THE VICTORIOUS LIFE

By an Unknown Christian

Author of “The Kneeling Christian”

 

From Our Friends At

& Pastor Jim Garlick
 
WHEN SELF IS DEAD

Is all this difficult to understand? It is all there on the page of Scripture. But praise be to God, it is not necessary for us to understand HOW God works—but just to believe that He will (and does) perform this work in us.

The question is just this: Am I willing to give up all known sin and to put myself absolutely at the disposal of the Saviour? -- Myself, my talents, my possessions, my work, my future? Am I willing to surrender myself entirely to Him? Dr. Wilbur Chapman for some time hesitated to trust his future career to Christ, although he was then a noted missionary. Dr. Meyer said, “Are you willing to be made willing?” Dr. Chapman told Christ he was WILLING TO BE MADE WILLING. At once every difficulty was removed. Yes, we must even surrender our surrender to Christ. Our Lord did not crucify Himself—nor bury Himself— nor can we crucify ourselves. But when we have emptied ourselves of “self,” Christ will crucify us—and will “raise us up to walk in newness of life.” The Cross for you and me is just I (self) crossed out.

The surrender must be absolute and entire. You remember the story of the goddess who, wishing to make her child Achilles immortal, dipped him beneath the waters of the river Styx. She succeeded with the exception of his ankles, by which she held him, thus preventing the water from laving that spot. His ankles were vulnerable and there he became mortally wounded. That fable has a moral truth.

There must be no part of us left unsurrendered in our burial with Christ through baptism unto death.

When Satan sees a man accept Christ as his Saviour, he tries his level best to keep his hand upon some small part of him. He wants to have just a LITTLE control over us, so that he can bring about our downfall. He knows that if he can prevent full surrender, he will also prevent a Victorious Life.

HOW TO BE FILLED

A man “full of the Holy Spirit” is a mighty power—which power almost vanishes when even a little of our surrender is withdrawn. That power is also impossible when a little of our surrender to Christ is withheld. But if with “full and glad surrender” we yield ourselves to our blessed Master, He will come and fill us wholly with His Divine Presence.

Can we trust our all to Him, so that He may become “all in all” to us?  “Jesus Christ is the Saviour of ALL the life as well as the Saviour of every life.”

CHAPTER EIGHT: SURRENDER ALL TO CHRIST

WHAT “ABSOLUTELY SURRENDERED TO GOD”

REALLY MEANS, AND THE RESULTS THAT

FOLLOW THIS ATTITUDE OF FAITH

We have again and again declared that before anyone can enter into the Victorious Life, two things are necessary—surrender and faith: man’s part and God’s part.

First of all, we must be willing to give up all known sin and all self-will and surrender ourselves entirely into God’s hands. Then we must in faith look to God to sanctify us. So the entrance in may be summed up in two simple mottoes:

LET GO AND LET GOD

Now it is extraordinary how difficult it is to make people understand what “surrender” is. And when they DO understand, it is still more difficult to persuade them that it is for their good!

The writer sent a business letter to a Christian friend a week ago and in it put this question:  “May I ask if you are entirely surrendered to Christ?” He called round the following day. He had just taken offence because of the conduct of a fellow-Christian (who had been both courteous and right—but firm).

Irritation, censure and divergence from the truth were all exhibited in five minutes. Then as he left the room, he turned and said in a surprised tone, “By the way, what did you mean by that hint in your letter that I am not entirely surrendered to God? I AM entirely surrendered to Him.” It was quite obvious that he knew little about surrender. Yet he seemed perfectly satisfied with himself.

WHAT SURRENDER MEANS

Many readers of this paper may be equally satisfied. But many, we know, are yearning for a victory they do not possess, although they have sought it for many years. Will you examine your surrender? What does it mean? If we wish to be entirely yielded up to Christ, we must leave three things with Him: the Past, the Future and the Present.

This involves the surrender of SELF not merely of things. “Surrender your very selves unto God” (Romans 6:13, Weymouth). A cleric in the USA once said, “Do you know that Campbell Morgan came to this country and preached one sermon that destroyed 40 years of my sermons? For 40 years I had been preaching on the duty of sacrifice— the denying things to ourselves; giving up this and that. We practised it in our family. We would give up butter one week and try to use the money in some way that God might bless. Another week we would give up something else, and so on. Campbell Morgan said that what we needed to give up, was not things but SELF: and that was the only thing we had not given up in our home. We had given up everything under the sun, but self. We were giving up so many things that we had become proud of our humility!” So let us look at self. Am I willing to surrender it entirely to God, and just “Let go”?

