Editorial
July/August, 1977
Volume 12, Number 4
The 1977 Church of the Brethren Annual Conference is being held in Richmond, Virginia. Twenty-five years ago the Brethren’s Yearly Meeting was held in Richmond also. In this editor’s opinion, one of the last great doctrinal messages given as a Moderator’s Address, was the sermon delivered by the Moderator, Brother R. W. Schlosser, at that Conference in 1952. Brother Schlosser’s Moderator’s Address given at the 1952 Church of the Brethren Conference is the feature article in the July/August issue of the Witness.
The theme of the 1952 message was “The Threefold Plan of Salvation.” The word salvation speaks of the entire work by which God rescues man from his sinful state. God has a plan by which we can be saved for eternity. The most comprehensive yet brief statement on the divine plan of salvation is found in Romans 5:8-11. The Cross of Christ is man’s refuge from the storm of impending wrath. The blood that Jesus shed is the basis of our change from a condition of death to a condition of life, and His shed blood is the ground for our certainty of entrance into heaven.
Salvation is accomplished in three tenses – past, present, and future. The born again Christian has been saved from the penalty of sin justification); he is being saved from the power of sin (sanctification); he shall be saved from the presence of sin (glorification). Salvation is the work of God (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) whereby the believer in Jesus Christ is redeemed from the curse of the law justification), set free from the dominion of sin (sanctification), and finally perfected in the image of his Lord (glorification). Justification is a backward look; sanctification is an inward look; glorification is a forward look.
The Gospel (Good News) is still good news! The divine plan of salvation is an unchanging message. Brother Schlosser, in a recent letter to us, says, “The plan of salvation has not been altered and I would preach the same Gospel truth to our Annual Conference today.” The Church of the Brethren would profit immensely from a much more steady diet of the kind of clear doctrinal preaching evident in the message featured in the Witness you are now reading.
Salvation is God’s greatest gift to the person who receives it. In actual experience, its facets cannot always be entirely comprehended. Yet an attempt to understand its details gives the Christian a deeper appreciation, a greater love, and a happier praise for God who has saved him.
The Three-Fold Plan of Salvation
R. W. Schlosser
Moderator’s Address, Richmond
Annual Conference, 1952
A knowledge of the doctrines of the New Testament is as important to a Christian leader, as a compass is to the captain of a ship. It is for the strengthening of our knowledge of these doctrines that the program of this year’s Conference is built upon a study of the ordinances of the church, and other great fundamentals of the Christian faith. It shall be my purpose to give a birds-eye view of the plan of salvation as set forth in the New Testament Scriptures.
The only foundation of the plan of salvation is Jesus Christ, through whom alone we can be saved. “For other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 3:11). On this foundation rest two doctrinal pillars which are the support of the church and all that it stands for. These fundamental doctrines of the church are the atonement and the resurrection. Paul himself sets forth these vital doctrines in 1 Corinthians 15:3-4: “For I delivered unto you first of all that which also I received; that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures and that he was buried, and that he hath been raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.”
These truths concerning the death and the resurrection of Jesus are so vital to our faith because we note that the wages of sin is death, and the soul that sins shall die. Consequently, in the natural course of events, because all have sinned, we should all have to pay the penalty of our sinning by perishing eternally. But God in mercy saw us in our pitiful condition and gave His only begotten Son to die in our stead, thus paying the penalty, so that we ourselves should not have to die eternally, if we believe on Him. On Calvary, Jesus shed His blood for all, but salvation is only for those who accept Him and believe on Him. All the passages of the Scripture on the blood of Jesus, and on the shedding of the blood of our Lord, have reference to His death on Calvary without which we should have to pass into eternal darkness.
Just as significant is the second pillar – the resurrection of Jesus. Paul states in 1 Corinthians 15:17, “If Christ hath not been raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.” What does the resurrection have to do with our salvation? Just this: If Christ did not rise from the grave, then Satan is the victor and we are hopelessly doomed But since Christ rose triumphantly over death, hell, and the grave–we know that we too shall rise if we believe on Him. The resurrection of Jesus does not make Him the Son of God, but it does prove that He is God’s Son. And since He is God’s Son, we know that His words are finalities. His resurrection proves the Bible to be not only a good book among many other books, but the Book of books. To accept this glorious risen Christ, gives us assurance that since He became the firstfruits of them that are asleep, so shall all that are Christ’s be made alive at His coming (1 Corinthians 15:20-23). These are the great fundamentals of the plan of salvation asset forth by the preachers of the first century.
The Apostle Paul is more specific regarding the plan of salvation in Ephesians 2:8-9. Here he states that the grace of God is the power that saves us from sin. Were it not for the fact that God was gracious toward us sinners, we would not have any hope whatsoever. By love for us who are undeserving of any good, God gave his only begotten Son to die on Calvary that we should not have to die. And faith is the hand that lays hold of the grace of God, which is like a lifeline out on the sea of life. Whoever takes hold of that line has hope of salvation. Thus, we see that faith does not do the saving of a soul; salvation is all of grace. Salvation is surely not partly by faith and partly by grace; it is all of grace. Nor are we saved by works lest we should glory in our own selves. Works do not save our souls; they are merely the proof that Christians have salvation. Faith without works is dead; yet we cannot be saved by what we ourselves do. We are saved by what Jesus did! We cannot be saved without doing God’s bidding, but the part we do does not save us. We are saved by grace, not by our graces. To sum up, we are actually saved by grace, meritoriously saved by the blood, instrumentally saved by faith, and evidentially saved by works.
