Installment twenty-five

Our last entry stopped with Mr. Severance scheduling a meeting for the
next day to allow Mr. Anderson to present a defense of the Sabbath.
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Installment twenty-five:

"He doesn't look much like a Christ killer, does he? whispered one woman
to another when Mr. Anderson arrived at the appointed hour the next day.
"Well," replied her friend, "maybe he isn't a Jew; but I've been told since
leaving San Francisco, that he really doesn't believe in Christ. He teaches,
so I'm informed by one of the ministers, that we are to be saved by keeping
the law rather than by faith in Jesus, and I think that is terrible."
Mr. Anderson smilingly greeted his fellow travelers, assured them that he
assumed no superior wisdom, asked them all to be free to contribute their
thoughts. Laying Harold Wilson's marked Bible before him, he begged that
all joined him in asking God's spirit to rest upon their interview and that
light might come to all.
What a beautiful, simple prayer he offered!
"My," exclaimed the woman who had just spoken of his supposedly wrong
views :That doesn't sound as I expected. Why, he prays like a Christian!
Isn't it strange that one minister should get such a wrong opinion of another?"
"I find," said Mr. Anderson, "that a number of questions have been written
and already passed in, and perhaps I ought to notice these first. Do you
agree?"
Evidently Dr. Spaulding was somewhat fearful, though without reason,
that some scheme had been devised to shut out free, open questioning.
He took occasion to suggest that while the written questions were ok,
he'd like to have a chance to introduce at least a few verbal questions
of his own first.
Mr. Anderson readily agreed, knowing that courtesy is a principle of
the Golden Rule, which he sought always to follow.
Dr. Spaulding was therefore permitted to have a free hand.
"Do you believe," he began, "that Sabbath keeping is one of the works
of the law?"
"Certainly, it is."
"Do you believe that Sabbath keeping should be regarded as essential
to the Christian service under the Gospel?"
"Most assuredly."
"Very good, brother, now let me read Paul's words to the Christians
of Galatia: Gal: 2:16-21: "Knowing that a man is not justified by the
works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have
believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of
Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law
shall no flesh be justified. I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if
righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.'
"Now if Sabbath keeping is one of the works mentioned, then it
frustrates the grace of God, and declares that Christ died in vain.
Isn't that so?"
"Sabbath keeping," said Mr. Anderson, "is indeed a work of the law,
just as any other good deed is also a work. But no one can ever find
salvation by performing good works. Christianity knows no such
thing as salvation by works. No one can become righteous by any
deed of his, however great or good it may seem. This is said over
and over again in Romans and Galatians.
But doing good to be saved, or, as Paul writes, to be justified, or
made righteous, is altogether different from doing good when one
has been saved through faith.
Works may never truly precede faith and justification, but they
certainly follow. This must be true; because before one has found
deliverance from sin through faith, it is impossible to do good.
The carnal man with a carnal mind cannot obey a spiritual law.
Romans 8:7. But after sin has been forgiven and the law of the
Lord is written in the heart, then all the works of the law appear
as naturally as leaves on a tree. In an unconverted life, the works
of the law are only dead form. In a converted life, they are the
living fruits of the Spirit.
Sabbath keeping therefore would only be a useless theory to a
person who is not born again, yet one of the covenant experiences
to him who has Jesus in the heart."
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To be continued....