{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_70709/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_70709","id":"gutenberg_70709","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/70709","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Religion/Spirituality","Christian life"],"text":"VICTORIOUS LIFE STUDIES\n\n ROBERT C. McQUILKIN\n Secretary\n Victorious Life Testimony\n\n\n\n\n Foreword by\n CHARLES G. TRUMBULL\n Editor of The Sunday School Times\n\n\n\n\n REVISED AND ENLARGED EDITION\n\n\n\n\n CHRISTIAN LIFE LITERATURE FUND\n Headquarters for Victorious Life Literature\n Room 600 Perry Building\n 16th and Chestnut Streets Philadelphia\n\n\n\n\n+\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015+\n| |\n| The publishers would esteem it a privilege to be informed |\n| of blessing definitely received by any reader as a result |\n| of the perusal of this book. |\n| |\n| OLIVER RICHARD HEINZE, |\n| Director. |\n| |\n+\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015+\n\n\n\n\n Copyright, 1918, by\n\n Christian Life Literature Fund\n\n\n\n\n FOREWORD\n\n\nDid you ever go with a very dear friend into some foreign land,\u2015\u2015say\none of the islands of the sea, like Madeira; and there you and your\nfriend vie with each other in making new discoveries of things\nbeautiful and fresh to both of you: new flowers, fruits, birds, vistas\nin valleys or mountains? If so, you know something of what it means to\nexplore, with a friend, in the land of Victory in Christ.\n\nIt was the new and undiscovered country of the Victorious Life that\nbrought us together, Bob McQuilkin and me. (New and undiscovered to\nus, that is, but as old as the Day of Pentecost.) We should never have\nbeen friends but for Him; we entered, not far apart, the \u201cforeign\nland\u201d of undreamed riches and delights; and ever since then we have\nbeen joyously telling each other of our discoveries, comparing notes,\nsharing our finds, and together thanking Him who alone is the Promised\nLand, the Life, and the Victory.\n\nGod has greatly blessed me through the discoveries of my friend, as our\ncommon Guide, the Holy Spirit, has led him on and on into always new\nand clearer visions of what belongs, in Christ, to every Christian. I\nam glad that he is now sharing his findings and his convictions with\nmany, through these studies in the Victorious Life.\n\nAs one reads this book, let it be remembered that the Victorious Life\nis not optional for the Christian who wants God\u2019s whole will. It is a\nsimple duty for every Christian to \u201cbe filled with the Spirit\u201d (Eph. 5:\n18); and being filled with the Spirit means having Victory and all that\ngoes with this.\n\nWe think of the New Testament, and rightly, as being God\u2019s revelation\nconcerning how men may be saved from the wages of sin. They deserved\ndeath penalty, or hell. This is true, but have we realized, as a\nclear-sighted Bible teacher has pointed out, that a much greater part\nof the New Testament is devoted to telling Christians how to live after\nthey are saved than how to be saved? Have we asked ourselves why this\nis so? Have we realized what a sad commentary on the Gospel is the man\nwho claims that Christ has saved him completely from the penalty of his\nsins, yet in whose life is plainly seen, and habitually, the unbroken\npower of sin?\n\nThis book tells how to be as free from the power of sin as from its\npenalty. It gives God\u2019s own message on _present_ salvation: salvation\nfrom sin now and here.\n\nWhat the Victorious Life is; how to make it one\u2019s own in practical\nexperience; how it may be not only entered into, but maintained;\nhow it differs in life-and-death ways from false substitutes for\nVictory,\u2015\u2015these and other questions that are perplexing many a burdened\nand seeking Christian are discussed here and answered out of God\u2019s\nword.\n\nClosest fellowship with Mr. McQuilkin for five years, when we were\ntogether daily in editorial work, enables me to know that he has come\nto his present convictions after exhaustive Bible study, frequent\nconference with mature and trusted Bible students, and wide reading\nin the best works, new and old, in this field; but above all, after\nhis rich personal experience, through surrender and faith, of Christ\u2019s\nfreely offered power and grace to meet all needs in the believer\u2019s\nlife. With thanksgiving to the Captain of our Salvation, who never asks\nus to win victories for Him, but Who has already won all our victories\nfor us, This book is prayerfully commended in His Name.\n\n CHARLES GALLAUDET TRUMBULL.\n\n\n\n\n CONTENTS\n\n A Word of Explanation vii\n Preface to Second Edition ix\n I. What Is the Victorious Life? 1\n II. Out of Bondage Into Liberty 13\n III. God\u2019s New Spelling for \u201cObey\u201d 22\n IV. When Temptation Strikes in the Victorious Life 31\n V. Conquest of Temptation in the Victorious Life 38\n VI. How Jesus Lived the Victorious Life 47\n VII. Serving With the \u201cMind of Christ\u201d 55\n VIII. The Second Coming and the Victorious Life 63\n IX. Christian Science and the Victorious Life 72\n X. Is the Victorious Life a Second Blessing? 82\n XI. Continuing and Growing in Victory 94\n XII. Can Man Be Free From Sin? 102\n XIII. The Holy Spirit in the Victorious Life 119\n\n\n\n\n A WORD OF EXPLANATION\n\n BY THE AUTHOR\n\n\nMost of these \u201cstudies\u201d have been published, or are yet to be\npublished, as editorials or articles in _The Sunday School Times_.\nThere has been added an introductory article written particularly\nfor those who may have little acquaintance with the meaning of the\nVictorious Life.\n\nEach chapter has been prepared as an article complete in itself, but\nthere are three pairs of articles which form closely connected studies.\nThe chapters entitled, \u201cOut of Bondage Into Liberty,\u201d and \u201cGod\u2019s New\nSpelling for \u2018Obey\u2019\u201d form one study on the relation of law and grace\nin the life of the Christian. The two chapters on temptation form one\nstudy. The chapter on \u201cHow Jesus Lived the Victorious Life\u201d and the one\nwhich follows on \u201cServing with the Mind of Christ\u201d form a connected\nstudy on the practical meaning for us of our Lord\u2019s humanity.\n\nWhenever use has been made of the writings or messages of others I\nhave endeavored to give full credit, but there should be added here\na personal word of special acknowledgment. My own entrance into a\nnew experience in Christ seven years ago came through the message of\nCharles G. Trumbull, who himself just a year before had found Christ\nin the new way that transformed his own life and with it the message\nof _The Sunday School Times_. Following my new experience and this\nnew friendship there was the rare privilege of five years\u2019 fellowship\nwith Mr. Trumbull as Associate Editor of _The Sunday School Times_, a\nwork that was surrendered at the call of the Lord to go into foreign\nmissionary service. This being the foundation of these studies on\nthe Victorious Life, it may well be that in addition to the sentences\nin quotation marks used with or without Mr. Trumbull\u2019s name, there\nare statements and ways of putting things that have come directly or\nindirectly from this association. This applies particularly to the\nfirst article; the others embody more definitely suggested applications\nthat have not been touched upon in other articles or editorials in _The\nSunday School Times_. Those familiar with \u201cThe Life That Wins,\u201d the\nleaflet that tells Mr. Trumbull\u2019s personal experience, will recall the\nthreefold division of the needs in the Christian life,\u2015\u2015\u201cfellowship,\nfreedom from sin, fruit bearing,\u201d\u2015\u2015which is the division used in the\nfirst chapter of these studies.\n\nMany have been eagerly awaiting Mr. Trumbull\u2019s own book on the\nVictorious Life, which will deal with the subject in a comprehensive\nand connected way. It is hoped that this booklet may prove a helpful\nsupplement to the later work.\n\nSpecial acknowledgment should be made also to another beloved teacher,\nProfessor Melvin Grove Kyle, for his illuminating suggestions on\ntemptation. While this study of temptation and the outline were begun\nbefore taking theological work under Dr. Kyle, its development has\nbeen strongly influenced by the rich suggestions that are quoted from\nProfessor Kyle.\n\nThe little book goes out with the prayer that whatever errors of\nstatement or of judgment may be discovered, these errors may not bulk\nso large in the mind of the reader as to shut him out from the glorious\nblessing of victory in Christ, or if he has learned that secret to keep\nhim from further riches of Grace the Word may have for him. As you read\nthrough these chapters will you pray through them also? If you receive\na blessing, will you pray that God may use it with other readers, and\nthat He alone may be glorified who is our Victory.\n\n_July 20, 1918._\n\n\n\n\n PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION.\n\n BY THE AUTHOR.\n\n\nThis revised and enlarged edition of Victorious Life Studies should not\ngo forth without grateful acknowledgment for an abundant answer to the\nprayer that whatever errors of statement or of judgment might be found\nthey should not hinder the blessing that God intended from these little\n\u201cstudies.\u201d There is not alone thanksgiving to the Lord of answered\nprayer, but to those who shared in the prayer for blessing, and it is\nhoped that the increasing circle of those who are finding new riches of\ngrace in our sufficient Saviour may continue to ask God\u2019s guidance and\nblessing upon all attempts to put into print the message of victory in\nChrist.\n\nChanges have been made here and there which affect the use of certain\ntheological expressions which were not accurately used, and which would\nserve to confuse the truth. While none of these corrections, so far as\nI know, changes the vital truth that was intended to be expressed, the\nfurther study of terms used in Scripture, and terms used theologically\nthat are not in the Scriptures, leads to a conviction that it is\nhelpful to avoid the use of any term the meaning of which is not clear\nto the one who uses it.\n\nWhile these studies were not intended as a comprehensive treatment of\nthe subject, it was thought well to take advantage of the call for a\nsecond edition by adding two studies, one to consider the relation of\nthe work of the Holy Spirit to the life of victory in Christ, the other\nto ask what the Scriptures mean by freedom from sin.\n\nAfter outlining these studies in preparation for this new edition,\nit was my privilege to be associated in Victorious Life Conferences\nthroughout the country with Dr. A. J. Ramsey, who is now giving his\nwhole time to the work of the Victorious Life Testimony. So far as may\nbe possible in such a word as this I wish to acknowledge the great debt\nof gratitude I owe to Dr. Ramsey, whose masterly expositions of Romans\nand First John, and other Scriptures dealing with the sin question,\nhave served to confirm and clarify the glorious truth of God\u2019s plan\nof victory over sin which a direct study of his Word will disclose to\nevery earnest seeker. With a first-hand knowledge of classical and New\nTestament Greek which ranks with the leading teachers of that language,\nwith an intimate knowledge of the ramifications of all the theological\nsystems as well as the false \u201cfaiths,\u201d Dr. Ramsey for eighteen years\nhas been studying the Scriptures against the back-ground of an\nexperience of the fulness of the Holy Spirit which transformed his own\nlife and ministry. The result is that from all over the land have come\ninsistent calls that he should put into print some of the results of\nthis study which has given a new Bible to scores of ministers and other\nChristian workers where the message has been spoken.\n\n * * * * *\n\nAccordingly, Dr. Ramsey is hoping soon to prepare leaflets that will\ndiscuss such questions as \u201cWhat is Sin?\u201d \u201cThe Body of Sin: Who has It?\u201d\n\u201cThe Old Man: Who is He?\u201d \u201cThe Law of Sin: Who Obeys It?\u201d \u201cThe Carnal\nMind: What Is It?\u201d \u201cIs Romans Seven Christian?\u201d \u201cIs First John One\nEight for Christians?\u201d Others will deal with the conflict of \u201cflesh and\nSpirit,\u201d and the question whether a Christian has two natures, and it\nis planned later to issue a brief exposition of Romans. The studies in\nthis little volume necessarily deal with some of these questions but as\nfar as possible I have sought to avoid encroaching upon the distinctive\ncontribution that Dr. Ramsey will bring in the careful exegesis of\nthese Scriptures, and the scientific handling of the psychology and\nethics that are involved as well as the theology.\n\nTo Dr. Ramsey I am indebted for a number of the changes in phraseology,\nbut most of all for the glad confirmation that the truths so self\nevident in the Scriptures, but so obscured in the writings of men,\ndo rest upon an irrefutable theology, an exegesis of Scripture that\ncannot be gainsaid. It is this that has given courage to speak plainly\non some vital points that need clearing up. And it is a matter for\nencouragement to every humble student of the Word that without the\nequipment of a specially gifted mind and a scientific training, it is\npossible to arrive at both the understanding and experience of the\nsimple plan of salvation from sin.\n\nShall we also remember as these pages are read that while the Holy\nSpirit does use human teachers to help us to know His truth, it is our\nresponsibility to make the truth our own by seeing it in the Word for\nourselves. Let us have nothing in our experience or our understanding\nof salvation merely as a result of what any man has said or written\nregarding the Word of God: let us have a glad original experience of\nChrist through searching for ourselves whether these things are so.\n\n_June 19, 1920._\n\n\n\n\n VICTORIOUS LIFE STUDIES\n\n\n\n\n WHAT IS THE VICTORIOUS LIFE?\n\n\nAre you enjoying the Victorious Life?\n\nThe Victorious Life is a life of victory over sin. Do you have it?\n\nThe Victorious Life is a life of constant fellowship with God. Do you\nhave it?\n\nThe Victorious Life is a life of fruit-bearing. Do you have it?\n\nDo you have the peace of God that passeth all understanding? Do you\nhave freedom from worry and discouragement so that you are \u201canxious\nin nothing\u201d? Do you have the joy of the Lord, which is independent of\nfeeling, and independent of circumstances? Are you able _in all things_\nto give thanks?\n\nHave you, shed abroad in your heart, the love that suffers long and is\nkind, that envies not, that vaunts not itself, is not puffed up, does\nnot behave itself unseemly, seeks not its own, _is not provoked_?\n\nDo you enjoy in actual experience the fruit of the Spirit, in its\nnine-fold variety: love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness,\ngoodness, faithfulness, meekness, self-control? (Gal. 5: 22, 23).\n\nIs prayer a precious reality to you, so that you can come to a living,\npresent Lord to talk over every question that affects your life? Do you\nknow what it is to ask and receive, to abide in him and have his word\nabide in you so that whatsoever you ask you receive? Do your prayers\nchange things?\n\nIs the Bible to you sweeter than honey and the honeycomb, more to be\ndesired than gold? Do you go each day to the Word and get a direct\npersonal message from the Master to your own soul, to meet the very\nneed of that day?\n\nIf this picture of the Spirit-filled Life, as it is given in the\nWord of God, does not describe the experience you are having, then\nyou do not have the Victorious Life. There is something that the\nLord Jesus offers that _you do not have_. You may have some of these\nthings at times, you may have glorious fruit-bearing, you may know the\nLord in a vital and real way, but if there is not _complete victory_\nover sin,\u2015\u2015which includes such things as worry, discouragement, lack\nof love, irritation, pride, jealousy, impatience, covetousness,\nworldliness, lust,\u2015\u2015then you do not have the Victorious Life, and there\nis an experience in Christ awaiting you which will transform life.\n\nYour lack in these things does not mean, necessarily, that you are not\na Christian, a born-again child of God, saved by the blood of Christ:\nit does mean that you are not using in experience what the Lord Jesus\nprovided for you by his death and resurrection.\n\n\n The First Step Toward Victory\n\nDo you believe there is something in the Christian life that you have\nnot found, or that you do not possess? And do you want that experience?\nIf you can say yes to these questions, then give thanks to God that he\nhas led you by his Grace to take the first step toward Victory.\n\nThe first step toward the Victorious Life is for a Christian to\nrecognize the need, to realize that there is an experience that he\ndoes not possess. As in the case of an unconverted man who can never\nunderstand nor receive the Gospel message till he comes to the place\nof seeing himself a sinner, so a satisfied and defeated Christian is\nin no place to receive the Victorious Life message. The defeated man\ndescribed in the seventh chapter of Romans cries out, \u201cO wretched man\nthat I am! who shall deliver me out of the body of this death?\u201d The\nreason some Christians have never tasted the victory of the eighth\nchapter of Romans is because they have never known anything of the\nstruggle that is described in the seventh chapter of Romans.\n\n\n A College Student\u2019s \u201cProblem\u201d\n\nA young college student came to a speaker on the Victorious Life for an\ninterview, but started in by saying that he had no \u201cproblems\u201d in his\nChristian life.\n\n\u201cDo you have complete victory over sin?\u201d\n\n\u201cWell, it depends on what you mean by sin.\u201d\n\n\u201cDo you ever have angry thoughts and feelings in your heart toward\nothers?\u201d\n\n\u201cDo you mean get \u2018peeved\u2019 at people? Sure I do.\u201d\n\n\u201cDo you ever worry about things?\u201d\n\n\u201cWorry about things! I should say I do. Everybody does.\u201d\n\n\u201cDo you ever have impure thoughts and desires in your heart?\u201d\n\n\u201cYes, I do.\u201d\n\n\u201cThese things are sins, aren\u2019t they?\u201d\n\n\u201cYes, I suppose they are.\u201d\n\n\u201cThese are the things that put the Lord Jesus on the Cross. You have\nthese things in your life, you do not have victory over them and other\nlike sins, and yet you tell me you have no \u2018problem\u2019 in your Christian\nlife.\u201d\n\nThis young college student was led by the Spirit to see the inner\nmeaning of sin and to confess that he did indeed need something in his\nChristian life that he did not have.\n\nThe sin problem is the problem of all problems. If the sin problem\nin your life is settled in God\u2019s way, you will have the secret of\nsolving all other problems in God\u2019s way. Fellowship with God, peace,\njoy, freedom from anxiety, power for service, the right enjoyment\nand use of Bible study and prayer, all of these things and every gift\nof grace will be open to you when you get the sin question settled.\nAt Victorious Life conferences, Christians come to the leaders and\nsay that they are not troubled in the matter of getting victory over\nsin, but that they do not get results in their Christian service and\nthey want the Holy Spirit for power in service. In every such case it\nis found that the real difficulty is the sin question: there is not\ncomplete, Spirit-given victory over inward sin. When that is settled\nthe power in service and the results follow.\n\nWhen God came to choose a name for his Son, some one has pointed out,\nhe went to the heart of the subject and called his name \u201cJesus,\u201d\nbecause it is he that shall save his people from their sins. It is\ngoing to the heart of the Christian\u2019s need, then, first to emphasize\nvictory over sin as the road to all other blessings of the Abundant\nLife.\n\nWhat is God\u2019s way of securing this Victory?\n\nThere are two ways of getting money, or any other thing of\nvalue\u2015\u2015either working for it, or receiving it as a gift.\n\n\n Two Ways to Seek Victory\n\nThere are two ways of seeking after salvation\u2015\u2015working for it or\nreceiving it as a gift. But there are not two ways of _obtaining_\nsalvation or eternal life. For when a sinner works, he works sin; and\nthe _wages_ of sin is death. Life is never earned. Death is. Life must\nbe given. So the free gift of God, the only author of life, is eternal\nlife. We are saved by Grace, not by works, for the least particle of\n\u201cworks\u201d would make Grace void.\n\nThere are two ways of seeking after the Victorious Life, present\nfreedom from the law of sin\u2015\u2015working for it, striving and struggling\nafter it, or receiving it as a free gift, without effort. There are\nnot two ways of _obtaining_ Victory. For when a saved sinner struggles\nwith inward desires toward evil he is under the law\u2015\u2015using his own\nefforts\u2015\u2015and not under grace, and the struggle at some time or other\nalways ends in defeat.\n\nThe Victorious Life is a free gift from God. It cannot be earned. It\ntherefore must be accepted on the same terms as salvation from the\npenalty of sin. It must be received as a gift. To enjoy a gift one has\nbut to take it, and thank the giver.\n\n\u201cSin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under law, but\nunder grace\u201d (Rom. 6:14). \u201cMy grace is sufficient for thee\u201d (2 Cor.\n12:9).\n\nTo believe these words of God is to enjoy the gift of victory.\n\n\u201cThe law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the\nlaw of sin and of death\u201d (Rom. 8:2).\n\nTo believe this word is to enjoy present freedom from the law of\nsin. \u201cEvery one that committeth sin is the bondservant of sin.... If\ntherefore the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed\u201d (John\n8:34, 35).\n\n\u201cIf ye are led by the Spirit, ye are not under the law\u201d (Gal. 5:18),\nthat is, we are under Grace. And Grace means, Jesus Christ is doing it\nall for us, winning the victory for us by his indwelling power.\n\n\n The Much More Salvation\n\nThese Scriptures show clearly that God\u2019s way of victory over present\nsin is by the power of the Holy Spirit. That new law, the law of the\nSpirit, makes us free from the law of sin. \u201cIf, while we were enemies,\nwe were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more,\nbeing reconciled, shall we be saved by his life\u201d (Rom. 5:10). This\nis the \u201cmuch more salvation,\u201d present salvation by his indwelling\nlife. Reconciled saints need to be \u201csaved,\u201d and the Victorious Life is\nnothing other than salvation by free grace, in present action, applied\nto each temptation and problem.\n\nGod\u2019s plan of salvation from the present power of sin, therefore, is\nexactly the same plan as he has revealed for salvation from the death\npenalty of sin. Both are by free grace without effort on your part.\nBoth are to be received and enjoyed by faith. After the remarkable\npassage in the fifth chapter of Galatians, which gives the nine-fold\nfruit of the Spirit, there is this statement: \u201cIf we live by the\nSpirit, by the Spirit let us also walk\u201d (Gal. 5:25). That is, since\nwe have been born again by the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit,\nby that same supernatural Spirit, without effort on our part, let us\nalso live our daily lives, winning victory over sin by just letting the\nfruit of the Spirit be produced, letting the rivers of living waters\nflow out (John 7:38).\n\nIt follows from this that every Christian really has received the gift\nof Victory from God, for it is just the indwelling Christ through the\npower of the Spirit. But how few, how very few Christians are enjoying\nthe remarkable results of that gift, the freedom from the law of sin,\nthe fruit of the Spirit. Why is this? A generation ago there were very\nmany earnest Christians who thought it presumptuous to be sure of\ntheir salvation. They may have been saved and been blessed with all\nspiritual blessings in Christ, but they were not, and some Christians\nto-day are not, _enjoying assurance of salvation_. Even so defeated\nChristians, who walk now and then after the flesh and fall into sin,\nare not enjoying the freedom that Christ purchased for them. They are\nnot living up to their privileges in the Lord. The word of freedom has\nnot been benefiting them, because it has not been united by faith with\nthem that heard. \u201cFor indeed we have had good tidings preached unto us,\neven as also they: but the word of hearing did not profit them, because\nit was not united by faith with them that heard\u201d (Heb. 4:2).\n\n\n The Two Simple Conditions\n\nThe simplicity of entering into this New Life has been a stumbling\nblock to many. For there are but two conditions for victory, and every\nChristian has been given grace to meet these two conditions. The first\nis surrender. For that resurrection life of Jesus can only operate when\nour self effort ceases. \u201cYield yourselves unto God\u201d (Rom. 6:13). Or as\nWeymouth translates it: \u201cSurrender your very selves unto God.\u201d And this\nwas spoken to Christians. This surrender of the Christian to God is\npositive, not negative. It is not as a surrender of things, nor of an\nevil self life, but a yielding of self with all its powers to God, as\nalive from the dead. With this positive surrender everything contrary\nto God\u2019s will goes out of the life.\n\n\n Surrender a Definite Matter\n\nFailure frequently comes in the life of Victory because there has not\nbeen a complete surrender. Something has been held back. Or we have\nbeen too superficial in our understanding of what crucifixion of the\nold self life means. Now our Lord is lovingly ready to meet us when\nwe come eager for full salvation and willing to make full surrender\nto him. He will show us if we ask him, _and wait for his answer_,\nwhether there is anything that is not wholly surrendered to him. Some\nChristians say this matter of surrender is very vague, and they cannot\ntell whether they have really surrendered completely. As a matter\nof fact, the Holy Spirit is always very definite when we deal with\nhim earnestly. One woman who said the surrender matter was entirely\ntoo vague for her to know whether she had surrendered, after some\nquestioning remarked: \u201cWell, of course, I would not be willing to have\nmy two sons go to Africa as missionaries.\u201d The matter of surrender was\nvery definite for her and until this Christian mother lays her two boys\non the altar for Christ she will not know complete victory.\n\nYoung people sometimes stumble over surrendering such things as\nworldly amusements, the theatre, dramatic moving pictures, dancing,\ncard-playing, smoking. They argue that they do not regard these things\nas sins, though others may believe them to be. But surely if we are\nfacing the question of getting such a great Gift as Christ as our\nVictory and very Life, these things are small matters to yield. But if\nthey are not sins, are they \u201cweights\u201d in the Christian race? \u201cLet us\n... lay aside _every weight_, and the sin which doth so easily beset\nus\u201d (Heb. 12:1).\n\n\n When A Christian Robs Christ\n\nBut, it may be objected, how can a Christian surrender? Does he not\nalready belong to Christ? Ah, that is the sad tragedy of it. Will a\nman rob God? Yes, the Church of Christ is largely robbing him to-day\nof the only offering he cares for\u2015\u2015ourselves as living sacrifices. We\nare indeed bought with a price, the precious blood of Christ, we are\nnot our own, we belong to him. Have _you_ acknowledged this ownership\nin every detail, not with your lips alone, but with your life, in its\nevery action? That is the first requirement for Victory. And Victory\nwill never be enjoyed until the surrender question is settled. An\nearnest young Christian woman was in defeat and distress because there\nwas something she would not yield. She acknowledged it was pride, but\nshe could not give it up.\n\n\u201cWhom do you belong to?\u201d she was asked.\n\n\u201cChrist.\u201d\n\n\u201cWhat price did he pay for you?\u201d\n\n\u201cHis own life.\u201d\n\n\u201cBut you are saying to him there is something you are holding back.\nWhat are you doing?\u201d\n\n\u201cI suppose I am crucifying him afresh,\u201d she answered, the tears coming.\n\n\u201cYes, you are robbing him.\u201d\n\nBut the struggle went on and she would not yield.\n\n\u201cWill you kneel down and just tell the Lord that you are robbing him,\nand that you intend to keep on robbing him?\u201d\n\nShe shrank from such a thought, and she kneeled down and told her Lord\nthat she _would_ yield that one thing she was holding back, and that\nthere was nothing that she was not willing to do that he wanted.\n\nShe arose with a radiant face, and as the days went on it developed\nthat God did not want her to do the thing she was shrinking back from\ndoing. A Christian may be kept out of victory because he says he would\nnot be willing to go to the mission field, or send his sons to the\nmission field. God _may not want him to go_, but he can never have\nVictory as long as there is an unwillingness to do what God _may_ want\nhim to do. For this is doubting God and his love.