April 17

The Salvation of the Lord. - Exodus 14:13..

THIS is the distinguishing theme of the gospel. Salvation always refers to some evil; and numberless are the evils which are embattled against us “in our passage through this vale of tears, and from which alone we are protected by the God of salvation, to whom belong ‘ the issues from death,’” and who is therefore called “the Preserver of men.” But we are fallen, guilty, depraved, perishing, and, in ourselves, helpless creatures; and therefore we need deliverance from great and manifold Spiritual evils. This deliverance is emphatically called always Salvation- “so great” salvation-and it is so great, so inconceivably great, that compared with it every other salvation is “nothing, and less than nothing, and vanity.”

Now this salvation includes more than mere deliverance. It is not only a deliverance from something, but to something- “from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God;” from condemnation to adoption; from the curse of the law to all the promises of the gospel; and from hell to heaven.

“Buried in sorrow and in sin,

At hell’s dark door we lay;

But we arise by grace Divine

To see a heavenly day.”

This salvation is for ever; as it is written, “Israel shall be saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation.” The more valuable any possession is, the more alive we are to its stability, and the more miserable we become in proportion as we discover the probability or possibility even of leaving or losing it. “He that believeth on me,” says the Saviour, “hath everlasting life, and shall never come into condemnation.” “I give unto my sheep eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.”

It is a full salvation. It leaves no evil unremoved, no want unsupplied, no hope unaccomplished. It brings to us “wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.” It reveals unto us a sun in our darkness, a shield in our danger, strength in our weakness, peace in our trouble, joy in our sorrow. It blesses us with “all Spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.” “It is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come.”

This salvation, as to its procurement, was finished on the cross; and as to its actual application and enjoyment, will be completed when the believer, as an embodied creature, shall “enter into the joy of the Lord.”