By R. H. Boaz,
From His Article, Conditional Time Salvation...Circa 1897
OF THE GOSPEL
Some speak of the Gospel as if it were a bundle of propositions, or offers, in which God offers to exchange His grace and blessings with His children for their works of obedience. Hence they tell us God has promised on His part to bless us with a good conscience and ease of mind if we will do our duty and if we will work diligently enough we will grow and reap a rich harvest, etc., but it all depends on us, in how and if we accept the proposition. Now they call this Gospel? Paul would have been ashamed of this kind of Gospel, but he said he was not "ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth." (Romans 1:16) Did you notice that he said, it is "unto salvation to every one that believeth?" - Not to every one if they will believe it. Who is it that believeth? Those that are born again. To those then it is the power of God, and it is unto salvation, mark you; it is not an offer of salvation. Nor is it their power, but it is God's power, and it is unto salvation, and all of this salvation is after regeneration. Now, anything that falls short of this, that is, of God's power and salvation, is not the Gospel, but it is at its best, a perverted gospel.
In the 17th verse of this chapter the Apostle explains how this is: "For therein is the righteousness of God reveal from faith to faith." Notice, not the righteousness of the believer, but the righteousness of God; not from faith for works, but from faith to faith. "As it is written, the just shall live by faith." You will notice here that the just do not live by works, but by faith, by this revelation which God makes, revealing the righteousness of God; Oh, how this delights the poor trembling saint when this righteousness is revealed. This is indeed good news to the poor hungering, thirsting soul, but would it be good news to the poor starving soul in a desert land to tell him to go to work and earn his time salvation blessings; to "build ye cisterns for water?" No, indeed; this is what they have been trying to do, but the bread they received "satisfieth not. " - "Being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God. " (Romans 10:3) This every child of grace will testify has been his course, in the absence of the Lord, ever since he has had a hope; trying to establish his own righteousness, and in his searching to establish his own righteousness he is brought very low, and is often heard to cry, "In me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing, for to will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good I find not." (Romans 7:17)
If Paul, after regeneration, found the will was present, but even having the will, he still could not perform that which is good, then how can one expect a child of God to earn blessings by doing that which is good at his own option? Now tell a troubled soul that his enjoyment in this life depends on his doing good, would it be good news to him if he found himself as Paul? He does not know how to do good! How is he to do good when he cannot find out how? And suppose he did not even have the will to begin with? If you tell him that those born of God can do good; that they receive all the power necessary in regeneration to do good and that it is left with them, at their own option, as to whether they perform that which is good or not, you will only confirm his fears,
"Tis a point I long to know,
Oft it causes anxious thoughts;
Do I love the Lord or no;
Am I His or am I not."
Newton
He has been fearing that he was not born again, and if it be true that those who are regenerated have power to keep all of God's commandments, then sure enough, he concludes that he has not been born again, for he realizes that everything he ever did, or does, and do, is mixed with sin. Thus, as thieves, Time Salvationists "beat him and strip him and leave him half dead." So we are mistaken in thinking this kind of preaching is preaching the Gospel.
In Matthew 28:18-20, we read that Jesus said: "All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations." Teach them what? That all power is given unto the child of God? No; teaching them that Christ has all power in heaven and in earth; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever Jesus has commanded you. The new covenant under which Jesus sent His disciples to preach, commands: "And they shall NOT teach every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord; for all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest." (Jer.31:34; and Heb.8:2) Hence for us to teach spiritual Israel saying, Know the Lord; that they have power to know the Lord, if they will but use it, and that this knowledge in an experimental sense is obtained by their obedience, and that their obedience is entirely of themselves, would be teaching them to disregard His commandments - That "They shall not teach every man his neighbor and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord."