\n\n\n More Needed Than Surrender\n\nBut there are multitudes of Christians who are truly surrendered,\nholding nothing back, who do not have Victory. For the surrendered life\nis not necessarily the Victorious Life. Surrender is _our_ part. The\nsupernatural work of Victory is _God\u2019s_ part. _God is doing his part\nas soon as we yield ourselves_, and we get the benefit of it when we\nbelieve that fact. This is Victory by faith. \u201cFaith does nothing. Faith\nbelieves that God is doing it all.\u201d Faith is just believing the word of\nGod. Those marvelous promises, or rather \u201cfacts\u201d of God\u2019s Grace which\nhave been quoted above can only be received by the Christian who is\nholding nothing back from God. Then all the rest is God\u2019s work.\n\nIs he faithful? We have surrendered. Is our part then to believe that\nGod will give us Victory? _No, that is not faith._ \u201cVictory\u2019s final\nsecret,\u201d as Mr. Trumbull has put it, is to believe that Christ _is_\ndoing his part, that his Grace _is_ sufficient, that we _are_ free from\nthe law of sin, that we _are_ under Grace and not under law and that\ntherefore sin _is not having dominion_ over us, that he _is_ meeting\nall our needs, but we _are_ walking in the Spirit. This is \u201cletting\nGod.\u201d\n\nWill you not \u201clet go, and let God?\u201d Now?\n\nIf you do, you can say with Paul, not only as a truth of your position\nin Christ, but as the blessed truth of your experience: \u201cI have been\ncrucified with Christ; and it is no longer I that live, but Christ\nliveth in me\u201d (Gal. 2:20).\n\n\n What It Is Not\n\nThe Victorious Life is not a life free from temptation, but a life of\nvictory over temptation. First Corinthians 10:13, with its \u201cthere is\nno temptation\u201d is an absolute guarantee from God that victory over all\ntemptations is possible; for he himself provides the way of escape.\nJesus,\u2015\u2015in his resurrection Life,\u2015\u2015is the Way.\n\nThe Victorious Life is not a life free from the possibility of falling\ninto sin. It is always possible at any moment to sin, and as soon as\nour eyes get off Jesus faith slips, self is in control, and the result\nis sin.\n\nThe Victorious Life is not dependent on circumstances. Nothing is too\nhard for God, not even your hard circumstances. And let us always\nremember that the Victorious Life is \u201c_the Life that is Christ_.\u201d He is\nas able under one circumstance as under another.\n\nThe Victorious Life is not an attainment by growth. True growth in\nGrace really begins when we take the Grace of the Lord for complete\nvictory over sin. Growth in Grace does not mean gradually getting rid\nof our sins, but it does mean growing from one degree of glory to\nanother degree of glory as we behold the Lord and are changed into his\nimage (2 Cor. 3:18).\n\nThe Victorious Life gives no cause for boasting of spiritual\nattainment. Grace excludes boasting. It gives us no holiness of our\nown. The holiness and the victory are His, and the most mature saint\nin the walk of faith needs the same secret of Victory as the young\nChristian just entering into the Life. His strength is ever made\nperfect in weakness. My weakness is never made stronger, though as I\nlearn more of the Bible teaching of what faith is I may get more and\nmore established in acting by faith.\n\n\n Continuing in Victory\n\nWe continue in the Life of Victory as we entered it, by continuing the\nattitude of surrender and faith, moment by moment. It is the principle\nof \u201ccontact\u201d; as long as the trolley keeps on the wire the electric\npower is supplied to run the car; as we keep looking unto Jesus there\nis Victory. If a slip of faith comes, if the trolley gets off the wire,\nand sin enters (which is always possible but never necessary), do not\nstop to argue with Satan about the sin or listen to his suggestion that\nyou never had Victory: confess, receive instant forgiveness (1 John\n1:9), look again in faith just as when you entered into the blessed\n\u201crest of faith.\u201d\n\nDoes this message leave you with joy and gladness in your heart,\nbecause you know that this life is yours? Have you taken the Gift? Or\nare you like the young Christian who told an older woman that she had\nsurrendered and believed _a thousand times_, and she was in hopeless\ndarkness about it all.\n\n\u201cWell,\u201d this older Christian said, \u201cjust stop doing that, or trying to\ndo anything, and trust him to do it all.\u201d\n\n\u201cI have done that a hundred times,\u201d was the discouraged answer.\n\nShe had no will power to do anything, and she was hungry for Victory.\n\n\u201cIf you can do nothing else, just lift up your heart to Christ.\u201d\n\n\u201cI can\u2019t. My heart is too heavy to lift up.\u201d\n\n\n It Is as Simple as This\n\n\u201cWell, one thing you can do, for it is just a physical act. You can\nlift up your eyes. Will you do that?\u201d\n\nThe young woman promised that she would do that, and on the way home\nshe kept her eyes directed upward as unto him. The next day she gave\nher testimony with a radiant face, rejoicing in the Lord: \u201cI lifted up\nmy eyes, and my heart went up with them.\u201d\n\nThe Victorious Life is just as gloriously simple as that\u2015\u2015just looking\nup\u2015\u2015unto Jesus\u2015\u2015and KEEP ON LOOKING.\n\n\n\n\n OUT OF BONDAGE INTO LIBERTY\n\n\n\u201cThey do not care a snap of their fingers whether Abraham was\njustified by faith or works,\u201d writes a leading American preacher in\na recent article that seeks to interpret the heart-cry of men to-day\nfor a prophet who can give them \u201ca spiritual interpretation of the\nworld-rending and home-smashing events that are taking place.\u201d\n\nYet that very same question which was the all-important thing for\nAbraham, to-day, nearly four thousand years later, is still the\nquestion that goes to the root of the world\u2019s spiritual problem.\n\nThere is nothing more important for the Christian to understand than\nthe distinction between law and grace. For to understand that is to\nhave in one\u2019s heart the Gospel message. It is not too much to say that\nthe chief cause of powerlessness in the Christian church to-day, a\npowerlessness that is made the more acutely evident by the world\u2019s sore\ntravail, is that so many thousands of Christians are still living under\nlaw.\n\nThey have not found the emancipation of grace.\n\nThey do not walk at liberty, which was purchased for us by Christ.\n\nThey do not stand fast in the freedom wherewith Christ has set us free.\n\nThey are not \u201cfree indeed\u201d with the freedom which the Son of God won\nfor us.\n\nThis is not an academic question. It is not a discussion of points\nof law, nor the making of fine distinctions in the deeper spiritual\nmysteries. _It is a question of sin._\n\nWhen our Lord was telling the Jews that if they believed him and\nfollowed him they would know the truth, and the truth would set them\nfree, they threw back their shoulders in their pride of ancestry and\nboasted that they were Abraham\u2019s seed, and were never in bondage to any\nman. The Son of God did not stop to discuss questions of race, or of\npolitical liberty, but went to the heart of the matter with one of his\ntremendous verilies: \u201cVerily, verily, I say unto you, Every one that\ncommitteth sin is the bondservant of sin\u201d (John 8:34).\n\n\n Christians Who Are Bondslaves\n\nThat Word of the King of kings is the word that needs to be thundered\nto-day, or, what is more effective, whispered to-day into the souls of\nmen. There is no bondslavery comparable to this. A man may be on the\nside of righteousness so far as the conflict of nations is concerned\nto-day, but what avails that for the solving of his individual problem\nif he is the bondservant of sin?\n\nIf, then, the question of law and grace is a question of sin, it is the\nmost vital matter that can concern men to-day. Always alongside of sin\nis another word beginning with S\u2015\u2015\u201cSalvation,\u201d\u2015\u2015that is, this word is\nalways alongside of sin in _this age of Grace_. When our Lord told the\nJews of this bondslavery, he did not leave them there, but added that\nwondrous word: \u201cIf therefore the Son shall make you free, ye shall be\nfree indeed.\u201d\n\nThere is needed to-day a great challenge to be thrown at an unbelieving\nworld, a testimony that cannot be answered,\u2015\u2015_Christians walking at\nliberty_, men and women living in the midst of these awful days of\nstress with the \u201cfreedom indeed\u201d which belongs only to sons of God. But\ninstead of that an unbelieving world is constantly face to face with\nthe puzzling spectacle of professing Christians who are bondservants of\nsin, who do not know the meaning of liberty.\n\nFor let us remember the word of the Master, and not nullify it with\ntheological explanations to make it fit into the experiences of\nChristians: \u201cVerily, verily, I say unto you, Every one that committeth\nsin is the bondservant of sin.\u201d And Christians are bondservants of sin\nbecause they are living under law and not under grace. They are not\nusing, not enjoying, the freedom that Jesus Christ purchased for us.\n\n\n Have We Nothing to Do with Law?\n\nSo fundamental is the correct understanding of the Christian\u2019s relation\nto the law, that if Satan is not able to beguile Christians into\nstaying in bondage under the law he will seek to drive them into an\nopposite error that is just as deadly to true liberty. This is the\nnotion that a Christian has nothing to do with the law, and is under no\nobligation to have his life conform to it. Young Christians who have\nseen something of the wonder of their deliverance from the law have\njumped to the conclusion that the Old Testament books that deal with\nthe dispensation of law have such an indirect bearing upon their lives\nthat they can neglect them. Portions of the New Testament are also\ndivided in this fashion from the rest of the Word, and even Christians\nwith a deep spiritual vision have argued that the Sermon on the Mount\nhad little in it for them because it was on legal ground, and we are\nunder grace. Their teachers may not have intended this application of\ntheir instruction about freedom from the law, but it illustrates the\ndanger, and shows the need of clear light from the Word to avoid the\npitfalls on each side.\n\nSo the Word of God urges on the one hand, \u201cFor freedom did Christ set\nus free: stand fast therefore, and be not entangled again in a yoke of\nbondage\u201d (Gal. 5:1), and cautions on the other, \u201cFor so is the will\nof God, that by well-doing ye should put to silence the ignorance\nof foolish men: as free, and not using your freedom for a cloak of\nwickedness, but as bondservants of God\u201d (1 Peter 2:16).\n\nAnd Paul puts the two messages together in Galatians 5:13 and 14: \u201cFor\nye, brethren, were called for freedom; only use not your freedom for an\noccasion to the flesh, but through love be servants one to another. For\nthe whole law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: Thou shalt love\nthy neighbor as thyself.\u201d\n\n\n Law in the New Testament\n\nBut in what sense are we freed from the law, if we are still to keep\nthe law? The New Testament takes hold of the law of God as revealed in\nthe Old, and makes it infinitely higher in its requirements.\n\nSome men say that their Gospel is the Sermon on the Mount.\n\nIt is the most hopeless Gospel a sinner ever struggled with.\n\nFor in this sermon our Lord pours the spiritual meanings into the\nlaw of God. It may have been possible for a man to abstain from the\noutward act of murder, but our Lord takes that command and shows that\nthe inward fact of murder is in a man\u2019s heart if he is angry with his\nbrother. So does the Master lift the command against impurity into\na place where the strong moral man, who does not have the secret of\nvictory, is convicted of impurity.\n\nNot only is there this spiritual interpretation of the law, which makes\nit the more impossible to keep it, but there is the new commandment the\nLord gave his disciples, to love one another _as he loved them_. And\nas though this were not enough, the New Testament epistles, after the\ndeath and resurrection, when the dispensation of law was fully over,\nshow us that to break the law of God at one point makes us guilty of\nall: \u201cHowbeit if ye fulfil the royal law, according to the scripture,\nThou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, ye do well: but if ye have\nrespect of persons, ye commit sin, being convicted by the law as\ntransgressors. For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble\nin one point, he is become guilty of all. For he that said, Do not\ncommit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou dost not commit\nadultery, but killest, thou art become a transgressor of the law\u201d\n(James 2:8-11).\n\nThis startling passage says that if Christians have respect of\npersons\u2015\u2015and has not the Spirit here put his finger upon one of\nthe most pathetic and abominable sins of Christian churches of our\nday?\u2015\u2015these Christians are convicted as transgressors of the law, and\nare guilty of all. Then the Apostle goes on to speak of the sins of\nmurder and adultery as samples of the kind of thing that a Christian is\nguilty of when he shows respect of persons,\u2015\u2015the awful sin of unlove.\n\n\n Law Never Abrogated\n\nThis leads us into the truth that the law of God is pure and holy and\nspiritual, and has never been abrogated. The New Covenant does not take\naway the law: it provides a way of fulfilling the law. There are many\nsenses in which the word \u201claw\u201d is used in the Scriptures, but we are\nlooking now at the righteous law of God which must be fulfilled, and\nthe breaking of which is sin, for sin is lawlessness, or the breaking\nof the law. James tells us that to stumble in one point is to break the\nwhole law, for the law is a unity.\n\nThe law is a unity because it is an expression of the character of God,\nand God is one.\n\nTo break it in one point is to sin against God. It is a true revelation\nof the Scriptures that \u201cGod is law,\u201d though these words do not occur.\nThe words \u201cGod is love\u201d do occur, and love is the fulfilling of the law.\n\nWhen God gave the perfect law to men God knew that men could not keep\nit apart from the secret of Grace. _But men did not know it._ And God\ncannot do anything for a man by grace until man learns that he is a\ntransgressor of the law of God, and that it is _impossible for him to\nkeep it_. Israel said, \u201cAll that Jehovah hath spoken we will do.\u201d They\nindeed needed a tutor unto Christ.\n\nThe law, then, was added to show man what sin is, to make sin exceeding\nsinful, to prove to man that he is a sinner. This work the law did all\nthrough the old dispensation. But this work the law must continue to do\nfor every individual before he can enter into the meaning of grace.\n\n\n That Seventh of Romans Struggle\n\nThat is what the struggle of the seventh chapter of Romans means. That\nis a struggle under law, the picture of a man who has been brought\nunder condemnation by the law. The law is a great mirror let down from\nheaven in which a man may see himself as he is. That is why the law\nbrings condemnation and death. It is a curse,\u2015\u2015not because the law is\nnot holy, but because it convicts the man of his unholiness. Law does\nthis in the New Testament as well as the Old, and with infinitely more\nsearching terribleness because of the high spiritual interpretation of\nthe inner meaning of the outward commands. The law of God has done its\nwork in a Christian when he has seen that it is impossible for him to\nbe good according to God\u2019s standard.\n\nNot all have seen this. Dr. Scofield tells of a gentleman who came to\nhim at the close of a talk on how a Christian might get out of the\nstruggle of the seventh chapter of Romans into the victory of the\neighth chapter, and asked him this: \u201cDoctor, what was the trouble with\nPaul anyway? Why did he find it so hard to be good? I don\u2019t find it\nvery hard to be good.\u201d\n\n\u201cWhat do you mean by being good?\u201d the preacher asked.\n\n\u201cWhat every one means\u2015\u2015living a clean life, being honest, paying your\ndebts, treating people right, and if your neighbor gets in trouble put\nyour hand in your pocket and help him out.\u201d\n\n\u201cOh,\u201d Dr. Scofield responded, \u201cPaul did those things all his life. Any\n_gentleman_ would do those things. Paul was not talking of that when he\nsaid it was a struggle to be good.\u201d\n\n\u201cWell, what did he mean?\u201d the business man asked, somewhat taken aback.\n\n\n \u201cNot Built That Way!\u201d\n\n\u201cDid you ever try to be meek?\u201d was the preacher\u2019s next question.\n\n\u201cWhat\u2019s that?\u201d\n\n\u201cDid you ever try to be meek?\u201d\n\n\u201cNo, sir! I don\u2019t admire a meek man.\u201d\n\n\u201cDon\u2019t you? Well, God does. His Son was meek and lowly. But now suppose\nyou started off some morning and determined to be meek all that day, to\nlove everybody, no matter what mean things another man might say. Would\nyou find it easy?\u201d\n\n\u201cI couldn\u2019t do it. That\u2019s not in my line. I\u2019m not built that way.\u201d\n\nJust so, we are not built that way. We need to be built over. A new\nlife needs to come in. And when the law has brought us to that point,\nand we cry out with Paul, \u201cWretched man that I am!\u201d then the law has\ndone its proper work. The tragic thing is that most Christians stop\nright there in their reading of the seventh chapter of Romans. They\ndo not go on to the glorious word of deliverance. There is a way out.\nPaul has been in bondage under the law of sin. But a new law enters,\nand he exclaims, \u201cThe law of the Spirit ... made me free from the law\nof sin and of death.\u201d What is the new power of that law of the Spirit?\n\u201c_Life in Christ Jesus._\u201d What happens when the law of the Spirit is\nworking, when we are enjoying the freedom indeed wherewith Christ hath\nset us free? _The requirement of the law is fulfilled in us._ This law\nof the Spirit, of the new Life in Christ Jesus, hath set us free from\nthe law of sin and death, in order that we might keep the law of God.\nAnd it is kept in us just as long as we walk in the Spirit. God\u2019s plan\nis that we should walk in the Spirit all the time; that is \u201cabiding in\nChrist.\u201d The struggle of the seventh of Romans is a struggle _under\nthe law_, it is human effort apart from grace. It is not given as the\nnormal Christian experience, but a parenthesis between two passages\nof glorious liberty, placed there to show what bearing the keeping\nof the law has upon the Christian\u2019s experience. The normal Christian\nexperience is freedom from the dominion of sin.\n\n\n What Grace Says\n\n\u201cSin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under law but\nunder grace.\u201d The secret of victory, therefore, is to keep under grace,\nwhich is walking in the Spirit. How is this to be done? All Christians\nwho have real assurance of salvation see clearly that we are saved by\ngrace. Law has condemned them. Law says \u201cDo,\u201d and we cannot do.\n\nGrace says, \u201cJesus Christ has done it for me.\u201d\n\n\u201cHow much in the matter of my salvation has he done?\u201d\n\n\u201cAll of it.\u201d\n\n\u201cHow much is there left for me to do?\u201d\n\n_Nothing._ \u201cFaith does nothing\u201d; faith believes that Jesus has done it\nall.\n\nNow this is exactly the case with Christian living, and the keeping\nof the law of God. Whenever a Christian sins, sin is having dominion\nover him, and that means that he is living under law where he does not\nbelong, and needs to get under grace. Here, just as in salvation from\nthe penalty of sin, grace means that Jesus Christ is doing it all.\nWhat is left for me then in the matter of winning victory over sin?\n_Nothing._ Faith believes that Jesus is doing it all. That is grace,\nand nothing else is. For if my effort enters, it is not of grace, but\npartly by the work of the law. That is making void the grace of God,\n\u201cfor if righteousness is through the law, then Christ died for nought\u201d\n(Gal. 2:21).\n\nChristian liberty is changing the bondslavery of sin for the\nbondslavery of Christ; it is freedom from the law in order that the law\nmay be kept in us by Another; it is changing the law that \u201cmade nothing\nperfect\u201d for \u201cthe perfect law, the law of liberty.\u201d \u201cSo speak ye, and\nso do, as men that are to be judged by a law of liberty\u201d (James 2:12).\n\n\n\n\n GOD\u2019S NEW SPELLING FOR \u201cOBEY\u201d\n\n\n\u201cTrust and obey\u201d is frequently given as the key to living the\nVictorious Life. \u201cSurrender and obedience,\u201d another suggests as the\nthings necessary for continuance in victory. Instant obedience to every\nword of God, another says, is absolutely necessary if one would be in\nvictory. Another teacher points out that the New Testament reduces all\nGod\u2019s commandments to two,\u2015\u2015believe in Jesus and love one another,\u2015\u2015and\nour duty is thus simplified: we are to obey these two commandments and\nvictory is ours.\n\nBut to obey these commandments is exactly what I cannot do. If I obey\nthese two commandments, the whole law of God is fulfilled in me. It is\nbecause I have failed to fulfil this perfect law of God, that I cry out\nwith Paul, \u201cWretched man that I am! who shall deliver me?\u201d The answer\nto that question gives me the secret of the Victorious Life, the Life\nthat results in obedience. Of what avail is it to tell me that the\nsecret of living the Victorious Life is to obey God, when the very\nreason I am hungry after the Life is because it _results_ in obedience.\nThat Life does what I have failed to do\u2015\u2015obey God.\n\nSo long as we make obedience the cause or producer of victory, so long\nare we under the law. We are living under the Old Covenant. The law\nsays, \u201cHe that doeth them [God\u2019s statutes] shall live in them\u201d; that\nis, it is the law-keeper\u2019s obedience which brings life and victory.\n\nBut, it will be answered, when Christians are urged to obey it is\nnot intended that they should do this in their own strength. We must\nconstantly seek divine help to obey. There is the human side and the\ndivine side. On our part we are to strive with all our willpower\nagainst sin, and God\u2019s part is to help us in the struggle.\n\n\n Making Victory Impossible\n\nThere is one trouble with this program of human effort co-operating\nwith divine power. _It always leads to defeat_, bringing the struggling\nman under the dominion of sin. It produces the man pictured in the\nseventh chapter of Romans. It is the program followed by nearly all\nChristians.\n\nAnd that is why nearly all Christians are living in defeat practically\nall of the time.\n\nIt is not that defeats come now and again in the face of difficult\ntemptations; the distressing thing in the experience of most earnest\nChristians is the consciousness that complete victory is _never_\nenjoyed; the occasional bad falls are but indications of a chronic\ncondition of defeat.\n\n\n The Two Covenants\n\nThe reason for this life of defeat is that Christians mingle law and\ngrace, and this makes complete victory an impossibility. When we are\nin defeat it is because we are under the Old Covenant, which can make\nnothing perfect. It may be that we are clear intellectually on the\ndistinction between law and grace, but it is the mingling of them in\ndaily experience that results in defeat before sin. The secret of\nvictory, then, is to get entirely from under law and get wholly under\ngrace for the needs of the present moment. What does this mean? How can\nit be done?\n\nProbably no one has put more concisely and clearly the distinction\nbetween the Old Covenant and the New than has Andrew Murray in his \u201cTwo\nCovenants.\u201d Under the Old Covenant, he points out, God says: \u201cObey me,\nand I will be your God.\u201d In the New Covenant God speaks in some such\nwords as these: \u201cI will put my law in your heart, and ye shall obey\nme.\u201d In the Old Covenant, Andrew Murray says, there were two parties,\nman and God. Man failed to keep his part of the agreement and the\ncovenant was broken. In the New Covenant there is only one party. God\nundertakes the whole responsibility. The first is law. The second is\ngrace. If man has any responsibility in the second, except to receive\nGod\u2019s provision through faith, then it is no longer of free grace.\n\nA clear-thinking Presbyterian elder, a man of culture and trained mind,\nwho recently saw the truth of Christ as his victory for the first time,\nwas asked what he thought was the difference between the Old Covenant\nof works and the New Covenant of Grace. Several verses of Scripture had\njust been quoted which brought out the distinction. He was a man of\nfew words, and he answered by holding up two fingers of his left hand,\nand one finger of his right hand. He had seen at once, five minutes\nafter entering into victory, what Andrew Murray makes the theme of his\nhelpful book on the Spirit-filled life,\u2015\u2015that in the New Covenant it\nis not man co-operating with God, but God assuming the whole work, and\ndoing it for man.\n\n\n \u201cI Could Not Live Up to It\u201d\n\nAnother Presbyterian elder, also a clear thinker, a lawyer of ability,\nwas recently facing the question of the need of victory in his own\nlife. When the Scripture promises were presented to him, and he was\nasked whether he would take victory, his reply was a decided \u201cNo.\u201d\n\n\u201cWhy won\u2019t you?\u201d\n\n\u201cBecause I am not sure I could live up to it.\u201d\n\nHe still had two parties in his contract. He was still thinking\nunder, and living under, the Old Covenant.\n\nIt sounds reasonable when a Christian says, \u201cOf course, I am sure that\n_Christ_ will always be faithful to his part, but the failure will\ncome because of _my_ weakness.\u201d When a Christian says that, he is not\nin victory; he has missed the very heart of the Victorious Life. He is\nstill under the Old Covenant. For God made the New Covenant with full\nknowledge of that weakness of mine. Indeed _it was just because of that\nweakness of mine that the New Covenant was made_. Had the weakness not\nbeen there the Old Covenant would have sufficed. The New Covenant is of\nno avail, and means nothing, if it is not to operate in spite of that\nweakness.\n\n\n Man\u2019s Part in Victory Over Sin\n\nIf God does everything in the matter of my obeying the law, what is my\npart? To do nothing. The human side of this New Covenant is to see that\nself is kept from doing anything, so that Grace may work. It is the\neffort of the self life, the human struggle described in Romans 7:7-24,\nwhich prevents the victory of Grace.\n\nBut surely Grace on God\u2019s part needs something on man\u2019s side if it is\nto be brought into touch with man. Yes, it needs to be told to man so\nthat he may hear it as a message of good tidings. \u201cBelief cometh of\nhearing, and hearing by the word of Christ\u201d (Rom. 10:17). The word of\ngood tidings to law-breaking Christians is that God has put his law in\nour hearts so that we shall obey him.\n\nWhat are we to do with the word of good tidings? Believe it. If we do\nnot believe that the law of the Spirit hath made us free from the law\nof sin, our unbelief does not affect the truth of God\u2019s word, but we\nourselves lose the benefit of those good tidings. \u201cFor indeed we have\nhad good tidings preached unto us, even as also they: but the word of\nhearing did not profit them, because it was not united by faith with\nthem that heard\u201d (Heb. 4:2).\n\n\n \u201cObey\u201d Becomes \u201cBelieve\u201d\n\nThe \u201cobey\u201d of the Old Covenant has become in the New Covenant\n\u201cbelieve.\u201d The responsibility for obedience has been taken entirely by\nChrist, and man\u2019s part is to believe that astounding fact. Christians\nare still urged to obey, but always the spelling of that word is\n\u201cbelieve.\u201d\n\n\u201cSeeing ye have purified your souls in your obedience to the truth\n... having been begotten again, not of corruptible seed, but of\nincorruptible, through the word of God.... But the word of the\nLord abideth for ever. And this is the word of good tidings which\nwas preached unto you.... For you therefore that believe is the\npreciousness: but for such as disbelieve, ... A stone of stumbling, and\na rock of offence; for they stumble at the word, being disobedient.\u201d\n\nThese scattered verses in the first and second chapters of First Peter\npresent the new spelling of the old \u201cobey.\u201d Obedience to the truth is\nsimply believing the word of good tidings, and they who stumbled at\nthe word were disobedient because they did not believe the word of\ngood tidings. It is a striking commentary that the King James Version\nuses \u201cdisobedient\u201d in 1 Peter 2:7, where the Revised Version reads\n\u201cdisbelieve.\u201d\n\nIf this change from law to Grace is simply a different putting of the\nmatter, leaving man\u2019s responsibility the same, then indeed there is no\ngood tidings for the Christian in the matter of freedom from sin, and\nthe Victorious Life teaching is a myth. If telling us to believe is\njust another way of asking us to obey, then are we no better off than\nbefore, and we must await our resurrection bodies in order to enjoy\nfreedom from the law of sin against which we have been struggling. For\nwith all our mind and heart we may want to obey, but there is that\n\u201cdifferent law in our members\u201d preventing us from doing the things that\nwe would. What is the new factor in Grace that changes everything?