God's Plan with Men

by T. T. Martin

Now comes the all-important question, what do these parallel expressions, "believe on Christ" or "believe in [into] Christ" mean? Many, when they see how simple and plain is the teaching, say, "Why, almost every one believes on Christ." No; they believe about Christ, but not on Christ. A wealthy man deposits a large sum of money in the bank and promises to pay the debts of all the poor people who will trust him to pay their debts. They all may believe him, may believe about him; but only those who believe on him, depend on him, rely on him to pay their debts, will have their debts paid. So Christ died for all our sins (1 Cor. 15:3); He gave Himself for us that He might redeem us from all iniquity (Titus 2:14); but only those who believe on Him, depend on Him, rely on Him to save them, will ever be saved. The man who is depending on Christ and his baptism or Christ and his church, or Christ and his good life to save him, will be lost; for he is not believing on, depending on, relying on, Christ to save him; but only partly on Christ and partly on something else; and there is no promise in God's word that those who partly believe on Christ shall be saved. The very fact that a man depends partly on Christ and partly on something else to save him, shows that he has never believed that the Saviour "gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity" (Titus 2:13, 14); the Saviour he is depending on is not the Saviour God's word reveals; and hence he has no Saviour at all.

Notice Paul's instruction to the Romans concerning believing on Christ: "To him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is reckoned for righteousness."—Rom. 4:5. Consider the simple but vital teaching of this passage: He justifieth the ungodly. How? "Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood ... to declare, I say, at this time his righteousness, that he might be just and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus" (Rom. 3:25, 26); "being now justified by his blood."—Rom. 5:9. And He justifies us from all sin, "Our Saviour Jesus Christ who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity" (Titus 2:13, 14); redeems us from the curse of the law (Gal. 3:13), redeems us from under the law (Rom. 6:14), and this makes us God's children (Gal. 4:4-7).

Consider further: He justifies the ungodly. If He justifies the ungodly then all efforts to become godly in order to be saved, are worse than wasted and are in rebellion against God's plan for men. "When we were yet without strength in due time Christ died for the ungodly."—Rom. 5:6. "God commendeth his own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."—Rom. 5:8. "When we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son."—Rom. 5:10. Why? Because Christ justifies the ungodly. The Saviour did not say to Nicodemus, "Whosoever becomes godly should not perish," but "Whosoever believeth on him." Why? Because He justifies the ungodly. Paul and Silas did not say to the jailor, a hardened sinner, "Become godly and thou shalt be saved"; but "Believe on the Lord Jesus, and thou shalt be saved." Why? Because He justifies the ungodly. On what condition does He justify the ungodly? "To him that worketh not, but believeth on him." Here is the work of the soul to be saved; Paul says to cease working at the task, and believe on, depend on, Him—He justifies the ungodly. God gave men ten commandments to keep. God's word says, "The man that doeth them shall live by them."—Gal. 3:12. But all men have failed to keep them; "all have sinned and come short of the glory of God."—Rom. 3:23. To illustrate: A father gives a little boy ten rows of corn to work out and says to him, "Willie, if you will work out the ten rows of corn to-day, I will pay you five dollars; but it will take steady work all day." About nine o'clock some boys persuade Willie to play, and he plays with them for two hours. Now he cannot get the task done, and so is sure to lose the five dollars. His grown brother comes to him and says, "Willie, I saw the trouble you were getting into, and had a talk with father. Father says that the work must be done or you will lose the five dollars. But father agreed to let me do the work for you. Now if you will quit working at the task and trust me, depend on me, I will see that the work is done, and that you get the five dollars." The little brother quits working at the task, and gets out of the field. He believes on, depends on, trusts, his big brother. If, now, there is any failure, it will be the big brother's failure, and not the little brother's. So, "To him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is reckoned for righteousness." If, then, the sinner will quit working at the task of his salvation and believe on, depend on Christ, trust the whole work of salvation to Him, He will "justify the ungodly" from "all iniquity" (Titus 2:14). If, then, there should be any failure of being saved, it would be Christ's failure, for He said, "Him that cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out."—John 6:37. Why, then, should the one who has thus trusted Christ ever be baptized, or live a faithful, godly life? Go back to the illustration: As the little brother quits working at the task in the field and believes on, depends on, trusts, the big brother to have the task done, a man meets him and says, "Willie, your brother was good to you. But to do your work for you, that you might not lose the five dollars, he left his field, and it needs work badly. If I were in your place, from love to my big brother, I would go and work in his field for him." The little brother says, "I will do it, sir." He goes over into his big brother's field and works harder than ever, not from fear of losing the five dollars, but from love to his big brother. So the Saviour, after we have believed on Him, trusted Him to save, justify us, says, "If ye love me, keep my commandments."—John 14:15. "Go work to-day in my vineyard,"—Matt. 21:28; not "in your own." All the work that the redeemed, the saved, man does is not in his own field, to get the task done, that he may be saved; but in the big brother's field, from love to the big brother for having relieved him of the entire responsibility for the task.

