Objection:
You teach that only you, and those who believe like you, will be saved.
Answer:
We do not hold this position. On the contrary, we believe like the Apostle Paul that there are those, even among the unbelieving heathen, who worship God ignorantly, to whom the light has never been brought by human instrumentality, yet they will not perish. Though ignorant of God’s law, they have heard the voice of God speaking to them in nature and have done the things that the law required. Their works testify that the Holy Spirit has touched their hearts, and they are recognized as God’s children. (See Romans 2:13-15).
We doubt whether the objector would subscribe to such a pronouncement. On the contrary, he would hold that it was too liberal. But surely we cannot be at once too narrow and too broad in our teaching on this vital question. We cannot be expected to plead guilty to both charges. No. We declare our innocence of both and offer the following as representing our teaching on the matter of salvation.
We agree unreservedly with the inspired statement: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shall be saved.” Acts 16:31. Yet, no Christian would hold that “saved” means no more than being relieved from the punishment for sin in the Scriptures. That is, of course, all-important. But he who would be saved from the wages of sin must first of all be saved from the practice of sin, as promised, “He shall save his people from their sins” (See Matthew 1:21). And again in Romans 8:1-4, it is declared, as summed up in verse 4, that Christ gave His life for man, “that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.”
Conversion is more than a philosophical change of the mind; it is, as declared in John 3:5-8, a new birth. Therefore, the first assent of the mind, that recognition of the need of divine help, which prepares the way for conversion, must be followed by wholehearted yielding to the will of God under the transforming power of the Holy Spirit; this is the new birth declared by Christ to be essential to salvation.
And this must be followed by growth in grace and in “the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” 2 Peter 3:18. When we first believe, we are as babes; but as we feed upon God’s Word, we grow. As we see the righteous requirements of the Bible more clearly and accept them, we become stronger and stronger Christians. This growth is continuous. “He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.” Philippians 1:6. So long as a Christian continues to grow, that is, to walk in harmony with the fuller light that the Bible seeks increasingly to bring to his heart and mind, he is on the road that leads to the kingdom of God.