\nIs it something real, or something that I must produce by my own\nunderstanding, just a new _attitude_ to the law?\n\n\n Is Your Name in This Will?\n\nIt is something as real as the inheritance that a millionaire father\nwills to his son. God gives us a will in the third chapter of\nGalatians, and he speaks in it of an inheritance, and in words as\ncarefully chosen and as accurate as in a perfect human will he explains\nwho are the heirs in that will. The promise was given to Abraham and\nto his seed, not \u201cseeds\u201d as of many; \u201cbut as of one, and to thy seed,\nwhich is Christ\u201d (Gal. 3:16). The closing verse of that will reveals\nthe importance of that distinction the Holy Spirit makes between the\nsingular and plural of the word seed. This distinction has puzzled\nscholars and some have called it an example of Paul\u2019s juggling with\nwords, but it need not puzzle any of the heirs whose names are in\nthis will. \u201cAnd if ye are Christ\u2019s, then are ye Abraham\u2019s seed, heirs\naccording to promise.\u201d\n\nThere is but one seed, Christ, and all that I am to get through this\nwill, I get because I am in him. What is the inheritance promised in\nthe will? If an earthly father knows how to will good gifts to his\nchildren, what shall be said of the heavenly Father\u2019s gift? The will\nsays that it is \u201cthe promise of the Spirit\u201d and that it is through\nfaith (Gal. 3:14). The promise includes complete freedom from the law.\n\nBut does not the law also come from God? \u201cIs the law then against the\npromises of God?\u201d is a most natural question, and it is asked in this\nlegal document which tells us of our inheritance. The answer to that\nquestion contains one of the most significant statements in the whole\nWord of God on the relation of law and grace: \u201cGod forbid: for if there\nhad been a law given which could make alive, verily righteousness would\nhave been of the law\u201d (Gal. 3:21).\n\n\n Where \u201cHigh Ideals\u201d Fall Down\n\nThere is as much difference, then, between being under law and under\ngrace, as there is between a dead man and a live man. If a high ideal\ncould have given life, the word tells us, if God could have provided\na law which could make a dead man alive, Grace would not have been\nneeded, for righteousness would have been by the law. The free gift of\nthe New Covenant is a new LIFE. That is what the promise of the Spirit\nprovides. Does this give a vivid light upon Romans 8:2, \u201cThe law of\nthe Spirit ... made me free from the law of sin and of death?\u201d And\nthe power of the law of the Spirit is the resurrection life of Christ\nJesus. So the complete verse reads, \u201cThe law of the Spirit of life in\nChrist Jesus made me free from the law of sin and of death.\u201d\n\nThe passage in Romans eight goes on to show how Jesus did for us the\nthing we could not do, and that as a result of what he did, and is\ndoing through the Spirit, \u201cthe requirement of the law is fulfilled in\nus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.\u201d If we are\nappropriating the promise of the Spirit, our inheritance through faith,\n_we are having fulfilled in us the law of God at this present moment_.\nThat is what the Word of God says. That is what happens when we are\nunder Grace and not under the law. Obedience to the law is guaranteed\nwhile we are under Grace,\u2015\u2015walking in the Spirit. Disobedience to the\nlaw can come only when the Christian is living under law,\u2015\u2015walking\nafter the flesh.\n\nBut, some one asks, is not a Christian always under Grace? He is, in\nhis _position_, and the Victorious Life is simply walking by faith in\nthat position won by Christ. \u201cWe believed on Christ Jesus, that we\nmight be justified by faith in Christ, and not by the works of the law:\nbecause by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. But if,\nwhile we sought to be justified in Christ, we ourselves also were found\nsinners, is Christ a minister of sin? God forbid. For if I build up\nagain those things which I destroyed, I prove myself a transgressor\u201d\n(Gal. 2:16, 18).\n\n\n A Christian Under Law\n\nWhen a Christian sins, transgresses the law, he is building up that\nwhich he has destroyed.\n\nHe is acting as though he were back under the law.\n\nHe is doing the deeds of the old man that has been crucified with\nChrist.\n\nHe is denying the resurrection life of Christ which is in him.\n\nHe is walking after the flesh and not after the Spirit.\n\nHe is back on the basis of working instead of resting in the finished\nwork of Christ.\n\nHe is under the works of the law instead of the hearing of faith.\n\nHe is not standing fast in the freedom wherewith Christ has set him\nfree.\n\nThere is but one thing to be done in order to get back at once under\ngrace and the faith life,\u2015\u2015confess the sin and take cleansing in the\nblood of Jesus. This is wholly of Grace; no Christian would be so\nfoolish as to try to atone for his sin or to help the Lord Jesus do\na complete work of cleansing.\n\nIt is exactly the same sort of folly that leads the Christian to seek\nto add his own effort in the business of winning victory over the next\ntemptation that assails him. \u201c_If we live by the Spirit_ [if we have\nbeen born again by the Spirit], _by the Spirit let us also walk_\u201d (by\nthe same supernatural power let us live day by day and hour by hour,\nletting God do it all by the Spirit) (Gal. 5:25).\n\nGod\u2019s new spelling for \u201cobey\u201d is \u201cbelieve.\u201d And, as Mr. Trumbull put it\nto a Christian who was grieving because she did not have the faith to\nbelieve, \u201cThe faith for salvation is the faith for victory.\u201d Faith is\njust believing the word of God.\n\n\n A Christian Under Grace\n\nHave you believed the good tidings of future salvation and glory?\nBelieve the same good tidings for present salvation from sin.\n\nIf you are under grace, sin shall not have dominion; you are walking in\nthe Spirit.\n\nChrist is dwelling in your heart by faith.\n\nYou are freed from the law with its works.\n\nYet the law of God is in your heart and it is your nature to keep it.\n\nYou are a new creation.\n\nYou are walking in newness of life.\n\nYou can finish the second chapter of Galatians as Paul finishes it:\n\u201cFor I through the law died unto the law, that I might live unto God. I\nhave been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I that live, but\nChrist liveth in me: and that life which I now live in the flesh I live\nin faith, the faith which is in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave\nhimself up for me. I do not make void the grace of God\u201d (Gal. 2:19-21).\n\n\n\n\n WHEN TEMPTATION STRIKES\n\n\nThere is no state of grace that can be reached on earth which will\nguard a man from being tempted. The Victorious Life is a life of\nvictory over temptation, but not a life of freedom from temptation.\n\nMany a young Christian in the first flush of joy over new-found victory\nhas somehow felt that this glorious new liberty was indeed freedom\nfrom temptation. For certain temptations have been taken completely\nout of the life. Perhaps it was the taste for tobacco, and the desire\nfor smoking has been taken away. Or the questionable \u201cborder-line\u201d\namusements (questionable only to border-line Christians),\u2015\u2015dancing and\ncards and the theater,\u2015\u2015have completely lost their attractiveness and\noffer no temptation.\n\nBut suddenly, some day, temptation strikes from an unexpected quarter,\nand failure comes. It may be all over in a moment, but sin has\nentered. Perhaps it was a sudden flash of impatience, or irritation,\nor jealousy. Satan, close at hand, cunningly whispers, \u201cYou never had\nthe experience of the Victorious Life.... And you never will.\u201d Or he\nwhispers that still more cunning word, \u201cThis higher life business is\nall a mistake.\u201d And so the soul that has taken Christ as victory is\noften plunged into discouragement when the truth dawns that in the\nVictorious Life _temptations multiply_.\n\nIn this problem of temptation in the Victorious Life, as in every other\nconflict with our great Adversary, our safety must be found in the Word\nof God.\n\n\n \u201cCan a Dead Man Be Tempted?\u201d\n\nA common error regarding temptation in the Christian life is the belief\nthat temptation is directed against a \u201csinful nature\u201d within us. Some\nmonths ago there was discussed in Notes on Open Letters in _The Sunday\nSchool Times_ the question of an earnest seeker who had taken Christ as\nhis victory and was puzzled by this matter of temptation. He wrote:\n\n How should temptation affect us? Christ had no sinful self\n in his temptation to contend with. Adam before the fall had\n not his sinful self to contend with; but we, since the fall,\n have a sinful self, even though we are in victory, if I\n understand rightfully. In Romans we read that the old man is\n crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed,\n that henceforth we should not serve sin, for he that is dead\n is freed from sin. If we are dead why should evil thoughts or\n temptations of any kind find in us the slightest desire of\n yielding to them? What should be the effect of feeling them?\n A dead man has no life, has he?\n\nTemptation is never aimed against a dead man, nor against evil in a\nman. There is no meaning in \u201ctempting evil.\u201d There is no need for\nSatan to direct attacks against that which is already on his side. It\nis because we are alive and have power to sin that we are exhorted to\nreckon ourselves dead to\u2015\u2015separated from\u2015\u2015sin, not dead to temptation.\n\n\n Temptation Hits Natural Desires\n\nTemptation is directed against the _human_ nature, and finds its\nentrance through the natural desires and impulses of the body. That\nis all Satan had to work upon in the case of Adam and Eve, and in the\ncase of \u201cthe last Adam,\u201d our Lord himself. Both Adams were sinless\nmen before temptation came,\u2015\u2015and \u201cthe last Adam\u201d was sinless after\ntemptation came. But both lived in temptable bodies; and it is these\nhuman bodies, not any sin nature dwelling in us, that make temptation\npossible.\n\nA lost man may have depraved and unnatural appetites, as the drink or\ndrug habit, which drop off at regeneration. But the natural appetites\nremain, and through these temptation may come in many forms.\n\nSatan has no other plan of temptation for Christians than that which he\ntried successfully upon the first Adam and with disastrous failure upon\nthe last Adam. A study of these two conflicts with Satan reveals the\nstartling fact that all our multiplied temptations come to us through\nthree channels, and three only. If these citadels are held, victory\nis certain. To understand this not only simplifies the problem of\ntemptation, but shows why certain _forms_ of temptation fall away from\nthe Christian who takes Christ as his victory, while _temptation_ in\nmany other forms remains.\n\nPerhaps no one has summed up more concisely, in terms of everyday\nexperience, these three channels of temptation, than does Professor\nMelvin Grove Kyle in his teaching on temptation in his seminary classes.\n\n\n Our Three Desires\n\nDr. Kyle points out that man has three natural desires: (1) the desire\nto enjoy things; (2) the desire to get things; (3) the desire to do\nthings.\n\nThese three cover the whole range of human desires. For the desire to\n_enjoy_ things concerns everything that has to do with a man\u2019s body.\nThe desire to _get_ things concerns everything that a man sees outside\nof himself, the things that he can obtain in one way or another for\nhimself. The desire to _accomplish_ things includes everything that\ngoes out from the man to affect in one way or another that outside\nworld. Professor Kyle\u2019s suggested definition of temptation is this:\n\u201cTemptation is the incitement of a natural desire to go beyond the\nbound set by God.\u201d\n\nWith this analysis before us, let us look into what happened when Satan\ncame to our first parents. Let it be remembered that none of these\nthree desires necessarily has to do with sin. Adam and Eve had these\ndesires before sin entered. Our Lord Jesus had these same natural human\ndesires.\n\nSin is doing something that God has told man not to do, or not doing\nsomething that God has told him to do. Eve\u2019s failure began, under\ntemptation, when she was willing to consider Satan\u2019s questioning of\nGod\u2019s word.\n\n\n Eve\u2019s Threefold Temptation\n\n\u201cAnd when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it\nwas a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to\nmake one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat.\u201d There was\nthe threefold temptation. \u201cShe saw that the tree was good for food\u201d;\nher desire to enjoy things was incited, and she faced the question of\nsatisfying in an unlawful way that desire for enjoyment. She saw that\nthe fruit was \u201ca delight to the eyes\u201d: her desire to get the attractive\nthing she saw was incited, and she faced the question of whether she\nshould satisfy that desire in a way that God had forbidden. Finally she\nsaw that the tree was \u201cto be desired to make one wise.\u201d Satan had told\nher that she and her husband would be as God if they ate the fruit.\nHer desire to accomplish things took the form of reaching out after\nequality with God.\n\nNow turn for a moment to the analysis of sin and temptation that the\nHoly Spirit gives in 1 John 2:16: \u201cFor all that is in the world, the\nlust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the vainglory of\nlife, is not of the Father, but is of the world.\u201d Here is an inclusive\nstatement of all that is in the world. The apostle is stating here the\nonly three ways in which it is possible for a man to sin. Note that\nthey are the three points at which Eve failed.\n\nWhen the desire to _enjoy things_ goes beyond the bounds set by God it\nbecomes \u201cthe lust of the flesh.\u201d The lawful desire to _get things_,\nwhen it turns into sin, becomes \u201cthe lust of the eyes.\u201d When the desire\n_to do things_ leads a man away from God, it becomes \u201cthe vainglory [or\nthe pride] of life.\u201d\n\nDr. Kyle points out in his study of temptation that Eve fell at _every_\npoint of her nature, and sinned in \u201cthe lust of the flesh, the lust of\nthe eyes, and the vainglory of life.\u201d He notes also that the lust of\nthe eyes and the pride of life had no immediate outlet of expression\nfor Adam and Eve, situated as they were in the midst of a world that\nwas all theirs, and so the sin found immediate expression in some form\nof the lust of the flesh. Yet man had yielded and sinned at all three\npoints.\n\n\n Tempting Our Sinless Lord\n\nTurning now from the luxurious garden to the barren wilderness, the\nsame Tempter comes to our Lord Jesus, the last Adam, when he was hungry\nafter his fasting of forty days and forty nights; and the Tempter came\nwith the same three appeals. Our Lord Jesus had the natural desire to\nenjoy food for his body. He was hungry, and the desire was right. But\nthe Tempter asked him to satisfy that hunger in a wrong way. Satan\nagain begins his attack by a question. He does not hold before Christ\nthe temptation to _become_ as God. He raises the question as to whether\nhe is the Son of God, and suggests that this be proved by making use of\nthe omnipotence of the Creator to satisfy his own human needs. It was\nfar more subtle than the appeal to Eve\u2019s desire to enjoy the fruit; but\nat the bottom it was an attack on the Word of God. Our Lord\u2019s answer\nnot only checkmates the Tempter, but states a profound truth by which\nhis brethren may enter into victory under similar temptations. \u201cMan\nshall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of\nthe mouth of God.\u201d\n\nOur Lord had a natural desire to get things. What he desired to get was\n\u201call the kingdoms of the world.\u201d They belonged to him. He came to earth\nto secure them. Satan strikes at this perfectly right desire to get\nthings by showing our Lord all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory\nof them, \u201cand he said unto him, All these things will I give thee if\nthou wilt fall down and worship me.\u201d The desire to get these kingdoms\nwas right; but the temptation was to get them in some way not of God\u2019s\nordering. Making a step outside the will of God always means exchanging\nthe worship of God for the worship of Satan; and so our Lord answers:\n\u201cGet thee hence, Satan; for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord\nthy God, and him only shalt thou serve.\u201d\n\nOur Lord also had that third desire, the desire to accomplish things.\nThe work he came to accomplish was to bring redemption\u2015\u2015to the Jew\nfirst, and also to the Gentile. He came to his own with the desire that\nthey should recognize him as the One sent from God, their Messiah.\nSatan strikes at this right desire, and presents to Jesus a quick way\nto accomplish this purpose. But again it is a way with a question mark\nregarding God\u2019s Word.\n\nIt has been suggested that the thought here is that Jesus could prove\nto the multitude gathered below in the temple court that he was indeed\nthe Son of God when this Messianic prophecy was fulfilled before their\neyes in such a startling way. The reply of our Lord is significant.\n\u201cAgain it is written, Thou shalt not make trial of the Lord thy God.\u201d\nThis quotation from Deuteronomy 6:16 refers back to the incident at\nRephidim when the children of Israel made trial of Jehovah by saying:\n\u201cIs Jehovah among us, or not?\u201d (Exod. 17:7.) So Satan asked Jesus to\nprove that God\u2019s Word was indeed true, and settle the fact that he was\nthe Son of God and that Jehovah was indeed with him.\n\nAs our first parents fell at all three points of attack, so our Lord\nwon the victory at every point. Borrowing again an illuminating\nsuggestion from Dr. Kyle\u2019s study of the subject, we have here the real\nexplanation of that word concerning our Lord that he was tempted in all\npoints like as we are. He was tempted on every side of his nature. He\ndid not necessarily meet every individual form of temptation that has\ncome to other men, but he did meet the Adversary at these three points,\nwhich comprise all the possible area of temptation.\n\nThe victory over temptation has been won. His victory is a guarantee of\nour triumph over every form of temptation that can ever meet us. It is\nours to choose whether we shall share in that victory already won by\nour Elder Brother, or be united with the first Adam in his defeat.\n\n\n\n\n THE CONQUEST OF TEMPTATION\n\n\nThe Word of God never offers freedom from temptation. But it does offer\nto Christians victory over all temptation. One of Satan\u2019s lies that has\nbeen accepted as almost an axiom in the thinking and the experience\nof Christians is that no one can expect victory over every one of his\ntemptations. But God says: \u201cThere hath _no_ temptation taken you but\nsuch as man can bear: But God is faithful, who will not suffer you to\nbe tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation make\nalso the way of escape, that ye may be able to endure it\u201d (1 Cor.\n10:13). It is significant that this verse is immediately preceded by a\nword of warning: \u201cWherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed\nlest he fall.\u201d\n\nThere is ever before the Christian the possibility of falling. There is\nno state of grace from which he may not, before some temptation, step\ninto awful sin. But God\u2019s Word, which cannot be broken, stands pledged\nto us that in _every_ temptation there is \u201cthe way of escape.\u201d And our\nLord Jesus is \u201cthe Way.\u201d Victory over temptation was won by Christ.\nSatan is an already defeated foe. Defeat in temptation came to Adam. It\nis for every man, and every Christian, to decide whether he will share\nthe first Adam\u2019s defeat or the last Adam\u2019s victory.\n\nThe two great temptation scenes pictured in the Bible, that of our\nfirst parents and that of our Lord, show that temptation finds its way\ninto the human heart through three avenues. When man falls before these\ntemptations the resulting sins are what the Apostle describes as \u201cthe\nlust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the vainglory of life.\u201d\nLet us see how this Bible picture of the sins that are in the world\ncorresponds with conditions in the twentieth century.\n\n\n Africa\u2019s Three Sins\n\nA missionary recently back from the heart of Africa was describing some\nof the intimate things that she had learned regarding the natives.\nAs she spoke of the daily life of the natives, and told of the chief\nproblems of missionary work, there were three outstanding sins that\nwere emphasized. There is the gross immorality, which came up for\nmention in connection with the description of the tribal dances and\nwhat they lead to. There is the grasping after possessions, a tendency\nto covetousness that is so deeply imbedded in their natures that\nthe missionaries need to exercise the greatest care in dealing with\nnew converts. This native quality came vividly to the missionary\u2019s\nmind when she was speaking of the native Christian evangelists and\nthe problem of compensating them in such a way that the old cupidity\nwill not be aroused. A third characteristic of the native in all the\nvillages is his consuming desire to secure a high place in the \u201cFour\nHundred\u201d of his tribe. There are distinct social honors, and for many\nof the young men the passion of life is to win these honors.\n\nThis missionary had no intention of analyzing the outstanding sins\nof the natives, but these three things naturally came before her as\nshe described their daily life. And these three comprise \u201call that is\nin the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the\nvainglory of life.\u201d\n\nPut into briefer form these three sins are lust, covetousness, pride.\nAll sin comes under one or other of these three classes.\n\n\n America\u2019s Three Sins\n\nThese three are the outstanding sins of America. Dan Crawford came out\nof Africa into civilization just about the time the \u201cnewer\u201d forms\nof dancing were having their first popularity. He made the startling\nstatement that he had seen all of these unspeakably vile dances in\npagan Africa. In America, he said, they were only in a new setting.\nEssentially they were the same, and _they were for the same purpose_.\nWhat we call the gross sin of the African flourishes in every civilized\nland.\n\nThose who read a business man\u2019s article, published several years ago in\n_The Sunday School Times_, on \u201cThe Sin That We Are Afraid to Mention,\u201d\nwill not soon forget his arraignment of the awful sin of covetousness,\n\u201cwhich is idolatry.\u201d And it was _in the Christian church_ that this\nlayman found the black sin that Christians keep quiet about. What then\nshall be said of covetousness in the business world?\n\nThere is finally that climax of all sins of America, and of man, the\nsin of pride, most subtle and most pervading of all, the sin that will\nculminate in man\u2019s final defiance of God. Saddest of all, it is this\nsin which appears at its ugliest when it takes the form of spiritual\npride in the life of one who is zealous to serve God and to be wholly\nyielded to him.\n\nIn a message that S. D. Gordon gave on temptation he remarked that\nthere are three chief avenues by which Satan reaches men. He stated\nthe three in these brief words: \u201cSex,\u201d \u201cMoney,\u201d \u201cI.\u201d It is exactly\nthe classification that God makes in his Word. If, by his grace, we\nget victory at these three points, then indeed are we free from the\ndominion of sin.\n\nSo much for the _sin_ that results when man falls before one or another\nof these temptations. But what of the temptations themselves? How do\nthey affect a Christian who is trusting Christ for victory? What is the\npractical bearing on the common temptations that meet us in everyday\nlife? Then there is the final, most important question, what is the\nway to prevent these desires from conceiving and bringing forth sin?\n\n\n Why Not Freedom from Temptation?\n\nA _Sunday School Times_ reader has written of his experience. \u201cIt is\nnot a temptation for me to take a glass of beer; there is nothing in me\nthat requires or desires it; but sometimes it might be and has been a\nstrong temptation to get impatient, which I have yielded to at times.\nWhy should one be any more a temptation than the other, provided I am\nin victory over all sin?\u201d\n\nCareful distinction must be made between temptation itself and the form\nthat the temptation may take. The appeal to a man\u2019s natural desires\nmay change its form, but always, in every part of his nature, he will\nbe tempted while he is in this mortal body. The desire for beer which\nleads to intemperance and sin is an appeal to a natural appetite. Sin\nis moral, and does not reside in the physical appetites, which are\nmerely the channels for the temptation and sin. A man who has been\nin bondage to drink may through the power of Christ completely lose\nthat desire and have no further temptation to that particular form of\nappetite. But the temptation to intemperance remains. For the natural\nappetites remain. While the appetite may give up this taste or that,\nand thus be dead to certain _forms_ of temptation, the Christian is\nalways liable to the temptation to go contrary to the will of God, in\nsatisfying these natural appetites of the body: hunger, the sacred\nsex desire, and all the natural impulses of the body that may seek\nexpression in lawful ways.\n\nThe _Times_ reader compares his freedom from the temptation to drink\nwith the appeal that is made to him to get impatient. But strictly\nspeaking, one is never tempted to be impatient. No one desires to be\nimpatient, and Satan could not use any incentive to such a temptation.\nYet we sometimes speak of these temptations to irritability, jealousy,\nloss of temper, as though there were some secret springs in our nature\nlabeled \u201cImpatience,\u201d \u201cIrritability,\u201d and like qualities, and that\nthe temptation consisted in Satan touching these springs and causing\nthe sin. A business man does not lose his temper for the sake of the\npleasure it gives him. It may be an intense desire to have justice that\nhas led to his outbreak against some one who has dealt unfairly. The\ntemptation has come along the line of some natural desire. So with the\nhousekeeper who is irritated with her maid over some bit of stupidity,\nor the young girl who is \u201cblue\u201d and moody because her plans for the\nday\u2019s enjoyment have been upset.\n\n\n Temptation Remains\u2015\u2015Its Form Changes\n\nThus it is that while a Christian who yields utterly to God and accepts\nChrist as his victory may instantly be free from even the temptation\nto drink, or to smoke, or to indulge in worldly amusements, or to\ndo a hundred and one things that he has been accustomed to do, the\ntemptations to the root-sins of lust and covetousness and pride _will\nremain with him_. They will take more subtle forms. Satan cannot tempt\nhim now in the grosser, worldly way. He will now take advantage of this\none\u2019s very zeal for God, and will make appeal to his earnest devotion\nto God\u2019s service to lead into sins of impatience and irritation and\njealousy and pride.\n\nIn the face of these temptations, what is the guarantee against failure\nwhich the victorious Christian has, and which the man of the world\nknows nothing of? When a Christian wholly yields his life to the\nmastery of the Lord Jesus he has still the desire to enjoy things, the\ndesire to get things, and the desire to accomplish things. Christ does\nnot kill the natural desires. _It is the old self-life that Christ\nwants to put to death._ That is why a Christian must share in present\nexperience the crucifixion-death of his Lord before he can share his\nvictory over temptation. This is what surrender of self means for\nthe Christian who desires victory. He must, moment by moment, reckon\nhimself to be dead unto sin. He is not dead to temptation, for his\nnatural human desires are still there.\n\n\n Desires Remain\u2015\u2015Their Object Changes\n\nIn the Christian who has learned the full secret of victory these\nnatural desires are lifted to a new plane. His desires now do not\ncenter in the old self-life. They center in Christ. To him to live is\nChrist. His whole desire is Christ. He still desires to enjoy things,\nbut only in a way that shall glorify God. He desires to get things, but\nto get them for God, not for self. His desire to accomplish things is\nto do things for God.\n\nThis does not mean that the victorious Christian will not be open\nto fierce temptations, just as our Lord was,\u2015\u2015real temptations that\nrequire a real conquest. But as he abides in Christ, accepting by\nfaith the victory that Christ already has won, instead of striving to\nstruggle against these assaults of the enemy, the temptations remain\nmerely _temptations_, and do not pass into the _sins_ of lust or\ncovetousness or pride.