How to preach the gospel (8)

  Date: August 31, 1948Place: Kuling

Both the condition of salvation and the result of salvation being accomplished by God

The condition and the result of salvation being one

  Today we will consider the condition and result of salvation. The common concept is that these two things are very different, that is, that we are responsible for the condition of salvation while God is responsible for the result of salvation. We cannot find one example in this world in which the means and the goal are the same. We know that there are conditions that lead to salvation. For example, repentance is a condition. Forgiveness, however, is a result. Similarly, believing is a condition, while salvation is a result. A man must know the Lord before he can have life. Knowing the Lord is a condition, while having life is a result. There is even a difference between salvation itself and the receiving of life. Salvation is a condition for receiving life, while loving the Lord is a result of having this life. A man must be saved before he can be part of God’s people, and he must be part of God’s people before he is qualified to live the life of a child of God. Hence, being part of God’s people is a condition, while living the life of a child of God is the result. A man must be saved before he can be free from the sins of the flesh. Here salvation is the condition and freedom from sin is the result.

  We all think that salvation is one thing, the condition of salvation is another thing, and the result of salvation is yet a third thing. But the Bible speaks of the condition and result of salvation in a mixed-up way; there is no way to separate the two. In preaching the gospel, it is very hard to explain the condition for salvation and the result of salvation as if they were separate items. It is foolish to try to break them down and analyze them as two separate things. The Lord has no intention of making a clear separation between the condition and the result of salvation. This is not a confusion but a most glorious acknowledgment of fact. This prompts us to greater worship. The condition of salvation is the same as the result of salvation, and the result of salvation is the same as the condition of salvation.

Clear proofs in the Bible

  We can find a few proofs of this in the Bible. Let us first read Luke 18 and 19. In Luke 18:18-27 a young ruler came to the Lord Jesus and asked, “What shall I do to inherit eternal life?” The young ruler wanted eternal life, and he came to ask about the condition for receiving it. He wanted to know what he first needed to do to receive eternal life. The Lord Jesus told him to keep all the commandments. The young man responded readily, “All these things I have kept from my youth.” The Lord Jesus then told him to sell his all and give to the poor, and then to follow Him. That is the way to inherit eternal life. At this word, the young ruler went away in sorrow because he could not do it. When the Lord saw him turning away, he said, “How difficult it is for those who have riches to go into the kingdom of God.” In saying this, the Lord equated receiving eternal life with entering God’s kingdom. When the disciples heard this, they said, “Then who can be saved?” They put all three things — inheriting eternal life, entering God’s kingdom, and being saved — together. With God, all three things are possible. These three things — salvation, receiving eternal life, and entering God’s kingdom — are results. The one condition is to sell everything and to follow the Lord.

  Moving on to Luke 19:1-10, there is the story of Zaccheus’s salvation. As soon as he was saved, he declared that he would give half of his possessions to the poor and restore four times what he had taken from others by false accusation. In chapter eighteen there is a young, moral ruler. In chapter nineteen there is a middle-aged, immoral tax collector. What is seen as a condition for salvation in chapter eighteen becomes a result of salvation in chapter nineteen. In chapter eighteen the condition for salvation is selling one’s possessions. But in chapter nineteen, giving up of one’s possessions becomes the result of salvation and even salvation itself. Luke 18 and 19 are completely opposite. We know that if something is a condition, it requires work on our part, and that if it is a result, it is God’s work. The Lord said that the condition for entering God’s kingdom is to sell everything, but He also said that what is impossible with man is possible with God. This means that we cannot sell everything by ourselves; God has to be the One who does this for us. Here we see that the condition of salvation is also salvation itself. We think that the condition is fulfilled by us while the result is accomplished by God. But the Lord said that even the condition of salvation is accomplished by God Himself. If salvation depends on our work, no one will be saved. The Lord said that what is impossible with man is possible with God. This incorporates the condition for salvation into salvation itself. In other words, God does everything. This does not say that what is possible with man should be done by man, and what is impossible with man should be taken up by God. Rather, it says that man does not have to do anything; God does everything.