As we go further into an analysis of the meaning of salvation, it at once becomes evident that there are stages in salvation. Salvation is the process of setting a soul free from sin and death. But when is a soul completely free from sin and death? When our souls are born anew we certainly are free from the sins of the past. But the Adamic nature remains with us after we are Christians and we must constantly keep the body under. Is not this process – salvation from the power of sin in the present? And finally, we know that we shall all be changed and this corruptible shall put on incorruption. Is not this a future salvation from the very presence of sin? The writer of Hebrews refers to those who wait “unto salvation” when Jesus shall appear a second time (Hebrews 9:28). These three stages of salvation may be termed:
(1) Justification – getting into such a relation with God in which our past sins no longer condemn us (Romans 8:1).
(2) Sanctification – getting into such a relation with God in which we may be progressively delivered from the power of sin (Romans 12:2).
(3) Glorification – getting into such a relation with God in which sin no longer is present in us (Jude 24; 1 John 3:2).
1. JUSTIFICATION
To be justified, we need to be born again as Jesus taught Nicodemus. Only to those who “receive him” is the right given to be called the sons of God (John 1:12). To receive Him is not to give mere mental assent to the truth, but to trust God’s Word and obey it. It is to appropriate the riches of grace to our fives, to cause the principles of the Christian way of life to crystallize in character.
To produce Christian character, the Word of God must find entrance into the heart of man. This word is the power of God unto salvation. It will bring a consciousness of sin, and if the Spirit can have His way, He will bring conviction to the sinner. The Spirit of God will then bring us to the point of repentance if we yield to His leading. Then will follow the fruits of repentance which are confession and restitution. At this point, we will cease to do evil and show a desire to follow the right. After this instantaneous or progressive conversion (as the case may be), the Scriptures teach that we should be baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. But we are not saved by being baptized; we are saved by grace. Baptism does not save anyone, but according to the plan of God, we cannot hope for salvation without baptism. This ceremony is the Scriptural way of indicating to the world our desire to put away the old life and to come forth to walk in newness of life. As Christ died, was buried, and rose again, so the sinner needs to die to sin, bury the old life, and be resurrected to a new life in Christ Jesus. Thus baptism is merely a symbol of cleansing and of a determination to press on in the upward way. To such reborn souls there is a double assurance — the forgiveness-of sins and the reception of the gift of the Holy Spirit. This is what it means to be born again and thus to be justified.
2. SANCTIFICATION
After justification, there begins a second work of grace – a growth in the new life. We are to “follow after holiness without which no man shall see the Lord” (Hebrews 12:14). This involves bearing the fruits of righteousness. Some of these graces are symbolized by the ordinances of the church.
In these ordinances there are exemplified the very graces which make for the sanctified life (which is a growing life). We do not grow into sanctification at some specific moment, but grow in sanctification every day of our lives and never reach perfection in this life. The ordinances of the church are not Brethren traditions or customs; they are New Testament ordinances and should be spoken of as such. They are part of the faith once for all delivered unto the saints.
In the years gone by, the Church of the Brethren placed emphasis on a number of negative teachings. We heard the statement that the Brethren do not believe in going to war, they do not believe in taking oaths, they do not believe in divorce, they do not believe in the use of tobacco and liquor, and they do not believe in worldly adornment and worldly amusements. Of course, Christians should refrain from these worldly practices, but might it not be better to approach these desired ideals in a positive way. Instead of emphasizing these matters from the angle of Brethren practices, can we not find the positive virtues involved in each case, and speak of these virtues as New Testament teachings. For example, instead of an emphasis on not going to war, would it not be better to teach our children and new converts, the New Testament teachings on the beauty of peace in our homes, peace in the church, and peace among nations? Instead of teaching that we do not believe in worldly adornment and worldly pleasures, could we not accomplish more by showing the importance of a life of sobriety, modesty, and simplicity in our dress – and the importance of things good, true, and beautiful? We could thus drive out the low and mean by thinking upon the lofty and exalted.
To grow in these graces implied in the ordinances of the church, and in the positive approach to the negative teachings suggested above, is to live the sanctified life. This is what it means to press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling. This process of Christian growth has no end in this life because none of us can become absolutely perfect. All we can hope to attain, is relative perfection. This growth in grace (or pressing on the upward way) is the second stage of our salvation. It implies a progressive deliverance from the power of sin, and a progressive development of all our powers. It is altogether possible that our Church has fallen short chiefly in our lack of emphasis upon this second stage in salvation.
3. GLORIFICATION
The third stage in the plan of salvation is our glorification. John writes of this in his first letter when he states that “when he shall appear we shall be like him (1 John 3:2). Paul refers to this stage frequently. For example: “For this corruptible must put on incorruption and this mortal must put on immortality (1 Corinthians 15:53). He also refers to a time when “we shall all be changed in a moment in do, twinkling of an eye at the last trump” (1 Corinthians 15:51-52). Paul speaks further of the doctrine of glorification when he says in Romans 8:18, “For the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.”
We know very little about the details of this transfiguration that shall take place when our Lord comes the second time. Therefore, we should not be dogmatic on the various details of this third stage of salvation. If we were born again, and have lived the life that presses toward the mark, we can be certain of our glorification when the time comes. Let us, therefore, as many as have named the name of Jesus, press on in hope, knowing that God will be with us always.