I, really a true Child of God? This piece deals with some of them, those marks, particularly the "negative" ones, for lack of a better term, in a unique way I think.
In my own experience, looking back, there were many things that testified, from scripture, that I was indeed a subject of saving grace. But it was not until I read the works of men like Bunyan, Edwards, Ryle, Goodwin, Payson and Pink that I began to sort the false teaching, absorbed over a lifetime (my efficacious call came late, at age 39) from the true.
The following quote (from the introduction of this piece) by Pink was an help to me in sorting this out, and especially in getting to the bottom of the issue of sin, as a concept and as a reality in my own life, and as it exists in "the thoughts and intents of the heart". The quote itself doesn't deal with sin so much as the following sections but is a good introduction and I offer it hear in the hope that it might be of help to others, and to solicit ideas and reactions as to Pink's comments on same. May His Spirit accompany it's reading is my prayer.
"The subject of Gods "so-great-salvation" (Heb. 2:3), as it is revealed to us in the Scriptures and made known in Christian experience, is worthy of a lifes study. Any one who supposes that there is now no longer any need for him to prayerfully search for a fuller understanding of the same needs to ponder "If any man think he knoweth anything, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know" (1 Cor. 8:2). The fact is that the moment any of us really takes it for granted that he already knows all that there is to be known on any subject treated of in Holy Writ, he at once cuts himself off from any further light thereon. That which is most needed by all of us in order to a better understanding of Divine things is not a brilliant intellect, but a truly humble heart and a teachable spirit, and for that we would daily and fervently pray, for we possess it not by nature.
The subject of Divine salvation has, sad to say, provoked age-long controversy and bitter contentions even among Christians. There is comparatively little agreement even upon this elementary vet vital truth. Some have insisted that salvation is by Divine grace, others have argued that it is by human endeavor. A number have sought to defend the middle position, and while allowing that the salvation of a lost sinner must be by Divine grace, were not willing to concede that it is by Divine grace alone, alleging that Gods grace must be plussed by something from the creature, and very varied have been the opinions of what that something must bebaptism, church-membership, the performing of good works, holding out faithful to the end, etc. On the other hand, there are those who not only grant that salvation is by grace alone, but who deny that God uses any means whatever in the accomplishment of His eternal purpose to save His electoverlooking the fact that the sacrifice of Christ is the grand "means!
It is true that the Church of God was blessed with super-creation blessings, being chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world and predestinated unto the adoption of children, and nothing could or can alter that grand fact. It is equally true that if sin had never entered the world, none had been in need of salvation from it. But sin has entered, and the Church fell in Adam and came under the curse and condemnation of Gods Law. Consequently, the elect, equally with the reprobate, shared in the capital offence of their federal head, and partake of its fearful entail: "In Adam all die" (1 Cor. 15:22): "By the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation" (Rom. 5:18). The result of this is, that all are "alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their hearts" (Eph. 4:18), so that the members of the mystical Body of Christ are "by nature the children of wrath, even as others" (Eph. 2:3), and hence they are alike in dire need of Gods salvation.
Even when there is fundamental soundness in their views upon Divine salvation many have such inadequate and one-sided conceptions that other aspects of this truth, equally important and essential, are often overlooked and tacitly denied. How many, for example, would be capable of giving a simple exposition of the following texts: "Who hat/i saved us" (2 Tim. 1:9), "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling (Phil. 2:12), "Now is our salvation nearer than when we believed (Rom. 13:11). Now those verses do not refer to three different salvations, but to three separate aspects of one, and unless we learn to distinguish sharply among them, there can be naught but confusion and cloudiness in our thinking. Those passages present three distinct phases and stages of salvation: salvation as an accomplished fact, as a present process, and as a future prospect.
So many today ignore these distinctions, jumbling them together. Some contend for one and some argue against the other two; and vice versa. Some insist they are already saved, and deny that they are now being saved. Some declare that salvation is entirely future, and deny that it is in any sense already accomplished. Both are wrong. The fact is that the great majority of professing Christians fail to see that "salvation" is one of the most comprehensive terms in all the Scriptures, including predestination, regeneration, justification, sanctification, and glorification. They have far too cramped an idea of the meaning and scope of the word "salvation" (as it is used in the Scriptures), narrowing its range too much, generally confining their thoughts to but a simple phase. They suppose "salvation" means no more than the new birth or the forgiveness of sins. Were one to tell them that salvation is a protracted process, they would view him with suspicion; and if he affirmed that salvation is something awaiting us in the future, they would at once dub him a heretic. Yet they would be the ones to err.
