probation, is a conditional pardon, is proved by our Savior's words in Matt. 18:23-35. Here is presented the case of a servant who owed his lord ten thousand talents; but having nothing to pay, and manifesting honesty of intention,
"the lord of that servant was moved with compassion, and loosed him, and forgave him the debt." But this servant met his fellow-servant, who owed him the trifling sum of two hundred pence; and who plead for mercy in the same terms in which the first had so successfully plead before his lord. But this servant would not show mercy; he thrust his fellow-servant into prison till he should pay the debt. Hearing of this, his lord called him, and said unto him, "O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt, because thou desiredst me. Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellow-servant, even as I had pity on thee? And his lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him."
--This we say is the Bible view of forgiveness in the gospel, or justification by faith, while we are waiting for the decisions of the Judgment.
And on this plain case we are not left to merely draw a conclusion; the Savior has made the application for us, and from this application there can be no appeal. He says:
"So likewise shall my Heavenly Father do unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses."
.....while he that is justified by faith may, by disobedience, lose that justification, and his righteousness will not be remembered.
The blood of Jesus is the bounteous supply--the rich deposit where all may find a covering for their sins; but whether their sins are actually atoned for and removed by that blood, depends upon their acceptance of it and their faithfulness to the conditions of acceptance.
Without faith and obedience this deposit will never avail for any one.
--Yet we hear many say, with the utmost assurance: "My debt is all paid; I cannot be lost, since Christ has died for me."
--Yet we hear many say, with the utmost assurance: "My debt is all paid; I cannot be lost, since Christ has died for me."
But this is not the language of trust;
it is rather that of presumption."
Joseph Waggoner
