30 24. God's Power To Save
24. God’s Power To Save
INTRODUCTION
Nothing can mean more to a human soul than wholehearted and unprejudiced study of the Bible. David says the blessed man is that soul whose "delight is in the law of Jehovah; and on his law doth he meditate day and night." (Psalms 1:2.) Have you committed the first Psalm to memory? If you have not, do so. It contains the secret of real success.
We are studying in this lesson "God’s power to Save." There is but one way to do this, and that is to read and meditate on the exact statements God has made about his power to save. "To the law and to the testimony! if they speak not according to this word, surely there is no morning [light] for them." (Isaiah 8:20 : In all of our teaching we must seek to do as we are commanded. "If any man speaketh, speaking as it were oracles of God." (1 Peter 4:11.)
THE GOSPEL IS GOD’S POWER TO SAVE
"For I am not ashamed of the gospel: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek." (Romans 1:16.) Could a statement be plainer and more definitely made? Note that it is the power, and not one of the powers. Some have the idea that the gospel is one of the powers and that there is at least one other—viz., the operation of the Holy Spirit independent of the gospel. Whatever the Holy Spirit does in conversion and sanctification comes through the power of God unto salvation, and this the Holy Spirit declares is the gospel. It is the Holy Spirit speaking here through Paul. (1 Corinthians 2:13.) Certainly the Holy Spirit would not declare that the gospel is the power of God unto salvation, then operate on the heart of a sinner independent of the gospel. The great commission. "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to the whole creation." (Mark 16:15.) Since the gospel is God’s power to save, it must be preached and taught to all the nations—to every creature. Note the harmony here in what Christ instructed his apostles to preach and what is declared to be God’s power to save.
"Gospel" primarily means "good news" or "glad tidings. " But many things might be brought to our ears that would be "good news" or "glad tidings" that have no connection whatever with God’s power to save. The "good news" that saves concerns Christ; it is wholly restricted to Christ. The gospel in its totality is all the "good news" about Christ.
It is something we must believe or be condemned. (Mark 16:15-16; Hebrews 4:2.) Note in Romans 1:16 it is said: "For it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth." Any teacher or preacher that tells you that his doctrine is good, but that you do not have to believe it in order to be saved, confesses in that admission that it is not the gospel of Christ, for we must believe the gospel of Christ or be condemned.
It is something we must obey. (2 Thessalonians 1:7-9; 1 Peter 4:17.) Read these references. The "more no- be" examine the Scriptures for themselves: "Now these [the Bereans] were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, examining the Scriptures daily, whether these things were so." (Acts 17:11.) It is not a compliment, therefore, for a man to say that the doctrine he is teaching is a good doctrine, but that you do not have to obey it in order to be saved, for the gospel we must obey else suffer "eternal destruction from the face of the Lord and from the glory of his might." (2 Thessalonians 1:9.) It will bear no substitution. (Galatians 1:6-9; 1 Timothy 1:3;
John 9:11.) "But though we, or an angel from heaven should preach unto you any gospel other than that which we preached unto you, let him be anathema." These words we must heed. Note the warning against being tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine in Ephesians 4:14. See this also in Hebrews 13:9, where we are commanded not to be carried about with divers and strange doctrines. In 1 John 4:1 we are commanded to prove the spirits, "because many false prophets are gone out into the world." A definite good news and glad tidings. We must conclude from what we have learned above that the good news, the glad tidings, that is God’s power to save is definite, restricted wholly to Christ, and must be believed, obeyed, and will bear no substitution.
It is necessary that we ask the question: of what does the gospel of Christ consist? In this we will come to understand why it is something we must believe and obey and will bear no substitution.
Facts to be believed.The gospel is God’s power to save only to those who believe it. An important question arises just here—viz.: What must we believe?Romans 10:8-10 tells us that "the word of faith" that the apostles preached is that we must "confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord, and shalt believe in thy heart that God raised him from the dead." Here the Lordship of Jesus is declared as a thing we must openly acknowledge, and his resurrection from the dead must be believed. In 1 Corinthians 15:1-4 the facts of the gospel are more clearly stated: "Now I make known unto you, brethren, the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye received, wherein also ye stand, by which also ye are saved, if ye hold fast the word which I preached unto you.... For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received: 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." You see here the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus as the great facts of the gospel that these brethren had received and in which they then stood. And please to note that Paul here says these things come first in the gospel. "First things first" states a principle that should not be overlooked. He delivered unto them "first of all" these facts, and they received them. And when we go to Peter’s first sermon after the Spirit came (Acts 2:22-36), we find the Holy Spirit in Peter preaching these great facts to the people on Pentecost, with the ascension and coronation of Christ included. Be certain to turn to this Scripture and read it. This is, as has been already learned, laying the foundation in the human heart—viz., that Jesus undoubtedly is the Messiah, the anointed of God. At this point it will not be amiss to meditate upon these facts. Do we not here find the secret of the power? To illustrate, we turn to Daniel 3:24-29 and study it. Nebuchadnezzar was a heathen king, who knew not the living God; but when he cast Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego into a furnace of fire, made seven times hotter than it was wont to be made, and they came forth without a hair of their head being even singed, his mind was wholly changed, and he exclaimed: "Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego." He also decreed that "every people, nation, and language, which speaketh anything amiss against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, shall be cut in pieces, and their houses shall be made a dunghill." And why this exclamation and this decree? His answer is: "Because there is no other God that is able to deliver after this sort." And will we not here come to appreciate that the secret of the power that is in the gospel of Christ adheres to the fact of his resurrection?