Ask the average Christian, Are you saved? and he answers, Yes, I was saved in such and such a year; and that is as far as his thoughts on the subject go. Ask him, To what do you owe your salvation? and "the finished work of Christ" is the sum of his reply. Tell him that each of those answers is seriously defective, and he strongly resents your aspersion. As an example of the confusion that now prevails, we quote the following from a tract on Philippians 2:12: "To whom are those instructions addressed? The opening words to the Epistle tell us: To the saints in Christ Jesus. . . . Thus they were all believers! and could not be required to work for their salvation, for they already possessed it." Alas that so few people today perceive anything wrong in such a statement. Another "Bible teacher" tells us that "save thyself" (1 Tim. 4:16) must refer to deliverance from physical ills, as Timothy was already saved spiritually. True, yet it is equally true that he was then in the process of being saved, and also a fact that his salvation was then future.
Let us now supplement the first three verses quoted and show that there are other passages in the New Testament which definitely refer to each distinct tense of salvation. First salvation is an accomplished fact: "Thy faith hath saved thee" (Luke 7:50); "by grace ye have been saved" (Greek, and so translated in the R. V.Eph. 2:8); "according to his mercy he saved us" (Titus 3:5). Second, salvation as a present process, in course of accomplishment; not yet completed: "Unto us which are being saved" (1 Cor. 1:18R. V. and Bagster Interlinear); "Them that believe to the saving (not the salvation) of the soul" (Heb. 10:39). Third, salvation as a future process: "Sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation" (Heb. 1:14); "receive with meekness the engrafted Word, which is able to save your souls" (James. 1:21); "kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time" (1 Pet. 1:5). Thus, by putting together these different passages we are clearly warranted in formulating the following statement: every genuine Christian has been saved, is now being saved, and will yet be savedhow and from what we shall endeavor to show.
As further proof of how many-sided is the subject of Gods great salvation, and how that in Scripture it is viewed from various angles, take the following: by grace are ye saved" (Eph. 2:8); "saved by his (Christs) life," i.e., by His resurrection life (Rom. 5:9); "thy faith hath saved thee" (Luke 7:50); "the engrafted Word which is able to save your souls" (James 1:21); "saved by hope" (Rom. 8:24); "saved; yet so as by fire" (1 Cor. 3:15); "the like figure whereunto baptism doth also now save us" (1 Pet. 3:21). Ah, my reader, the Bible is not a lazy mans book, nor can it be soundly expounded by those who do not devote the whole of their time, and that for years, to its prayerful study. It is not that God would bewilder us, but that He would humble us, drive us to our knees, make us dependent upon His Spirit. Not to the proudthose who are wise in their own esteemare its heavenly secrets opened.
In like manner it may be shown from Scripture that the cause of salvation is not a single one, as so many supposethe blood of Christ. Here, too, it is necessary to distinguish between things which differ. First, the originating cause of salvation is the eternal purpose of God, or, in other words, the predestinating grace of the Father. Second, the meritorious cause of salvation is the mediation of Christ, this having particular respect to the legal side of things, or, in other words, His fully meeting the demands of the Law on the behalf and in the stead of those He redeems. Third, the efficient cause of salvation is the regenerating and sanctifying operations of the Holy Spirit, which respect the experimental side of it; or, in other words, the Spirit works in us what Christ purchased for us. Thus, we owe our personal salvation equally to each Person in the Trinity, and not to one (the Son) more than to the others. Fourth, the instrumental cause is our faith, obedience, and perseverance: though we are not saved because of them, equally true is it that we cannot be saved (according to Gods appointment) without them.
In the opening paragraph, we have stated that in our earlier effort we erred as to the starting point. In writing upon a threefold salvation we began with salvation from the penalty of sin, which is our justification. But our salvation does not begin there, as we knew well enough even then: alas that we so blindly followed our erring preceptors. Our salvation originates, of course, in the eternal purpose of God, in His predestinating of us to everlasting glory. "Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began" (2 Tim. 1:9). That has reference to Gods decree of election: His chosen people were then saved completely, in the Divine purpose, and all that we shall now say has to do with the performing of that purpose, the accomplishing of that decree, the actualization of that salvation."
I'm told I can't link to outside sources yet so if anyone has an interest the whole article can be found at PBministries.org, by going to the Pink archive/files/articles and clicking on "A Fourfold Salvation".
Much Christian love to all,
jer3119
What an important question. Salvation is, after all, "the one thing needful", the only thing that will really matter "in the great day". But until the Lord came along and began to teach me about this subject I didn't realize how erroneous my views on this "so great Salvation" subject were; as it turns out now, in hindsight, they were fatally so.
And, after I was the subject of "efficacious Grace", it was many years before I understood the place of, and difference between "the call", efficaious, versus general, and, in turn, "regeneration" in the process of conversion and sanctification. Even today, Satan attempts to trip me up, and I have to go back and restudy and rethink these things, and as Peter said, be "stirred up by way of reminder".
