+I. Believing a lie as truth.+
+II. Sent as a judgment for not believing the truth.+
+III. Are brought on by those who have pleasure in sin.+
_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 13, 14.
_Salvation a Divine Act._
When the air is thick with antichristian theories, sincere inquirers
after truth are perplexed, the grasp of the hesitating is loosened,
and the fidelity of the strongest severely tested. Only those who
fully yield themselves up to the teaching and guidance of the Divine
spirit are safe. A clever inventor has recently constructed a
fireproof dress, which enables him to walk about unharmed in the
midst of the fiercest fire. Experimental godliness is a fireproof
dress, and the soul clothed with this is safely guarded from the
fiery darts of the wicked and will pass unscathed through the
fiercest fires of temptation. We never know what it is to be really
saved till we personally experience the sanctifying power of the
truth. These verses teach that salvation is a Divine act.
+I. Salvation is an act of the Divine will.+--1. _The Divine will is
actuated by Divine love._ "Brethren _beloved_ of the Lord, God hath
from the beginning chosen you to salvation" (ver. 13). When we
examine the sources of salvation, we find them not in ourselves, but
in some power outside of ourselves. We are saved, not because we are
good, or better than others, or more favourably circumstanced, but
because God has chosen us. And if we ask still further how it is that
God should lavish the grace of His salvation on sinful man, we are
reduced, in the final analysis, to this answer: Such is the Divine
will--a will swayed in all its mighty potentialities by infinite love.
"Love, strong as death; nay, stronger--
Love mightier than the grave;
Broad as the earth, and longer
Than ocean's widest wave.
This is the love that sought us,
This is the love that bought us,
This is the love that brought us,
To gladdest day from saddest night,
From deepest shame to glory bright,
From depths of death to life's fair height,
From darkness to the joy of light."--_Bonar._
2. _The Divine will provides the means of salvation._--"Whereunto He
called you by our gospel" (ver. 14). The Gospel is God's method of
salvation, and it is through this Gospel He "will have all men to be
saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth" (1 Tim. iii. 4).
If the Gospel were but a human expedient, it would fail; but, as it
was originated and devised in the Divine mind, so it is backed and
made forceful by the operation of the Divine will.
+II. Salvation as a Divine act is in harmony with individual
freedom.+--1. _Salvation implies personal holiness._ "Through
sanctification of the Spirit" (ver. 13). The Spirit sanctifies the
individual soul, and the soul, in the exercise of its voluntary
power, co-operated with the Spirit. The soul feels the need of being
sanctified, is willing to be sanctified, earnestly desires to be
sanctified, and gives free, unrestricted scope to the Spirit in His
sanctifying work.
2. _Salvation implies personal faith._--"And belief of the truth"
(ver. 13). This clause brings out distinctly that the sanctification
of the Spirit is not wrought on a passive and unresponsive agent.
Faith is the gift of God, but it is an act of man. It is a
self-giving; the surrender of his own freedom to secure the larger
freedom that salvation confers on the soul that trusts. Without God's
gift there would be no faith, and without man's exercise of that gift
there is no salvation. It is not faith that saves, but the Christ
received by faith. Erskine puts it thus: "As it is not the laying on
the plaster that heals the sore, but the plaster itself that is laid
on, so it is not the faith, or receiving of Christ, but Christ
received by faith that saves us. It is not our looking to the brazen
serpent mystical, but the mystical brazen serpent looked unto by
faith--Christ received by faith--that saves us."
+III. Salvation as a Divine act aims at securing for the soul the
highest blessedness.+--"To the obtaining of the glory of our Lord
Jesus Christ" (ver. 14). The saved soul aspires after glory, but it
is glory of the loftiest type. It is not the changeful glory of
worldly magnificence. It is not the glory of Paul, or of the greatest
human genius. It is "the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ." When the
soul catches a glimpse of the splendour of this Divine blessedness,
it can be satisfied with no lower aims. "Paint and canvas," said
Guthrie, "cannot give the hues of a rainbow or of the beams of the
sun. No more can words describe the Saviour's glory. Nay, what is the
most glowing and ecstatic view that the highest faith of a soul,
hovering on the borders of another world, ever obtained of Christ,
compared with the reality? It is like the sun changed by a frosty
fogbank into a dull, red copper ball--shorn of the splendour that no
mortal eyes can look upon." As it is Christ's glory that we seek, so
it is Christ's glory we shall share.
+IV. Salvation as a Divine act affords matter for unceasing
gratitude.+--"But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you"
(ver. 13). The mercy of God in our salvation is ever providing
fruitful themes for gratitude on earth: the glory of Christ as
revealed in heaven will be the song of everlasting thankfulness and
praise. Every added trophy of saving power augments the gratitude and
joy of the faithful.
+Lessons.+--1. _The rejection of the truth is the rejection of
salvation._ 2. _Salvation brings the highest good to man and the
greatest glory to God._ 3. _Salvation will be the exhaustless theme
of the heavenly song._
_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._