* NOV 3 1911 *J 
 
 iio 
 
 s'/CAL SEU 
 
 m 
 
 Divisioa 
 
 Section 
 
 :bs7 
 
"y-v^r^.*^ 
 
SALVATION AND THE 
 OLD THEOLOGY 
 
Works of 
 
 LEN G. BROUGHTON 
 
 Salvation and the Old Theology 
 
 Pivot Points in Romans. 12mo, cloth, 75c. net. 
 A series of popular studies. Given originally to large 
 classes of students, they are admirably adapted for 
 devotional study or class work. 
 
 The Second Coming of Christ 
 
 16mo, cloth, 50 cents net. 
 
 "Studies touching the kingdom, advent of Christ, 
 work of the Holy Spirit, resurrection, judgment and 
 other events connected with the close of time and 
 dawn of Q\.&rmty."— Religious Telescope. 
 
 Table Talks of Jesus 
 
 12mo, cloth, 50 cents net. 
 
 Many of the most profound things Jesus said were 
 said " at meat." Dr. Broughton has gathered them 
 up and expounded them in a simple, helpful, extremely 
 helpful way. 
 
 The Soul- Winning Church 
 
 12mo, cloth, 50 cents net. 
 
 *' Dr. Broughton, of Atlanta, is a well known revival- 
 ist. Some of his addresses in this country and in Eng- 
 land are comprised in this volume. They are plain, 
 pungent and spiritually quickening."— The Outlook. 
 
 Up From Sin 
 
 The Fall and Rise of a Prodigal. 12mo, cloth, 
 
 30 cents net ; paper, 15 cents. 
 
 The Prodigal son treated in the light of present day 
 
 experience. 
 
 The Revival of a Dead Church 
 
 12mo, cloth, 30 cents net ; paper, 15 cents. 
 " Don't fail to get this book." 
 
 —K. A. Torrey, D. D. 
 
 God\s Will and My Life 
 
 18mo, cloth, 25 cents net. 
 
 A sort of autobiography, giving the author's personal 
 
 experiences and a study of God's plans for our lives. 
 
SALVATION and the 
 OLD THEOLOGY 
 
 Pivot Points in Romans 
 
 yBY 
 REV. LEN G. BROUGHTON, D.D 
 
 Author of "Table Talks of Jesus," "The Soul 
 
 Winning Church," *' The Second Coming 
 
 of Christ," Etc., Etc. 
 
 *'/br therein is the righteousness of God re- 
 •vealed from faith to faith -y as it is avrittenf 
 the just shall li've by faith. "^ Romans 1:17. 
 
 New York Chicago Toronto 
 
 Fleming H. Revell Company 
 
 London and Edinburgh 
 
Copyright, iqo8, by 
 Fleming H. Revell Company 
 
 SECOND EDITION 
 
 New York : 158 Fifth Avenue 
 Chicago : 80 Wabash Avenue 
 Toronto : 25 Richmond St., W. 
 London : 21 Paternoster Square 
 Edinburgh : 100 Princes Street 
 
PREFACE 
 
 ** Salvation and the Old Theology, or Pivot 
 Points in Romans" consists of a series of Fri- 
 day night talks given before the Tabernacle Bible 
 School, and revised with much care for publica- 
 tion. 
 
 When I went into this course with the class I 
 promised that I would endeavor to set forth the 
 teaching of this great Epistle without regard to 
 any theory that men have set up concerning it, 
 and this purpose I have kept in mind continually. 
 
 At some points I have been forced to present 
 a different view from many of our most popular 
 expounders of to-day, but wherever the differ- 
 ence has arisen I have found myself in harmony 
 with the most orthodox expositors of "The days 
 of the fathers." 
 
 The Epistle to the Romans is without doubt 
 the bed-rock in the theology of the wisest and 
 best men that the Church has ever had. They 
 have built their theology on its teaching. The 
 essential doctrines of God, Christ, sin, atonement, 
 propitiation, redemption, reconciliation, and Sal- 
 vation, as taught in Romans and held by the 
 early Church, have been carefully considered in 
 the series, and without trimming or modification. 
 5 
 
6 Preface 
 
 My purpose has been to present these old doc- 
 trines in the regular order in which the Apostle 
 puts them, and to do it in the language of the 
 people; so that the simplest and plainest mind 
 might grasp them. 
 
 I have felt a need in my own field for such 
 a work. The average man, especially the lay- 
 man, has not been regarded in the presentation 
 of our system of theology. This course there- 
 fore has been prepared largely to meet the need 
 of the plain man who wants to grasp the funda- 
 mentals of our religion. 
 
 Scholarship is not claimed; simply an exposi- 
 tion of the teaching as set forth in this the most 
 interesting of all the Epistles. 
 
 Len G. Broughton. 
 
 Atlanta. Ga. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 I. A General Analysis 
 
 II. Paul's Testimony of Himself 
 
 III. Testimony of Christ 
 
 IV. Testimony of the Church 
 V. Testimony of the Gospel 
 
 VI. God's Attitude to Sin . 
 
 VII. God's Provision for Salvation 
 
 VIII. Reconciliation and Righteousness 
 
 IX. Relation of Salvation to Life 
 
 X. Relation of Salvation to Law 
 
 XI. Freedom from the Law . 
 
 XII. The Character and Purpose of 
 
 Law .... 
 
 XIII. The Life of Victory — No. i 
 
 XIV. The Life of Victory — No. 2 
 XV. Israel's Rejection 
 
 XVI. Israel's Hope 
 
 XVII. Israel's Restoration 
 
 XVIII. The Practical Application 
 
 XIX. Concluding Words . 
 
 THE 
 
 page 
 
 9 
 12 
 22 
 34 
 
 45 
 52 
 66 
 82 
 95 
 105 
 110 
 
 118 
 127 
 136 
 145 
 157 
 161 
 174 
 183 
 
I 
 
 A GENERAL ANALYSIS 
 
 /. THE PLACE WHERE WRITTEN 
 
 Three names in the Epistle indicate that it was 
 written while the Apostles were in Corinth. 
 Gaius' house in Corinth. 
 Phoebe lived in Cenchrea, a suburb of Corinth. 
 Erastus, treasurer of Corinth. 
 
 //. TIME OF THE WRITING 
 
 A. D. 58, March 
 
 Five months before Paul's arrest. Church at 
 Rome not organized by Paul or Peter. Prob- 
 ably organized by converts from Pentecost. 
 Romans written because he could not pay the 
 Church a visit. 
 
 ///. THE PURPOSE 
 
 Not for the mere correction of Jews or Pa- 
 gans. Other epistles local. Romans to set forth 
 the basic principles of the kingdom of grace as 
 opposed to the kingdom of law. 
 
 Key. — Ch. 1:17: "For therein is revealed a 
 righteousness of God from faith unto faith; as 
 it is written, but the righteous shall live by faith." 
 
 9 
 
lo Salvation and the Old Theology 
 
 IV. THE GENERAL PLAN AND SCOPE 
 
 OF THE BOOK 
 
 (i) The Introduction. — Ch. 1:1-17. 
 
 (2) The Doctrinal.— Ch. 1:18 to 8:39. 
 
 (3) The Dispensational. — Ch. 9 to 11. 
 
 (4) The Practical. — Ch. 12 to 15 113. 
 
 (5) The Personal. — Ch. 15:15 to 16:27. 
 
 V. SUBDIVISIONS OF GENERAL PLAN 
 
 1. The Introduction, — Ch. i :i-i7. 
 
 (i) His testimony of himself. — Ch. 1:1. 
 
 (2) His testimony of Christ. — Ch. i :3-7. 
 
 (3) His testimony of the Church. — Ch. 
 
 I 7-15. 
 
 (4) His testimony of the Gospel. — Ch. 
 
 1 :2-i6. 
 
 2. The Doctrinal. — Ch. 1:18 to 8:39. 
 
 (i) God's attitude to sin. — Ch. 1:18 to 
 3:20. 
 
 (2) God's provision for salvation. — Ch. 
 
 3:21 to Ch. 8:30. 
 
 (3) How brought about. — Ch. 4:25 to 
 
 Ch. 5. 
 
 (4) The place and purpose of Christ's 
 
 death in bringing it about. — Ch. 6 
 to Ch. 7. 
 
 (5) The life of victory.— Ch. 8. 
 
 3. The Dispensational. — Ch. 9 to 11. 
 
 (i) The Jew's rejection. — Ch. 9 to 10. 
 (2) The restoration. — Ch. 11. 
 
A General Analysis 1 1 
 
 4. The Practical. — Ch. 12 to 15:13. 
 
 (i) Personal attitude to God. — Ch. 12:1-2. 
 
 (2) Spiritual gifts. — Ch. 12:3-8. 
 
 (3) One to another. — Ch. 12:9-21. 
 
 (4) Governments. — Ch. 13:1-14. 
 
 (5) Conscience. — Ch. 14. 
 
 5. The Personal. — Ch. is to 16. 
 
 (i) Brotherly preferment. — Ch. 15:1-16. 
 
 (2) His own plans told.— Ch. 15:14-33. 
 
 (3) Fellow workers commended. — Ch. 
 
 16:1-16. 
 
 (4) Admonitions to peace. — Ch. 16:17-20. 
 
 (5) Final words and benediction. — Ch. 
 
 16:17-27. 
 
II 
 
 PAUL'S TESTIMONY OF HIMSELF 
 Ch. I :i 
 
 I. His Name — Paul. 
 
 II. His Position — Servant, or Slave. He 
 was not his own. His master was responsible 
 for him. 
 
 III. His Calling as an Apostle. 
 
 IV. His Life — "Separated unto the Gospel of 
 God." 
 
 V. The Cost of His Testimony. 
 
 1. His religion. 
 
 2. His home. 
 
 3. His companions. 
 
 4. His fame or position. 
 
 5. His wealth. 
 
 VI. His Gain — His crown. 
 
 First, we must consider Paul's testimony of 
 himself. It is a very peculiar sort of testimony 
 that he gives. He starts out by telling who he 
 is, and to do that he simply has to mention his 
 name. 
 
 Paul had two names. First he was Saul of 
 Tarsus, and then Paul. Saul was his pre- 
 Christian name. Paul was his Christian name. 
 
Paul's Testimony of Himself i 3 
 
 Saul was the name given him by his parents, or 
 someone else in the early part of his life, or else 
 he chose it for himself after he was old enough, 
 for this was often done. 
 
 The change from Saul to Paul is very signifi- 
 cant. Saul means great, important; Paul means 
 little, insignificant. 
 
 His parents doubtless gave him his name 
 '"great" after they saw his promise. When he 
 found the Lord, and learned what it was to be a 
 follower of Jesus Christ, he selected for himself 
 his permanent name, which was "little, insignifi- 
 cant." And this characteristic followed Paul all 
 through his ministry, hiding himself that Christ 
 only might be seen. 
 
 The next thing that he has to say about him- 
 self is that he is a "servant of Jesus Christ." It 
 is very striking that Paul, in writing to the 
 Romans, spoke of himself as a servant. He was 
 writing to a people who despised servitude. If 
 there ever was a people who hated servitude it 
 was the Romans. The Roman citizen gloated in 
 the thought of power. He reveled in wielding 
 the sword. He never dreamed of being a servant. 
 He was a master among men, and the Apostle 
 Paul understood that. He understood it much 
 better than we understand it, for he lived in the 
 time of the glory of Rome, and yet, in writing 
 to the Church at Rome, he introduced himself 
 as a "servant." 
 
 Then, it is still more significant when we see 
 
14 Salvation and the Old Theology 
 
 what kind of a servant he introduced himself to 
 be. There are many kinds of servants described 
 in the Scriptures, and at this particular point it 
 is significant to note that the Apostle Paul is in- 
 troducing himself as the most menial of all serv- 
 ants; as not only a servant in the sense that 
 a clerk in a store is a servant, but a servant dis- 
 tinctly menial, doing the work of drudgery — "a 
 bondslave." The Greek means that. That is 
 the kind of servant that Paul was to Jesus Christ. 
 
 Then it is still more significant when you take 
 into account the fact that he is not only a menial 
 servant, but that he is a menial servant and bond- 
 slave of the Christ whom the Romans despised 
 and rejected, whom they had helped to crucify. 
 He was the menial, humble bondslave of this 
 Christ, this despised, rejected Nazarene. 
 
 Such a testimony, such an introduction as this 
 the world has never seen and never will see again 
 in the history of the globe. If we were going to 
 introduce ourselves to some congregation, we 
 would want to gather up all the testimonies that 
 we could find of our greatness and goodness. Is 
 it not a wonderful, striking thing that the Apos- 
 tle Paul says nothing about the fact that he was 
 once a member of the Jewish Sanhedrin? The 
 mention of that would have carried weight and 
 power and significance with it, for he was writing 
 to Jews and Gentiles who made up the member- 
 ship of the Roman Church. There is a great 
 lesson in this. The Gospel of Jesus Christ does 
 
Paul's Testimony of Himself 1 5 
 
 not need the wings of the world to carry it. Paul 
 did not need the testimony of the wicked San- 
 hedrin to furnish trappings for the Gospel of 
 Christ that was to save the world, hence he does 
 not mention it. 
 
 Let us see what comes out of the relationship 
 of slave. It is a fact that every man is a slave of 
 some kind. We may not be so proclaimed, and 
 the world may not so regard it, but it is a fact ; a 
 slave to passion, a slave to pride, to comfort, to 
 luxury, to self, to fame, to beauty. Now, Paul 
 says, "I am a slave to Jesus Christ." Christ had 
 come with his scepter and taken His seat on the 
 throne of his heart. That is what it means to be 
 a Christian. We talk about a consecrated Chris- 
 tian, a sanctified Christian, a Spirit-filled Chris- 
 tian. Never mind about that, it means all that to 
 be a Christian, or it means nothing. 
 
 Slaves, every one of us! Jesus Christ comes 
 to set us free from the present state of slavery, 
 and then we become slaves under Him. But, 
 after all, is that slavery? As a slave of Jesus 
 Christ one is not his own. We hear a great deal 
 in this day and time about "our rights." In 
 God's name, I ask you, is there any such thing 
 as "our rights"? Does a Christian man or 
 woman have any rights? Can he have any 
 rights ? He has been bought with a price. Christ 
 is the purchaser, the blood is the price. We are 
 not our own and have no right to talk about 
 our rights. All rights are henceforth His rights, 
 
1 6 Salvation and the Old Theology 
 
 and it is what He wants and not what we want 
 that concerns us from that time on. 
 
 As such a slave, what follows ? Our Master is 
 responsible for us. If I have vested all my rights 
 in Him, He is responsible for my entire keeping. 
 What if someone does trample upon what I think 
 are my rights? God is responsible. I can go to 
 Him and look Him in the face and tell Him all, 
 and then leave it to Him. 
 
 You have heard of Sophy, the Spirit-filled 
 washerwoman. She was once visited by a rental 
 agent at a time when she did not have the money 
 for her rent. She had had the rheumatism, and 
 had not been able to stand over the wash-tub as 
 usual, and so had no money for the rent. The 
 renting agent told her that he would put her out 
 of the house if she did not produce the money the 
 next day. 
 
 Sophy replied, "Do you think you will ? Well, 
 you don't know my Master." 
 
 That night Sophy got down on her knees and 
 prayed like this: "Lord, I am your child, and 
 do you think it will be any credit to you for your 
 child to be put out into a bank of snow when she 
 is sick? If you think so, all right, but I declare 
 to you. Lord, I don't think it would be very much 
 to your credit." 
 
 Next morning, before the rental agent came, a 
 woman from South Carolina came in and left 
 just the amount needed. As she placed it in the 
 agent's hand she said: "You don't know my 
 
Paul's Testimony of Himself 1 7 
 
 Master. If you did, you would never talk to one 
 of His children like you did to me yesterday." 
 
 What Sophy said is exactly true. If Jesus 
 Christ is my Lord and Master, if I have vested 
 in Him my rights, then He is responsible for me, 
 and I have a perfect right to go to Him and 
 say, "Lord, I have given you everything that I 
 have, and I now depend upon you." 
 
 Paul also says of his position that he is called 
 to be an apostle. He does not say, "I chose to be 
 an apostle." There is a difference between choos- 
 ing a thing and being called to a thing, and in 
 that very difference lies the secret of the failure 
 of many good men and women. They have 
 chosen to be such and such a thing, and have 
 never been called. Some ministers have chosen 
 to preach, and have never been called. Some 
 Sunday-school teachers have chosen to teach 
 Sunday-school classes and have never been called. 
 Some lawyers have chosen to be lawyers and 
 have never been called. Some merchants have 
 chosen to be merchants and have never been 
 called. God wanted them to preach or to teach 
 or to ditch or to clerk. 
 
 Every man is called of God to his life-work. 
 He may never hear the call, nor heed it ; he may 
 never get closely enough in touch to hear it. The 
 merchant has as distinct a call to sell goods as I 
 have to preach. The quicker we realize that God 
 has a plan and a purpose for every human life, 
 the better it will be. 
 
1 8 Salvation and the Old Theology 
 
 Paul says that he was called to be an apostle, 
 and he says concerning his life that he was sep- 
 arated unto the Gospel of God. Paul did not live 
 the life of a hermit. Some people's idea of the 
 separate life is that they must become hermits 
 while in this world ; that is to say, they must have 
 a hiding-place and never come in touch with the 
 everyday thought and conduct of the world. 
 Some of the best people that I know are mistaken 
 at that point, and are wrecking their spiritual 
 lives and preventing their usefulness. 
 
 For instance, a woman some time ago came to 
 me and said, "I have decided to consecrate my 
 life to God, and therefore I cannot do this." 
 The thing that she was talking about was a very 
 simple thing; it will surprise you to know just 
 how simple it was — absolutely a thing without 
 harm. A simple little act of pleasantry, but she 
 could not do it because she had consecrated her 
 life. It was this: The Ladies' Aid Society was 
 going to give a New Year's reception, and they 
 were going to have music, speeches, etc. Now 
 the trouble with her was that she had an idea that 
 to be consecrated meant a complete segregation 
 of herself from all pleasure. 
 
 It was not so with the Apostle Paul. He lived 
 and worked with the people of his day. He was 
 "Separated unto the Gospel of God," making 
 tents, just as much as he was preaching the Gos- 
 pel. He was a tent-maker, and never gave up 
 his vocation. His purpose was to teach the wide 
 
PauPs Testimony of Himself 1 9 
 
 world the great truth of sanctified toil — that a 
 man can be absolutely separated from the world 
 while he is making tents. 
 
 A man can enter his closet any time and any- 
 where and pray. The closet is not necessarily a 
 little corner in which the dirty clothes are thrown. 
 A closet is a shut-in place. Wherever a man may 
 be, if he feels that he must shut out everything 
 and talk to Jesus, there is the closet. There is 
 the separate man who, though he is in the midst 
 of the trials and tribulations and business of the 
 great throbbing heart of the world, lives unto 
 God a clean, upright, manly life. That is the 
 separate man; and every stroke of the hammer, 
 and every stitch of the needle, and every turn of 
 the wheel is "unto the Gospel of God." 
 
 Now, my next thought is just a word concern- 
 ing the cost of Paul's testimony. First, it cost 
 him his religion. He was strictly religious: a 
 Jew of the Jews. When he came into this new 
 experience and got this delightful testimony, it 
 caused him to sacrifice the religion of his coun- 
 try, the religion of his mother. It is not an easy 
 thing to go back upon the religion that one is 
 trained to follow. 
 
 Second, it cost him his home. You cannot 
 imagine in this day and time how much it meant 
 for Paul to turn his back upon the teaching of the 
 Jews and become the servant of the meek and 
 lowly Jesus. His home would be shut against 
 him. His parents and his people would look 
 
20 Salvation and the Old Theology 
 
 upon him with contempt and shame. I tell you 
 that is not an easy thing. 
 
 Third, it cost him his companions. Think of 
 the other members of the Sanhedrin with whom 
 he had sympathized and planned and projected. 
 
 He had sat in the council chamber many and 
 many a time when Christ was being discussed and 
 he had joined with them and said, "J^sus must 
 be crucified. We will not stand it. He is a 
 usurper of our rights." And now he must eat 
 his words. There are very few of us to-day who 
 would dare to do that. 
 
 It cost him his fame. He had built up a great 
 name; a member of the Sanhedrin; a man who 
 stood right at the top in the political world, and 
 whose influence reached far and wide. It cost 
 him that. 
 
 Lastly, it cost him his wealth. He was at one 
 time a wealthy young man, but when he gave up 
 his seat in the Sanhedrin, his home, his friends, 
 his inheritance went also. 
 
 My brother, until the love of Jesus has got 
 down so deep that we are willing to sacrifice our 
 money if needs be for Him, we do not know what 
 it means to be a believer in Jesus Christ. The 
 world is just waking up to the realization of 
 what it means to be a Christian. 
 
 My last thought is of Paul's gain. "Brother 
 Paul, I have been talking about your trials while 
 on earth. You have been with Jesus for two 
 thousand years, what have you to say now?" 
 
Paul's Testimony of Himself 2 1 
 
 "I have fought a good fight. I have kept the 
 faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me a 
 crown of righteousness." 
 
 It is a question which we each must decide; 
 whether we had rather be Saul, a member of the 
 Jewish Sanhedrin, lost forever, or Paul, the ser- 
 vant of Jesus, the despised Nazarene, surrounded 
 by the angels, associating with the saints of past 
 ages, wearing his bright and shining crown. 
 
Ill 
 
 TESTIMONY OF CHRIST 
 
 Ch. 1:1-5 
 
 I. Who He Is. 
 
 1. Promised by the Prophets. 
 
 2. The Son of God. 
 
 3. Of the Seed of David. 
 
 II. His Power — "Resurrection." 
 
 1. Mastery over Death. 
 
 2. Essential to Salvation (i Cor. 15:12-23). 
 
 III. His Position — "Jesus Christ Our 
 Lord." Comprehended in: 
 
 1. Salvation. 
 
 2. Government. 
 
 Let us see to v^hat extent Jesus was promised 
 by the prophets: 
 
 Gen. 3 :i5 — The seed of woman. 
 
 Isa. 7:14 — Born of a Virgin. 
 
 Mic. 5:2 — At Bethlehem. 
 
 Zech. 9:9 — Entry into Jerusalem. 
 
 Zech. 13 :7 — Smitten by sword. 
 
 Zech. 11:12 — Sold for thirty pieces of silver. 
 
 Zech. II :i3 — Potter's field bought. 
 
 Isa. 15 :6— Spit upon and scoiirged. 
 
Testimony of Christ 23 
 
 Ex. 12:46 — Not a bone broken. 
 
 Ps. 69:21 — Gall and vinegar. 
 
 Ps. 22:8 — Taunted with non-deliverance. 
 
 Ps. 22 :y — Mocked. 
 
 Ps. 22:16 — Feet pierced. 
 
 Isa. 53 :3 — Despised and rejected. 
 
 Isa. 53 :7 — Opened not His mouth. 
 
 Isa. 53 :8 — Moved from court to court. 
 
 Isa. 53:9 — Proven guiltless. 
 
 Isa. 53:10 — Bruised of God. 
 
 As I have gone over these verses and thought 
 over them I have felt such an overcoming sense 
 of the vitality of the Scriptures as I have never 
 felt before in my life. I have felt that the Scrip- 
 tures themselves have not had a chance to do 
 what God intends that they should do; that the 
 only thing in the world that is needed is for the 
 Scriptures to have a chance. The only thing that 
 is needed for the opening of the eyes of the 
 world to Jesus Christ is to give God's word a 
 simple, honest chance. Now, just think of it for 
 a moment. Here are these prophecies. They 
 date back to the Garden of Eden, and range all 
 the way from the Garden of Eden to the com- 
 ing of Christ. They are prophecies which deal 
 with every minute detail of His life and His 
 death, and they are prophecies, every single one 
 of them, fulfilled in His coming. His Hfe, and in 
 His death. 
 
 Take such prophecies as we are dealing with 
 here : The piercing of His feet, a prophecy made 
 
24 Salvation and the Old Theology 
 
 1,000 years before Jesus' feet were ever pierced. 
 Bethlehem was the last place in the world to look 
 for the Messiah to come from, yet more than 
 seven hundred years before Christ was born we 
 have the prophet telling us that He was to come 
 from Bethlehem. 
 
 The only thing needed to convince the skepti- 
 cism of the world is to give the Old Testament a 
 fair chance. I defy any man to go to the Old 
 Testament Scriptures for light concerning the 
 Messiah and go away not believing that Christ 
 was the Son of God. 
 
 But there is another thing that I want we 
 should see under this general division. The 
 Apostle speaks of Jesus as the "Son of God," as 
 well as the promised One. Now, we find it not 
 difficult to accept Jesus as the Son of God. There 
 is not very much controversy about that, pro- 
 viding that nothing else followed. The world 
 expected that in some way the Messiah would be 
 connected with God. There never would have 
 been any objection to Jesus if it had ended there, 
 but Paul goes a step further. He states (and 
 this is responsible for the skepticism about Jesus 
 Christ) that He is also ''of the Seed of David 
 according to the flesh." 
 
 Now that is where the trouble began. When 
 Paul declared that Jesus Christ was the Son of 
 God, and also of the seed of David according to 
 the flesh, he took one step too much for the 
 skeptical world. I confess that there was one 
 
Testimony of Christ 25 
 
 time in my life when this very fact was to me 
 a great stumbling-block. I know well how it 
 came about. I got to thinking about the unrea- 
 sonableness of the virgin conception and birth 
 of our Lord. 
 
 I was a young medical student, and was deal- 
 ing more with science than sense, as a great many 
 other people are doing to-day, and I got my head 
 all wool-gathering on the subject of the incarna- 
 tion. I said that it was incompatible with the law 
 of nature for that thing to be. Mary was bound 
 to have falsified. I went as far as any man ever 
 went in his accusations of Mary. However, I 
 was not so silly as to speak my thoughts from the 
 house-top. I was ashamed of them, but I had 
 them in my heart. Those were terribly black and 
 gloomy days, when I felt the faith of my mother 
 and my training slipping from me. 
 
 I went to one of the most distinguished 
 scholars and Bible students of the country, and 
 asked him to give me a bit of his time to 
 straighten me out. He took me into a long course 
 of reasoning which to me did not reason at all. 
 There was no reason in it, and there is no reason 
 in any argument that can be put up about this 
 matter. Men who attempt to reason this thing 
 out make themselves silly, because this is one of 
 the things in the face of which reason staggers. 
 A scholarly physician once went to Dr. P. H. 
 Mell with this question. He said : 
 
 "Doctor, I would believe in Christianity if I 
 
26 Salvation and the Old Theology- 
 could explain the supernatural generation of 
 Christ." 
 
 Dr. Mell replied : "Well, Doctor, can you ex- 
 plain natural generation in any case ?" 
 
 The physician hesitated and then admitted that 
 he could not. Supernatural generation is no 
 greater mystery than natural generation. 
 
 My friend tried to reason with me about it, 
 and the more he reasoned, the deeper the mys- 
 tery. I finished my medical education, and went 
 to the backwoods to begin my practice, and one 
 Sunday morning a backwoods preacher at an old 
 country meeting-house knocked out more skepti- 
 cism in one-half hour than I had gotten in three 
 years, and this is the way he did it. He said: 
 "If there is anybody here who is troubled about 
 the mystery of God becoming man, I want to 
 take you back to the first verse of the first chap- 
 ter of Genesis. Tn the beginning God.' " 
 
 He looked down into the audience very search- 
 ingly, and I felt like he was looking directly at 
 me. He continued : "My brother, let me ask you 
 this : Do you believe that God was in the begin- 
 ning? That is to say, that before the beginning 
 began God was?" I said to myself, "Yes, I be- 
 lieve that." "Now," he said, "if you believe that 
 God was ahead of the beginning, you believe the 
 one mysterious thing of this universe. If I be- 
 lieved that, God knows I could believe anything 
 else in the world." 
 
 I had gone to college and travelled clean 
 
Testimony of Christ 27 
 
 through the mysteries of the theory of reproduc- 
 tion and cell formation, and had come out to 
 realize that I was just a common fool; that if 
 God was in the beginning, that was the one su- 
 preme mystery of all mysteries of this mysterious 
 universe of God. 
 
 I have been using that same argument ever 
 since. I do not want anything better to crack 
 skeptics over the head with. When I ask them 
 this question, they always say, "Yes." We have 
 very few outright infidels to-day. Almost every- 
 body believes in God — that away back yonder be- 
 fore the beginning God was, and I always hold 
 them right down to this : 
 
 "Think about all the doubts that you have ever 
 had about it, and then answer me this question: 
 after all these doubts, do you believe that away 
 back yonder at the beginning was God?" Then 
 I tell them that if I believed that God was in 
 the beginning I could believe anything that He 
 says ; that if He was so great as to create Him- 
 self in the beginning. He could create Himself 
 through the womb of a virgin woman. 
 
