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How Did Waggoner View Salvation?-1

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September 17-How Did waggoner View Salvation?-1

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For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. Eph. 2:8, 9, ESV.

The first thing to note in Waggoner's theology is that human beings can do nothing to earn salvation. "Our salvation," he penned, "is wholly due to the infinite mercy of God through the merits of Christ." God "does not wait for sinners to desire pardon, before he makes an effort to save them." That is good news indeed, but it is a gospel far removed from Uriah Smith's view that obedience leads men and women to God. To the contrary, according to Waggoner the God of grace searches out the undeserving lost. The Lord takes the initiative in salvation.

A second pillar in Waggoner's theology is that no person can become good by obeying the law, because "the law has not a particle of righteousness to bestow upon any man." He held that "a man cannot do good until he first becomes good. Therefore, deeds done by a sinful person have no effect whatever to make him righteous, but, on the contrary, coming from an evil heart, they are evil, and so add to the sum of his sinfulness." Yet, he
noted, "the Pharisees are not extinct; there are many in our days who expect to gain righteousness by their own good deeds."

As Waggoner saw it, God never presented the law as an avenue by which to achieve heaven. Both Waggoner and Jones believed that the function of the law was not only "to give the knowledge of sin," but "to bring people to Christ, that they might be justified by faith. "

"Since the best efforts of a sinful man," he claimed, "have not the least effect toward producing righteousness, it is evident that the only way it can come to him is as a gift." Our own attempts at attaining righteousness are like trying to cover our naked bodies with "filthy garments." But "we find that when Christ covers us with the robe of His own righteousness, He does not furnish a cloak for sin, but takes sin away." In effect, when we accept Christ's righteousness, our "sin has been canceled."

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Thank You, Lord, for Christ's robe. Having tried by ourselves fruitlessly for years, we are
finally ready to surrender and fully accept Your gift. Amen.

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