QUEST. I.—WHAT IS IT TO BE SAVED?
Third. To be saved is to be brought to, and helped to lay hold on, Jesus Christ by faith. And this is called saving by grace through faith. “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God” (Eph 2:8).
1. They must be brought unto Christ, yea, drawn unto him; for “no man,” saith Christ, “can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him” (John 6:44). Men, even the elect, have too many infirmities to come to Christ without help from heaven; inviting will not do. “As they called them, so they went from them,” therefore he “drew them with cords” (Hosea 11:2,4).
2. As they must be brought to, so they must be helped to lay hold on Christ by faith; for as coming to Christ, so faith, is not in our own power; therefore we are said to be raised up with him “through the faith of the operation of God.” And again, we are said to believe, “according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead” (Col 2:12; Eph 1:19,20). Now, we are said to be saved by faith because, by faith, we lay hold of, venture upon, and put on Jesus Christ for life. For life, I say, because God has made him the Saviour, hath given him life to communicate to sinners. The life that he communicates to them is the merit of his flesh and blood, which whoso eat and drink by faith, hath eternal life because that flesh and blood hath merit in it sufficient to obtain God’s favor. Yea, it hath done so [since] that day it was offered through the eternal Spirit a sacrifice of a sweet-smelling savor to him; wherefore God imputed the righteousness of Christ to him that believeth in him, by which righteousness he is personally justified, and saved from that just judgment of the law that was due unto him (John 5:26, 6:53-58; Eph 4:32; 5:2; Rom 4:23-25).
“Saved by faith.” Although salvation begins in God’s purpose and comes to us through Christ’s righteousness, faith is not exempted from having a hand in saving us. It is not that it merited aught, but is given by God to those he saved, so they may embrace and put on that Christ by whose righteousness they must be saved. Wherefore this faith is that which here distinguished them that shall be saved from them that shall be damned. Hence it is said, “He that believeth not, shall be damned”; and hence again, it is that the believers are called “the children, the heirs, and the blessed with faithful Abraham;” that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe (Gal 3:6-9,26; Rom 4:13,14).
And here, let Christians warily distinguish between the meritorious and the instrumental cause of their justification. Christ, with what he hath done and suffered, is the meritorious cause of our justification; therefore, he is said to be made to us of God, “wisdom and righteousness,” and we are said to be “justified by his blood, and saved from wrath through him,” for it was his life and blood that was the price of our redemption (1 Cor 1:30; Rom 5:9,10). “Redeemed,” says Peter, “not with corruptible things, as silver and gold,” alluding to the redemption of money under the law, “but with the precious blood of Christ.” Thou art, therefore, as I have said, to make Christ Jesus the object of thy faith for justification; for by his righteousness thy sins must be covered from the sight of the justice of the law. “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” “For he shall save his people from their sins” (Acts 16:31; Matt 1:21).
Fourth. To be saved is to be preserved in the faith to the end. “He that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved” (Matt 24:13). Not that perseverance is an accident in Christianity or a thing performed by human industry; they that are saved “are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation” (1 Peter 1:3-6).
But perseverance is absolutely necessary to the complete saving of the soul because he that falleth short of the state that they that are saved are possessed of, as saved, cannot arrive at that saved state. He that goes to sea with a purpose to arrive at Spain cannot arrive there if he is drowned by the way; wherefore perseverance is absolutely necessary to the saving of the soul, and therefore it is included in the complete saving of us—”Israel shall be saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation: ye shall not be ashamed nor confounded world without end” (Isa 45:17). Perseverance is here made absolutely necessary to the complete saving of the soul.
But, as I said, this part of salvation depended not upon human power, but upon him that hath begun a good work in us (Phil 1:6). This part, therefore, of our salvation is great and calleth for no less than the power of God for our help to perform it, as will be easily granted by all those that consider—
Apprehended 