Salvation Is Possible

Last month we considered how, in spite of its apparent impossibility, God did provide for the salvation of sinners. For, as the angel told the Virgin Mary, "with God nothing shall be impossible".

There is a further, related matter. We may think of an individual sinner after long years of hardening under the gospel. He knows the truth; he has had many opportunities to prepare for eternity, many opportunities to turn from his sin and look to the Saviour. Is there, we may ask, any hope of him ever being saved, especially if his mental powers are failing and he is unlikely to be able to attend the means of grace much longer? Or we may think of the teenager who has left home and turned her back on the gospel as she immerses herself in a life of sinful pleasures. Is there any hope now that she will believe the gospel and be saved? Or we may think of the multitudes who have no religious background and live out their lives as if there was no God and no hereafter. Is there any possibility that significant numbers of them will come into contact with the truth in such a way that they would be impressed by it, believe in Christ and begin to lead godly lives?

The answer in each case seems obvious. If not quite a definite No, it is likely to be very close to it. But we should remember the words of the angel: "With God nothing shall be impossible". And no matter how much we have seen within our lifetimes of hardness, wilful rebellion and sheer indifference, we have also seen and read of instances of God's remarkable dealings with such sinners, whom He has brought into His kingdom.

Yet we should also be conscious of the difficulty in any sinner being converted - indeed, its complete impossibility if we only take account of human power. We ought to see the resemblance to every group of fallen humanity as we read the account of the bones in the valley which Ezekiel saw in his vision: they were "very many . . .and . . . very dry" (Ezek 37:2). Each natural man is totally devoid of spiritual life; he has no power to turn from sin (as distinct from particular sins), however clearly the preacher may point to its evil and the fearfulness of its consequences; he has no ability to respond in a positive way to the gospel, however attractively presented. We might almost be surprised that, when the prophet was asked, "Son of man, can these bones live?" he answered as positively as he did: "O Lord God, Thou knowest".

God's instruction to Ezekiel was: "Prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord" (Ezek 37:4). But how could bones hear? And, although a significant transformation took place as a result - when "the bones came together" and "the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them above" - "there was no breath in them". Which meant that they were still dead bodies. So, whatever changes may take place under the preaching of the gospel, it is impossible for such means to bring spiritual life into even one soul apart from the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit. This is illustrated by the further command given to the prophet; he was to prophesy: "Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live". And he recounts what happened in his vision: "So I prophesied as He commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army". Which shows us that, however dead, spiritually speaking, a sinner or a group of sinners may be, the Spirit is well able to bring them to life through prophesying - that is, through the preaching of the gospel. And we are to call on Him to do so.

One might be tempted to imagine that there are at least a few individuals - perhaps some brought up in godly homes - who would readily submit to Christ. Not so. No one could have been more promising than the rich young ruler who came to the Saviour with the question: "Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?" (Mt 19:16). Yet this man had no real understanding of his spiritual need. When confronted with some of the commandments, he claimed: "All these things have I kept from my youth up"; and he asked, "What lack I yet?" He had no sense of sin, which showed that he had no idea of the wide demands of God's law, or of His holiness who made such demands. The young man made it obvious that he was still spiritually dead. And as a result, "he went away" from Christ; he rejected the Saviour, though he did so sorrowfully. It was with a sense of the unlikeliness of anyone turning to Christ - when such a hopeful young man refused to follow Him - that the disciples asked: "Who then can be saved?" But Jesus answered: "With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible", which is the appropriate response to all such questions.

The fact is, as the Psalmist sang: "Thine arrows are sharp in the heart of the King's enemies; whereby the people fall under Thee" (Ps 45:5). Christ reigns as the exalted King, and He has real power in His hands. He has authority to send the Holy Spirit, who "will reprove the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgement" (John 16:8), which is how the gospel call becomes effective. Times without number the preacher may, as an ambassador, bring to his unconverted hearers Christ's call: "Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else" (Is 45:22), without there being the slightest effect - except that unbelievers are becoming ever more hardened in sin by their resistence. Yet, when these words are applied by the Holy Spirit to a sinner, there is an effect; the impossible becomes possible; the sinner looks to Christ and is saved.

Was there ever a sinner so unlikely to be saved as Manasseh? He had wilfully thrown away his godly father's spiritual legacy; he had turned enthusiastically to a life of utter wickedness and cruelty - he "shed innocent blood very much, till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another". It must have seemed that he was altogether ripe for some remarkable judgement, that there was no possibility of him ever experiencing mercy. One would not be surprised to hear that some of God's children assumed it was pointless to pray for him any longer. But other of the Lord's followers would not have been able to stop praying for their king, and their petitions were heard, for with God nothing is impossible. So we read of Manasseh as a captive in Babylon: "When he was in affliction, he besought the Lord his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers, and prayed unto Him: and He was intreated of him, and heard his supplication . . . . Then Manasseh knew that the Lord He was God" (2 Chr 33:12,13).

What made the difference? It was not his affliction as such; many others have suffered similar troubles but have become more rebellious against God and more resistant to His truth; it was the irresistible work of the Holy Spirit in his heart. However hard Manasseh's heart was, and it was remarkably hard, it was by no means too hard for the Spirit of the Lord to soften. However rebellious he had become, it was still well within the power of the Holy Spirit to make him willing to turn from his sins and follow his father's God.

And however hardened in sin people may be today, however rebellious, however far from the Lord, however ignorant of the truth, however securely in the grasp of the god of this world, it is not beyond the power of the Spirit to make them new creatures in Christ Jesus. Therefore nothing - not the power of Satan to deceive multitudes of sinners into ignoring the welfare of their souls nor the eagerness with which such sinners go down the broad way to destruction - should discourage us from praying for individuals or nations or for the whole world. Nothing can hinder God's purposes in salvation; Christ Himself declared: "All that the Father giveth Me shall come to Me" (John 6:37). The declaration is sure to be fulfilled. And when all the children of God will gather together on Christ's right hand after the resurrection, it will be altogether beyond the power of man to count them.