"The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Rom. 6:23 b).

ETERNAL" life is not temporary life — it is as enduring as its source — God.

"The free gift" is not a loan to be withdrawn or returned upon certain conditions of failure — it is as permanent as the giver — God.

The GIFT of ETERNAL life Ts "through Jesus Christ our Lord" — not through the endeavors of man. It proceeds from God man-ward; not from man God-ward. It is not man offering God some things; it is God offering man. everything that pertains to life and godliness.

The difficulties involved in a consideration of the permanence of salvation will disappear, we believe, when the nature of salvation is scripturally understood.

TO BEGIN with, salvation is far more than,

A reputable character among men,

A moral influence exerted for the betterment of society,

A social service for the uplift of humanity,

A religious activity of profession of faith in a divine being,

A loyalty to a church, its creed or denominational program,

An intellectual acceptance of the teaching of Jesus,

A whole hearted admiration of His matchless life.

An acceptance of Him as the ideal and example for one's own life.

An earnest desire and a sincere attempt to imitate Him,

A process of development and improvement in one's life and character which may be the result of all these desirable and laudable traits.

One may possess them all, and yet be wholly without salvation. All these characteristics of an upright and religious life can be attained entirely without faith in Jesus Christ as a personal Saviour Who alone gives personal salvation.

In contrast, salvation is nothing less than deliverance from the "wrath of God" upon sin, into the liberty and access of the "sons of God." "He that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him" (John 3:36 b). "Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free" (Galatians 5:1). "Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: by Whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand" (Rom. 5:1-22). "Power to became the sons of God" (John 1:12).

Salvation is nothing: less than translation from the darkness of sin, unbelief, and ignorance of God into the glorious light of forgiveness, personal and saving faith in Christ resulting in that knowledge of God which is life eternal, "Who hath delivered us from the power of 'darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son: In Whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins" (Colossians 1:13-14). "This is life eternal, that they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, Whom Thou hast sent" (John 17:3).

"Salvation is nothing less than justification from the guilt of sin before the Holy One Who inhabiteth Eternity, Who is from everlasting to everlasting — God. "Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: and by Him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses" (Acts 13:38-39),

Salvation is nothing less than adoption into a new family — the family of God, "For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit Himself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God" (Romans 8:15-16).

Salvation is nothing less than emancipation from the power of sin made possible for life now, "If the Son therefore shall make you free (i. e. from the thraldom of sin), ye shall be free indeed" (John 8:36).

Salvation is nothing less than the crisis of the new birth whereby the sinner through faith alone receives the divine nature and becomes a new creature in Christ Jesus. "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God... Marvel not that I said unto thee. Ye must be born again" (John 3:3, 7). "Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature" (II Peter 1:4 a). "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature (or, a new creation): old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new" (II Corinthians 5:17).

None of these can be attained through merit in man or of man. They are entirely God's work for and in behalf of all men and become the possession "specially of them that believe." Nothing less than all this is the salvation which is presented by the Word of God to sinful men.

WE HAVE here stated a most essential discrimination and one which demarks all the religions of present and past into hut two classifications: human religions of discovery in which man attempts by his up-reach to find and propitiate God; and, the divine religion given by revelation in which God reaches down in grace to redeem sinful man. The first is a two-letter, message to man, "Do" and live. Its emphasis is upon the "work" which man may do for his salvation. It results in a self-righteousness which is wholly objectionable to God. "Not by works of righteousness which We have done, but according to His mercy He saved us" (Titus 3:5). There is no salvation whatsoever in any human religion, even for man at his very best. The divine religion, however, is a four-letter message to man, ''Done"— only believe! God has done for man I what he could never do for himself, i. e., remove his. sins in a just and satisfactory manner from before God, his Judge. The emphasis here is upon the divine accomplishment of God for sinful man. It offers an imputed land an imparted righteousness. Salvation abounds here fully, freely, and eternally, even for the chief of sinners.

