"Salvation" - the title of chapter six of Machen's Christianity and Liberalism.
I'll admit, I asked myself, "What more can Machen say?" This chapter follows his arguments against liberals' views on God, man, and Christ. Finally we get to the case of the Gospel, but in my opinion, once you've proved the error in their thinking in these areas, there's not much left of the Gospel to need to speak about.
However, Machen found a new point to bring up.
This time he brings up the liberal argument that Christ's sacrifice, and God's forgiveness, is simply a matter of looking over trivial issues such as sin.
This is a perspective that even some conservative Christians can easily fall into. It's easy to convince oneself of doing something with the argument that "It's not that big of a deal; God forgives."
But what a messed up world this would forever be if God simply left it at forgiveness. This position denies the very grace of God, because simple forgiveness does not change a person. From the liberal point of view, grace is not needed. They may recognize that people make mistakes, but they would not go so far as to say that sin is deadly and in need of atonement.
But what would God's mere "looking over" our trivial sin actually mean in the world? It would mean people would be left selfish, unchanged, and even dangerous. It would also show that God does not seem to love people at all.
People left unchanged would mean they keep sinning. And sin is not just against God (which in of itself is a very great deal), but we also sin against ourselves and others. When we sin against ourselves, we harm ourselves. It would be easy to say "Well, we had it coming then," and maybe that's true. But a God who does not interject in everyday life is not a loving God at all.
What's worse, if God leaves us to our sin, He leaves us to continue to sin against each other. This is one of the point Machen makes in this chapter. Our actions, for good or bad, have an effect on others. We already get a sense for what this looks like in a world that is full of war, poverty, murder. When we are left to our own devices, we harm others. This can be on a terrible scale such as the points mentioned above, but often it starts on a smaller scale such as lying, crossing our neighbor, and gossip.
Thus comes a conclusion that I think many times even conservative Christians forget:
Salvation is not merely for the individual.
there is an age-old question that states "Why does God not simply sweep up the Christians once they're converted?" The answer is simple, although not easy. God is in the business of redemption. He is not a God of abandonment; He does not avoid conflict. Rather, He promises to renew the world and has begun that process here and now, through the redemption of His children. This redemption is not simply a matter of a golden ticket into Heaven once you die. It is a process of redemption that God works not only in us, but uses us to work in others. As 2nd Corinthians states, we are agents of reconciliation to the world. God has not simply left humankind in despair until Heaven on Earth appears -He has started that ministry already. Thus, salvation is not simply for us. It's for the world.
Sin cannot merely be a looking over of our sin (it must effect a change).
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