And, too, you will note the Old Testament prophecy here is referred to, for "according to the scriptures" in the Scripture above quoted refers to the Old Testament predictions. Christ came in perfect fulfillment of these prophecies, and died and rose again. Here it would be good, if space would permit, to note how continually the resurrection of Jesus is emphasized all through the gospel. If Christ arose, he is the Savior of man, the soul survives the death of the body, and Jesus, when he comes again, will bring our loved ones with him. Read 1 Thessalonians 4:13-14, and note that the hope there given us is based on our Lord’s resurrection. In fact, here is the very foundation of all our hope. The God who delivered Jesus, to use the words of Nebuchadnezzar, "after this sort," is indeed the living God and through Jesus can save our souls.
Commands to be obeyed. Vengeance is to be rendered to those who obey not the gospel. (2 Thessalonians 1:8.) But we know very well that the facts of the gospel we cannot obey; such things we can believe and must believe. In 1 Peter 4:17 we have this question: "What shall be the end of them that obey not the gospel of God?" 2 Thessalonians 1:7-9 answers this question definitely. There can be no doubt, then, that the gospel must be obeyed. But what do we do in obeying the gospel? We obey the commands of Jesus. (See Matthew 7:24-25; Acts 3:22-23.) Faith is a command of Jesus. (Mark 16:16; John 8:24.) Repentance is a command of Jesus. (Luke 13:3; Luke 24:46-47; Acts 17:30-31.) That we confess him as Lord, our rightful Ruler, is his command. (Matthew 10:32-33; Romans 10:8-9.) And certainly we know that baptism is his command. (Matthew 28:18-19; Mark 16:15-16.) And Matthew 28:20. says he commanded his apostles to teach those whom they baptized "to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you." All of the commands of Jesus are to be found in the teaching of the apostles, and they must be obeyed. This is salvation by grace. Grace and truth came by Christ. (John 1:17.) Grace saves through teaching us how Christ commands us to live. (See Titus 2:11-15.) You will observe that Titus 2:15 says for us to speak these things "with all authority." In Matthew 28:18 Christ tells us that he has all the authority God has in heaven and on earth. There can be no doubt, then, that the commands of Jesus as to what we shall do to become Christians and those teaching us how we must live must be obeyed.
Promises to be fulfilled in us here and hereafter. The gospel of Christ abounds in promises. The first promise we receive when we obey the gospel is the remission of all our past sins and our names enrolled in heaven as members of the church of Christ. Christ gives us remission when we obey and adds us to his church the very same moment. (Romans 6:17-18; Acts 2:41; Acts 2:47.) But the path in which Jesus has asked us to walk after being baptized is strewn all along the way with promises. The following Scriptures name some of them: 1 Corinthians 10:13; 2 Corinthians 12:8-9; Ephesians 3:14-21; Php 4:4-7; Php 4:13; Hebrews 13:5-6. 2 Peter 1:3 says these promises are "precious and exceeding great," and that we through these become partakers of the divine nature. In Hebrews 6:15 we are taught that Abraham, "having patiently endured, he obtained the promise." Paul, in Romans 2:7, says: "To them that by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and incorruption, eternal life." This all looks to the future and is consummated in that heavenly home. These promises that are received here as we live the Christian life and that shall be fulfilled in heaven are a part of the gospel, God’s power to save We must teach them to those we baptize. Christ now is in heaven on specific business for those who come into his church. (See Hebrews 9:24.) He is ever making intercession in our behalf if we are trying to be faithful to him. (Hebrews 7:25.)
CONCLUSION
If all churches and preachers would teach only these facts that we must believe, these commands that we must obey, and the promises that we by faith must lay hold on both here and hereafter—teach just this and nothing more as essential to the salvation of a human soul—would we not have a united church, and would not the prayer of our Lord in John 17:20-21 in us be answered?
God’s power to save, declared to be the gospel of Christ, contains these things. We are taught not to add to nor to take from his precious word. (Revelation 22:18-19.) It is the desire of that body of people known as the church of Christ to do just as here commanded. We want to ever stand on Scriptural grounds, where any sincere soul who wants only God’s truth in all of his faith and practice may stand with us without sacrificing any statement of our Lord. Hence, we strive to teach those things that people must believe and those things that they must do and hold before them those things that they should expect to be fulfilled in their lives right here on earth and also in the world to come. Life is too short to waste time teaching more than this.