To follow up the illustration: The big brother sees the little brother working in the big brother's field and he goes to him and says, "Willie, I appreciate this, for you are doing it from love to me. If you were doing it from fear lest I might not keep my promise, it would hurt me; for that would show that you did not trust me. But you cannot work for me for nothing. I will pay you fifty cents for every hour you work in my field. Now, work hard and have a large reward for your labor." So the Saviour says, "Whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of water only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward."—Matt. 10:42. And he says, "Lay up for yourselves treasures in Heaven."—Matt. 6:20. "He shall reward every man according to his works."—Matt. 16:27. The reward of fifty cents for every hour's work does not destroy the motive of love that moves the little brother; it only increases the motive of love.

But do not redeemed people, God's children, sometimes become backsliders? Yes. Go back to the illustration of the little brother and his task. As he is working from love to his big brother, in the big brother's field, the bad boys follow him and tempt him, and prevail on him to leave the big brother's field and to mistreat the big brother. The father sees it all; goes and takes the little brother out into the forest and reproves him for his wrong to his big brother, and then chastises him and sends him back to the big brother's field. So, when God's redeemed, saved children backslide, do wrong wilfully, He chastises them. "My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him; for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth."—Heb. 12:5, 6. "Also I will make him my firstborn, higher than the kings of the earth. My mercy will I keep for him for evermore, and my covenant shall stand fast with him. His seed also will I make to endure forever, and his throne as the days of heaven. If his children forsake my law and walk not in my judgments; if they break my statutes, and keep not my commandments; then will I visit their transgression with the rod and their iniquity with stripes. Nevertheless, my loving kindness will I not utterly take from him nor suffer my faithfulness to fail."—Ps. 89:27-33.

Reader, which field are you working in? Are you working in your own field? trying to accomplish a task, now that you have sinned, you can never accomplish?—Meet all of God's just laws and requirements, and develop a character that will entitle you to a home in Heaven? Heed the message, "To him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is reckoned for righteousness." Believe on Him, depend on Him, to justify you from all iniquity (Titus 2:14). The moment you do, your eternal destiny is settled, "Verily, verily I say unto you, he that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life."—John 5:24. Then, from love to the big brother, go into his field and work till the day is done.

In telling of his own salvation, Paul again makes plain what "believe on the Lord Jesus" means: "I know him whom I have believed and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed to him against that day." Notice this declaration as to the apostle's salvation: "I know him." A man must "know him" or he cannot "believe on" Christ. He can risk Him without knowing Him, but he cannot believe on Him, cannot trust Him for salvation. It does not mean, know Him in every respect, as to how His divine and human nature could be united; as to how He could have had eternal existence; as to how His resurrected body could appear and disappear, etc., but to know Him in His character as Saviour. In trusting money to a bank one does not need to know how much German or French or English blood there is in the bank officials. In trusting one's case to a physician, one does not need to know the different nationalities from which he is descended, but he needs to know him in his character as physician. So men must know Jesus in His character as Saviour, or they cannot believe on, trust Him to save them. They must, then, know Him as the Messiah, the promised Saviour, the complete sin-bearer, or they cannot believe on Him. But after one knows the bank, he must commit his money to the bank, else the bank is not responsible for it. After one knows the physician, he must commit his case to the physician, else the physician is not responsible. And so Paul says, "I am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day." No one, then, is redeemed, is saved, who has not committed his salvation to Christ against that day. Let the reader get clearly the meaning of "commit." No one has committed money to the bank who yet holds to the money; no one has committed a package to the express company who yet holds to the package; no one has committed a letter to the post-office for delivery who yet holds to the letter. So no one has committed his salvation to Christ, no one is redeemed, is saved, who yet holds to the work of his salvation. He must commit it to Christ.

Further, no one has committed his money to the bank who has not left the entire responsibility for the money's safety to the bank, leaving no further responsibility whatever upon himself for the safety of the money. No one has committed a package to the express company, who has not left the whole responsibility for the delivery of the package entirely to the company, leaving no responsibility whatever upon himself for its safe delivery. No one has committed a letter to the post-office who has not left the entire responsibility for its safe delivery to the government, leaving no responsibility whatever upon himself for its safe delivery. Even so, no one has committed his salvation to Christ, no one is redeemed, is saved, who has not left the entire responsibility of his salvation to Christ, leaving no responsibility whatever for his salvation upon himself.

But one may have committed his money to the bank and yet not really have trusted the bank, but only risked the bank; one may have committed a package to the express company and yet not really have trusted the express company, but only risked it; one may have committed a letter to the post-office and yet not really have trusted the post-office, but only risked it. So, one may have committed his salvation to Christ, and yet be unredeemed, unsaved, because he only risked Christ and did not trust Him. Hence Paul says, "I know him whom I have believed," trusted, taken at His word.