0421. The Result of Paul's First Message

The Result of Paul’s First Message

"Ye turned unto God from idols" (1Th_1:9).

Thus does the Holy Spirit record the effect of Paul’s preaching on the death of Christ.

The result of saving grace, wrought out on Calvary, is always twofold.

1. There is recognition of the cleansing power of the Blood of Christ. The sinner when he accepts Christ as a Saviour, once and for all, recognizes the fact that Christ has put away his sins.

The believer’s sins are "blotted out as a thick cloud."

The believer’s sins are "remembered against him no more forever."

The believer’s sins are put into the "bottom of the sea."

The believer’s sins are placed "behind God’s back." All of these expressions proclaim the fact of justification, that to the one saved by the Blood of Christ stands forth washed white in the Blood of the Lamb–the sinner is made the righteousness of God in Christ.

2. There is a second step on the part of every saved soul. He sees his sins put away, and therefore he puts his sins away. He sees, first of all, "a righteousness by faith in Christ," and then he sees that he is called to walk as a child of the light.

Illustration: A man saved from a life of gambling, said something like this: "If Christ put my sins behind His back, then I want to put them behind my back also, and live ‘in them no more.’"

Christ died to "save His people from their sins." "They turned from their idols." Of course, they did. How can we who are saved from sin, serve sin?

It is not our turning from sin that saves us, but when we are saved we do turn from sin.

The fact is that the very acceptance of Christ as a sin-bearer, necessitates one’s renouncing his sin. The reason the sinner comes to the power of the cleansing Blood is because he is sick and tired of sin.

Let no one think for a moment that he can accept Christ as a Saviour and stand justified in the imputed righteousness of Christ, unless he is ready to "turn from his idols" and leave his sin.

"Let the wicked forsake his way" is still a precedent to the further word, "and he shall find mercy" and the other word, "our God shall abundantly pardon."

It is always true that they who forsake their sin, shall find mercy, but it is never true that they who forsake their sin shall, upon that ground, be saved. Salvation is of the Lord.

Let us try to make this clear, step by step.

(1) The Spirit of God convicts the world of sin. This is the first step. Why should the well call for a physician?

(2) The sinner convicted, realizing his need, cries for deliverance from his sin. First he wants his sin done away, next he wants power to live above his sinful self. This the Spirit shows can be done in Christ alone.

(3) The sinner, then, believes in Christ and is saved, and seeing his sins under the Blood, he at once turns from them in his daily life, and seeks to walk the way of righteousness.

Autor: R.E. NEIGHBOUR