ENNOBLED CHARACTER.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 193, 15 August 1936, Page 2

ENNOBLED CHARACTER.

MEANING OF BEING " SAVED." , (By S.) —Xo. 2. Originally, the Greek word for "save" was a medical term. It signified to lieal, to make whole, and was frequently used l>v our Lord in that sense in connection with His healing of the sufferers who were brought to Hint. "Thy faith," He used to tell them, "hath "saved" thee." In our versions of the Bible—the authorised and the revised—He is represented ar; saying. "Thy faith hath 'made thee whole.'" This brings out the meaning, but the word used in the original is always "hath saved thee." I

"Hem of His Garment.'' Take, for example, Matthew's account of the healing of the woman with the issue of blood. It is given in the ninth chapter of his Gospel. She was too sensitive and timid to ask Him to Ileal her, and, perhaps, too, she was afraid He would shrink from her. So she said to herself, and though there was a good deal of superstition mingled with it, it shows that she had remarkable faith in Him, "If I just touch the fringe of His robe, I shall be made whole," literally, "I shall be saved." And He said to her, "Thy faith hath made thee whole," literally, "Thy faith hath saved thee." So, says Matthew, "she was made whole from that hour," literally, "she was saved from that hour."

Take again, the incident on the western shore of the lake. It is recorded at the fend of the fourteenth chapter. Our Lord was in the district of Gennesaret and a number of people came to Him with diseased relatives and neighbours, and besought Him that they might just touch (as she had done) the fringe of His robe, and as many as did touch it, says the evangelist, were made

"perfectly whole," literally, again, and here a stronger word is used, "were saved."

It is worth while noting this original meaning of the word "saved" because it makes clear to us that what health is to the body, salvation is to the soul. And that is one reason why, for the most part, it is used in the New Testament in a religious sense, the word "saved" being employed sometimes, but more generally, as I remarked last week, the phrase "being saved," which might be more freely rendered "being on the way to salvation." Justification and New Life. And how apt tjie phrase is. It is undoubtedly true that, when we begin to believe in Christ, two tilings happen. First, we are justified, we are fully and freely forgiven our sins for His sake. Second, a new principle of life is born in us, so that we are different from what we were. It is as undoubtedly true, therefore, that we are in one sense "saved." And yet, in another sense, it is no less than that we are only at the beginning of salvation. We are only on the way to it. We are far from being perfect. "We have inabilities," as someone has said, "as well as abilities, and indispositions, as well as dispositions." We are born again, but we have to grow. We are recreated, but we have to be developed. How much, for instance, we need to know about Christ and our need of Him. How much we need to be deepened and strengthened and ennobled in our character, and hovv many lapses and back sets we have.

It is for these reasons that the "act" of justification, as the old divines used to put it, is followed by the "work" of sanctification. And that is why the phrase "being saved" is so much used in the New Testament in the original. And the "work" is partly done by the Divine Spirit and partly by ourselves. What does that mean? Not only dependence on the Spirit of God, but likeness to the artist in his urge never to rest satisfied with his work, but ever to strive to do better, only not merely to do batter, but to be better.