“Salvation is of the Lord.”—JONAH ii. 9.
“According as His divine power hath given unto us all things that
pertain onto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that
hath called us to glory and virtue.”—2 ST. PETER i. 3.
NO one can read his Bible without being convinced that it is full of
practical exhortations as to human conduct and human effort. Those who
are seeking the Lord Jesus Christ are exhorted to repent, to believe, to
be converted, to seek, to come, and to follow on to know the Lord. Hence
it follows that as we are very apt to see only one side of anything at a
time, there is a great tendency to dwell exclusively on human action, and
to exhort, and to persuade, as if everything was in our own hands, so
that we may do just what we please, and when we please, in the great
matter of our soul’s salvation. People are apt to write and speak about
coming to Jesus as if it all rested with the sinner himself. But this,
though deduced from a truth, is not the whole truth of Scripture. We
find there beyond all doubt the warning, the offer and the invitation;
but we find also the clear description of a divine salvation, the plan of
divine wisdom, and the gift of divine grace. Accordingly in this passage
when St. Peter {17} is addressing those who had obtained like precious
faith with himself, he makes it perfectly clear at the very outset of his
letter that they had obtained it, not by the power of their own energy,
or the determination of their own will, but through the power of God, the
gift of God, and the call of God, “whereby were given unto them exceeding
great and precious promises.” {18a}
Let us, therefore, turn our attention to the divine side of the great
transaction, and trace through four successive steps, the divine Saviour,
the divine salvation, the divine revelation, and the divine application.