"Salvation" is a word of such breadth of mean-Sing that we need to see its connection before we can rightly understand its significance in any particular passage of Scripture. For instance, in Jude 5 we have the salvation of the people out of the land of Egypt spoken of. Here it is evident that a physical and temporal deliverance from evil is the thought. Likewise in i Tim. 4:10 the apostle speaks of God as "the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe," evidently referring not to spiritual but to bodily preservation ; God, by maintaining in life, providing for and preserving from danger, is the Saviour of all men. In an especial sense can the believer say this.
On the other hand, in Acts 16:30, 31, we have an entirely different use of the word. In the question of the jailer we see, not a desire for any physical deliverance, but salvation from the wrath of that God whose power he had just felt and seen. It is the salvation of his soul that he asks for, and which he receives at once, through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. A similar use of the word is seen in 2 Tim. 1:9,-" Who hath saved us, and called us with a holy calling;" and in i Pet. 1:9, where believers are said now to receive the salvation of their souls. In this use of the word, salvation is always a present possession. It would be a contradiction to all that brings peace to the anxious sinner to tell him that salvation of the soul was future for the believer.
But the salvation spoken of in the passage before us has neither of the meanings we have mentioned. Along with i Pet. 1:5, it refers to what is "reserved for us in heaven," and "ready to be revealed in the last time." Phil. 3:20, 21, also speaks of the "Saviour" in this sense, specially linking His coming with the transformation of our " vile bodies." It is in this complete sense of the word that our salvation is " nearer than when we believed." Let us now seek to get some idea of its fullness. What does "salvation" mean in this sense? We may not learn any thing new by dwelling upon it, but if old truths come freshly before us and cause us to be indeed waiting for salvation just as Anna and Simeon were waiting for it in Jerusalem, the object of the apostle in the passage will have been gained, so far as we are concerned.
The first thought of salvation is, being brought into a scene which answers to the spiritual condition of the saved. The wicked cease from troubling, the effects and influences of sin are seen no more. Earth, with its sorrows, trials, and groans, is a thing of the past. Our surroundings, instead of witnessing as they do now to the ruin sin has made, will witness to what God has wrought for us. The curse which stamps all things here is then removed, and in its place we have "all things new." Secondly, our body will answer to this new scene. No longer a mortal body, dead because of sin, to be kept under, and often best showing the power of Christ in its own weakness and infirmities (2 Cor. 12:)-no longer such a body, but one made like unto His glorious body, in which at last our ransomed spirits will have, not a prison, as now, but a vehicle adapted to all their enlarged capacities. " It is sown a natural body, (1:e., suitable to an animal life here,) it is raised a spiritual body (1:e., suitable to the spiritual life there)." Those who through weakness or sickness or age feel specially the burden of their earthly house surely are warranted in taking special comfort in this aspect of salvation. But thirdly, both of these would be but shadows did they not suggest and necessitate the blessed fact that sin, whether in transgression or nature, is gone forever. This is not the case now, save to faith-as we reckon ourselves to be dead to sin; but with our mortal body goes the sin which can only have sway there. He who came to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself will then, when the redemption of the body takes place, see the full result of His work accomplished.
" No more as here, 'mid snares, to fear
A thought or wish unholy."
Lastly, to which all that has been said is but the introduction, we will be "forever with the Lord," to behold Him, commune with Him, share His glory, and to worship Him and the Father. God and the Lamb! Oh! what will not that mean-at last to. be in His presence, where there is fullness of joy! Let us pause, and dwell upon it:words fail, but may the Spirit of God, whose work it is, show us more of these things to come!
And, dear fellow-believers, this glorious salvation is " nearer than when we believed," nearer than last year, nearer than yesterday. What a future to contemplate!
Notice how our gaze is directed,-not backward, at our past life, which would beget only discouragement in every right-thinking person-for we have all come far short of what we should have been. The backward look would be likely to link us with earth; we are to be "forgetting the things that are behind." Neither are we told to look forward at the time which may yet remain, proper enough in its place, but dangerous to one tempted to have "confidence in the flesh." Plans for the future, needful to some extent, are after all but subordinate. Nor does the apostle lead us to think of the judgment-seat of Christ in this passage, where every one is to receive a reward or to suffer loss. It is sobering and healthful to remember that too in its place. Indeed, all three of these thoughts are right in their proper connection. Here, however, we have the one thought – " the day is at hand."
In the light of that fast-hastening day, the believer is called upon, in the most practical way, to awake:as with the virgins the cry, "Behold the bridegroom cometh! " is to make him arise and trim the lamp. If Zion, in view of her speedy deliverance (Is. 52:), is called to arise, and shake herself from the dust, how appropriate is the call here in view – not of an earthly deliverance, but of an eternal and complete salvation – to " put off the works of darkness," and awaken out of the sleep of the night! As the light of that " morning without clouds " shines into our hearts, how these works of darkness – whether the grosser forms here mentioned or those more subtle ones of strife and envy – will be put off, and that light into which we are so soon to enter clothe us as with a panoply!
Is not this a proper motto for the new year upon which we have just entered:"The time is short." "The coming of the Lord draweth nigh"? There may be but a few days left for service or suffering. Did we but realize what awaits us, did it but come with power to us, how changed the lives of many of us would be! Things which now seem of great importance, and which occupy much of our time and thoughts, would be seen in their true light. Things which perhaps are to us insignificant now would then appear in all the value of eternity. What calmness in the presence of evil, what joy amid trial, what growth in grace, did we hear this word with power in our souls:" Now is our salvation nearer than when we believed"!