Christ Our Savior

by A.B. Simpson

From: The Best of A.B. Simpson Compiled by Keith M. Bailey

Part I

“Christ Our Savior” (from The FourFold Gospel) sets forth the first of four primary truth Simpson considered “gospel.” Simpson understood salvation to be the work of God completely apart from human effort. In this study, he was especially concerned with initial salvation, but he was careful to view it in the context of complete biblical salvation. The death, resurrection and ascension of Christ provide the basis of God’s offer of salvation to fallen men. The steps by which a person receives salvation are discussed in easy-to-read layperson’s language.

And he cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb (Revelation 7:10).

Salvation  is the cry of the of the ransomed around the throne when the universe is dissolving in wreckage and terror is filling the hearts of men. It is the first cry of the ransomed after they reach their home and have seen all that it means to be lost and to be saved, while the earth is reeling, and the elements are melting, and all things are quaking and trembling in the first approaches of the great catastrophe.

They see behind them all the way through which the Lord has led them. Down the long vista they behold the toils they have come through and the perils they have escaped. They recognize how tenderly the grace of God has led them on and kept them safe. They see the robes and crowns that are prepared for them and all the joy of the eternal future which is opening before them. They see all this, and then they behold Him whose hand has kept it all safely for them, and whose heart has chosen it for them.

They look back upon the past; they look forward into all the future; they look up into the face of Him to whom it was all due. And then they lift up their voices in one glad exultant cry: “Salvation to our god which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb.” This is what salvation means; this is what they have believed for; this is what He died to give them. They have it all. They are saved and the full realization of it has come home to their hearts at last.

Let us look a little at what it means to be saved. It is not at all a little thing. We sometimes hear that certain Christians are only justified. It is a mighty thing to be justified. It is a glorious thing to be born again. Christ said it was greater to have one’s name written in heaven than to be able to cast out devils. What does salvation mean?

What we are saved from

1. Salvation takes away the guilt of sin. It frees us from all liability and punishment for past offenses. Sin deserves punishment. Salvation takes this all away. Is it not glorious to be saved?

2. Salvation saves us from the wrath of God. God hates evil and must punish it somehow. The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all unrighteousness of men. But salvation delivers us from this.

3. Salvation delivers us from the curse of the law. We can recall the terrors of the law’s revealing, the lightning and thunder that surrounded the mountain and the terror of Israel before it was given at all. They could not bear that God should speak to them thus, and they entreated Moses, “Speak thou with us and we will hear; but let not God speak with us, lest we die.”

But if the giving of the law was terrible, more terrible was its breaking. It is perilous to break the law of the land. The most tender appeal of affection does not avail to save the condemned criminal. Justice must be satisfied.

When the assassin of President Lincoln was stalking through the land, the law would have searched the world to find him. How terrible it must have been for him to feel that the eye of justice was looking for him and sooner or later would surely find him! The circle tightened and tightened around him till at last he was grasped in the cordon. So the cordon of law contracts around the sinner who is under its power. Salvation delivers us from this curse through Him who was made a curse for us.

4. It delivers us also from our evil consciences. There is always a shadow left on our hearts by sin and a feeling of remorse. It is the black wing of the raven, and its hoarse voice is ever whispering of despair. The memory of past guilt will follow people so that after many years they tell of crimes committed, the punishment for which they escaped, but the burden of which never left their consciences. Perhaps it seemed to slumber for a while, but at last it sprang upon them like a lion. Salvation delivers us from our evil consciences. It takes the shadow from the heart and the stinging memory of sin from the soul.

5. It delivers us from and evil heart which is the source of all the sin in life. It is natural for men to sin even while they hate it. The tendency toward evil is in every nature, chained to it like a body of death so that even when we want to do good, evil is present with us. It takes possession of the will and heart like a living death. It is offensive, it smells of the sepulcher, it is full of the poison os asps, it putrefies the whole moral being and bears it down to death. Salvation frees us from its power and gives us a new nature.

6. It frees us from the fear of death. It takes away the sting of that last enemy, through fear of whom we would otherwise all our lifetime be subject to bondage. I remember when I was a child what shock a funeral bell would give me. I could not bear to hear of someone being dead. The love of Christ has taken this all away. The deathbed of God’s children is to them the portal of heaven.

7. Salvation delivers us from Satan’s power and kingdom. God has “delivered us from the power of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son.” We are saved from the ills and the serpent and the bonds of sin, and the devil is a conquered foe. Salvation delivers us from much sorrow and distress in life. It brings a glorious sunlight into life and drives away those clouds of depression and gloom which overwhelm us.

8. Beyond all else, salvation delivers us from eternal death. We are not going down into outer darkness and the depths of woe. Christ has unlocked the fetters of the pit and saved us from endless death. We are delivered from that terrible agony which the kindest lips that ever spoke has called the “worm that dieth not, and the fire that is not quenched.”

These are som of the things that salvation has delivered us from. Is it not indeed glad tidings?

Part II will begin with; What salvation brings us