Victory Over Sin – Part 3

Welcome this week to Part 3 of Victory Over Sin. I am encouraging you to stick with it. The topics covered call for deep thought and introspection but are well worth the effort. Be blessed.

Again. When the disciples of Christ said, “Lord teach us to pray ,” He directed them to pray, “Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven .” If God’s will is done in heaven by sinless obedience, we are taught to pray for the same thing on earth; and I cannot believe that Christ has taught us to pray for a thing which he is unwilling to grant. Again, we are taught to pray that “the very God of peace will sanctify us wholly; and preserve our whole spirit and soul and body blameless unto the coming of Christ;” and we are assured that He that hath called us is faithful, and will do it. 1 Thessalonians 5. 23, 24. Again, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness .” As faithful, I suppose, in the one case as in the other. I know of no reason for waiting for forgiveness or cleansing till death. {1839 CF, VOS 10.1}

In the further proof of the position that christians may avail themselves of God’s grace, so as to be saved from sin in this life, I will here speak directly in reply to your question, “who, besides Christ, mentioned in Bible history, were free from sin?” I quote the words of one, who exclaimed in view of his bondage to the law of sin and death, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me?” In reply to his own interrogation, he answers, “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord .” He says, moreover, “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit.” Paul, therefore, found out a way, whereby to be free from the law of sin and death, and to have the righteousness of the law fulfilled in him. This could be nothing less than loving God with all the heart and his neighbor as himself; for he who does less than this is a transgressor. The law could not do this, in consequence of the weakness of the flesh, but God did it through Christ; fulfilled in him the righteousness of the law, and thus made him free from that law of sin, under which he had before groaned in condemnation. He was now free from condemnation, but how those can be free from condemnation who are continually sinning against God, it is impossible for me to understand. He hath found, that to those  in Christ Jesus there was no condemnation, and John tells us that those who abide in Christ sin not. {1839 CF, VOS 10.2}

Paul also says, in another place, that “he that is dead is freed from sin .” Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe we shall also live

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with Him. If we die unto sin after the likeness of Christ’s death, we shall walk in newness of life, after the likeness of His resurrection. Christ, being raised from the dead, dieth no more, death hath no more dominion over Him-neither if we be dead to sin, will sin any more have dominion over us. Hence, the injunction of the Apostle- “Likewise  ye  also (i.e., as well as I) reckon yourselves to be dead  indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Christ .” Reckon yourselves to be dead unto sin by trusting in Christ to keep you thus alive. It may perhaps be said, that a person may reckon himself dead to sin, who has once repented, though he now continues to sin every day. But if I should find a man every day intoxicated, I should not regard him as dead to that sin, whatever he might say respecting past repentance-and the same is true of every other sin in thought, word, or deed. No man is dead to sin who commits sin-and as Christ who died once, dies no more, so he who is dead to sin, sins no more. If he falls into sin, he is no longer dead to sin. Such were the sentiments of Paul, and as I cannot accuse him of the gross inconsistency of preaching what he did not practice-I must believe that he was dead to sin and alive unto God, and that being free from condemnation in Christ Jesus, he did so abide in Him that he sinned not. {1839 CF, VOS 10.3}

Again, we hear this Apostle saying in another place, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.” Galatians 2:20, 21. I cannot conceive that a man could use such language as this, who was living day by day in sin. If a man is crucified with Christ, he must be dead to sin, and such an one the Apostle has already told us is “freed from sin .” No man can say, I am fully persuaded, “I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me ,” who knows himself to be living in sin. Nor can one who lives in sin say, “The life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me .” Paul says, I do not frustrate the grace of God . I do not expect to work out a righteousness by my own unaided efforts to obey the law-I rely on the faithfulness of Christ who loves me, to keep me. {1839 CF, VOS 11.1}

Peter also learned, that “the divine power of Jesus our Lord had given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that hath called us to glory and virtue: whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these we might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.” I cannot doubt that Peter had experienced in his own heart what he wrote, and I believe, therefore, that in being made partaker of the divine nature, through the exceeding great and precious promises of God, and “having escaped the

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corruption that is in the world through lust; he did so abide in Christ that he sinned not . John also declared in his 1st Epistle unto those to whom he wrote, “that which he had heard-which he had seen with his eyes-which he had looked upon, and his hands had handled of the Word of Life.” He wrote that, therefore, which was to him a matter of experience. He had seen and felt in himself ” that in God was light, and in him was no darkness at all;” and that when any man walks in the light-in fellowship with God, “the blood of Jesus Christ His Son, cleansed him from all sin!”- John had also seen and felt that “if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” John had also learned from his own experience that Christ ” was manifested to take away our sins,”-he had “heard, and seen with his eyes, and handled this truth.” He had also learned that “whosoever abideth in Him sinneth not” -that “whosoever sinneth hath not seen Him, neither known him,” and that “whosoever doeth righteousness, is righteous, even as He is righteous”-that “he that commiteth sin is of the Devil;” and that “whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin-that his seed remaineth in him; and that while this is true he cannot sin, because he is born of God.” I cannot doubt that John was a man who reduced his own principles to practice, especially as he wrote only what he had heard and seen, and handled of the Word of Life, and therefore that he did so abide in Christ, that he sinned not. {1839 CF, VOS 11.2}

Thus, Dear Brother, I have shown you conclusively, to my own mind, at least, that in the economy of God’s grace there are provisions available to enable the christian to walk before God “in holiness and righteousness all the days of his life,” and so “to abide in Christ that he sin not .” In so doing, I have given you my views in full, respecting the attainableness of holiness in this life, and the question whether any have actually attained it. {1839 CF, VOS 12.1}

III. I am to consider how the provisions of the grace of God become available to the christian’s sanctification? {1839 CF, VOS 12.2}

Our Saviour’s prayer was:- “Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.” {1839 CF, VOS 12.3}

By what truth is the christian sanctified? {1839 CF, VOS 12.4}

1. Not by any precepts of the Bible, through his own unaided efforts to obey them. So long as any man attempts to become sanctified by this means, he will surely “find a law in his members, warring against the law of his mind, and bringing him into captivity to the law of sin ;” and will constantly find occasion to say, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me?” {1839 CF, VOS 12.5}

2. The christian  may be sanctified through the promises of God’s truth. “Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us

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cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of  God, according as His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that hath called us to glory and virtue: whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.” {1839 CF, VOS 12.6}

4. Let me be fully understood, then, that no man is ever sanctified, who relies on his own efforts to obey the law. Such an one frustrates the grace of God. He would indeed be holy, if he loved God with all his heart, and his neighbor as himself; but this he surely will never do, by any unaided efforts of his own. It must be done by the grace of God, and he most surely “frustrates that grace who does not live the life he now lives in the flesh by the faith of the Son of God .” {1839 CF, VOS 13.1}

We are, therefore, to cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, by the promises of God. These contain the truth, through which we may be sanctified, according to our Saviour’s prayer. {1839 CF, VOS 13.2}