 The Apostle Paul believed that Jesus was the 
 Son of God, and not only the Son of God, but "of 
 the seed of David, according to the flesh." Jesus 
 Christ developed just like any other child up to 
 the point of His birth, and after his birth He con- 
 tinued to grow just like any other child. 
 
 Now you will notice another thing. Paul 
 speaks of "His power." First, it was His origin, 
 
28 Salvation and the Old Theology 
 
 and now it is ''His power," and all this attested 
 by "the resurrection." He has introduced Jesus 
 to us as "Promised by the prophets," "The Son 
 of God," "Of the Seed of David, according to 
 the flesh," and now. His power, according to the 
 resurrection. His resurrection is the expression 
 of his power. 
 
 I want to notice something of the signifi- 
 cance of the doctrine of the resurrection. Why 
 did Paul, in introducing Jesus Christ to the 
 Romans, speak of His resurrection? First of all, 
 because Paul himself had a personal knowledge 
 that Jesus Christ had arisen from the dead. He 
 had seen Him. He had appeared to him, and as- 
 sured him that He had arisen from the dead; 
 and then he had the testimony of the rest of the 
 Apostles, and a host of others. Paul had no 
 doubt about the resurrection of Jesus Christ. 
 
 He testified to them concerning the resurrec- 
 tion, first, because of his own personal knowl- 
 edge, and second, because of the deep significance 
 of the fact of the resurrection to the Church of 
 Jesus Christ. What is the significance of the 
 resurrection? Let us go to the fifteenth chapter 
 of First Corinthians and get it. What, accord- 
 ing to this, is the significance of the resurrection ? 
 
 It is this: If Jesus arose not from the dead, 
 then our faith is vain. We hear men to-day pooh- 
 poohing the resurrection of Jesus Christ; some 
 theologians, Bible teachers, and preachers. How 
 can they do it when they are confronted with 
 
Testimony of Christ 29 
 
 the plain assertion of the Apostle Paul ? I cannot 
 see how any man who claims any intimacy with 
 his Bible and who fears God can make a state- 
 ment disparaging the resurrection. 
 
 There are two things essential to salvation. 
 The first is the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, and 
 the next is the resurrection of Jesus Christ. 
 Now, in the Lord's supper we celebrate the cruci- 
 fixion, His broken body and shed blood; in Bap- 
 tism we, celebrate the burial and resurrection of 
 Jesus. Thus in these types, one by communion 
 and the other by baptism, we set forth to the 
 world the two essential things that enter into the 
 salvation of the world; namely, crucifixion and 
 resurrection. 
 
 I never come to the Lord's table that I do not 
 look to the cross; and I never come to baptism 
 that I do not see the resurrection. And in these 
 two simple types we set forth to the world the 
 plan of human redemption. 
 
 Understand, I do not say that communion is 
 essential to salvation, nor do I say that baptism 
 is essential to salvation. I say that the two 
 things that are essential to salvation, crucifixion 
 and resurrection, are set forth in these types. 
 
 We are now ready to come to the next 
 thought, which is the closing thought in this 
 present study. His position. Here is some- 
 thing very deeply significant. "Jesus Christ our 
 Lord." You will be struck with that expression, 
 "Our Lord." What is the meaning of the word 
 
30 Salvation and the Old Theology 
 
 Lord as we find it used here? It means Divine 
 Sovereign. 
 
 As our Divine Sovereign, there are five things 
 that we are to keep in mind. First, His attitude 
 with respect to Hfe. He cannot be our Master 
 unless we have His attitude, for He does not 
 simply master the flesh. He masters the will; 
 He masters the spirit; the inner man as well as 
 the outer man ; the whole of life, body, soul, and 
 spirit. Thus mastered, we assume His attitude 
 with respect to life. 
 
 That is to say, we assume first His attitude 
 with reference to the Father; second, with re- 
 spect to the devil ; third, with respect to enemies ; 
 fourth, with respect to lost souls. 
 
 It seems to me that this compasses the whole 
 realm of His life. Let us see: As our Divine 
 Sovereign we have assumed His attitude with 
 respect to everything. First, what was His at- 
 titude with respect to the Father? Here it is: 
 "My meat is to do my Father's will." Now, 
 when we speak of Jesus as our Lord and Mas- 
 ter, if we speak the truth we mean this, that 
 our meat is to do the will of our Father and 
 nothing else. Is it our meat to do the will of 
 our Father in heaven, or do we want to do partly 
 our Father's will and partly our own will? If 
 the former is true, then we have a right to join 
 in with Paul, and say, ''Our Lord." If this is 
 not true, we cannot say it. 
 
 His attitude with respect to the devil. After 
 
Testimony of Christ 3 1 
 
 the Baptism Jesus was led up into the wilder- 
 ness to be tempted of the devil. The Spirit often 
 does this. He leads man in the ways of tempta- 
 tion that He may try him, but He does not pro- 
 pose to turn His back on him after He has led 
 him there. 
 
 When Jesus got up into the wilderness, He 
 was struck at three points common to man. He 
 was struck at the point of His appetite. He 
 was struck at the point of faith. He was struck 
 at the point of desire for worldly possession. 
 What was Jesus' attitude toward the devil at 
 these points ? Here it is, "Get thee hence." 
 
 Take the attitude of Jesus concerning His ene- 
 mies that we assume likewise if He is our Lord. 
 What was His attitude concerning His enemies? 
 Hanging upon Calvary's cross, with His enemies 
 mocking, jeering, and actually crucifying Him 
 without cause, what was His attitude ? "Father, 
 forgive them. They know not what they do." 
 Our attitude too frequently about our enemies 
 is to curse them. They are after us. They are 
 interfering with our rights. Jesus' attitude was, 
 "Father, forgive them." Men who join with the 
 Apostle Paul and say, "Our Lord," are the men 
 who have that attitude concerning their enemies. 
 If you have not that attitude, stop calling Him 
 "Our Lord." It is mockery. 
 
 Is it true that He is our Lord, our Divine 
 Sovereign, the ruling Master of our whole be- 
 ing? If it is not, He is nothing. 
 
32 Salvation and the Old Theology 
 
 Lastly, take His attitude concerning lost souls. 
 What is His attitude with respect to them ? "The 
 Son of Man came to seek and to save that which 
 was lost." That is to say, the whole mission 
 of Jesus was seeking to save the lost. If Jesus 
 ate a meal, it was to enable Him to do the work 
 of His Father in saving souls. If Jesus made 
 a garment, or purchased one, if He dressed Him- 
 self in the morning, it was that He might win 
 souls. If Jesus studied to know the customs 
 of the people, it was that through the observance 
 of the customs of the people He might better 
 win souls to God. Now, my brethren, hear this : 
 Jesus said, "As my Father hath sent me, even 
 so send I you." That is to say, the mission 
 that Jesus had, we have, if He is our Lord and 
 Master. If He is our Divine Sovereign, then 
 His mission is our mission, and just as every- 
 thing He did was for the purpose of enabling 
 Him to do more soul-winning, so it must be true 
 with us. If you are a merchant, your mer- 
 chandise is to help you do more soul-winning. 
 If you are a housekeeper, or nurse, it is the same. 
 The one object of every child of God who says, 
 "My Lord and Master," is to win souls to Christ. 
 
 The other day I took up a magnet. It was a 
 very strong instrument. I observed that it took 
 up a piece of steel two or three times its own 
 weight. When that piece of steel was covered 
 with tin or nickel it did not pick it up. You 
 can rub the magnet all over it, and it will stay 
 
Testimony of Christ 33 
 
 where it is. There is no connection between the 
 steel and the power of the magnet. The piece 
 of tin cuts it off from the power of the magnet. 
 Now, Jesus Christ as our Lord and Master, as 
 our Divine Sovereign, is the great magnet of 
 power. The only reason to-day why we have 
 missed the life of Jesus Christ, with its power, 
 is because He, as our great magnet, is severed 
 from us by the coating of unbelief with which 
 we have covered our lives, and the only need 
 of the Church to-day, as I see it, is to get the 
 coating off and let Christ, as Magnet, and our- 
 selves come in touch. When we do this, the 
 power of heaven will course through our lives 
 and lift us into the presence of our Lord. 
 
IV 
 
 TESTIMONY OF THE CHURCH 
 Ch. I 7-12 
 
 I. Who Makes up the Church? 
 
 1. Beloved of God. 
 
 2. Called Saints. 
 
 II. His Feelings for the Church. 
 
 1. Thanks God for Their Faith. 
 
 2. Makes Mention of Them in Prayer. 
 
 3. Desires to See Them. 
 
 4. That They Might Be Established. 
 
 5. That They Might Comfort Each Other. 
 
 III. Practical Suggestion Concerning the 
 Church. 
 
 1. It is of Divine Origin. 
 
 2. It Has Divine Conditions for Member- 
 
 ship. 
 
 3. It Imposes Divine Obligations. 
 
 4. It Results in Divine Blessings. 
 
 We are still dealing with the first section of 
 the Epistle, the section of introduction, in which 
 we have Paul's fourfold testimony: His testi- 
 mony of himself, of Christ, of the Church, of 
 the Gospel. We have considered his testimony 
 of himself and his testimony of Christ, and now 
 34 
 
Testimony of the Church 35 
 
 we come to take up his testimony of the Church, 
 and we find this in Ch. i '.y-12 inclusive. 
 
 Who Makes up the Church? 
 
 1. "Beloved of God." 
 
 2. "Called Saints." 
 
 There is an apparent omission here. The old 
 authorized version and the American revised sub- 
 stitute "to be," but it is hardly proper to call 
 it a substitute, though it is not contained in the 
 original text as distinct words. The Greek word 
 means those who are called to be, or to do some- 
 thing. They are first, beloved of God. God 
 loved everybody in Rome, as God loves every- 
 body in the wide, wide world. "For God so 
 loved the world that He gave His only begotten 
 Son, that whosoever believed in Him, should not 
 perish, but have everlasting life." 
 
 That is the expression of God's love to the 
 world at large, but God loved the Church at 
 Rome with a different love from that love which 
 He had for the entire world. God loves the 
 Church with a different love from that which 
 He has for the world. God loves the Church 
 as a father loves an obedient, loving, sympathiz- 
 ing, helping child. A father naturally loves all 
 his children, but any father knows that he loves 
 that obedient, trustful, sympathizing, helpful 
 child with a very different love from that which 
 he has for the one- indifferent to his will and 
 his wish. So it is with respect to us who are 
 
36 Salvation and the Old Theology 
 
 God's children by re-creation. We are His 
 children in the sense that He created us, and 
 in that sense He loves us and feels a responsi- 
 bility for us. He feels a responsibility for us 
 which is so great that He robbed Himself of the 
 presence of His only Son and sent Him to this 
 world to live and die that we might be saved. But 
 there is a very different sense in which God loves 
 His own children by re-creation. He loves them 
 as obedient, loving, trusting, confiding, promis- 
 ing children. 
 
 Then you will observe that they are called from 
 among His other creatures to be "saints." Now 
 this word translated saints is a word which needs 
 some study in order to get the full force of its 
 meaning. "Called saints," that is to say, they 
 are saints by way of a calling. No man ever 
 became a saint in any other way than by way of a 
 calling from God. No man ever became a Chris- 
 tian except by way of a calling. No man ever 
 came to Christ who was not called before he came. 
 I believe God calls every man, whether he be in 
 this country or some dark heathen corner of earth. 
 
 I was talking to a missionary who had made a 
 study of the conditions of the race, and he said 
 that he had never yet found a man, however deep 
 in ignorance and superstition, but that in his heart 
 there was something that pointed him to a better 
 life; a life of justice and equity with regard to 
 his relations to his fellow-men. There was al- 
 ways something, somehow, somewhere, that 
 
Testimony of the Church 37 
 
 worked upon their consciences and told them of 
 a better life and a better way. I believe that that 
 is the Spirit of God, and I believe that a man 
 who lives in accordance with the light that God 
 gives him is saved. 
 
 This expression means more than that. It 
 means that they are what they have come to; 
 that they are in fact saints, as they are called 
 saints. It meant a great deal for those people 
 there in Rome to come out and join the Church 
 of Christ. It meant a great deal anywhere in 
 that day to join the Church of Christ. You may 
 rest assured that those people who came out and 
 connected themselves with the Church in those 
 days were what they professed to be. They were 
 what they were called. Would to God that that 
 could be said of the Church of this day and time ; 
 in this city; of my Church; that it could be said 
 of every one of us; that we are what we are 
 called. 
 
 We are called Christians; would to God that 
 we were Christians. Have you ever stopped to 
 think of the deep significance of that word? Of 
 all there is wrapped up in it? If so, I feel that 
 you have been impressed with the fact that even 
 the best of the people of God fall far short of 
 coming up to their calling. 
 
 I was talking the other day with a skeptic. He 
 said: 'The thing that staggers me when I be- 
 gin to think of my relation to Christ, is the way 
 that you people live. You claim Him to be Lord 
 
38 Salvation and the Old Theology 
 
 and Master, and I know from the study of His 
 life as revealed in the Gospels that you are not 
 what you call yourselves. I know that He is 
 not your Lord and Master. To be Lord and 
 Master of your lives would mean a different thing 
 from what I see exemplified. It seems to me, as I 
 look at the Church, that there is no difference 
 between your life and the life of the average 
 responsible citizen who makes no professions at 
 all of religion." 
 
 This criticism cut me to the heart. Now and 
 then we find a conspicuous exception to this gen- 
 eral rule, but generally speaking, it is true. The 
 average church member will stay away from 
 church on Sunday for want of a new hat or 
 bonnet just as easily as one who is not a mem- 
 ber of the Church. The average church mem- 
 ber is just as sensitive with respect to his rights 
 as the man outside the Church. I would to God 
 we were all what we are called ; I would to God 
 that we would measure up to our calling half 
 as well as these Roman Christians measured up 
 to theirs. They knew that this meant the loss 
 of their lives, perhaps, and yet, having their 
 hearts fixed upon God, they were willing to die. 
 
 Then let us take further the consideration of 
 this question of saints. This term is applied to 
 Christians in the Epistles in two different ways. 
 First, as individuals, Eph. 1:18, Col. 1:12. Sec- 
 ond, as members of a spiritual community, i Cor. 
 1:12. 
 
Testimony of the Church 39 
 
 The word translated saints in Eph. 1:18, re- 
 fers entirely to the holiness of the individual, 
 and in that sense he uses the term saints there; 
 but I Cor. I :i2 refers to the members of a spe- 
 cific community, as you would denominate certain 
 people who live in this city, or any other place. 
 
 Take another aspect of the word. In this sense 
 the word is used precisely as it is used here. 
 It is the same word exactly and is used to con- 
 vey identically the same idea. It is "called out 
 of and away from the rest of creation to be 
 saints, and named saints." Here he is writing 
 to the Corinthian Christians as members of a 
 spiritual organization, the very same thing that 
 he is referring to when he addresses the brethren 
 in the Church at Rome, "called saints"; saints 
 by way of a calling, and called by God; saints 
 who are what they are called. Just as it was 
 true in the case of the saints at Rome, it was 
 true of the saints at Corinth. It took a great 
 deal to come out and be a saint in Corinth. It 
 was risking their lives, their standing, friends, 
 companions, so that when they came out and 
 joined the Church they were men and women 
 who had determined to live exactly in keeping 
 with their profession. Now let us consider his 
 feelings for the Church. 
 
 First, he thanks God for their faith. Now ob- 
 serve what a vast difference there is in the testi- 
 mony and thankfulness of the Apostle Paul con- 
 cerning the Church at Rome, and the testimony 
 
40 Salvation and the Old Theology 
 
 and thanks of the average man concerning the 
 Church of to-day. The Apostle Paul, in com- 
 mending the Church at Rome, commends them 
 for their faith. When we wish to commend a 
 church we generally commend it according to its 
 intelligence, or wealth, or social position, or num- 
 bers ; sometimes according to the location of the 
 building, and the character of the work. I am 
 thoroughly aware that "By their fruits ye shall 
 know them." At the same time, I believe that 
 God is displeased, greatly displeased, with the 
 way we have of estimating churches. 
 
 To illustrate: I was present in a little town 
 in another state one day, and the question of 
 the most important and most beautiful church 
 in the city was up. One man said: "I think 
 that church over on the hill is the most important 
 church because there are three millionaires be- 
 longing to it." 
 
 "What about its prayer meeting?" I said. 
 
 "I don't know whether they have one or not," 
 was the answer. 
 
 "What about its Sunday-school? You are an 
 officer in the church and ought to know that." 
 
 "Well," he replied, "I don't think much of a 
 Sunday-school." 
 
 He did not know anything about it except that 
 it had three millionaires in it. He was a type 
 of many of the leading men of the churches to- 
 day. 
 
 The pulpit itself has a way of estimating the 
 
Testimony of the Church 4 1 
 
 strength and power and position of the church 
 by the amount of wealth and culture and refine- 
 ment that it has in its membership. 
 
 This is all displeasing to the Spirit of God. 
 It is not God's way of estimating the Church. 
 The thing that God cares for most in a church 
 is its faith ; to what extent can that people bring 
 things to pass for the kingdom of heaven? That 
 is the thing God is asking of the Church, and 
 that is the thing that He would bring us to the 
 point of appreciating; the faith of the people; 
 the extent of its grip on God. That is what God 
 wants of the Church to-day, and, the more I 
 see of the work of the Church and the move- 
 ments of God in this present day and time, the 
 more I am convinced that that is the thing God 
 is concerned about. 
 
 Culture will come; refinement will come; 
 wealth will come, as much as is needed. The one 
 thing God wants is the right kind of faith, and 
 following that will come everything that the 
 Church needs. Oh, that we might see the unlim- 
 ited possibilities ahead of us in the exercise of 
 faith. Seeing it, we will grasp it; grasping it, 
 we will live it, and when we do we will become 
 an interrogation point to the world. That is what 
 God wants. Just as long as the amount of money 
 that a church gives can be explained, just that 
 long will God be left out of the giving; but when 
 the church gives to that point where it cannot 
 be explained, then somebody is going to say, 
 
42 Salvation and the Old Theology 
 
 "Well, I do not understand that." And while 
 they pause to think about it, God's Spirit will slip 
 in and say, **It is God." The same thing is true 
 with reference to every other department of life. 
 
 Now then, observe the second point : 'That he 
 incessantly makes mention of them in his 
 prayers." Paul prayed for the Church in Rome. 
 I wonder how many of us have learned to emu- 
 late Paul's example in that? How many of us 
 have prayed for our own church? I am afraid a 
 very small per cent, of us. We pray, perhaps, 
 for everything in the world but our church, and 
 that perhaps is the explanation of why there is 
 oftentimes so much criticism of the Church. 
 There was once a certain person who became 
 very distasteful to me. It troubled me. It came 
 to me one night while I was in prayer and I 
 began to pray for that man, and God took every 
 bit of feeling about him out of my heart. I saw 
 just as many flaws in that life as I saw before, 
 but I saw good that I did not see before. 
 
 Paul prayed for the Church in Rome. Oh, 
 God, help us to get a lesson from Paul! Pray 
 for the Church at home, and not only for the 
 Church at home, but all churches. Paul was 
 broad enough to realize that he had a connec- 
 tion with all the churches in the world. My 
 brethren and sisters, we have never learned the 
 alphabet in the prayer life. We have never yet 
 learned how to pray. 
 
 In the third place, "that he might be prospered 
 
Testimony of the Church 43 
 
 in the will of God to come to them." "In the 
 will of God!" Do you think that is a careless 
 expression just to fill up space? There is some- 
 thing doubly significant in that expression. Paul 
 did not want to go unless it was the will of God. 
 Paul realized that God had a plan for his life, 
 just as God has a plan for every life, and real- 
 izing that, he could not afford to step out of 
 God's plan. He only maintained connection as 
 he stayed in God's plan for his life. 
 
 Have you never stopped to think that you too 
 have a plan laid out by God for your life? If 
 I am a fanatic, it is on this subject, that God 
 has a plan for my Hfe; that He has a place in 
 this big world for me to fit in; a place that 
 will not fit anybody else in the world. 
 
 Do not try to do your Christian work like 
 somebody else. Try to know how God would 
 have you to do it, and when you have a clear 
 interpretation of the will of God, do what God 
 wants done. 
 
 In the fourth place, you will see that the rea- 
 son for his desire to come to them was not that 
 he might see them and shake hands with them, 
 but it was that he might do them good, "that 
 they might be established in their faith"; and 
 further, "that he and they might be comforted 
 in each other's faith." 
 
 See the great Apostle putting himself down on 
 a common level with the Church of Rome, say- 
 ing, "We can strengthen each other's faith, and 
 
44 Salvation and the Old Theology- 
 help each other out." Oh, the simpHcity of this 
 mighty man of God! How dependent we are 
 one upon the other! There is no man taught 
 of God, however ignorant he may be, that can- 
 not teach me, and no man feels that more than 
 I do. I think some of the most profound truths 
 that I have ever heard have come from some of 
 the most ignorant men, whose minds and hearts 
 have been opened to receive the Spirit, and upon 
 whose hearts and minds the Spirit has operated. 
 Oh, my brother, if you have not had the chance 
 that somebody else has had, do not grow dis- 
 encouraged ; God is as able to give you thoughts 
 as He is able to give any man, however wise in 
 the wisdom of this world. 
 
 Now, I want to draw a few practical conclu- 
 sions concerning the Church. 
 
 First, that it is of divine origin. 
 
 Second, that it has divine conditions for mem- 
 bership. 
 
 Third, it imposes divine obligations upon its 
 members. 
 
 I want the time to come when men and women 
 will realize the bigness of the Church of Christ; 
 that it is God's institution; that it is the biggest 
 organization in existence; that as God's institu- 
 tion it demands of us that we shall put into it 
 our best endeavors, and when our people realize 
 in deed and in truth all this, the Church will 
 prosper as never before. 
 
TESTIMONY OF THE GOSPEL 
 Ch. I :i6-i7 
 
 I. Paul— The Man. 
 
 II. His Declaration. 
 
 Observe under this head (i) For (2) The 
 Gospel of Christ (3) Not ashamed. 
 in. The Reason for His Declaration. 
 
 Note I. The desire — salvation. 
 
 (a) Salvation from the penalty of sin 
 (Rom. 5:10; 6:10-12). 
 
 2. The extent of its application — "Every one 
 that believeth." 
 
 3. The order of coming, the Jew first (John 
 4:22; Matt. 15:23). 
 
 IV. The Purpose of the Epistle. 
 Note. Definition of righteousness. 
 
 V. How Brought About. 
 
 1. By faith (Rom. 3:20-23). 
 
 2. By imputation of Christ (Phil. 3:9). 
 
 3. Impartation (Rom. 8:2-6). 
 
 VI. Method of Its Expression. 
 
 1. Confession by mouth (Rom. 10:9-10). 
 
 2. Baptism (Rom. 6:4, 5, 6; Gal. 3:27; Col. 
 
 2:12). 
 
 45 
 
46 Salvation and the Old Theology 
 
 3. Lord's Supper (i Cor. 10:23-26). 
 
 4. Righteous Living (Rom. 6:1-6). 
 
 Paul is one of the most remarkable charac- 
 ters, not only in the Bible, but in history. Paul, 
 you remember, was born a Jew, and at the same 
 time, born in a Gentile city, the city of Tarsus. 
 Paul associated with many Gentiles. He learned 
 their ways and customs. When he grew up to 
 young manhood, he was sent to Jerusalem for 
 the completion of his education, where he en- 
 tered the school of the Jews and began the study 
 of the language and customs of his own people, 
 and also the religion of his people. He was a 
 pupil of the famous teacher Gamaliel. 
 
 With this short introduction of the Apostle 
 Paul, let us take his declaration — verse 16. 
 Properly translated, the declaration should read 
 as follows: "For I am not ashamed of the Gos- 
 pel." Now, that is a strong declaration, and 
 it is especially strong when we take into con- 
 sideration the fact that it is made by Paul, who 
 had been Saul of Tarsus, a great scholar among 
 the Jews, and an officeholder in high rank in 
 their government. 
 
 Since his conversion, he faces the world, his 
 old associates, his companions in business, reli- 
 gion and law, and declares to them, and to the 
 world at large, that he is not ashamed of the 
 Gospel. 
 
 In considering Paul's declaration, I want you 
 to give due consideration to these three expres- 
 
Testimony of the Gospel 47 
 
 sions, "for," "the Gospel," and "not ashamed." 
 To get the force and significance of the word 
 "for," go back and read the thirteenth and 
 fifteenth verses. "Now, I would not have you 
 ignorant, brethren, that oftentimes I purposed to 
 come unto you (but was let hitherto), that I 
 might have some fruit among you also, even as 
 among other Gentiles. So, as much as in me is, I 
 am ready to preach the Gospel to you that are 
 at Rome also . . . for it is the power of 
 God unto salvation to every one that believeth; 
 to the Jew first, and also to the Greek." 
 
 As much as to say, "While I have been 
 hindered from coming to you, it is by no means 
 because I am ashamed of the Gospel. That which 
 has hindered me is something other than that. 
 For I want to assure you that I am not ashamed 
 of the Gospel. That is not the reason I have 
 not come. That is not the reason that I have 
 not lifted up my voice in the great capital city 
 of the world." 
 
 Then take the expression, "the Gospel." What 
 does this mean ? It means the "good tidings" con- 
 tained in what we call the four Gospels — Mat- 
 thew, Mark, Luke, and John. These four Gos- 
 pels give the general outline of the whole plan 
 and purpose of redemption by Jesus Christ. This 
 was the thing that Paul was sent to declare. Of 
 course, in declaring these he had to refer back 
 often to the Old Testament prophecies and 
 teachings, but the purpose of Paul's preaching 
 
48 Salvation and the Old Theology 
 
 was to set forth the Gospel as "good tidings," 
 because Jesus Christ was the center around which 
 the whole of this new system of religion re- 
 volves. 
 
 The religion of Jesus Christ is not in any sense 
 an overworked Judaism. It is a distinct and 
 separate thing from the religion of the Jews. It 
 is in no sense a religion of works. I cannot 
 make that too emphatic, because so many peo- 
 ple are mistaken with respect to it. 
 
 I heard a man not long ago, a distinguished 
 theologian, say that what was needed for the 
 Jews to-day was not the proclamation of the Gos- 
 pel of Jesus Christ so much as it was to get them 
 to eliminate from their teaching that which had 
 crept into it by process of time, which was 
 foreign to the original teaching that God gave 
 them. In other words, he claims that the Jew 
 can be saved by simply reworking Judaism. 
 
 We cannot be too careful not to drop into that 
 kind of error. The religion of Jesus Christ is 
 a separate, distinct religion. It came to take the 
 place of the religion of the Jews. 
 
 Paul speaks of the Gospel as "good news," 
 "good tidings." And it is good news. I was 
 thinking when I was studying this lesson, "Oh, 
 how I thank God for the day when the Gospel 
 light flashed into my heart! Where would I be 
 now, were it not for this 'good news' ?" 
 
 Then take that other expression, "not 
 ashamed." "For I am not ashamed of the Gos- 
 
Testimony of the Gospel 49 
 
 pel." Remember, this is Paul speaking — a great 
 man, an officeholder of high rank among his peo- 
 ple. How this ought to bring many of us to 
 our knees in conviction, because we have tried 
 to hide in a corner and not let our light shine out. 
 
 I was reading recently some words by one of 
 the greatest teachers of the Word of God. He 
 said : "I have never yet seen a young convert that 
 remained firm in his conviction of Jesus Christ 
 that had any disposition to backslide," and I be- 
 gan to think; and I don't know that I ever did 
 either. Just so long as we can get a man to 
 openly confess Jesus Christ, there is no danger 
 of backsliding. 
 
 Take a man who is addicted to strong drink. 
 He walks into a barroom, and says : 'T want a 
 glass of whiskey. I am a Christian. I believe 
 in Jesus Christ." He cannot say that. H he 
 did he could not take the drink, and so with 
 other forms of temptation. H we could only 
 get men and women to do what Paul did under 
 all circumstances, boldly confess Jesus Christ, we 
 would stop men from backsliding. 
 
 Let us take the next general division. The 
 reason for his declaration. Verse sixteen says: 
 "For it is the power of God unto salvation to 
 every one that believeth. To the Jew first, and 
 also to the Greek." Salvation is the biggest word 
 in the English language. There is no possible 
 way of defining it. It is too big. It is a word 
 that cannot be expressed because it is bigger than 
 
50 Salvation and the Old Theology 
 
 anything used to express it. In this particular 
 case the Apostle is referring to salvation from 
 sin. That is the thing that he is looking at now. 
 
