What Shall I Do That I May Inherit Eternal Life

I. I need salvation

II. God knew my need before I knew it.

A. So He was working for my salvation before I was.

B. I should know what He has already done.

1. He has paid for my sins.

2. He has provided a model for my life. 1jo 2:16

3. He has granted me an ongoing probation

i. Probation was forfeited in Eden.

ii. Probation is forfeited every time a man sins.

iii. On-going probation, then, is a very precious gift.

4. He has provided power for my needed change to holiness.

i. The gift of the Holy Scriptures

ii. The gift of the Holy Spirit

iii. The assistance of Holy Angels

iv. The faculties of conscience, reason, and judgment.

v. The faculties of desires, appetites, and passions.

vi. The faculty of imagination

vii. The faculty of faith and of the will

5. He has provided a setting conducive to spiritual growth and prosperity

i. The home

ii. The woods

iii. The garden

iv. Useful occupation

v. Sacred music

vi. Nutritious food

vii. Sabbath and rest

6. He has provided for us to become heirs and children of holy men

i. By the Law of Beholding

ii. To undo our inherited and cultivated tendencies to evil.

iii. Ultimately, becoming a child of the Holy Jesus, and heir

1. By the same Law of Beholding

2. By the means of Christ’s sacrifice

7. He has set in operation means to draw us to Himself.

i. The powers and faculties and settings already mentioned.

ii. A command to believers to share the truth with you.

1. Gifts to the church to facilitate its work of sharing

2. Power to give efficiency to the church in its work

III. I don’t deserve any of this work that God has been doing to serve me.

A. Therefore all these things are grace, gifts freely given to me while undeserving

B. These gifts are evidence regarding the character and power of God

IV. Satan knows that we need salvation

A. He has been working for 6000 years to make it difficult to be saved.

B. I should be aware of his devices and of what he has done

1. He accuses me of my sins.

2. He provides alternate models for my life

3. He seeks to end my probation through death or presumptuous hardening

4. He opposes Christ’s work with the power of his demonic hosts

i. He provides alternate sources of authority and comfort

ii. He provides alternate sources of spiritual power and miracles

iii. He habituates mankind to a perverted use their faculties

1. Using the law of beholding against us through a perverted imagination

2. Exalting our desires and appetites above the dictates of conscience

iv. He attacks the nucleus of the family and of its devotion

v. He promotes city-living

vi. He promotes artificial amusements and sports

vii. He promotes alternate music

viii. He promotes an unhealthy lifestyle

ix. He promotes skepticism

x. He assails the church and its effectiveness in these same ways

C. My setting, then, is a Great Controversy between Christ and Satan

V. My Part (and His)

A. I respond to what Christ is doing for my salvation

1. With love for Him

i. Resulting from my understanding of Calvary or other evidence of God’s love

ii. Resulting from my meditation on the same

ii. Not with sentiment alone, but with love – the putting of other’s needs before one’s own

2. With faith in Him and in His Word

i. Moved by the love as directed by the faith I….

1. Avail myself of Christ’s provisions

i. Depending on God’s promises

ii. Depending on God’s power

iii. Asking for the Holy Spirit

2. Harmonize the use of my faculties with His intentions

ii. Which means obedience, for living faith works obedience

iii. Which means confession, for this has been commanded

iv. Which means repentance, for this has been commanded

3. My part is His Part. He works in me to love and believe, to will and to do, and grants me repentance.

4. My part is to will; His part is to empower. I may not feel his part, but I will experience it.

B. I hold on, endure, continue as I have started, with a faith that works by love

VI. The Results

A. I am declared Righteous

1. I am forgiven

2. God’s Word, declaring me “righteous”, recreates me and continues to work in me

B. The result of that miracle-working Word, as long as I endure, is growth in holiness

C. When my name comes up in the judgment above…

1. My sins are written there with the record of their forgiveness

2. Jesus confesses my name before the Father and before the angels

i. The latter witness that my works justify Christ’s declaration of my faith.

ii. The Former confirms Christ’s request and my sins are blotted out.

