Salvation is not Free 11/10/40
Scripture: Luke 1: 68-79
{"To the Work, to the Work!"}
A generation ago there used to be sung in Church Schools, and sometimes in Churches, a song that had much good sentiment about working. As one sang it, he was reminded of the work that there is for the Christian to do - a veritable harvest of men, women and children not yet reached by the Gospel of Christ. And the climax of one stanza of that song was reached in the exhortation to proclaim to all mankind that "Salvation is free!" That verse could be sung with a joyful abandon - a veritable shout, if you please, by most of the school or congregation.
The more I have thought of that song since maturing, however, the more convinced I am that the expression is misleading. And that may be the reason why it has fallen into comparative disuse. Perhaps the misleading is due to the way in which we Americans so carelessly define freedom. We have some tendency, unless we think carefully, to think of freedom in an unbridled way - freedom without control or responsibility. And we are bitten with the idea that it is very desirable to get something in a material way that is free - something we do not have to work for or pay for; that brings no responsibility, only some vague kind of satisfaction, with it. Some advertisers know this and continually spread the word FREE in big letters across a handbill or sheet of newspaper as bait, hoping to "take us in" when we spring for the bait.
So I want, quite deliberately, to state the truth more sternly. Salvation is not free. It is a prize to be worked for, dearly bought, and paid for.
Salvation is the act of saving or delivering from danger, from peril, from wrong. In our Bible, the word is often used in referring to deliverance from the danger of some deadly enemy. It refers, at other times, to deliverance from the hold of sin or temptation. It has been used by many to refer to the state of more lasting freedom from sin which, if achieved, would put one in the company of the saints who seem, by God’s grace, to have become master of themselves and free of their bonds.
Some of the same people who used to sing "Salvation is Free" so lustily seemed to forget the very process by which they had learned anything about the meaning of that word for themselves. Very often they sang out of an experience in which they had been thoroughly miserable, and through which they had worked with great travail of soul before the burden had been lifted and they became converted.
There is, of course, an element which, I must point out, is in a sense perfectly free. That is this: Goodness, the grace of God, is freely available to every living mortal. I think anyone who has had any experience with the God of forgiveness will testify to that. Our very thought of God is that of a Supreme Being without any imposed limitations, perfectly free and willing to aid the mortal children of God. The grace of God, by which we come to experience the sense of true goodness, is a free grace. Its only conditions are imposed from the side of man. And what are those conditions?
1) One of the conditions between man and the grace of God is that man has an enlightened conscience. For one who is sunken in willful wrong-doing, blind to the right and not even conscious of the difference between right and wrong, there can be no hope of God-given goodness. Before a man can rise to any higher ethical plane there must be an awakening in his soul. The voice of conscience speaks, stirs him, makes him uneasy, and uncomfortable. Or perhaps a new light dawns. A friend has shown a spirit in some trying situation that he didn’t know humans were capable of. Somebody smiled in place of frowning. A man explained instead of condemning. And a glimpse of new understanding burst like a ray of light across his soul. With it came the desire to be and to do better. Some such awakening is a first condition upon man’s ability to receive the grace of God.
2) Another condition is the sincere repentance of sin. When you are beset with the feeling that you have done wrong, don’t run away from it! Don’t try to forget it! Face it squarely on your own feet. Admit freely to yourself and God, with no reservations or excuses, that you have done that which is wrong. That unconditional admission that you have done wrong when you know it in the inner recesses of your soul, is what we mean by repentance. That is all there is to it. It is just as simple as that. And it takes just that much honesty - no more, no less. Such repentance is a condition between man and the grace of God.
These two conditions, an awakening to what is better, and repentance for what is wrong, are our business. There is another condition which is God’s affair. That is forgiveness. And the feeling of forgiveness, of returned well-being, of God-given grace, freely follows the fulfillment by man of his two conditions. For Grace is free for all mankind, upon those conditions.
But salvation from wrong or from danger imposes obligations, too. Gratitude for such a blessing must be active.
I believe that no salvation is complete without works. How earnestly have we promised God that we will be more faithful in his service when we recovered from a dangerous illness, or got out of some tight spot, or escaped some serious peril. How sincerely have whole nations repented of the evil of war after going through its scourge and how eagerly their people have put forth their efforts to build a structure of civilization that shall escape repeating the scourge. If only that eagerness were more effective and lasting.
There are obligations with all salvation. Groups of people from Europe came to the shores of America - a country dangerous and wild and new to them - to find freedom - salvation from the oppressions of tyrannous European governments. But they paid heavily for that salvation in struggle with nature and savages. (deaths the first winter). They had to work out much of their own salvation in shaping their own government. They had to keep vividly alive to the fact that their freedom involved the very positive demand that they govern themselves well. And that took all of their resources of courage and intelligence.
It is so in religion. Once having found God, you must do something about it! Much of your salvation must still be worked out. There are disciplines that you must impose upon yourself in order to keep your freedom. You have to keep your fellowship with God alive by repeated worship and services. If one is so foolish as to believe that salvation is free and does nothing further about it, he is at length found among those whom the Methodists used to call backsliders - who having once seen the light and experienced its joy have done nothing about it and later found it gone as unused strength leaves an arm.
Continued salvation depends upon continued devotion to the Giver of that grace. One who would grow in Christian grace finds himself obliged to continue in adoration and in service.
There is work to be done. Other people who need the light, often those nearest at hand. There are those who need the gospel afar. People are banded together in the Church of Jesus Christ to keep the flame alive and to spread it. You and I belong in that fellowship, carrying forward its work.
A lay man said to me 3 or 4 years ago, "I believe that some of our churches must change tactics in appealing to people. We must impress them with the fact that salvation is not free. We have to pay for it." It has to be paid for in interest in your church and the spread of practical expressions of Christianity. It has to be paid for in time and service. It has to be paid for in the sharing of substance - giving of cold cash. It is kept alive as an organization only by such giving, such service, such sacrifice. Only in paying for it, does one know the "joy of salvation." The dead-beats, the neglectful and the careless lose the glow!
(story of John Wesley)
(story of Jesus of Nazareth)
(application to individuals and this church)
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dates and places delivered:
Pilgrim Church, Honolulu, October 17, 1937 AM
Army and Navy YMCA, February 6, 1938 PM
Wisconsin Rapids, November 10, 1940
W.F.H.R., Wisconsin Rapids, July 15, 1941