August 8, 2001

Reading: Heb: 7:20-28

 

“He is also able to save to the uttermost” (25)

 

How much strength, assurance and comfort these words are to all who have trusted Christ as their Savior! When the enemy throws his fiery darts of doubt at my soul, or when my own faith is tried beyond measure, then I must remember these words “I have been saved to the uttermost!” I cannot be saved more than I have been – Jesus Christ finished His work of salvation and He left no part of it undone. It is impossible for me to fall through the cracks because there are no cracks! Neither God, nor Satan, nor man, nor fallen nature can find any flaws in it, for I have been saved “to the uttermost”.

Do not question my salvation for you are wasting your time and your efforts are in vain. When you question the validity of my salvation you are spitting in the face of my Savior no less than those who attended His crucifixion. If you doubt the completeness of my Redemption you are calling my Redeemer a liar when He shouted from the cross, “It is finished!” This was the greatest of all announcements of victory and declared to the universe that Jesus had done His work and had accomplished it flawlessly.

I do not trust in my salvation, but in my Savior, for “He is able to save to the uttermost”. But how can I be numbered amongst those so privileged? This absolute salvation is only for “those who come to God through Him”, and is not available for any other. I am, by the grace of God, part of an exclusive group. Only those who “come to God through Him”, Jesus Christ, our Great High Priest, will be saved to the “uttermost”. “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved" (Acts 4:12). How many other paths do men and women tread in their attempts to find God? Salvation is not to be found in or through any human priest because the human priesthood has been done away with (18) along with all the animal sacrifices and earthly tabernacle. God cannot be found through human priests, Christian friends, church attendance or by living a life of good works. “Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me’” (John 14:6).

I recently visited my ailing father in England who is the victim of a stroke. While he recognizes me he is unable to hold any conversation and lives in a quiet world of his own. He is no longer able to read the scriptures and pray with my mother, a practice they have enjoyed together for many years. As I sat and looked at him I remembered how he used to be - an intelligent, vibrant man who, in his sixties, could still outplay children on the soccer field. I remembered the Christian testimony he exemplified during my childhood and his love for the Lord, and wondered about his life with Christ now. What a tremendous comfort the words of our text are in this circumstance. Even when we lose the ability to pray, we are still saved to the “uttermost”! Our salvation is not diminished because of a lack of human understanding or ability. We were saved to the “uttermost” when we trusted Christ in the first place and we are still saved by that same salvation in whatever circumstance we may find ourselves.

“Saved to the uttermost, I am the Lord’s;

Jesus my Savior salvation affords;

Gives me His Spirit a witness within,

Whisp’ring of pardon, and saving from sin.”

William J. Kirkpatrick.