D. Whether living or dead, it is now in heaven as if I had never sinned.

1. If on earth I am alive, I am sealed. God declares to the angels that I am secure.

2. If on earth I am dead, I rest.

i. When resurrected I am given a new nature.

ii. I am secure.

VII. Conclusion

A. Conversion is simple. Take God at His Word and live as if that Word is true.

B. Conversion is simple. Love and fear God and keep His Commandments. This is your only duty.

C. Conversion is simple. Consider Jesus (and thus come to love and fear and obey Him).

D. Conversion is simple. Consider Jesus (and thus come to take Him at his Word.)

E. Conversion would be simple if there were no devil. But as he opposes Christ at every turn…

1. We must follow God’s Word earnestly and closely to be kept secure from unbelief

2. We must depend on God’s wisdom and power and righteousness to overcome the evil one.

3. Organizing our life in harmony with God’s plan of living greatly simplifies the process of holding on to our faith.

Introduction

All my adult life I have pursued one theme, one aim. I am interested only in accomplishments that will last forever.

Saved souls live forever. For this reason I ought to know what is involved in saving them. I ought to know how to explain the process to them. And often I am asked questions that, boiled down to their sticky concentrated form, amount to “How can I be saved? How can I know if I am converted? What must I do to be sure of eternal life?”

The answers to these questions are simple and concise. Yet they are often asked in contexts that complicate giving an answer. A concise answer, combined with two or three well-designed demonic misunderstandings can combine in the mind to create a fall answer. This is why the Bible is much longer than the three sentences it might otherwise take to explain the way of salvation.

In this essay I will endeavor to retain simplicity of expression and brevity of explanation. I am aiming to make the way of salvation plain even to persons that have been very much duped by the most common tricks of the devil.

The essay follows an orderly development. I need salvation. God knew my need before I knew it and began working to save me even before I was born. Satan hates me and has been working for thousands of years to make the way of life more difficult. The work of God and the work of Satan oppose each other, each seeking either my well being or my destruction – and much of their labor for or against me was done before I had any awareness.

How should I respond to God’s work in my behalf? With love, and faith, and endurance. And when I do I am declared righteous and made to be righteous. And when I endure to the end my destiny is made certain. The Judgment declares Christ’s righteousness in place of my defects and sins. In conclusion, the gospel and its application to the soul is simple, as simple as can be, to understand. But it is work, a great deal of work, to be faithful. It is enough to wear out any man that is not considering Jesus and thus being strengthened by His power for the task.

I Need Salvation

I am born into a big problem. First, I inherited many evil tendencies and many physical imperfections and many social inadequacies. Second, I grew up in a defective society. Family relations, national relations, social values, or the lack thereof, plague my growing up. I learn from family, from friends, from TV, from school, indeed, from many sources, to despise Divine counsel. And what is more, I have sinned. What one sin can do is apparent in Genesis. I have sinned more than once. So I am doomed and weakened and separated from God. I have bad habits that came from bad decisions. Some of these, like my temper and my appetite, were cultivated when I was an infant and became strong before my muscles did.

So I am thoroughly lost before the gospel works its miracle in my life.

God comments that even discipline is vain for the ills in my life. Pain cannot solve my problems.

No man responds to God’s invitations naturally. Rather, he is naturally inclined to ignore God’s wishes.

And no obedience of today can ever atone for any obedience of yesterday. We ought to know this intuitively. If a man steals today the fact that he does not steal tomorrow cannot save him from prosecution. But we do not know it well. As the verse above states, “there is none that understandeth.”

I am mortal and my nature has been deranged by sin. The effect of this is that I thoroughly enjoy my worst habits. I delight in making light of God’s counsels. I naturally hate them and wish they would leave me to myself.

