By salvation here we do not merely understand the special
salvation which Jonah received from death; for according to Dr. Gill, there is
something so special in the original, in the word salvation having one more
letter than it usually has, when it only refers to some temporary deliverance,
that we can only understand it here as relating to the great work of the
salvation of the soul which endureth for ever. That "salvation is of the Lord,"
I shall this morning try to show as best I can. First, I shall endeavor to
explain the doctrine; then I shall try to show you how God has guarded
us from making any mistakes, and has hedged us up to make us believe the
gospel; then I shall dwell upon the influence of this truth upon men;
and shall close up by showing you the counterpart of the doctrine. Seeing
every truth hath its obverse, so hath this.
I. First, then, to begin by explanation, let us EXPOUND THIS
DOCTRINE—the doctrine that salvation is of the Lord, or of Jehovah. We are to
understand by this, that the whole of the work whereby men are saved from their
natural estate of sin and ruin, and are translated into the kingdom of God and
made heirs of eternal happiness, is of God, and of him only. "Salvation is of
the Lord."
To begin, then, at the beginning, the plan of salvation is
entirely of God. No human intellect and no created intelligence assisted God
in the planning of salvation; he contrived the way, even as he himself carried
it out. The plan of salvation was devised before the existence of angels. Before
the day-star flung its ray across the darkness, when as yet the unnavigated
ether had not been fanned by the wing of seraph, and when the solemnity of
silence had never been disturbed by the song of angel, God had devised a way
whereby he might save man, whom he foresaw would fall. He did not create angels
to consult with them; no, of himself he did it. We might truly ask the question,
"With whom took he counsel? Who instructed him, when be planned the great
architecture of the temple of mercy? With whom took he counsel when he digged
the deeps of love, that out of them there might well up springs of salvation?
Who aided him?" None. He himself, alone, did it. In fact, if angels had then
been in existence, they could not have assisted God; for I can well suppose that
if a solemn conclave of those spirits had been held, if God had put to them this
question, "Man will rebel; I declare I will punish; my justice, inflexible and
severe, demands that I should do so; but yet I intend to have mercy;" if he had
put the question to the celestial squadrons of mighty ones, "How can those
things be? How can justice have its demands fulfilled, and how can mercy reign?"
the angels would have sat in silence until now; they could not have dictated the
plan; it would have surpassed angelic intellect to have conceived the way
whereby righteousness and peace should meet together, and judgment and mercy
should kiss each other. God devised it, because without God it could not have
been devised. It is a plan too splendid to have been the product of any mind
except of that mind which afterward carried it out. "Salvation" is older than
creation; it is "of the Lord."
From: Charles Spurgeon
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