 In this sense salvation is used to save from, 
 first, the penalty of sin (Rom. 8:i). "There is 
 now therefore no condemnation to them that are 
 in Christ Jesus." There is salvation, saving us 
 from the penalty of sin. In addition, take John 
 5 :25 and Rom. 5 :g. We cannot dwell too much 
 upon the fact that the race of Adam since the 
 fall of man has been under the curse and penalty 
 of sin. There is where every man is to-day who 
 is not a Christian. It does not take any Bible 
 to prove that man is a depraved being. The his- 
 tory of the race proves it. Our own experience 
 proves it. There is not a man in the world who 
 does not know that the inclinations of the natural 
 man are toward evil. It is a struggle to go the 
 other way. The natural tendency is toward that 
 which is evil. That is true of the race every- 
 where. By reason of this fact the penalty is 
 resting over him, and Jesus Christ comes to save 
 men, first, from the penalty of this sin. 
 
 Do I address a man who is not saved? If 
 I do, let me say to you that you are now under 
 the penalty of sin. You are just like that man 
 who has been tried in the courts and found guilty, 
 and is awaiting execution. The penalty of sin 
 is resting over you. The full force of the penalty 
 you have not realized yet, but it awaits you. 
 
 The Gospel has come to save you from the 
 
Testimony of the Gospel 51 
 
 penalty of sin. That is the first thing that the 
 Gospel undertakes to do, and that is the first 
 thing that most people embrace with reference to 
 the Gospel. The thing that brought me to Jesus 
 Christ was, first, the consciousness in my own 
 heart of the fact that I was a condemned sinner, 
 and that there was resting over my head the aw- 
 ful penalty for sin. 
 
 The next thing is salvation from the power 
 of sin. Take Romans 5:10 and 10:12. First, 
 from the penalty, giving us life and liberty and 
 freedom, and second, from the power. Here we 
 come to deal with the Christian life. This does 
 not apply to the unregenerate man, as it is no 
 promise to him of salvation from the power of 
 sin. When a man has accepted Jesus Christ, he 
 is free from the penalty of sin, then he is pre- 
 pared to appreciate the force of salvation from 
 the power of sin, and I thank God that this is 
 just as true as the first. 
 
 I hear men talking like this : "Oh, well, I am 
 bound to sin. We are not perfect in this life." 
 The man who says that does not follow his Bible. 
 He may sin. I do not know a perfected soul, 
 but the Gospel, appropriated in all of its full- 
 ness, does promise to save men from the dominat- 
 ing power of sin, and we need to preach it. Be 
 assured of the fact that this same Gospel that 
 has saved you from the penalty of sin and given 
 you liberty and life, will also save you from the 
 dominating power of sin in your every-day life. 
 
VI 
 
 GOD'S ATTITUDE TO SIN 
 
 Ch. 1:18-3:20 
 
 I. Preliminary. — What is sin? i John 
 
 5:14; 2 John 3:4. God's attitude to sin. 
 "Wrath." 1:18. Definition: "Wrath," op- 
 posite of love. 
 
 II. Reasonableness of God's Wrath. 
 I. His law. 
 
 2 Revelation in conscience. 
 
 3. Revelation in nature. 
 
 4. Their conduct. 
 
 (a) Glorified not God. 
 
 (b) Gave not thanks. 
 
 (c) Vain in their reasoning. 
 
 (d) Hearts darkened. 
 
 (e) Idolatry. 
 
 III. The Manner of His Wrath. 
 
 1. Present. 
 
 (a) Hearts unclean. 
 
 (b) According to works. 
 
 (c) Without respect to persons. 
 
 (d) According to Paul's Gospel. 
 
 2. Future. — Judged by God. 
 (a) According to truth. 
 
 52 
 
God's Attitude to Sin 53 
 
 (b) According to works. 
 
 (c) Without respect to persons. 
 
 (d) According to Paul's Gospel. 
 
 What is sin ? There are two definitions of sin. 
 They are in i John. The first is in i John 3 4, 
 "Sin is the transgression of the law." The sec- 
 ond is in I John 5:17, "All unrighteousness is 
 sin." 
 
 "Sin is a transgression of the law." The 
 Revised Version translates it, "Sin is Law- 
 lessness." It is a disregard of law. It is 
 disobedience of the law. Then the next defi- 
 nition, "all unrighteousness is sin." Keep in mind 
 the definition of "righteousness." It will help you 
 to see the nature of sin. Under this definition, 
 righteousness is failing to come up to God's 
 standard. 
 
 There are a great many people who think that 
 sin is doing something that God has told us not 
 to do. That is true, but it is not all of sin. It 
 is also failing to do what God has commanded; 
 failing to come up to God's standard. 
 
 Righteousness is balancing God. You have seen 
 the children at play on the See-Saw : one child 
 on one side and another on the other of equal 
 weight, each one balancing the other. When they 
 balance each other, there is perfect harmony — 
 an easy swing. God in all past ages demanded 
 of man that he should balance Him; that he 
 should complement Him, so that there might be 
 no friction between heaven and earth. But man 
 
54 Salvation and the Old Theology 
 
 was unable to balance God, so Jesus Christ came, 
 and He, being God Himself, complemented God, 
 and thus an easy swing between earth and heaven 
 was established through Jesus Christ. 
 
 Now, righteousness is just that balancing of 
 God. Man cannot balance God. Deity could 
 only be complemented by Deity himself, other- 
 wise God would not be God; He would not be 
 just, immaculate and pure, spotless and holy. In 
 order for Him to be balanced. He must have 
 one on the other side just as holy, as immacu- 
 late, as sincere, as pure, as spotless as He Him- 
 self is. 
 
 So God came Himself in the person of Jesus 
 Christ and took His place upon our end of the 
 "See-Saw," and through Him we obtain His 
 righteousness and are able to complement Him. 
 God's demand of the race is satisfied through 
 Christ when we are in Him, and that is the only 
 way we can satisfy God, so that without Christ 
 there is no satisfaction of God. 
 
 Through Christ Jesus we can look straight into 
 the pure eyes of the Great, Infinite, and Holy 
 God. Out of Jesus Christ we have no standing 
 whatever in His pure presence. 
 
 All failure to come up to that point is sin, and 
 all violation of the law is sin. What is God's 
 attitude to this sin of lawlessness, transgression, 
 and failure to come up to God's desire for holi- 
 ness? You will observe that it is not said that 
 the wrath of God is revealed against man. God 
 
God's Attitude to Sin 55 
 
 has no feeling of wrath against man. His wrath 
 is revealed against the sin of man. He is look- 
 ing at sin, and He hates sin, and the wrath of 
 God is revealed against the sin of man and not 
 man himself. He is love when it comes to His 
 attitude toward man, but He is wrath when it 
 comes to His attitude towards sin, and hence He 
 has gone to work and provided a way of escape 
 from sin. 
 
 There are a great many people who shrink 
 from the idea that God is a God of wrath. They 
 are fond of saying that God is a God of love. 
 And that is God's normal condition. He is the 
 very embodiment of love. God's wrath is against 
 that which is abnormal. Let God be placed 
 in His normal condition, and He is love, and 
 everything that issues from Him is love. If man 
 had not fallen in the Garden of Eden such a 
 thing as wrath would not have been revealed. 
 The whole fight of God, from the time that Adam 
 fell in the Garden of Eden until Christ hung upon 
 the cross, was against sin. Love would flow like 
 the stream that trickles down the mountain side 
 if it were not for sin, and wrath is revealed 
 against "all ungodliness and unrighteousness of 
 man." 
 
 Some people think that it is unreasonable for 
 God thus to look upon sin. The reasonableness 
 lies in the fact that God tried man by provid- 
 ing everything that was necessary to overcome 
 this state of abnormality. He provided: First, 
 
56 Salvation and the Old Theology 
 
 law. Man violated that. Second, God provided 
 instruction in his inner conscience, and man went 
 back on that. Third, instruction with reference 
 to nature, and he went back on that. Then man's 
 conduct itself is sufficient to justify the wrath 
 of God against his doings. 
 
 "The wrath of God is revealed against all un- 
 godliness of men, because that which may be 
 known of God is manifest in them ; for God mani- 
 fested it unto them. For the invisible things of 
 Him since the creation of the world are clearly 
 seen, being perceived through the things that are 
 made." 
 
 We have here God justifying His wrath upon 
 the ground of His revelation of law. Then there 
 is the second revelation of Himself in the inner 
 conscience of men, that which God has revealed 
 in them; for God manifested Himself to them. 
 You will understand that the Apostle is speaking 
 of heathen men and women, who had never 
 known of God. He is setting up the claim that 
 they are without excuse because, though they 
 have not heard of God and have not had the 
 law of God, they have had God's revelation of 
 Himself in their inner conscience. He has mani- 
 fested Himself in them, and then, also, because 
 of "The invisible things of Him since the creation 
 of the world being clearly seen." The Apostle 
 here sets up the second plea for justifying the 
 wrath of God upon the ground that God has given 
 them enough, in the things that He has created 
 
God's Attitude to Sin 57 
 
 about them, the visible things, enough to remind 
 them of the existence of the invisible. So he 
 argues, ''they are without excuse." 
 
 Then, take their conduct. This is sufficient to 
 justify God's wrath, and when coupled with His 
 revelation, it more than justifies the wrath of 
 God, because that ''knowing God they glorify 
 Him not as God, neither give thanks, but be- 
 come vain in their reasonings, and their foolish 
 heart was darkened. Professing themselves to 
 be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory 
 of the incorruptible God for the likeness of an 
 image of corruptible man, and of birds, and four- 
 footed beasts and creeping things." 
 
 There are five things here specified in this bill 
 of indictment. First, they glorified not God. Sec- 
 ond, they gave no thanks. Third, they became 
 vain in their reasonings. Fourth, their hearts 
 became darkened. Fifth, they became idolatrous. 
 Note that he starts out with the assertion that 
 they knew God. They might deny it, but they 
 knew Him. They knew Him by the revelation 
 in His law. The Jews knew all about that. At 
 that time Jerusalem was largely inhabited by 
 Jews, and Jews formed the pillars of the Church 
 in Rome. It was through the efforts of the Jews 
 that the Church in Rome was established. So 
 they had the revelation of God in His law. 
 
 Then, those who had not heard of God had 
 had the revelation of God in their consciences. 
 Paul does not stop to expound conscience. He 
 
58 Salvation and the Old Theology 
 
 states a simple fact and leaves it for us to con- 
 sider ourselves. So he says they knew God, and 
 yet in spite of the fact that they knew God they 
 were guilty of those things that he mentions. 
 Note the gradation of it. "They glorified not 
 God." They knew Him, but did not glorify Him. 
 Oh, how easy for us to forget God! I have 
 never been so pessimistic as I am at this 
 minute with respect to the existence of sin in the 
 world, and the vilest sort of sin. It grows out of 
 the great prosperous wave that has been for so 
 long a time sweeping over this country. 
 
 Failing to glorify God, see the next step. Of 
 course, they ''neither gave thanks." When God 
 slips out of our minds, there is not any need for 
 thanks, and so they ceased to give thanks. To- 
 day we can hardly get enough people together 
 in prayer meeting to hold down the benches. A 
 thankless age is this in which we live. God has 
 been lost sight of. Sin is on the rage and even 
 God's people are failing to give thanks. 
 
 Then the next step: "They became vain in 
 their reasonings." This was the time when Rome 
 lifted her proud head and defied the world with 
 her philosophy, when they became so ambitious 
 in the world of letters, and especially in the world 
 of philosophy, that they became worshipers of 
 their intellects, and during that period developed 
 some of the most gigantic reasoners that the 
 world has ever seen, and they became wild over 
 the reasoning of their minds. They overlooked 
 
God's Attitude to Sin 59 
 
 God, stopped giving thanks, and became wor- 
 shipers of their own intellects. 
 
 Is this not true of us to-day ? We see it every- 
 where. In the Sunday-school class, in the pulpit, 
 in the demands of the pew upon the pulpit, in 
 our theological seminaries, in our colleges and 
 universities. The world seems to have gone wild 
 after the reasonings of men. But men are not 
 saved by philosophy. 
 
 The mind itself is depraved. When Adam 
 went down, he went down in mind, body, and 
 soul, and the only way by which the mind can 
 be redeemed is through the blood of the atone- 
 ment. I do not care anything about the philoso- 
 phy of men, unless it is a philosophy that has 
 been redeemed by Jesus Christ. 
 
 Then, take the next step: "Their hearts were 
 darkened." When they lived in the head, they 
 moved out of the heart. When man moves out 
 of the heart chamber and moves into the head 
 chamber, there is not anything left in the heart 
 chamber, and a vacuum cannot exist. Something 
 has got to go in there, and the devil takes up his 
 abode and that heart gets filled with everything 
 that is contrary to the highest demands, so that 
 it becomes darkened. 
 
 You might as well try to fly to the sun as to 
 appeal to the heart of a fellow that has moved 
 up into his brain. His heart has become dark- 
 ened. His heart eyes have gone out. If he sees 
 suffering it makes no impression. That senti- 
 
6o Salvation and the Old Theology 
 
 mental side of his nature has become blurred, 
 and that is the description of the age in which 
 we live to-day. 
 
 And then comes the fifth and last step — idola- 
 try. There is no other place to land. They have 
 either got to go back and re-state their theological 
 position, or else go into idolatry. 
 
 There are many people that are in lands of 
 idolatry because they were born there, but there 
 are many people here in our own country who 
 might as well be there. It is just as much a 
 species of idolatry to worship the parrot or horse, 
 or anything else, as it is to set up an image and 
 worship it. They allow these things to come in 
 and take the place of God. They pay more at- 
 tention to these things than they do to God. They 
 are more careful with respect to things of this 
 earth than to those things that pertain to 
 heaven. 
 
 Look for a moment at the manner in which 
 God's wrath reveals itself. "Where God gave 
 them up in the lusts of their hearts." That is 
 not God's wrath. That is the revelation of God's 
 wrath. For, after all, the definition of wrath is 
 ''the opposite of love." God is normally love. 
 The opposite of that is wrath. God may be ex- 
 pressing His love in an earthquake, though we 
 are not able to see it. He expresses it in thou- 
 sands of ways, and we want to see just how He 
 revealed His wrath then. 
 
 He gave them up. How I should hate to feel 
 
God's Attitude to Sin 6 1 
 
 that God had given me up, or had given my 
 town up, or had given my race up. Have you 
 ever stopped to think of what it would mean for 
 God to take His hands off and let you go ac- 
 cording to the natural bent of life? That is ex- 
 actly what God did. He gave the race up. 
 
 Now, in what particular did He give the race 
 up? ''In the lusts of their hearts unto unclean- 
 ness." That is how God did it. That is the way 
 He revealed His wrath for the time being. That 
 is the way He revealed Himself to them in the 
 age in which they lived, and He does it in the 
 age in which we live, if we fail to avail ourselves 
 of the way of escape. 
 
 There are four things here. First, that God 
 gave them up in their hearts. God turned their 
 hearts loose. He took His hands off and said, 
 "Go on and love everything that the natural, vile 
 man wants to love. I have got my hands off, 
 and you can go now." That is the way God 
 revealed His wrath — by turning man loose. Man 
 had failed to avail himself of the remedy for 
 his salvation. God had tried and tried, and men 
 had wandered off purposely, and so God gave 
 them up, and their hearts became darkened. 
 
 Then He took His hands off their bodies. 
 After that He took His hands off their passions, 
 and that awful description of the outcome is such 
 that I cannot comment on it. And then God 
 gave them up unto a reprobate mind. What 
 does he mean by a reprobate mind? The word 
 
62 Salvation and the Old Theology 
 
 reprobate comes from the words re, pro, and 
 hare, which mean this, "rejection after a second 
 trial." God had given the race two great chances 
 for redemption, and the race had failed. First, 
 they refused the chance of law, then they refused 
 the chance in revelation. They turned their 
 backs on both, and God turned them loose. He 
 tells us the results of having a reprobate mind, 
 "Being filled with all unrighteousness, wicked- 
 ness, covetousness," etc. 
 
 My! what a picture that is! And yet that is 
 a picture of the race. 
 
 Let us go just a step further and see something 
 of the manner of God's wrath revealed in the 
 future. We have been considering the manner 
 of God's wrath revealed for them at the pres- 
 ent time. Now for the future we have this: 
 Judgment. God visits His wrath upon us at the 
 present time. We have seen the manner of the 
 visitation of His wrath, that He turns loose our 
 hearts; that He lets them run wild; turns loose 
 our bodies, turns loose our passions, and gives 
 us over to the natural workings of a reprobate 
 mind. For the future, God reserves judgment. 
 There are just four things that I want we should 
 see: 
 
 First, it is a judgment according to truth. I 
 remember a cartoon I once saw of a young 
 preacher. He had just returned from a theologi- 
 cal seminary with his theological degree, and he 
 was making his first sermon, and had taken for 
 
God's Attitude to Sin 63 
 
 his subject, "Truth." On one side of him was 
 a great pile of books, and in his hand a pen. 
 He had just written his subject. His first di- 
 vision was, "What is Truth ?" And he was look- 
 ing at that pile of books to find the answer to 
 that question. Just over him was an angel, hold- 
 ing in one hand a Bible, and with her other she 
 was pointing to it, and saying, "Thy word is 
 truth." 
 
 We are to be judged according to truth. What 
 is truth ? The truth of God revealed in the Bible. 
 I do not say that there is no truth in the works 
 of science, for there is; but it is not by that 
 truth that we are to be judged. 
 
 The Apostle Paul was trying to make them 
 see that in the last day we shall be judged ac- 
 cording to the Bible, and the truth of God in 
 our hearts. 
 
 Then you will see that it is a judgment ac- 
 cording to works. They are to be judged ac- 
 cording to what they have done, and accord- 
 ing to what they have not done. It is a judg- 
 ment without respect to persons. That is stated 
 to adjust the relationship between the Jew and 
 the Gentile. It is a judgment according to the 
 law and revelation, whether it is the revela- 
 tion of the law to the Jew or to the Gentile. 
 The law and the revelation, whether it is the 
 revelation of God in the law or the revelation of 
 God and the law in their inner consciences 
 and in nature, is the same truth provided for in 
 
64 Salvation and the Old Theology 
 
 the word of God, and they are to be held in 
 rigid judgment by it. 
 
 What about the heathen to-day that do not 
 know anything about the Gospel. They have got 
 to stand the test of the truth. The heathen to- 
 day have the same revelation that they had then 
 in their inner consciences. They have something 
 within them that tells them of a standard that 
 they are to live up to. 
 
 Then, you will see that it is a judgment ac- 
 cording to Paul himself. This gives me such a 
 good chance to say what I want to say. Some 
 people say to me, ''Show me what Jesus said. 
 Do not show me what Paul said." Let me say 
 that the words of Jesus have no more weight 
 in the scripture than the words of Paul. Paul 
 was inspired to say what he said by the same 
 Spirit that inspired Jesus. 
 
 The last thought is the reiteration of the uni- 
 versality of sin and the insufficiency of the law 
 to save, and all that you need to do is to read, 
 "There is none righteous, no, not one." 
 
 This is exactly where the world stood at the 
 time when the provision for the world's salva- 
 tion culminated in the crucifixion of Jesus. 
 What an awful picture ! How black and hideous ! 
 The whole world in sin, and not one in the great 
 universe of God that did good. And yet people 
 say, "I do not see any need of Christ. I believe 
 that all that religion is, is doing good to your 
 fellow man and living right." For four thou- 
 
God's Attitude to Sin 65 
 
 sand years God had been searching to find one 
 good man, and finally wound up by saying, 
 'There is none righteous, no, not one." Man 
 failed in Eden. He failed to keep the law. He 
 failed to respond to the dictates of his inner con- 
 science; failed to see Him in the things that 
 He had made. God then turned him loose and 
 he went to the bad. 
 
 With unbridled hearts they loved everything 
 that was impure. With unbridled passions they 
 went worse than wild. With a reprobate mind 
 they had put themselves on a plane with the 
 brute. And the world at large is right there to- 
 day. You need not talk to me about this world 
 getting better. Some are getting better, and some 
 are getting worse. There are we to-day. Oh, 
 that hopeless picture! What a picture of cor- 
 ruption Jesus looked down on when He started 
 from His father's throne to do the work of 
 human redemption! 
 
VII 
 
 GOD'S PROVISION FOR SALVATION 
 
 Ch. 3:21-5:11 
 
 I. The Nature of Salvation. 
 
 1. Of God. 
 
 2. Apart from the Law. 
 
 3. Witnessed by the Law and the Prophets. 
 
 II. The Application. 
 
 1. By Faith. 
 
 2. In Jesus Christ. 
 
 3. Unto All that Believe. 
 
 III. The Method. 
 
 1. Justification. 
 
 2. Redemption." 
 
 3. Propitiation. 
 
 IV. The Illustration. 
 
 1. Abraham. 
 
 2. David. 
 
 V. The Results. 
 
 1. Peace. 
 
 2. Rejoicing in Hope. 
 
 3. Rejoicing in Tribulation. 
 
 We have dealt with God's attitude to sin, 
 taking up the hopeless condition of the race ; that 
 everything that could be tried for the redemp- 
 66 
 
God's Provision for Salvation 67 
 
 tion of the race had been tried, and man had 
 failed at every point, so that there was none good, 
 no not one. We now take up the other side of 
 the picture, the side of salvation, and we find 
 in verse 21 the nature of this salvation, and it is 
 so clearly stated that it hardly needs to be ex- 
 pounded at all. "But now apart from the law 
 a righteousness of God hath been manifested, be- 
 ing witnessed by the law and the prophets ; even 
 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus 
 Christ unto all them that believe." 
 
 You see, in looking at the nature of this sal- 
 vation, that it is, first, "of God." Please bear 
 in mind the necessity for that kind of salvation. 
 The necessity for it grows out of the fact that 
 then, as to-day, man is fond of working out for 
 himself a theory of salvation, a theory which 
 suits his own mind. 
 
 There are those who are* holding to-day to sal- 
 vation by character. They hold that man is saved 
 through obedience to the law ; by being good, and 
 kind, and considerate, and honest, and just in his 
 relation to his fellow man; hence, they are 
 preaching a Christless salvation. They use 
 Christ only as a type, as a pattern to fashion 
 their lives by. 
 
 Then, there is another school of teachers, 
 teaching salvation by the church; that all that 
 one has to do to be saved is to come into the 
 Church and subscribe to its rules and regulations, 
 and to go through with its ordinances. 
 
68 Salvation and the Old Theology- 
 There are those who teach salvation by con- 
 science; that all one has to do is to so live as 
 not to wound his conscience. They don't see that 
 conscience failed in the Garden of Eden, just as 
 all else failed. 
 
 Then, there are those who are teaching salva- 
 tion through the worship of various idols and 
 images ; heathen, we call them. And so we might 
 go on, naming various schools of teachers who 
 teach salvation. 
 
 If you will take the pains to look into it, you 
 will find that the biggest word in any language, 
 among any people on this earth, is the word sal- 
 vation. It may be approached from different 
 standpoints ; it may be approached with different 
 meanings and different understandings with dif- 
 ferent people, but after all, the one great thought 
 of the world is salvation — how to get men saved. 
 Saved from what we call sin; saved from bad 
 living and made more righteous and holy in 
 life and conduct, in thought and deportment. 
 
 All this is the one great thought of the world. 
 In some sections of the world they are trying 
 to solve the great salvation problem by educa- 
 tion, and in other sections they are trying it by 
 legal processes. In one way or another, human- 
 ity everywhere is giving itself to what we call 
 salvation; it has always been so, and men have 
 always been at work upon it. 
 
 The Apostle Paul, in writing this Epistle, calls 
 attention to the fact that he, as the ambassador 
 
God's Provision for Salvation 69 
 
 of God, is holding up to them a salvation that is 
 of God ; God is its author, not man ; and that 
 is the salvation we need to-day, and that is the 
 salvation we are here to teach, and that is the sal- 
 vation that the Church has got to stand for. The 
 time has come when the cry of the Church must 
 be "Back to God." See what God has said about 
 this, and if God has said, then that is enough. 
 
 Then you will see in the second place that it 
 is "apart from the law." You are not to under- 
 stand that this is intended to abrogate law. He 
 never could abrogate law. He came to fulfill the 
 law ; the salvation of God is apart from the law 
 only in this sense, that it takes hold of man at 
 the point where law failed to touch him. 
 
 In other words, the salvation of God is not a 
 salvation that can be obtained by one through 
 obedience to certain legal requirements, but the 
 law of God is to be to the man who is saved by 
 the salvation of God the outcome of his salvation. 
 
 Let us thoroughly understand what the Apos- 
 tle Paul means here, because if there is one weak 
 point in our Church system, it is this point. 
 There is the biggest mistaken conception imagi- 
 nable in the minds of the world with respect to 
 what salvation is. It is strange to me after all 
 the teaching for all the past ages of the Church, 
 that there should be such a vast amount of ig- 
 norance about this. 
 
 The Apostle Paul says, "This salvation that 
 is of God is not a salvation that can be obtained 
 
"JO Salvation and the Old Theology 
 
 by obeying the requirements of the law, lest you 
 should have something to boast of ; but it is a sal- 
 vation apart from the law ; it is a salvation abso- 
 lutely independent of the law. It is not some- 
 thing that you can work out, or work yourself 
 up to, but something that you accept by faith, 
 and then the law is the outworking of the salva- 
 tion principle that is within by faith." 
 
 Some people imagine that because of this state- 
 ment, they are at liberty to go right on and vio- 
 late the law as they please. But that is not the 
 teaching of the Apostle. It is not apart from 
 the law in that sense. There is not a single re- 
 quirement of the ten commandments that the 
 Apostle Paul does not intend to incorporate into 
 the Christian's life. You cannot violate the Sat)- 
 bath because you have become a Christian; you 
 cannot kill because you have have become a 
 Christian; you cannot commit adultery because 
 you have become a Christian. There is not one 
 single requirement that is not binding upon the 
 Christian, but the whole decalogue does not lead 
 one step toward becoming a Christian, for salva- 
 tion is apart from the law. 
 
 The law is binding on you only in the sense 
 that when you are saved you are mastered by 
 Christ, and everything that is right, Jesus Christ, 
 as your master, binds upon you to be done. 
 
 I am afraid of those people who are forever 
 speaking in a disrespectful manner concerning the 
 law. The Apostle Paul does not mean to make 
 
God's Provision for Salvation 71 
 
 any reflection at all upon the law. What he is 
 trying to do is to impress upon them in this new 
 system of religion that the law is not the means 
 by which they are to be saved ; that the law is the 
 outcome of their having been saved; that when 
 a man is saved the law is his delight; it will 
 not be a thing forced upon him, it will be the 
 natural order of life. 
 
 In the next place, this salvation is "witnessed 
 by the law and the prophets." Look for a mo- 
 ment at the Transfiguration. There we have ex- 
 actly what the Apostle is talking about in a very 
 striking manner. There Jesus on the Mount of 
 Transfiguration is visited by the law and the 
 prophets in the persons of Moses and Elias; 
 Moses representing the law and Elias represent- 
 ing the prophets ; Christ representing the Gospel, 
 which represents this salvation that is apart from 
 the law. 
 
 What is the purpose of Moses and Elias there ? 
 They have been dead centuries. They have left 
 their record — their inspired testimony. Why 
 should they come? There is a very significant 
 reason. They are there to give their testimony 
 fresh from the throne concerning this salvation; 
 this salvation of God. 
 
 If you could have been there and asked Moses 
 what he was there for, you would have heard 
 him say, *T have come here to give my indorse- 
 ment of this salvation." If you could have asked 
 Elias, "What are you here for?" he would have 
 
72 Salvation and the Old Theology- 
 said, "I am here that I may lend my testimony 
 to this new salvation; to this salvation which is 
 apart from the law." 
 
 Moses and Elias that day faded into utter in- 
 significance by the side of Jesus, for it was the 
 Disciples who said, under the inspiration of all 
 this glory, when Jesus stood in the presence of 
 those two heavenly visitors, "This is a good 
 place to be ! Let us build here three tabernacles ; 
 one for Jesus, and one for Moses, and one for 
 Elias," and I am not surprised that they let their 
 enthusiasm get the better of them. I should have 
 done the same thing. Oh, the glory of that scene ! 
 I expect when I get to heaven I shall say more 
 extravagant and more foolish things than that. 
 I expect when I get the first glimpse of the white 
 throne what I say will be so far in excess of the 
 extravagance of that as that it will fade 
 away. 
 