All which problems make my case just about hopeless. I could, with propriety, just give up on having anything better than a painful and short existence. I could nearly justify suicide. There just is not sufficient light and hope to warrant breathing. I am promised that I will answer for my sins at the bar of God. And there I can muse with William Miller of old:

God Knew my Need before I Knew I was Lost

So He was working for my salvation before I had any interest in it. In fact, He was working to secure my redemption before I was born. While I was growing up, a sinner from my earliest days, He was already working to win me.

I should know what He has already done. This will inform me regarding what, if anything, remains to be accomplished.

First, He has paid for my sins. And Second, by the same spotless life that was sacrificed in my place, Christ has provided a model for me to follow.

But is not Christ’s work finished? Does He not simply sit and watch us from His throne in Heaven?

No. Christ is active in winning souls. His third work in our behalf was to grant me on-going probation. Probation was forfeited in Eden when sin entered and ended our first parents’ trial time. Probation is forfeited every time a man sins. Every sin deserves death, both the first and the second death. But Christ purchased for me an extension of the probationary time that is needed for my eventual full recovery. On-going probation, then, is a very precious gift.

But Christ’s help is much more than a reprieve. It includes power! He has provided power for my needed change to holiness. He has provided to me gifts very precious and very wonderful.

The gift of the Holy Scriptures. These are “given by inspiration of God and are profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto every good work.” This is His perfect road map and His divine telescope through which I have the privilege to see the Author more distinctly.

The gift of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is not a created being. He is the third person of the Godhead. He was active in the creation, he makes the Bible live to my understanding, He testifies to me of Christ, He works faith in me through the word and draws me to Christ. He changes my feelings. He gives me clear thinking. Wonderful Counselor is not a bad name for the agency that is called alongside every child of God to make the child of dust a child of God.

The assistance of Holy Angels. Beings of perfect holiness number more than one hundred million (Rev. 5:11). They actively engage in our deliverance. In every temptation, in every trial, I am not alone.

The faculties of conscience, reason, and judgment. An internal police force is built into my mind that I have the ability to educate. When educated by sound principles and aided by heavenly assistance this moral compass is worth more than the most expensive insurance policy.

The faculties of desires, appetites, and passions. These often get me into trouble. But, like my conscience, these forces can be educated and strengthened. While their improper use makes life more difficult, their rightful employment is essential to spiritual success.

The faculty of imagination. The ability to see things with my mind makes instruction possible. Without it I could never benefit from Biblical History or from a parable. Without it I could never look forward. Satan seeks to abuse this precious gift. But Christ aims to employ it for my eternal good.

The faculty of faith and of the will. By faith the impossible becomes possible. Faith brings Jesus with His omnipotence within my grasp. The will, as used to seek for and to maintain faith, leads to the reception of all Christ has to give.

A Setting Conducive to Health and Holiness

Christ has provided for my salvation before I knew I was lost. In a similar vein, He has also provided a setting conducive to spiritual growth and prosperity.

The institution of the home was God’s invention. The family of husband and wife and children constitutes a community of mutual benevolence, sacrifice, and love. It was where Jesus lived for his first thirty years. It is still where Jesus lives in those hearts dedicated to Him.

The “woods” have been given to mankind to draw my thoughts to God. The same could be said of any department of nature. But in particular the groves of trees, with their majesty and beauty, shade and fruit, have been given to us to draw our minds to heaven. They provide a sanctuary for thought, for worship, and for the contemplation that aids in the highest of all arts – thinking like Jesus.

The Garden has been given to men not just that they might have food but also that they might have spiritual prosperity. Agriculture is a school where one may learn of wisdom and trust.

Not that every man was to be a farmer by trade. While all might cultivate a small plot of ground, God gave the race a larger variety of occupations. Useful work puts the breaks on societies downward slide. Where men are gainfully employed crime diminishes and taverns languish.

And the hours of work, with hours of recreation and family time, have been joined to hours of devotion by the heavenly gift of music. Existing before the earth’s creation, this powerful medium can communicate spiritual power, courage, wisdom and contrition. It serves its highest purposes when promoting a holiness that praises God.