\n\nThese three channels of temptation appear to correspond in a remarkable\nway with the three-fold nature of man\u2015\u2015body, soul and spirit. And for\nthe man in victory all these are Christ\u2019s. Here is the human body with\nall the natural appetites intact. But the Christian who is reckoning\nthe old self-life to be dead knows that this body now, with all its\nnatural desires, is \u201cfor the Lord; and the Lord for the body\u201d (1 Cor.\n6:13), for \u201cKnow ye not that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit\nthat is in you, that ye have from God? and ye are not your own; for ye\nwere bought with a price: glorify God therefore in your body\u201d (1 Cor.\n6:19, 20).\n\n\n The Secret of the Single Eye\n\nThere are in the victorious Christian not only the desires of the body\nbut the desires of the soul. For may we not say that the sin of \u201cthe\nlust of the eye\u201d is a sin of the \u201csoulish\u201d part of a man\u2019s nature? It\nconcerns his desire to acquire the things that he sees. To the natural\nman these things are riches to be obtained for himself. \u201cHe that hath\nan evil eye hasteth after riches\u201d (Proverbs 28:22). The wise man here\nconnects covetousness and \u201cthe evil eye.\u201d Let us hear the words of\nthe Master of wise men: \u201cLay not up for yourselves treasures upon the\nearth, where moth and rust doth consume and where thieves break through\nand steal: but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither\nmoth nor rust doth consume, and where thieves do not break through nor\nsteal: for where thy treasure is, there will thy heart be also. The\nlamp of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy\nwhole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole\nbody shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee\nbe darkness, how great is the darkness! No man can serve two masters:\nfor either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will\nhold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon\u201d\n(Matthew 6:19-24).\n\nHere is the clear choice. The desire to get the riches we see may\nbecome the lust of the eye, covetousness, the servant of mammon. But\nthe Christian abiding in Christ has a \u201csingle eye,\u201d that is, he has\nbut one passion, to lay up treasure in heaven. He has not a doubtful\nmind as to whether he may grasp after this or that. He has but a single\nquestion, as his eye is single, and that is how may he glorify God in\nhis getting? He makes use indeed of the mammon of unrighteousness, but\nnot for self\u2019s sake,\u2015\u2015for the sake of Another.\n\n\n The Most Subtle Sin\n\nMay we not call the most subtle sin of all, the sin of pride, a sin of\nthe spirit? The victorious Christian still has the desire to accomplish\nthings. Indeed this desire is intensified a thousandfold. To the\nnatural man this desire centers wholly in self, whether he knows it or\nnot. But one in whom the old self-life is dead cries with Paul, \u201cGod\nforbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ,\nby whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world\u201d (Gal.\n6:14). With the psalmist he sings: \u201cMy soul shall make her boast in\nJehovah: The meek shall hear thereof, and be glad. O, magnify Jehovah\nwith me, and let us exalt His name together\u201d (Psalm 34:2, 3). \u201cIn God\nhave we made our boast all the day long, and we will give thanks unto\nthy name forever\u201d (Psalm 44:8). This sort of boasting leads not to self\npride but to meekness. \u201cThus saith Jehovah, Let not the wise man glory\nin his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might. Let not\nthe rich man glory in his riches: but let him that glorieth glory in\nthis, that he understandeth, and knoweth me, that I am Jehovah, who\nexercise lovingkindness, justice, and righteousness, in the earth\u201d\n(Jeremiah 9:23).\n\nAll desires of life, then, for the Christian who abides in victory,\ncenter in Christ. \u201cAnd whatsoever ye do, in word or in deed, do all in\nthe name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through\nhim\u201d (Col. 3:17).\n\nAnd conquest of temptation is not a negative matter. Love is the\nfulfilling of the law, and only the heart filled with that love which\nis Christ can know freedom from lust, covetousness, and pride. Back of\nthese three outward sins, there is the inward nature which has departed\nfrom God. Perhaps no one in our day has pointed out more clearly the\nthree great sins of omission than has Miss Louisa Vaughan, of China.\nShe calls these the \u201cChristian sins\u201d: Failure to love the Lord our God\nwith all our heart and strength and mind; failure to love one another\nas Christ loved us; failure to believe on Christ so that the works that\nhe did and greater works than these should be wrought through us. These\nChristian sins, Miss Vaughan insists, must be confessed and cleansed\nin the blood of Jesus before the fulness of the Spirit can be enjoyed.\nTo have these commandments fulfilled in us is the Victorious Life. And\nonly when this root-condition of unlove and unbelief (which are really\none, for \u201clove believeth all things\u201d) is dealt with shall we know\nfreedom from lust and covetousness and pride.\n\n\n\n\n HOW JESUS LIVED THE VICTORIOUS LIFE\n\n\nIn what sense was Jesus a man as we are? We read that he was tempted in\nall points like as we are, yet without sin. But have you ever asked, Of\nwhat comfort or strength is it to me that he was tempted in all points\nas I am, _if he was without sin_? It is just because _I am not without\nsin_ that I fall before these temptations.\n\nIs it true after all that the Lord Jesus was a man as I am?\n\nWas not the real secret of his victory over sin the fact that he was\nGod?\n\nIs not the secret of my defeat the fact that I am just a man and not\nGod?\n\nThe answer to these questions reveals one of the richest secrets in the\nWord concerning the real meaning of the Victorious Life. For we shall\nfind this startling truth, that if we are to live the Victorious Life\nat all we must live it by the same rule as Jesus of Nazareth lived it.\n\nChrist had to come to earth to show us what man is like. A needed\nemphasis has been put upon the truth that our Lord came to earth to\nreveal the Father,\u2015\u2015to show men what God is like. But it was just as\nnecessary that our Lord should reveal what God intended _man_ to be.\n\nIf we wish to know what God is like there is but one thing to do: look\nat Jesus. So there is no way of discovering what a true man is like\nexcept by looking at Jesus. He is the only \u201cman,\u201d in the true sense of\nthe word, who has lived since sin entered the human race. Through the\nfall man lost the image of God, and from that day until our Lord came\nthere was no example of man as God intended him to be.\n\nA mistaken notion, encouraged by the poets, prevails quite commonly,\nthat to sin is human; to forgive, divine. Whatever the measure of truth\nin the little sentiment, the error in it is more dangerous. To sin is\nnot human; it is devilish. Sin is no part of man as God planned him to\nbe. And so our Lord represents in himself what God intended a man to\nbe, and he lived according to that plan.\n\n\n The One True \u201cMan\u201d\n\nThe name for himself most often upon the lips of our Master was \u201cthe\nSon of man.\u201d A notable Greek scholar has recently pointed out that\nthis expression means far more than a son of a human parent. It rather\nsuggests that gathered up into this Son of man are all the qualities of\nwhat \u201cman\u201d is. So, may we not say that as the fulness of God dwelt in\nhim bodily so did the fulness of man dwell in him?\n\nSome one has suggested that God did wonderful things through the Lord\nJesus not because Jesus was God, but because he was perfect man. What\ndoes this really mean in terms of our everyday life?\n\nNowhere in Scripture is there such a remarkable setting forth, first of\nthe deity of our Lord, then of his humanity, side by side, as in the\nfirst and second chapters of the Epistle to the Hebrews. \u201cGod, having\nof old time spoken unto the fathers in the prophets by divers portions\nand in divers manners, hath at the end of these days spoken unto us in\na Son.\u201d\n\n\n \u201cVery God of Very God\u201d\n\nThus the wonderful epistle opens; and then that Son is presented first\nas one who expresses the very image of the substance of God. He is\ncompared with angels, and shown to be infinitely above them. God the\nFather speaks of his angels as messengers; he addresses the Son: \u201cthy\nthrone, _O God_.\u201d In the second chapter again are angels compared, this\ntime with man. The same Son is shown to be made for a little while\nlower than the angels, taking the form of man.\n\nIn this first chapter of Hebrews the Holy Spirit, when he seeks to\nattest the truth that Jesus is God, calls the Old Testament to witness,\nand two groups of three quotations each are made, each time the words\nbeing put in the mouth of God the Father. In the second chapter when\nthe Spirit seeks to press home the parallel truth that Jesus is a\nman, one with us, he uses a group of three quotations from the Old\nTestament. In these quotations we shall discover something of the\npreciousness for us of the truth that the Lord Jesus was a man, one\nwith his brethren. \u201cFor both he that sanctifieth and they that are\nsanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call\nthem brethren, saying ...\u201d (Heb. 2:11).\n\nThen there follow in the twelfth and thirteenth verses of the second\nchapter of Hebrews the three quotations from the Old Testament.\n\nThis is the first:\n\n \u201cI will declare thy name unto my brethren,\n In the midst of the congregation will I sing thy praise.\u201d\n\n\n One With Our Lord in Resurrection\n\nThis is the twenty-second verse of the twenty-second Psalm, the\nCrucifixion Psalm. But the twenty-second Psalm is more than a\ncrucifixion Psalm; it is a resurrection Psalm as well. This\ntwenty-second verse that the Spirit uses to prove that Jesus is one\nwith us is the first verse of the resurrection half of the Psalm. When\nour Lord rose from the dead he said, \u201cGo unto my brethren, and say to\nthem, I ascend unto my Father and your Father, and my God and your God\u201d\n(John 20:17). This was the first time that our Lord linked those words\n\u201cmy Father and your Father.\u201d For in his resurrection he was in a new\nway \u201cthe firstborn of many brethren.\u201d \u201cThou art my Son, this day have\nI begotten thee,\u201d was not spoken of the eternal generation of the Son\nof God, the living Word who was not begotten on a day but was before\nall time. Neither do the words refer to the glad day when the babe was\nborn of the Virgin. They refer to that glad resurrection day when in a\nnew way he declared God\u2019s name unto his brethren. This is made clear\nin Acts 13:32, 33: \u201cAnd we bring you good tidings of the promise made\nunto the fathers, that God hath fulfilled the same unto our children,\nin that he raised up Jesus; as also it is written in the second psalm,\nThou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee.\u201d\n\nWe are one with our elder Brother, then, in death and resurrection,\nand here is the death-blow to Satan\u2019s lie of universal brotherhood and\nuniversal fatherhood. The firstborn of many brethren is brother only to\nthose who share in his death that they may share also in his new birth.\n\n\n One With Our Lord as Witnesses\n\nThe third word from the Old Testament quoted in the second chapter\nof Hebrews which attests the humanity of our Lord is this: \u201cBehold,\nI and the children whom God hath given me.\u201d These words from Isaiah\n8:18 were originally from the lips of Isaiah, who said: \u201cBehold, I\nand the children whom God hath given are for signs and for wonders\nin Israel for Jehovah of hosts.\u201d Dr. W. J. Erdman once remarked that\nwhen Isaiah\u2019s two sons walked along the streets of Jerusalem they were\nliving sermons for the children of Israel to read. The name of one\nwas \u201cMahershalal-hash-baz,\u201d and whenever an Israelite looked upon\nthis son he heard God saying to him \u201cthe spoil speedeth, the prey\nhasteth.\u201d If he believed God he knew that this was a prophecy of the\nterrific judgment of God that was to fall on a sinning nation. Isaiah\u2019s\nother son was \u201cShear-jashub,\u201d or \u201cthe remnant shall return,\u201d and the\ndiscerning Israelite who could read this sermon aright saw in it the\nglad hope of God\u2019s grace in the day of judgment saving a remnant of\nthose who put their trust in him. The name of the father of these two\nsons, \u201cIsaiah,\u201d means \u201cthe salvation of Jehovah.\u201d\n\nEvidently the thought is that our Lord and we, his brethren, are still\nfor signs and wonders in setting forth the salvation of Jehovah in its\ntwo phases, of terrific judgment that is to come upon a disobedient\nworld and the glad message of salvation to the remnant who shall\nbelieve.\n\nThe second quotation from the Old Testament used in the second chapter\nof Hebrews to prove our Lord\u2019s true humanity is in these remarkable\nwords: \u201cI will put my trust in him.\u201d How can this quotation have any\nbearing on the fact that he is our brother and that he lived down here\nas a man?\n\n\n The Heart-Throbs of Our Human Lord\n\nThe quotation is from the second verse of Psalm eighteen: \u201cThe Lord\nis my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength,\nin whom I will trust.\u201d These originally are \u201cthe words of David,\nthe servant of the Lord, who spake unto the Lord the words of this\nsong in the day that the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his\nenemies, and from the hand of Saul.\u201d But, as a noted Bible teacher has\npointed out, the Holy Spirit put into the mouth of David words that\nwent infinitely beyond his own experience, words that could only be\nfulfilled in their true meaning when the greater Son of David came and\nmet the forces of evil that were faintly foreshadowed by the enemies\nDavid met.\n\nRead through the eighteenth Psalm as the words of the Lord Jesus. It is\nan inspired description of the awful conflict of the powers of darkness\nagainst the Son of man, when he tasted death for every man. Have you\never wondered why there were not given to us in the four Gospels more\nintimate glimpses of the human heart-throbs of Jesus? Have you wished\nthat you might enter somewhat into the meaning of Gethsemane, rather\nthan to have him go into the garden alone? Read in the eighteenth and\nother Messianic Psalms the human heart-throbs of the Son of man.\n\n \u201cI love thee, O Jehovah, my strength.\n Jehovah is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer;\n My God, my rock, in whom I will take refuge;\n My shield, and the horn of my salvation, my high tower.\n I will call upon Jehovah, who is worthy to be praised;\n So shall I be saved from mine enemies.\n The cords of death compassed me,\n And the floods of ungodliness made me afraid.\n The cords of Sheol were round about me;\n The snares of death came upon me.\u201d\n\n\n HIS Secret of Victory\n\nRead on in the Psalm the description of this conflict with the\nsupernatural powers of evil, and find in it the secret of our Lord\u2019s\nvictory over them. _He did not count upon any strength in himself. He\nlooked to another._ He was a man, and if there was to be any strength\nin him for victory over that supernatural enemy, that strength must\ncome from another. The secret of our Lord\u2019s victory was just this: \u201cI\nwill put my trust in him.\u201d\n\nThe Holy Spirit made no mistake in his selection of Old Testament\npassages when he wished to show that it behooved this Saviour of ours\n\u201cin all things to be made like unto his brethren,\u201d and that \u201cin that he\nhimself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succor them that are\ntempted\u201d (Heb. 2:17, 18).\n\nJesus lived the Victorious Life, not because he was God, but because\nhe was perfect man; he lived as God planned that man should live.\nIn a very true sense (though the statement would need certain\nqualification), our Lord took to himself no more advantage in the\nmatter of winning victory over temptations than have we, his brethren.\n\n\n Why He Emptied Himself\n\nBut _he_ was _God_. Yes, all the fulness of the Godhead was in him,\nor he could not have made atonement for the sins of his brethren. But\nremember that Christ Jesus emptied himself. This does not mean that\nhe ceased in any sense to be God. But there was something that he had\nas God, in glory with the Father, that he did not have as the God-man\nliving here on earth. He was rich up there; he was poor down here (2\nCor. 8:9). Of what did Jesus empty himself? He emptied himself of\nthe glory that he had with the Father before the world was. The full\nmeaning of that none of us can fathom. But here again there is a very\npractical application to our everyday living of this profound doctrine\nof the humiliation of our Lord:\n\nHe emptied himself of that which would have prevented him, in the\ndays of his suffering on earth, from being a true Son of man.\n\nJesus voluntarily gave up that inherent power that was his as God, and\nlived his life as God intended that man should live his life, _in utter\ndependence on a power not his own_.\n\nWhen man fell, his sin was a declaration of independence of God. He\nthus made impossible the living of a true man\u2019s life, for an essential\npart of a man\u2019s life is to live moment by moment in utter dependence on\nanother, his Maker.\n\nThat is why our Lord constantly pointed _away from himself_. \u201cThe Son\ncan do nothing of himself\u201d (John 5:19). \u201cI can of myself do nothing: as\nI hear, I judge: and my judgment is righteous; because I seek not mine\nown will, but the will of him that sent me\u201d (John 5:30). \u201cI do nothing\nof myself, but as the Father taught me, I speak these things\u201d (John\n8:28). \u201cThe words that I say unto you I speak not from myself: but\nthe Father abiding in me doeth his works\u201d (John 14:10). Our Lord here\nspeaks as the Son of man, not coming in his own name, or living in his\nown name, but in the name and by the power of Another dwelling within\nhim.\n\n\n The Son of Man\u2019s Watchword\n\nThe secret of the Son of man, plainly written across the record of his\nearthly conflicts, is surrender and faith. \u201cNot I, but the Father.\u201d And\n\u201cas the Father hath sent me, even so send I you\u201d (John 20:21).\n\nThe Son of man\u2019s watchword is, \u201cI will put my trust in him.\u201d Only man\ncan say that. Glorified God cannot say that.\n\nWhenever man says, \u201cI will put my trust in Him,\u201d and means it, all the\nomnipotence of the risen and indwelling Lord of resurrection life is\navailable for him, and victory is certain.\n\n\n\n\n SERVING WITH \u201cTHE MIND OF CHRIST\u201d\n\n\n\u201cTruly he was the servant of all,\u201d said a friend of J. Hudson Taylor\u2019s\nas he concluded a narration of some incidents in the life of the great\nmissionary in China. Hudson Taylor was like his Master. Only in so far\nas the service of any of us Christians is after the example of our Lord\nis it real service.\n\nIn the study of \u201cHow Jesus Lived the Victorious Life,\u201d it was seen that\nChrist emptied himself in order that he might live as a man and open\nthe way for his brethren to win the victory _in the same way that he\nwon it_. Jesus lived down here as God intended a man should live\u2015\u2015in\nutter, moment by moment, dependence upon Another, and in the last study\nit was pointed out that our Victory motto must be the motto that Jesus\nlived by: \u201cI will put my trust in _Him_.\u201d It is our purpose now to view\nthis truth in particular relation to the service of a Christian, and\nto examine more closely the meaning of Christ\u2019s \u201cemptying\u201d that we may\nknow wherein he was our example in service.\n\nIt is not primarily the acts in the life of Jesus that furnish us our\nexample in service. Many of the recorded activities of Christ, the\nthings he did and the things he said, are by their very nature,\u2015\u2015their\nuniqueness,\u2015\u2015deeds and words that we cannot imitate. It is the mind of\nChrist we are to have. Then shall we have the secret of the spirit and\nthe power of his service.\n\nThe great passage in the second chapter of Philippians on the\nhumiliation of our Lord deals with profound mysteries of the eternal\nworld, yet it touches in the most vital way the everyday life and\nservice of the Christian. It concerns the sending of Christ Jesus out\nof Glory with the Father into the world of men and sin. How startling,\nthen, that our Lord should take such a sublime event, which goes too\ndeep for utterance, and bring it to our very doorsteps, when he says:\n\u201cAs the Father hath sent me into the world even so send I you into the\nworld.\u201d\n\n\u201cHave this mind in you which was also in Christ Jesus,\u201d the Apostle\nenjoins. What is \u201cthis mind\u201d? How are we to have it? Paul goes on to\ndescribe it: \u201cWho, existing in the form of God, counted not the being\non an equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself,\ntaking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men; and\nbeing found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, becoming obedient\nunto death, yea, the death of the cross\u201d (Phil. 2:5-8).\n\n\n The Mind of Satan\n\nSomething of the significance of this sublime passage and the verses\nthat immediately follow, will be seen if we place beside it another\npicture which also concerns the mysteries of the eternal world and the\nthrone of God. It is found in the fourteenth chapter of Isaiah: \u201cHow\nart thou fallen from heaven, O day star, son of the morning! how art\nthou cut down to the ground, that didst lay low the nations! And thou\nsaidst in thy heart, I WILL ascend into heaven, I WILL exalt my throne\nabove the stars of God; and I WILL sit upon the mount of congregation,\nin the uttermost parts of the north: I WILL ascend above the heights of\nthe clouds; I WILL make myself like the Most High\u201d (Isa. 14:12-14).\n\nThis is a portion of \u201ca parable against the king of Babylon.\u201d In it we\nhave undoubtedly the picture of the great Adversary of the Lord Jesus\nChrist, Satan, the highest of created beings; here is a glimpse of his\nfall and the secret of it. So striking is the contrast that it is hard\nto escape the conviction that the Spirit intended this to be related\nto the passage in Philippians that tells of our Lord\u2019s emptying. This\ncontrast is one that runs from beginning to end through the Scriptures,\nwhich are, indeed, the record of the conflict between these two beings,\nthe Son of God who became also the Son of man, and the \u201cson of the\nmorning,\u201d who became the son of uttermost darkness.\n\n\n Pride Incarnate and Humility Incarnate.\n\nThe Son of God was the Word, who was in the beginning with God, and was\nGod. But though he possessed that equality he did not esteem it a thing\nto be grasped after, but he emptied himself of the glory that was his\nown. The other glorious being, exalted though he was among the hosts\nof God, was not in the form of God; he was but a creature of the Most\nHigh. But he essayed to grasp the equality that was not his: \u201cI will\nmake myself like the Most High.\u201d Mark now the terrific climax in each\nof these descriptions. The Son of God in becoming the Son of man took\nstep after step in his humiliation, lower and lower, until he touched\nthe bottom in the cursed death of the cross: \u201cbecoming obedient unto\ndeath, yea, the death of the cross.\u201d Then immediately follows this\nword: \u201cWherefore also God highly exalted him, and gave unto him the\nname which is above every name; that in the name of Jesus every knee\nshould bow, of things in heaven and things on earth and things under\nthe earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus is Lord, to\nthe glory of God the Father.\u201d Satan sought to climb higher and higher\nuntil his ambition reached after the Godhead: \u201cI will make myself like\nthe Most High.\u201d Immediately follows this word: \u201cThou shalt be brought\ndown to hell, to the uttermost parts of the pit.\u201d\n\nThere is more in the passages, however, than these two tremendous\ncontrasts of humiliation and attempted exaltation, and then of\nexaltation and uttermost destruction. Jesus told his followers that\nhe was sending them into the world as the Father sent him. His great\nAdversary likewise sends men into the world to carry out the spirit\nof his ambition. So he came to our first parents in the garden, and\nthe temptation was that they should imitate him in seeking to be like\nGod. They fell before the temptation and the sin was, essentially, a\ndeclaration of independence of God. From that day on every sin, whether\nthe sin of an unbeliever or the sin of a born-again Christian, has\nresulted because of this independence of God. The conflict of that\neternal world has thus been projected into the world of men. The Son\nof God and the Prince of demons are contending for this world, and\nthe principles underlying the conflict are clearly set forth in these\npassages that have been before us.\n\n\n Satan\u2019s Coming Man\n\nThis conflict is to have a climax. The sin of man will head up in the\nMan of Sin. This is he who shall come in the spirit and power of Satan,\nthe false Messiah. Jesus forewarned of his coming, when he said: \u201cI am\ncome in my Father\u2019s name, and ye receive me not: if another shall come\nin his own name, him ye will receive\u201d (John 5:43). The Isaiah passage\ndescribes not only the scene in heaven when Satan reached after the\nthrone of God, but it foreshadows the Man of Sin on earth, \u201cthe son\nof perdition, he that opposeth and exalteth himself against all that\nis called God or that is worshiped; so that he sitteth in the temple\nof God, setting himself forth as God ... even he, whose coming is\naccording to the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying\nwonders, and with all deceit of unrighteousness for them that perish;\nbecause they received not the love of the truth, that they might be\nsaved. And for this cause God sendeth them a working of error, that\nthey should believe a lie\u201d (2 Thess. 2:3, 4, 9-11).\n\n\n Man\u2019s Final Religion\n\nThe spirit of Satan, then, finds its climax in the worship of man,\nrather than the worship of God. Here is the heart of all sin. This is\nthe central lie of Satan by which he deceives men. The final religion\nof man, before the coming of the Lord Jesus to earth again, will be the\nreligion of humanity, the worship of man as the only deity. Paul brings\nall men who reject God\u2019s revelation under this condemnation: \u201cThey\nexchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served the\ncreature rather than the Creator, who is blessed for ever.\u201d\n\nWe have been speaking of the great conflict of the ages between Jesus\nand his Adversary, the conflict that underlies the raging of the\nnations to-day, as Satan works out his plan to put the creature in the\nplace of the Creator, to send that one, inspired of Satan, who will\ncome in his own name and who will be received because he comes as man.\nBut this same conflict goes on in each individual life.\n\nEvery man, because God has given him free will, must make his choice\nas to which of these he will follow, the Son of man, or the Man of\nSin. Even the Christian, who has made his choice, will find constantly\nbefore him the possibility of serving in the spirit of his Lord or in\nthe spirit of Satan.\n\nWhen the Christian is not serving after the example of the Lord\nJesus, let him ponder this well,\u2015\u2015that he is serving after the spirit\nof Satan. How startled must Peter have been when the Lord not only\ntold him he savored of the things of men (the spirit of Satan),\nbut actually addressed him as Satan, knowing that it was the great\nAdversary he was meeting again in one of his loved disciples. Very\noften is it true of Christians that \u201cye know not what spirit ye are\nof.\u201d Is it too much to say that much of the service that is being\noffered to-day in the name of Christ, by followers of His, is mixed\nwith the spirit of the evil one?\n\n\n Testing Our Service\n\nWhat is that spirit of the evil one? It is written large in the two\nwords that stand out in that Isaiah passage: \u201cI WILL.\u201d Set these words\nagainst those other words: \u201cNot my will, but thine.\u201d Now let us set\nthese words against our own Christian service and answer the question\nas to whether it is after the example of the Son of man. What is it to\nhave the mind of Christ?\n\nIn three respects is there danger that our Christian service shall lack\nthe mind of Christ. We may work zealously _in the energy of the flesh_.\nThe old self-life is not reckoned dead, crucified with Christ. If we\nhave the mind of Christ we must become conformed to his death, even\nas he was obedient unto the death of the cross. There are thousands\nof Christians who are doing good things but doing them in the energy\nof the flesh, without the Spirit of God. If we would have the mind of\nChrist we must have that old self-life crucified, for Christian service\ndone in the flesh cannot please God.