CHAPTER III

THE RESULTS OF THE SALVATION BESTOWED BY THE LORD JESUS CHRIST

THE results of our Lord Jesus Christ's atonement and of the salvation which He bestows, and the excellence of His grace and favour, are so lofty and transcendent that they have their effect on men not only in this world but also in the next. Salvation not only does away with sin and restores believers to the glory and dignity which man lost by sin, but it also elevates them to a higher position still. Since the effects of salvation therefore are so great, doubtless man's feeble intellect in his present fallen state cannot fully understand and explain them as they really are. Only in the next world will believers truly know and realize the grace, blessing and glory which Christ has gained for them by His precious death, by His glorious resurrection and by His ascension into heaven. Then all this will impel them to new and eternal praise and thanksgiving. It is beyond man's power to explain at length the full results of salvation. We can state about them only as much as God Himself has told us in His own word (كلام). We now proceed to do this briefly.

I. The first result of Christ's atonement and of His salvation is the remission of sins, so that whoever with all his heart believes in the Lord Jesus Christ and accepts the salvation which He freely offers receives the pardon of all his sins. We have in the second chapter explained this and proved it by quoting verses from the holy Scriptures, therefore it is not necessary for us to repeat the proof here. But we shall state the main points which are included in remission of sins.

According to the teaching of the New Testament, the forgiveness of sins includes five points: firstly, pardon and deliverance from the eternal destruction and misery which result from sin; secondly, the obtaining of God's approval and blessing; thirdly, spiritual life and realization of God's love; fourthly, release from the chains of sin and the snare of the devil; fifthly, the hope of attaining eternal purity and holy happiness.

From what has been said in the first chapter of this book it is clear that all pain, suffering, toil, sickness, and death itself, among men are some of the results of sin, and that men would not have suffered these evils if they had not sinned. But it is not always those who are the greatest sinners who here on earth suffer most, for the innocent often suffer for the guilty. In some cases repentance and faith deliver a sinner in some degree from the earthly consequences of his past sins,