Fruits, grains, nuts, and eventually, vegetables have been given to mankind to build up a healthy functioning body. When unencumbered with sickness or disease, the human frame provides a setting for the faculties of the mind to serve the soul well.

And the setting given to men has been crowned with the gift of rest. Sabbath comes to us from Eden unchanged by the fall. As a sign of God’s Creative Power and of “sanctification” this Holy Day was given to make holy men.

These wonderful presents – home, nature, agriculture, useful work, sacred music, healthy food, and rest – form a setting that makes holy living comparatively easy, almost natural. They were given to us before we were seeking for them and constitute an important part of the Mighty Power acting in our behalf.

Inheritance

Satan’s effort to assure that I inherit a very degenerate set of morals is more than matched by Christ’s gift of inheritance. But this takes a little thinking to understand.

How do we inherit the characteristics of our parents? Clinically, we might answer “by genetics.” And, truthfully, this is how we inherit physical characteristics. But when we speak of moral characteristics, this is only half of the story. These are inherited by two means: genetics and infant observation. Children observe the behavior of their parents and are molded into the same image by what they see and hear. This is one of the laws of heredity – the law of beholding.

And this is why the Bible has more chapters about Abraham than about all the holy men before him combined. We are to become children of Abraham. In fact, we are to become children of Israel and children of Levi. By the use of the imagination combined with the Holy Scripture we may observe their spiritual victories and be changed into their image. We may become like them in character – and this is what it means to be a spiritual child – to acquire their moral character. In the case of the Jewish leaders, Jesus affirmed that they had inherited genetic material from Abraham, but denied that they were his children.

The law of beholding allows us, even late in life, to undo our inherited and cultivated tendencies to evil. It is a gift from heaven of most precious proportions. Ultimately, we become a child of our Holy Jesus by this same means. In particular, our continual consideration of Jesus and his sacrifice for us softens and subdues our hearts, inspires reciprocal love, and strengthens us for moral battles.

The Operation of Christ’s Church for our Salvation

In addition to the wonderful setting provided for our spiritual advancement, and to the incredible faculties built into our nature, God has set in operation a church to draw us to Himself.

Believers have been commanded to share the truth with the lost. And they have been given spiritual gifts to facilitate their work in saving me. God has filled the work of his consecrated workmen with Divine power, giving them efficiency in their attempts to reach me.

Grace

I don’t deserve any of this work that God has been doing to serve me and to save me. Therefore all these things are grace – gifts freely given to me while undeserving. These gifts, themselves, provide evidence the very best of God’s character and of His power to Save.

So the amount of power and wisdom invested in my salvation before I took any interest in the same has been immense. I, I did not deserve a chance, much less a helping hand. But what have I been given? Grace upon grace, power added to power, gifts and pledges and provisions and invitations. My salvation has occupied the attention of the universe’s greatest intelligences. Why? Because Jesus deserves that level of attention and grace came this way – God gives me, at Christ’s request, what the Lord Jesus deserves.

The Complicating Factor – Satan

Satan is the reason that I need salvation in the first place. It is no wonder that his continued existence complicates what might otherwise be a simple process. He has been working for 6000 years to make it difficult to be saved. I should be aware of his devices and of what he has done.

But it is one of my operating principles not to give honor to my enemy. I will only note briefly his wicked activities that tend to darken pilgrims’ paths.

First, he accuses me of my sins. The Bible titles him “the accuser of the brethren.”

If it was only in heaven that he accuses me nothing would be harmed, for my Savior hushes him up there. (small pun intended).

But he accuses me in my mind as well. He tries to get me to think like an attorney, sifting, questioning, speculating, testing whether in fact all of my sins can be passed over due to Christ. He aims to bury the power and beauty of the word of God under a mountain of Doubt. He aims to put an eclipse in front of Calvary.