\n\nConsecrated Christians who have really surrendered the old self-life\nmay work zealously _in the energy of the soul_. There is the danger of\nforcing results that look good but are really not the product of the\nSpirit of God. Service after the example of Christ is done wholly by\nthe power of Another. He said \u201cnot my will, but thine,\u201d and was ready\nto hold to this when the following of the will of God seemed to mean\nfailure. There is the danger that Christian workers to-day, lured\nby the example of the success of the children of the world in their\nundertakings, will go after the same sort of great, showy results in\nthe eyes of men, in their spiritual matters. This is not after the\nmind of Christ, but partakes of that other mind which says \u201cI WILL.\u201d\nThe mind of Christ will care for no results except those that are the\nproduct of the Spirit. And in securing these the eyes will not be\nupon results but upon the Master, to seek his will in every matter of\nservice, leaving with him the results and the rewards.\n\n\n Defilement of the Spirit\n\nThe third danger, most subtle of all, and pervading all, is pride,\nthe exaltation of the human. And this is the temptation that Satan\noften successfully uses upon the spiritual Christian who has gotten\nbeyond serving in the energy of the flesh or in the energy of the\nsoul. We must cleanse ourselves of all defilement of flesh _and of\nspirit_. Serving \u201cin lowliness of mind, each counting other better than\nhimself,\u201d\u2015\u2015this is to have the mind of Christ. Serving in love that\nenvieth not, that vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, that _seeketh\nnot its own_,\u2015\u2015this is to have the mind of Christ. It is at the other\npole from pride.\n\nHow are we to have the mind of Christ? Not by looking at him as an\nexample and trying to imitate him. There is real hopelessness in singing\n\n Trying to walk in the steps of the Saviour,\n Trying to follow our Saviour and King,\n Shaping our lives by his blessed example....\n\nFor that is just what we cannot do\u2015\u2015shape our lives by his example.\nWhen we are ready to stop \u201ctrying\u201d to do this, and will yield\nourselves that we may be conformed to his death, then our trying may be\nchanged to trusting, we can \u201cleave the miracle to him,\u201d and returning\nto the beautiful hymn whose first verse makes a bad start, we can sing\nwith new meaning the opening lines of the third verse:\n\n Walking by faith in the steps of our Saviour,\n Upward, still upward, we\u2019ll follow our Guide.\n\n\n\n\n THE SECOND COMING AND VICTORY\n\n\nThe next great event in God\u2019s program for the redemption of the world\nis the coming again to the earth of the Lord Jesus Christ. The last\nchapter of the Old Testament points forward to his second coming.\nThe last recorded words of the Lord Jesus are his words of promise,\n\u201cSurely, I come quickly,\u201d in the last chapter of the New Testament. The\nlast recorded prayer of God\u2019s people in the Word is the answer of their\nheart to this promise, \u201cEven so come, Lord Jesus.\u201d\n\nThe last word of the Old Testament is the word \u201ccurse,\u201d\u2015\u2015\u201clest I come\nand smite the earth with a curse.\u201d The central word of the last verse\nin the New Testament is \u201cgrace.\u201d He will come with the judgments of his\ncurse and with the revelation of his grace.\n\n\n Are You Ready for His Coming?\n\nAmong the many signs that seem to point to the nearness of his coming\nthere is none more striking than the movement of the Spirit in\nseparating the children of God from the things of the world and making\nthem hungry for the things of eternity. There are many sad evidences of\nfalling away, and of increasing worldliness on the part of large masses\nof professing Christians, but these make all the more notable that\ndeep hunger for victory in Christ and conformity to his likeness which\nincreasing numbers of Christians are sharing. Is this the work of the\nSpirit in making a little flock ready for his coming? Are _you_ ready?\n\nThe coming of Christ is the great incentive to holiness that is held\nbefore Christians in the New Testament. \u201cEvery one that hath this hope\n[the hope of his coming] set on him [set on Jesus] purifieth himself,\neven as he is pure\u201d (1 John 3:3).\n\nThere are many motives by which the Lord lovingly urges us to seek\ncomplete victory in him. We long for a life of joy and peace that we do\nnot have. We long to be rid of a life of struggle against \u201cbesetting\nsins.\u201d Or we are eager to have power in service and get results for\nChrist that are largely absent in our experience. By this or that\nmotive the Spirit leads us to an earnest seeking of God\u2019s secret of\nthe life of faith. But beyond all these motives is that supreme desire\nto be well pleasing to the Lord Jesus Christ, who loved us and gave\nhimself for us. \u201cAnd now, little children, abide in him; that, when he\nshall appear, we may have boldness, and not be ashamed before him at\nhis coming\u201d (1 John 2:28).\n\n\n Boldness Before Him Then and Now\n\nThe one way to be ready for his coming, to have boldness and not to be\nashamed, is to abide in him. \u201cWhosoever abideth in him sinneth not\u201d\n(1 John 3:6); to be cleansed from sin and to abide in that cleansing\nmakes us ready for his coming. If we are not enjoying the Victorious\nLife, which is just another way of saying \u201cabiding life,\u201d we are not\nready for his coming. And if we are not ready for his personal coming,\nwe are not ready for his presence in our midst now. That which gives\nus boldness _then_ is what gives us boldness before his throne _now_\nwhen we come to pray. \u201cBeloved, if our heart condemn us not, we have\nboldness toward God: and whatsoever we ask we receive of him, because\nwe keep his commandments and do the things that are pleasing in his\nsight ... and he that keepeth his commandments abideth in him, and\nhe in him\u201d (1 John 3:21, 22, 24).\n\nIf the coming of the Lord is in God\u2019s Word linked so vitally with a\nlife of personal holiness, it is essential that Christians should\nunderstand what the Spirit has revealed to us concerning the truth of\nhis coming. It is only at our peril that we neglect it. It is not an\naccident that most of those who are rejoicing in the Victorious Life\nare or become deeply interested in the truths of the Word concerning\nChrist\u2019s coming.\n\nBut how shall we know whether our view of his Second Coming is the\nScriptural view?\n\n\n Testing Our View of His Coming\n\nThere are two tests that will show with certainty to what extent our\nbelief about Christ\u2019s coming is a vital heart belief such as the\nApostles had. The first test concerns more definitely our personal\nrelation to his coming. Is the hope of his coming a real hope for you\nthat makes it the incentive to be ready and makes it a real event to\nwatch for with expectation, as for the return of a loved one?\n\nThe second test relates to the whole sweep of God\u2019s purposes of\nredemption and the part that Christ\u2019s Second Coming plays in them. A\nright understanding at this point will determine the general plan of\nactivities of the Church of Christ and of the individual Christian in\nthis present day of Grace. How essential then to know God\u2019s thought\non this subject, and how idle to suggest that this truth is not of\npractical bearing on present service. Both the spirit of service\nand the scope of service are involved, and these two tests show how\nintensely practical and necessary is the right view of his coming.\n\nThe first test has already been considered, and it is seen that the\nVictorious Life truth is vitally linked with the hope of his coming.\nThe second test of our belief regarding his coming is even more\nfundamental, and again it will be seen to be closely tied up with the\nheart secret of the Victorious Life, and with the truth of regeneration\nas well.\n\nIt is a common thing to speak of the doctrine of Christ\u2019s Second Coming\nas of greater or less relative importance than certain other doctrines;\nthus, it is pointed out that the Second Coming is mentioned more\noften in the New Testament than any other doctrine except that of the\natonement. It leads to confusion thus to speak of the teachings of the\nWord as though they could be divided. While it is convenient to study\nthe doctrines separately we miss a great truth if we fail to remember\nthat all these teachings brought to us by the Word of God are connected\none with the other and together form a complete unity.\n\n\n The Second Coming Necessary to the Atonement\n\nThe doctrine of Christ\u2019s Second Coming is not a teaching apart from the\natonement, but is _necessary to the atonement_. That is, God\u2019s plan of\nredemption for us cannot be completed apart from the coming of Christ\nand the events connected with that coming. His coming therefore is\nessential to salvation. Not that the understanding of the doctrine is\nessential to individual salvation. A sinner needs to know very little\nScripture in order to be saved; when the Spirit has convicted him of\nsin a single sentence of Glad Tidings will suffice. But it requires\nthe whole redemptive purposes of God to make that salvation possible.\nAnd those redemptive purposes include the appearing a second time\nof the God-man, our Lord Jesus Christ. The importance of our Lord\u2019s\nSecond Coming, then, is exactly parallel with the importance of his\nfirst coming and of his present ministry for the believer.\n\nThe Word of God presents salvation in a threefold aspect. There is the\npast, the present, and the future of salvation. \u201cWe were saved; we are\nbeing saved; we shall be saved.\u201d\n\n\n The Three \u201cAppearings\u201d\n\nOn every side these three aspects of salvation are emphasized in the\nWord. Attention has frequently been called to the three appearings\nmentioned in the ninth chapter of Hebrews: \u201c_now to appear_ in the\npresence of God for us ... now once in the end of the world _hath he\nappeared_ to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself ... and unto them\nthat look for him _shall he appear_ the second time without sin unto\nsalvation\u201d (Heb. 9:24, 26, 28).\n\nIn the three Shepherd Psalms the same truth is shadowed forth. The\ntwenty-second Psalm points to the redemption accomplished on Calvary,\nand is the Psalm of crucifixion and resurrection; the twenty-third\nPsalm is a picture of the present resurrection life in Christ; and in\nthe twenty-fourth Psalm we have the picture of the coming King. He is\nseen in these three Psalms as the Good Shepherd who laid down his life\nfor the sheep; as the Great Shepherd who rose again from the dead,\nwho makes us perfect \u201cin every good thing to do his will, working in\nus that which is well-pleasing in his sight\u201d (Heb. 13:20, 21); and as\nthe Chief Shepherd who will appear to give the crown of glory to his\nfaithful servants (1 Peter 5:4).\n\nThis threefold salvation is sometimes spoken of as justification,\nsanctification, and glorification: first, salvation from the penalty of\nsin; second, salvation from the power of sin; and third, salvation from\nthe possibility of sin.\n\nThere are three fundamental errors by which Satan seeks to rob of its\npower this threefold Gospel, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ in his\npast, present, and future work.\n\n\n Discounting Christ\u2019s Past Work\n\nThere is the teaching that we are saved from the death penalty of our\nsins by Christ plus our own effort. This error finds expression in many\nways. One mistake, more common in the past generation than to-day, is\nto consider it presumptuous to be sure of salvation. Now if the work is\nwholly Christ\u2019s it cannot be presumptuous to be certain that that work\nis complete and is satisfactory to the Father. Then there is the belief\nthat salvation from death and hell depends on our holding on to Christ,\nand since we may fail and thus fall away, we are never entirely sure\nof salvation until death comes or until the Lord comes to claim us.\nThese teachings present a subtle _mixture of works and grace_. If we\nare saved by grace, if redemption is entirely the work of Christ, then\nmay we indeed have assurance of eternal salvation. In its extreme form\nthis error is pure paganism, salvation by our own efforts. In its more\nrefined and moderate form it keeps Christians from the glorious present\nassurance of their eternal safety in the Lord Jesus. The safeguard\nagainst all these errors is to remember that salvation from the penalty\nof sin is all of grace. And grace means, Jesus Christ did it all for\nme. If he did, the work is finished, the work is perfect, and we have a\nsure guarantee that the purposes of God will be carried out. No one can\npluck the saved soul out of the Father\u2019s hand.\n\n\n Discounting His Present Work\n\nMost Christians are clear on the truth that they are saved by grace.\nThey make no effort of their own to add to the perfect atonement that\nChrist has made for their sins. But these same Christians when facing\nthe present tense of salvation, the second part of the threefold\nGospel, declare that here our own efforts are necessary. We must\nco-operate with God in fighting sin. We are justified by faith, but we\nare sanctified, gradually, by struggle. Their error is that they are\n_mixing works and grace_. God\u2019s plan for present salvation from the\npower of sin is exactly the same as his plan for deliverance from the\npenalty of sin. It is all of grace.\n\nThe test of the truth of our view as to Christ\u2019s Second Coming and the\nfuture tense of our salvation is as infallibly certain as the tests\nof the other aspects of salvation. For salvation is all of grace, and\nany view which makes salvation for the individual or for the universe\na mixture of God\u2019s work and man\u2019s work, a mixture of God\u2019s grace and\nman\u2019s effort, is in error.\n\n\n The Two Views of Our Lord\u2019s Return\n\nThere are two views of our Lord\u2019s coming. One is that the Church of\nChrist through the preaching of the Gospel and by co-operating with\nother agencies for righteousness, will Christianize the social order\nand bring in the period of righteousness which the Bible pictures as\nthe Kingdom age. At the close of this period, the Lord Jesus will come\nto judge the world. This is called the post-millennial view, because\nthe Kingdom age is known as the \u201cmillennium,\u201d or the thousand years.\nThe other view is that this thousand years of blessedness, or the\nKingdom age, will not be inaugurated until Christ himself comes as King\nto set up the new order on earth. This is known as the pre-millennial\nview.\n\nA well known Christian leader who has been very active in the preaching\nand working for \u201csocial regeneration,\u201d gave a message on the task of\nthe Church in the present world crisis, and the problem of the Church\nin making the world what it ought to be. He announced as his text,\n\u201cAnd he that sitteth on the throne said, Behold, I make all things\nnew\u201d (Rev. 21:5). One who heard the message remarked that the speaker\nafter announcing his text, \u201cwith two swift kicks kicked the text out\nof the auditorium, and did not allow it to enter again during his\ndiscourse.\u201d For the opening sentence of his message was this: \u201cCan we,\nthe followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, make things over?\u201d\n\nGod\u2019s Word does not say, \u201cwe, the followers of the Lord Jesus.\u201d It\nsays \u201cI\u201d; and the Son of God sitting on the throne of his glory is the\nspeaker. The Word of God does not speak of making things over. It says,\n\u201cBehold, I make all things _new_.\u201d\n\n\n Discounting Christ\u2019s Future Work\n\nHere is the fundamental error of the post-millennial view of the Lord\u2019s\ncoming: _it is a mixture of works and grace_.\n\nGod\u2019s plan for establishing righteousness in the universe is exactly\nthe same as his plan for establishing righteousness in the human\nheart. It is all of grace, not of works. The pre-millennial view means\nthe Kingdom age by grace, as the Victorious Life means the Kingdom\nprinciples in the individual heart by grace.\n\nLet each Christian earnestly face these two tests of his attitude\ntoward the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.\n\n\n Make the Blessed Hope a Vital Power!\n\nIf his hope of the coming of the Lord is not an incentive of vital and\npresent power in his life, there is something wrong with his theory. If\na Christian believes that it is not possible for the Lord to come for\nat least a thousand years, or until the period during which Satan is\nbound has run its course (whether a thousand literal years or not), can\nhe honestly say that the blessed hope of the personal appearing of his\nLord is a vital power in the life?\n\nThe second test of our view of his coming can apply also to every part\nof our salvation. Have we the blessed assurance of eternal salvation\nthrough the blood that gives us eagerness and power to lead others into\nthe same assurance? Are we rejoicing in all the blessed \u201cpresent tenses\nof salvation,\u201d victory by grace through faith? Are we surrounded by his\nown light in these dark days because we know that the world\u2019s problem\nis to be solved by grace, by God himself, so that we live \u201csoberly,\nrighteously, and godly in this present age; looking for that blessed\nhope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus\nChrist\u201d?\n\n\n\n\n CHRISTIAN SCIENCE AND VICTORY\n\n\nChristian Science offers a life of freedom from worry or anxiety. It\nproposes to give the secret of the smiling face in the midst of any\nsort of circumstances.\n\nChristian Science offers complete freedom from the dominion of sin.\n\nChristian Science offers to make faith a vital and all-pervading force\nin daily life.\n\nChristian Science offers to give deliverance from the bondage of\nsickness.\n\nIt is not wise for Christians to attempt to meet Christian Science by\nridicule and sarcasm. Christian Science is offering to supply exactly\nthe things that the hearts of thousands of church members are craving.\nIt is not strange that many should be investigating its claims. If the\nindication in a single Christian Science center is a fair criterion,\nthere are thousands of church members daily looking into this supposed\n\u201cnew\u201d teaching to see if they can find a faith with a vital reality in\nit.\n\nThese things that Christian Science claims to supply are just the\nthings that are offered to every Christian through the sufficient grace\nof the Lord Jesus.\n\nThe Victorious Life in Christ is a life kept free from worry or\nanxiety. Its possessors have the secret of a constant, abiding joy that\nis independent of circumstances (Phil. 4:6, 7; John 15:11; 16:22).\n\nThe Victorious Life, which is just Christ himself in the believer,\ngives complete victory over sin, without struggle (Rom. 6:14; 1 Cor.\n10:13; John 8:36).\n\nThe Victorious Life is the life of faith, walking in the Spirit,\nlooking unto Jesus, enduring as seeing him who is invisible, counting\nthe unseen things the eternal and real things (Col. 3:3; Gal. 2:20;\nJohn 15:7).\n\nThe Victorious Life is a life of prosperity for body as well as for\nspirit, for in Christ is the supply of every present need, for body,\nsoul, and spirit (3 John 2; Ps. 103:3; Matt. 8:17; Rom. 8:11).\n\nIf the fulness of the blessing of the Gospel of Christ were faithfully\npreached there would be little prepared soil among church members for\nthe springing up of the seeds of \u201cChristian Science.\u201d It is the Enemy\nwho is sowing these seeds and the supreme sign of his subtle work is\nthis apparent likeness to the true grain. What is the fundamental\ndistinction between Christian Science and the Victorious Life in\nChrist, between God\u2019s truth and Satan\u2019s imitation of that truth?\n\n\n Error\u2019s Imitations of Truth\n\nChristian Science says: \u201cIn nothing be anxious: there is nothing to be\nanxious about. All troubles are creations of the mind, results of wrong\nthinking, and the cure for them is to think them away.\u201d\n\nThe Word of God says, \u201cIn nothing be anxious.\u201d Not because there is\nnothing to be anxious about. There is. There is that which required\nthe bloody sweat of the Son of God in Gethsemane. But the Word of God\ntells us that full provision has been made for those wrong things that\nmay well cause anxiety. Back of the word of the Spirit in Philippians,\n\u201cIn nothing be anxious,\u201d is God. Back of the Christian Science word is\n\u201cmortal mind.\u201d\n\nChristian Science says, \u201cReckon yourselves dead unto sin: because sin\nhas no real existence, and since it is a creation of the wrong thinking\nof mortal mind, the way to think it out of existence is to reckon\nyourself dead to it. As you reckon, as you believe, you are dead to\nsin, and for you it has no reality or existence.\u201d\n\n\n Faith Does Not Create Facts\n\nThe Word of God says, \u201cReckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto\nsin.\u201d Not because sin does not exist. It does. Not because sin is not\nreal. There is nothing more real in the universe. But Jesus Christ has\nmet the full measure of the guilt and penalty and pollution of sin,\nand has completely conquered it. If we are crucified with him, buried\nwith him and risen again with him, as every child of God is, then\nwe are to reckon it true that we are dead unto sin: not because our\nthinking can change facts, but because God himself tells us to count on\na great fact, something that he himself has accomplished; as we reckon\nthat fact true our faith is laying hold of the benefits in present\nexperience of that redemption which God has accomplished. _My faith\ndoes not make the fact true._ Faith gives me the benefit of a fact that\nis true whether I believe it or not. True faith is impossible without\nsomething real to rest upon. Satan\u2019s counterfeit faith in Christian\nScience returns upon itself, endeavors to create facts by thinking them\ntrue.\n\nChristian Science says that sickness and death are delusions of the\nmortal mind. It does not offer a scheme of healing disease but a\nphilosophy to make clear that disease does not exist except as an error\nin the thinking of mortal mind. Clear away that error in thinking, and\nthe effects of the so-called sickness will disappear.\n\nThe Word of God says, \u201cThe wages of sin is _death_\u201d; and, \u201cHimself took\nour infirmities, and bare our _sicknesses_.\u201d Without entering here into\nthe question of the use of remedies, or the limitations to the use of\n\u201cthe prayer of faith\u201d which will heal the sick, let us remember that\nin Christ there is full provision for sin _and all its results_. He\ncame to destroy the works of the devil. It is certainly God\u2019s highest\nand first will that his children should be in health of body, not in\nsickness, if this result can be had without injuring his children in\nother ways. God\u2019s permission of sickness and premature death among\nhis devoted children must not be pointed to as an indication that it\nis not his first will that all his children should enjoy health of\nbody. God would have all men to be saved, and has made full provision\nfor their salvation: but not all are saved; God would have all his\nchildren abide continually in Christ and be kept from sinning, and he\nhas made complete provision for this: but few are entering into their\nfull privileges of victory; God would have his children free from\ndisease, for he is the God who forgives all our iniquities and heals\nall our diseases, and in Christ he has made full and complete provision\nfor this: but in his infinite love and wisdom he permits many of his\nchildren to continue in suffering of body for longer or shorter periods.\n\n\n Christian Science Kills Faith\n\nIn this contrast between Christian Science and the Word of God it will\nbe seen that the teachings of this \u201cfaith\u201d cult make faith impossible.\nSatan always strikes at the center of things in his attacks on\nChristians and on the Word of God; so he takes away their faith and\nthat which it rests upon. Again and again in personal interviews with\nthose seeking victory, when the meaning of faith has been explained the\nanswer has come, \u201cWhy, that would be just like Christian Science. I\ncannot make a thing true just by believing it.\u201d With Christian Science,\nthinking a thing true makes it true, or rather, \u201cthinking right\u201d\nremoves the error which has resulted only because the thinking has been\nwrong. But real faith rests always on facts. We believe, not in order\nto make a fact true, but because it is true.\n\nSo startling is the parallel between what Christian Science offers and\nwhat the Victorious Life in Christ guarantees, that a number who have\nread articles in _The Sunday School Times_ have written to ask if the\nVictorious Life teaching and Christian Science were not practically the\nsame. In answer to these inquiries a brief Open Letter was published a\nfew years ago pointing out the difference between Christian Science and\n\u201cthe Victorious Life.\u201d The Open Letter closed with this sentence: \u201cThey\ndiffer from each other as do food and poison, noon-day and midnight,\nomnipotence and impotence, life and death, Heaven and hell, Christ and\nSatan.\u201d\n\n\n A Christian Science Leader\u2019s Admission\n\nA leading advocate of Christian Science called upon the Editor of _The\nSunday School Times_ to protest against this article. The interesting\nthing about the interview with this cultured representative of\nChristian Science was his earnest effort to prove that he and his\nfellow Scientists believed just what Christians who were teaching the\nVictorious Life believed, and were aiming at the same kind of life. As\neach point was mentioned there was this apparent agreement, until\u2015\u2015mark\nthis\u2015\u2015until the vicarious atonement through the blood of the Lord Jesus\nChrist was mentioned. There he frankly confessed that they parted\ncompany; they do not accept any atonement for sin.\n\nAt a Victorious Life Conference a Christian Scientist girl was\nprevailed upon to attend a meeting where the subject was the meaning\nof faith in laying hold of God\u2019s Word that \u201cMy grace is sufficient\nfor thee,\u201d and similar words of fact and promise. At the close of the\nmeeting an opportunity was given for those who wished by rising to\ncommit the whole matter of victory to God, trusting him to do it all by\ngrace. To the astonishment of her friends, the Christian Scientist girl\nrose. She asked them, \u201cAre you surprised that I stood? That is what I\nhave believed all along.\u201d She was accepting it all as good Christian\nScience. At the close of the period of question and discussion the\nspeaker asked if there were those present who had never accepted the\nLord Jesus as Saviour from sin, and did not know salvation through the\nshed blood of Jesus. At the mention of the blood of the Lord Jesus\nChrist, this young woman who had stood up to take a step of faith for\nvictory, rose at once from her seat and left the room.\n\nHere we come to the heart of Christian Science error: it denies the\nblood, the vicarious atonement for sin. And here is the secret of many\nunsatisfactory attempts on the part of Christians to live a life of\nvictory. Earnestly seeking to claim the wonderful promises of God\u2019s\nword, many have failed to understand the meaning of the blood of Christ\nand to share in experience his crucifixion death, that they might also\nknow the resurrection victory.\n\n\n A Masterpiece of Imitation Victory\n\nChristian Science is the devil\u2019s great masterpiece of imitation\nvictory. It is the vain attempt to know the resurrection life without\nthe crucifixion death. It is the attempted robbery of the life\npictured in the twenty-third Psalm, the life of still waters and green\npastures, the life in which all the needs of the sheep are met by an\nall-powerful and all-loving Shepherd. But while attempting to claim the\ntwenty-third Psalm, the Christian Scientist blots out the twenty-second\nPsalm with its agony of Calvary and its resurrection victory. We must\nbe one with the Lord Jesus in his death and burial before we can be\none with him in resurrection life. The blood of the Lord Jesus must\nbe kept always at the heart of the teaching and the experience of the\nVictorious Life. The reason for much disappointment in the living of\nthe Victorious Life is because there is what may be called a Christian\nScience acceptance of the teaching without a real foundation being laid\nin the blood of the Lamb.\n\nFirst of all, the foundation must be laid in a clear understanding of\nthe meaning of the new birth. Those who have had experience in dealing\nwith hungry Christians seeking the life of victory in Christ, have\nbeen amazed at the number of such earnest inquirers who have no clear\nconception of what it means to be born again, or to be saved by grace.\n\n\n Can You Tell a Sinner Just How to Be Saved?\n\nThe following question has been put again and again to audiences\nconsisting of Christian workers and Bible students: \u201cHow many here are\nsure you could tell an inquirer exactly what he must do to become a\nChristian and receive the new birth?\u201d The result of this question is\nnothing less than startling. As many as half and two-thirds in these\naudiences have not raised their hands to indicate that they could\nexplain the way of salvation. But if one cannot tell an inquirer how\nto be saved, neither can he tell why he himself is sure of salvation.\nAnd until one knows the word regarding the real meaning of sin and the\natonement, there will be only disappointment in trying to get hold\nof the experience of victory in Christ.