Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered outside the gate. Therefore, let us go forth to him outside the camp, bearing his reproach. For we have no continuing city here, but we seek one to come.
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In the early 1950's, a scandalous report began to circulate in central North Carolina concerning a doctrine being taught at the Duke Divinity School. According to these reports, the seminary students at Duke were being taught that the death of Jesus on the cross saves no one. My father was one of those who were concerned about this report. As God would have it, he found himself one day seated on a bus beside a young man who, as he learned, attended the divinity school at Duke. My father was about to be educated by the Lord, using this young student to teach the experienced elder.
In the conversation that developed, my father asked the young man if it was true that the seminarians were being taught that the death of Jesus on the cross saves no one. The young man replied in the affirmative. When my father asked him to explain, the young man obliged him.
He took my father to Romans 5, where Paul told the saints in Rome that the death of Jesus justifies those who believe and reconciles them to God, but that Jesus' resurrection and his ascension into heaven is that which saves the saints. Paul said it this way (v. 9): "Being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him." And again in verse 10, "For if, when we were enemies [of God], we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life."
The truth which the young seminarian spoke immediately became clear to my father. Every one of us has made some kind of blunder in our walk of faith, most likely, more than one. We may not have committed a great sin, but all of us have stumbled somewhere along the way. The difference between the wise and the foolish in God's kingdom is not that the foolish fall and the wise do not; rather it is that the foolish stay fallen, and the wise, when they stumble, humble themselves to cry out to Jesus for help. Then, he lifts them up again and restores to them the joy of holiness because He loves them and because they love him and trust him to help in time of need. This is how Jesus' life saves us. He is sitting at the right hand of the Father making intercession for us when we need it most. Jesus said he would never leave us nor forsake us, and he meant it!
As my father preached in that little farmhouse that Sunday afternoon, "'We are saved by his life' . . . 'seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for us'. . . Every error you make has to be corrected. And Jesus is sitting there to do it."
Praise God for Jesus! The Apostle Peter labored to persuade the saints to understand that our hope for salvation depends entirely on Jesus' mercy and patience with us (2Pet. 3:15). And the Apostle Paul insisted to the saints in Corinth that if Jesus has not risen from the dead [to help us], then our faith is in vain (1Cor. 15:17).
Paul's phrase, "We are saved by his life", teaches us two important things. First, it teaches us that we are not saved yet. Second, it teaches us that Jesus is alive to keep us from sin all along the way. The life of Jesus is the hope of the saints, though they have already been reconciled to God by faith in the death of His Son.
Another important lesson that this story teaches us is to remain humble in the fear of God. God has often chosen someone despised, even a sinner, to deliver His word to someone, just to see if we have become puffed up because of what He has shown us. If we become proud of the blessings we have from God, then we will become like the Pharisees, who angrily despised the goodness of God in Jesus. But if we stay humble and slow to speak, as my godly father did when the seminary student began to speak to him, we will discern the voice of our Shepherd, no matter how his voice comes to us.
Peter submitted to the voice of God when he spoke to him through the crowing of a rooster. Balaam humbled himself to the angry voice of God in the speech of his beleaguered donkey. David was rescued from sin by listening to the tearful pleas of Abigail. Judah was made ashamed of himself by the right words of his daughter-in-law, Tamar. Elijah submitted himself to the importunate cries of the wise Shunnamite woman. These and other men of God were tested to see if they had become proud of their knowledge of holy things. Some passed the test; some did not. But all were tested, and so will all of us be. Be slow to speak; try the spirits to see if they are of God or not.
The apostle Paul counseled us to "prove all things". Some among God's own children apparently have been taught to "reprove all things" that don't go along with the doctrines they have been taught. But that is a dangerous attitude. What if Jesus tests you by sending a bit of his wisdom by the mouth of a fool? Stay humble, and stay safe. You're not saved yet.