Twenty-Four Short Sermons On The Doctrine Of Universal Salvation

by John Bovee Dods

"For what if some did not believe, shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect? God forbid; yea let God be true, but every man a liar." Romans iii:3, 4.

We resume the argument, in this discourse, concerning those prisoners brought forward in our last. We left them in bondage under the sentence of the law with no hopes of deliverance. The first year rolls away. The king says, my son, the time has come—go, and reveal my love to the prisoners by bringing the promise of their redemption to light. The son flies on wings of love, enters the prison and exclaims—I bring you good tidings of great joy. My father, the king, is your friend. He loves you; and that love has induced him to proclaim your liberation as a free gift. He has promised (and he cannot lie) that in two years from this day you shall be free. This covenant, so far as concerns its fulfillment, is unconditional. Believe, and you will be saved, by faith in the promise, from your present fears, and condemnation under the law.

Those stubborn prisoners see a sufficiency of evidence to believe the promise. They exercise unshaken faith in this second covenant between the father and son. This faith works by love in their hearts, and purifies them from disobedience. Their souls melt in view of the love and goodness of the king revealed to them by his son. In fine, they love him because he first loved them. They are now saved by faith in his promise from not only all their miseries and sorrows, but from their disobedience, and look forward with joy to the day of redemption. Here we perceive the "righteousness of faith," which far exceeds the "righteousness of the law." They now delight to obey the king because they are under the influence of love.

Here let the question be asked—are these three men to be let out of prison at the appointed time because they believe the promise, or love and obey the king? They are not. Their redemption depended on the truth and faithfulness of the king's promise which he made to his son, and that promise would have been fulfilled, even if it had not been revealed to them till the day of their deliverance. They are not to be set free as a reward for their faith, love and obedience. They have great peace and joy in believing that promise. They are in the happy enjoyment of a salvation by faith, and that is all the reward they deserve, or have reason to expect. We here perceive that these three men are made to establish the law of their king by faith in the good news he sent them by his son, which is to them a gospel. We now see the propriety of the apostle's language—"We conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid; yea we establish the law." We also perceive that these three men are not to be liberated from prison because they believe the promise, or love and obey the king. But on the contrary it is the king's love and promise to them which sets them free.

Let us now notice the other three prisoners. One says I do not believe that we shall ever be released from prison. It is too good news to be true. Well, shall his unbelief make the king's promise of none effect? The king forbid; yea let the king be true, but that man a liar. But let it be remembered that he cannot be proved a liar unless he is liberated. Would you now go and tell that man-sir, because you will not believe, you shall never come forth from prison? But do you not perceive that by so doing you would give the king the lie? It would be saying that his promise was good for nothing unless the man would believe it. It would be contending that the unbelief of this prisoner will make the king's promise of none effect.

The other two prisoners exclaim—we believe this second covenant, but it must bear some resemblance to the first which is conditional. We believe that we shall get out of this prison if we continue to serve the king as, we have heretofore, by keeping his commandments.— Here are two men trusting in the first covenant for deliverance. They are trusting in the law. They are depending on their own love and faithfulness to the king for redemption, and not on the king's love, promise and faithfulness to them. Here then we see the righteousness of the law in those two prisoners; in another we see the effect of unbelief; and in those three who remained disobedient under the first covenant, we see the righteousness which is of faith when they heard the glad tidings of redemption in the second covenant.

At length the day of their redemption dawns. They are all brought to the knowledge of the truth. Those three prisoners, who were saved by faith in the promise during those two years of suspense, now find their faith lost in certainty. Their salvation, by faith has come to an end. And so has the unbelief, condemnation and doubtings of the other three prisoners. In one word—the belief and unbelief of the six are lost in knowledge, and they burst out in songs of deliverance So we perceive that a salvation by faith, and a condemnation in unbelief can last no longer than till we come to the knowledge of the truth.

Let us now apply this to the scriptures. Man sinned, and not only involved himself in guilt and misery, but was sentenced to that very death with which God threatened him—"Dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return." Here was the end of the first covenant, and the termination of all the miseries of life. It is evident from revelation as well as reason that man at death drops to a state of insensibility, and knows no more till he is made alive in Christ, who is himself the second covenant. The language of scripture is, the dead know not any thing—they sleep—and the apostle (in 1 Cor. xv Chap.) reasons that if there be no resurrection, then there will be no future existence— that they which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished—that preaching was vain—faith was also vain, and that the christians were yet in their sins. On such language as this, I can put no other construction than that the resurrection is our salvation and eternal life, our deliverance from sin and imperfection. Under the first covenant the resurrection in Christ was not revealed to the human family, and they remained of course under the sentence of condemnation with no hopes of a future existence. "By the offense of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation." Obedience to the law was enforced by threatenings on the one hand, and promises of temporal rewards on the other, which were communicated to the fathers by the prophets.

But God has in these latter days spoken unto us by his Son, and through him revealed the second covenant in which he "gave him the heathen for an inheritance, and the utter most parts of the earth for a possession," and declared him to be the resurrection and life of the world. If in the divine counsels no Christ had been provided, the human family it appears would have remained in eternal slumber. They would have known but one covenant, which would have rewarded and punished them according to their deeds, and consigned them to the regions of the dead. "But since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead."

God saw fit to keep the human family for four thousand years under the first covenant, without the knowledge of eternal life through the resurrection of the dead. But it was, at length, "made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel." Yes, he first brought it to light, and through his apostle declared "In hope of eternal life which God that cannot lie promised before the world began, but hath in due time manifested his word through preaching." This promise of eternal life, all men are called upon to believe. The moment they believe, they are saved by faith, and are at peace; and they that doubt are damned—they are already under condemnation. But shall their unbelief make God's promise of eternal life of none effect? God forbid; yea let God be true but every man a liar. "For he hath concluded them all in unbelief that he might have mercy upon all."