 "Let us build here three tabernacles; one for 
 Thee, and one for Moses and one for Elias. Let 
 us stay here and worship." Then there came a 
 voice from heaven, saying: "This is my beloved 
 Son, hear ye Him." Moses and Elias have had 
 their day. The law had its day. The prophets 
 had their day; but these are all dead. We are 
 living in a new order. We are living at a time 
 when men are saved in a different way. 
 
 Then, take the next step. 
 
 We have been speaking about the salvation 
 that is of God, and that is apart from the law, and 
 
God*s Provision for Salvation 73 
 
 that is witnessed by the law and the prophets. 
 Now, the question comes, How is one to receive 
 this salvation of God? If not by the law, then 
 how? 
 
 Now, the Apostle answers this question very 
 beautifully in the 226. and 23d verses. He says 
 we are to receive it *'by faith." Now, listen. 
 There is nothing new in this statement of the 
 Apostle. When he speaks of salvation by faith, 
 unless he goes further, which he does, he does not 
 state anything that is at all new. 
 
 The fact is, no system of salvation is without 
 faith. Take, for instance, the man who believes 
 in salvation by character ; that all that is required 
 of one is to live right. Is that without faith ? By 
 no means. It is salvation by faith, but the faith 
 in this instance is in the man. 
 
 Take the man who believes in salvation by the 
 Church. Is that a salvation without faith? By 
 no means. It is a salvation of faith, but the 
 faith in that instance is in the Church, and in the 
 ordinances of the Church. 
 
 Take the man who believes in salvation by the 
 worship of idols. Is that salvation without faith ? 
 By no means. I was speaking to a missionary 
 from China and said, *'Are those heathen with- 
 out faith?" "Oh, no," was the answer, "they 
 have a very strong faith ; very much stronger than 
 many Christians. They have such a strong faith 
 that they can accept a very mystical lot of non- 
 sense and believe that there is salvation wrapped 
 
74 Salvation and the Old Theology 
 
 up in it." And so it is with respect to every 
 system of salvation. There is no system that is 
 without faith. 
 
 So, I say again, if the Apostle had gone no 
 further than that, he would have stated nothing 
 new, but, thank God! he went further than that. 
 He says that this salvation is by faith "in Jesus 
 Christ." That is the difference. 
 
 My brother, faith in Christ as an abstract 
 thing is not different from faith in business, or in 
 the promise of any man, so far as the abstract 
 thing in itself is concerned. But faith in the sense 
 of the salvation of God is a faith that grips Jesus 
 Christ; Christ is the object of the faith of fhe 
 man who is saved. Christian workers, think 
 about that. It will help you explain the way of 
 life. 
 
 You know we have mystified faith until sen- 
 sible people are asking, "What do you mean by 
 faith?" I have seen strong minds puzzled over 
 the question. 
 
 Give a man credit for what he has got. Every 
 man has got faith in something. Show him that 
 he has got faith, and then try to turn his faith 
 to Jesus Christ. 
 
 Faith implies three things: First, knowledge; 
 second, assent; and third, trust. 
 
 First, knowledge. No man can have faith until 
 he knows. You cannot expect men to exercise 
 faith in a proposition that they have never heard 
 anything about. 
 
God's Provision for Salvation 75 
 
 Second, assent — giving assent in the mind to 
 the proposition. 
 
 Third, trust. After assent always comes trust. 
 When you come to deal with salvation, it is first, 
 a knowledge of Christ; second, assent to Christ, 
 and third, trust in Christ. That is all salvation is. 
 
 Take now the method of salvation: 
 
 Three pivot words: i. Justification. 2. Re- 
 demption. 3. Propitiation. 
 
 These three words are the great pivot words 
 of salvation. How many a theological battle has 
 been fought over them. These three words, if 
 understood properly, will make theologians out 
 of every one of us, because around them hangs 
 the whole question of redemption. 
 
 Take the first word, "justification." We shall 
 find the word used over and over again. It is 
 used thirty-nine times in the New Testament, 
 twenty-seven times in Paul's writings ; eight times 
 in the synoptists, three times in James, and once 
 in the Apocalypse. 
 
 What does it mean? Every one of you that 
 has been saved has been justified, and you are 
 justified now, and you will be justified when you 
 stand before the judgment. 
 
 Justification is a very different word from par- 
 don. Pardon is a different word and is by no 
 means to be thought of when we think of justi- 
 fication. Pardon simply frees one from the 
 penalty of crime or guilt. Justification deals with 
 the character of the criminal or guilty one and 
 
jb Salvation and the Old Theology 
 
 sets him free. Pardon simply removes the 
 penalty for the crime, but does not touch the 
 criminal. He is just the same criminal that he 
 was before. Suppose he is a thief and is proven 
 to be a thief, and afterwards the law pardons 
 him. The law does not change the fact that he 
 was a thief, but it relieves him of the penalty 
 of the crime. 
 
 Justification is a stronger word. It deals both 
 with the condition of the criminal and with the 
 crime. Justification deals with the character. It 
 sets the character of the individual right, as well 
 as pardons him of the crime that he has com- 
 mitted. 
 
 Only God can do that; the law cannot do it. 
 No statute that man can enact can do it; no 
 act of any man can do it. He may be a Czar 
 of Czars, and yet he cannot go back and undo 
 a thing that has been done. He can lift the 
 penalty, but he cannot change the character of 
 the guilty man; but justification does. It sets 
 the criminal himself right as well as wipes out his 
 penalty. 
 
 Now for the next word — "redemption." Justi- 
 fication does not embrace redemption. Redemp- 
 tion is part of the process by which justification 
 takes place. The word redemption means "re- 
 covery by the payment of a price." 
 
 Redemption is an entirely different word from 
 ransom, just as pardon is a different word from 
 justification. They mean very different things, 
 
God's Provision for Salvation 77 
 
 and yet you will find people using them as if 
 they meant the same thing. 
 
 Redemption is the result of the work of ran- 
 som. Jesus Christ Himself is the ransom of the 
 sinner; redemption is the result of the ransom 
 work of Jesus Christ. They are, therefore, not 
 interchangeable terms. They do not mean the 
 same thing, literally or theologically. Redemp- 
 tion is the result of a price that has been 
 paid. 
 
 God owns the entire race of the world to-day. 
 We are God's by ownership, just as much as my 
 umbrella is still mine by ownership. I own it be- 
 cause I paid the price for it. It is my umbrella, 
 and yet I do not know where it is, I never ex- 
 pect to see it again, because somebody else pos- 
 sesses it. 
 
 Now, God owns the race, but He does not pos- 
 sess it. The devil possesses the race, but it is 
 God's. God made the race and God bought the 
 race. The most of us are simply used as gar- 
 ments to clothe the devil with; to shelter him 
 from the storm. 
 
 God has bought the race back. He made it. 
 The devil got it. God came and redeemed it by 
 a price. That is what redemption means. We 
 shall see what that price is. All this is pre- 
 liminary to the work of justification, and the 
 Apostle Paul seems to start out with justification 
 and leads into the preliminary work. 
 
 The third word is "propitiation." What does 
 
yS Salvation and the Old Theology 
 
 it mean ? It is a hard word to define. The word 
 itself means "reconcihation by atonement." 
 When you get to the origin of the word, you find 
 that it means to cover sin with blood. It is never 
 used without that meaning. There is not a use 
 of the word in the Old Testament Scriptures in 
 which the idea of blood is not involved, so we see 
 from that that there is no reconciliation without 
 blood. 
 
 There are kindred words, words that perhaps 
 some teachers have fallen upon with a different 
 meaning, but the word from which this comes is 
 never used in the Old Testament Scriptures ex- 
 cept in connection with blood. 
 
 Let us see how this salvation "of God, apart 
 from the law, witnessed by the law and the 
 prophets, which is applied by faith in Jesus Christ 
 unto all them that believe," is brought about? 
 It is done by our being justified, by our being 
 made right and having our sins pardoned, by hav- 
 ing been redeemed or bought back by the recon- 
 ciliation of the atoning blood of Jesus Christ. 
 That is how. 
 
 There is no salvation of God that is not brought 
 about by faith in Christ through the atoning 
 blood that He shed on Calvary. 
 
 Again, let me say, justification is making right 
 in character and in conduct; redemption, bought 
 with a price; propitiation, covering with the 
 blood. When we have had these words grip us, 
 we have made a great step forward in the direc- 
 
God's Provision for Salvation 79 
 
 tion of comprehending the whole scheme of salva- 
 tion. 
 
 Note in passing that the fourth chapter deals 
 with Abraham and David as illustrations of the 
 whole question of salvation. 
 
 The fifth chapter deals with the Results of 
 Salvation. 
 
 1. Peace. 
 
 2. Joy, or rejoicing in hope. 
 
 3. Rejoicing in tribulation. 
 
 If we are saved, we have been justified. We 
 have been redeemed. We have been reconciled 
 with the atonement. A propitiation has been 
 made. Now, what is the outcome ? Since this is 
 true we are ready for the fifth chapter. "Be- 
 ing, therefore, justified by faith, let us have peace 
 with God through our Lord Jesus Christ ; through 
 whom also we have had our access by faith unto 
 this grace wherein we stand." 
 
 First, "let us have peace with God." Lots 
 of people have no peace, no happiness in their 
 souls, not realizing that when we are His, when 
 we have submitted to Him, and believe in Him, 
 that there are not enough devils in hell to keep us 
 out of heaven. I know I am saved. I have got 
 the biggest thing on earth. I have been justified 
 and I have been redeemed. I have been recon- 
 ciled, not through my goodness, but through His 
 atoning merit. I have all this; therefore I am 
 happy. I have got peace. 
 
 Then, let us "rejoice in hope." We have peace 
 
8o Salvation and the Old Theology 
 
 in our souls. Now let us rejoice in the hope 
 of His glory. And let us rejoice in our tribula- 
 tions. What does the word tribulation mean? 
 It comes from the Latin word "tribulum," and 
 that means a "threshing machine." You know 
 what a threshing machine was in those days. 
 They put the wheat down and cut a pole and 
 took hold of the small end of it and beat the 
 wheat out of the chaff. 
 
 Listen. The Apostle Paul says, "now you have 
 got salvation, have peace. Peace with God. 
 Peace in your soul. Rejoice in hope. Rejoice in 
 your tribulation. Rejoice in your threshing ma- 
 chine." 
 
 The time will come when the Lord will lay you 
 down and beat the wheat out of the chaff. He 
 has had lots of us down there and has kept some 
 of us down there for a long time. 
 
 Rejoice in tribulation, it does not make any 
 difference what it is, only remember that no mat- 
 ter how hard it is. He is getting rid of the chaff 
 so that He may have the grain to use. That 
 is the only part that is worth having. The chaff 
 of human life is just like the chaff in the wheat. 
 The only thing that is worth anything is what is 
 left after God beats the chaff away. 
 
 "'Twas for my sins my dearest Lord 
 Hung on the cursed tree. 
 And groaned away His dying life, 
 For thee, my soul, for thee. 
 
God's Provision for Salvation 8i 
 
 "Oh, how I hate those lusts of mine 
 That crucified my Lord ! 
 Those sins that pierced and nailed His flesh 
 Fast to the fatal wood. 
 
 "Yes, my Redeemer, they shall die, 
 My heart hath so decreed ; 
 Nor will I spare the guilty things 
 That made my Saviour bleed." 
 
VIII 
 
 RECONCILIATION AND RIGHTEOUS- 
 NESS 
 
 Ch. 5:9-21 
 
 I. A Re-statement of the Doctrine of 
 
 Justification. • 
 
 1. Definition of justification. 
 
 2. How used. 
 
 II. Reconciliation. 
 
 1. Definition of reconciliation. 
 
 2. How brought about. 
 
 (a) Movement of God toward man. 
 
 (b) Movement of man toward God. 
 
 (c) A consequent change in man. 
 
 (d) Reconcihation. 
 
 III. Necessity of It — Adam's Sin. 
 
 1. All in sin. 
 
 2. All in death. 
 
 3. All in judgment. 
 
 IV. Ground of It — Christ's Righteous- 
 ness. 
 
 It seems that the Apostle Paul recognized what 
 every one of us must recognize in studying this 
 book, and that is that there is a very great neces- 
 sity for a thorough and comprehensive under- 
 82 
 
Reconciliation and Righteousness 83 
 
 standing of what is involved in the word *'justi- 
 fication." 1 am sure in deahng with this word 
 that we are deahng with one of the greatest 
 words in Paul's writings. He so regards it. You 
 can see it by the frequent use he makes of it and 
 the various meanings and applications which he 
 gives to it. 
 
 Just as Paul found it necessary to frequently 
 repeat this word and consider this doctrine, so we 
 find the necessity among us to-day. It is the 
 one great doctrine about which there is more 
 ignorance and more necessity for understanding 
 than any other that we have to consider. 
 
 What is the meaning of the word ? The word 
 itself means primarily "to make right," and sec- 
 ondarily "to acquit." In order that you may have 
 a proper conception of the word I will give you 
 another meaning which it seems to have : not only 
 "to make right," but "to make right to the point 
 of thinking right," thus showing us that the work 
 itself concerns not simply the adjustment of the 
 wrong, but the adjustment of the wrong in such 
 a way as to put into the mind of the wrongdoer 
 another design. In that sense it seems to involve 
 the whole of man — his mind and his heart. 
 
 Then, in the secondary sense, is the idea of 
 acquittal. We understand what it is to acquit 
 one of a wrong. Now, in the theological sense, 
 the word justification means to comprehend both 
 the idea of "acquittal," and the idea of "making 
 right." 
 
84 Salvation and the Old Theology 
 
 Let us look at it. The idea of acquittal and the 
 idea of making right. A sinner presents him- 
 self to Jesus Christ guilty, undone, and absolutely 
 hopeless. No power in himself to obtain a single 
 solitary thing, and on recognizing his powerless, 
 hopeless, and helpless state, he presents himself 
 to Jesus Christ. 
 
 In presenting himself, two things take place: 
 In the first place he is justified by acq^iittal, and 
 in the next place he is justified by being made 
 right himself. He has his sins covered by the 
 application of the blood, blotting them entirely 
 out of sight, so that, so far as the sin for which 
 he stands judged before the bar of God as guilty, 
 is concerned, in the act of justification that sin is 
 covered, so that as God looks upon the sinner 
 He finds him not in the state that He once found 
 him. He is made right in so far as the sin for 
 which he was condemned is concerned. 
 
 But somebody says, "Isn't that equivalent to 
 the work of regeneration ?" No, the work of re- 
 generation has not yet taken place. In the work 
 of justification, the man is righted so far as the 
 sin for which he is condemned is concerned, be- 
 cause it is covered up, but in the work of regen- 
 eration there is the impartation of another life 
 from above, which is of an entirely different 
 character, and it is a life that hates sin; that 
 loathes sin; that wants to live without sin; that 
 turns from sin. 
 
 The work of regeneration is different from the 
 
Reconciliation and Righteousness 85 
 
 work of justification in that it gives to the man 
 an entirely new nature. The things that he once 
 loved, he now hates. It is the impartation of a 
 new life, a life from above, even the life of 
 God. 
 
 Somebody says, "Isn't that equivalent to the 
 work of sanctification ?" No, it is not. Sancti- 
 fication takes the justified and regenerated soul, 
 that soul which has had its sin covered up and 
 has been reconciled to God, and sets that soul 
 apart to service that is wholly acceptable to God 
 in its everyday life. That is the work of sancti- 
 fication. 
 
 There is nothing that can take place in the fu- 
 ture life of the regenerate soul that cleanses it 
 any more perfectly than it is cleansed in the work 
 of regeneration, for it is as pure and as clean 
 and as spotless as a soul can be made, and hence 
 those people that teach that there must be some 
 future work of sanctification to clear it of dross 
 left on hand at the time of regeneration are teach- 
 ing that which is not taught in the Scriptures. 
 
 From God's standpoint, a man is just as clean 
 when he is born again as he ever can be after- 
 ward. There can take place no process that will 
 cleanse him any more perfectly than he is cleansed 
 in the work of regeneration, because he has got 
 a new heart; a heart that is as much unlike his 
 old heart as his old heart was unlike the original 
 heart that God put in him when He first made 
 him. 
 
86 Salvation and the Old Theology 
 
 Now, let us go back again. What is justifica- 
 tion ? It is the making right of the sinner in the 
 sight of God. Justification is taking the sinner, 
 and covering his sin with the blood of Jesus so 
 that God Himself cannot see that sin. It is abso- 
 lutely and forever put away by the covering of 
 the blood of Jesus. The blood of Jesus is so 
 thick that God's great piercing eye cannot see 
 through it and discover the sin of that sinner 
 that is under the blood. 
 
 That is the work of justification. The sinner 
 now stands free from condemnation under the 
 blood of Jesus. 
 
 If you ask me what part character takes, I 
 tell you, absolutely none. It takes no part in sal- 
 vation at all, only that character is the outcome 
 of salvation. God justifies the sinner by covering 
 up his sin and putting it out of sight, and in that 
 sense only is his character involved. 
 
 Let us take the next great word, which is 
 found in the tenth and eleventh verses, the word 
 "reconciliation." What does it mean? We find 
 that the word from which we get our word recon- 
 ciliation means *'to restore to harmony," and we 
 find that the Greek word is still a stronger word. 
 The Greek word means "to exchange." That is 
 to say, exchange the position of hostility for a 
 position of peace. When we were reconciled, we 
 simply exchanged positions. We were once hos- 
 tile to God, and God was once hostile to us. In 
 the work of reconciliation we have in exchange 
 
Reconciliation and Righteousness 87 
 
 for our hostility the peace of God that passeth 
 understanding. 
 
 Now, this is brought about in this way : First, 
 by a movement on God's part toward us, and that 
 movement always begins with God. The initia- 
 tory move began with God, and in that initiatory 
 movement of God toward the sinner for his 
 reconciliation, there is wrapped up everything 
 that love can possibly do, even to the extent of 
 the death of His own Son. It seems that God 
 exhausted heaven and earth in His effort to save 
 man. He gave His own Son as a last step to 
 impress the race of fallen men with the fact that 
 His great heart of love was sorrowing for them. 
 
 This is the first movement on the part of God 
 to reach and save man. And that movement on 
 the part of God is complemented by a corre- 
 sponding movement on the part of man toward 
 God. God is moving heaven and earth to get to 
 man, and man becomes aware of that fact, and 
 realizing his helpless condition, and seeing that 
 God is moving everything in his direction, he, in 
 turn, begins to move towards God. With God 
 moving manward and man moving Godward it 
 does not take them long to get together, and 
 when they meet the first thing that takes place 
 is this: A change of the sin character of the 
 man himself, and a corresponding change of 
 judgment on the part of God toward man. 
 
 Man comes in contact with God, having his 
 eye of faith centered upon God and His right- 
 
88 Salvation and the Old Theology 
 
 eousness in Jesus Christ, and they meet. That 
 faith is recognized; and at once in the purpose 
 of God the blood of Jesus Christ covers the sin 
 of the man, and he is left standing in the presence 
 of God, after this application of the blood of 
 Jesus, with all of his sin covered. 
 
 Just think of it! A poor, helpless sinner. 
 Somebody flashes the light, and the movement of 
 God toward him is seen and his heart is amazed 
 by this matchless love, and he looks up and grasps 
 by faith the cross and is saved. 
 
 'As we all by foreign guilt 
 
 In Adam are reviled. 
 
 Therefore we all by sovereign grace 
 
 In Christ are reconciled." 
 
 Let us now see the next step: The necessity 
 for all this. In what does the necessity for all 
 this work of God consist? It consists in the one 
 fact of Adam's sin. Never mind what people say 
 about Adam's sin in a jocular way, it is true that 
 the necessity for all this work that we have been 
 considering and are to consider lies in the fact 
 of Adam's sin. 
 
 "But how is man to be held responsible for 
 Adam's sin when he had nothing to do with that 
 sin which Adam committed? How are we to 
 be held responsible for Adam's sin?" somebody 
 says. 
 
Reconciliation and Righteousness 89 
 
 The question grows out of a failure to recog- 
 nize the federal headship of Adam. Adam is the 
 federal head of the race of mankind, and as such 
 he gives coloring to all his children. Here is a 
 father, and he lives in such a way as to contract 
 Bright's disease, and you look down three or four 
 generations and you see a child with puffed eyes 
 and swollen limbs. The doctor is called in, and 
 he soon reveals the fact that that child has 
 Bright's disease, and he goes back to the father 
 and mother and finds Bright's disease; he goes 
 back to the grandfather, and there was Bright's 
 disease; he goes back to the great-grandfather, 
 and there was Bright's disease. 
 
 You say that does not look fair, for that child 
 to suffer for the sin of that parent. No matter 
 whether it is fair or not, it is a fact. 
 
 Now, with respect to this matter of sin : Adam 
 is the federal head of the race, and for Adam's 
 sin the world is suffering. It cannot be other- 
 wise. I remember when I was in England dur- 
 ing the Boer war, I found that very few of the 
 English people were in favor of that war, but the 
 federal head of that government declared war, 
 and to war they had to go. 
 
 If the Congress of the United States were to 
 declare war upon any foreign nation, it would not 
 be a question as to whether we wanted to go to 
 war or not, or whether we believed in war or 
 not. 
 
 During the war between the states my father 
 
90 Salvation and the Old Theology 
 
 never believed in secession. He never believed 
 in slavery. He did not have any negroes to de- 
 fend, and he did not care to defend those of the 
 men that did, but he had to go to war all the 
 same. The federal head said war, and to war he 
 went. * 
 
 So, my friends, it is just that way with respect 
 to Adam's sin. He plunged into sin, and all the 
 race of mankind plunged with him, because he 
 was the federal head of the race. 
 
 What is the consequence of Adam's sin to the 
 world ? First, universal sin ; sin everywhere ; sin 
 among all people; sin for all time to come; sec- 
 ond, universal death. That sort of universalism 
 I know is true. 
 
 It is the strangest thing to me that the people 
 who are always arguing against the justice of the 
 whole race of Adam suffering because of Adam's 
 sin never have one word to say about the fact 
 that death is universal because of Adam's sin. 
 Not only are we guilty in the sight of God be- 
 cause of Adam's sin, but we are condemned to 
 die because of Adam's sin. (i Cor. 15:22: "As 
 in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be 
 made alive," refers to the death and resurrection 
 of the body.) 
 
 You will see by reading the thirteenth verse of 
 this fifth chapter that sin was in the world before 
 the law was given. The law here refers to the 
 law of Moses, and then you will see this also, 
 that sin is not imputed where there is no law. 
 
Reconciliation and Righteousness 91 
 
 What is meant by that? The Apostle says that 
 sin was in the world before the law ; that is to 
 say, the law is not the origin of sin. Sin was 
 here before the law was given. It was here from 
 Adam down to Moses, and has been here ever 
 since. But he says that sin is not imputed where 
 there is no law. 
 
 Are we to understand by that that those people 
 who lived from Adam down to Moses were 
 saved? Were all those people saved? I do not 
 think so, for the law was in their hearts. It 
 means much more than that. It means that the 
 atonement of Jesus Christ is so broad, so big, so 
 deep that it covers all sin up to the point at 
 which a human being reaches a sense of con- 
 scious responsibility. 
 
 It is in that way that we can account for the 
 salvation of infants. There is but one way, and 
 that is in perfect keeping with what is taught 
 here. Infants are saved by the atonement of 
 Christ. The atonement of Jesus Christ was for 
 sin, and nobody will ever get inside of heaven's 
 gate that is not there through the atoning blood 
 of Jesus Christ, but sin is not imputed until the 
 law begins to operate, for it is covered by the 
 blood, but the moment that the law begins to 
 operate, the moment of consciousness of right 
 and wrong and our relation to the great God and 
 His holy law dawns upon us ; then and there sin 
 revives and we become personally accountable for 
 sin. 
 

 92 Salvation and the Old Theology 
 
 But what about the heathen? Every heathen 
 baby born into the world is saved. Why? Be- 
 cause the sin is not imputed to that child until 
 the law is given. But you say, "The heathen in 
 many sections never had the law." Do you not 
 remember that we found that the heathen had the 
 law revealed in their consciences, and in nature, 
 and they went back upon the revelation of God 
 upon their inner consciences and in nature, 
 and thus they were violators of God's law. So it 
 is to-day. But their children do not sin until "the 
 commandment comes" to each little heart; then 
 sin revives and he disobeys and dies. 
 
 I maintain that wherever a man is found in 
 heathen lands without the law and the knowledge 
 of Christ, who lives up to the teaching of God 
 as revealed in his inner conscience and in nature 
 about him; wherever such a man is found, that 
 man is saved. But that is stated only to state 
 another proposition, that that man is never 
 found. 
 
 What is the ground of this reconciliation ? The 
 ground of it is the righteousness of Christ. We 
 have no merit of our own. What is meant by this 
 word righteousness ? Here is another great pivot 
 word. The word righteousness means "adjust- 
 ment to the right." 
 
 What does God demand of man? He can de- 
 mand but one thing of him, and that is absolute 
 righteousness — that he shall be adjusted to the 
 right. God is right: He is the embodiment of 
 
Reconciliation and Righteousness 93 
 
 absolute righteousness, and He cannot demand 
 anything less than that and be righteous Himself 
 and absolutely holy. He has to be complemented 
 if He is to be reconciled to the race. 
 
 Reconciliation presupposes an adjustment of 
 all the existing difficulties, of every single thing 
 that has kept the parties at variance. 
 
 What is the only thing that ever separated God 
 and man? Sin. They would be walking in the 
 Garden of Eden arm in arm now if it had not 
 been for sin. The whole race of Adam would to 
 this day be keeping step with God, never one dy- 
 ing. Sin separated God from man. Sin is the 
 thing that God has to put away before He can 
 be reconciled to man. That is the demand. It is 
 absolute righteousness. 
 
 God saw that the race could not meet His de- 
 mands. He gave Adam instructions as to how 
 to keep His requirements and Adam failed. 
 Then He gave man the law, and the law failed. 
 He put the law in their consciences and in nature, 
 and that failed, and then what? Then He gave 
 Himself. God saw that there was nothing under 
 heaven that man could do, or that He could do 
 for man, that would make him complement His 
 righteousness, so He gave Himself. 
 
 If we could understand that, how it would 
 change our instructions in the inquiry room! If 
 we could make men see that it is simply looking 
 up by faith and receiving the righteousness of 
 Jesus Christ. As I study these truths I see more 
 
94 Salvation and the Old Theology 
 
 fallacy in the teaching that is done in our evan- 
 gelistic services in our effort to lead men to 
 Christ than I ever thought existed. Oh, the need 
 of a more intelligent conception of the great and 
 yet simple scheme of redemption! 
 
IX 
 
 RELATION OF SALVATION TO LIFE 
 Ch. 6:1-14 
 
 I. The Question Stated. 
 
 II. The Answer. 
 
 III. The Argument — Our Union with 
 Christ. 
 
 1. His death. 
 
 2. His burial. 
 
 3. His resurrection. 
 
 4. Baptism. 
 
 IV. The Results that Follow This 
 Union. 
 
 1. Changed relation to sin. 
 
 (a) Not to reign in our mortal bodies. 
 
 (b) Not to present our members as instru- 
 ments of unrighteousness. 
 
 2. Changed relation to righteousness. 
 
 (a) Present bodies to God. (b) Yield mem- 
 bers to righteousness. 
 We have considered the question of God's pro- 
 vision of Salvation. We have seen the method of 
 this provision and the operation of it. Now we 
 come to consider the relation of this salvation to 
 life. 
 
 95 
 
96 Salvation and the Old Theology 
 
 In the first verse we find the Apostle raising 
 the question. "What shall we say then ? shall we 
 continue in sin that grace may abound?" There 
 are men and women to-day who are asking the 
 same question. They are arguing that inasmuch 
 as works have no part in salvation, they will ac- 
 cept the salvation of Jesus Christ, and then sin 
 as much as they please. A man said to me not 
 many days ago, "If I believed as you teach, that 
 salvation is all of grace and not of works, that 
 works play no part in it, I would be the hap- 
 piest man in the world." I said, "That is just 
 exactly how happy we are." "Yes," he said, "but 
 I would be happy because of another reason. I 
 could then sin as much as I pleased and feel 
 sure that the blood of Jesus Christ covered it 
 all up." I said, "My brother, you do not know 
 the full significance of the salvation of Jesus 
 Christ. If you did you would not say that." 
 
 The Apostle Paul was surrounded by those 
 who talked and felt that way, and after he had 
 given them such clear teaching concerning salva- 
 tion by grace, then he began to ask this question 
 of those around him : "Shall we continue in sin 
 that grace may abound?" and his answer is, 
 "God forbid." Then he proceeds to give them 
 the argument. 
 