\n\nThe steps of salvation are perfectly simple. First, one must know that\nhe is lost. Otherwise he cannot need a Saviour. To believe that the\nLord Jesus Christ died in my place, I must believe that I am such a\nsinner as deserved death. \u201cAll have sinned and come short of the glory\nof God\u201d (Rom. 3:23). Joined with this is the word, \u201cThe wages of sin\nis death; but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our\nLord\u201d (Rom. 6:23). I am saved by grace through faith (Eph. 2:8); faith\nis believing that all my sins were put on Jesus and he paid the penalty\nfor them (Isa. 53:6); now I have been born again and am a child of God;\nand I know it not because I feel it, but because God\u2019s Word says so\n(John 1:12; 1 John 5:9-13).\n\nA clear understanding of the blood will save us from a superficial idea\nof sin and its awfulness. If the cross of Christ is ever in view we\nshall have God\u2019s estimate of sin, and there will be a clear realization\nthat it required the whole sacrifice of Calvary to accomplish the\nmiracle of victory. In a testimony meeting at a Victorious Life\nconference a Christian was explaining that his chief difficulty had\nbeen with \u201cthose little troubles,\u201d such as irritation, impatience,\npride and such things. \u201cYou mean those devilish sins,\u201d the leader\nof the meeting suggested. There is not likely to be that earnest,\nagonizing heart cry, \u201cO wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me\nfrom the body of this death,\u201d so long as we think of sin as little\ntroubles to be overcome. All sin is devilish, and the Son of God is\nthe only one who has won the victory over sin. Victory for us then\nbegins with the cross of Christ, but it is possible only as we keep\ncontinually under that shed blood and appropriating His resurrection\nlife. The whole sacrifice of Calvary is necessary to keep us free from\nthe least of what we call the little sins.\n\nChristian Science not only would rob a Christian of faith, it would\nrob him of the blessed hope. \u201cThe second appearing of Jesus is\nunquestionably the spiritual advent of the advancing idea of God in\nChristian Science,\u201d says Mrs. Eddy. Hope points toward the future, and\nChristian Science has no place for future deliverance from evil and\nsin, except as the human race learns that these are errors of mortal\nmind.\n\n\n It Takes Away Faith, Hope, Love\n\nChristian Science would rob us of love. It is a startling fact that not\na dollar is given by Scientists to preach the Gospel among those who\nhave never heard the name of Jesus. They have no foreign missionary\nsocieties. A Christian who had spent fifteen years in work among the\npoor and degraded classes in New York City was rebuked by a Christian\nScientist for suggesting that her faith was not the faith of the Bible;\nhe asked her why it was that in his fifteen years\u2019 experience, touching\nall phases of work for the relief of the destitute in body and spirit\nin New York, he had never come across a single Christian Scientist\nhelping in the work. She had no answer. It is a religion without\ncompassion.\n\nFaith, hope, and love are linked together in a remarkable passage in\nHebrews 10:19-25. Close to the word faith is mention of \u201cthe blood\nof Jesus\u201d; not far from \u201chope\u201d are the words \u201cso much the more as ye\nsee the day drawing nigh\u201d; and in close conjunction with \u201clove\u201d is\n\u201cgood works.\u201d Thus are these great foundation stones of the Christian\nFaith linked in the Word of God. All of them are denied, and are made\nimpossible by Christian Science.\n\nThe antidote to Christian Science is the Word of God. But do they not\nfound their belief on the Bible? No. The Bible is not necessary to\nChristian Science. Indeed, it is one of the great handicaps to the\nsystem. Not many Scientists are as honest, or as well informed, as the\nlocomotive engineer who recently explained that Christian Scientists\nknew that the Bible was not true, and that men would gradually give it\nup; but it had such a hold on people that no religion could hope to\nhave a hearing unless it professed to be founded on the Bible. When\npeople get hold of the truth of Christian Science, they will see,\nhe added, that the Bible is not needed and is false; the purpose of\nChristian Science is to lead people away from the error of the Bible.\nThat is certainly the purpose of the real founder of Christian Science,\nwhether or not it was in the mind of the woman he used to propagate the\ncult.\n\nAnd the antidote to superficial views of the Victorious Life, which\npartake of these errors of Christian Science, is the Word of God. Feed\non it, meditate on it _day and night_. So will the living Word continue\nto be your Life, guarding and keeping you in that victory which is\nChrist.\n\n\n\n\n IS IT A \u201cSECOND BLESSING\u201d?\n\n\n\u201cDo you believe in the second blessing?\u201d\n\n\u201cTo be sure I do,\u201d answered a Christian whose reply voices the judgment\nof many, \u201cbut I shouldn\u2019t confine it to a second blessing. I believe in\nhundreds of blessings after conversion.\u201d\n\nWhatever may be our view of such a term as \u201cthe second blessing,\u201d let\nus not lose the experience it describes by confusing these hundreds\nof blessings with that distinct change which comes in a life when the\nsecret of complete victory is learned.\n\nA noted Christian leader in England who was prejudiced against the\nteaching of a \u201chigher life\u201d was prevailed upon to hear a message on the\nsubject. He approached the speaker, who was a friend of his, with this\ncriticism: \u201cThat is all well enough, but you are preaching lop-sided\ntruth. What we need is all-round truth.\u201d \u201cYes,\u201d was the reply, \u201cbut we\nare preaching to lop-sided Christians. When we get them into the center\nthen we can give them all-round truth.\u201d\n\nDr. Griffith Thomas, who relates this incident of the English\npreachers, has pointed out that \u201cthe perfecting of the saints\u201d means\nliterally \u201cthe adjusting of the saints.\u201d It is as when a broken\nshoulder needs to be set before the blood can flow properly and the\narm be used. It is this adjustment of \u201clop-sided Christians\u201d which\nmarks the great change. Those who experience the change realize that\nit is something different from any blessing they have received since\nconversion, and different from any new experience of deepening that\nwill come in the life later.\n\nWhat is this distinct change that comes in the life of the Christian?\n\nIt is clear that the Scriptures never hold before the believer two\n_standards_ for the Christian life. The New Testament does recognize\nthat Christians may walk as \u201ccarnal,\u201d whereas their true state is to\nbe spiritual (Gal. 6:1; 1 Cor. 3:1). It recognizes that Christians may\nwalk after the flesh or after the Spirit (Rom. 8:4; Gal. 5:16).\n\n\n A Spirit-Filled Life God\u2019s Only Standard\n\nBut this does not mean that there are two standards for Christians\nto choose between. On the contrary, the Word makes plain that when a\nChristian walks after the flesh, when he is \u201ccarnal,\u201d he is acting as\nthough he were not a child of God at all. \u201cAnd I brethren, could not\nspeak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, as unto babes in\nChrist. I fed you with milk, not with meat; for ye were not yet able\nto bear it: nay, not even now are ye able; for ye are yet carnal: for\nwhereas there is among you jealousy and strife, are ye not carnal, and\ndo ye not walk after the manner of men?\u201d These Christians, Paul says,\nwere walking as natural men, who have not been born again, instead of\nliving as spiritual children of God.\n\nThere is no platform below the Spirit-filled life which affords a safe\nresting ground for a Christian. One who calls himself by the name of\nChrist, but does not have the fulness of the Spirit, and yet says that\nhe has no desire for this deeper experience, is confessing that there\nis no evidence he has ever been born again. For while a Christian may\nlive below the standard Christ desires he cannot be comfortable in\ndoing it; the Spirit of God within him is longing for the driving out\nof everything contrary to the life of Christ.\n\nThe heart of the Spirit-filled life is freedom from sin. A normal\nChristian is a man who does not sin. \u201cWe who died to sin, how shall\nwe any longer live therein?\u201d (Rom. 6:2). \u201cThese things write I unto\nyou that ye may not sin\u201d (1 John 2:1). \u201cWhosoever is begotten of God\ndoeth no sin\u201d (1 John 3:9). \u201cWe know that whosoever is begotten of God\nsinneth not\u201d (1 John 5:18).\n\nSome teachers who have noted these plain statements of the Word have\nconcluded that a Christian does not commit sin, and that so soon as\na Christian does he ceases to be a Christian. If he is sinning it is\na proof that he is not a Christian, and will not be reinstated as a\nchild of God till he ceases his sinning. These teachers, however, see\nthe difficulty that in the heart of many Christians are wrong feelings\nthat should not be there, and which they do not want there but over\nwhich they apparently have no control. To get over this and other\ndifficulties they explain that a Christian does not _commit_ \u201coutward\u201d\nsins, though he has these sinful impulses in his heart. Even this\nstandard, it is to be feared, would cut down the number of Christians\nto a small minimum.\n\n\n A Normal Christian is Free from Sin\n\nBut a more serious objection to this method of explaining these\ndifficult verses in First John is that it contradicts the very\npoint that the Apostle is making. If close attention is paid to the\nconclusion of First John 3:9 it should guard from these errors:\n\u201cWhosoever is begotten of God doeth no sin, because his seed abideth in\nhim: and _he cannot sin_, because he is begotten of God.\u201d\n\nThat seed which is born of God is, as Dr. A. J. Ramsey has pointed\nout, the Child of God himself, not a seed _in_ him. While he abides he\ncannot sin. (As Moffatt also translates: \u201cThe offspring of God remain\nin Him.\u201d) The whole argument of the Epistle of John, and particularly\nof this portion, is that a normal Christian is one who is free from\nsin. The Apostle does not mean to say that a child of God does not\n\u201cdeliberately\u201d sin, or that he does not \u201ccontinue in sin\u201d as the rule\nof his life, or that he does not let the inward impulses of sin express\nthemselves: he means that the Christian, while he abides in Christ,\nwhere he belongs, does not sin. He is God\u2019s new creation, and walks in\nthe light having fellowship with God. For \u201cGod is light, and in him is\nno darkness at all\u201d (1 John 1:5).\n\n\n When a Christian Acts as a Child of Satan\n\nDoes John mean that a Christian does not sin, or that he ceases to be a\nChristian if he sins? The opposite is taught in this very Epistle. John\nis writing these things that Christians may not sin, but he recognizes\nthat they may, and tells them just what to do to have the sin cleansed\naway in case they do sin.\n\nWhen a Christian sins, _he is acting against his true nature_. That is\nthe argument of First John and of all the Epistles. When a Christian\nsins, he is acting _as though he were_ a child of the devil. He as a\nchild of God can have nothing to do with sin. But there is his free\nwill to step out of the place of abiding, and this makes possible the\ntragedy of a Christian\u2019s sinning.\n\nJames is facing this tragedy of a Christian\u2019s acting against his true\nnature when he exclaims: \u201cDoth the fountain send forth from the same\nopening sweet water and bitter? can a fig tree, my brethren, yield\nolives, or a vine figs? neither can salt water yield sweet\u201d (James\n3:10-12). All these things act according to their true nature. If a\nChristian acted thus there would flow always from his life and lips\nthe fruit of the Spirit. But the Apostle shows in the passage that a\nChristian may pray with the same mouth that he uses to say mean things\nabout his neighbor, and that he may have in his heart \u201cbitter jealousy\nand faction.\u201d\n\nHere, then, is our foundation truth that God has but one standard for\nthe Christian life, one kind of holiness, and that is the standard of\nhis Son, who is to be our life. And that Life, that holiness, God has\ngiven _to every Christian_.\n\n\n God\u2019s Perfect Provision for Every Christian\n\nIt was to those \u201ccarnal\u201d Corinthians, who had jealousy and strife in\ntheir midst, that Paul by the Spirit wrote: \u201cI thank my God always\nconcerning you, for the grace of God which was given you in Christ\nJesus; that in everything ye were enriched in him, in all utterance and\nall knowledge; even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you:\nso that ye come behind in no gift; waiting for the revelation of our\nLord Jesus Christ; who shall also confirm you unto the end, that ye may\nbe unreprovable in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful,\nthrough whom ye were called into the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ\nour Lord\u201d (1 Cor. 1:4-9).\n\nThis surely is a picture of the fulness of blessing in Christ, and it\nis stated that this grace had been given to the Corinthians because\nthey were Christians. Similarly in the eighth chapter of Romans the\nlife of victory is described: \u201cFor the law of the Spirit of life in\nChrist Jesus made me free from the law of sin and of death\u201d (Rom. 8:2).\nThis freedom belongs to every believer in the Lord Jesus. So throughout\nthe New Testament it is made clear that when God spared not his own Son\nbut delivered him up for us all, he freely gave with Christ all things\nthat a Christian needs.\n\nBut while there is but one salvation, and one plan of salvation, this\nsalvation has a two-fold aspect. God has indeed only one standard for\nChristians, the standard of his Son, that is complete holiness. But\nGod\u2019s message of salvation comes to two distinct classes of people, to\nlost sinners, and to saints\u2015\u2015sinners saved by grace.\n\n\n Christians Need to Be Saved\n\n\u201cIf while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death\nof his Son\u201d (Rom. 5:10). This is the message of salvation for sinners.\nThe next words of this verse are very significant: \u201cMuch more.\u201d The\napostle has just been speaking of salvation for sinners, and now he is\nto tell us something \u201cmuch more.\u201d This word should prepare us for some\namazing revelation of his grace. \u201cMuch more, being reconciled, shall we\nbe saved by his life.\u201d\n\nDo Christians, then, need salvation? Indeed they do, and the Word of\nGod suggests here that a good name for that salvation which reconciled\nChristian needs is \u201cthe much more salvation,\u201d and this is just another\nway of saying \u201cthe Victorious Life.\u201d\n\nGod has granted that life to every Christian. But not every Christian\nis enjoying it. For the Christian has the terrible power of choosing\nto walk after the flesh and not after the Spirit. God\u2019s plan is that\nthe Christian life should be a moment by moment miracle life, just as\nthe new birth is a miracle. \u201cIf we live by the Spirit, by the Spirit\nlet us also walk\u201d (Gal. 5:25). Being born again, and \u201cwalking,\u201d are\ntwo distinct things. When a Christian learns that God intends him to\nwalk by faith, letting Christ do it all, just as he has believed that\nChrist has done it all in the matter of saving him from the penalty\nof his sins, then the Christian is ready to enter into the fulness of\nthe Spirit, which is the Victorious Life.\n\nAnd when he does enter by faith for the first time into this complete\nvictory, which has been his privilege all along in Christ, there is\nsuch a marked change that it is natural for a Christian to think of\nit as a \u201csecond blessing.\u201d There is that perfectly clear distinction\nbetween being born again, and \u201cwalking\u201d or living moment by moment\nafter the new birth has taken place. The man who has been born again is\nin a place to take hold of the much-more salvation for Christians as he\ncould not do in his unregenerate state.\n\n\n Testing Our \u201cDoctrine\u201d of Victory\n\nThere are some simple tests of our \u201cview\u201d of complete victory over sin\nwhich will show whether we are in danger of coming into bondage to a\n_doctrine_.\n\nAny view that centers attention upon self is dangerous. The heart\nsecret of victory is looking away from self unto Christ. If I testify,\n\u201cI am holy\u201d; if I must look into my own state, examining self to see\nwhether this holiness still remains, I am on wrong ground.\n\nAny view that brings into prominence my past record of victory or\nholiness leads to difficulties. The testimony, \u201cI have not sinned\nfor so many weeks or months since my new experience\u201d may be given\nwith sincerity, and the speaker may intend to give the glory to God.\nNevertheless, it is a wrong testimony, and no encouragement is given\nin the Word for such a statement. For one thing, no human being has a\nperfect memory; none of us can have accurate knowledge of past states\nof consciousness. Victory is always a matter of the present moment,\nand if we are occupied with Christ and _his_ perfect work for us, the\nmatter of _our_ past record is of no consequence, so far as it bears on\npresent victory by faith.\n\nAny view that centers attention upon feeling is on the wrong basis.\nMany Christians who have come into the new experience of the fulness of\nthe Spirit have been overwhelmed with flood-tides of blessed feeling.\nIn some cases this exalted state of feeling has continued for weeks or\neven months. Some have counted this the \u201cwitness of the Spirit\u201d that\na new work of grace has been wrought in their hearts. Many have been\nthrown into confusion and darkness by waiting for this \u201cwitness of\nthe Spirit,\u201d which they have been taught to believe is some wondrous\nconsciousness in their feeling. Others who have had such a \u201cwitness\u201d\nhave later lost the feeling and have wondered whether their experience\nhas gone. God often permits the feeling to go, that his child may learn\nto look to Christ and to the fact of his grace in the life, rather than\nto the feelings, which vary according to temperament and circumstances.\n\n\n What is the \u201cWitness of the Spirit\u201d?\n\nFeeling or emotion should not be discounted, but should be kept in\nits right place. Praise God for every blessed emotion that is of his\nSpirit, but praise him also when the emotion is entirely absent. He and\nhis grace remain the same, while the feelings go up and down. There\nshould be, indeed, a continuous consciousness of his presence, but\nconsciousness is based on fact and is not to be confused with emotion.\n\nAs to the \u201cwitness of the Spirit,\u201d there is no suggestion in the Word\nof God that this \u201cwitness\u201d has any connection with a great flood-tide\nof feeling. \u201cHe that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in\nhim: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he hath\nnot believed in the witness that God hath borne concerning his Son.\nAnd the witness is this, that God gave unto us eternal life, and this\nlife is in his Son\u201d (1 John 5:10, 11). The witness is God\u2019s record,\nor God\u2019s eternal Word to us, that he has done something, that he has\ngiven us a gift. He does not want us to _feel_ this word, or witness\nof his. He wants us to _believe_ it. One who does not believe it makes\nGod a liar, and this is what Christians are in danger of doing, both\nin regard to salvation from the penalty of sin and salvation from the\npower of sin. When we believe this word, and the wonder of the gift\nbreaks upon us more and more, we shall have feelings, of course, and\nthey will find expression according to our different temperaments and\nenvironments.\n\n(Dr. Griffith Thomas notes that the often abused passage on the witness\nof the Spirit in Romans eight does not say that the Spirit beareth\nwitness _to_ our spirit, but _with_ our spirit, that we are children\nof God. That is, our spirit says \u201cFather,\u201d and the Holy Spirit says\n\u201cFather\u201d with us.)\n\n\n John Wesley on Use of Terms\n\nWhatever our \u201cview,\u201d let us guard against laying emphasis upon certain\nterms, and making these the test of correctness. We should remember\nthat God has granted the same experience to Christians who have come\ninto their experience by different paths and who therefore explain\nit in different ways. The important thing, after all, is to have\nthe fruits of the experience in the life. John Wesley, who had the\nexperience, whatever our view of his theology, has a word of wise\ncounsel at this point:\n\n\u201cBeware of tempting others to separate from you. Give no offense which\ncan possibly be avoided; see that your practice be in all things\nsuitable to your profession, adorning the doctrine of God our Saviour.\nBe particularly careful in speaking of yourself; you may not indeed\ndeny the work of God; but speak of it when you are called thereto in\nthe most inoffensive manner possible. Avoid all magnificent, pompous\nwords. Indeed, you need give it no general name; neither \u2018perfection,\u2019\n\u2018sanctification,\u2019 \u2018the second blessing,\u2019 nor \u2018the having attained.\u2019\nRather speak of the particulars that God has wrought for you....\nAnd answer any other plain question that is asked with modesty and\nsimplicity.\u201d\n\n\n Was It Sin, or \u201cInfirmity\u201d?\n\nAny view that leads us to lower the standard of holiness to fit our\nexperience, or to argue with the devil or with ourselves over sin, is\nin error. A Christian who has had a blessed new experience notices\nsomething in the life that is not quite according to the Spirit of\nChrist. He begins to examine it and decides that this is not a sin\nbut one of the \u201cinfirmities\u201d from which he has not expected complete\ndeliverance. Or he confesses it as a sin and is cleansed in the blood\nof Christ, but since he does not want to believe that he has lost his\nexperience he explains that this was a temptation from without and was\nnot due to any evil within. Or, not able to delude himself with these\nbits of human reasonings, he falls back into his old life of struggle\nand failure.\n\nJohn Wesley has a word in season here also: \u201cAnd if any of you should\nat any time fall from what you now are, if you should again feel pride\nor unbelief, or any temper from which you are now delivered, do not\ndeny it, do not hide it, do not disguise it at all, at the peril of\nyour soul. At all events, go to one in whom you can confide, and speak\njust what you feel. God will enable him to speak a word in season which\nshall be health to your soul. And surely the Lord will again lift up\nyour head and cause the bones that have been broken to rejoice.\u201d\n\nThe Bible treatment of the conquest of sin is subject to none of these\ndistressing difficulties. It guards from dangerous errors on every\nside, and at the same time leaves no loopholes for tolerating sin as do\nthe current views held by nearly all Christians.\n\n\n What Terms Does the Bible Use?\n\nGod says, \u201cReckon ye also yourselves to be dead unto sin\u201d (Rom. 6:11).\nThere are two ways the devil would like us to interpret this. One is by\nhis old lie regarding \u201cdeath.\u201d He wants us to believe that the capacity\nfor sinning is taken away so that we shall not acknowledge sin to be\nsin, and shall call the works of the devil the fruit of the Spirit.\nBut death is not annihilation, but separation. It is not that some\n\u201cthing\u201d within us has been put out of existence. All that we were as\nlost sinners, in our unregenerate state\u2015\u2015the \u201cold man\u201d\u2015\u2015was crucified\nwith Christ and is buried, and a Christian is to reckon that fact true.\nBut he is to remember that there is ever the possibility of turning\nour members over as instruments of sin. And whenever sin enters, when\nanything in thought, word or deed that is contrary to the Spirit of\nChrist has a place in the life, it means that self is on the throne and\nwe are alive to sin.\n\nBut Satan\u2019s other interpretation of this verse is his favorite one,\nfor by it he deludes most Christians. It is only when this fails that\nhe tries the other and drives the Christian beyond the Word of God.\nYou are to reckon yourselves dead unto sin, Satan tells us, but of\ncourse you know very well that it is never actually true that you _are_\ndead unto sin. You will keep on sinning. When you die then will come\ncomplete deliverance, but not before. In other words, God is a liar.\nAll Satan\u2019s wiles in the last analysis are found to be variations of\nthis original statement of his to our first parents.\n\nGod never tells us to reckon on a lie. It is eternally true that in our\nposition before God we are dead to sin, because we have been crucified\nwith Christ and raised together with him. This position of ours becomes\na blessed reality in actual experience as we reckon by faith, and only\nso long as we reckon by faith. Let Satan not rob us of our heritage\nby telling us it is only \u201cpositionally\u201d that we are dead to sin. God\nis not thus mocking us when he tells us to \u201creckon\u201d on this truth of\ncrucifixion with Christ.\n\n\n When We Reckon Self Dead to Sin\n\nThis reckoning gives us no holiness of our own. It gives no cause for\nboasting in our own record. It gives no uneasiness as to whether we\nhave had this or that feeling as a witness of the Spirit.\n\nIt will be seen from these Scriptures which have been considered that\nevery true Christian has _a measure_ of victory in Christ. As Dr.\nScofield has pointed out, the experience of Christians and Christian\nexperience may be two entirely different things; for Christian\nexperience is wholly the product of the Holy Spirit. Whatever measure\nof true Christian life is expressed, therefore, is the work of the\nHoly Spirit, and to that extent is victory by faith, even though the\nChristian is ignorant of the truth of the faith walk.\n\nThe Victorious Life, which is just another term for the normal\n\u201cChristian Life,\u201d is simply walking moment by moment in complete faith\nin His perfect work.\n\nWhether I am in victory or not at this moment is simply a question as\nto whether or not I am appropriating the sufficient grace of the Lord\nJesus for the needs of this very moment. My glorious privilege is so to\nappropriate that grace, _now_, and to do it moment by moment without\nany breaks. For His Grace IS sufficient. His Grace is \u201cmore than\nenough.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n CONTINUING AND GROWING IN VICTORY\n\n\nA wrong start is one of the chief causes of failure in the Victorious\nLife. The first secret of continuing in victory, so to speak, is to\nbegin. Nothing can be continued unless it is begun. To see clearly that\nthe Victorious Life is a miracle of grace, and is wholly the work of\nthe Lord Jesus, is necessary to this right beginning. Many attempt to\nlive the life without fully getting rid of the element of self-effort.\n\nHaving begun right, the next thing is to continue as we began. The act\nof surrender and faith by which we entered into victory becomes the\ncontinued attitude of the life. Failure can come only through a slip in\nsurrender or in faith.\n\nIt is possible to abide in Christ for victory _without a break_. The\nWord of God says that _if_ a Christian sins he is to do certain things;\nit never says _when_ a Christian sins. It is not for us to look back\nover our past record to consider whether we have sinned, or to see how\nlong we have continued without a break; but in looking into the future\nwe must expect to be kept from sinning or we are not trusting the\nsufficient grace of Christ; and that means we are not at the present\nmoment in victory.\n\nAlong with this expectation of continued victory must go the\nrealization that at any moment we may fall into sin: \u201clet him that\nthinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall,\u201d is the warning that\nimmediately precedes the glorious promise of First Corinthians 10:13 of\nGod\u2019s full provision for victory over every temptation.\n\nSuppose, then, we should fall into sin after entering into the\nVictorious Life? _Instant and full restoration after failure_ is God\u2019s\nplan for the Christian who sins and thus breaks the perfect abiding in\nthe Lord. \u201cIn the moment of defeat, shout Victory!\u201d and claim your full\nprivileges in Christ.\n\nBut does not this make light of sin? Any other course makes light of\nsin. This course sees sin to be such an abominable thing in God\u2019s\nsight that nothing but the blood of the Lord Jesus poured out in\nexpiation can avail to meet it. And if the blood of Jesus meets it, it\nis an insult to God to attempt to add anything else to that perfect\natonement. Being sorry for sin for a period is an unconscious form of\natonement by self effort.\n\n\n The Bible\u2015\u2015A Music Box, or a Telephone?\n\nWithout constant feeding on the Word of God and continually living in\nan atmosphere of prayer no one can be maintained in a life of victory.