  Read Acts 5:31-32 again: “This One God has exalted to His right hand as Leader and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And we are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey Him.” Here it clearly says that forgiveness and repentance are both given by God. Man has a wrong concept; he thinks that repentance is something he does, while forgiveness is something God gives. The Bible, however, says that both repentance and forgiveness are given to us by God. He has left nothing for man to do. In preaching the gospel, if someone finds it hard to repent, we can speak of repentance and forgiveness as being one thing. We can tell him that God has given both repentance and forgiveness as gifts. Originally, repentance is a condition for forgiveness. It is good if the Holy Spirit gives man repentance, but if a man cannot repent, we can incorporate repentance under the subject of forgiveness. According to this verse, God gives both things at the same time. He gives repentance at the same time that He gives forgiveness.

  Second Peter 1:1 says, “Simon Peter, a slave and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have been allotted faith equally precious as ours in the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ.” Here it says that we have received a faith that is equal to that possessed by other Christians. The entire Bible tells us that the condition for salvation is faith. Here, however, it does not say that we offer our faith to God, but that God offers faith to us. Faith is one of the gifts of God; it is something that we have received from Him. A man is able to believe through the faith he has received from the Holy Spirit. In preaching the gospel, we say that a man must believe before he can be saved. If he cannot believe, however, it is still all right, because faith is an item included in our salvation.

  In Luke 10:25-37 a lawyer asked the Lord, “What should I do to inherit eternal life?” The lawyer wanted to know the condition for inheriting eternal life. The Lord told him that to inherit eternal life, he had to love his God and love his neighbor as himself. Here we see that love is a condition for salvation. The lawyer followed this by asking another question: “Who is my neighbor?” The Lord went on with a story in verses 30 through 35, after which He asked, “Which of these three, does it seem to you, has become a neighbor to him who fell into the hands of the robbers?” The Lord intended to show that the lawyer was the very one who had fallen into the hands of the robbers, and that his neighbor, the good Samaritan, was the Lord Jesus Himself. John 4:9 indicates that Samaritans and Jews did not communicate with each other; they had nothing to do with one another. This means that our Lord has no share in the communications of this world. In John 8:48-49 the Jews reviled the Lord as a Samaritan and a demon-possessed person. The Lord denied that He was demon possessed, but He did not deny that He was a Samaritan. This shows us clearly that the good Samaritan refers to the Lord Jesus Himself.

  Luke 10:25-37 is clearly divided into two sections. Verses 25 through 28 are the first section, and verses 29 through 37 are the second section. Loving one’s neighbor in order to inherit eternal life is in the first section. The second section tells us that the Savior is the neighbor. He is the One who first loved the sinner. It seems as if inheriting eternal life and loving one’s neighbor are all mixed up. Yet this is a glorious fact! On the one hand, when we love Him, we inherit eternal life. On the other hand, He is the One who has loved us and given us eternal life. He must first love us and save us before we can love Him. We cannot love the Lord. Any love that we have towards Him has to come from Him. Eternal life is from Him; so is our love for Him. Salvation is a gift from Him; so is the condition of salvation. Man only needs to believe and receive. Everything is from God. This is the reason that those who have faith can come, and those who do not have faith can also come. Those who want salvation can come, and those who do not want salvation can also come. The Lord is the One who has done everything.

  Read the story in Luke 7:36-48 again. At the end of verse 47, the Lord told Simon that those who are forgiven much love much, and those who are forgiven little love little. This word shows that forgiving comes first and love comes after. It is not that those who love much are forgiven much, but that those who are forgiven much love much. In verse 48 the Lord Jesus told the woman, “Your sins are forgiven.” This means that the woman first loved the Lord and then was forgiven. This puts the result of salvation as a condition of salvation. Originally, forgiveness of debt is the content of salvation, while loving the Lord is the result of it. Here, however, the Lord Jesus turns the two around. He tells us that because the woman loved much, all her sins were forgiven. Again the condition for salvation and the result of salvation are mixed up. The forgiving One is the Lord, and the One who caused the woman to love is also the Lord. Salvation is from the Lord, and so is the result of salvation. Here we do not find an order of precedence between the condition for salvation and the result of salvation.