 It consists in the fact that a saved soul is united 
 with Christ, and this union comes through His 
 death, burial, and resurrection. Then he proceeds 
 to use baptism as an illustration of the complete- 
 
Relation of Salvation to Life 97 
 
 ness and thoroughness of this union with Jesus 
 Christ. 
 
 Now he says this union with Christ that is so 
 complete is a part of His very death, His burial, 
 and His resurrection. I have recently become 
 convicted of this mistake in our teaching concern- 
 ing the cross. We have been placing great stress 
 upon the efficacy of the cross. We have held up 
 the cross perpetually before men, and have done 
 well to do it, for if people do not see Jesus on 
 the cross there is no possible way of salvation, 
 but I believe that we have made a mistake in 
 failing to call upon people who are desirous of 
 salvation to see not only Christ on the cross, but 
 themselves with Christ on the cross. 
 
 Now, the teaching of the Apostle here is : On 
 the cross of Calvary with Jesus Christ, we all 
 died. Some time since Rev. F. B. Meyer and I 
 were talking together and he said to me : "Brother 
 Broughton, I caught a vision the other morning 
 that I never had before. I do not know whether 
 you have ever had it or not, but I want to tell 
 you about it. 
 
 "I had been studying about the cross until I 
 had my soul saturated with it, so saturated that 
 I could not sleep, and I got up and got a pencil 
 and notebook and made a sermon on the cross. 
 I intended to preach that sermon on Sunday 
 morning, and so I got up and dressed myself, and 
 finally was adjusting my tie before the mirror, 
 and just as I finished adjusting my tie, the 
 
98 Salvation and the Old Theology 
 
 thought of the cross came back to my mind, and 
 I began to run over the various points in my ser- 
 mon, when I said to myself, 'Have I ever been 
 on that cross?' Potentially I was on the cross 
 when Jesus hung there, but actually, in experi- 
 ence, have I been on that cross? Have I felt 
 the nails in my hands, and the crown upon my 
 forehead, and the spear in my side? Have I 
 felt the loneliness of Jesus as He hung upon the 
 cross?' and I trembled, and I turned from the 
 mirror and walked up and down and the thought 
 was so overmastering that I dropped down to 
 pray, and still that question came, and I got up 
 from my knees and walked up to that mirror 
 and stood before it and stretched out my arms 
 and looked up to God and said, 'Oh, God, nail 
 these hands with Jesus to the cross !' and I stood 
 there a moment and saw myself actually hang- 
 ing with Jesus with a howling mob at my feet, 
 and from it I had such peace as I never had in 
 my life, and instead of preaching the sermon on 
 the cross, which I had prepared, inviting every- 
 body to look at the cross to be saved, I went 
 before my people that morning and gave them 
 that experience and closed my sermon with an 
 appeal as strong as I could make it for every 
 man and woman to get down before God and 
 never get up until they actually, in experience, 
 saw themselves upon the cross." 
 
 Not only does the Apostle argue that on the 
 cross with Jesus we died, but he argues further 
 
Relation of Salvation to Life 99 
 
 that from the cross with Jesus we were buried; 
 that we were put clean out of sight of the world, 
 and the world out of sight of us; but not only 
 are we united with Him through the cross and 
 burial, but, blessed be God, we are united with 
 Him through the resurrection. As Jesus was 
 raised from the dead, and as He walked in a new 
 atmosphere and a new experience, absolutely 
 separate and distinct from anything and every- 
 thing he had ever experienced before, so we must 
 walk in newness of life. Now that is the close- 
 ness of this union with Christ. 
 
 What is the difference between a saint and a 
 sinner? It is the difference of the grave. Be- 
 tween the saint and the sinner is the open grave, 
 and the sinner is on this side facing it, and the 
 saint is on the resurrection side, leaving it be- 
 hind, having conquered it. He is dead with 
 Christ, buried with Christ, resurrected with 
 Christ. 
 
 I think one of the most important lessons we 
 can possibly get out of this study is this. I 
 would to God that every professed believer in 
 Jesus Christ was really and truly on the resur- 
 rection side of the grave. I would to God that 
 every person I ever baptized in my life was really 
 and truly, as their baptism professes, on the other 
 side of the grave, walking in newness of life, and 
 if our baptism does not mean this, it does not 
 mean anything. It amounts to worse than noth- 
 ing, for it is a mockery in the sight of God. If 
 
loo Salvation and the Old Theology 
 
 our lives are not different from what they were 
 before we were baptized, then we make a mock- 
 ery of God ; we misuse the ordinance of baptism. 
 It is not to get into the Church that people 
 are baptized. Baptism is not the door to the 
 Church. 
 
 But somebody says, ''Did we actually die with 
 Jesus? I have never seen a man yet who ac- 
 tually died when he exercised faith. This old 
 flesh still lives. How, then, did we die with 
 Jesus ?" We died potentially with Jesus. We see 
 from this nth verse that we are to reckon our- 
 selves as dead with Christ ; as buried with Christ ; 
 as resurrected with Christ. "Reckon ye your- 
 selves dead." That is to say, we are by faith to 
 accept Jesus Christ in His atoning work upon the 
 cross as our salvation; then, having accepted 
 Jesus Christ for salvation, we are to treat sin as 
 if we were dead, and give it no more control over 
 us than if we were dead. That is what the Apos- 
 tle Paul meant when he said, ''Reckon yourselves 
 dead." He knows that this old flesh is still alive, 
 tremendously alive, and it has been alive in every 
 man that has lived since he lived, but we are to 
 reckon ourselves dead and treat sin as if we 
 were dead. 
 
 I remember hearing this story : There were two 
 men, both preachers, and they were great friends. 
 They went through the university together, and 
 were inseparable. However, when they grad- 
 uated they were separated. One went as a mis- 
 
Relation of Salvation to Life i o i 
 
 sionary to a far-distant country, and the other 
 stayed in England. Before they separated, each 
 signed a covenant to this effect : If you die first, 
 I will preach your funeral sermon. If I die first, 
 you will preach mine. 
 
 They separated. Years and years passed, and 
 after awhile in the providence of God these two 
 ministers met again, and it was a joyful good 
 time when they met. They talked about the vari- 
 ous things that had transpired. One finally said 
 to the other, ''Look here, do you remember that 
 contract we made when we separated?" 
 
 "Yes, I do." 
 
 "Well, you remember that we agreed to write 
 our funeral sermons and keep them until the 
 time came for their delivery. Did you write 
 yours ?" 
 
 "Yes. Did you write yours?" 
 
 "Have you got your funeral sermon on me?" 
 
 "Yes. Have you got yours on me ?" 
 
 "Well, I declare. Isn't that funny? I tell 
 you — you get yours and I will get mine, and let's 
 get together and we will read what we said then 
 just fresh from the university. And we will see 
 if we have changed our opinions." 
 
 And so they got together with their sermons. 
 Number One got up to preach the funeral sermon 
 of Number Two. He stood in front of him, and 
 began. His oration was very beautiful, and his 
 language was perfect. As he piled it on and 
 on and on, Number Two smiled and said, "Hold 
 
I02 Salvation and the Old Theology 
 
 on!" "No," said Number One, "you keep your 
 seat. You are dead, and dead people don't talk." 
 
 Now, that is just exactly what the Apostle 
 means. We are to reckon ourselves dead. We 
 are to act with relation to sin as if we were dead, 
 and sin is to have no more charm, and no more 
 influence over our lives than if we were dead. 
 
 Then let us see the significance of the result of 
 this union with Christ. The result of this union 
 with Christ is twofold. First, it results in a 
 changed relation to sin; secondly, in a changed 
 relation to righteousness. 
 
 Now, with reference to changed relation to sin, 
 we find this : That we are not to let sin reign in 
 our bodies (verse 12). 
 
 From this I gather that the Apostle means 
 to convey this: That sin is still present in the 
 flesh; hence he says, "Let not sin reign in, or 
 over, your bodies." It is there. It will always be 
 there. 
 
 You know there are certain teachers that teach 
 that through a certain process which they call 
 sanctification, the whole Adamic nature is eradi- 
 cated; that there is therefore no such thing as 
 sin from within; that sin comes to them from 
 without. 
 
 Now, I know some good people who teach that, 
 but they are very, very much mistaken in their 
 teaching, if I know anything at all about the 
 teaching of the Scriptures. Sin never leaves the 
 flesh. That which is flesh is flesh, and that which 
 
Relation of Salvation to Life 103 
 
 is spirit is spirit. Flesh will remain flesh until 
 death. Sin always lives in the flesh, and when 
 I hear men talking to the contrary, I always feel 
 to pity them. I feel for them because I have 
 seen so many wrecks come from that kind of 
 teaching. 
 
 ''Let not sin reign in your mortal bodies. 
 Now we are not to infer that because sin is in the 
 flesh we are just to let sin play havoc with us. 
 That is the very opposite of what he is teaching. 
 He calls us to recognize that sin is present, and 
 also admonishes us to see to it that sin does 
 not get the mastery over us and make us do things 
 that we ought not to do. 
 
 Then again we are admonished not to present 
 our members as instruments of unrighteousness. 
 By members here he means the various faculties 
 and senses of the body. He not only wants us 
 to keep sin from having dominion over the body, 
 but also to be careful that we do not allow our 
 members to become instruments of unrighteous- 
 ness. Now this is the change relative to right- 
 eousness. 
 
 In the first place there was the changed rela- 
 tion with reference to sin. We have a different 
 view of sin and look at sin in an entirely differ- 
 ent way from what we once looked at it. We 
 look at sin now as a dead man, and then, on the 
 other hand, present our bodies as alive from the 
 dead. Present our members as instruments for 
 righteousness. This is an argument against nega- 
 
I04 Salvation and the Old Theology 
 
 tive Christianity, and is one of the things that is 
 needed to be taught. 
 
 How much negative goodness there is in this 
 world! People who are content with not doing 
 any wrong! We find them at conventions and 
 Bible conferences and Bible institutions and the 
 like. They have a kind of craze for going around 
 getting Bible teaching. 
 
 We need our churches filled with men and 
 women who will not do a known wrong, who 
 cannot be bought nor bribed nor bulldozed into 
 doing wrong. I wish we had more of this type of 
 Christians. There are so many jellyfish Chris- 
 tians in our churches. They serve God all right 
 as long as it is easy, but the moment there is a 
 fight on hand they play the coward and skulk 
 off and hide. 
 
 We want men and women who cannot be 
 driven to do wrong, it makes no difference how 
 hard the battle. We want them all filled with 
 the Spirit that enables them to do right in spite 
 of everything; determined not to do wrong, and 
 fully as determined to do right. We do not find 
 many like that. We find a great many who are 
 determined not to do wrong — you cannot hire 
 them to do wrong — but you go to them and say, 
 "Come to prayer-meeting to-night," and they will 
 say, ''Oh, I want to stay at home with my wife 
 and babies to-night!" 
 
X 
 
 RELATION OF SALVATION TO LAW 
 Ch. 6:15-23 
 
 I. The Question Stated. 
 
 II. The Answer. 
 
 III. The Argument. . 
 
 You will see here that the Apostle changes a bit 
 his form of argument. First, he argues from 
 what they were under the law to what they are 
 under grace. 
 
 I. What they were under law. 
 
 (a) Servants of sin. 
 
 (b) Without righteousness. 
 
 (c) Condemned to death. 
 
 2. What they are under grace. 
 
 (a) Free from sin. 
 
 (b) Servants of God. 
 
 The question comes, what are we to do with 
 the law? "What!" said they, "shall we sin be- 
 cause we are not under the law?" The Apostle 
 had during the teaching emphasized the fact that 
 they were not under the law. That question is 
 asked to-day. Men say, "If I am not under the 
 law, but under grace, I can go on and sin and it 
 105 
 
io6 Salvation and the Old Theology- 
 is all right." Now, the Apostle answers, "God 
 forbid." 
 
 Then follows the argument, which is this : 
 First, what we were under the law. What were 
 we under the law? "Servants of sin," properly 
 translated, "slaves to sin." Sin had the mastery 
 over us. Under the law we were "without right- 
 eousness." Why? Because the law could not 
 make one righteous. 
 
 We saw in a former lecture that righteousness 
 is a proper balancing of God; that nothing can 
 balance God but God; no holiness can compare 
 with the righteousness of God. It takes God 
 Himself to balance Himself, and so, without God 
 in Christ Jesus, there can be no righteousness, 
 hence they were under the law, without right- 
 eousness. Being under the law without right- 
 eousness, they were sentenced to eternal death. 
 
 What are we under grace? Now here is the 
 change that has taken place. First, we are "free 
 from sin." I do not mean to say that we are 
 free to sin, but we are free from sin. Not from 
 the actual presence of sin, but free from the 
 dominion of sin's power. The blood of Jesus 
 Christ has covered the sin, and by the Holy Spirit 
 we are given power to keep under subjection the 
 things of the flesh. 
 
 Then, in the next place, we are "servants of 
 God." Free from sin, and servants of God unto 
 righteousness. Not only that, but we are serv- 
 ants of God unto the fruit of "sanctification." 
 
Relation of Salvation to Law 107 
 
 That word sanctification brings us face to face 
 with another pivot word. Since the Apostle has 
 told us that we are ''free from sin unto the right- 
 eousness of God unto sanctification" we need to 
 know what sanctification means. 
 
 The word means to hallow, or consecrate. 
 What is meant by ''hallow"? It means "to set 
 apart for holy use." What is the teaching of the 
 Apostle here? He means that under grace we 
 are saved from sin and are servants of God to 
 righteousness unto the fruit in our daily lives 
 of holy service. That is what he means. 
 
 When is sanctification possible? Is it some 
 after blessing that comes to one long after he has 
 been saved ? Is it some great experience that one 
 attains to but never realizes until he dies ? When 
 is sanctification possible? Potentially, sanctifi- 
 cation is when a man is saved. When a man is 
 saved he is saved, sanctified and Spirit-filled so 
 far as the provision of God is concerned, but he 
 is not sanctified, he is not Spirit-filled, so far as 
 his experience goes, until he comes to the full 
 appreciation and realization of what God has for 
 him in his salvation. 
 
 It is just like this : I have a deed to a tract of 
 land in the mountains of Georgia, and I have 
 worked that land and have gotten a bit out of it, 
 but have never been made rich by it ; still I would 
 not part with it for a good deal. I work it and 
 get everything out of it that I can. After a while 
 a man comes along who is an expert and on my 
 
loS Salvation and the Old Theology 
 
 land he discovers a lead mine, and later on a gold 
 mine. 
 
 He comes to me and says, "Do you know that 
 you have a gold mine and a lead mine on this 
 tract of land ?" I go with him and find that it is 
 so. "Now," he says, "I want to tell you what 
 I will do. I will give you millions of dollars for 
 that piece of land, or you can work it yourself 
 and make millions." 
 
 Provisionally, I had all that when I got my 
 deed, but I did not know it, so I spent my time 
 bringing up corn nubbins when I could have been 
 bringing up gold and lead. 
 
 Provisionally, when I was saved I was sancti- 
 fied, and filled with the Spirit. I had every gift 
 that God had to bestow upon the Christian life, 
 but I did not know it. One day someone came 
 along and taught me about my righteousness in 
 Christ Jesus; that I died on the cross with 
 Him. I tell you, when a man puts his hand in 
 the hand of Jesus and has the nails driven 
 through, he has got everything that God has 
 got. God will impoverish heaven to bless such 
 an one. 
 
 When I was told about this and realized it, I 
 simply stretched out my faith and took it in. 
 Now, that may have been long after I was saved, 
 or it may have been at the time I was saved. 
 Most people are not properly taught, and there- 
 fore there is generally a vast difference in the 
 point of time between the experience of sancti- 
 
Relation of Salvation to Law 1 09 
 
 fication, or the filling of the Spirit and their salva- 
 tion. 
 
 When one does have the experience of sancti- 
 fication, does it necessarily make him have 
 strange emotion? 
 
 There is a lot of talk that is purely human. 
 It is worked-up enthusiasm. It is fox-fires that 
 shine in the dark and then go out in the light. 
 
 The experience of sanctification that I find 
 taught here in the Scriptures is nothing more nor 
 less than this : A coming to that place where the 
 soul realizes the fullness of God in salvation, and 
 yields to it and appropriates it; then God takes 
 that yielded life, fully yielded without any 
 reservation whatever, and sets it apart for holy 
 service, it may be in the kitchen; it may be in 
 the nursery with the children; it may be in the 
 shop, or it may be in the pulpit. 
 
 No bells are rung in heaven to announce the 
 fact. No bells are needed. You do not have 
 to tell it, the world will find it out. There is not 
 enough power in the universe to keep down a 
 wholly sanctified life. What we want is the reali- 
 zation by our hearts of the sanctification of the 
 Spirit. 
 
XI 
 
 FREEDOM FROM THE LAW 
 Ch. 7:1-12 
 I. How Brought About. 
 n. The Result. 
 
 1. Joined to Christ. 
 
 2. Fruit unto God. 
 
 3. The Newness of the Spirit. 
 
 The first six verses of chapter seven reveal 
 to us the fact of our freedom from the law, and 
 I am sure that we are rejoicing in the fact that 
 we are free from the law. I am sure I am, for 
 there is nothing to me more galling than legalism. 
 There are a great many Christian people who are 
 constantly in dread of the loss of their religion, 
 as they call it, because of the fact that they vio- 
 late some phase of the law ; then there are those 
 who are constantly in this dread lest they fail 
 to do something required by the law. 
 
 I know people to-day, very good people, whose 
 hope of heaven is largely made up of the hope 
 that they are, through strenuous endeavor, keep- 
 ing the requirements of the law ; that is, that they 
 are not doing any conscious wrong. 
 
 There are others who are trusting in heaven 
 no 
 
Freedom from the Law 1 1 1 
 
 as the final outcome of their Hfe of service, that 
 they are doing what they feel to be the require- 
 ments of God. Now, I verily believe that this 
 fact accounts for so much of what is called in 
 this country "back-sliding." You go to the peo- 
 ple in the average congregation and talk to them 
 about their spiritual life and many will say to 
 you, **I was a Christian, but am not now." '*I 
 once had a hope of heaven, but have not now." 
 "I am sure I was saved once, but I did this, and 
 I did that, and therefore I am without hope and 
 without God. I am a sinner, and if I were to die 
 I would go to a Christless grave." 
 
 I find that kind of people everywhere I go. I 
 believe that it is especially true of this section 
 of the country. I am not prepared to account for 
 it except that there has been a lack of the proper 
 kind of teaching with respect to salvation. Men 
 from the platform have not been taught really 
 what salvation is, and how salvation is obtained, 
 and how salvation is maintained. 
 
 Then again you know there are a great many 
 good people who are straining almost to death, 
 straining to a point of living miserable lives, try- 
 ing to keep certain requirements that are laid 
 down, not by the law of God, but laid down by 
 the law of men, and I do not know of anything 
 that will so gall a Christian and destroy his peace 
 and joy and happiness, and his usefulness as well, 
 as an effort to try to keep certain laws made by 
 man for the government of the spiritual life. 
 
1 1 2 Salvation and the Old Theology 
 
 I have made up my mind that no man shall 
 make a law for me. No man shall make a law 
 for me to conform my life to. I do not mean 
 to say that we are to ignore the advice of men; 
 nor do I mean to say that we are to ignore the 
 teaching or requirements of the law ; but I do 
 say, when the final disposition is made, every man 
 in his own conscience before God has got to say 
 whether he will do this or whether he will do that, 
 and so let us be careful that we do not practice a 
 religion that makes us miserable. 
 
 But, remember : Being conscientious does not 
 make a thing right, yet every man must act in 
 accord with his own conscience and be judged at 
 last for his own conduct, and no sort of a plea 
 will do him any good that sets up the moral 
 judgment of anybody else in his defence. 
 
 I have found that those people who are most 
 exacting in their requirements of certain stand- 
 ards of their fellowman are very careless about 
 the standards that they set up for their own lives. 
 They want to prescribe a course for other men 
 and then deny other men any right to prescribe 
 for them. 
 
 For example, on one occasion I remember a 
 member of this church took me very strongly to 
 task for favoring what we call here our "Lecture 
 Course." After I had brought every sort of ar- 
 gument to bear upon him, showing him that this 
 was a part of our general educational system, he 
 came back at me by quoting, ''But if eating meat 
 
Freedom from the Law 113 
 
 cause my brother to offend, I will eat no meat 
 while the world stand." 
 
 I said, "My brother, you forget the fact that 
 you work on Sunday; that almost every Sunday 
 you put on your overalls, get on your engine and 
 ride off. There are other men who would not 
 do what you do." 
 
 Now, that is exactly what I am talking about. 
 We ought to see to it that no man shall rob us of 
 the joy and peace and personal liberty of going 
 to Jesus Christ and asking Him to reveal to us 
 what is right and what is wrong. 
 
 Now then, the Apostle goes on in this sec- 
 tion of this chapter to show us how this liberty 
 of which we have been speaking is brought about. 
 It is brought about, in the first place, by the death 
 of Christ. We have seen before how this op- 
 erates. The requirement of God is the righteous- 
 ness of man, and man was given the law in part 
 to reveal the righteousness of God. The law was 
 given that man might look into the holy char- 
 acter of God ; and, looking through the law at the 
 holy character of God, man saw that it was im- 
 possible for him to measure up to it. And then, 
 too, when the other fact is revealed that the law 
 is a revelation of the extent of sin in the human 
 heart, he was still further from complying with 
 God's righteousness. Jesus Christ was the only 
 one who fulfilled the requirement of the law, and 
 not only did that, but died on the cross, making 
 a propitiation for the sins of the world, blotting 
 
114 Salvation and the Old Theology 
 
 out the inherited sin and the accumulated sin, 
 Himself fulfilling the law, satisfying divine jus- 
 tice; then through faith in Him we obtain His 
 righteousness which satisfies the demand of God. 
 When this is done, the sinner is free from the 
 law, because Jesus has satisfied the demand of 
 the law, and we have accepted Christ; and all 
 that He has done for us becomes ours by faith. 
 Our righteousness consists not in a law that we 
 ourselves satisfy, but in a law that has in every 
 detail been satisfied by Jesus Christ. Our right- 
 eousness is hid in Christ and His righteousness is 
 in us. Oftentimes, I am sorry to say, it is "hid 
 in us," which ought not to be the fact. 
 
 Now, take another subject. The result of this 
 great transaction is that we are joined to Christ. 
 Many of you have read of the Siamese twins. 
 They were separate in every particular, and yet 
 they were one. The same blood that pulsated in 
 the heart of one pulsated in the heart of the other. 
 The same life that was lived by one was lived by 
 the other. Where one went the other went. 
 When one stood the other stood. One man would 
 go over and work his field one day, and they 
 would both go to the other man's field the next 
 day. They were different in every particular, and 
 one in every particular that was essential. 
 
 Now, that is my conception of what the Apos- 
 tle means when he says, "Joined with Christ in 
 the freedom that His death brings from the law." 
 We are different ; Christ lives to-day in one world 
 
Freedom from the Law 
 
 "5 
 
 bodily, we live in another. Christ has one physi- 
 cal appearance, we have another, but we are one 
 in spite of that. Where Christ goes we go. 
 Where we go Christ goes; for the same spirit 
 that pulsates in the heart of Christ pulsates in 
 the heart of His children. 
 
 When I came across that thought in studying 
 this lesson, it thrilled me to the full. To think 
 that I am essentially one with Him, and then, 
 blessed be God, He is one with me. I not only 
 have imputed righteousness, but, thanks to God ! 
 there is the possibility of imparted right- 
 eousness ; that is, the very character and disposi- 
 tion of Christ imparted to us which becomes our 
 character and our disposition. 
 
 Now then, further, there is the fruit unto God. 
 We have been talking about the liberty that we 
 have in Christ Jesus. Don't imagine that the 
 Apostle Paul is teaching license. There is no 
 such thing as license to sin, because we are free 
 from the law. Far from it. In Christ Jesus 
 freed from the law, joined to Him by the tie of 
 faith, our fruit is unto Him. 
 
 But you say : "What relation does the law have 
 to one after he is thus joined to Christ?" The 
 law has to him this relation : Jesus Christ thought 
 enough of the law to keep it. I am in Chirst 
 Jesus and I have that same spirit that enabled 
 Jesus to keep the law, and it will enable me to 
 do the same thing. I please Him by abiding 
 in Him, and He keeps the law. It will be a 
 
1 1 6 Salvation and the Old Theology 
 
 happy day for us when we cease trying to fill the 
 law by physical and mental effort. It was a happy 
 day for me when I came to see that all that a 
 man needs is the indwelling Spirit teaching him, 
 guiding him, directing him, doing for him the 
 things that he could not do for himself. That is 
 the only way men grow in grace. 
 
 The average man begins to try to grow in grace 
 by his own effort. He starts out by resolving, 
 "I will do this and that and the other," and 'T 
 will not do this and that and the other." He will 
 not grow in grace. He will become a whining 
 spiritual dyspeptic. Growth in grace does not 
 come that way. "The fruit of the spirit is love, 
 joy," etc. 
 
 The fruit of the spirit — the indwelling Christ 
 having been given perfect right of way in our 
 hearts — will bear the fruit of grace in our lives. 
 It is Christ in man that does the work. Oh, that 
 we would put the responsibility where he delights 
 to have it put. That is the law of growth. 
 
 Then, in the next place, you will see that this 
 is service in Christ Jesus in **the newness of the 
 spirit," and not in the oldness of the letter. This 
 word spirit is not the Holy Spirit. In the new- 
 ness of the spirit; that is to say, having accepted 
 Christ as our Saviour, having been freed by Him 
 through this acceptance, freed from the galling of 
 the law and given the liberty that is in Him, then 
 our fruit is unto God and it is rendered with a 
 willing spirit in us. A man who is going to hold 
 
Freedom from the Law 117 
 
 out in the Christian Hfe is the man that is wilHng 
 to hold out. The girl who won't go to the theater 
 any more is the girl who has been taught by the 
 Spirit that the theater is wrong. The girl who 
 will go back to the theater is the one who has 
 been told that if she goes to the theater she 
 will have to get out of the Church. She says, 
 "Well, there is no harm in it, but I will quit." 
 Unless there comes a change in her heart that 
 enables her to see that it is wrong, she will go 
 back to it. 
 
 What the Apostle is trying to impress is that 
 the proper life for the Christian to live is a life 
 of willing service unto God; desiring to please 
 God ; loving to please God. That will be true of 
 every genuinely converted soul. 
 
XII 
 
 THE CHARACTER AND PURPOSE OF 
 THE LAW 
 
 Ch. 7:7-13 
 
 I. Not Sin. 
 
 II. Revealed Sin. 
 
 III. The Argument. 
 
 1. The Spiritual and the Carnal. 
 
 2. Carnal Operations. 
 
 3. The Final Conclusions. 
 
 One will ask, What, then, is the purpose of the 
 law? Why is there any sort of legalism used 
 at all? 
 
 The Apostle, I think, very clearly answers that 
 question. In the first place, he declares that the 
 law is not sin. He found some that seemed to 
 think that it was sin. The law in itself is not 
 sin, it is a right thing. It is a good thing, a holy 
 thing, a righteous thing when it is properly under- 
 stood and properly lived up to. It is a good 
 thing in that it reveals sin, and further, in that 
 it reveals the exceeding sinfulness of sin. 
 
 Then he goes on to say in a very interesting 
 way in this eighth and in the ninth verse : "Sin, 
 finding occasion, wrought in me through the com- 
 118 
 
Character and Purpose of the Law 1 1 9 
 
 mandment all manner of coveting ; for apart from 
 the law sin is dead. And I was alive apart from 
 the law once; but when the commandment came, 
 sin revived and I died; and the commandment 
 which was unto life, this I found to be unto 
 death ; for sin, finding occasion, through the com- 
 mandment beguiled me and through it slew me." 
 
 We saw back yonder that sin was not imputed 
 where there was no law. It was there, but it had 
 not been imputed. That is what he means to 
 teach here — that, until the law came, there was no 
 sin. It was not imputed, but when the law came 
 sin was revived in that the law pointed out that 
 which was displeasing to God, both directly and 
 by reason of the fact that it revealed the holiness 
 of God Himself. 
 
 And so with us to-day. The law is used to- 
 day as the discoverer and revealer of sin, but 
 when it has revealed sin to us, the law has noth- 
 ing further to do with us. Our responsibility is 
 to deal with the things that the law has revealed, 
 and that is the final issue that has to be settled on 
 the cross. 
 
 Next, let us take the argument — "the law of 
 good and evil." Begin with the fourteenth verse, 
 "For we know that the law is spiritual ; but I am 
 carnal, sold under sin." We have had in our past 
 studies certain great pivot words. Now we have 
 another one of them. It is a word that is used 
 over and over again in Paul's writings in his vari- 
 ous Epistles, and we need a good and thorough 
 
1 20 Salvation and the Old Theology 
 
 and accurate understanding of the meaning of the 
 word "carnal." 
 
