Plain Words For The Young Who Belong To Christ

by N.D.W. MILLER | Category: Pages For Young Believers | Jan 1932

1.-SALVATION.

"0 let me still

Write Thee great God and me a child:

Let me be soft and supple to Thy will,

Small to myself, to others mild,

Yet hating ill."

"A saint who is in fellowship with God is ever in need of truth, and fresh truth. It is the written Word which sanctifies, or separates to God; and this only in so far as, through the Spirit's agency, it brings us into the presence of Christ the Living Word, where we learn what we are, and what He is for us. It is in this written Word the perfect Man is found- in Himself a perfect example, as the Sent One doing the will of His God." These are borrowed words. They are culled from the Introduction to this Magazine, Needed Truth, in the year 1888. What is expressed in them is the desire of the writer in commencing another short series of Plain Words for the Young who belong to Christ, on things that differ.

The words "things that differ," are found in Romans 2. 18, and in Philippians 1. 10, in the margin of the Revised Version. "If thou... approvest the things that are excellent" (provest the things that differ) "And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and all discernment; so that ye may approve the things that are excellent" (prove the things that differ).

The things of God are all excellent; but not a few of the things that God has revealed, while excellent in themselves, differ-differ to the extent that failure to distinguish between them must inevitably lead to confusion; and we are assured that God is not a God of confusion (1 Corinthians 14. 33). It is His desire, as expressed in the Apostle's prayer, that we should be able to prove the things that differ, and so approve the things that are excellent. Timothy was charged to rightly divide the Word of Truth (2 Timothy 2. 15, R.V. Margin).

Like "proving the things that differ," this is most important. Almost all the confusion that exists to-day in the spiritual realm is due to failure thus to prove things that differ, and to rightly divide the Word of Truth. We hope you will see how important this is as we proceed.

The salvation of God is one: but in its application to the believer it is threefold. GOD has become our Saviour. Our trust is in HIMSELF. The children of Israel realised that, when they were emancipated from Egyptian slavery, and Pharaoh's iron yoke.

"I will sing unto the LORD, for He hath triumphed gloriously... the LORD is my strength and song, and He is become my salvation" (see Exodus 15.).

God had come down and had delivered them.

Wondrous thought! God is my salvation! The salvation of God is bound up with the Person of Christ. After speaking of Him in His relation to Israel, God said, "I will also give Thee for a light to the Gentiles, that Thou mayest be My salvation unto the end of the earth" (Isaiah 49. 6). More than 700 years after Isaiah had written that, Christ was born, and when eventually the Child was brought into the Temple, the aged Simeon received Him into his arms, and blessed God, and said-"Mine eyes have seen Thy salvation" (Luke 2. 80); "In none other is there Salvation" (Acts 4. 12). This salvation was presented to Israel-first in Person; then in word. "To us is the word of this salvation sent" (Acts 13. 26); "Concerning which salvation the prophets sought and searched diligently" (1 Peter 1. 10). Then it was sent to the Gentiles. "This salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles" (Acts 28. 28). "The word of this salvation" is the Gospel-" how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; and that He was buried; and that He hath been raised on the third day according to the scriptures" (1 Corinthians 15. 3, 4). The Gospel "is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that beieveth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek" (Romans 1. 16). And it is the Gospel of the Grace of God (Acts 20. 24). God's highest glory displays itself in sovereign grace. "The Law was given by Moses; grace and truth came by Jesus Christ" (John 1. 17). Grace appeared, and brought salvation (Titus 2. 11). Contact with Christ-in other words, simple faith in the Saviour-brings life and an eternal wealth of heavenly blessing.

In Titus 3. 5, we read, "According to His mercy HE SAVED us." This speaks of a rounded off and finished matter. It refers to our salvation from the penal consequences of our sins -salvation from wrath and hell-and speaks to our hearts of an accomplished and eternally abiding fact which nothing shall ever alter. 2 Timothy 1. 9, speaks in the same emphatic strain-" Who SAVED us, and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before times eternal." And again, in Ephesians 2. 8, "for by grace have ye been saved through faith." There are many other passages which convey to the heart of the believer the same mighty fact; but these will suffice to present the first strand in the three-fold cord of salvation-i.e., salvation from sin's penalty and all that this involves.

You know yourself to be the happy possessor of salvation. It is your own, because ye are Christ's (1 Corinthians 3. 23) Jude (verse 3) speaks of this as "our common salvation"- i.e., common, in the sense that it is shared in common by all who have believed.

"So then, my beloved, even as ye have always obeyed work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God which worketh in you both to will and to work, for His good pleasure" (Philippians 2. 12, 13). "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling." Here is something very different from "our common salvation" secured for us by Christ and His finished work.

There are many who interpret this passage as if it meant salvation from wrath, and sin's penalty; but it is not so. This refers to the believer's life on earth-to his obedience. Being saved is a tremendous reality. Is our life down here, from the time when we were "born again," until we are taken to be with Christ, going to shew profit, or loss? A saved life, or a lost life? (see Matthew 16. 25). If we obey the Lord, and work out what God is pleased to work in us, then we shall not fail of the saint's reward, nor the "well done" of the Master.

N.D.W. MILLER | Jan 1932
Pages For Young Believers