  From the very beginning to the very end, God is the One who accomplishes everything. This is the gospel. God has not only accomplished the work of salvation for us at Golgotha, but He is accomplishing this salvation within us. Both our objective salvation and our subjective salvation are accomplished by the Lord. Luke 8:15 says, “That which is in the good earth, these are those who in a noble and good heart hear the word and hold it fast and bear fruit with endurance.” We do not have a noble and good heart. Such a heart is made by God (Eccl. 7:29). A sinner cannot be saved unless he first has a noble and good heart. Thank the Lord that He has given us a noble and good heart to receive salvation. God has demands, but He is the One who works to meet the demands. This is the gospel.

  John 17:3 says, “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Him whom You have sent, Jesus Christ.” However, Matthew 11:27 says, “No one fully knows the Son except the Father.” For a man to know Jesus Christ, he must first have the revelation of the Father. A man must come to the Son to receive life, but only those to whom the Father has chosen to reveal Himself will know the Son, and only those who know the Son will come to the Lord. Those who come to Him will have life. Do we know the Lord and then come to Him, or do we come to Him and then know Him? Do we come to the Lord to receive eternal life, or do we receive eternal life to come to the Lord? Thank the Lord both are right. All are works of God. Man cannot specify any condition. God has combined the condition and the result into the same thing.

  In John 10:11 the Lord Jesus says, “I am the good Shepherd; the good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.” The Lord’s sheep are those who have believed into Him. But verse 26 says, “But you do not believe, because you are not of My sheep.” This proves that His sheep are those who believe in Him. Those who believe are the Lord’s sheep, and the Lord lays down His life for them. We usually say that we believe in the Lord because He has first died for us. Yet John 10:26 says that one does not believe because he is not of His sheep. This means that the Lord’s sheep are those who believe in Him and that He has laid down His life for such sheep. This turns things around. It seems as if the Lord is saying that we have to believe in Him first before He will die for us. Of course, we have never heard such a gospel. But this is indeed the case with the Lord. This means that our Lord is God; He is not governed by any time sequence. He is the One who accomplishes the believing, and He is the One who has laid down His life for us. Everything is of Him.

  In Acts 18 Paul wanted to remain in Corinth for the gospel. That night the Lord Jesus appeared to him, saying, “Do not be afraid, but speak and do not be silent…because I have many people in this city” (vv. 9-10). Does a man first believe and then become part of God’s people, or does a man become part of His people first and then believe? As soon as we introduce the concept of time, we have a problem. Thank God that He is beyond time. We are bound by time, and therefore with us there is the matter of time sequence. But with God there is no time sequence; He is not bound by time. This is the reason a condition can be a result at the same time. Both things are accomplished by God. Outwardly speaking, it seems as if they are accomplished by man. Actually, they are all accomplished by God’s grace. It is God who operates in us to receive salvation and to work for Him. Man can do nothing.

  Romans 9:23 says that we are “vessels of mercy, which He had before prepared unto glory.” We become a vessel, and then we receive His glory. Glory is with God. He created a vessel and filled this vessel with His glory. God has made us a vessel prepared unto glory, and then He fills us with this glory. We do not receive this glory by ourselves. We receive it because God has done everything. We have done nothing. Hallelujah! God has made us a vessel unto glory.

Coming to Jesus just as we are

  Hence, everyone can come to the Lord just as he is. The Lord is a friend of sinners. As long as a man opens his heart wide to Him, God will save him. Man’s prayer may be wrong, but the One who listens to his prayer is never wrong. All that a man needs is a little desire to turn to God. Man’s requests may be wrong, but God’s answer is never wrong. In addition, the Holy Spirit has come, and wherever man prays, He operates. There is no place that the Holy Spirit cannot reach. As long as there is a crack within man’s heart, the Holy Spirit can perform His work. Man may be lacking in knowledge, but as soon as he touches the Lord, everything is done. Furthermore, God has blended the condition of the gospel with the result of the gospel. Man does not have to do anything. He only needs to come to God. God’s work will bring him to his salvation.

Two lessons

  There are two sides of the gospel. On the one hand there are the techniques of the gospel. On the other hand, there is the content of the gospel. If we are well-trained in both areas, we will save many people. Anytime we find a person who is seeking and looking for more truth, we should give him a proper and clear exposition of the truth. If we find a person who is looking for the simple gospel, however, we should simply lead him to the simple and genuine gospel. We have to pay equal emphasis to learning both lessons.