 There are two Greek words from which we get 
 our English word carnal, and these two Greek 
 words, while they look alike, and sound alike, are 
 very different. The first is the word sarkikos, 
 which means being under the control of the ani- 
 mal appetites. The other word, which is trans- 
 lated carnal, is the Greek word sarkinos, the 
 difference lying in one letter, but it is a vastly 
 different word. This word sarkinos refers to 
 the material out of which a thing is made. It de- 
 notes simply the material of which human nature 
 itself is composed. Paul says, "I am carnal." 
 What does he mean? Does he mean to say that 
 he was living a life under the control of his 
 animal appetites ? He an inspired mxan ! That is 
 the way that the world is oftentimes comforting 
 itself in its low life of sin, and certainly that is 
 the way in which many Christian people excuse 
 themselves for living a life of sin. They say, 
 "Well, Paul said that he was carnal, and if Paul 
 was living a carnal life, why, I do not see 
 how I could expect to live any other life than 
 that." 
 
 Is that what the Apostle means? No! That 
 is not what he says. If that is what he means, 
 then this word carnal here translated carnal in 
 our English would be the word sarkikos, which 
 means being controlled by fleshly, sinful appetites. 
 But it is not the word sarkikos. It is sarkinos, 
 
Character and Purpose of the Law 121 
 
 which means, "I still have the material that is 
 susceptible to sin. I still have this old flesh life 
 to deal with. I still have to reckon with this 
 nature of mine, which is tending ever toward 
 sin." 
 
 That is what he means, and he does not mean, 
 and do not let us ever accuse the Apostle Paul 
 of teaching, that he got no higher in this seventh 
 chapter than a life mastered by sinful appetites, 
 for it is not so. He was living the sarkinos life, 
 a life that tabernacles yet awhile in the flesh, but 
 a life that had gotten the victory over the ap- 
 petites of this old sinful flesh, and was keeping 
 it under subjection by the power of the indwell- 
 ing spirit. 
 
 Adam, when he was put in the Garden of Eden, 
 was given the sarkinos life. He yielded to the 
 tempter, and fell into the sarkikos life. He was 
 mastered by the appetite that came from the ma- 
 terial that God gave him. 
 
 Now, we do not inherit the nature of the un- 
 fallen Adam. We do not trace our inheritance 
 back beyond the fall. We inherit the nature of 
 the fallen Adam. We inherit the sarkikos life. 
 That is where we get our start, and that is where 
 we are found in our unregenerate state. Re- 
 generation comes in and prepares the way for 
 that other life. Christ enthroned in the human 
 heart changes the sarkikos to sarkinos. 
 
 Now, I think that this point is very important, 
 because there are two classes of teachers in the 
 
122 Salvation and the Old Theology 
 
 world to-day that are teaching hoHness. One 
 teaches that hohness is the eradication of the en- 
 tire Adamic nature, taking the whole business 
 outside of us; not only transforming the spirit, 
 but the flesh, and not only transforming it, but 
 eradicating every vestige of the Adamic nature 
 that is within the flesh. That is a tremendously 
 dangerous thing, when a man comes to believe 
 that all sin is without, and that anything that 
 originates within is not sin; the next thing is in- 
 deed sin and disgrace and ruin. 
 
 Now, we find further in this argument in the 
 seventh chapter that the Apostle brings out the 
 idea of a dual life. He has been hinting at it 
 up to this time. There are two powers at work 
 in one body : one is flesh, the other is Spirit ; one 
 is Jesus Christ by the Spirit, the other is the 
 devil. Now, the Apostle's argument is that these 
 two powers are at perpetual war with each other ; 
 one dwelling in the flesh, the other dwelling in 
 the Spirit; the flesh warring against the Spirit, 
 the Spirit warring against the flesh. 
 
 Is that not your experience? God knows that 
 is my experience; not because I want it to be, 
 but because I know it is. I know that there 
 is a perpetual warfare going on; that in me there 
 is something that wants to obey the devil, and at 
 the same time there is, since my salvation, that 
 which wishes to do right and be right. I know 
 that, and I know that it is very hard for me 
 to keep from yielding to the desire to do wrong ; 
 
Character and Purpose of the Law 123 
 
 there is something in me that wants to obey the 
 devil, but I know that it is possible for me to 
 overcome the demands of the devil and triumph 
 over sin, and, not by my own strength, but by the 
 indwelling Spirit, I am able to do it. 
 
 But the Apostle Paul says, ''When I would do 
 good evil is present." Now, Paul is not giving 
 an experience here. He is stating a condition of 
 the regenerated soul when simply left to itself; 
 when it trusts itself. - 
 
 The regenerate soul is yet hampered and held 
 down. Regeneration in itself, with nothing else 
 to rely upon, will not bring forth the fruit of 
 righteousness. 
 
 When a man says, "Oh, regeneration is 
 enough!" I say, it is not enough. I think Evan 
 Hopkins has put that perhaps as well as any man 
 can. He uses this illustration. He says, the 
 natural condition of iron is, first, black, then hard, 
 and then cold. But when the heat is applied to 
 the iron one cannot say any more than it is black 
 and cold and hard. It is the same iron, but it 
 is not black, nor cold, nor hard. What makes 
 the difference? It is the heat that has changed 
 it, and so long as it has the heat it will be 
 changed. 
 
 The saved soul is regenerated, but it taber- 
 nacles in the flesh, the tendency of which is to- 
 ward evil, but when the heat and the fire of the 
 Holy Ghost perpetually burn in the soul, then 
 this flesh itself is brought under the mastery of 
 
1 24 Salvation and the Old Theology 
 
 the heat, and it is not what it was. But let the 
 fire die out, and then there is the same con- 
 dition. 
 
 Peter, on the boat, saw something that looked 
 like a ghost, and recognized that it was Jesus, 
 and he said, "Lord, if it be Thou, bid me come 
 to Thee," and then he heard the word ''come," 
 and when he heard it he leaped out and walked 
 upon the sea. You say that God performed a 
 miracle. "Not that," says Mr. Hopkins. "He 
 did not walk upon the sea. He walked upon Jesus 
 Christ's 'come.' He walked upon faith. Jesus 
 Christ flung out His word 'come' and it caught up 
 Peter's feet." 
 
 There are two regiments encamped in barracks ; 
 one regiment on the lower floor, the other above. 
 After a while this regiment on the lower floor 
 gets obstreperous so that there is no peace, no 
 rest, and the men upstairs look down on the men 
 downstairs and say, "Keep quiet, down there!" 
 The ones downstairs say, "We will make all the 
 racket we please," and so on it goes. 
 
 That is the average life of the average Chris- 
 tian. He is saved — regenerated — but there are 
 the two natures. There is the nature upstairs and 
 the nature downstairs. The average Christian is 
 just content with drifting along. We say to this 
 old flesh life, "I wish you would keep quiet." 
 The flesh life says, "You attend to your own 
 business." This is the war that is going on in 
 the life of the Christian. 
 
Character and Purpose of the Law 125 
 
 This is the Hfe of which the Apostle is speak- 
 ing when he is describing here the condition of 
 the soul regenerated when left to itself. 
 
 Thank God, there is another life. Let us go 
 back to our illustration of the soldiers in bar- 
 racks. Those men upstairs find that they are 
 powerless to keep those men downstairs under 
 control, and so they reason within themselves and 
 say, 'There is an officer out yonder who can 
 command everything here. Let us call him in and 
 tell him about it." And they call the officer and 
 tell him that they cannot have any peace; that 
 they wish he would stop those fellows, and just 
 stay in and master things. Now, what follows? 
 He says to the fellows on the bottom floor, "You 
 get into your bunks and go to sleep and keep 
 still." They crawl in and quiet down, and he 
 is the master of the situation. They are bound 
 to obey him, and so there is no more trouble; 
 now there are victory, peace, and joy. 
 
 Now, that is the life of victory. Here is the 
 devil tabernacled in this flesh with us, and he 
 is determined to keep up a perpetual war with 
 the Spirit, and he is going to give us all sorts 
 of trouble, and in our own strength we try to 
 keep him down, but we cannot; but as we go 
 over into the eighth chapter of Romans we shall 
 find that there is an officer-of-the-day in charge, 
 thank God; an officer who has got more power 
 than the devil. I pity the man who thinks that 
 the devil has got as much power as God. 
 
126 Salvation and the Old Theology 
 
 When we see that we cannot live the life by 
 ourselves, we say to Him, "Oh, thou officer, come. 
 Do that which we cannot ourselves do." Then 
 He takes the scepter in His hand and keeps down 
 the devil and enables the child of God to live a 
 victorious life. 
 
XIII 
 
 THE LIFE OF VICTORY— No. i 
 Ch.S 
 
 I. The Foundation. 
 
 1. In Christ. 
 
 2. For the Present. 
 
 3. From the Heart. 
 
 II. The Contrast. 
 
 I. The Life of the Flesh. 
 
 (a) Mind the things of the flesh. 
 
 (b) Enmity against God. 
 
 (c) Not subject to His Law. 
 
 (d) Cannot please God. 
 
 In studying this eighth chapter we must keep 
 in mind the teaching of the seventh. The seventh 
 chapter reveals to us the average Christian life 
 that we see lived before us every day. Alas, 
 it is the life that too many of us are contented 
 with. It is the up and down life. The eighth 
 chapter reveals to us a better life, and gives to 
 us the one way for living this better life. It is 
 this eighth chapter that we are now to study, and 
 I pray God that each of us may get the lesson 
 out of it that is most needed in our own lives. 
 
 First, let us see the foundation of the life of 
 victory. 
 
 127 
 
128 Salvation and the Old Theology 
 
 We understand, of course, that there is no life 
 of victory without a proper foundation. The 
 foundation that Paul builds upon here is found 
 in this first verse. The foundation for the life 
 of victory is, first of all, in Christ Jesus. 
 
 The man or woman who is not rooted in Christ 
 Jesus need never contemplate living the life of 
 victory. There is no victory over sin to the man 
 or woman who is not founded upon Christ, and 
 the quicker the world learns this fact, the better 
 the world is going to be. When the world thor- 
 oughly realizes that truth it will cease to depend 
 on reformation. It will cease in any sense to 
 hold up to men, as a hope for a life of victory, 
 the mere resolve of their hearts to live a better 
 life. 
 
 If I may speak out of my own heart, I want to 
 say that I have of late been more and more con- 
 vinced of the folly of attempting to build up this 
 world in righteous living by a reformatory proc- 
 ess. I do not mean that we are not to be inter- 
 ested in public reforms, but I do mean to say that 
 these things are to be very incidental; that the 
 only thing in this world that can reform the com- 
 munity and the people is the thing that is to re- 
 form the individual, and that is a life hid in Jesus 
 Christ. Christ Jesus must be the bed-rock, and 
 if we have not Christ Jesus in our hearts, and 
 if we are not wholly and completely relying upon 
 Him as our foundation, there is no need that we 
 should consider further the life of victory, for 
 
The Life of Victory 129 
 
 there is no life of victory without Jesus Christ, 
 and then we want to realize that this life of vic- 
 tory is for the present and not the future simply. 
 
 Too many of us have been looking forward to 
 the time when we would be free, when the dead 
 are to be judged; then we have in some way 
 trusted that we shall be set free from all the 
 entanglements of the flesh and enter upon a life 
 of victory. 
 
 The Apostle holds up to us the idea of present 
 victory, based upon the fact that Jesus Christ is 
 the foundation. 'There is therefore no condem- 
 nation to them that are in Christ Jesus." We 
 do not have to wait until we die to get deliver- 
 ance. We do not have to wait until we die to 
 have the yoke of bondage broken. We do not 
 have to wait until we die to be delivered from the 
 things that bind and grind. Thank God, we have 
 the power to get deliverance now. 
 
 In the provision of God deliverance comes with 
 regeneration. It is a privilege for us to appro- 
 priate when we will, but so many of us fail to 
 realize the fact that there is in regeneration com- 
 plete and perfect deliverance from the things that 
 bind us to this earth. It does seem to me that 
 we need to do more preaching along the line 
 of the fullness of the provision that God has 
 made for the soul and the life in the one great 
 work on the cross. 
 
 Then, too, we need to realize that this deliver- 
 ance comes through surrender to the Lord Jesus 
 
130 Salvation and the Old Theology 
 
 Christ for the work of His purifying grace, and 
 that is clearly seen in this one little word "there- 
 fore." 'There is therefore no condemnation." 
 This word "therefore," to be properly under- 
 stood, must connect the 25th verse of the seventh 
 chapter with the first verse of the eighth. 
 
 Paul closes up the seventh chapter with these 
 words: "Oh, wretched man that I am! Who 
 shall deliver me out of the body of this death? 
 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So 
 then I myself with the mind serve the law of 
 God; but with the flesh the law of sin. There- 
 fore there is now no condemnation to them that 
 are in Christ Jesus." The word "mind" should 
 properly be translated "heart." 
 
 Deliverance from bondage comes by the way 
 of the heart. We saw in the seventh chapter 
 that there are two powers at work in the same 
 individual, the power of the Spirit and the power 
 of the flesh or the devil. And there is a per- 
 petual warfare between these two powers, and in 
 that seventh chapter we saw that at one time 
 one was on top and at another time the other 
 was on top. But the Apostle closes the seventh 
 chapter with the statement that while this is true, 
 his heart was set on God, and because his heart 
 was set on God there is now no condemnation. 
 We can easily determine whether or not we are 
 in the attitude of deliverance. That is, we may 
 not have received the complete deliverance, but 
 we can at least understand whether or not we are 
 
The Life of Victory 131 
 
 in the proper attitude to receive the deHverance 
 of God. That attitude is determined altogether 
 by our hearts. I know whether or not my heart 
 is stayed upon God. I know whether it is my 
 chiefest desire to serve God, and you know 
 whether or not it is your chiefest desire to serve 
 God, and if that be true God accepts that earnest 
 desire of the heart to please Him; He accepts 
 that desire and registers it as a righteous heart. 
 God gives us deliverance according to the appro- 
 priation we make of the things He has provided 
 for the deliverance. 
 
 And so, as we start this eighth chapter, let 
 us understand that the whole question of victory 
 is dependent, first of all, upon the foundation that 
 we have for it. If Jesus Christ is the foundation 
 upon which we shall attempt to build, then there 
 is hope; but if Jesus Christ is not, and we can 
 determine that question by the attitude of our 
 hearts, then the first thing for us to do is to get 
 in right relation with God through Jesus Christ. 
 The first thing to do is to get right with Him, 
 and we get right with Him only when we get 
 right with Jesus. 
 
 Presuming that we are in right relation with 
 Christ, that He is our foundation, that our hearts 
 are fixed upon Him, that our chiefest desire is 
 to serve God, then we are prepared to go fur- 
 ther into the study of the means and method and 
 result of a life of victory, all of which is told in 
 this wonderful eighth chapter. 
 
132 Salvation and the Old Theology 
 
 The next thing that the Apostle shows is the 
 contrast between the Hfe of victory and defeat, 
 and it is very interesting to note the character of 
 this contrast; the contrast between defeat and 
 victory; the flesh and the spirit, as he de- 
 nominates it. 
 
 The first thing you will note is concerning the 
 life of defeat, or the life of the flesh. What 
 is the life of the flesh? 
 
 What is the character of the life of the flesh, 
 or the defeated Christian; the man who is to- 
 day up and to-morrow down ; what is the general 
 drift of this man's life? It is that he minds the 
 things of the flesh. And what do we understand 
 by the flesh? Here is one definition: "Self." 
 
 When you have considered self, you have con- 
 sidered the flesh. Anything under the sun that 
 is for the gratification of self is of the flesh 
 alone. The man who is a defeated man in his 
 Christian life is a man who lives for the things 
 of the flesh ; he loves the things of the flesh ; he is 
 careful about the things of the flesh; concerned 
 about the things of the flesh. 
 
 Then, in the next place, he is at enmity against 
 God, because God is against the flesh ; God stands 
 against the flesh life; God is tremendously op- 
 posed to selfishness; there is nothing that He 
 hates more than selfishness. 
 
 n that be true I do not see how God can put 
 up with the average man and woman in the 
 Church, for it does seem to me that Christian 
 
The Life of Victory 133 
 
 people, of all people, are the most squeamish 
 about the gratification of the flesh. 
 
 A man who minds the things of the flesh can- 
 not be in right relation to God, for God has put 
 Himself in the exact opposite position to selfish- 
 ness. Everything that God has is at the disposal 
 of the world. Everything that He ever made He 
 made for somebody else to enjoy. Everything 
 that God has is to be given away even to the ex- 
 tent of giving away His own Son, absolutely turn- 
 ing Him loose to be loved and sought for and 
 enjoyed by the world. That is how benevolent 
 God is. That is the way God has put Himself 
 out to bless and honor the race that He made, and 
 yet, see how different it is with us. 
 
 How many of us are so selfish as to want to 
 enjoy every good thing that we can get our hands 
 on for ourselves. If we build a fine house, we 
 build it to enjoy it. H we get a new piece of 
 furniture, it is that we may enjoy it; we never 
 think about buying it that somebody else may 
 enjoy it. Whatever we get, we get for the gratifi- 
 cation and comfort of ourselves, and yet we call 
 ourselves Christians, and sometimes talk about 
 having entered the life of victory. I am afraid 
 very few of us know anything about the life of 
 victory, for there can be no life of victory until 
 we have come to the place where we are, like 
 God, unselfish in the things we have been given. 
 
 No man can live a victorious life until he lives 
 for the comfort of other people ; every possession 
 
1 34 Salvation and the Old Theology 
 
 of the victorious man is for the comfort of other 
 people; every dollar of money is for the blessing 
 of other people ; every talent is for the helping of 
 other people; and if I know anything about an 
 unselfish life, it consists in the fact that a man 
 gives his life for others. Jesus Christ never could 
 have laid claim to an unselfish life if He had 
 stopped short of that, and however much we may 
 testify or lay claims to exalted position in Christ ; 
 however much we may serve or give money; 
 however loud we may talk and proclaim — the 
 real test of the life of victory lies in the extent 
 to which a man gives what he has for other 
 people. 
 
 I think one of the clearest and most blessed 
 exhibitions of this unselfish life of victory that I 
 know anything about is found in a home near 
 Birmingham, England; the home of the Cad- 
 burys. It is a most magnificent palace. I never 
 saw a more beautiful place in my life. Thou- 
 sands and thousands of dollars have been spent 
 in that home. You may say that it is selfishness 
 to spend so much money upon a home. 
 
 Listen to the rest of the story. Now and then, 
 the working people from Birmingham are invited 
 into that home and entertained in the magnifi- 
 cent hall, where a great pipe organ has been built. 
 After the entertainment and the reception are 
 over, then the Word of God is opened and ex- 
 pounded by the head of that home. Every now 
 and then working people are invited upon those 
 
The Life of Victory 135 
 
 lawns and tea is served and other refreshments; 
 and the children from the crowded tenements 
 meet on this magnificent lawn, romp and play and 
 enjoy the fresh air and the companionship of 
 those godly people whom He has so blessed with 
 worldly abundance. 
 
 That is what I call an unselfish use of money. 
 Mrs. Cadbury said to me once : "Why, I could 
 never think of enjoying all of this by myself. 
 The only reason why I have all this is that I may 
 use it to bless and comfort the people who never 
 would have a chance otherwise to see it." 
 
 That is the way to spend money. Let us not 
 talk about any further steps in the life of victory 
 until we have stopped long enough to settle this 
 question with all that we have: whether it is 
 talent, or money, or position, or what, whatever 
 we have is for the benefit of the people. There 
 can be no victory until we conquer at that point. 
 When I think of this I tremble for our own 
 church people. I tremble for myself. I wonder 
 if I have put myself at the disposal of the needy 
 about me. I wonder if everything that I have 
 is for the disposal of other people or if I am 
 keeping back part of it for the gratification of my 
 own poor selfish life. God help me, if that is true, 
 never to strike another blow, nor to speak another 
 word, until I conquer at that point. 
 
XIV 
 
 THE LIFE OF VICTORY— No. 2 
 
 Ch.S 
 
 We have been considering the life of self. 
 Now let us consider the life of victory: 
 
 I. Mind the Things of the Spirit. 
 
 II. Under the Domination of the Spirit. 
 
 III. Spirit Mortifies Deeds of the Body. 
 
 IV. Quickens Bodies. 
 
 First, we saw that the life of defeat or of the 
 flesh meant minding the things of the flesh. 
 
 Secondly, enmity against God. 
 
 Thirdly, not subject to the law of God, neither 
 can be. 
 
 Fourthly, cannot please God. That is true of 
 the man who lives after the flesh. 
 
 Now then, the man who lives after the Spirit 
 minds the things of the Spirit, is under the dom- 
 ination of the Spirit. The Spirit puts to death 
 the deeds of his body, the Spirit will quicken his 
 mortal body. 
 
 First, minds the things of the Spirit. Awhile 
 ago we saw him minding the things of the flesh. 
 Now he is getting victory; has given up the 
 136 
 
The Life of Victory 137 
 
 things of the flesh, and he finds himself mind- 
 ing, concerned about, desiring the things of the 
 Spirit. 
 
 Now it is very easy to find out what the things 
 of the Spirit are. We know what the Spirit of 
 God is concerned about ; that is a very easy ques- 
 tion for us to settle. What is He concerned 
 about ? What is He here in this world for ? He 
 is here first of all to save lost men. Now, the 
 man who is living a life of victory finds his chief 
 concern the salvation of lost men. That is the 
 first consideration, and not only during revival 
 meetings or Bible Conferences, but all the time. 
 
 Then, the Spirit of God is concerned about 
 building up souls and strengthening them in every 
 good work. He is concerned about the comfort 
 of people ; about binding broken hearts ; looking 
 after temporal interests ; helping a man when he 
 is down. In other words, he is concerned about 
 everything that looks toward the interest of 
 humanity. Is that true of us? It will be if we 
 have entered upon this life of victory. It will 
 be if we give up self and begin to look to God for 
 the filling of His Spirit. 
 
 Then Paul says we are under the domination 
 of the Spirit. If the Spirit has been put on the 
 throne, it is very easy for us to live the life of 
 victory. If self is on the throne, there is no 
 life of victory. If self gets off and the Spirit 
 gets on the throne, then it is easy. It comes when 
 we bow our knees and yield absolutely to the 
 
138 Salvation and the Old Theology- 
 Holy Ghost. When He takes complete and per- 
 fect control, all of self passes out. 
 
 Then the Spirit will quicken our mortal bodies ; 
 He will awaken powers that are not our own. 
 He will produce in these bodies of ours feelings 
 and longings and aspirations to do and to be 
 that we never felt before. 
 
 "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ 
 Jesus made me free from the law of sin and 
 death." Everything has laws that govern it. Elec- 
 tricity, steam, psychology, science of every kind, 
 are all governed by certain fixed laws, and so it is 
 with the Spirit. He operates by certain fixed laws, 
 and if we would enjoy the fruit of the Spirit, we 
 must understand and appropriate, and live up to 
 law. 
 
 Now, what is the law of the Spirit? First, 
 definite dedication of one's life to God. The 
 Holy Spirit will not operate upon the life of any- 
 one until there is that complete and definite dedi- 
 cation of himself and all of his powers to God. 
 So long as one holds back anything from God, 
 there will be no operation of the Holy Ghost 
 in his life. He must have an absolutely sur- 
 rendered heart and life. 
 
 Then, in the next place, there must be definite 
 supplication to God for the life of victory, then 
 there must be definite and complete appropria- 
 tion of the Spirit of God for victory. These 
 three things must be: Dedication, supplication, 
 appropriation. Definitely dedicate to God these 
 
The Life of Victory 139 
 
 bodies with all the faculties they contain. After 
 dedication must come supplication, asking God 
 for the thing that we desire, definite asking of 
 God, the continuous asking of God for the thing 
 we are seeking; and then definite appropriation 
 from God of the things we are asking for. 
 
 There can never be any proper domination of 
 the life until there is a definite dedication; until 
 there is the willingness to do what God wants 
 us to do. I was kept out of the ministry for years 
 because I was not willing. I thought God wanted 
 me to go to China as a medical missionary. I 
 wish I had known then what I know now. If 
 I had known God then I would have said, ''If 
 God wants me to go to China that is the place for 
 me to go." Finally I could not stand it any 
 longer, and I gave myself for a medical mis- 
 sionary, but before I got home God took that off 
 my heart. When I got willing to go to China 
 God gave me another work to do. God was hold- 
 ing that over me to master me, and when He 
 mastered me at that point, then He gave me my 
 life plan, and I never would have been able to do 
 what the Lord has permitted me to do in His 
 service, if it had not been that at the very begin- 
 ning of my career I gave all to Him. 
 
 The law of the Spirit is the law that gives 
 power. Submit to the Holy Ghost and you will 
 have victory, for when He gets on the throne 
 there is nothing else for one but victory. Why 
 should anybody hold back his life from God? 
 
140 Salvation and the Old Theology 
 
 God cannot fail, and He will not let us fail. If 
 you will put your hand in His and let Him direct 
 there must be victory. 
 
 Why, look at Moses. He was coming along 
 from where he had been minding the sheep. He 
 met God. God was getting ready to give him the 
 plan of his life. Moses didn't know it. God 
 said to Moses, ''What have you in your hand?" 
 
 Notice, God did not start out by saying, "I 
 am going to make you the greatest man in the 
 world." Moses would have said, "Yes, yes, that 
 is just what I want." God started with the sim- 
 plest thing he could touch, and these are the 
 things that hold us away from victory. God 
 began with Moses' walking stick. 
 
 "Moses, what is that you have in your hand?" 
 
 "A stick." 
 
 "Well, lay it down." 
 
 Why should Moses lay that stick down? It 
 had not been doing him any harm. He needed 
 it to climb the mountains with. He had gotten 
 it somewhere and crooked it to have it just as 
 he wanted it. But he laid it down, and it turned 
 into a snake. I suppose Moses was frightened. 
 God told him to take it up by the tail. 
 
 I have no doubt Moses thought, "I don't under- 
 stand this. I had it when it was a stick doing 
 nobody any harm, and I obeyed Him, and now 
 He is punishing me for my obedience." But 
 thank God Moses did what God told him to do, 
 and the moment he took it God turned it back 
 
The Life of Victory 141 
 
 into a stick, and it was the very same stick that 
 he had held a while ago. 
 
 God revealed to Moses that a stick, when it is 
 all that one has and is laid down and wholly given 
 up to God to work on as He sees fit, and taken 
 up only at the command of God, that that same 
 stick when lifted over the rolling sea drives back 
 the waters and dries the passage. 
 
 If Moses had not done that he would have 
 continued only to mind sheep, and that old stick 
 would never have done an\thing but help him to 
 walk and drive the sheep. There never would 
 have been any power in the life of Moses. 
 
 My brethren, the question is, are we willing 
 to lay down that which we have in our hand — 
 our all? Are we willing to let God work on it? 
 Are we willing to let God turn the thing that 
 we have loved, and which has helped us, into 
 something that He wants? Are we willing to 
 take it up and do with it what He directs? If 
 we are, then we may expect our little sticks to be- 
 come rods of power. 
 
 Now then, let us take another aspect of the life 
 of victory — its results. Take the fifteenth verse : 
 "For ye received not the spirit of bondage again 
 unto fear ; but ye received the spirit of adop- 
 tion, whereby we cry, Abba, Father." Here ap- 
 pears another one of these pivot words — "Adop- 
 tion." What does it mean? It comes from two 
 Greek words meaning, "placing one in the posi- 
 tion of a son." 
 
142 Salvation and the Old Theology 
 
 There was an old Roman law at the time when 
 Paul wrote this Epistle that an adopted son was 
 not only expected to share the benefits of his 
 adopted father, but he was also expected to share 
 the burdens of his adopted father to the fullest 
 extent. 
 
 Now, Paul takes that to explain the relation 
 that we have to God through Jesus Christ His 
 Son. We are adopted sons of God, and as 
 adopted sons of God we are not only expected 
 to enjoy the privileges, but we are to share the 
 burdens. When we enter the life of victory we 
 are going to be just as much concerned about 
 the burdens of the Father's business as we are 
 about the blessing. 
 
 If this be true, how few of us have entered the 
 life of victory! We are all anxious to get the 
 blessings ; how few of us are anxious to get the 
 burdens ! We all want to get the front seat at the 
 Conference, but few of us are willing to go back 
 into the kitchen and cook so that the rest may en- 
 joy staying there. 
 
 Now take verse 16, the verse of assur- 
 ance. "The Spirit Himself beareth witness 
 with our spirit that we are the children of 
 God." 
 
