1. Rightly dividing in II Tim. 2:16 means to cut straight or right.

2. Eliezer and Joseph were such stewards (Gen. 15 :2, 24 :2, 39 :4).

3. It is sometimes presumed from Deut. 18:15-19 that Moses must have known a good deal about the coming Redeemer, but this is reading things into the Scriptures. There is nothing about a Redeemer here. This passage merely states that God would raise up to Israel a Prophet to whom they should give heed or suffer the consequences. Shall it be assumed from this that Moses taught his people to trust in the future death of Christ for salvation? And if the very prophets who later predicted the death of Christ were not permitted to understand their own and each other's predictions, are we to suppose that Moses understood more than was revealed to them? Let us be careful about assuming that the Old Testament saints "must have understood" these things, and always ask, "What saith the Scripture?"

4. i.e., "the transgressions that were under the first testament" (Heb. 9:15).

5. The ark of the covenant was really the coffin of the covenant. The original word is translated coffin in Gen. 50:26.

6. Had John understood all that we now see in his inspired statement in John 1:29, his whole message would have been different, but the time for this had not yet come.

7. Here many anticipate revelation. They suppose the eleven were sent out to preach "the gospel of the grace of God," which is not even mentioned until we come to Paul.

8. Whether baptized or not.

9. And in the light of Paul's epistles it is equally wrong to observe any ceremony once required for salvation. See Col. 2:14, 20.

10. If I drive a screw into a piece of wood with a screwdriver, does the screwdriver do the work, or do I? Shall we say that we each did part of it? No. In one sense the screwdriver did it all, for I did not even touch the screw in the operation. But then, the screwdriver was merely the instrument I used, so essentially it was I who did it all.

So it was with salvation before the dispensation of grace was ushered in. When God required water baptism for the remission of sins, for example, men could get their sins remitted only by submitting to baptism. Thus instrumentally it was their baptism that procured for them the remission of sins, yet essentially it was God who saved them by grace when He saw their faith.

It may be argued that the believer in such a case had exercised faith in his heart before being baptized, so that baptism had nothing whatever to do with his salvation. The answer is that he believed that being baptized he would be accepted, and so was, in his heart, already baptized.

This the answer to problems where impossibilities to fulfil the stated requirements are involved. Suppose, for example, a man, exercising true faith, was on his way to offer a sacrifice or to be baptized and, on his way, suddenly fell dead. Would he not be accepted? Surely he would simply because he had come in faith to fulfil the requirement. Thus the thief on the cross was saved without water baptism in a day when baptism was required for the remission of sins, but who can doubt that he would have rejoiced at the opportunity to be baptized had he not been nailed to a cross?

11. See chart on page 29. This subject is further discussed in the author's booklet, God's Plan of Salvation Made Plain.