SALVATION, THEN AND NOW.

How were the Jews, under the Law of Moses, saved? Jesus said “no man cometh unto the Father, but by me”(John 14:6). They were saved by believing the Gospel: Christ to come; we are saved by believing the Gospel: Christ who has come. The Law had the same purpose then as now, to show us sin and our need of a Savior, ” That every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God” (Rom.3:19). Note, the apostle uses the present tense. A leading case is the account of a Jewish tax collector who made proper use of the law and was saved.

At the time of prayer, with head bowed a wicked tax collector cries out as a sinner, asking the Lord to take his place, “God be merciful to me a sinner.” This man went home justified (Luke 18:13-14). He had not only seen himself in the light of God-for he said of himself, “Me a sinner”-but he also saw the remedy. That was the mercy-seat propitiation whereupon was the the daily blood sacrifice of sheep at the Temple in Old Testament worship, another innocent taking his place as a sinner, because “the soul that sinneth, it shall die”. The sacrifice pointed to the sacrifice of Christ our substitute to come.

Now He has come!