Steps to Christ NOW IS SALVATION COME
And Jesus said unto him, This day is salvation come to this house, forsomuch as he also is a son of Abraham. Luke 19:9.
"Zacchaeus stood and said unto the Lord; Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken any thing from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold" (Luke 19:8). What was Zacchaeus doing here? Well, some people will say he had been saved by giving to the poor or by restoring four hundred percent. But Jesus' reply to his apparent beating of his own moral drums in very interesting. "And Jesus said unto him, This day is salvation come to this house." Don't miss that! Today this man receives salvation. Can't he receive salvation when he begins to mend his ways and to cover his tracks and to restore? No, there's no salvation in giving to the poor; even if you give 50 percent of your income, that is not what saves you. There is no salvation in restitution. If I have taken form any man by false accusation, to restore him 400 percent sounds like a pretty good restitution, doesn't it? But there is no salvation in that.
"It is true that men sometimes become ashamed of their sinful ways, and give up some of their evil habits, before they are conscious that they are being drawn to Christ.--"Steps to Christ, p. 27. What's really happening? They are being drawn to Christ. "But whenever they make an effort to reform, from a sincere desire to do right, it is the power of Christ that is drawing them."--Ibid. So let's allow that it was the power of Christ that had drawn Zacchaeus to give 400 percent and 50 percent. But that wasn't salvation. "An influence of which they are unconscious works upon the soul, and the conscience is quickened, and the outward life is amended. And as Christ draws them to look upon the cross, to behold Him whom their sins have pierced, the commandment come home to the conscience. The wickedness of their life, the deep-seated sin of the soul, is revealed to them."--Ibid. Not just the acts, but their real condition. "They begin to comprehend something of the righteousness of Christ, and exclaim, 'What is sin, that it should require such a sacrifice...? Was all this love, all this suffering, all this humiliation, demanded, that we might not perish?' "--Ibid. "It is when Christ is received as a personal Saviour that salvation comes to the soul."--The Desire of Ages, p. 556.
And Jesus said unto him, This day is salvation come to this house, forsomuch as he also is a son of Abraham. Luke 19:9.
"Zacchaeus stood and said unto the Lord; Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken any thing from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold" (Luke 19:8). What was Zacchaeus doing here? Well, some people will say he had been saved by giving to the poor or by restoring four hundred percent. But Jesus' reply to his apparent beating of his own moral drums in very interesting. "And Jesus said unto him, This day is salvation come to this house." Don't miss that! Today this man receives salvation. Can't he receive salvation when he begins to mend his ways and to cover his tracks and to restore? No, there's no salvation in giving to the poor; even if you give 50 percent of your income, that is not what saves you. There is no salvation in restitution. If I have taken form any man by false accusation, to restore him 400 percent sounds like a pretty good restitution, doesn't it? But there is no salvation in that.
"It is true that men sometimes become ashamed of their sinful ways, and give up some of their evil habits, before they are conscious that they are being drawn to Christ.--"Steps to Christ, p. 27. What's really happening? They are being drawn to Christ. "But whenever they make an effort to reform, from a sincere desire to do right, it is the power of Christ that is drawing them."--Ibid. So let's allow that it was the power of Christ that had drawn Zacchaeus to give 400 percent and 50 percent. But that wasn't salvation. "An influence of which they are unconscious works upon the soul, and the conscience is quickened, and the outward life is amended. And as Christ draws them to look upon the cross, to behold Him whom their sins have pierced, the commandment come home to the conscience. The wickedness of their life, the deep-seated sin of the soul, is revealed to them."--Ibid. Not just the acts, but their real condition. "They begin to comprehend something of the righteousness of Christ, and exclaim, 'What is sin, that it should require such a sacrifice...? Was all this love, all this suffering, all this humiliation, demanded, that we might not perish?' "--Ibid. "It is when Christ is received as a personal Saviour that salvation comes to the soul."--The Desire of Ages, p. 556.
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