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{Sermons on Ephesians 5:15
The Doctrine Explained
Precisians Are the Sort Who Walk in the Right Way
The Right Way Described
The New and Living Way}
The second guidepost is the new and living way. There may be three things that you may wish to ask me about this. First, what is this new and living way? I answer, Christ is the way. Jesus said, “I am the way” (John 14:6). “Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh” (Hebrews 10:19–20 NKJV). A Christian who walks heavenward walks in Christ (Colossians 2:6). He walks in union with Christ and in the Name and strength and Spirit of Christ. One who is not in Christ is out of his way; whatever good there seems to be in the way he is going, it is not saving good.
The second question is, are there two right ways? I answer, no, just one. It is true that there is mention also made of the way of God’s Commandments [the old way], but these are not two distinct ways; they are one and the same way. Faith in Christ and obedience to the Law of God are the one way of life. One who walks in God walks in Christ; it is through Christ and our union with Him that we are strengthened and enabled to do the will of God. It is through Christ that what we do is accepted by God. However excellent it may be for the matter of it, there is no act of obedience that is a step to the kingdom of God that does not have all of these:
Something of Christ in it
Done through His Spirit
Sprinkled with His blood
And thus, on the contrary, whatever faith, hope, and confidence we have in Christ, if it is not a kind of faith and a kind of hope that brings forth obedience to the will of God, it cannot save us. Rather, the new and living way is the right way and the one and only way of life. In all that general assembly and Church of the firstborn who are already in Heaven, there is not one soul that did not enter by this one way, including Abel, Enoch, Abraham, Moses, David, Peter, Paul, and the whole generation of saints now in glory. They all went the same way: they walked with God and lived and died in faith; they now inherit the promises. And of all the rest of the saints who are yet in their pilgrimage, indeed, all saints who will ever live in the ages to come, must by this one way enter into the kingdom of God. This is the good and old way that was from the beginning. This is the new and living way that will be so to the end. “The saying is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on these things, so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works. These things are excellent and profitable for people” (Titus 3:8 ESV). If this is so, if this is the one and only way of life, then in what state is the sinful, unbelieving world? Where are you going, O you sons of folly? You tell us. You hope to be saved. What! In your unbelief and folly? Search and see if in the whole Bible of God you find any other way of salvation besides faith in Christ and obedience to the Gospel.53
The third question is, how can one and the same way be old and yet new? I answer, it is old, but not antiquated; it is new, but not an innovation. It is old because it was from the beginning; and it is new because now in the latter age of the world, it has been newly scattered abroad and made more plain, easy, and open.
53Salvation is a whole package given by God through Christ. Included in that package is justification, by which a believer is saved by grace alone through the alone instrument of faith in Christ alone as He is revealed to us in the Gospel. Also in the package is sanctification, the lifelong process of dying more and more to sin and living more and more to Christ, doing good works. “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:8-10 NKJV). True salvation always includes both justification and sanctification. It is impossible for either to exist alone in a person.
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