1251. What the Redeemed Receive

What the Redeemed Receive

"For if, when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled we shall be saved by His life" (Rom_5:10).

The 5th of Romans presents three things which are secured to the believer when he comes to God.

1. We are reconciled through the death of His Son. We did dwell in the far country; we were aliens to the commonwealth of Israel; we were without God and without hope in the world, now, we, who were afar off, are made nigh by the Blood of Christ. God has received us unto Himself. We can look up and say, "Abba, Father." We can read our titles clear to mansions in the skies. We can know that He will present us unto Himself without spot or blemish, at His coming.

2. We are kept safe in His life. The Cross of Christ brings redemption, but the life of Christ brings sanctification. We are saved from the penalty of sin by the Cross; we are saved from the power and dominion of sin by the risen Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ does more than reconcile us to God through the death of the Cross, He keeps us safe, by His life.

When John G. Paton went to the New Hebrides, he found the inhabitants were cannibals, guilty of the most terrible atrocities. Dr. Paton preached Christ to these men, and their sins were washed away in the Blood of the Lamb. They were saved from hell. But these same men were more than saved from hell. They were kept safe by the life of Christ. They lived with the risen Redeemer. They learned to talk to Him face to face, thus it was not long until the violence of their past, disappeared. They became a noble people, with lofty ideals of sobriety and rectitude. They lived model Christian lives.

An American Indian whose arm had been severed by a wrathful white man, had sworn vengeance against the white man as an enemy. However before the Indian had fulfilled his wrathful purpose, Jesus Christ had sent an arrow of conviction to his heart, and he was saved. He was not only saved from sin and death, but he was saved in life. By and by the tables turned. The white man stood before the Indian, under the Indian's power. The Indian perhaps displayed the stub of his arm, and then said, "I would kill you, but Jesus Christ has saved me and I love you."

3. We are saved from the wrath to come. This is a part of the fruitage of Christ's death on the Cross.

(1) When the Lord Jesus descends from Heaven in flaming fire, taking vengeance against those who know not God, we will be saved from His wrath.

(2) When the great white throne is set and the earth flees away; when the dead small and great stand before God, and the books are opened; then, those who have received Christ, will be saved from wrath.

Autor: R.E. NEIGHBOUR