The following quote from "A Fourfold Salvation" has been a great help to me in dealing with the assaults of the Adversary as to the validity of my own regeneration and conversion. A sad and confused victim for many years of the "Christianity Light" version of the gospel, first in thinking I was saved when I wasn't (Satan's number one Lie) and then thinking I wasn't when I was (Satan's number two lie, when the Spirit has dealt with the first).
A member of this Forum recently asked about hypocrisy and Pharisaism and how to evaluate oneself in that regard. It is an excellent question and one which I believe God plants in the hearts of all true believers as a symptom of "the fear of God" which "is the beginnig of wisdom". In my own case, once I was indeed regenerated, many things changed, not the least of which was a search for the marks of true conversion. I wanted to know, for the first time, more than anything else, was I, Am I, really a true Child of God? This piece deals with some of them, those marks, particularly the "negative" ones, for lack of a better term, in a unique way I think.
In my own experience, looking back, there were many things that testified, from scripture, that I was indeed a subject of saving grace. But it was not until I read the works of men like Bunyan, Edwards, Ryle, Goodwin, Payson and Pink that I began to sort the false teaching, absorbed over a lifetime (my efficacious call came late, at age 39) from the true.
The following quote (from the introduction of this piece) by Pink was an help to me in sorting this out, and especially in getting to the bottom of the issue of sin, as a concept and as a reality in my own life, and as it exists in "the thoughts and intents of the heart". The quote itself doesn't deal with sin so much as the following sections but is a good introduction and I offer it hear in the hope that it might be of help to others, and to solicit ideas and reactions as to Pink's comments on same. May His Spirit accompany it's reading is my prayer.
"The subject of Gods "so-great-salvation" (Heb. 2:3), as it is revealed to us in the Scriptures and made known in Christian experience, is worthy of a lifes study. Any one who supposes that there is now no longer any need for him to prayerfully search for a fuller understanding of the same needs to ponder "If any man think he knoweth anything, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know" (1 Cor. 8:2). The fact is that the moment any of us really takes it for granted that he already knows all that there is to be known on any subject treated of in Holy Writ, he at once cuts himself off from any further light thereon. That which is most needed by all of us in order to a better understanding of Divine things is not a brilliant intellect, but a truly humble heart and a teachable spirit, and for that we would daily and fervently pray, for we possess it not by nature.
The subject of Divine salvation has, sad to say, provoked age-long controversy and bitter contentions even among Christians. There is comparatively little agreement even upon this elementary vet vital truth. Some have insisted that salvation is by Divine grace, others have argued that it is by human endeavor. A number have sought to defend the middle position, and while allowing that the salvation of a lost sinner must be by Divine grace, were not willing to concede that it is by Divine grace alone, alleging that Gods grace must be plussed by something from the creature, and very varied have been the opinions of what that something must bebaptism, church-membership, the performing of good works, holding out faithful to the end, etc. On the other hand, there are those who not only grant that salvation is by grace alone, but who deny that God uses any means whatever in the accomplishment of His eternal purpose to save His electoverlooking the fact that the sacrifice of Christ is the grand "means!
It is true that the Church of God was blessed with super-creation blessings, being chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world and predestinated unto the adoption of children, and nothing could or can alter that grand fact. It is equally true that if sin had never entered the world, none had been in need of salvation from it. But sin has entered, and the Church fell in Adam and came under the curse and condemnation of Gods Law. Consequently, the elect, equally with the reprobate, shared in the capital offence of their federal head, and partake of its fearful entail: "In Adam all die" (1 Cor. 15:22): "By the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation" (Rom. 5:18). The result of this is, that all are "alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their hearts" (Eph. 4:18), so that the members of the mystical Body of Christ are "by nature the children of wrath, even as others" (Eph. 2:3), and hence they are alike in dire need of Gods salvation.
Even when there is fundamental soundness in their views upon Divine salvation many have such inadequate and one-sided conceptions that other aspects of this truth, equally important and essential, are often overlooked and tacitly denied. How many, for example, would be capable of giving a simple exposition of the following texts: "Who hat/i saved us" (2 Tim. 1:9), "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling (Phil. 2:12), "Now is our salvation nearer than when we believed (Rom. 13:11). Now those verses do not refer to three different salvations, but to three separate aspects of one, and unless we learn to distinguish sharply among them, there can be naught but confusion and cloudiness in our thinking. Those passages present three distinct phases and stages of salvation: salvation as an accomplished fact, as a present process, and as a future prospect.
