BELIEVERS IN CHRIST JESUS ARE SAVED

By Charles H. Spurgeon

        'Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling.' -  -  2 Timothy 1:9

              The apostle uses the perfect tense and says, 'Who hath saved us.'
Believers in Christ Jesus are saved.  They are not looked upon as persons
who are in a hopeful state, and may ultimately be saved, but they are already
saved.

              Salvation is not a blessing to be enjoyed upon the dying bed, and to be
 sung of in a future state above, but a matter to be obtained, received, promised,
and enjoyed now. The Christian is perfectly saved in God's purpose;
God has ordained him unto salvation, and that purpose is complete.
He is saved also as to the price which has been paid for him:
'It is finished' was the cry of the Saviour before He died.

              The believer is also perfectly saved in His covenant head, for as he fell
in Adam, so he lives in Christ. This complete salvation is accompanied by a
holy calling. Those whom the Saviour saved upon the cross are in due time
effectually called by the power of God, the Holy Spirit unto holiness: they leave
their sins; they endeavour to be like Christ; they choose holiness, not out of
any compulsion, but from the stress of a new nature, which leads them to rejoice
in holiness just as naturally as aforetime they delighted in sin.

              God neither chose them nor called them because they were holy,
but He called them that they might be holy, and holiness is the beauty
produced by His workmanship in them.

              The excellencies which we see in a believer are as much the work
of God as the atonement itself. Thus is brought out very sweetly the fulness
of the grace of God.

              Salvation must be of grace, because the Lord is the author of it: and
what motive but grace could move Him to save the guilty?  Salvation must be
of grace, because the Lord works in such a manner that our righteousness
is for ever excluded.

              Such is the believer's privilege  --- a present salvation; such is the
evidence that He is called to it --- a holy life.

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         Yours in Christ,
         Paul N. F.