CHAPTER IV THE WAY OF LIFE DEFINED "And this is His commandment, That ye should believe on the Name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as He gave us commandment." 1. John 3:23. "Jesus saith unto him, 'I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me.' John 14:6. " "Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under Heaven given among men, whereby ye must be saved." Acts 4:12. "God hath given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life." "For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." There is therefore but one possible Savior, "Christ Jesus, Who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption." He has been made a Sin-Offering for us, "that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him." "So then every one of us shall give an account of himself to God." "And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?" "Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we pursuade men .. (to) be reconciled to God." But "the Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which is lost." Christ has said, "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man will hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in unto him." "Without Me," said Christ, "ye can do nothing." "But," said Paul, "my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus." "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house." Putting this assurance to the test enabled Job to say, "I know that my Redeemer liveth," and Paul to testify that "for me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." "Let not your heart be troubled," said the Savior. "I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also." "Incline your ear, and come unto Me: hear, and your soul shall live." The active ministry of Christ, strictly speaking, began with a 1The Scriptures quoted in the first two paragraphs are as follows: 1. John 5: 11-12; Romans 6:23; 1. Corinthians 1:30; 2. Corinthians 5:21; Romans 14:12; 1. Peter 4:18; 2. Corinthians 5:11, 20; Luke 19:10; Revelation 3:20; John 15:4; Philippians 4:19; Acts 16:31; Job 19:25; Philippians 1:21; John 14:1-3; and Isaiah 55:3. definition of the Way of Life. This definition, which was in keeping with the Scriptures quoted above, was the logical requirement of the situation: for men were ready to walk in the Way of Life, if only they knew how to walk in that way. Therefore the Lord defined that Way of Life, concretely and yet somewhat formally, in the next series of events recorded in His own Life-Story. "Sirs, What Must We Do To Be Saved?" Acts 16:30 The definition was timely: for the people were ready. The Son of God, as seen in the previous chapter, had stepped out before the world as a Divine Savior. Very naturally, the interested world was asking one question: "What must we do to be saved?" Christ had come to give life. He was seen to be Divine, and therefore able to give the life that He promised. But every devout soul wanted an answer to this question: "How may I come into saving relations. with this Divine Savior?" They wanted to know how a Divine Savior and an unsaved soul might be brought together effectively for salvation. Such a question in the popular mind was both logical and inevitable, in view of the facts brought out in the previous chapter; and the Lord's answer to that universal question will be the central theme of the present chapter. However, before analyzing those events through which the Lord has clearly defined the Way of Life, it will be well to look True Conceptior. for a moment at that larger conception of the saved life which must be kept in mind if one would adequately understand the Lord's true message through those events. Salvation, as rightly considered, is a thing that comes full circle in the experience of him who is saved. That conception obtains always in the thought of Christ, and throughout the Word of God. Salvation, in its fullest sense, always involves both a receiving of grace and a response in service. Man is saved to serve. There must be an intake, and also an outflow of spirit-life in salvation. The grace of God comes; but the grace of service must follow. Salvation received must also be worked out, even with fear and trembling: so great are the responsibilities on the outflowing side of a saved life. "Freely ye have received, freely give," is God's standard for externalizing the spiritual blessings of life in concrete daily living. 1. Receiving and Giving Aspects of a Saved Life The saved life has two fundamental connections. There is, on the receiving side of such a life, a vertical, overhead connection izontal Connections of a Saved Life between the soul and God, which must be established through the mediation of Jesus Christ. This connection calls for faith: for the soul of Man can come to God only 2. Vertical and Hor- through Christ, Who is the only Savior, and the one Mediator between God and Man. On the responsive side of the saved life, there is both a vertical relation to God, and a horizontal relation to Man. These will be discussed at greater length later in this chapter. For the present, the central interest of this study will be in the receiving side of life, and in its overhead connections with God, from Whom comes life itself, and all of the blessings that enrich the best life that is possible. I. The Way of Life: the Receiving Side of Salvation The events considered in this chapter present the Way of Life, first, on its receiving side. Those that believe on the Lord Jesus Christ are saved. Salvation is a work wrought on them and in them. It is the work of God, Whose grace comes into the soul that is saved. There is a new life in that soul. That new life is spiritual. It is eternal, and eternally blessed. With this new life, there comes a new thought, a new attitude, and a new spirit in life, and toward life. The whole life is new, renewed in Christ Jesus, and by the grace of God. There is a personal application, made by God Himself, of those things which He has done, in and through Jesus Christ, for the saving of lost souls. The soul is saved. But that which comes from God to make up the blessedness of a saved life is too much for precise definitions. However, it must not be forgotten, that all of those things which belong to the receiving side oi salvation have their definite conditions; and, further, that those conditions, which are both negative and positive, must be observed. They define the matters of gravest concern to men: for they define the negative and the positive conditions of salvation. 