So many today ignore these distinctions, jumbling them together. Some contend for one and some argue against the other two; and vice versa. Some insist they are already saved, and deny that they are now being saved. Some declare that salvation is entirely future, and deny that it is in any sense already accomplished. Both are wrong. The fact is that the great majority of professing Christians fail to see that "salvation" is one of the most comprehensive terms in all the Scriptures, including predestination, regeneration, justification, sanctification, and glorification. They have far too cramped an idea of the meaning and scope of the word "salvation" (as it is used in the Scriptures), narrowing its range too much, generally confining their thoughts to but a simple phase. They suppose "salvation" means no more than the new birth or the forgiveness of sins. Were one to tell them that salvation is a protracted process, they would view him with suspicion; and if he affirmed that salvation is something awaiting us in the future, they would at once dub him a heretic. Yet they would be the ones to err.
Ask the average Christian, Are you saved? and he answers, Yes, I was saved in such and such a year; and that is as far as his thoughts on the subject go. Ask him, To what do you owe your salvation? and "the finished work of Christ" is the sum of his reply. Tell him that each of those answers is seriously defective, and he strongly resents your aspersion. As an example of the confusion that now prevails, we quote the following from a tract on Philippians 2:12: "To whom are those instructions addressed? The opening words to the Epistle tell us: To the saints in Christ Jesus. . . . Thus they were all believers! and could not be required to work for their salvation, for they already possessed it." Alas that so few people today perceive anything wrong in such a statement. Another "Bible teacher" tells us that "save thyself" (1 Tim. 4:16) must refer to deliverance from physical ills, as Timothy was already saved spiritually. True, yet it is equally true that he was then in the process of being saved, and also a fact that his salvation was then future.
Let us now supplement the first three verses quoted and show that there are other passages in the New Testament which definitely refer to each distinct tense of salvation. First salvation is an accomplished fact: "Thy faith hath saved thee" (Luke 7:50); "by grace ye have been saved" (Greek, and so translated in the R. V.Eph. 2:8); "according to his mercy he saved us" (Titus 3:5). Second, salvation as a present process, in course of accomplishment; not yet completed: "Unto us which are being saved" (1 Cor. 1:18R. V. and Bagster Interlinear); "Them that believe to the saving (not the salvation) of the soul" (Heb. 10:39). Third, salvation as a future process: "Sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation" (Heb. 1:14); "receive with meekness the engrafted Word, which is able to save your souls" (James. 1:21); "kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time" (1 Pet. 1:5). Thus, by putting together these different passages we are clearly warranted in formulating the following statement: every genuine Christian has been saved, is now being saved, and will yet be savedhow and from what we shall endeavor to show.
As further proof of how many-sided is the subject of Gods great salvation, and how that in Scripture it is viewed from various angles, take the following: by grace are ye saved" (Eph. 2:8); "saved by his (Christs) life," i.e., by His resurrection life (Rom. 5:9); "thy faith hath saved thee" (Luke 7:50); "the engrafted Word which is able to save your souls" (James 1:21); "saved by hope" (Rom. 8:24); "saved; yet so as by fire" (1 Cor. 3:15); "the like figure whereunto baptism doth also now save us" (1 Pet. 3:21). Ah, my reader, the Bible is not a lazy mans book, nor can it be soundly expounded by those who do not devote the whole of their time, and that for years, to its prayerful study. It is not that God would bewilder us, but that He would humble us, drive us to our knees, make us dependent upon His Spirit. Not to the proudthose who are wise in their own esteemare its heavenly secrets opened.
In like manner it may be shown from Scripture that the cause of salvation is not a single one, as so many supposethe blood of Christ. Here, too, it is necessary to distinguish between things which differ. First, the originating cause of salvation is the eternal purpose of God, or, in other words, the predestinating grace of the Father. Second, the meritorious cause of salvation is the mediation of Christ, this having particular respect to the legal side of things, or, in other words, His fully meeting the demands of the Law on the behalf and in the stead of those He redeems. Third, the efficient cause of salvation is the regenerating and sanctifying operations of the Holy Spirit, which respect the experimental side of it; or, in other words, the Spirit works in us what Christ purchased for us. Thus, we owe our personal salvation equally to each Person in the Trinity, and not to one (the Son) more than to the others. Fourth, the instrumental cause is our faith, obedience, and perseverance: though we are not saved because of them, equally true is it that we cannot be saved (according to Gods appointment) without them.
In the opening paragraph, we have stated that in our earlier effort we erred as to the starting point. In writing upon a threefold salvation we began with salvation from the penalty of sin, which is our justification. But our salvation does not begin there, as we knew well enough even then: alas that we so blindly followed our erring preceptors. Our salvation originates, of course, in the eternal purpose of God, in His predestinating of us to everlasting glory. "Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began" (2 Tim. 1:9). That has reference to Gods decree of election: His chosen people were then saved completely, in the Divine purpose, and all that we shall now say has to do with the performing of that purpose, the accomplishing of that decree, the actualization of that salvation."
I'm told I can't link to outside sources yet so if anyone has an interest the whole article can be found at PBministries.org, by going to the Pink archive/files/articles and clicking on "A Fourfold Salvation".
Much Christian love to all,
jer3119