 Is there a man who is in doubt about his sal- 
 vation? If so, let him apply to Him who has 
 been enthroned in his heart, if He has been. Let 
 him cry: "Oh, Holy Spirit, bear witness to my 
 spirit. Let me know if I am a child of God." 
 
The Life of Victory 143 
 
 No man who earnestly does that will come away 
 with any doubt about it. 
 
 Then there is the minification of suffering in 
 verses 17 and 18. The man living the life of vic- 
 tory is not defeated by the suffering of this life, 
 no matter what kind of suffering comes to him. 
 These things do not defeat him. They may pain 
 him, but he looks beyond these days of physical, 
 mental, or spiritual suffering to the day when he 
 shall at last be crowned with the glory of Jesus 
 his Lord. 
 
 Then again we have divine aid in prayer (v. 
 26, 2'^'). The man who is living the life of victory 
 is living the prayer life, because the Spirit is 
 constantly forming in Him prayers that are after 
 the will of God, and while he may not be con- 
 stantly dropping down on his knees, he is in that 
 relation with the Holy Spirit where the prayer is 
 formed in his desire, and as he goes about his 
 business there is the prayer desire that goes out to 
 God. That is the man who gets things from 
 heaven; whose life is power; that is the man the 
 devil hates and hunts to damn if he can, but 
 thank God, he cannot overcome a soul that has 
 been thus given over to God. 
 
 Then there is resignation to the providence of 
 God (verses 28-37). ^^ i^ the man who is living 
 the victorious life who is resigned to the provi- 
 dence of God. This does not mean that we are 
 not going to have heart pangs. It does not mean 
 that the mother who sees her child dying is not to 
 
144 Salvation and the Old Theology 
 
 weep, but it means that through her tears she is to 
 look up with a smile of reconciliation to a well- 
 doing Father. It means that, in all things that 
 come to us in our daily life of struggle and toil, 
 there is the consciousness of the fact that God is 
 working out through these things the develop- 
 ment of our spiritual lives. 
 
 The life of victory results in bold security 
 (verses 38-39). "Neither death nor life nor an- 
 gels nor principalities, nor things present, nor 
 things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, 
 nor any other creature shall be able to separate 
 us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus." 
 
 Talk about the strong pledge of the Masonic 
 brethren! The strongest pledge of all is the 
 pledge that is made to us in these verses. That is 
 the pledge of God's love. The strongest thing 
 that can be imagined by the human mind is the 
 love of God. I tell you, when we come down to 
 the place of suffering and when our souls are 
 tried, there is nothing that will bring more com- 
 fort than to fall back on Romans 8:38-39. Oh, 
 the love of God for His children! Oh, the love 
 of God for me as one of His children ! Oh, He 
 loves me enough to plan for the life that I live, 
 to make it a success ; to make it overcoming ; to 
 make it victorious. God wants it to be victorious 
 more than I do. God is baring His very heart 
 and pouring out His love in the plans that He has 
 for victory in the life that He has given to me. I 
 know it, I feel it, and I thank God for it. 
 
XV 
 
 ISRAEL'S REJECTION 
 
 Chs. 9-10 
 
 We now come to the consideration of the les- 
 sons that are taught in the dispensation concerning 
 Israel. Let us first get fixed in our minds what 
 we mean by dispensational teaching. We mean 
 that which refers either to a period of time or 
 to a people. In this case it is teaching with ref- 
 erence to the Jews as a people; to God's chosen 
 people, and these three chapters, nine, ten, and 
 eleven, relate primarily, everything in them, to 
 Israel. But when I say that, I am not at all to 
 be understood as saying that there is nothing in 
 these three chapters for us, for there is much for 
 us, much that we have real need of, much that we 
 are expected to appropriate, but primarily these 
 three chapters relate to Israel. We come in, just 
 as we do in all dispensational truth, for that part 
 which is general. All dispensational truth is sus- 
 ceptible to general application. The lessons 
 which we are privileged to gather from such 
 teaching are many, and they are just as much for 
 us as for the people for whom they were pri- 
 marily written, or who passed through the ex- 
 145 
 
146 Salvation and the Old Theology 
 
 periences that are related. But let us keep in 
 mind that the Apostle is talking distinctly to and 
 about God's Israel, and not the Gentile world, 
 not the Church, not the Christian, as we consider 
 the Christian, but to the Jew; to God's chosen 
 people, and if we will keep these things in our 
 mind we will be able to understand many of the 
 perplexing things in this wonderful Epistle. 
 
 At this time we have the rejection of Israel, 
 chapters 9-10. 
 
 /. Paul's Anxiety for Israel 
 
 1. Kinsman. 
 
 2. Anathema. 
 
 3. Pain. 
 
 These three words express largely the force of 
 these first three verses — Paul's anxiety for his 
 people, V. I, 2, 3, chapter nine. Here are 
 three things that the Apostle declares with ref- 
 erence to the people to whom and of whom he 
 is speaking. 
 
 First, they are his kinsmen in the flesh. Paul 
 is not ashamed of the fact that he is a Jew, and 
 he is not ashamed of the fact that they are his 
 people. I have known people who were ashamed 
 of their own people. I have known many good 
 people to try to deny their relatives, especially if 
 they are poor. I do not know of any more con- 
 temptible soul than that one which is ashamed to 
 acknowledge his people because of their poverty. 
 
 The Apostle Paul acknowledges his relationship 
 
Israel's Rejection 147 
 
 to these people, his brethren, his kinsmen, accord- 
 ing to the flesh. 
 
 The second thing is that he could see himself 
 anathema from Christ for this people. So 
 anxious is he about their salvation that he could 
 see himself a cast-away that they might be saved. 
 
 The next thing that we learn is that this long- 
 ing that he has for their salvation is of such a 
 character as to give him unceasing pain in his 
 heart. I know good people who claim to have 
 reached what they call the rest of faith with 
 respect to their loved ones who are not saved, 
 which is an experience that I cannot harmonize 
 with my own feelings under my conception of the 
 teaching of Christ. 
 
 For instance, I have heard a mother testify 
 in a meeting: "I have a son who is lost. He 
 is in sin. He is low down in sin. He is an awful 
 sinner, but I have given him to God, and I now 
 rest the case with Him. I have no more anxiety 
 about it." 
 
 I never hear such a testimony that I do not 
 say that it is contrary to the spirit that we see de- 
 scribed in the Scriptures. You remember that 
 woman who came to Jesus with a broken heart, 
 whose daughter was possessed of a devil? She 
 did not have "the rest of faith" concerning her 
 daughter. She came with broken, throbbing 
 heart, and she would not let go until Jesus gave 
 her the blessing. 
 
 Paul never reached the experience of what is 
 
148 Salvation and the Old Theology 
 
 called "the rest of faith," certainly to the extent 
 that he had no further concern about such mat- 
 ters, for he had unceasing pain in his heart for his 
 people "that they might be saved." 
 
 Then, in the next section of this chapter, he de- 
 scribes Israel itself. He tells who Israel is, and 
 who the Israelites are, verses 4 and 5. We will 
 find eight words here that describe Israel for us : 
 
 1. The adoption. 
 
 2. The glory. 
 
 3. Covenants. 
 
 4. Law. 
 
 5. Service. 
 
 6. Promises. 
 
 7. Fathers (Abraham, Isaac, Jacob). 
 
 8. Christ as concerning the flesh. 
 
 Who are the Israelites, these people that Paul 
 is talking about in this dispensational section of 
 his Epistle? 
 
 First, they are the people of the adoption: It 
 means a "setting in place of a Son," literally it 
 means the placing in the relation of sons. These 
 people to whom Paul is writing are those who, 
 by the Lord Himself, have been placed in the re- 
 lation of sons. They have been adopted as chil- 
 dren of God. 
 
 Then they are the people of glory. They have 
 a great glory, and there is no people on earth 
 like them, so far as the glory of their history is 
 concerned. They are the people of the covenants. 
 They are the people of the law. God gave the 
 
Israel's Rejection 149 
 
 law to Israel, not to the Gentiles. They are the 
 people of service. They are the people of the 
 promise aside from the covenants; the promises 
 were made to Israel. They are the people of the 
 fathers — Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, these three 
 great fathers that stand out in the religious his- 
 tory of the world. And, lastly, they are the peo- 
 ple who gave to the world Jesus Christ as the 
 Saviour of the world. 
 
 Now, let us take the next section, verses 6, 7, 
 8. Here we have the Apostle describing to us 
 the difference between true and false Israel, 
 and this is a point well worth consideration. 
 
 First, note that they are not all Israel who are 
 called Israel. 
 
 1. Not all Israel. 
 
 2. Not all children. 
 
 3. In Isaac. The children of promise. 
 There is Israel of the flesh, and Israel of the 
 
 Spirit. They are not all children who are the 
 sons of Abraham. 
 
 Some people to-day are trying to make us be- 
 lieve that God is the universal father of the race. 
 God is not the universal father of the race. God 
 is the creator of the race, but creatorship and 
 fatherhood are very different. God is only the 
 father of that part of the race that have been 
 adopted into His family by him. He is not the 
 father of the world of mankind. I do not know 
 a more damnable doctrine than that doctrine 
 which is so popular in some great pulpits of to- 
 
150 Salvation and the Old Theology- 
 day known as 'The fatherhood of God." My! 
 how they do talk of the fatherhood of God and 
 the brotherhood of man. It only shows the bibli- 
 cal ignorance of the man who proclaims it. God 
 emphatically declares here that not even all 
 Israel — born of the seed of Abraham — are chil- 
 dren of God. 
 
 Then let us go a step further. "Neither be- 
 cause they are Abraham's seed, are they all chil- 
 dren, but in Isaac shall thy seed be called — it 
 is not the children of the flesh that are chil- 
 dren of God, but the children of the promise are 
 reckoned for a seed." Only that part of Israel 
 which is spiritual belongs to the real family of 
 God. There are two separate and distinct 
 branches of Israel. First, there is the branch of 
 the flesh that knows nothing of the Spirit, and 
 then there is the branch of the Spirit, and it is 
 only that latter branch that the Apostle speaks 
 of when he calls them children of the promise. 
 It is only that branch that obtained from Isaac 
 the promise, the spiritual promise, and appro- 
 priated it, that the Apostle speaks of here as be- 
 ing children of God. 
 
 Now, let us go a step further. In the fourth 
 section of the chapter we have Israel's election. 
 Here we come to the most difficult thing in all 
 the Scriptures; at least, the most difficult to me. 
 Long hours have I wrestled with this old ques- 
 tion! How I have tried to reconcile election and 
 free agency. If I had all the hours that I have 
 
Israel's Rejection 151 
 
 spent trying to reconcile these two great truths 
 there is no telling what I could do. I thank God 
 He has given me new light, and I see them now 
 in a different light. To me now there is no trou- 
 ble at all about the reconciliation, and you will 
 see before we have gotten through with this sec- 
 tion how the light has dawned. 
 
 //. Israel's Election, v. 11-26 
 
 1. The fact stated, v. 11. 
 
 2. The argument, v. 14-26. 
 
 Now, here is a bold statement made that God 
 has set His seal upon these people without any 
 reference to their side of the case whatever. 
 
 Then we have the argument given (v. 14-26). 
 Is it unrighteousness in God to thus elect one part 
 of the race without any regard to their works, and 
 not elect another? That is the question, and the 
 Apostle Paul propounds that question, "What 
 shall we say, then ? Is there unrighteousness with 
 God? God forbid. For He saith to Moses, I 
 will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I 
 will have compassion on whom I have compas- 
 sion. So, then, it is not of him that willeth, 
 nor of him that runneth, but of God that hath 
 mercy." 
 
 Is there any doubt about that being elec- 
 tion? 
 
 "For the Scripture saith unto Pharaoh, For 
 this very purpose did I raise thee up, that I 
 
152 Salvation and the Old Theology 
 
 might shew in thee my power, and that my name 
 might be pubhshed in all the earth." 
 
 There is not much doubt about election there. 
 'Thou wilt say, then, unto me, why doth He still 
 find fault? For who withstandeth His will? 
 Nay, but, oh, man, who art thou that repliest 
 against God ? Shall the thing formed say to him 
 that formed it. Why didst thou make me thus?" 
 Just as much as to say, "You have got to be, 
 whether you want to be or not." 
 
 There is no doubt about the doctrine of election 
 being taught here. Now, there are three things 
 about this doctrine of election that I want to no- 
 tice, and the first is this, that it is taught. There 
 is not a man in the world who can read this 
 passage and say that election is not taught. 
 
 The next thing that I want to say is this. That 
 it is distinctly not an election of individuals, but 
 of a people, or a race, a nation, so to speak, with- 
 out any regard whatever to the individual. It is 
 a national election. It is an election of the peo- 
 ple. It is God choosing out a people through 
 whom He is going to manifest Himself to the 
 rest of the world. 
 
 The third thing is that it is not an election to 
 salvation, but an election to service; that these 
 people elected are elected to serve. I said a while 
 ago that this was the distinct dispensational sec- 
 tion of the Epistle to the Romans ; that it related 
 altogether to the Jews; that we are concerned 
 about it only as we are concerned about any gen- 
 
Israel's Rejection 153 
 
 eral dispensational teaching; that it is so much 
 for us as we can gather and appropriate; that it 
 is a distinct section of the Word of God in which 
 God speaks distinctly of His relation to a distinct 
 people. God therefore elected this people as a 
 people, as a nation, to perform a certain part 
 after the fall of man, looking to the redemption 
 of the race. God elected this people as the peo- 
 ple through whom and by whom to bless the 
 world. This election is entirely Jewish and not 
 Gentile. It does not relate to Gentile relationship 
 to God at all, and we study it only that we may 
 see this part of the great scheme and plan and 
 purpose of God that lies back of all the teaching 
 to the accomplishment of His glory. 
 
 Now, let us take the fifth section of the ninth 
 chapter — the reason for Israel's rejection, for 
 Israel is rejected, and has been rejected. Let us 
 see the reasons for it. 
 
 ///. Israel's Rejection, v. 27-33 
 
 1. The fact stated, v. 27-29. 
 
 2. The reason given, v. 30-33. 
 
 We have just seen that Israel is God's chosen 
 people, elected by Him to this distinct work that 
 He is to accomplish through them. Now we 
 come to their rejection, v. 27-29. Israel has dis- 
 appointed God, and by reason of their dis- 
 appointment of God, God has set them aside, and 
 has called them, as we see in v. 25-26, "a people 
 not His people, a beloved not His beloved." 
 
154 Salvation and the Old Theology 
 
 God then called the Gentile people, my people 
 and your people, that through them He might 
 accomplish the thing that He originally started 
 out to accomplish through His own chosen people. 
 So you see that the Gentiles were chosen also. 
 We, as a people, as a race, are now the elect of 
 God in the place of the Jew, who rejected Him. 
 God had to set the Jew aside and reach out for 
 another people that He might make this other 
 people His elect people, and begin the present 
 dispensation. We are the elect of God, and the 
 Jew is set aside. Why is the Jew set aside? 
 ''That the Gentile, who followed not after right- 
 eousness, attained unto righteousness, even the 
 righteousness which is of faith; but Israel, fol- 
 lowing after a law of righteousness, did not ar- 
 rive at that law. Wherefore? Because they 
 sought it not by faith, but as it were, by works. 
 They stumbled at the stone of stumbling ; even as 
 it is written, Behold, I lay in Zion a stone of 
 stumbling and a rock of offense; and he 
 that believeth on Him shall not be put to 
 shame." 
 
 Israel left out of its program of hfe and serv- 
 ice the one important link of faith; though the 
 Jew was the elect of God, he v/as to maintain 
 his place of election, through and by the exer- 
 cise of faith. Even Abraham, the father of the 
 faithful, lived by faith, and so the Jew, the elect 
 of God, had to maintain his election by the ex- 
 ercise of faith, and live by faith, but there came 
 
Israel's Rejection 155 
 
 a time in his history when he failed to do that. 
 He left out, as I said, entirely from his pro- 
 gram of life and service the link of faith, and 
 the result of this was that he was dropped from 
 the plan of God. 
 
 Then the Gentile took it up exactly where the 
 Jew laid it down. The Gentile took up the link 
 of faith which coupled him on to God, and was 
 made part of the great plan and scheme of God 
 for the redemption of the world. 
 
 Jesus Christ in the meantime had come, the 
 long-looked-for Messiah, and when He came He 
 became "the stone of stumbling and the rock of 
 offense." The Jews refused to accept Him. They 
 threw down all they knew about the teaching of 
 the prophets. They were not mistaken about it, 
 because it is too clear. They are not mistaken 
 about it to-day, unless they just will shut their 
 eyes. It is their self-conceit that will not allow 
 them to embrace it. 
 
 They laid down their faith ; faith in the teach- 
 ings ; faith in God the teacher, and Christ the 
 sent one. The Gentiles appropriated by faith the 
 Christ, and by their appropriation of Christ by 
 faith they became for this dispensation the elect 
 of God. That is election. It is not an individual 
 thing we are talking about, for Paul clearly 
 teaches us that there are those that are not of the 
 elect. He clearly teaches us that even after the 
 rejection of the Jews there are some of them 
 that are yet saved, but they are saved as in- 
 
156 Salvation and the Old Theology 
 
 dividuals. The race of Jews is set aside just as 
 they were once elected, and in the setting of the 
 race aside, he is only dealing with the racial side 
 of the question. Each individual stands out, each 
 for himself to appropriate the teachings of the 
 Word of God. 
 
XVI 
 
 ISRAEL'S HOPE 
 Ch. 10 
 
 I. Paul's Prayer for Their Salvation. 
 
 II. The Conditions Stated. 
 
 III. The Argument for Missions. 
 
 "My heart's desire and my supplication to God 
 is for them, that they may be saved." I should 
 think there was a great deal of hope for my salva- 
 tion if I knew that the Apostle was praying for 
 it, and so there is a hope for Israel because Paul 
 prayed for it. 
 
 In verse nine he states the conditions, and the 
 only conditions, for Israel's salvation. "Because, 
 if thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as 
 Lord, and shalt believe in thy heart that God 
 raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.'* 
 
 He is here talking to the Jews, to those peo- 
 ple who had rejected Jesus ; who had fallen over 
 the stone of stumbling, and had had God's back 
 turned on them. Though they had done all this, 
 yet there was hope for them, but that hope is 
 in their accepting Jesus as Lord — ^the same Jesus 
 whom they had rejected and stumbled over. 
 157 
 
158 Salvation and the Old Theology- 
 Confess Him, how? With the mouth. They 
 denied Him with the mouth. Now they have 
 got to confess Him with the mouth. Confess 
 Him as Lord, and what does that mean? It 
 means Master, Sovereign Ruler, absolute Mon- 
 ach. It means that they accept His government, 
 the command of His voice, the teaching that He 
 gives ; that He is to be Lord and Master of their 
 lives. That is what it means. There is no hope 
 for the Jew unless he does that. They may talk 
 about the Father; they may name their children 
 Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but the Jew must 
 confess Jesus as Lord. Not only as Christ, not 
 only as Messiah, but as Lord, as Master. That is 
 the only hope for Israel. 
 
 But not only that. They have got to go a step 
 further. They have got to believe in their hearts 
 that God raised Him from the dead. 
 
 1. Confess Him as Lord. 
 
 2. Believe in their hearts that God hath raised 
 Him from the dead. 
 
 That last is the one thing that they are not 
 willing to do as a people. There are individuals 
 that are saved, but as a people, they are going 
 with their eyes shut, stumbling and falling, pre- 
 tending to be looking for the Messiah, groping 
 in the dark, waiting for that spectacular Messiah 
 that they claim is to come until, after a while, 
 there will be a shout in the heavens, and the 
 trumpet of God will sound, the graves will burst 
 open, and the righteous dead will rise and the liv- 
 
Israel's Hope 159 
 
 ing be changed, then the period of great tribu- 
 lation, then, after all this is over, Jesus Christ, 
 in all of His glory as King Emmanuel, will come 
 from heaven, and then the Jews will say, "Ah, 
 Messiah has come now !" and they will fall down 
 and worship Him. They will then be accepted as 
 a nation, and then it shall be that ''A nation shall 
 be born in a day." The nation of Jews, as a 
 people, shall be born again. Up to that time 
 they will be saved as individuals. Then we will 
 see that this saved nation, this nation that has 
 been set aside, will be the great exponents of 
 the salvation of the cross throughout the world. 
 
 Now then, take the last thing — ^the closing part 
 of this tenth chapter is the argument for missions. 
 There are five words: 
 
 1. Send. 
 
 2. Preach. 
 
 3. Hear. 
 
 4. Believe. 
 
 5. Save. 
 
 I know there are some people who say that we 
 have no business sending missionaries to the Jews. 
 We know that they are good people as citizens. 
 We believe in them, associate with them, are 
 kind to them, but when it comes to recognizing 
 them as saved people we cannot do it. Need 
 we hope that the nation will be converted? Do 
 not be mistaken about that, for the nation will 
 not be converted in this dispensation. No more 
 will the nation be converted in this dispensation 
 
i6o Salvation and the Old Theology 
 
 than will the world in this dispensation be con- 
 verted. Any man who starts out sending mis- 
 sionaries with the thought that if we flood the 
 world with missionaries we will convert the world 
 does not know his Bible. This world will never 
 be converted until Jesus comes. This world is 
 getting further and further from conversion. We 
 are not converting the world. We are not ex- 
 pected to convert the world. We are expected 
 to bear testimony for Christ in all nations and 
 among all people. When the Son of God returns 
 to this earth, clothed with the authority of all 
 heaven, then, and not until then, will this world 
 bow its knee to Christ. 
 
 We are to send missionaries to the Jews with 
 the hope of bearing testimony to them so that 
 they will be without excuse, and we hope that we 
 will gather out from among them a people for 
 His name "when He comes." 
 
XVII 
 
 ISRAEL'S RESTORATION 
 Ch. II 
 
 In the first twelve verses of the eleventh chap- 
 ter the Apostle is reviewing the teaching concern- 
 ing the rejection. In the first place, we have 
 Israel's condition in the rejection as it is found 
 in the first six verses of the chapter. Here are 
 two things that stand out very clearly. First, 
 that not all of Israel is rejected. We must un- 
 derstand that the Apostle was dealing with the 
 nation and not the individual in the nation. 
 
 Paul is dealing with the great nation of Israel 
 and the nation was rejected, but not the indi- 
 vidual, for there are many among Israel that are 
 saved. The Apostle is referred to by himself 
 as an illustration of that fact. 
 
 God always deals with nations in the same way 
 that He deals with individuals. He is dealing 
 with the nations of the earth to-day just as surely 
 and clearly as He dealt with Israel. Nations do 
 not realize that fact, but it would be well for 
 them to realize it and to look into His face and 
 tremble because the judgment of God is to-day 
 being visited on the nations of the earth as clearly 
 i6i 
 
1 62 Salvation and the Old Theology 
 
 as it was visited upon Israel. I wish our own 
 nation would realize that fact. There would be 
 a change in the nation's affairs. If we would 
 realize that God deals with the State in the same 
 way that He does with the individual, there 
 would assuredly be a change. God is going to 
 visit His judgment upon the community that does 
 not keep His law. Just how long He is going to 
 wait and beg, and plead with the people, He 
 alone knows, but history bears me out in stating 
 that that day of retribution is certainly coming, 
 and why it is that men cannot see it, I do not 
 know. 
 
 Then you will find that there is another thing 
 taught in this section ; and that is that this rem- 
 nant which was not rejected was prevented from 
 being rejected by the election of grace. That is 
 to say, they were saved and are saved to-day, 
 that remnant of Israel that is not thrown aside, 
 by the election of grace just as we are saved by 
 the election of grace. Paul was a Jew, a Hebrew 
 of the Hebrews, saved as I was saved, as you 
 were saved, through and by the merits of Jesus 
 Christ in His atoning work on the cross; the 
 only way to be saved. That is what is meant 
 here by the "election of grace." 
 
 Therefore we have the right to hold up to the 
 Jew the hope of salvation, the hope of not being 
 cast aside, of coming out of his state of bondage, 
 but only as we hold up to the rest of the world 
 the hope of salvation, through Jesus Christ. 
 
Israel's Restoration 163 
 
 Some of our Jewish friends think that we are 
 narrow because, though they make splendid citi- 
 zens and do good service and are kind and con- 
 siderate of the poor and the orphans and the out- 
 cast, we insist that without Christ they are lost. 
 Some of our Christian friends, some ministers, as 
 far as that is concerned, do not think that we 
 have any right to make that statement. They say 
 that it is narrow and unkind. My only answer 
 is this : if we ought not to do that, we ought to 
 throw our Bibles aside and quit business. There 
 is no use in wasting money in building churches 
 that stand for Jesus Christ, that preach the New 
 Testament, that accept its teachings, unless it is a 
 fact that the world, without all this, is lost, abso- 
 lutely lost, forever lost. 
 
 One of two things is true : Either the Jews are 
 right and we ought to be Jews and deny the New 
 Testament; or else we are right, vyholly right, 
 in asserting that without Christ the Jew, as every 
 other man on the face of the earth, is lost. If 
 that is narrow it is because the New Testament 
 is narrow. 
 
 Let us understand, then, that the Jew that has 
 been saved, was saved according to the teaching 
 of the Gospel by the "election of grace," and not 
 by works, as we are told further on. Take the 
 fifth and sixth verses, ''Even so, then, at this 
 time, there is a remnant according to the election 
 of grace. But if it is by grace, it is no more 
 of works; otherwise grace is no more grace." 
 
164 Salvation and the Old Theology 
 
 How could a thing be plainer than that? If a 
 man is saved by works, as the Jewish system 
 holds that he is, then there is no such thing as 
 grace. Paul is making the same argument that 
 I used a while ago. I borrowed mine from him. 
 Paul is making the argument that if salvation to 
 this remnant is according to works, then all this 
 preaching of grace is vain, for there is no need 
 of it, and if they are saved by grace, all this talk 
 of salvation by works is vain. Salvation by 
 w^orks is of the Jew, and for that they were 
 condemned and set aside, and the new system 
 came in, the system of faith in Christ. 
 
 Now, I wish again to fix it in your minds that, 
 if you are going to be a New Testament Christian, 
 you have got to eliminate everything like a hope 
 of salvation through any kind of works whatever. 
 The man who says, "I hope to be saved because 
 I do this, and that," is no Christian. The Jewish 
 system of religion was tried and failed, and the 
 new system of religion under Jesus Christ is es- 
 tablished upon faith in Him. 
 
 When I first began my ministry there was put 
 into my hands a volume of Henry Ward 
 Beecher's sermons. I was very fond of him. 
 He always impressed me as the most wonderfully 
 gifted man in illustrating in the world. All of 
 his sermons abounded in beautiful similes and 
 stories gathered from his knowledge of the litera- 
 ture of the world. This volume of sermons was 
 enriched by some of his most striking illustra- 
 
Israel's Restoration 165 
 
 tions. I remember the very first sermon in that 
 volume was on Regeneration. 
 
 In one of his illustrations he was trying to 
 show the fall of man and his redemption. He 
 says : "Imagine a beautiful picture hanging upon 
 the wall. It is in a beautiful frame, absolutely 
 without a flaw, and the whole thing is perfect. 
 Now, that picture on the wall illustrates man 
 in his original perfect state in the Garden of 
 Eden, perfect in every detail, so far as we can 
 judge. After a time dust accumulates upon that 
 picture. After a while the dust gets so thick that 
 you cannot see much of the original painting. It 
 is not what you first saw. You cannot make it 
 out. 
 
 "The condition of that picture illustrates Adam 
 after sin entered and destroyed the original per- 
 fect man. The framework is still all right. 
 
 "Now," he says, "Regeneration is this. The 
 housekeeper comes along and takes the picture 
 down and rubs all the dirt off the painting and 
 then polishes up the frame and hangs it on the 
 wall again, and there is the picture just as pretty 
 as it ever was. Now," says Mr. Beecher, "that 
 is regeneration." 
 
 Well, I thought I had something good. Oh, 
 it was a fine thing, and like most youngsters 
 in the pulpit, I did not stop to see how my illus- 
 tration would suit the truth. I got up and 
 preached on regeneration and used that illustra- 
 tion. 
 
1 66 Salvation and the Old Theology 
 
 As I went out of doors one of our Sunday- 
 school teachers got me by the arm and said, "I 
 tell you, that is the finest illustration of regenera- 
 tion that I ever heard in my life. I never heard 
 it made so plain before." 
 
 But there was one old deacon in that church 
 that I just dreaded. He had great heavy eye- 
 brows hanging down over his eyes, and he looked 
 at me as though he thought I did not know much. 
 That afternoon he came to my house and said, 
 "You have not been preaching long, and have not 
 gone down into things very far. You can tell 
 a good story, but that one you used to illustrate 
 regeneration is about as false as anything I ever 
 heard, and you will see it some day." 
 
