A Voice from the Past: The Knowledge Of Salvation -- By: George Cutting

Journal: Journal of the Grace Evangelical Society
Volume: JOTGES 04:2 (Autumn 1991)
Article: A Voice from the Past: The Knowledge Of Salvation
Author: George Cutting


A Voice from the Past:
The Knowledge Of Salvationa

George Cutting1

Before you turn to the verse which I shall ask you very carefully to look at, which speaks of how a believer is to know that he has eternal life, let me quote it in the distorted way that man’s imagination often puts it:

These happy feelings I have given to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.

Now, open your Bible, and while you compare this with God’s blessed and unchanging Word, may He give you from your very heart to say with David: “I hate the double-minded, but I love Your law” (Ps 119:113). This verse just misquoted is the thirteenth verse of the fifth chapter of the First Epistle of John, and reads thus in our version:2

These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life [emphasis supplied].

How did the firstborn sons of the thousands of Israel know for certain that they were safe the night of the Passover and Egypt’s judgment?

Let us take a visit to two of their houses and hear what they have to say.

We find in the first house we enter that they are all shivering with fear and suspense.

What is the secret of all this paleness and trembling? we inquire. The firstborn son informs us that the angel of death is coming around the land, and that he is not quite certain how matters will stand with him at that solemn moment.

“When the destroying angel has passed our house,” says he, “and the night of judgment is over, I shall then know that I am safe, but I cannot see how I can be quite sure of it until then. They say they are sure of salvation next door, but we think it very presumptuous. All I can do is spend the long dreary night hoping for the best.”

“Well,” we inquire, “but has the God of Israel not provided a way of safety for His people?”

“True,” he replies, “and we have availed ourselves of that way of escape. The blood of the spotless and unblemished first-year lamb has been duly sprinkled with the bunch of hyssop on the lintel and two side-posts, but still we are not fully assured of shelter.” Let us now leave these doubting, troubled ones, and enter next door.

What a striking con...

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