Second, Satan provides alternate models for my life. The media – and it has nearly always been the media – presents those that in God’s eyes are fools as worthy of emulation. The lives of those that honor God are made to appear dull. Satan’s servants seem to enjoy the fullness of life. His workers and His amusements seem to offer real pleasure. The standard of righteousness and God-fearing seems out dated, uncultured, or even primitive by human standards. And these ideas are brought to our homes via newspapers, TV programs, satellite, internet, and so many other ways that every generation since Eden has only known the devil’s music and amusements and aspirations. This standard is reinforced by the pressure of tradition and by social expectations.

Third, he seeks to end my probation through death or presumptuous hardening. His aim is that I die unrepentant, or more wickedly yet, that I rebel against the light of heaven so many times that I give up all concern for spiritual things and sin unprovoked and unexposed.

Fourth, he opposes Christ’s work with the power of his demonic hosts. As already stated, the Holy Spirit works to draw me to God. Evil angels work to drive me away. There have been provided to me special blessings from heaven: the Holy Scripture, the Holy Angels, helpful, God-fearing friends, my own internal moral compass.

Satan provides alternate sources of authority and comfort. He is the father of lies (not a reference to his creative ability but to his relation to the abundance of them). By specious and flattering arguments he aims to make me disregard God’s character and will. He opposes the work of holy angels with that of unholy spirits, aiming to win my confidence with lying miracles. He aims to distract me with worldly minded friends. He aims to educate my conscience by false maxims and principles so that it speaks on his behalf. He labors to habituate mankind to a perverted use of their faculties. Using the law of beholding against me he directs and redirects my imagination. When my powers of desire and appetite are properly used they serve me well. He aims to exalt them in my thinking so that I learn to become their servant.

Toward this end he works through me to ruin the nucleus of the Christian home. He seeks to weaken devotion and duty. He promotes city-living, artificial amusements and sports, alternate music, and an unhealthy lifestyle. He seeks to assail the church and its effectiveness in these same ways.

In addition to all of these things, he promotes skepticism toward God’s Word. He aims to make me content in my doubt. And his success in this department will lead to my destruction as surely as the flood came upon those that “knew not.”

My setting, then, is a Great Controversy between Christ and Satan. But in this setting Satan has the initial advantage of getting to me first and lulling me to sleep to all the wonderful things Christ has done. And he employs more visible means to influence me than Christ does. And in this battle for my soul my hope is not a function of being clever enough to see through all his tricks.

Instead, I am to avail myself of the means that Christ has provided.

My Part (and His)

I respond to what Christ is doing for my salvation. How? First, with love for Him. His death, and every other evidence of His love, informs me of His character. My meditation on the sacrifice changes my feelings. I am attracted to Him more than I am repulsed by my sin. My joy in Jesus makes my service not a chore but my greatest delight.

But it is not with sentiment alone, but with love – the putting of others’ needs before my own. In particular, Christ has more than earned a right to claim my obedience. He is wise beyond words. To refrain from following His leadings is nearly madness, certainly self-destructive.

Second, I respond to Christ’s work with faith in Him and in His word. These two – love and faith – are the powers that move me heavenward. I have been created to be God’s servant and God’s friend. Fulfilling the role of servant I must be obedient. Fulfilling the role of friend I must exercise love and faith. It is the latter that moves my heart and hand to perform the former. And it is the former that demonstrates that the latter is present.

Moved by this love, as directed by my faith, I avail myself of Christ’s provisions – depending on God’s promises, depending on God’s power, and asking for the Holy Spirit. I harmonize the use of my faculties with His intentions.

Which means obedience, for living faith works obedience. Which means confession, for this has been commanded. Which means repentance, for this has been commanded. It means prayer and watching, and time alone with God.

In a sense, my part is His Part. He works in me to love and believe, to will and to do, and He grants me repentance. But what is generally meant when “my part” is used is this: my part is to will, His part is to empower. I may not feel His part, but I will experience it.

And when I continue in this path, when I endure, when I continue as I have started, a faith that works by love will carry me to my desired haven.

