Our Salvation, Part 1

Dr. Alan J. Dunn

The following four articles comprise the written version of a sermon that I preached as a speaker in a conference that commemorated the one hundredth anniversary of J. Gresham Machen’s now classic book, Christianity and Liberalism. I was asked to speak on matters related to Machen’s sixth chapter concerning “salvation.”

Introduction

Amid our fast-changing world, is it not remarkable that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever [Hebrews 13:8]? We are so thankful that the Word of God remains true as philosophical fads come and go and when truth is being trampled in the streets [Isaiah 59:14]. The abiding truth of God’s Word is why voices from the past can still speak to us today and teach us that the Lord is saving sinners today as He has always saved sinners. He is and always will be the God who is our salvation [Psalm 68:19]. Therefore, we can learn about our salvation from the witness given in 1923 by J. Gresham Machen in his classic book Christianity and Liberalism.

Machen alerts us to a pseudo-Christianity that uses biblical words that have been drained of their biblical truth and then inflated with unbiblical meaning. He urges us to receive the Jesus who is revealed in Scripture as Scripture interprets Him. This false Christianity, called Theological Liberalism, has similarities with the Sadducees of Jesus’ day. Sadducees and Theological Liberals deny the supernatural. We should assess Liberalism as Jesus assessed the Sadducees: You are mistaken, not understanding the Scriptures nor the power of God [Matthew 22:29]. We must not be mistaken. We are recipients of a supernatural salvation wrought by the power of God.

Salvation Accomplished and Applied

In 1955, John Murray published his helpful book, Redemption Accomplished and Applied. Murray considers our salvation under two major headings: what Jesus accomplished for us and what the Spirit then applies to us. We understand our salvation in terms of the work of Christ, who accomplished our salvation by His life, death, and resurrection, and the work of the Holy Spirit, who savingly applies what Jesus accomplished to us and in us.

H. Richard Niebuhr, another early twentieth-century theologian, summed up Liberalism’s teaching on the accomplishment of salvation with these words: “A God without wrath brought men without sin into a Kingdom without judgment through ministrations of a Christ without a cross.” Our present interests, however, concern the application of salvation: how the Spirit saves us by uniting us to the crucified and risen Savior. Without saving faith in Christ or His work on the cross, Liberalism tells us that the Spirit applies the gospel of Jesus to us by urging us to follow Jesus’ example of love and self-sacrifice. Liberalism’s “salvation” is a human attempt, using biblical vocabulary, to obtain mere personal peace while pursuing social harmony.

Scripture teaches us that God the Spirit applies the salvation accomplished by God the Son to us by uniting us to Jesus, specifically in His death and resurrection. The Spirit gives us new life in Christ: resurrection life, the life of the age to come. He thereby enables us to repent of sin and to trust in Christ. The Spirit teaches us from Scripture to live as lovingly obedient disciples of Jesus our Lord. The Spirit applies what Jesus has accomplished in us, thereby changing us personally. He also applies redemption to us, thereby changing our relationship with God and one another. I invite you to consider John’s words in John 1:12-13.

12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

John writes these verses in the prologue to his gospel, John 1:1-18. These are rich, profound, heavy verses in Scripture. Here, John introduces us to the Divine Logos, the only begotten from the Father, the Son of God, who took full human nature to Himself by His incarnation. The incarnate Son is none other than our Creator and Savior, who reveals the one true and living God to be triune: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. John’s prologue focuses on the Son but verses 12 and 13 bring the work of the Spirit into view. John addresses us as believers and tells us how the Spirit works to save us based on the work of Christ. The Spirit applies specific blessings from Jesus to us and in us, which constitute our salvation.

The Blessings of Our Salvation Are All Interrelated to Each Other

John wants us to know what the Holy Spirit has done and is doing as He gives us the blessings found in Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. John tells those of us who believe in Christ that we are saved because the Spirit has made us alive and gives us the blessings of our salvation. In John 1:12-13 we can identify several blessings and realize they are all interrelated.

In what ways are these blessings connected? We can understand that they relate logically to each other. “If God gives us this blessing, then logically, He must also give us that blessing.” We can discern causal relationships. “This blessing causes, or effects, that blessing.” We can also recognize chronological relations. “First, this blessing. Then, secondly, that blessing. Then, thirdly, that blessing.” These blessings are all interrelated because they are all aspects of the life the Spirit has given us in Christ.

The power of God changes us as the Holy Spirit applies the life and benefits of Jesus Christ to us. Notice first that we are changed personally: we were born of God. We also see, secondly, that God has changed our relationship with Him. He has given us the right to become children of God. Do you know the doctrinal names of these two blessings? The first is “regeneration” and the second is “adoption.” God changes us from a state of spiritual death to spiritual life. He also changes our relationship with Him from that of idolatrous rebels to that of worshipful children.