\nAt every cost we must set our faces like a flint to get the daily quiet\ntime with God over the Word and in prayer. This does not mean that\nBible study and prayer are the secret of victory. They are not, and\nmany are hindered from victory by supposing that their more diligent\nBible study and prayer will somehow bring them into victory. _Faith_ is\nthe secret of victory. But faith is impossible without the Word, and\nthe maintaining of faith is impossible without continually abiding in\nthe Word of God. An infant will not live without food and air, but we\nwould not say that food and air were the secret of that life which the\nCreator alone could give.\n\nThe Victorious Life gives the secret of a hunger for the Bible and\nprayer. The Word of God becomes literally sweeter than honey and the\nhoneycomb, and more to be desired than gold, yea than much fine gold.\nOur Lord expects the Bible to be a telephone, as Dr. Charles R. Watson\nhas said, not a music box whose tunes are familiar and stale: we take\nthe receiver from the hook, and the Lord Jesus Christ is at the other\nend of the line. It is really our privilege to have a personal message\nfrom the living God to our own souls every day, and at every moment of\nneed.\n\n\n The Victorious Life and Missions\n\n\u201cIs not the Victorious Life rather self-centered and is there not\ndanger of selfishness?\u201d was asked.\n\n\u201cIs Christ selfish?\u201d was the sufficient answer given to this question.\n\nIf the life of victory does not flow out in service, it is a\ncounterfeit, and cannot be maintained. There is a reason why a passion\nfor foreign missions will be found at the heart of all the conferences\nthat teach the life of victory in Christ. These two are inseparable,\nChrist as the supply of our individual needs and Christ the sufficiency\nfor the world\u2019s need.\n\nLet our testimony to the Victorious Life be far more in loving, humble,\nunselfish service to those about us and those in the ends of the earth,\nthan it is in the words of our lips.\n\n\n Do We Grow Into Victory?\n\nGrowing in grace is one of the secrets of maintaining the life of\nvictory; without normal growth we shall lose our victory. We do not\ngrow _into_ grace; we grow _in_ it. Receiving the Victorious Life is\nnot a matter of growth.\n\nThere are, in many cases, shorter or longer periods of growth that\nprecede the entrance into the life of victory. So far as God is\nconcerned, the Life is a gift and not a growth, and it may be enjoyed\nat once by any Christian. But the Christian may gradually come to\nunderstand what are his privileges in Christ in the matter of victory\nover sin. Or he may not at once get to the bottom in the surrender of\nlife to the Lord, and God will lead him on as quickly as he will go,\nto the place of complete surrender and complete faith. This gradual\npreparation before entering fully into victory must be distinguished\nfrom \u201cgrowth in grace,\u201d which goes on in a normal way only when the\nChristian _is_ abiding in Christ for victory.\n\nGrowth in grace, in the Word of God, never means growth out of sin.\nThere is no suggestion in the New Testament that a Christian is to grow\ngradually out of sin. Sin is always dealt with through the blood of\nChrist, and we need the Saviour every moment to keep us cleansed from\nsin and its defilement. But if it is the blood that cleanses us by\ngrace we are not to eliminate sin gradually by our growth in grace.\n\n\n What is \u201cGrowth in Grace\u201d?\n\nGrowth in grace makes us more and more to conform to the likeness\nof our Lord Jesus. There is no perfection in his brethren on earth\nthat can be compared to the measure of the stature of his fulness. By\nfaith we receive the fruit of the Spirit, which is just the character\nof Christ produced in us by the new life of the Spirit. Every one of\nthe nine graces which constitute the one fruit of the Spirit,\u2015\u2015\u201clove,\njoy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness,\nself-control,\u201d\u2015\u2015belongs to the Christian who is trusting Christ for\nvictory. But in each of these graces he is to _abound more and more_.\nThis is true growth in grace.\n\nOne who by yielding his life to the mastery of Christ and by trusting\nhis word, \u201cMy grace is sufficient for thee,\u201d has received the fulness\nof the Spirit, may know very little about the Bible, or prayer, or\nChristian service. Day by day he learns more of the wondrous things\nout of the Word, learns better how to study it and use it in personal\nwork; day by day he learns new secrets of prayer from the Word and\nby the diligent practice of prayer; and gradually he becomes a more\nefficient and expert laborer in the harvest. This is true growth in the\nknowledge of the Lord.\n\n\n When Invalids Grow\n\nGrowth in grace is positive, not negative. Sin is a hindrance to true\ngrowth in the spiritual life as well as in the natural life. An invalid\nmay, indeed, grow in body, and sick Christians do grow in grace, but\nthe growth in both cases is retarded. When the disease germs are\nconquered then begins normal growth. So in the Bible figure of the race\ntoward the goal: this race is not a struggle to overcome sin, but a\nrace which sin may greatly retard. We are counseled to lay aside every\nweight and the sin that clings closely about us, and run the race,\nlooking unto Jesus. A Christian _may_ run with the weights and the sin,\nand he is in the race, but it is not to be wondered that there are many\nstumbles and slow progress.\n\nThere are several passages in the New Testament which give a\nmarvelously clear picture of this positive growth in grace, and show\nbeautifully the distinction between the present purity of the believer\nand his future entire conformity to the Lord Jesus.\n\nGod\u2019s present standard of purity for his children is the purity of\nhis only Son in whom he is well pleased. He is our Life; and apart\nfrom him we have no purity. \u201cEvery one that hath this hope set on him\npurifieth himself, even as he is pure\u201d (1 John 3:3). But just before\nthis statement of God\u2019s purpose for the present purity of his children,\nwe read: \u201cwe know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for\nwe shall see him as he is.\u201d This is the hope set before us,\u2015\u2015perfect\nconformity to the likeness of Christ. And this very hope is urged as\na reason for present purity of the kind that Jesus has. Is there a\ncontradiction here?\n\n\n Tribulation as God\u2019s Molding Chisel\n\nIn Romans 3:23 we read that \u201call have sinned, and fall short of the\nglory of God.\u201d Then grace comes, we are justified in the Beloved,\nand in Romans 5:2 we read: \u201cWe rejoice in hope of the glory of God.\u201d\nBut hope is always future, for \u201chope that is seen is not hope.\u201d This\nhope of the glory of God, perfect conformity to his likeness, is the\nsame hope spoken of in First John. But in Romans five we have added\nlight on the part that growth in grace plays. \u201cWe also rejoice in\nour tribulations [literally, that which presses down]: knowing that\ntribulation worketh stedfastness, [literally, that which holds up under\nthe load]; and stedfastness, approvedness [literally, passing the\nexamination or the test]; and approvedness, hope [hope of the glory of\nGod, or the character of God]. Then follows this remarkable statement:\n\u201cand hope putteth not to shame.\u201d\n\nA future hope will always put to shame if there is no present guarantee\nthat the hope will be realized. If I announce that a certain rich man\nis to give me a fortune of ten million dollars ten years hence, the\nhope of this wealth will put to shame if there is nothing to show that\nthe millionaire will keep his word. My friends are likely to say, \u201cWe\nshall wait and see.\u201d But if the millionaire gives me as an earnest of\nthe expected inheritance a check for half a million dollars, my hope\ndoes not put me to shame.\n\nNow notice what follows God\u2019s statement that this hope of his glory\nputs not to shame: \u201cbecause the love of God hath been shed abroad\nin our hearts through the Holy Spirit which was given unto us.\u201d The\nperfect guarantee of my _future_ likeness to the Lord Jesus is the\nmiracle of my _present_ likeness to him. The love of God shed abroad\nin my heart makes me like Jesus. The love of God shed abroad keeps out\nhatred and all other manifestations of self, so long as the Spirit is\nin control and can express his fruit. The Holy Spirit is the payment\ndown of this future glory. The Holy Spirit _hath been given_ unto us,\nnot will be; this is not a future hope. The Holy Spirit is our earnest.\n\u201cIn whom, having also believed, ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of\npromise, which is an earnest of our inheritance\u201d (Eph. 1:13, 14).\n\n\n Make Use of Your \u201cEarnest\u201d!\n\nIn rejoicing in that glorious hope of what is to be brought to us at\nthe appearing of the Lord Jesus, let us take care not to despise the\npresent provision for victory and purity in the Holy Spirit. We long\nfor the redemption of our bodies, that we may be clothed upon with that\ntabernacle which is from heaven, \u201cthat what is mortal may be swallowed\nup of life,\u201d and that we may have a body like his glorious body; but\nmeanwhile we have the firstfruits of the Spirit, and we rejoice in the\ntribulations and all the things this body endures because it works out\nin that growth which gives more and more of his own character (Rom.\n8:23-26; 2 Cor. 5:1-5).\n\nThese passages in Romans and Second Corinthians just quoted make it\nclear that the future hope refers particularly to the redemption of our\nbodies, when we shall have a body like to the body of his glory. Every\nChristian will receive this body and be conformed to his likeness; for\nthis, as is every part of our redemption, is all of grace. But while\nall Christians will share the purity and the glory, not all Christians\nwill have the same _measure_ of glory. \u201cThere is one glory of the sun,\nand another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for one\nstar differeth from another star in glory. So also is the resurrection\nof the dead\u201d (1 Cor. 15:41, 42). The enduring of tribulation, the\nworking out of stedfastness and approvedness,\u2015\u2015growth in grace,\u2015\u2015will\nundoubtedly determine the degree of glory in that resurrection body.\n\n\n The Key-Verse on Growth in Grace\n\nProbably no better key-verse on growth in grace can be found than\nSecond Corinthians 3:18, and in that verse is gathered up the messages\nof these other passages that have been considered: \u201cBut we all, with\nunveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are\ntransformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the\nLord the Spirit.\u201d As we look unto Jesus, and grow in his knowledge and\ngrace, we are changed, as one scholar has translated it, \u201cfrom one\ndegree of glory to another degree of glory.\u201d\n\nAs we get to know the Lord Jesus better and better, sin becomes more\nhorrible to us; we see its true character. This does not mean that\nwe become worse sinners, for we are growing from one degree of glory\nto another. But we appreciate more and more what sinners we were by\nnature, apart from grace; we see the depravity that follows sin, and we\nexalt the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ which has saved and is saving\nus from such sin and corruption.\n\nThe margin of Second Corinthians 3:18 adds a final glorious touch:\ninstead of \u201cbeholding as in a mirror\u201d there is the translation which\nmany believe more accurate, \u201creflecting as in a mirror the glory of the\nLord.\u201d It is ours to behold and then to reflect. Do they see Jesus in\nus? It is \u201cChrist in you, the hope of glory\u201d (Col. 1:27). He himself is\nthe secret of growth in grace, as of all else.\n\n\n\n\n CAN MAN BE FREE FROM SIN?\n\n\n\u201cHow can I be free from sin?\u201d is the question that in one form or\nanother is troubling the heart of many a true child of God. But before\nwe ask \u201cHow?\u201d the other query rises, \u201c_Can_ I be free from sin?\u201d and if\nnot completely in this life, \u201cHow far may I be free?\u201d\n\nAs is to be expected, the teaching of the Word of God on the sin\nquestion is simple, direct and unequivocal. But there are a number of\nmisconceptions that have served to confuse the minds of many earnest\nseekers after the truth.\n\nOne of the best tests of the truth of our view of sin is the results\nin experience. It is, however, a blessed fact that one may have an\nexperience that is infinitely better than the theory he holds regarding\nsin.\n\nThat sinning is inevitable for the Christian,\u2015\u2015\n\nThat sinning is an accident, not the choice of a free moral agent,\u2015\u2015\n\nThat sinning is an incident, not a preventable tragedy,\u2015\u2015\n\nThat Christians may reach in this life a state in which they cannot\nsin, or where they are not subject to temptation,\u2015\u2015\n\nThese are some of the contradictions of God\u2019s revealed truth which\nresult in keeping Christians from having complete liberty in Christ and\nfreedom from sinning.\n\nBack of the question, how far may we be free from sin is the further\nproblem, \u201cWhat is sin?\u201d and it is in answering this question that we\nmay fall into a fundamental misconception which leaves us confused when\nreading the plain statements of Scripture. Many a supposed difference\namong Christians regarding freedom from sinning rests back in a\ndifference in their definition of \u201csinning.\u201d But this is far more\nserious than a mere difference in the definition of a word, which might\nbe passed over as unimportant. For, as we shall see, if our use of the\nword \u201csinning\u201d differs from that which God means by sin, there is sure\nto result a confusion which will affect our experience in the matter of\ndeliverance from sin.\n\nThere is substantial agreement that Christians should be, and may be,\nfree from dishonesty, lying, stealing, jealousy, strife, bitterness,\nevil speaking, fornication, covetousness, and a thousand other sins\nthat might be named. Also it is agreed that it is not for Christians\nto grow out of such sins, nor to get rid of them gradually, but to put\nthem off as wholly inconsistent with the Christian walk. How complete\nis the list of such sins that a Christian may be free from just now? Or\nto put the question in another form, how much sin is it necessary for a\nChristian to have?\n\n\u201cBut,\u201d some one asks, \u201cis not everything that falls short of God\u2019s\nabsolute standard of perfection sin?\u201d Our purpose in this study is\nintensely practical, and so it is not the intention to enter into a\nfull discussion of theological terms. It may be suggested in passing\nthat many who use such an expression as \u201cGod\u2019s absolute standard of\nperfection,\u201d would find great difficulty in explaining just what they\nmean. But we may here get at the problem as it presents itself in\nexperience. All are agreed that there is no possibility of perfection\nof attainment in this body, meaning by such perfection an absence of\nall error or mistake in everything that is done. We may go further\nand say that by this standard of \u201cperfection\u201d every act falls short,\nand every moment of life is compassed with infirmity. If this kind of\n\u201cfalling short\u201d is sin, then there can be full agreement that there\nis no such thing as freedom from sinning in this body. (It would\nnot be entirely accurate to say, \u201cif this imperfection is sin,\u201d for\n\u201cperfection,\u201d like all words\u2015\u2015and everything else human\u2015\u2015is imperfect\nand relative and takes its meaning from the thought in the mind of the\nuser.)\n\nIs such falling short sinning? Or to reduce the question to practical\neveryday experience, \u201cIs every act of the Christian sinful, as well as\nevery word and thought?\u201d\n\nThree Bible teachers met together on one occasion to discuss the sin\nquestion; before they began their conference one of them suggested\nthat they have prayer, and he led in petition for their guidance and\nblessing. This brother, a theological professor and a Christian noted\nfor his holy living, contended that everything a Christian did was of\nnecessity tainted with sin because it fell short of \u201cperfection.\u201d\n\n\u201cDoctor,\u201d one of the others asked, \u201cis there not a difference between\nthe sin we committed when we prayed together at the beginning of our\nconference and the sin I should commit if I were critical or bitter\nagainst you?\u201d\n\n\u201cYes, there is a difference,\u201d he replied (answering according to\nScripture and his common sense), \u201cbut\u201d (answering according to his\ntheory) \u201cit is a very dangerous thing to make distinctions between\nsins.\u201d\n\nIt is a disastrous thing _not_ to make distinction between these two\nthings. With one stroke we would blot out the difference between light\nand darkness if we class together the act of a Christian who with\na heart full of love pours out his petition in imperfect words for\nsome needy one, and the act of a man who with his heart full of hate\nruns a dagger through the heart of that same needy one. There is the\nsame infinity of difference between this \u201cimperfect\u201d prayer and the\ncritical or unloving attitude that the praying Christian might later\nfall into.\n\nTurning from men\u2019s reasonings regarding sin to the Word of God, we find\nthese plain statements:\n\n\u201cMy little children, these things write I unto you, that ye may not\nsin\u201d (1 John 2:1).\n\nSomething had been written, then, which revealed the secret of keeping\nfrom sin as a present, practical experience for the child of God.\n\n\u201cWhat shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may\nabound?\u201d (Rom. 6:1.)\n\n\u201cWhat then? shall we sin, because we are not under law, but under\ngrace?\u201d (Rom. 6:15.)\n\nGod\u2019s answer to both these questions, which is just one question put in\ntwo ways, is the same: a strong, emphatic negative\u2015\u2015\u201cGod forbid.\u201d\n\nThere can be little question in the minds of any that what John means\nby sinning in this first letter of his, and what Paul means by sinning\nin Romans six, is something that a Christian should not and need not\ndo. He may be kept from sinning, in this meaning of the word.\n\nIt may well be asked, what other meaning of the word is there? If\nwe start out with the conception of sinning that makes every act of\na Christian to be tainted with sin, do not the Scriptures become a\nreal puzzle in their positive statements about keeping from sin? This\nsupposed difficulty has given rise to an attempted distinction between\n\u201cconscious\u201d and \u201cunconscious\u201d sinning. Those who use these terms\ndo not always have the same distinction in mind, but some refer to\nthis falling short of \u201cperfection\u201d as \u201cunconscious sinning,\u201d adding\nthat such sin needs cleansing but involves no guilt.\n\nBut _all sin involves guilt_. God cannot do other than condemn sin,\nwhether in the Christian or in the unbeliever. Moreover, neither in\nFirst John, nor in Romans six, nor anywhere in the New Testament is\nthere distinction made between \u201cconscious\u201d and \u201cunconscious\u201d sinning,\nor \u201cknown\u201d and \u201cunknown\u201d sins. These distinctions between sins are made\nby men with the implication that we may be kept free from one kind of\nsinning but not from the other. Does not this make void the word of God\nby our traditions? For God says, through John, \u201cMy little children,\nthese things write I unto you, _that ye may not sin_.\u201d\n\nWe shall avoid all such difficulties if we rid ourselves of the notion\nthat the sinfulness or the righteousness of a man\u2019s act is to be judged\nby some outside standard. God\u2019s measure is an inside standard. Sin can\nnever be discovered in the act, but in the motive of the heart of the\nman who performs the act. Two men go into a restaurant and hang up\ntheir overcoats. Two other men in the restaurant take these overcoats\nwith them when they go out. One man has stolen an overcoat. The other\nman has taken it by mistake, thinking he had brought his own overcoat\nwith him, and is much distressed when he finds he has another man\u2019s\ncoat. But meanwhile both men have lost their coats. Nothing can be\ndetermined as to whether sin is involved until you get to the heart\nof the men who took the coats. One man sinned. The other man surely\ncame short of that perfect outward standard of action, and he should\nnot have been so thoughtless as to take the coat. The experience\nwill doubtless make him more careful in the future in avoiding such\na mistake. But he did not sin. And if our theory makes it necessary\nfor us to say that he sinned, then we have blotted out all moral\ndistinctions, and there is an end of urging men to come out of darkness\ninto light.\n\nSince sin is in the motive of the heart, it becomes clear why a man\nwho is out of Christ is sinning all the time, in thought, word and\ndeed. He may do many moral things and live on a high plane judged by\nman\u2019s standard, but he is incapable of God\u2019s righteousness. Only the\nlove of God shed abroad in the heart through the Holy Spirit can make\nrighteousness possible. A natural, unsaved man cannot please God in\nanything that he does. That is why he must be born again before he is\ncapable of goodness. When he is saved he may love God with his whole\nheart, and then he can and does please God. And let us remember that no\nman can please God with sinning, whatever adjective is prefixed.\n\nAnother fruitful source of confusion in studying the Scripture\nteachings regarding sin is the taking of Bible statements concerning\nman in his natural state and applying them to the new creature in\nChrist Jesus.\n\n\u201cThere is none righteous, no, not one\u201d (Rom. 3:10).\n\n\u201cThere is none that doeth good, no, not so much as one\u201d (Rom. 3:12).\n\n\u201cAll have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God\u201d (Rom. 3:23).\n\n\u201cIn thy sight no man living is righteous\u201d (Ps. 143:2).\n\nThese statements are used in Scripture to describe the condition of\nall men outside of Jesus Christ the Saviour. To wrest these words from\ntheir connection and apply them to saved men to prove that they are\nnot righteous and that they continually are coming short of the glory\nof God, is to take all meaning and significance out of the language\nof Scripture. It is because this is our natural state that we need a\nSaviour. When He saves us, are we left in the same state? Some have\ncarried this strange use of the words of Scripture to the extent of\nbelieving (or thinking that they believe) that Paul considered himself\nstill the chief of sinners after he was saved. He speaks of himself as\nthe chief of sinners for the very purpose of showing the greatness of\nthe grace of the Saviour which availed to save the chief of sinners,\nand that grace was not found vain. But what would we say of a Saviour\nwhose grace abounded in such a way as still to leave Saul the chief of\nsinners? That is not Paul\u2019s Saviour, and that is not the way Christ\u2019s\ngrace operates even in the lives of those true Christians who think\nthey believe themselves still to be unrighteous sinners.\n\nPerhaps the Scripture that has suffered most from this method of\nlifting it out from its environment is First John, one, eight: \u201cIf we\nsay that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in\nus.\u201d A passage which was written for the express purpose of giving the\nchildren of God the glad tidings that they need not sin, and pointing\nout God\u2019s provision for keeping them walking in the light, has somehow\nbecome for many a stumbling block which keeps them in darkness.\n\nNow whatever John, one, eight means it must be in accord with the later\nword that these things he was writing that we may not sin. \u201cAnd if any\nman sin, we have an Advocate.\u201d \u201c_If any sin._\u201d That means there is a\npossibility of _not sinning_, as well as the admitted possibility of\nsinning. He does not say \u201c_When_ a Christian sins,\u201d which would make\nsin inevitable. Now if a Christian were sinning all the time, this\nword of assurance against sinning, and also the word of comfort and\nassurance for the Christian who has been overtaken in a fault would\nbe robbed of all meaning. First John, one, eight, therefore, cannot\nmean that Christians are sinning continually, or if they are, the next\nverses urge them to get out of that condition.\n\nThe literal rendering of this verse is, \u201cIf we say that we have not\nsin,\u201d or \u201cIf we say that we do not have sin.\u201d The negative is an\nadverb, not an adjective. The ordinary renderings, \u201cIf we say that we\nhave _no_ sin,\u201d might encourage the assumption that the Apostle was\nspeaking of degrees of sin and warning against the thought of being\nfree from all sin. But sin is not something that can be divided; if\nthere is sin, there is sin, and it is not here a question of more or\nless sin.\n\nIt will help also to remember that there is no independent First John,\none, eight in the Word. This sentence is part of a closely woven\nargument running from the fifth verse of the first chapter to the sixth\nverse of the second chapter. He is talking of fellowship with God,\nwhich is an absolute thing in the sense that we either have perfect\nfellowship or we do not have perfect fellowship, just as a man wants\nperfect fellowship with his wife though the fellowship deepens and\nbecomes richer as the days go on. There is but one thing that can break\nthis fellowship with God, John says, and that is sin. For God is light\nand in Him is no darkness, and the man that has fellowship must walk\nin the light. Therefore man needs to be cleansed from sin so that he\nmay walk in the light, having fellowship. There were some in his day,\nas in ours, who were saying that they had fellowship, though they were\nwalking in darkness. If we say that, we lie. But if we admit that we\ncannot have fellowship and be in darkness, and are cleansed from sin in\nthe blood of Christ, then we may walk in the light. If we say that we\ndo not have sin, and therefore do not need this cleansing, we deceive\nourselves. But if we are not deceived in this way and confess our sins,\nhe is faithful and righteous to forgive us and to cleanse us from all\nunrighteousness, so that we may walk in the light. If we say, as they\nwere saying in his day, that we have not sinned, we make God a liar,\nfor he has said that all men have sinned and come short of the glory of\nGod, and therefore need a Saviour. John is writing all of this for the\npurpose of keeping these Christians from sinning, not for the purpose\nof explaining to them that they must be sinning continually while they\nare walking in the light. Sin breaks the fellowship, and before a man\nsins he must step out of that light. This is the message of the whole\nof First John. He may confess and be cleansed and restored to the\nfellowship, walking in the light.\n\n * * * * *\n\nBut was not John referring to Christians when he said \u201cwe\u201d? Let us ask\nif John meant that he and other Christians would say that they had\nfellowship with God when they were walking in the darkness; or would\nhe and others say that they had not sinned, and thus make God a liar?\nThe \u201cwe,\u201d of course, is used in the same sense as, \u201cIf _any one_ says\nthat he has fellowship with him.\u201d It is the use of the first personal\npronoun that we ourselves continually make in stating universal truths.\nSome have even brought consternation to rescue mission workers by\ntelling them never to use First John, one, nine for sinners, because\nthe \u201cwe\u201d refers to Christians, and God is \u201cfaithful and just\u201d to\nforgive Christians, because they are under the covenant, while it is\nof his mercy that he forgives sinners. But \u201che is the propitiation\nfor our sins; and not for ours only, but _also for the whole world_,\u201d\nand since God has given Christ to die for the world, it is of his\nrighteousness and justice to forgive every sinner the instant he turns\nto the Saviour. This is not to say that it is not also of his mercy,\nbut as one has suggested it is mercy from start to finish, for the\nChristian as well as the sinner. The rescue mission workers and other\nsoul winners may go on using this verse with a clear conscience, for\nGod will honor it both for sinners, and for Christians when they act\nlike sinners, and need to confess and be forgiven.\n\nIn _The Sunday School Times_ there was published recently a remarkable\ntestimony of one who was saved from Christian Science, and the verse\nthat brought conviction was First John, one, eight. \u201cWhy, that is just\nwhat I have been doing,\u201d this woman said in amazement to herself one\ntime when she read this verse. \u201cI have been saying that I have no sin,\nand I am deceived. I need a Saviour.\u201d This is the Spirit\u2019s use of that\npassage; if it refers to Christians who have confessed their sins and\nhave accepted the Saviour and been cleansed from sin, there can remain\nin it no convicting power for the one who has not confessed.\n\nThese brief suggestions upon this passage are given with the thought\nof provoking further study, and the reader may still feel strongly\nthat First John, one, eight refers to Christians, whatever their\nspiritual state may be. Let us grant that it does, and the Christian\nthen is confessing to God and to men, \u201cI have sin.\u201d Putting aside the\ndifficulty of understanding how it is possible for me to be without\ncondemnation for the sin, or how it is possible for me to walk in the\nlight in fellowship with God while I have this sin, let us face this\nsimple question, \u201cWhen am I going to get rid of this sin?