The Cost of Human Salvation

WHO can estimate the value set upon our race? the wondrous love, the amazing condescension, the infinite sacrifice, the immense labor and intense interest and solicitude, on the part of heaven, manifested toward a sinful and rebellious, degraded and ruined race? No human pen can describe it, and inspiration fails to impress the human heart with a just appreciation of it. It is beyond the reach of finite comprehension—too vast to be measured by such beings as we are— yet, if we would, we could see enough of it to cause us to admire the plan, adore and praise its Author, and to the utmost of our limited capacity, reciprocate the love of God, and show by our actions that we enter into the spirit of the plan, and are willing to labor, sacrifice and suffer, in the work of salvation to sinners—a work in which the Father, the Son, and all the heavenly host are engaged.

Yet, though we cannot measure the love of God, nor comprehend the vastness of the sacrifice and the labor on the part of Heaven, let us attentively consider the wonderful plan which "the angels desire to look into."

Man had sinned, and had forfeited all, even life and being. God would be just in cutting him off and consigning him to oblivion. But his tender pity and compassion led him to devise a plan for his redemption and salvation. The divine Son enters into the plan with such unbounded love and zeal as to offer himself to be a sacrifice for the sins of men, so that the just law of God should be honored, and at the same time sinful man be saved. The plan is devised, the Son of God is to leave his glory and come to earth to labor, suffer, and die at the hands of those he came to save. And this, though amazing, is not all. He that could bring worlds into existence at a word, who spake, and it was done, devotes as many thousands of years to the salvation of our ruined world as there were days spent in its creation. We might speak of the wonderful humiliation of the Son of God, his labors and suffering on earth, his agony in Gethsemane, and his cruel death on Calvary; and the theme could never be exhausted; but we wish to speak more particularly of his incessant care and watchfulness during the whole period of man's second probation, his work of intercession and of judgment at its close.

Who has weighed this matter with sufficient care? Who has ever valued the cost of our salvation, as demanding the active energies of the divine Son of God for six thousand years? Who has estimated the intense solicitude of our Advocate with the Father, and the guardian care of the Shepherd and Bishop of souls, listening to the prayers and watching the conduct of every individual of the countless millions of our race who have sought his intercessions during this whole period? And who has considered his sorrows and his long-suffering as he has so frequently been crucified afresh, even by his professed friends, and put to open shame?

But he has not been the only one employed in this vast and protracted work. The angels of God, who desired to look into the plan, and share in the work, and whose number is no less than "ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands," have been sent forth as ministering spirits to minister to those who should be heirs of salvation. Think of their constant watchfulness, their extreme solicitude and tender care during all this time. And since there is joy in Heaven among the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth; think of the grief of those kind messengers of mercy over the sins and apostasy of those they have labored to save.

As a consequence of giving an individual probation to the innumerable hosts that have peopled the earth for six thousand years, a day of reckoning, a general Judgment, must come at the close. And, with this consummation in view, the records of men's lives must be kept, the books must be written which are to be opened in the Judgment, when every man shall be judged according to his deeds, as they are found written in the books. What a vast amount of labor, even for ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands of angels! And all this to save fallen man justly condemned to death, who might have been consumed in a moment by the word of Him who spake him into being!

Oh! matchless love and condescension! How great the cost of human salvation! How infinite the sacrifice, and how vast the labor of love expended upon so vile and sinful a creature!

And what return do we make? How is this costly salvation, proffered to our race, esteemed? How is love, so amazing, so divine, reciprocated? How was the Prince of salvation received, and how have his most devoted followers been treated? How has this costly salvation been slighted by the majority of our race?

But let us come a little closer. What return has been made by those who have coveted this great salvation so dearly purchased? How loth, even, to leave their sins! And instead of inquiring, How can I reciprocate such matchless love?—by what labor and sacrifice can I show how highly I value the immense labor and sacrifice that this salvation has cost?—the inquiry has rather been, how little may I do, and yet share in the fruits of all this labor and sacrifice? and how far may I follow my sinful propensities, my carnal appetites and pleasures, and yet not miss of this salvation which cost so much?

"Is this the kind return? Are these the thanks we owe?"

Thus to abuse such wondrous love, and slight the sacrifice of the Son of God, his untold agony and immense labor of love?

Shame! shame!! to that person who halts at duty, and inquires, is this a saving ordinance? May I not omit this duty and still be saved? Can such a one share in this costly salvation?

"O God! my inmost soul convert." Let me feel it a precious gift, not only to believe on His name, but to suffer for his sake. Let me share in the labor, and partake of the sufferings of Christ, and of those who shall be heirs of eternal glory. Bring me not into the society of Jesus, angels and martyrs, till I have, in some degree, appreciated this divine love, and shown by my works that I value the great salvation, which has cost such immense labor, suffering and sacrifice.