Now, mark you, Israel are those that have been born again spiritually. Those that have been circumcised in heart and of those God spake when He said: "For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put My law into their mind and write them in their hearts, and I will be to them a God and they shall be to Me a people." The old covenant was written upon tables of stone and put into the hands of Israel and they broke it, ".. And I regarded them not, saith the Lord, for they continued not in My ways," but the new testament is written in the heart and "In the hand of a Mediator." (Galatians 3:19) In the hands of Jesus who is the "Mediator of a better covenant," it's promise is secured. (Heb. 8:6) And He keeps this covenant for us and in us, "Working in us both to will and to do," - "teaching them to observe all things that God has commanded." Now this teaching may be done through the ministry, but it is God Himself that does the effectual teaching in the heart. "I will put My laws in their mind and write them in their hearts." "I will," saith the Lord.
Now, isn't it very wicked in man to say that the Lord has tried to keep His promise here, but in many instances He has failed; or that He has failed in any instance? If we preach that God called a minister to go, or with a design that he should go into a certain locality and preach that His children might thereby be taught to observe all things that the Lord has commanded, and the minister refuses to go for any reason, does it not follow that we preach that God has failed in His design, and also in His purpose? Then what does Jesus mean when He says: "All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth ?" Has He designed to teach all His children to observe all things that He has commanded and has He tried to get the preachers to go there for that purpose, but after all, they will not go?
Is there any Gospel in such preaching as this? Isaiah said, "And all Thy children shall be taught of the Lord." (Isaiah 54:13) Did the prophet prophesy the truth? Let us not forget that teaching never precedes, but follows after, regeneration. Jesus in John 6:45 refers to Isaiah, "It is written in the prophets, and they shall be all taught of God. " Here then it is clear that God is the teacher, though he may speak or teach through the preacher, but when He does the power is sure to be ascribed to God by such that are taught of Him.
This is the Gospel for "The Gospel is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes".
Paul says in Romans 15:18, " For I will not dare to speak of any of those things which Christ hath not wrought by me, to make the Gentiles obedient, by word and deed, through mighty signs and wonders, by the Spirit of God." If Paul did anything in this work he would not dare mention it. This, however, does not teach that Paul had done anything, but to the contrary, that Christ had wrought the work - nor that Paul had performed the work by Christ, but that Christ wrought by Paul.
This is the Gospel, - the power of God unto salvation. Yes, it made the Gentiles obedient.
"For I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ and Him crucified." (I Cor. 11:2) These Corinthians were children of God. They had been regenerated, and yet, the apostle would not advocate anything as a meritorious work of theirs or his. He even kept his own wisdom back, and only advocated Christ and Him crucified. Paul in speaking of himself would say: "I am chief of sinners;" - "I am sold under sin." If "I am a minister by whom ye believed, yet it was Christ that wrought by me" - wrought your obedience by me, but not I; Hence he preaches Christ. He preaches that it matters not what the "gift" may be, or the "administration," or the "operation," but that "God worketh all in all." - Thus he preaches the Gospel, the power of God. "Preach the Gospel" said Jesus. In preaching the Gospel "we preach Christ crucified" (unto the called) "the power of God and the wisdom of God. " (I Cor. 1:23-24) Notice, it is unto the called (which are called in time), it is to those that have been regenerated, that we preach Christ to, not them to Christ, for we "preach not ourselves, but we preach Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God." We are not to preach their power along with our wisdom.
We preach that "God added to the church daily such as should be saved." We preach, "Lord Thou wilt ordain peace for us, for Thou also hath wrought all our (righteous) works in us. And, therefore, if we have any good works we should not boast, for we have nothing that "pertains to life," or "godliness," but what "God according to His divine power hath given us," that we are "preserved in Christ Jesus," that we "are saved by grace," that God "hath raised us up and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ," and He "worketh in us both to will and to do His good pleasure," because "He that is in you is greater than he that is in the world." He is "not willing that any" of us "should perish, but all come to repentance" (a timely experience), and it is God who "worketh all things after the counsel of His own will; " that He hath "predestinated us to be conformed to the image of His Son," that He hath called us, justified us and glorified us, and that He hath promised that we "shall never perish," but that "He will raise us up at the last day," and "because He lives we shall live also," and thus we preach the Gospel. Therefore "conditional time salvation" is not the truth.