\u201d\n\nThere are at least seven theories that have been suggested to answer\nthis question, and to get rid of the \u201croot of sin\u201d which it is supposed\nJohn is dealing with when he says, \u201cIf we say that we have not sin, we\ndeceive ourselves.\u201d All are agreed that without holiness no man shall\nsee God, and that this means actual holiness; and therefore all who\nhold these different theories are agreed that this root of sin referred\nto by John must be gotten out, or eradicated.\n\nThe first theory is _gradual eradication after death_, or gradual\npurification, for which a place called purgatory is provided (by the\ntheology, not by the Lord). This theory of course is a matter of works\nfrom start to finish, and perhaps no reader of these pages would\nentertain it.\n\nThe second is _gradual eradication during life, with the completion of\nthe process at death_. In this theory the process during life makes no\nreal progress toward the consummation at death since all equally need\nthe work at death, whatever the degree of eradication during life.\n\nThe third is _increasing counteraction during life, with eradication at\ndeath_. That is, the evil is not eradicated gradually during life but\nis counteracted increasingly by the power of God, while remaining till\nits removal at death.\n\nThe fourth is _eradication at death_. That is, the evil is unaffected\nduring life, and awaits death for its removal.\n\nThe fifth is _eradication at the coming of Christ_. But if we die we\nenter into the presence of His holiness and need purity before this\nevent.\n\nFew maintain this theory, except those who go the length of identifying\nthe root of sin with the physical body or with the blood, thus making\nsin inhere in matter. This assumption is also needed to give support to\nthe second, third and fourth theories, for the only change that, takes\nplace at death is the separation of the spirit from the body.\n\nThe sixth is _eradication before death_, requiring a second work of\ngrace, subsequent to regeneration.\n\nThe seventh is _eradication at the moment of regeneration_, which\nperhaps few in our day hold, though it has been earnestly contended for\nin other days.\n\nAll of these eradication theories, with the exception of the last, make\nnecessary a second work of grace subsequent to regeneration. They mean\nthat God has to do something else to free a man from sin after he is\ncleansed, by faith, in the blood of Christ, and made a new creature by\nthe operation of the Holy Spirit. For manifestly, if a Christian must\nsay, \u201cI have sin,\u201d he must get rid of that sin, and it must be done at\none of three times: before death, at death, or after death. Is there a\nline of Scripture that gives support to any one of these six theories\nof a second work of grace, or of the theory of eradication at the first\nwork of grace?\n\nAll of these theories rest upon the assumption that there is a \u201croot of\nsin\u201d _in_ a man, in a mechanical, material sense, and that from this\nroot sin springs.\n\nThe Scripture testimony is that _the man himself is the root of sin_.\nSin springs from _him_. Our Lord said that out of the heart proceed\nevil thoughts and deeds that defile the man. He was not speaking of the\nheart as a physical or spiritual entity _in the man_, but showing the\nPharisees that righteousness or evil did not consist in the outward\nacts or observances, but proceeded _from the man himself_. For the\nheart is the man.\n\nThis natural man, who is himself the root of his sin, must be born\nagain. It is the man himself who is born again, made a new creature\nin Christ Jesus. The heart, that is, the man himself, is purified by\nfaith, through the miracle work of the Holy Spirit. This new man, who\nin the moment of regeneration has the fruit of the Spirit, his heart\nfilled with love, continues to have victory in Christ as he continues\nto abide in Christ. \u201cAs therefore ye received Christ Jesus the Lord, so\nwalk in him\u201d (Col. 2:6). This is God\u2019s plan. It is because Christians\nhave not continued so walking, or perhaps because they have not known\nclearly and fully the normal New Testament experience that should\nresult from \u201creceiving\u201d Christ Jesus, that there is need of a crisis\nin the life, a decision to get back where we belong in the place of\nabiding.\n\n * * * * *\n\nBut why is it possible for this new creature to sin after he has so\nreceived Christ? It has been assumed that there must be some root of\nsin in the Christian that makes it possible for him to sin. It is\nstrange that this should be thought a necessity when we know that\nSatan sinned, and Adam sinned, when they were sinless and had never\nbeen tainted with any impurity. If it were _not_ possible for this new\ncreature to sin, he would be a machine; his very humanity would need to\nbe destroyed. If we accept as the alternative of this kind of Christian\na Christian who is provided with something in him which causes the sin,\nwe arrive at exactly the same conclusion with this difference: we have\na machine which cannot do anything except sin. Let it be understood\nclearly that if a man in this body and in this life in the midst of\ntemptation is not able to sin then he is not able to be good. He can\nsin for the same reason that he can be good, because he is a free moral\nagent. That is the way God made him, and it is of the essence of his\nhumanity. Everywhere in Scripture the Christian is appealed to as one\nwho is responsible to choose. The reason that a Christian can sin is\nbecause he still has his free will. And when he sins, it is not a root\nof sin in him that sins. It is he who sins.\n\nThat first sin (which need not occur) after a man is made a new\ncreature in Christ, or after he has understood and taken Christ as his\nVictory, is always a tragedy. Sin should always be a tragedy. It is not\nan accident nor an incident. But if the man is not responsible, but has\nsomething in him that makes sin necessary, then he cannot regard sin as\na preventable tragedy.\n\nBut it is not possible for God to sin, and yet he can be good. Here we\ncome to the heart of our confusion regarding a Christian\u2019s goodness.\nGod not only can be good, He himself _is goodness_. He is holy in a\nway that no man ever was or ever can be. For man\u2019s holiness is never\nabsolute in this sense, but always relative. Not relative in the sense\nthat sin must be present, but relative because of the moment by moment\nrelationship with God, the Holy One. Therefore for the Christian to be\nkept from sinning he must abide in Christ, and he cannot do other than\nsin if left to himself. At the root of all these eradication theories\nlies the assumption that man is to be made independently holy. But man\nis a dependent creature. This is of the essence of humanity, altogether\napart from sin. Utter dependence on his creator and his Saviour (and\nthe Saviour is the creator of the new life) is the only safety for the\nchild of God. There is indeed no room for boasting nor for looking to\nself when we learn God\u2019s wondrous plan of salvation by grace.\n\nTwo Christian workers were talking together at the lunch table about\nthe question of what happened to a man when he is saved. One of the\nbrethren pointed to the granulated sugar in the bowl as representing\nhim as a lost man. He then took a spoon as representing the divine\nlife imparted in conversion, stuck it into the sugar, and said: \u201cThis\nrepresents my new nature, and the sugar is still the same corrupt\nnature. But I am in Christ as the sugar is in the bowl.\u201d In other\nwords Christ is enclosing a mass of corruption with a righteous spark\ninjected into it.\n\nAnother Christian worker, representing what Christ did in saving him,\ndrew his coat about him so as to cover up his white vest, and said that\nin just this way God clothes us with Christ\u2019s righteousness, while we\nremain a mass of corruption beneath.\n\nStill another, putting these illustrations into theological terms,\nsaid: \u201cGod imputes the righteousness of Christ to me in exactly the\nsame way as he imputes my sin to Christ. So that when God looks at me\nhe sees the righteousness of Christ, just as when he looks at Jesus he\nsees my sin.\u201d The implication is that righteousness touches me in just\nthe way that sin touches Christ, namely, it is as far from me as the\neast is from the west.\n\nThese brethren are all true children of God, washed in the precious\nblood of Christ. Fortunately they were not telling the truth about\nthemselves; more seriously they were maligning the Saviour, and while\nthe intellectual confusion may not keep them from victory in their\nown lives it serves to entangle many an earnest seeker. And this sort\nof handling of God\u2019s word is what has furnished the enemies of the\nGospel of grace their chief weapons in attack. These statements, if\nthey are taken at their face value, constitute as complete a denial of\nthe God and Father of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ as Mrs. Eddy\u2019s\nphilosophy of the denial of sin and the Saviour.\n\nAs Luther roused the Church by the battle cry of \u201cJustification by\nFaith,\u201d let the complete truth of the complete Gospel be sounded to-day\nin the cry of \u201cSalvation by Faith.\u201d For \u201cit is of faith, that it may be\naccording to Grace\u201d (Rom. 4:16). God never justifies a sinner without\nsaving him. That is, he does not call a man righteous without making\nhim righteous. If he did, God would be in the place of the man whom\nJames condemns, who says to the brother or sister naked and in need\nof daily food: \u201cGo in peace, be ye warmed and filled,\u201d yet gives them\nnot the things needful to the body. \u201cWhat doth it profit?\u201d James asks.\n\u201cEven so faith, if it have not works, is dead in itself\u201d (Jas. 2:15-17).\n\nEven so would the calling a man righteous without making him righteous\nbe useless for the soul that is naked and destitute of righteousness.\nJustification, in the sense of \u201cdeclaring righteous,\u201d is dead apart\nfrom the miracle of cleansing and regeneration which _makes righteous_.\nAnd we need righteousness, just as the naked and hungry man needs\nclothing and food, _now in this life_. There is no hope held out for\nany future provision of freeing from sin. There is still a part of our\nredemption from sin and its results that is future, but very distinctly\nare we told that this concerns the redemption of our body, not the\npurifying of the soul. (Using purifying in its negative meaning of\ncleansing from impurity. For we must remember that there is a positive,\nprogressive, and increasing work in conforming us to the likeness of\nChrist which is quite distinct from this matter of cleansing, which is\nalways absolute; we are either cleansed or we are not cleansed from\nsin.)\n\nThe works that James insists on as a proof that the faith is real\nfaith, are possible only for the new creature in Christ, who is\nproducing the fruit of the Spirit as he abides in Christ, the fruit\nwhich is the righteousness of Christ made real in experience, and\nabounding more and more as we grow in grace (not into grace), and the\nknowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.\n\nNot a half salvation of \u201cjustification by faith\u201d to take care of the\npast only of our sins, but let our watchword be a complete salvation\nof \u201cCHRIST BY FAITH.\u201d For it is Christ that saves from sin, who makes\na new creation with old things put away, and who provides a way of\nabiding in that freedom, walking in joy and peace and victory, just as\nwe received Him in freedom.\n\n\u201cIf, therefore, the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.\u201d\n\n\u201cBeing made free from sin, ye became servants of righteousness.\u201d\n\n\u201cNow being made free from sin and become servants of God, ye have your\nfruit unto sanctification.\u201d\n\n\u201cFor freedom did Christ set us free: Stand fast therefore, and be not\nentangled again in a yoke of bondage.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n THE HOLY SPIRIT\n\n\nIf the Victorious Life is \u201cthe life that is Christ,\u201d lived in the\npower of the risen Christ dwelling in the heart, what is the work of\nthe Holy Spirit in such a life? Are Christians who pray for, or seek,\nthe \u201cfullness of the Spirit,\u201d or the \u201cbaptism of the Spirit\u201d or the\n\u201creceiving of the Spirit,\u201d asking for something different from the life\nof victory in Christ?\n\nThe answer to such questions reveals the beautiful unity of God\u2019s plan\nof salvation, in which each Person of the Godhead has His perfect work\nbut in which our Lord Jesus Christ has ever the pre-eminence till the\nwork of salvation is completed. We may approach the truth from teaching\nconcerning the Holy Spirit, but it is Christ who will be exalted. Or\nwe may experience resurrection life through learning of the truth\nconcerning the indwelling Christ, but it is the Holy Spirit who makes\npossible that experience in the life.\n\nThe Holy Spirit is God. If we start with this fact, and stay with it,\nwe shall be saved from much confusion as to the Holy Spirit\u2019s office.\nIf he is God, we cannot limit Him, and we cannot confine Him to this or\nthat manifestation of His power.\n\nThe Holy Spirit is not merely a manifestation of God; He _is_ God. And\none Person of the trinity is never present without the others. While\nthe Holy Spirit has a distinct work in the believer, this work is never\ndisassociated from the other Persons in the Godhead. The Father and the\nSon and the Spirit all dwell with us (John 14:17, 23; 1 Cor. 6:19; 2\nCor. 13:5).\n\nThe Holy Spirit is a Person. We are not to seek a quantitative\nappropriation of a certain amount of the Spirit of God, perhaps\ncomparing the amount we have with that which we think others have, but\nrather to receive God the Holy Spirit, who is a Person. But this truth\nof His personality is to be kept in balance by the companion truth\nthat He is God, and in conceiving Him as a person we must not put the\nlimitations of human personality upon God, as though He could only\nindwell one person at a time, or as though one person or any number of\npersons could exhaustively contain Him.\n\nWhat is the work of God the Holy Spirit in this age? We know that we\nare born again by the power of the Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is in\nevery child of God (John 1:12, 13; John 3:5, 6; Rom. 8:9, last clause;\n1 Cor. 6-19).\n\nIf the Holy Spirit is in every child of God, what result does this have\nin the life? What is His work in the believer? Is it the same for each\nbeliever? In what sense did the Holy Spirit come at Pentecost, and in\nwhat sense is he here in a different way from His manifestation before\nPentecost?\n\nIt is in answering such questions that we are in danger of building up\na doctrine from experience rather than from the Word.\n\nA Bible teacher who has been mightily used in soul-winning and in\nstimulating other Christians to this work, dates his great success from\nthe time when he learned that the Holy Spirit was the secret of power\nin service; he lacked the power, saw the need, asked for the fulness\nof the Holy Spirit, by faith believed that God had granted his desire,\nwent out boldly with no reference to feeling and counted upon the fact\nof the Holy Spirit\u2019s work as he gave the message to men. The results\nwere marvelous, and continued to be as day by day he counted upon this\nenduement of the Spirit. Along with this experience came the inevitable\nlonging to share it with others, for he knew that any Christian might\ndo as he had done; the blessed result was that many Christians through\nhim were led into this new life of service. It was natural that this\nmighty man of God should take his true and Scriptural experience\nand build around it his doctrine of the Holy Spirit and His work\nfor believers, interpreting the Scriptures by the experience. So he\ndeveloped an inclusive doctrinal teaching that the baptism of the Holy\nSpirit at Pentecost, and to- in the life of the individual believer,\nis for power in service, the evidence of the work being the results in\nwitnessing.\n\nAnother Christian worker had a longing for heart purity and a life free\nfrom any feeling of condemnation because everything was not pleasing to\nGod. He heard a testimony from a brother who had been in a like state\nand had learned that it was not by effort or struggle or trying that he\nwas to get peace and purity, but by the work of God through the Holy\nSpirit coming into or upon the believer and purifying the heart. As the\nfirst mentioned brother did, he asked God for this gift and then by\nfaith believed that his prayer was answered. The result was an amazing\ntransformation, a life of joy and liberty which was such a miracle\nrevelation and so different from the average Christian experience that\nmany came to him asking for the secret. He told them what had happened,\nand he too proceeded to put together his doctrine of the Holy Spirit\nand taught that every Christian who was born of the Spirit needed to\nseek as a second work the baptism of the Holy Spirit to bring purity of\nheart.\n\nThere is no question that these brethren experienced the gracious\npower of the Holy Spirit. But they did not accurately relate those\nexperiences to the teachings of the Word.\n\nIn John 7:39 is suggested what the fundamental, primary work of the\nHoly Spirit was to be, and why He was able to come into the world in\na new way at Pentecost. After our Lord, in the last great day of the\nfeast, cried, \u201cIf any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink. He\nthat believeth on Me, as the Scripture hath said, from within him shall\nflow rivers of living water,\u201d the apostle explains, \u201cBut this spake he\nof the Spirit, which they that believed on him were to receive for the\nSpirit was not yet given; because Jesus was not yet glorified.\u201d\n\nThe Spirit was to be given at Pentecost in a way in which He was not\ngiven before. And it is expressly stated that the one thing needed\nbefore His being thus given was the glorifying of the Son of man.\n\nLink this with our Lord\u2019s word in John 16:13, 14 and we have clearly\nrevealed the connection between the glorifying of the Son of man and\nthe work of the Spirit: \u201cHe (the Holy Spirit) shall not speak for\nhimself.... He shall glorify me.\u201d\n\nThis is His specific work, to glorify Jesus. But how?\n\n\u201cNevertheless I tell you the truth: It is expedient for you that I\ngo away, for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you;\nbut if I go, I will send him unto you. And he, when he is come, will\nconvict the world in respect of sin, and of righteousness, and of\njudgment: of sin, because they believe not on me; of righteousness,\nbecause I go to the Father, and ye behold me no more; of judgment,\nbecause the Prince of this world hath been judged\u201d (John 16:7-11).\n\nHow is the Holy Spirit to convict the world of sin, of righteousness,\nof judgment? Notice it is conviction of one sin, not many, the one sin\nof rejecting the Saviour. It is one righteousness, the righteousness\nthat Christ is. It is one judgment, the past judgment upon Satan, the\ncompleted victory over our great Adversary won by Christ.\n\nIn the words \u201cye behold me no more,\u201d we have the key to the marvelous\ntruth of this revelation concerning the Holy Spirit. The only example\nthe world had of God\u2019s righteousness (which is the only kind of\nrighteousness there is,) was the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of Man.\nWhen He goes to the Father how is the world to know what righteousness\nis? for it can behold the righteous one no more. They cannot know it\nby reading about it. There is one way, and one way only to reveal\nrighteousness, that is in a human being living a righteous life. To\nsecure this Jesus Christ the righteous One must be manifest in the\nlife. \u201cThey see me no more. They must know righteousness by looking at\n_you_. I have been the light of the world while in it. Now you, having\nbecome sons of light, are to be the light of the world\u201d (John 12:23,\n31, 35, 36; John 17:1, 22).\n\nThis is how the Holy Spirit glorifies Christ, by crowning Him Lord\nin the life, and manifesting the Son of man in each of His brethren.\nThe world is convicted of sin by seeing the meaning of rejecting the\nSaviour as revealed in the man who accepts Him. The world is convicted\nof righteousness, and the difference between God\u2019s righteousness and\nman\u2019s morality, by seeing a righteous man. The world is convicted of\nthe judgment of the prince of this world by seeing a life set free from\nthe power of Satan.\n\nThis is why the disciples had to wait at Pentecost, not wait to get\nthemselves into a certain receptive spiritual state, but wait till\nthe Son of man was glorified and the Holy Spirit was sent forth. They\ndid not need further knowledge of the facts about Christ the Saviour.\nBut before they became witnesses to Jesus Christ, they themselves\nmust become living messages, living witnesses, by having Jesus Christ\nrevealed _in them_. This is what the Holy Spirit did, and this is what\nwould be impossible without the Holy Spirit given in this new way.\n\nSome one has well said that the Holy Spirit is for the servant, rather\nthan for the service. The service and the life is the normal outflow\nwhen the servant, the man himself, has been filled with the Holy Spirit.\n\nThe fulness of the Spirit, this new work of the Spirit for the\nbeliever, is just the Christ life manifested in the believer. This is\nthe fruit of the Spirit, \u201clove, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness,\ngoodness, faithfulness, meekness, self-control\u201d (Gal. 5:22, 23). This\nis the love of God shed abroad in our hearts through the Holy Spirit\ngiven unto us (Rom. 5:5). This is the earnest of our inheritance\u2015\u2015the\nhope of glory that puts not to shame (Eph. 1:13, 14; Rom. 5:1, 5). This\nis the transforming power for growth in grace (2 Cor. 3:18). This is\nthe thirteenth of First Corinthians made real in our experience, the\nlove which is the fulfilling of the law.\n\nThe Holy Spirit convicts and comforts. He convicts the world, and also\nthe believer when he walks after the world. He comforts the saints,\nand we have noted something of what this means. The Holy Spirit makes\npossible the life of victory in Christ. The fulness of the Spirit,\nwalking in the Spirit, the Spirit indwelling the life (that is,\ncontrolling it), are all other ways of saying, the life that is Christ,\nthe Victorious Life, the life kept from sinning, the Christ-controlled\nlife.\n\nThe Holy Spirit gives distinct gifts for worship and service, he works\nmiracles, he does many things for the believer. But these things which\nhe does for different believers, dividing to each severally even as He\nwill, must be kept distinct from the one central purpose which is the\nsame for every believer, namely the manifesting of Christ in the life\n(Gal. 3:5; 1 Cor. 12 to 14; Eph. 4:14-16).\n\nAnd the one proof that Christ is not manifested, is _sin_. Thus victory\nover sin is central in the work of the Spirit in our salvation.\n\nWe have asked and briefly answered two questions concerning the Holy\nSpirit: \u201cWho is He, and what does He do?\u201d \u201cWho has Him, and what\ndo they do?\u201d There remains a third question, the answer to which\ndetermines whether His miracle working power shall be available in\npresent experience: \u201cHas He me?\u201d\n\nThe Holy Spirit may be in a believer, and yet not controlling the life.\nThis is the meaning of the exhortation to Christians in Ephesians 5:18:\n\u201cBe filled with the Spirit.\u201d These believers were born of the Spirit\nand sealed with the Spirit (Eph. 1:13), yet there was the possibility\nof their not being filled with the Spirit. This is the meaning of the\ncharge, \u201cWalk by the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the\nflesh\u201d (Gal 5:6). There was a possibility of walking after the flesh.\nSo in Romans 8:4 Paul declares that the righteous requirement of the\nlaw is \u201cfulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the\nSpirit.\u201d This is the life of victory, lived in the power of the Spirit.\nAnd this is the life which a believer may effectually hinder by his\nown will in keeping from yielding to the control of the Spirit, whose\ncontrol means the manifesting of Christ.\n\nThe Christian who is ready to yield completely to Christ may in the\nvery moment of yielding trust Christ for the fulness of the Spirit,\nknowing that His fruit in life and service is now being produced. The\nsimple condition of surrender and faith for victory is what gives the\nHoly Spirit sway in the life.\n\nWhat relation has such a crisis of the fulness of the Spirit of\nregeneration? Is it a crisis that necessarily must follow the crisis of\nthe new birth? The answer is clearly given in Galatians 5:25. \u201cIf we\nlive by the Spirit, by the Spirit let us also walk.\u201d If we have eternal\nlife by the miracle work of the Holy Spirit, by that same miracle power\nlet us live our daily lives moment by moment. There would not need to\nbe a crisis after conversion if we stayed in the place of abiding where\nwe started, in full surrender and trust.\n\nThe message of Galatians 5:25, in terms of the Holy Spirit\u2019s work, is\nprecisely the message of Colossians 2:6 in terms of Christ: \u201cAs ye\nreceived Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him.\u201d In normal regeneration\nthe child of God is not only born of the Spirit, but filled with the\nSpirit. Thousands testify that in that moment their heart was filled\nwith love, the fruit of the Spirit was produced all at once in the\nlife. God\u2019s plan is that such a life should abide in Christ, walking\nin the Spirit. Only one thing can interrupt such abiding and that is\nassertion of self, which is sin, or walking after the flesh. It is\nbecause sin has entered that Christians need the crisis to get back\nto where they were, or where they might have been, in the moment of\nregeneration.\n\nIt is Jesus the Baptist who baptizes with the Holy Spirit those who\nbelieve in Him, the Saviour. And it is Jesus, the Son of man, who is\nglorified by the Holy Spirit as He manifests Him in the life yielded to\nHis control.\n\n Have thine own way, Lord. Have thine own way.\n Hold o\u2019er my being absolute sway.\n Fill with thy Spirit, till all shall see\n Christ only, always, living in me.\n\n\n\n\n INDEX TO SCRIPTURES USED.\n\n PAGES.\n\n Gen. 3: 1-6 34\n\n Ex. 17: 7 37\n\n Deut. 6: 16 37\n\n Ps. 18: 1-5 52, 53\n 18: 2 51\n 22: 22 49\n 22, 23 and 24 67\n 34: 2, 3 45\n 44: 8 45\n 103: 3 73\n 143: 2 107\n\n Pro. 28: 22 44\n\n Isa. 8: 18 50, 51\n 14: 12-14 56-60\n 53: 6 79\n\n Jer. 9: 23 45\n\n Matt. 4: 1-11 35\n 6: 19-24 44\n 8: 17 73\n\n Luke 4: 1-13 35\n\n John 1: 12 79\n 1: 12, 13 120\n 2: 17, 18 53\n 3: 5, 6 120\n 5: 19, 30 54\n 5: 43 58\n 6: 18, 22 118\n 7: 38 6\n 7: 38, 39 122\n 8: 28 54\n 8: 34, 35 5, 14, 15\n 8: 36 72, 118\n 12: 23, 31, 35, 36 123\n 14: 10 54\n 14: 17, 23 119\n 15: 7 73\n 15: 11 72\n 16: 7-11 122\n 16: 13, 14 122\n 16: 22 72\n 17: 1, 22 123\n 20: 17 49, 50\n 20: 21 54\n\n Acts 13: 32, 33 50\n\n Rom. 3: 12 107\n 3: 23 79, 99, 107\n 4: 16 117\n 5: 1-4 99\n 5: 1, 5 124\n 5: 10 6, 87\n 6: 1 105\n 6: 2 83\n 6: 11 92\n 6: 13 7\n 6: 14 5, 20, 72, 74\n 6: 15 105\n 6: 23 79\n 7: 7-24 18-20, 23, 25\n 8: 1-4 20, 28\n 8: 2 5, 86\n 8: 4 125\n 8: 9 120\n 8: 11 73\n 8: 16 90\n 8: 23-26 100\n 10: 17 25\n 13: 10 46\n\n I. Cor. 1: 4-9 86\n 3: 1-3 83\n 6: 13 43\n 6: 19, 20 44, 119, 120\n 10: 12 94\n 10: 13 10, 38, 72, 94\n 12 to 14 125\n 13 124\n 15: 41, 42 101\n\n II. Cor. 3: 18 11, 124\n 5: 1-5 100\n 8: 9 53\n 12: 9 5, 77\n 13: 5 119\n\n Gal. 2: 19-21 30\n 2: 20 10, 73\n 2: 21 21\n 3: 5 125\n 3: 12 22\n 3: 14-29 27-29\n 5: 1 15, 118\n 5: 6 125\n 5: 13, 16\n 5: 16 83\n 5: 18 5\n 5: 22, 23 1, 124\n 5: 25 6, 30, 87, 126\n 6: 1 83\n 6: 14 45\n\n Eph. 1: 13, 14 100, 124, 125\n 2: 8 79\n 4: 4-16 125\n 5: 18 125\n\n Phil. 2: 1-11 55-60\n 4: 6, 7 72\n\n Col. 1: 27 101\n 2: 6 114, 126\n 3: 3 73\n 3: 17 45\n\n II Thes. 2: 3, 4, 9-11 58, 59\n\n Heb. 1: 1-14 48, 49\n 2: 11-13 49-54\n 4: 2 7, 26\n 9: 24, 26, 28 67\n 10: 19-25 80\n 12: 1 8\n 13: 20, 21 67\n\n James 2: 8-11 17\n 2: 12 21\n 2: 15-17 117\n 3: 10-12 85\n\n I Peter 1: 22, 23, 25 26\n 2: 7, 8 26\n 2: 16 16\n 5: 4 67\n\n I John 1: 1 to 2: 6 109-112\n 1: 5 85\n 1: 8 108-112\n 1: 9 12\n 2: 1 84, 105\n 2: 16 34, 38-40\n 2: 28 64\n 3: 3 98\n 3: 3, 21, 22, 24 64\n 3: 9 84\n 5: 9-13 79\n 5: 10, 11 89\n 5: 18 84\n\n III John 2 73\n\n Rev. 21: 5 70\n\n\n\n\nTranscriber\u2019s Note:\n\n\nThis book was written in a period when many words had not become\nstandardized in their spelling. Words may have multiple spelling\nvariations or inconsistent hyphenation in the text. These have been\nleft unchanged unless indicated below.\n\nWords and phrases in italics are surrounded by underscores, _like\nthis_. Obvious printing errors, such as backwards, upside down, or\npartially printed letters, were corrected. Final stops missing at the\nend of sentences and abbreviations were added. Quotation marks were\nadjusted to matched sets.\n\nSome scriptures listed in the index are not cited in the text.\nSpelling correction: What is \u201cGrowth [is] in Grace\u201d?","title":"Victorious life studies","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":41634}