God's Method of Saving Men
John Burton. Acts 16:30-31 And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?… Consider the question in relation — I. TO HUMAN THOUGHT. 1. The history of human thought is to a great extent a history of the manifold forms in which this question has betrayed itself, and of the costly expedients to which man has had recourse in his attempts to answer it. (1) Four thousand years ago confused and anxious whispers of this question meet us in the inquiry of the patriarch — "How shall a man be just with God?" They come up in the later question of the prophet, "Wherewith shall I come before the Lord?" etc. If we consult the dusky records of paganism we encounter everywhere, in its temples and altars, the dark eclipse of sin and the uneasy suspicions it has cast over the race. If we listen to the creeds and litanies of the best of its teachers we hear everywhere the cry of fugitives from a justice they have provoked, but which they know not how to appease. (2) In our own age the question thrusts itself up in quarters where we least expect to find it. Thinkers, statesmen, scientists, cannot avoid drifting into the mystery that belongs to the religious question. The mind grown weary of abstract speculations hungers for rest. The conscience, chafed and outraged by unclean proclivities, asks for peace. The heart of the man most engrossed in worldly pursuits will have its hours of awakening, of aching dread in which the questions — What am I, and whither am I going? will make themselves heard. 2. As Christian students we have but one answer to give, and that is the one of the text. When from surging to and fro in all kinds of dreary speculation a man drifts, and turns away to the gospel, the gospel meets him with an answer direct and full in the Person of Christ. It says for a man to be saved is for him to be reconditioned in his moral relations with the Infinite Father, to "be reconciled," to "be at peace." Sin is disharmony. It puts man out of his normal orbit. To be saved is just to enter that orbit. The antecedents to this state are, first, the intelligent conviction that we need it, which is a wise self knowledge, begotten of the truth; and secondly, an ingenuous sorrow for sin, expressed in an amended life. The conditions on which its attainment hinges are belief in the promise, and trust in the Person of Christ. The consequence instantly following is a new life state — salvation is its initial act. II. To MAN'S DESTINY. 1. Man is "a yonder-minded being, an embodied hereafter." Every man in the present life is building out of himself and for himself a character which belongs to the future. This little everyday life is but the prologue of a mighty drama, the sad plot out of which the harvest of the future is to be reaped. The great assize simply catalogues results. Men are, now and here, what the Judgment Day will show them to be. The supposition of a change induced by death in the character and condition of man must be dismissed. Death does not change, it only fixes. It puts a finality on the book of life, and hands it on to be opened at "the judgment of the Great Day." It sums up two columns — for and against the man — of right and wrong, good and evil, and registers the result. 2. What then? What in view of his eternal existence must a man do to he saved? If there were no dangers to be encountered this question would be useless and impertinent. Or if all souls are sure to enter heaven, the question, how, is a matter of comparative indifference. On the other hand, if there is a risk, and if to make the chance of escape sure to all who are earnest about it, a revelation has been vouchsafed, then we are infinitely concerned to know how that revelation speaks; and we hazard eternal consequences if we fall to listen to, and instantly obey it. First, then, let us say that there is a beginning of the religious life in man which puts the soul and God into a fellowship of peace. When such a man, delivered from his old bondage to evil, yields himself to God, and when amidst the perils of the world he maintains the sanctities of conscience, he has reached a second stage. When at the end of life, the man conquers gloriously in death and then stands faultless in the presence of His glory — this is the end of his salvation: that man is saved — saved because he is safe. The everlasting gates close him in. III. TO CHRISTIAN TEACHING. Two things are noteworthy in Paul's answer — first its simplicity, and secondly its immediateness. And were we now dealing with this question within the same limits we should need only to reproduce the same answer. But we are dealing with the question in its broader and more exhaustive signification; and the answer must take in forgiveness, sanctification, and heaven. What then must be done? 1. The wrong doing, on which the necessity of salvation is founded, must be got rid of. We must "cease to do evil" before we can become good. "Let the wicked forsake his way," etc. There can be no compromise between the two terms which enter into this agreement. We must give up sinning. if God is to forgive us for having sinned. 2. The remedy which God has provided must not only be accepted as theoretically true, but must be personally applied. And this shuts out all the pretentious rights of human reason to determine in what method God should deal with the sinner. It brings us squarely up with the one method in which God will deal with us. God's plan does not alternate between open courses — two or more. 3. The one thing that a man must do is distinctly put. He must "believe on," etc. The apostles had nothing more simple to set before this rude pagan. And they had no figurative, fabulous, or doctrinal Christ, but the Christ of Bethlehem and Calvary. And the act on which salvation hinges is as straightforward as its object is definite. You are not to think about Christ, or say grand nothings about Him: you are to believe on Him, to submit to, to trust in Him that He may forgive and heal you. And this act of the soul putting itself out in an intelligent surrender of the whole personality of its being — mind, heart, will — to Christ is the man's trust for salvation. IV. TO THE INDIVIDUAL MAN. 1. The importance of this question is obvious, It is the one question that silences every other. It is the most stupendous question that man in his agony can ask, or that God in His mercy can answer. And it is none the less impressive in that nowhere outside this Book is an answer to be found. The universe has not a whisper of it. Those calm, grand laws, know nothing of mercy. Our schools of philosophy know nothing of salvation. Science has not a word of pity for guilty man. 2. We are not saying that this is the only important question, but that all others are insignificant in comparison. One hundred years hence and what shall I know or care about my banking account, or who is the premier of the country? But one hundred years hence what and where shall I myself be? 3. This question must be answered by each one for himself, and at once. It admits of no postponement. "Today if ye will hear His voice," etc. Time is on the rush, and we are rushing with it into a timeless future. (John Burton.) Parallel Verses KJV: And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? WEB: and brought them out and said, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?"