Banking and Salvation
I once came upon a very good illustration of salvation while talking with a member of the board of directors of a small town bank.
When I mentioned a mutual acquaintance who is a member of the same board, my friend told me of the canny shrewdness which had made this man successful. "I don't know the extent of all his deals," he said, "because I am not on the loan committee, but as a member of the examining committee I see enough to know how clever and foresighted he is." We discussed the functions of a bank director and then I had my illustration.
God is His own loan committee and He lends every man everything that he is or has. God has loaned you your physique, whatever it may be; God has loaned you your intelligence, whatever its quotient; God has loaned you your very breath. (Remember the line of the hymn? "I'll praise Thee as long as Thou lendest me breath.") But God is also His own examining committee. Furthermore, we are all defaulters and faithless to every trust that God has given us. "There is none righteous, no, not one." Our shortages will show up before Him more surely than the falsifications of a banker could be detected by the examining committee.
I pointed out that Jesus Christ on the cross gave up His life as our bond and security. Then we discussed a case well known in that part of the country, where a young man, thinking that his wealthy father was dying, forged his name for approximately a million dollars. The father got well, discovered the shortage, made it good, and disinherited his son. But our God, knowing all too well our shortage, made it good in the death of Christ, and instead of disinheriting us, gave us His inheritance. What we must do is admit our guilt, throw ourselves on the mercy provided at the cross, and accept by faith the fact that God is satisfied with the death of Christ instead of our death. With acceptance of these great facts comes such a change of life that we should henceforth live a life of gratitude.
Wesley understood this. Knowing that he was a defaulter, and that his case would come before the examining scrutiny of God, he sang,
Arise, my soul arise; shake off thy guilty fears,
The bleeding sacrifice in my behalf appears.
Before the throne my surety stands!
My name is written on His hands.
1. As Americans we typically pride ourselves on possessions and “personal belongings”, how often do we spend time thanking God for blessing us?
2. Can it be bad to be inundated with things? Why would it be bad to have as much as the typical Americans?
3. What does the scripture say about wealth and humble living?
4. How does stewardship over the things the Lord has given us teach us about salvation?