 I said, "How is that? Why, Brother 'So and 
 So' met me at the door and said it was the most 
 helpful thing that he ever heard." 
 
 "He knows Greek and Latin," said he, "but 
 he does not know anything about his Bible. He 
 knows less about it than you do." 
 
 Finally he said, "I have studied it, and if you 
 will excuse me, I will show you the fallacy of 
 your teaching. In the first place, it was all right 
 to represent fallen Adam in the Garden of Eden ; 
 it is in the next place that it is wrong. I want 
 to tell you that regeneration is not the mere wash- 
 ing up of the old Adam." 
 
 "Well, what is it?" 
 
 "Regeneration is that housekeeper coming in 
 and taking that picture down and cutting the can- 
 
Israel's Restoration 167 
 
 vas all out, leaving nothing but the frame, the 
 mere external man, and then she unrolls a picture 
 and puts it in the place of the old canvas, and 
 then hangs it on the wall again. It is the same 
 frame, but it is not the washed over Adam. It is 
 the brand-new picture of Jesus Christ." 
 
 Well, I hated to acknowledge that I was wrong, 
 but any man could see that if the New Testament 
 is at all true, that man was right. I saw it just 
 as quick as a flash, but I hated to acknowledge 
 defeat, and began to offer objections. He began 
 to quote Scripture. Finally I said, "You need 
 not quote any more Scripture. I know you are 
 right." And the next Sunday morning I got up 
 and told the whole story right out. I told them 
 wherein I had been straightened out, and how it 
 came. That was the best lesson that I ever 
 learned, and I have never forgotten it, and never 
 will forget it. And don't you forget it. If you do 
 not learn anything else, I want you to remember 
 that whether he is a Jew or Gentile, if he is 
 saved, he is saved through Jesus Christ, and not 
 through works; but this is no apology for bad 
 works, no excuse for sin. Salvation, if it is 
 inwrought, lives in a man's life, and works come 
 as the result of the new principle, the new ideal, 
 the new model that has been accepted. 
 
 Take the next section. The result of Israel's 
 rejection (v. 11, 12). There are three things 
 taught in that section. First, that by the re- 
 jection of the Jews salvation came to the Gen- 
 
1 68 Salvation and the Old Theology 
 
 tiles. Now, for what purpose? First, that they 
 themselves might be saved, and then that through 
 them, the Gentiles, this despised people that the 
 Jews had hated, might come a stirring up of the 
 Jewish people themselves, by the fact that they 
 got hold of salvation. That is what that word 
 "jealousy" means here. It is not the kind of 
 jealousy that we have in our churches. God is 
 not the author of that kind, and He will cer- 
 tainly never save anybody by that kind. It 
 means the stirring up of the Jews that He is 
 talking about, and that is one of the results of 
 the rejection of the Jew. When the Jew was 
 rejected because he would not accept Christ, then 
 the Gentile was given a chance, and he grasped 
 it, and the object is to stir up the Jews, not with 
 fury and wrath and mean jealousy, but to stir 
 them up through these people who had been 
 ground down by the people of God. 
 
 Now, then, another truth — the enrichment of 
 the world. "Now, if their fall is the riches of 
 the world, and their loss the riches of the Gen- 
 tiles, how much more their fullness." Stop a 
 moment to think with me how much the world 
 has been enriched by the fact that the Gentiles 
 were given a day, and they accepted it. 
 
 Will you stop with me to think for a moment 
 of the history of the nations of the earth to-day 
 with respect to Jesus Christ? Let us see the 
 contrast between the nations that have not Christ 
 and the nations that have, and you will see some- 
 
Israers Restoration 169 
 
 thing of the enrichment of the world through the 
 Gentiles' acceptance of Christ. 
 
 Oh, how God has blessed the nations of the 
 earth through the Gentiles ! Certainly the Apos- 
 tle Paul could well afford to speak of what a 
 blessing the Gentiles in their acceptance of Christ 
 were to the world, for even at that time, the 
 Gentiles were leading in efforts to uplift, pro- 
 mote, and save the race of mankind. 
 
 Now, let us take the next section, the restora- 
 tion, verses 25-27. In the twenty-fifth verse we 
 have the statement of the restoration. In these 
 two verses is a prophecy, and the Apostle is giv- 
 ing emphasis to it; that there is coming a time 
 that this rejected nation (we are not speaking 
 of individuals) shall be saved; when they shall 
 accept the Messiah, fall prostrate before Him and 
 acknowledge him as Lord, and the nation Israel 
 shall be saved. It is coming to pass. 
 
 In the first place, you will see in this 20th verse 
 that it is to come through the Deliverer. If 
 you will take in connection with it Isaiah 59:20, 
 you will see the prophecy of it. Jesus Christ 
 is to come out of Zion as the Deliverer of His 
 people, and when He comes they are going to 
 fall down and worship Him and be saved as a na- 
 tion, and then it will come to pass that "a nation 
 shall be born in a day." Men talk sometimes 
 as if that prophecy is to be fulfilled now. It is 
 not so. It never has been, and never will be 
 until Jesus comes again the second time. 
 
170 Salvation and the Old Theology 
 
 Now, the purpose of this deHvery, in verse 26 : 
 God never forgets His covenant. He has never 
 made a promise that He is not going to fulfill. 
 The only trouble about fulfilling God's promises 
 is, first, our failure to believe and act upon them; 
 and, second, to wait until God's time for the 
 promise to be fulfilled. 
 
 Now, God has made a covenant with His peo- 
 ple Israel, and God is going to fulfill that promise, 
 and the whole Jewish nation is going to be saved. 
 Not every man, but the nation is going to be 
 saved ; the great nation Israel, scattered through- 
 out the earth, shall be gathered together in Pales- 
 tine. I do not know just to what extent this 
 Zionist movement will prove to be the fulfillment 
 of prophecy, but whether the whole Jewish peo- 
 ple shall be assembled in Palestine, or whether 
 they shall be scattered throughout the ends of the 
 earth, I don't know, but the nation of Israel, 
 which is so remarkably kept intact, shall fall down 
 before Him and be saved as a nation. Their 
 sins are going to be blotted out, and they are 
 going to be accepted upon the same conditions 
 that we are accepted to-day. 
 
 Let us for a moment take the Divine pro- 
 gram as it relates to Israel and the Gentile world. 
 There are three things in the Divine program so 
 far as the Jews are concerned. First, Israel for 
 a time is set aside; second, the Gentiles at this 
 period are called in; and, third, the final restora- 
 tion of Israel. These three things make up 
 
Israel's Restoration 171 
 
 the Divine program and are going to take 
 place. 
 
 Israel has been set aside, and the Gentiles have 
 been called in during this period. Now, the Gen- 
 tile dispensation was not a part of the original 
 program of God. Of course, it was in the mind 
 of God in the beginning, but so far as the pro- 
 gram for the redemption of the race and the sal- 
 vation of the race is concerned, it was not a part 
 of the Divine program. It is a parenthesis in 
 the program of God. The program of God was 
 that Israel should accept Jesus Christ and go 
 straight ahead until the final culmination. So far 
 as we are able to read the Scriptures that seems 
 to be the Divine order, but the Jews rejected 
 God. They turned their backs upon Christ. God 
 foresaw this and made provision for it. The 
 prophets described it, and God provides this 
 parenthesis in His program. 
 
 The Jews rejected Christ, and because of that 
 rejection they are set aside. God told them that 
 they would be set aside. It was no unfair judg- 
 ment that God took at all. He simply set them 
 aside, and then threw in this parenthesis, the 
 Church dispensation, and in this we are now liv- 
 ing and serving. 
 
 Now, the Jews as a nation are not being 
 touched, but Christ is being enthroned, and His 
 civilization is spreading, until finally the day of 
 restoration is coming. Christ is coming again, 
 coming here to reign personally and individually. 
 
172 Salvation and the Old Theology 
 
 His reign was prophesied by the prophets; and 
 because His reign was prophesied by the prophets^ 
 and because when He was on the earth He did 
 not reign in the governmental affairs of the earth, 
 many people have argued that these prophecies 
 concerning Him are untrue. 
 
 One day on a train I got to talking with a 
 Jewish Rabbi, a very intelligent man. He said, 
 ''Do you know, the objection that I have to your 
 teaching is that it is not sincere. As I read the 
 Scriptures, I read that Jesus Christ is to rule in 
 the affairs of the earth. Don't you? Well, you 
 know that He did not. He never got anywhere 
 near His father's throne, nor to ruling this earth. 
 Then, how do you claim Jesus to be the Mes- 
 siah? I tell you when the Messiah comes He 
 is to sit on His father David's throne and rule this 
 earth, and then you are going to be ashamed that 
 you did not wait until He came." 
 
 I said, "You have got the cart before the horse. 
 You do not rightly divide the Scriptures. Jesus 
 Christ is coming again, my friend, and He is 
 prophesied in your Scriptures to come again. 
 When He does come again He is not coming in 
 a manger. That is the reason you despised Him. 
 You say that I am not sincere. I say that you 
 are not sincere, because the Scriptures tell you 
 that He is to be born in a manger, and to be 
 born of a Virgin. You expected Him to come 
 with a blast of trumpets as a king." 
 
 Well, he had never seen that. I said further, 
 
Israel's Restoration 173 
 
 "When He comes again He is coming as you 
 are expecting Him to come, as a king, and He 
 is going to sit on His Father's throne, and then 
 you are going to say that 'Messiah has really 
 come at last.' He is going to say to you, 'I am the 
 Jesus of the manger. I am the Jesus of prophecy. 
 I am the one crucified, and I am come back and 
 am going to sit on my Father's throne and rule 
 this nation according to the program of heaven.' 
 Then you are going to say, 'Oh, I wish I had ac- 
 cepted Him before this, but since I did not I will 
 accept Him now !' Then the Jews are going to 
 be restored, and then the great world-wide evan- 
 gelistic sweep will begin." 
 
XVIII 
 
 THE PRACTICAL APPLICATION 
 
 Chs. 12-16 
 
 We are going to try to close the Book of 
 Romans, and it is an immense task that we have, 
 for we have five chapters to compass. We find 
 that they are all related to the practical side of 
 Paul's theology, and, therefore, can be easily con- 
 densed. I shall try to give practically nothing 
 more than an analysis of them. 
 
 /. Dedication to God. Ch. 12. 
 
 1. Call to dedication, v. i. 
 
 2. What is involved, v. 2-21. 
 
 Now we come to apply the principles that he 
 has been dealing with in the preceding sections; 
 and the first application made is that of dedica- 
 tion, in verse i, "I beseech you, therefore, breth- 
 ren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your 
 bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto 
 God, which is your reasonable service." 
 
 Let us not get confused as to the terms "dedi- 
 cation" and "consecration." Nowhere does God 
 call us to consecrate ourselves, for that is a work 
 that man cannot do. Consecration is God's side 
 174 
 
The Practical Application 175 
 
 of the work of dedication. Dedication is man's 
 side of the work of consecration. Man dedicates 
 and God consecrates, and when you hear of con- 
 secration services being held, you hear of some- 
 thing being held that is entirely extra-scriptural. 
 There is no Scripture whatever for holding a 
 consecration service, nor is there any Scripture 
 for our consecrating things to God. You hear 
 sometimes of the priest consecrating a building 
 or consecrating an individual. There is no such 
 thing as man's consecrating anything. Let me 
 say it again: consecration is God's side of the 
 work of dedication, and dedication is man's side 
 of the work of consecration. Man dedicates to 
 God and then God puts His holy seal of conse- 
 cration upon it, and it is then consecrated. And 
 so the Apostle here, in this first verse of this 
 twelfth chapter, is calling for dedication. *T be- 
 seech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of 
 God, that you present (or dedicate) yourselves 
 to God." This little word, ''therefore," is a very 
 significant one. It is always significant when 
 found in a scriptural connection, but it seems to 
 be specially so here, and upon that little word 
 hinges so much. 'T beseech you, therefore, 
 brethren," as much as to say, because of what 
 has preceded, because of what has already been 
 said and done, I beseech you to present your 
 bodies a living sacrifice. 
 
 We who have followed this teaching from the 
 first to the present need not be reminded of some 
 
176 Salvation and the Old Theology 
 
 of the wonderful things that have preceded this 
 chapter, the wonderful truths that he has taught, 
 the wonderful change that has been wrought in 
 us if we have followed experimentally the teach- 
 ing of these preceding chapters. Now, because 
 of what has taken place in the past, in the teach- 
 ing of the past, and in our own inner experi- 
 ence, the call comes to dedication of our whole 
 bodies, not a part of our bodies, not simply our 
 hearts and our affections, but our bodies, our 
 whole being with all of its faculties and its pow- 
 ers ; with everything that we have, we are called 
 on to present ourselves to God, which is our rea- 
 sonable service — reasonable because of what God 
 has done for us, reasonable because of that 
 change that has been wrought in us if we have 
 experienced the teaching of the Apostle Paul in 
 this wonderful book. 
 
 Then we have from v. 2-21 what is involved 
 in this work of dedication. I have epitomized 
 this section of this chapter for the purpose of 
 presenting in as concise a form as I can that 
 which I find involved in the life of a dedicated 
 man. 
 
 V. 2-21. Non-conformity to this world, 
 humility, diversity of gifts, sincerity of love, af- 
 fection one to another ; brotherly preferment, dili- 
 gence and fervency, rejoicing in hope, patient in 
 tribulation, continuing in prayer, communicating 
 to the necessities of saints, given to hospitality, 
 blessing for persecution, rejoicing with them that 
 
The Practical Application 177 
 
 rejoice, weeping with them that weep, the same 
 mind one toward another, condescend to things 
 that are lowly, not conceited, render to no man 
 evil for evil, take thought for things honorable, 
 as far as possible live peaceably with all men, if 
 thine enemy hunger feed him, if he thirst give 
 him drink, be not overcome with evil, but over- 
 come evil with good. 
 
 These requirements are so very plain, as I look 
 at it, that I do not think it is necessary to take 
 time to explain them, or attempt to apply them. 
 The life that is wholly dedicated to God is a 
 life that embraces not one of these, but every one 
 of them, and if that is true, and it is, pray tell 
 me where do you find a wholly dedicated life? 
 Mr. Moody once said, "The world waits to find 
 one wholly consecrated man," and I think he 
 might have said, "God waits to find a wholly dedi- 
 cated man." We see great things manifested 
 through man by God here and there. We find 
 here and there a man upon whom God seems to 
 have laid His hand and through him He works 
 marvelously, and yet I do not believe that there 
 has yet lived the man who has given God half 
 a chance to show His power and His willingness 
 to bless. As I have gone over these things em- 
 braced in the wholly dedicated life, and then, as 
 I have measured my own life by them, I feel 
 ashamed that I personally have not given God 
 more of a chance in my own Hfe, and I have come 
 to this conclusion, that the only thing that God 
 
I'yS Salvation and the Old Theology- 
 waits for in the life of any child of His is whole 
 dedication. It is a mistake to imagine that God 
 is pleased to do little things. God is only pleased 
 when He is allowed to do His best. He could not 
 be God and desire any other than that. God's 
 greatest and best is His normal desire, and if He 
 is waiting to do His best through our lives, we 
 should give Him a chance. Surely He has been 
 good enough to us. Surely, as the Apostle puts it 
 in his first verse, it is our reasonable service, for 
 every one of us is desirous of success. We could 
 not be human and desire less than success. Cer- 
 tainly we could not be Christ's and desire less 
 than success and the highest form of success. I 
 would not trust one who had no more ambition 
 than to just pass along through life with failure 
 to-day and success to-morrow. Every man who 
 is worthy of the place that he occupies in the 
 Father's affection is desirous of success, and the 
 highest success can only be attained when we give 
 God a chance to do His best ; is when we make a 
 whole-hearted, whole-bodied dedication of our- 
 selves, with our affections and our lives of serv- 
 ice unreservedly given to Him. Let Him take 
 them, and give that back which He wants us to 
 keep and take away that which He does not want 
 us to have, for He would not take away anything 
 that is for our good. Let Him withhold that 
 which He does not want us to keep, and then let 
 that life stand out in the community as a charged 
 magnet. Everyone that comes in touch with it 
 
The Practical Application 179 
 
 feels that indescribable spiritual magnetism that 
 goes out from a wholly spiritually magnetized life. 
 Oh, we can say what we please, but that is the 
 philosophy of the Christian life, and no Chris- 
 tian life can ever be lived so as to please God 
 that does not live on that plan. We talk about 
 growing in grace, and we urge upon men and 
 women to grow in grace ; we try to grow in grace, 
 we make a little progress in one line, and per- 
 haps while we are making progress in that line, 
 we are failing in another. There is no such 
 thing as normal spiritual growth that is not based 
 upon whole dedication. When there is whole 
 dedication of our whole being, then growth is the 
 normal thing in the Christian life, not growth 
 in one particular, but growth in every particular. 
 When we have taken this step in dead earnest, 
 then out of our lives will issue the things that 
 I have just enumerated, which are found in this 
 chapter. 
 
 //. The Relation to Governments 
 Ch. 13 
 
 1. The obligation, v. i. 
 
 2. The reason, v. 1-5. 
 
 3. The application, v. 7. 
 
 This is a very essential point. A great many 
 people think, when they get religion, that they 
 have everything in this world they need; that 
 they have no relation to the world after they 
 
l8o Salvation and the Old Theology- 
 have gotten a very good case of religion. The 
 Apostle Paul is directing a very clear-cut message 
 to such people. 
 
 First, the obligation in verse i, "Let every soul 
 be subject to the higher powers." The Apostle 
 here is talking about governmental authority, 
 about the authorities of the civil government, and 
 he makes the call by way of an obligation that 
 every soul is to be subject to these high civil 
 authorities. Why? Because, he says, there is 
 no power but of God and the powers that be 
 are ordained of God. In other words, God is the 
 author of civil government just as much as He is 
 the author of the Bible. He is the author of it 
 in an entirely different sense and in a different 
 way, but He is just as much the author of civil 
 authority as He is of the Bible. Now, this does 
 not mean that every man in authority is a God- 
 fearing man. Far from it. I would that that 
 were true. On the contrary, it is almost uni- 
 versally the opposite, but so far as the govern- 
 ment is concerned, that is ordained of God, and 
 the Christian is obligated to God to keep the law. 
 I think that there could be no message spoken to- 
 day that had in it more weight, if properly re- 
 ceived, and more opportunity for good, than the 
 message of this thirteenth chapter, and especially 
 is that true right here in our own country to-day. 
 A Christian man has no more right to disobey 
 the law of the land than He has to walk in the 
 face of the law of God and disobey it. Of course, 
 
The Practical Application 1 8 1 
 
 there is a distinction made, as you will see as you 
 go on further in this chapter, between the civil 
 law, in so far as it relates to the matter of civil 
 government, and the civil law as it relates to the 
 question of conscience. When it comes to the 
 question of religious conscience, then it becomes 
 quite another question. Nothing is to stand be- 
 tween a man and God. But in so far as gov- 
 ernment relates to the governing of the body in 
 civil things, we are just as much obligated to keep 
 the law of the land as we are the law of God, 
 and the man who takes the law in his own hands 
 and breaks it, breaks the law of God. Every Sab- 
 bath violator is guilty of two violations of law, 
 and for those two violations of law he has got 
 to stand before the judgment. First, he is guilty 
 of the violation of God's law. Second, he is 
 guilty of the violation of man's law, because the 
 statute law of this country makes it binding upon 
 us to keep the Sabbath, and when a man violates 
 the Sabbath he violates both God's law and man's 
 law. I wonder how these men that go down 
 to their offices and work themselves and work 
 their clerks, and carry on their regular routine of 
 business, will feel when they stand before the 
 judgment bar of God? I wonder how these Sun- 
 day-paper publishers are going to feel when they 
 stand before the judgment bar of God? Never 
 mind about their being run by good Christian 
 men; here is the law. God said it, and man 
 said it, and God indorsed what man said when 
 
1 82 Salvation and the Old Theology 
 
 man made the law, and so all along the line we 
 need to have our consciences quickened with re- 
 spect to the tremendous importance of keeping 
 the law, the law of God and the law of the land. 
 
 Anarchy is ever displeasing to God, and he is 
 an anarchist who goes in the face of the law of 
 the land and does as he pleases. He may not be 
 branded as anarchists are branded, but he is an 
 anarchist who takes the law of the land in his 
 own hand. 
 
 "Render to all their dues; tribute to whom 
 tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to 
 whom fear; honor to whom honor." 
 
 I wonder how many of us shirk paying our 
 taxes? Some people go away from town and 
 stay away to keep from getting caught. I know 
 a prominent church member, worth thousands of 
 dollars, who, several years ago, was found to be 
 paying tax on an old watch and a pistol. The 
 rest of it was put off on other people to keep 
 from paying taxes on it. He used to carry around 
 the bread and wine and look as saintly as an 
 angel. It never occurred to him when he refused 
 to pay his taxes that he was breaking God's law. 
 I have no question in my mind that, if he had 
 been taught the Scriptures clearly and plainly, he 
 would have seen differently and acted differently. 
 I know young men who brag about getting out 
 of paying their poll-tax. Let every such man or 
 woman understand that when that is true, God's 
 law is violated and it is a si^ 
 
XIX 
 CONCLUDING WORDS 
 /. Non-Essentials and Disputations 
 Chs. 14 and 15 
 
 1. The obligation. 14:1. 
 
 2. Against judgments. 14:1-12. 
 
 3. The higher law. 14:13-23 and 15:1-12. 
 "Him that is weak in faith receive ye, yet not 
 
 for decision of scruples" (v. i). 
 
 I wish that the Church everywhere could ap- 
 preciate this teaching. How changed would be 
 our method of procedure in all of our Churches ! 
 How different would be our feeling toward the 
 weak brother! As it is now the weak brother 
 is looked down upon rather with a spirit of con- 
 tempt. We do not say so, but it nevertheless 
 is so. The weak brother when he comes into 
 the Church is too often made to feel that he 
 ought to take a back seat until he passes through 
 a stage of spiritual evolution and social evolu- 
 tion to the extent that he can be given the front 
 seat, and that is especially so if that weak brother 
 happens to be a sister. She is certainly made to 
 feel that she must get far back, and stay 
 183 
 
184 Salvation and the Old Theology 
 
 far back, a long time; and the world on 
 the outside sees this and the ordinary man 
 of the world knows that that is not Christ, 
 and knowing that it is not Christ and yet see- 
 ing that it is persistently so in the Church, the 
 world becomes disgusted. It has not the due 
 respect for the Church that it should have and 
 would have if things were operated on a different 
 plane. It has not been long since I talked to a 
 man of affairs and a man of fine judgment, a 
 man who is fair, too, in his judgment, and he 
 was referring to this very matter. He said to 
 me, "The thing of all others that is keeping me 
 out of the Church [though he was a professed 
 believer] is the inconsistency of the Church with 
 respect to weak and needy mankind." Those 
 were his words, and then he illustrated what he 
 meant. He said : ''My wife worked hard to pick 
 up and save a poor weak fallen girl, and she was 
 saved, too, for my wife said she was." He 
 thought that everything his wife said was regis- 
 tered in heaven. "And yet my wife's pastor told 
 her that he did not think it was wise for her 
 to try to join his church; that there were churches 
 in the city where she could go and feel at home ; 
 that there was a great deal of feeling in his 
 church against that kind of thing, and while he 
 thoroughly sympathized with the effort, yet it was 
 not best for her to come into that church. Now," 
 he said, "I cannot join a church that preaches 
 one thing and practices another, for if that 
 
Concluding Words 185 
 
 woman is saved, she is just as good as any 
 other woman in the sight of God, or your teach- 
 ing is wrong; and after all who of us has not 
 sinned ?" 
 
 I tell you, I do believe that we would not have 
 one-half the backsliding in the Church to-day — 
 not one-half — if we were to put into practice this 
 teaching: if our officers and our Sunday-school 
 teachers, our Christian men and women, when 
 they see a man or woman about to stumble, would 
 go to them and love them back into safety. The 
 opposite of this is true. Let a little bit of sus- 
 picion get out in the community against a man, 
 or more especially a woman. Where is a good 
 woman that goes to her and says, "Here, let's 
 have a little talk together. I am afraid you are 
 imprudent, and I want to talk with you about it," 
 and just demonstrating her genuine sympathy, 
 win her by love back to the place of security ? 
 Instead of that, they who are strong are certainly 
 strong in going around and telling everybody 
 about the little indiscreet things that have been 
 done. The Apostle Paul, inspired by the Spirit 
 of God, was endeavoring to teach this Church to 
 whom he had written this letter, that that is not 
 the way to express the Christian life. 
 
 Then he goes on to give some very strong 
 teaching with respect to the matter of judgment. 
 Here his purpose is to condemn quick, rapid, 
 hasty, unchristian judgment of one another, hold- 
 ing up as a sufficient reason for that that God 
 
i86 Salvation and the Old Theology 
 
 Himself is judge, and that we shall all have 
 to stand at last, and every man give an ac- 
 count for himself before the judgment bar of 
 God. 
 
 But the higher law is the thing that I wish 
 to consider, from the 23d verse, chapter 14, to 
 the I2th verse of chapter 15. The principle here 
 is a very good one, and a very necessary one and 
 it is well for us to understand it. There are a 
 great many things that we are privileged to do in 
 our own right, which, when we take into consid- 
 eration the rights of others, we are not privileged 
 to do. A man has a right to eat meat, but is 
 there someone who is grievously offended because 
 of meat-eating? If by the continuance of the 
 meat-eating process one's influence is lost over 
 such a one, that meat-eating must be given up, 
 not that there is harm in the meat, but there is 
 loss of influence in the thing that he is doing. 
 This is what we call the higher law of Christian 
 service, and it is a law that we ought always to 
 keep in mind. Paul said, "I have a right to eat 
 meat, it does not hurt me, but here is one who 
 thinks that because this meat has been offered 
 to idols, it is wrong to eat it. I will give up my 
 right to eat the meat for the higher right of 
 my brother's interest. I have the right to eat, and 
 the right to eat carries with it the right not to 
 eat." If all of us would adopt this principle, 
 there would be no more trouble, there could not 
 be any such thing as trouble in the Church. 
 
Concluding Words 187 
 
 //. The Final Salutation and Benediction 
 Chs. 15 and 16 
 
 There is nothing in this of special significance. 
 I will just give an epitomized statement of what 
 is contained in these two chapters. Prayer for 
 the Church, his compliment of the Church, his 
 personal words to them, his commendation of his 
 colaborers, his final benediction. 
 
 Now for just a concluding word, the final 
 word with ourselves. First, we have found in 
 the study of this book that we are all in sin, 
 and all hell-deserving and all hell-bound. We 
 have seen also that Jesus Christ died to save us 
 from sin. We have seen further that outside of 
 Jesus Christ there is no such thing as salvation, 
 that the work of the law avails nothing to the 
 man until he, by faith in the death and the resur- 
 rection of Christ, is a saved man. That faith in 
 the death and resurrection of Christ brings not 
 only salvation to one, but also into his life are 
 incorporated the principles which actuated Jesus 
 Christ in His life, so that the matter of keep- 
 ing the law is no more a matter of force, but 
 the natural outcome. His concern is keeping in 
 perfect spiritual harmony with Jesus Christ, and 
 when he is in perfect spiritual harmony with 
 Jesus Christ, the law keeps itself, for Christ came 
 as the fulfillment of the law, and in His life was 
 incorporated all that the law was intended to be, 
 so that when we embrace Christ, we embrace 
 
1 88 Salvation and the Old Theology 
 
 Christ as the sum and substance of all that God 
 wants us to do and be. The position of the Chris- 
 tian is not one of legalism. It is one of liberty, 
 but only such liberty as issues from a direct and 
 personal touch with Jesus Christ. It is just that 
 liberty that comes to one when he is mastered by 
 Christ. Hence my injunction at the close of this 
 study, which I trust has been helpful at least in 
 some degree, my one injunction is this : See to it 
 that Jesus Christ is Lord and Master of your life. 
 If He is truly Lord and Master, the matter of liv- 
 ing a Christian life is not one of strenuous en- 
 deavor, but one of normal ease, the outflowing of 
 the inwrought life of Christ through the Holy 
 Ghost sent down from God. 
 
 THE END 
 
Date Due 
 
 N n ''M 
 
 
 
 
 Wf 7 ft '4j 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 /. - 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 - - ; , 1^1^ 
 
 — 
 
 
 
 JWrrTt. 
 
 
 
 
 #CT Sinn 
 
 mtuiv 
 
 
 
 ,iA*t-rr? 
 
 r 
 
 
 
 i 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 f