1. The Negative Conditions of Salvation. On the receiving side of salvation, the negative conditions are those that will not save: those that will not bring salvation. Negative conditions, as here considered, represent things that hinder the best life: things that will sometimes prevent salvation altogether, unless they are removed. Sin of all kinds tends to shut the doors of life. Spiritual indifference is also fatal to the' soul. But negative conditions may even be religious in character. They even assume sometimes the external appearances of genuine religion. They represent a formal relation to God, which oftentimes, in the care that is given to external considerations, looks well enough, and even deceives people into believing that it is effective. 1. Inadequacy of Merely Formal Relations to God as the Basis of Salvation John 2:13-17 Such was the deceptive type of negative conditions which the Savior took up first in His treatment of the Way of Life. condition was religious in character. That But it was formal, ineffective, and fatal. By more than strong implications, the Savior taught, in the incident now under consideration, that conditions of life, to be effective, must first of all be based upon relations with God, and with His Son, that are both sincere and spiritual. (1) Salvation Requires Sincerity The occasion of this first lesson was that incident in which the Son of God expelled the merchandising Jews from the Temple of God. Those Jews doubtless considered themselves religious. They even held a sort of active formal relation to their religion and its services. They furnished the necessitics for the services of the Temple. Doubtless they were doing these things in the name of religion. They probably thought themselves sincere, and would have declared their money-making interests only an incident in a total situation that was essentially religious. But Jesus saw that situation in a different light. Their religion, as He saw it, was lacking in that element which would make of it even a valid condition of spiritual life. Their religion was void of the spirit of sincerity. They were deceiving themselves into believing that they were religious; but, as a matter of fact, they were only busy with the external forms of religion. Consequently, they were driven from the House of God. Their merchandise, of course, had no proper place in the Temple. But far deeper than this external impropriety, was the want of spirituality in the hearts of those whom the Lord drove out from the Sanctuary. They had turned the Father's House into a common shop. This fact showed them to be without the spirit and truth necessary for right relations with God. Concern for the things of religion is not sufficient. There must be a genuine spiritual content in the relations with God that are at all acceptable to Him or beneficial to men. (2) Salvation Requires Spirituality This was the truth that stood out emphatically in the situation now under consideration. The formalized Jews who were being driven from the Temple did not see this truth. But the Disciples of Jesus saw it. They were spiritually minded. Therefore they understood that the Lord was here teaching the necessity of spirituality in religion, which defines Man's relations to God. To them this drastic treatment meant a consuming spirituality, such as was described in the ancient Scripture which said, "The Zeal of Thine House shall eat me up.”2 That expulsion from the Temple was vigorous treatment. But Jesus was not yet done with the subject of formalism in religion. From this first encounter with the organized Relations under Spiritual Tests John 2:18-22 2. Failure of Formal religion of the Jews, the Lord Jesus began to emphasize the test of all spiritual relationships in life. That test is ever a spiritual test. To this truth the Lord gave a powerful concrete expression when He subjected the remaining Jews who were left in the Temple to the test of spiritual discernment. They had demanded of Him a "sign" of His authority, in that He had expelled their fellow-formalists from the Temple. But Jesus gave them something far better than a sign. He subjected them to a spiritual test, which proved conclusively the correctness of what He had done. Prescribed by Spiritual things are spiritually discerned. Under this principle, the Lord subjected the Jews that remained in the Temple to one direct spiritual suggestion; and they failed, (1) Spiritual Tests miserably failed. "Destroy this temple," said Christ for the Jews Christ, "and in three days I will raise it up.' This statement was only a figurative allusion to His own Death and Resurrection: facts with which the leaders of Israel were supposed to be familiar, and would have been familiar, if they had read the Word of God with sympathetic spiritual understanding. But they failed under this simple test. They had no suggestion, as it seems, that the Lord meant anything spiritual by His statement. They were too busy with the things of religion ever to get at the inner spirit of God's Word, or to discern the Son of God standing then in their midst. They had no conception of the ancient truth of His Saviorship through death and the Resurrection. However, the words of this test were not forgotten. There were, in fact, two distinct memories of this event, The Lord's 2Psalm 69:9. |