Salvation and Godly Rule

Salvation and Judgment

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Doctrinal Studies

Lesson: Salvation & Judgment

Genre: Speech

Track: 03

Dictation Name: RR136B3

Location/Venue:

Year: 1960’s-1970’s

Romans 5:6-21, and our subject: “Salvation and Judgment.”

“For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement. Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned: (For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come. But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many. And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification. For if by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.) Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound: that as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.”

The Old Testament word for salvation means basically “victory, deliverance, a deliverance into safety, and to prosperity.” The verb “to save” in the Old Testament means to live, to preserve life, to quicken, to give safety or deliverance. The word salvation also means enlargement, or prospering.

Brown, in Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible, says of the word salvation and the idea, “The root idea in salvation is deliverance. In every case, some danger or evil is presupposed, in rescue from which salvation consists. Since in primitive times, one of the greatest dangers to be feared is defeat in battle, salvation is often used in the Old Testament in the sense of victory, deliverance, victory in battle, and successful warriors are called saviors, Judges 3:9 and 15, Nehemiah 9:27, but this is only one modification of a much broader usage.”

Thus, the word salvation is very closely related to the word “savior,” or “messiah,” and it has to do with victory, with triumph, with deliverance. In the New Testament, we have the same basic meaning in the Greek word, and Barclay, in his word book of the New Testament, says, “Salvation in the New Testament is total salvation. It saves a man, body, and soul.” It is also inseparable in every case from judgment.

Salvation, in the Old Testament, is always spoken of in connection with the Day of the Lord. Now, the Day of the Lord, to many people in our time, means almost exclusively the Second Coming and the end of the world, but in the Bible, the Day of the Lord is the day of God’s judgment, and whenever God judges, it is a Day of the Lord. All these judgments in history culminate with the great day of the Lord, the last judgment. Whenever we encounter, in the Old Testament, any reference to the Day of the Lord, it means judgment upon the enemies of God and of God’s people, and it also means salvation for the people of God. Salvation and judgment, in scripture, are seen as different sides of the same coin. Different facets of the same fact, for the redeemed. For the reprobate, judgment only means reprobation.

Now, scripture gives us many examples of the coincidence of judgment and salvation. On previous occasions, we have touched on these, and we will review them briefly in order to lay the groundwork for a further analysis of salvation and judgment. The flood, of course, is a great example of salvation and judgment. There was no hope for the family of Noah, the lone survivors in a world of evil who represented righteousness. Unless that world around them were judged, they, too, would be overwhelmed, and so the judgment of God came upon the world before the flood, that there might be deliverance for the people of God.

The Ten Plagues upon Egypt were examples of judgments which meant salvation. They were the salvation of Israel because they were the judgment of Egypt. The same was true of the Red Sea crossing and the entire wilderness journey. The Song of Moses is a very interesting example of a song celebrating salvation which is also celebrating judgment. The first six verses of the song of Moses in Exodus 15 read, “Then sang Moses and the children of Israel this song unto the Lord, and spake, saying, I will sing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously: the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea. The Lord is my strength and song, and he is become my salvation: he is my God, and I will prepare him an habitation; my father's God, and I will exalt him. The Lord is a man of war: the Lord is his name. Pharaoh's chariots and his host hath he cast into the sea: his chosen captains also are drowned in the Red sea. The depths have covered them: they sank into the bottom as a stone. Thy right hand, O Lord, is become glorious in power: thy right hand, O Lord, hath dashed in pieces the enemy.”

In other words, Moses here say the coincidence of salvation and judgment, and because he declared that God is a God who saves, he also spoke of God as a man of war, the one who brings redemption to His people, who overthrows His enemies. The entrance into the land of Canaan was salvation, victory, for God’s people, but it meant destruction of the Canaanites, and of course, as we have seen previously, the supreme example of the coincidence of salvation and judgment is the cross of Christ, and it is of this that St. Paul speaks in our text. In one and the same event, we see in the cross the culminating example of judgment, the most fearful of all judgments, that which God the Father executed upon God the Son, the incarnate Jesus Christ. It was at one and the same time our deliverance. We are reconciled to God, says St. Paul, and His wrath and judgment are renewed by Christ’s atoning blood. Christ saves us by being judged for us, and His judgment is our salvation. No salvation would be possible if Christ had not been judged, if He had not taken upon Himself the judgment.

Thus,

End of tape.