CHRIST'S FINISHED SALVATION

"Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life." -Revelation 2:10 [KJV]

This text has been seized by Arminian hands, dragged to their mint; the impress of man’s faithfulness struck on their minds, as his title to a crown of life; and pressed into their service, to militate against the electing love of God, and finished salvation by Christ only. O, Christian! does not your heart rise with indignation against such a self-exalting notion? It is the very dregs of unfaithfulness to Christ. Are you not ready to spurn it with a holy vehemence, saying, Get to hell, from whence you sprung? 

What! my faithfulness on earth the cause, the condition, the merit of my being crowned in heaven! O, my law-fulfilling, justice-satisfying, sin-atoning Jesus! can I ever think so meanly of Thy agony and bloody sweat; Thy cross and passion; Thy precious death and burial; Thy glorious resurrection and ascension; and of the coming of the Holy Ghost? as though all this obtained no more for me, than to make way for my faithfulness, to entitle me to a crown of glory! 

O, Christ-glorifying Spirit! never didst Thou teach such a diminutive thought of Christ’s finished salvation. Forbid that my soul should ever indulge such a self-exalted notion: enable me to attend to my Lord’s gracious words. What means He by our being faithful? to believe on Him to death, to exercise our faith constantly on Him as our dear Saviour, whose blood has atoned for our sins—whose righteousness justified our persons—has perfectly reconciled us to God, and Who ever lives to love, pray for, and save us to the uttermost: steadily to believe His word of truth, which exalts His grace and love: sincerely to obey His precepts which adorn His gospel: to live upon Him, as our only title to glory, as our Head of influence, and to receive, out of His fulness, grace upon grace, to ripen us for glory. 

Thus, faithfully to confess Him to be our all in all, and ourselves nothing at all, in the work of salvation: to be faithful to His advice, “After ye have done all these things, say, we are”—what? Perfect, sinless creatures, who have our own faithfulness to plead at death, for a crown of glory? O, no! this would be most arrogant unfaithfulness, to such a precious Saviour, even were we called to the stake for His truth. But even martyrs, in the midst of the flames, must say, “We are unprofitable servants” (Luke 17:10.) To be faithful unto death, is to renounce the filthy rags of our own righteousness; all our own faithfulness; cleaving unto Christ, saying, ‘O that I may win Christ, and be found in Him; who gave me grace to be faithful, and graciously promises a crown of life, as his free gift’ (see Romans 6:23.) 

Sin shall not bow my spirit down, 

Nor chase me from my Lord: 

His mercy lifts my spirits up, 

To hear and trust His word.

 

-preacher William Mason (1724-1797 A.D.)