Plain Sermons, preached at Archbishop Tenison's Chapel, Regent Street. Second Series

by James Galloway Cowan

This purpose, then, the law serves to Christians: it points out the ways in which love should exercise itself; and so, by confronting the negligent or transgressing, proves to them the absence or the imperfection of their love. The Christian is not free from the observance of one jot or one tittle of it, though he is no longer under the law, but under grace; but even if he has kept it all, he is not necessarily accepted: he has not rendered service pleasing to God, if his will is not better than his power, his heart larger than his deeds! This the lawyer knew theoretically; and yet, against his knowledge, he sinned. When asked what the law required him to do, he answered rightly, that the law required, above and beyond particular deeds, an impelling principle of love for God, and, for His sake, for man also. But then, when his answer was commended, we are told that he, willing to justify himself (which means, either to excuse himself for past imperfection, or to attain presently unto the condition of the just, without becoming all that was required of him) demanded, “And who is my neighbour?” showing thereby, how much his heart was behind his mind; betraying the fact, that while he professed entire devotion to God, he was really trying to find out with how stinted and formal an obedience, he could win and keep his favour.

In review of this history, let me suggest to you, in very few words, some important truths.

“What shall I do to inherit eternal life?” is a momentous question for each of you to ask of God, through His revealed word. For the inheritance never shall be yours, unless you observe the conditions upon which it was promised; and one of those conditions (a most important one), is, that you should pursue constantly a course of righteousness, both to glorify God by prescribed service, and to acquire by spiritual exercise the necessary character for heaven, without which none can enter it.

To do righteousness—not simply to feel, or think, or speak righteously—is what is plainly enjoined upon you. Still, you must remember that you are not to propose to yourselves, as the approved course, the observance only of particular laws, the confining of religion to special times, and places, and objects, and deeds; the mere walking in a clearly marked out path, as though hands, and feet, and ears, and lips, without heart or mind, could work out salvation; as though, too, it were not practicable or desirable, that you should offer unto God any free-will service, something besides what He has asked you to do! Above all, having come to understand, that while the fruit of religion is in the life, the germ of it is in the heart; that without faith, and hope, and love, it is impossible to please God; that the law to you is spiritualised; that you are brought out of the bondage of servants into the glorious liberty of sons; that not the mere letter of the law, but the spirit of it is to be your guide; that outward deeds are not of themselves acceptable to God, but only as signs of enlightened hearty feeling—things done in faith and love; that worship in the temple is nothing, unless you worship out of the temple likewise; that bowing the knee, and praising with the lips, are an abomination, unless the spirit, too, is bowed and the soul upraised; that bodily sacrifice alone is no sacrifice, that it needs the broken and contrite heart, and the devoted spirit—while understanding, I say, all this, and rejoicing in the reasonable, heart-sprung, spiritual service of the Christian, beware lest you separate what God has joined, or substitute free-will for commanded service, using your liberty otherwise than as servants of God; carrying out, as you suppose, the spirit of the law wholly in your own way, instead of keeping, while you spiritualise the letter of the law. “The time is come when, neither in Jerusalem nor in this mountain, shall ye worship the Father,” does not mean that appointed places of worship shall not be resorted to, but that, besides, God shall be worshipped everywhere. A yearly celebration of the Passover is no longer necessary; but a continual feast is substituted for it. God seeks now to be worshipped in spirit and truth—that is, not without the body, but in addition to the body, with the spirit. The letter by itself killeth, because it is formal, and leaves the noblest powers and feelings of man unengaged for God; but the letter, as the carrying out of the Spirit, is still so imperative, so vital, that he who does not observe it foregoes the promise, “This do, and thou shalt live!”

SERMON XIV.
PRESENT SALVATION.

II. Corinthians, vi., 2.

Behold, now is the day of salvation.

St. Paul, having just quoted a prophecy of Isaiah, which relates to an accepted time and a day of salvation, in the text declares the fulfilment of that prophecy: “Now is the accepted time; now is the day of salvation.” That which was then promised, is now performed; that which was formerly but anticipated, and only embraced by faith, while yet afar off, is now realised and brought near. But the prophecy itself was mentioned by the Apostle, to enforce an entreaty, “We then as workers together with Him, beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain. For He saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee.” It is evident, then, that St. Paul would impress upon the Corinthians that men are in danger of receiving the grace of God in vain, of not benefitting by all the merciful and bountiful provision made through Christ for their redemption, and justification, and sanctification, by not recognising that this is the day of salvation, and so, not looking and preparing for, and receiving a present salvation.

Salvation is, as you know, the result—possible in all cases; certain, wherever the conditions are observed—of redemption by Christ. In its perfection, it is absolute freedom from the guilt, the taint, and the power of sin, and complete, effectual, and abiding holiness of heart and life. It belongs not to our proposed subject to consider at any length the destruction from which this is a salvation, nor the manner in which it was wrought out for lost sinners by Christ, nor the blessedness of its perfect possession and fruition, which can only be had in heaven. We have rather to do with what is present, than with the past and the future. We inquire not now, What has Christ done, or, What shall we reach by and by, but, What ought we to do now? What have we, or may we have now? In what respects, to what extent, is salvation a thing of the present?

First, then, it is present in the offer to bestow it, and the exhortations and influences to lay hold on it. When Christ rose victorious from the tomb, having paid the ransom for all the prisoners of the law, and purchased the right and power of being their Saviour, He did not immediately make all the men of His time actual partakers of the privileges, nor did He provide that all who should thereafter be born, should from their birth inherit the blessing, as from Adam they had inherited the curse. No man might say, “Christ has died and risen again, therefore, I am certainly saved, without any reserve or delay on His part, without any effort, almost without any desire, on my part.” Salvation was then provided; rather, the fountain was then opened, and began to flow; but each man in his turn, at the call of God, and in the way of God’s appointment, was, so to speak, to help himself to salvation. In other words, what Christ did, was not to take all who were then living into an ark, and to cause all that sprung from them to be born and brought up in that ark; but simply to build an ark, and leave it open for all ages, and to offer helps to reach it, and to urge an entrance into it upon all men, by the entreaties and promises of His love, and the threats of His wrath.

We want to be impressed with this. We are too apt to look upon salvation as an accomplished fact, belonging to the past; to speak of the blessedness of being born after the atonement has been made; to take for granted that we are actually saved, rather than that we have a present offer of salvation; and even to regard the ordinances of religion, as Baptism and Holy Communion, more as ceremonies of thankful faith, acknowledgments of obligation for past favours, than as means of laying hold on a now offered, and, as yet, unattained blessing.