What to do after salvation

There must be a genuine conversion to God. This is a divine work from first to last. And what has the converted man got to do? He certainly has not to work for life, because he has it, even life eternal, as God's free gift, through Jesus Christ our Lord. He has not to work for salvation, because he is saved already — "saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation." What, then, is he called to do? "To serve the living and true God." How? When? Where? In everything; at all times, and in all places. The converted man has nothing else to do but to serve God. If he does anything else, he is positively untrue, unfaithful to that blessed Lord and Master who, ere ever He called him to serve, endowed him with the life, and the grace, and the power, whereby alone the service can be rendered.

When soundly converted the language of the soul is. “Now I am saved I would like to serve the One who has saved me!” “That is right! Only, find out first what is “that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God” (Rom. 12:2); and then serve Him accordingly.

What, then, is the true place assigned to good works in God's great plan? They follow salvation as naturally as fruit springs from a living tree. The New Testament epistles are full of strongly worded exhortations as to the propriety of good works, but they are all addressed to those possessed of living faith in the Son of God. Paul, Peter, John, and especially James, all insist earnestly that they that believe should be careful to maintain good works. Christianity is a vital reality, and revolutionary in its effects when really received into the soul. It makes the proud man humble, the selfish man unselfish, and the thief a worker and a giver. There is no moral force in the world to be compared with the true grace of God revealed in Christianity.

“By their fruits ye shall know them” (Matt. 7:20), is a test so obvious that it needs no proving. If a young man or woman professes to be converted, it will certainly be evidenced by a change of life. It is true that salvation is by grace alone, through faith, “not of works, lest any man should boast” (Eph. 2:9). It is equally true that believers “are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to good works, which God has before ordained that we should walk in them” (Eph. 2:10). These works do not procure salvation in the smallest degree, but are the evidence that we are saved. They are the product, not of the old nature, not of the flesh, but of the new nature, the new man “created in Christ Jesus.” The very grace of God that has brought us salvation teaches us “that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world” (Titus 2:12).

But verse 24 proceeds to more posititve, active goodness. "And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works." Passive submission is one thing, and needful too, but we must not content ourselves with this. True, proper activity should stem from this, a genuine concern for the blessing of others with whom God has put us in contact. Such consideration for one another is the normal fruit of Christianity. Provoking unto love and good works is done by showing such character cheerfully in our own lives, and encouraging others in such things. But let us notice that good works are not considered until after the great work of the Lord Jesus is seen to be the only resting place of the soul, the only real foundation of blessing. Thereafter, good works have their true, real value, as a proper result of the knowledge of eternal salvation.

The doctrine of good works is a correlative of that which declares the creative power of God to be the origin of Christian life. Union with Christ is as truly the effective cause of acceptable works, as it is the security of the believer's life. The Lord has very plainly taught us this. That apart from Him we can do nothing, is affirmed not less emphatically than that without faith in Him we are destitute of life (John 15:5). But, in the language of the Spirit, to abide in Christ is to bear fruit to God. Faith without works is dead; for true faith binds us to the Living Vine, in whom our fruit as well as our life is found. Thus the quantity of our fruit will be in proportion to our faith; for faith is the working arm of our strength. It is also by that leading string that the sons of God are conducted by the Spirit in the way of peace. As to the Pattern of our imitation, it is JESUS; who has not only saved us, but has left us an example that we should follow His steps. Flesh will not cease to lust in a believer against the spirit; but the desires of the new and inner man are wholly towards God. That which is born of God still cleaves to Him in love, preserving its natural bias amid all the oppositions of an alien will, which never changes. Moreover, the Spirit lusts against the flesh; and, being God, will ultimately conquer, though the struggle may be long. The assertion of good works as the necessary, because Divinely-prepared, consequence of saving faith, is intended not only to act in warning power on the conscience of the real believer, but to frustrate by anticipation the device of Satan, who endeavours to lead sinners to destruction by separating holiness from grace.

Discipleship means all this. It means prayer, and the study of God's Word. It means exercises otherwise unknown, and the shock of battle with the world, the flesh, and the devil. Sit down and count the cost. Do you tremble? Then recount the cost in the full light of the power of God and the weighty stores of grace, and you will begin to "rejoice in Christ Jesus," and yet more deeply have "no confidence in the flesh."

Yet is much more needed on our part, which the apostle proceeds to enforce. A divine nature requires all care and diligence that it may grow; and as its spring and fulness are in Christ, and it is communicated and revealed to us by the word through the Spirit's agency, so is it formed in all that is suited to it by its requisite food and exercise, alms, and objects.

Very naturally, the moment the truth of its separation to God breaks upon the soul, it will say, Then there will be a new kind of walk now. You have been set apart to God, and His word alone can be your guide for your path as a saint. Heed to it is at the bottom of all progress in sanctification, viewed from the practical side. I have more faith in Scripture than anything I can say about it. You will never get on in your soul if you do not diligently and carefully read the Word of God. Nothing can take its place; nor any amount of hearing what others say about it supply the lack of your own personal study thereof Because, you see, if you come to a meeting, by the end of the week very much of what you have heard is gone from you, unless you study the Word thereafter to gain, in the Lord's presence, the truth for yourself "The slothful man roasts not that which he took in hunting: but the substance of a diligent man is precious" (Prov. 12:27). The first half of that verse illustrates the history of many a young convert. They have enough energy to turn out to a meeting and listen attentively to a teacher of the Word, but have not enough energy to turn again to the Scriptures in their own room, and get the truth of God wrought into their souls by meditation and prayer. They caught the hare, but were too lazy to skin and roast it, just because it was not "precious" enough to them. You have to get God's truth into your own soul in His presence if it is to be really food to you by which you can grow. The secret of much of the lack of spiritual growth among young Christians — and perhaps older ones too — is that there is not enough dealing with God about the truths of Scripture in our own chambers.

With the hearing the word of the Lord Jesus there is also to be prayer; and in the first verse of chapter 11 the disciples desire Jesus to teach them to pray. We shall be kept fresh in our spirits, and be enabled to do the will of God, if there is the desire for divine teaching regarding the word and prayer. Every effort of the enemy is put forth to divert us from prayer; and how often we allow ourselves to be hindered from prayer and to be otherwise engaged when secluded for prayer. The Lord spent whole nights in prayer and communion with His God and Father. Faithful men have long since called attention to this, that declension of soul begins so often with neglect of private prayer, and this is followed with the giving up of attendance at the public prayer meeting. It is not a matter of saying prayers, but of being before the Lord in the spirit of dependence and pouring out our hearts to Him in all kinds of prayer; and seeking too the blessedness of true and deep communion with the Father and the Son. So many know what it is to approach God regarding their own interests, yet are little conscious of the joy of being occupied in communion with the interests of God in this world, or with the counsels of divine grace that centre in the Son.