The Results

I am declared Righteous. I am forgiven. God’s Word – which goes forth from His mouth and does not return to Him void until it accomplishes what He pleases – recreates me and continues to work in me. The result of that miracle-working Word, as long as I endure, is growth in holiness. This growth does not save me. It is Christ’s declaration of my righteousness that saves me. But growth should not be absent when genuine conversion is present.

The reformers called this “progressive sanctification” and I need to say that I dislike that term. To me it implies that we do not have full sanctification. But the truth is that all that we will ever have we have at the first step of faith. And all we will need to serve the next generations we still have today. In sense we do not progress, but in sense we do. Sanctification (being set apart from sin) includes an ongoing conforming of the life with the example and precepts of Jesus. This does go forward – or backward – from day to day. It is kept moving forward as my faith continues and as my love becomes richer.

And I should make a special note here. My works never pay for my salvation. Galatians 3:3 speaks to this point. I am not one that “having begun in the Spirit” thinks “now to be made perfect in the flesh.” My works do not justify me before God. Christ alone justifies me. Even when I preach the gospel without charge, obey all His commands diligently, and give my body to be burned, these acts do not earn me one speck of God’s righteousness or pay for even one sin.

But the ellipsis in Romans 4:5, if filled in, reads “But to him that worketh not, but believeth….”

Why is this? When God declares me to be righteous, the perfect life of Jesus is credited to my account. His death for my sins is honored by giving Him the right to give me life for his righteousness. His right to forgive me this way is not based on any good thing I have done or ever will do. His right to declare me righteous is based on His work.

So though I speak about “my part” in the plan of redemption, I never mean that God owes me. No good thing that Jesus does through me ever atones for one of my sins. I am not employed in weaving my own robe of self-forgiveness.

When God forgives me, by saying “he is righteous,” His creative word does miracles.

One miracle is instantaneous. I am strengthened by God’s Spirit in my “inner man” so that God may live through me. In a moment I become a channel for Divinity, a partaker of the Divine Nature by depending on God’s promises (i.e., by faith.)

This is the “new birth”, and “conversion.” Both are metaphors for the miracle of a reordered mind, a supernatural presence in the heart, and all that these two changes bring with them.

Another miracle is ongoing. Like the seeds that germinate every spring since that powerful Word said “be fruitful and multiply”, my life is continually growing in holiness as long as I hold on to my faith. When God says “he is righteous” His Word goes on a mission. It does not return to God until it accomplishes what He sent it to do.

When my name comes up in the judgment my sins are found recorded along with a record of their forgiveness. Jesus confesses my name before the Father and before the elect angels. That latter witness that my works justify Christ’s declaration of my faith. The Former confirms Christ’s right to grant me His righteousness in place of my sins. My sins are blotted from the record.

Whether I am living or deceased, it is now in heaven as if I had never sinned. Not that anyone in heaven is confused about the topic. All know that I richly deserved to die for my sins. But all are satisfied to have my sins blotted out and to welcome me through the pearly gates.

If I am dead, I rest until the resurrection of the just. At that point I am given a new nature. I am saved and secure. There is still a great deal more to the plan of redemption, but for the purpose of this article, that is the end of the story.

If I am alive, I receive the seal of God and eventually hear those words “let him that is holy be holy still.” I am secure and await the last Trump to change my nature and to clothe me with the gift of immortality.

Conclusion

Conversion is simple. Take God at His Word and live as if that Word is true.

Conversion is simple. Love and fear God and keep His Commandments. This is your only duty.

Conversion is simple. Consider Jesus (and thus come to love and to fear and to obey Him.)

Conversion is simple. Consider Jesus (and thus come to take Him at his Word.)

Salvation would be simple if there were no devil. Be as he opposes Christ at every turn, we must follow God’s Word earnestly, closely, to be kept secure from unbelief. We must depend on God’s wisdom and power and righteousness to overcome the evil one.

Organizing our life in harmony with God’s plan of living greatly simplifies the process of holding on to our faith.

For the Word Document Click here: What_Shall_I_do_that_I_may_Inherit_Eternal_Life