236. ACT 26:17. WAY OF SALVATION

Act_26:17. Way of Salvation

Part I

"The way of salvation."’97Act_26:17.

Of all terms that ever fell upon the ears of immortal beings, salvation is the most important and momentous. Of all subjects that ever engaged the powers of intellectual spirits, this is the most vast, comprehensive, and interesting. And it is interesting to all men everywhere. It is momentous to every child of Adam that ever lived. It claims the attention of all classes, and ranks, and degrees of men. It is as indispensably important to the learned, and the rich, and the great, as to the illiterate and the poor. Whatever may be man’s age, or station, whatever his clime, or language, or color, he cannot be happy without an experimental acquaintance with this term. How necessary, then, that it should have an elevated position in our pulpit ministrations. We cannot honor God, or magnify the Saviour, or make immortal spirits happy, but by making known the glad tidings of salvation. This evening we purpose to elucidate, as clearly as possible, "the way of salvation."

Let us notice,

I. The Divinity of its Origin.

We are reminded by the apostle, that he who built all things is God. This is true of the framework of universal nature. Every thing throughout the vast universe has been called into existence by the omnific uncontrollable agency of God. Now this is equally true of the great work of redemption.

1. It is the overflowing of infinite benevolence and mercy.

"For God so loved the world," &c. Joh_3:16. Yes, this is the great fountain from which flowed the streams of salvation. It is impossible to conceive of any other reason than that we have quoted’97the love of God. The love of God in the sublimity of its height, in the profundity of its depth, in its illimitable breadth, and its eternal length’97passing all understanding.

2. It is the manifestation of unsearchable wisdom and power.

Divine skill and almighty power carried out and embodied the gracious designs and movements of mercy in regard to man. And these illustrious perfections had never been so magnified as in the salvation of the world. Hence the apostle exclaims, "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!" Rom_11:33. And while God is represented as effecting his creative works by the exertion of his voice, or by the skill of his hands, salvation only could be effected by the greatness of his arm, and by the energy of his almighty power. Eph_3:10; Eph_1:19.

3. It is the harmony of all the moral attributes of Deity.

In the salvation of the world God has caused all his moral perfections to appeal emblazoned with celestial glory. His truth and mercy, his compassion and holiness, all meet, to be magnified in the redemption of the world. And thus Deity appears full-orbed in all his uncreated grandeur and glory. Creation is full of God; Providence is the constant exhibition of God; but redemption is the bright ness of his glory, the effulgence of him who is emphatically the fountain of light and blessedness.

"Here the whole Deity is known,

Nor dares the creature guess,

Which of the glories brightest shone,

The justice or the grace."

O yes, salvation is of God; it was an undertaking too great, a work too vast and mighty, to have been executed by the concentrated energies of all the creatures in the universe.

Consider salvation,

II. As sacrificial in its Medium.

In salvation a variety of interests had to be consulted. There was the holy character of God concerned, the claims of the divine law, and the ruined interests of guilty man. God could not overlook sin without his holiness being impeached, and without his laws being rendered null and void. But in the divinely appointed way of salvation, by the mediation of his Son, all interests have been consulted, and both the glory of God and the happiness of man secured.

In the gift of Christ, as a sacrifice for sin, we have,

1. An amazing instance of Divine love.

Christ is the evidence of the love of God to us. No other proof could have exhibited it so clearly and fully. "Herein is love," &c. Here is boundless, inconceivable love.

2. Here the purity of the Divine character was exhibited.

God so showed his hatred to sin, that, rather than it should go unpunished, he would punish it in the person of his Son. And nowhere can we learn so truly its hateful character as in the amazing value of the blood which was shed to redeem us from it. Yes, God vindicated the claims of holiness at the expense of the life of his only-begotten Son.

3. Here the sinner is honorably delivered from the fearful results of his crimes.

A Mediator has appeared between God and himself, and has borne in his own person the desert of sin. God can now be the justifier of the ungodly sinner who rests on the mediation of Christ. God is well pleased with the human nature of Christ’97with the obedience of Christ’97with the satisfaction of Christ, and waits to be gracious to all who come to him through Christ. Here is solid rock as a resting-place for the sinner; here is a sure refuge, a tower of defence, and everlasting salvation. Yes, this is the essence of the gospel, that Christ has loved us, and given himself for us. And there is hope and salvation in no other. Jesus alone can deliver from the wrath to come.

Autor: JABEZ BURNS