The human plan of salvation depends solely upon man's ability to improve himself sufficiently so that: he may venture to offer to God the patched and reformed I old life in the hope that this will be acceptable unto Him, land that He will pass over the faults and imperfections known only too well to the man himself, and none the 'less known to God. The divinely revealed plan of, salvation depends solely upon the Justice of God in dealing fully with sin in that dread judgment which was meted out to the sinner's. Substitute, Jesus Christ, at Calvary, and in the consequent offer of mercy to the sinner himself upon the one condition of faith. The first seeks to arrive at the desideratinn, salvation by way of the works of man; the second arrives at good works by way of salvation. In the first, salvation is sought as the end, but never reached; in the second, salvation is the starting-place, and character and good works, the results which issue from the new life as naturally as fruit gives evidence of life in the tree: The attempt to. live the life of the saved without the new life which made them the children of God is like seeking to gather fruit where there is no fruit-tree. If, now, salvation could be gained through human culture of life and attainment in character, it would yet prove but temporary, like all else which man attempts here. Since salvation is the result, however, of divine accomplishment on behalf of them which believe, it is as permanent and enduring as the Eternal God.

THE motives of life underlying these two concepts of salvation are worthy of the most careful, notice. If, on the one hand, salvation be sought as the crowning peak of man's successful upward trend, one shall never know whether he has reached and obtained the eternal prize; or perchance believing himself to have secured it, will never know how long he shall be able to keep it in his, possession, and thus his very hope of salvation becomes a fear of losing it. If, on the other hand he see clearly that he can. never merit it and shall possess it only as the gift of eternal life from a gracious and merciful God; then, having received it by faith in Jesus as a personal. Saviour, he need never fear the. loss of it, since its possession does not depend upon himself, and thus his joy of salvation is never marred by the fear of the possible loss of it, but the rather does it undergird and support every moment of life with the consciousness that he is a son of God, eternally, once for all redeemed by the grace of God. In this happy consciousness, he is most likely to live like a son of God.

Further, this precious truth of the Eternal Security of the  true believer is often beyond the enjoyment of many who believe that if one were thus forever salved and assured of it in this life, he would feel free to live and do anything he might choose, no matter how sinful. It is just at this point that the Word of God sounds its warnings, and delivers its exhortations. Now, there is the "if" passages of Scripture in which God solemnly warns one to make sure that he is a true believer, a son of God. These "if's" are not in contradiction to the "verily's" but are set forth as danger-signals to warn and instruct the individual who may have felt the conviction power of the Holy Spirit, or who may have as a result of this gone forward in a gospel service, that a fear of the consequences of sin, and a desire to live a better life, pr a resolution to follow Jesus may yet be a work in his heart short of regeneration, and that not until he has by a definite acceptance of all that Jesus has done for him at Calvary, and a definite forsaking of all confidence in anything that he can do to save himself — not until then is he a child of God. "As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His Name" (John 1:12).

Some persons still further fail to realize that God deals with sins as acts in the believer's life on a different basis than that upon which he treats of sin as a principle in the life of an unbeliever. The doctrine of the chastening of believers should always be proclaimed whenever the precious truth of the permanence of salvation is declared. "Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons" (Hebrews 12:6-8). "For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world" (I Corinthians 11:31-32). God does not minimize sins in the true believer's life but must chasten and correct His child unless there be confession of the sin, even as a father deals with his son. The purpose of such treatment is the maintenance of fellowship with God for a disobedient son, who although truly a son because born as such, will hide from the Father's face until by confession and forgiveness the sin has been removed. "If any man sin (i. e. a true believer), we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous" (I John 2:1). When a believe sins, the relationship of son and father is not disturbed because it is the "free gift of eternal life." However God's dealing with the sinner is that the sinner may become a son by faith in Christ and that filial relationship be established which never exists until Christ is received by faith as a Saviour.

It has been the writer's privilege to see several comets into the light of the eternal security of the true believer who, until their enlightment, were under constant fear of being lost; but who, when once their eyes of faith beheld the certainties of God's redemption, found that in the new consciousness of the present possession of "eternal" life their greatest joy and highest purpose was to "walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing," Love for Him Who had eternally saved them was found to be more powerful than fear of the loss of a supposedly uncertain salvation.

WHEN salvation is conceived of as temporary, one is never sure of his spiritual standing before God and will say, "I hope I am saved," or will pray, "Finally save us." He is looking within himself, to his feelings] to his own estimate of his life for the assurances of his; salvation. When salvation is seen to be gloriously permanent, one rejoices in the present possession of eternal life, does not look to himself, but looks to the Word of God for his assurance, and can say with Paul, "I know Whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him' against that day" (II Timothy 1:12).