We thank God for Abraham Lincoln and his part in emancipating slaves in the United States. Yet, in a deeper sense, there is a slavery from which we all need to be emancipated.

The children of Adam are slaves by birth. Partaking of his fallen nature, they find it an uphill fight to do right and easy to do wrong. No mother has ever had to teach her child to tell lies, steal, or disobey. Every child does these things naturally. All, by nature, are slaves to sin.

Some, on the other hand, have sought to make themselves slaves to the Ten Commandments in order to overcome their natural tendencies toward evil, but this does not produce the desired results. God did not give the Law to help us to be good, but to show us that we are bad and need a Savior. In Romans 3:19, He says that He gave the Law “that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become [be exposed as] guilty before God,” and in Verse 20, He says that “by the law is the knowledge of sin.”

Only believers in the finished work of Christ are liberated from sin and its results. This does not mean that it is not possible for them to sin, but that it is now possible for them not to sin — to have victory in any given case. “For sin shall not have dominion over you, for ye are not under the law but under grace” (Rom. 6:14).

In grace, Christ died to pay for our sins, and in response to that grace, believers seek to live for Him, just out of sheer love and gratitude for what He has done for them. This is the secret of victorious living, and God would have us keep it that way. Galatians 5:1 says:

“Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.”

Yet, he also cautions believers, who enjoy this wonderful liberty:

“Take heed lest by any means this liberty of yours become a stumblingblock to them that are weak” (I Cor. 8:9).

“For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another” (Gal. 5:13).

“Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth” (Rom. 14:22).

Today we think of St. Paul’s words to the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 6:1,2:

“We then as workers together with [God], beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain…. Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”

This passage reminds us that it is not enough that “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” collectively. We, each one individually, must do something about appropriating this salvation for ourselves.

After the classic passage in 2 Corinthians 5:14-21 where the Apostle tells how Christ “died for all,” and how God deals with all men in grace since “He hath made Him to be sin for us” so that “we might be made the righteousness of God in Him” — after this great unfolding of what God, through Christ, has done for us, he urges individual acceptance of this great truth.

As “workers together with God,” the Apostle and his associates begged men not to “receive… the grace of God in vain,” but to trust Christ, each one as His own personal Savior, to apply His redemptive work to themselves.

And even at that early date in the history of the Church, the Apostle gave men to understand that there was no time to lose; the day of grace was not to last forever, but was to give place to the day of judgment and wrath.

If this were so, then how much more is it so now! God has been very long-suffering with the world. He has continued to deal with mankind in grace for nearly two thousand years, but according to both Old Testament prophecy and Paul’s “mystery,” He will judge this world for its rejection of Christ.

When will this happen? No one knows. It is the very essence of grace that no one knows when the dispensation of grace will end. It is grace, pure grace, on God’s part that causes Him to linger day after day in mercy toward a world that rejects Him.

Thus, God’s messengers cannot offer even one more day of grace. We must say as St. Paul did: “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” “Christ died for our sins” (1 Cor. 15:3). “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:31).

St. Peter declares that to obtain eternal life we must be born again, since by nature we were born but to die.

“Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the Word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth and the flower thereof falleth away. But the Word of the Lord endureth forever, and this is the Word which by the gospel is preached unto you” (1 Pet. 1 :23-25).

Our Lord emphasized this same fact to the Pharisee Nicodemus. “That which is born of the flesh,” He said, “is flesh… Marvel not that I said unto thee, ye must be born again” (John 3:6,7).

Nicodemus was devoutly religious, and he even recognized Christ as “a teacher come from God” (John 3:2). But he was not saved. He had not been “born of the Spirit,” and “that which is born of the flesh is flesh,” even though it is “religious flesh.” Therefore, it must die. Nicodemus, like many sincerely religious people today, needed to be born again — of the Spirit, by faith in the Word, of which the Spirit is the Author.

Some suppose that Paul did not teach the new birth, but they are wrong. He taught it consistently, and nowhere more clearly than in Titus 3:5, where he wrote by divine inspiration:

“Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, by the washing of regeneration [re-birth] and renewing of the Holy Spirit.”

For some years, a little girl passed our window at Berean Bible Society each day on her way to and from school. Every time she passed, she would smile, wave, and throw a kiss.

Occasionally, she would come in to tell me something special, and I was always impressed by her natural refinement. One would not have wished to meet a sweeter child.

One day she came in to show me a picture of herself, all dressed up for her “first communion!” “How pretty!” I exclaimed. “But do you know what happened at the very first communion supper?” “Yes,” she said, “they killed Him.” “That’s right,” I agreed, “but there’s much more than that.”

She had given me a wonderful opportunity to breathe into her little ears, what St. Paul calls “the preaching of the cross”, “the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth”.

If only we could persuade all of our readers of “the truth of the gospel” (I Cor. 15:3), and that “by Him all who believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the Law of Moses” (Acts 13:39). This is why St. Paul could tell the trembling Philippian jailor: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:31).

Romans 4:15 clearly states that “the law worketh wrath,” but so many people, it seems, do not wish to see this. Even some clergymen tell us that God gave the Law to help us to be good, when God Himself says the very opposite; that it was given to show us that we are bad and need a Savior.

“The law worketh wrath.” Every criminal knows this and every sinner should know it, for the Bible has much to say on the subject. Rom. 3:19,20 declares that the Law was given “that every mouth may be stopped, and that all the world may be brought in guilty before God,” and this passage goes on to say:

“Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight; for by the law is the knowledge of sin.”

2 Corinthians 3:7,9 calls the Law “the ministration of condemnation” and “the ministration of death.” Gal. 3:10 says that those who are “of the works of the law,” i.e., who seek to make themselves acceptable to God by keeping the Law, “are under a curse,” because the Law can only condemn them.

Those who approach God, expecting eternal life in return for “good works” are offering Him their terms — which He will never accept. God will not sell justification to those already under condemnation for sin. But He does offer sinners complete justification by grace because:

“Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written; cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree” (Gal. 3:13).

Thank God, those who trust in Christ, “having redemption, through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace” (Eph. 1:7), “being justified, freely by His [God’s] grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 3:24).

The Apostle Paul uses three wonderful phrases in Romans One: “I am debtor” (Ver.14), “I am ready” (Ver.15), and “I am not ashamed” (Ver.16).

As God’s appointed Apostle to the Gentiles, Paul declared: “I am debtor both to the Greeks and to the barbarians; both to the wise, and to the unwise”.

The gospel now was no longer to be confined to Israel, but was to go to all nations, and Paul felt himself a debtor to proclaim it, first because God had appointed him to do so, and second, because he held in his hands that which would save the lost. He was morallyobligated — and so are Christians today.

Notice: the Apostle did not say, “I am debtor, but” and then begin to give a thousand excuses, as so many Christians do. He said: “I am debtor…SO…” and his fidelity to his call is seen as he adds: “So, as much as in me is,I am ready to preach the gospel” (Rom.1:15).

Oh, that the millions of Christians today would join Paul and say: “I AM READY to preach the gospel with all that is in me”.

But in Verse 16, the Apostle explains why he was ready to put his all into proclaiming the gospel to the Gentiles:

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; unto the Jew first and also to the Greek [Gentile or Nations]” (Rom.1:16).

Many thousands of Jews had already come to trust Christ as Saviour, but the good news of Christ’s finished work of redemption was — and is — “the power of God unto salvation to EVERY ONE that believeth”.

Surely there is no other way. None of the pagan religions can give the assurance of salvation. They all represent efforts to find or earn salvation. Only the gospel, the good news of our Lord’s payment for sin can give us the knowledge, the assurance and the joy of salvation from sin.