THERE IS THE PAST

1. “But,” you exclaim, “the past is dead and gone.” Oh, no; far from it!  “The sins of the past are forgiven, but oh, what a weight they are about our necks!” said a worker for Christ. This ought not to be. Are we willing to let the past go?

A lady missionary, who longed for Victory through Christ and confessed her deep yearning for it, was just broken-hearted over the matter. Why?  “Because of the sins of the past,” she replied. “But God has forgiven your past sins. They are blotted out. How can they hinder you?”  “But you do not know the sort of failures I have made!” she moaned. “No—the past is too awful.”

When she had surrendered her past, the blessing came. There is a hymn which runs, “When God forgives, He forgets.” “For I will be merciful to their iniquities and their sins will I remember no more” (Hebrews 8:12; 10:17).  Why, then, should I remember my past sins? Surely no good can possibly come of it?

THINGS THAT MAR SERVICE

A momentary recollection of what God has saved us from may add to our praise of Him. But haven’t we enough to bless and praise His glorious name for, even without such backward glances? It is bad enough to have sinned in the past: but it is surely a terrible thing to allow past sins to mar present service.

When you have forgiven your child some wrong-doing, do you wish him to grieve over it—to be miserable over it for days, weeks, months, years? Yet many children of God are doing this.  Self-examination has its place, but to wreck the present by mourning over the past is sin.

Look at Simon Peter. He denied our Lord with oaths and curses. Our Lord forgave him, reinstated him, and used him. The one of the eleven who fell the lowest was the very one chosen to be spokesman on the day of Pentecost. Nor did Peter allow his past fall to hamper him, for he accuses the Jews of the very sin he had himself committed.

“You denied Him,” he cried.  “You denied the Holy and Righteous One” (Acts 3:14).  O let us thank God that the sins of the past are blotted out, and let us never grieve Him by spoiling the present by reproaching ourselves for the sad past. “Looking unto Jesus” must be our attitude. “Forgetting the things that are behind;... I press on toward the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13).

THERE IS THE FUTURE

2. Are we willing to leave that entirely in God’s hands? Many people seem to think that God will take advantage of them! That if they agree to obey all God’s wishes, God will make them miserable. They cannot trust God to fill their lives with joy—so they seek their pleasures from the world, and sometimes from deliberate sin.

The Lord Jesus said to His disciples, “These things have I spoken unto you that My joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full” (John 15:11). What things had He been speaking about? Why, just abiding in Christ and keeping His commandments. His joy—the very joy of God! Could we desire anything more than that—better than that? Of course, if He dwells in us, and lives His life in us, we have His joy.

FROM TONIGHT, LORD

A wayward little boy climbed onto his father’s knees one evening and said, “Father, from tonight I’m going to do all you ask of me.” How did the father act? Did he think to himself, “Now I have that boy in my power. Now I have the chance of making his life miserable!” It is unthinkable. He drew the laddie closer to him and silently vowed he would do everything in his power to make that boy happy.

Is a God of Love going to take advantage of us, if we surrender our all to Him? Will He deign to remain in our debt? Remember, God has not only the will, but the power to make us supremely happy. There are our future plans. Does not God know what is best for us? Yet how unwilling believers often are to trust Him to do what is best.

When addressing a party of missionary’s home on furlough last summer, the writer was struck by the miserable face of an elderly man. “Why is he so miserable?” “Oh,” replied the chairman, “he longs to return to China to die in harness, but the committee refused to allow him to go back.” A devoted servant of God—yet unwilling to leave his future in God’s hands. The result was not fullness of joy—but misery. We might well pray, as one dear saint did, “Oh, God! do not let anyone here be afraid of Thee.”

Are you afraid of God?  Yes—if you know of anything you are not willing to give up, should God show you that it was His will you should do so.

God knows, He loves, He cares;

Nothing this truth can dim;

He does the very best for those

Who leave the choice to Him.

THEN THERE IS THE PRESENT

3. How will this be affected? All unlove, bitterness, irritability, pride, jealousy, resentment, censoriousness— all must go, really go. An active lady worker said to the writer, “That’s easy enough for me, for I haven’t an enemy in the world!” The next day she was limping. “I’ve fallen down,” she explained. “I saw that horrid Miss K--- coming along and I didn’t want to acknowledge her, and in looking the other way, I slipped off the curb and fell in the gutter!”

Now we may be sure that if there is anyone against whom we harbour any ill feeling or resentment, or “owe a grudge” -- anyone to whom we could not show Christian love and kindliness—we are not living the Victorious Life. Dr. Schofield once said, “If you have a sin in your life which you cannot let go, bring it to Jesus and let Him kill it.” It may be some habit which others regard as harmless.

“Whenever you talk of surrender,” said a man to the writer, “I always think of my pipe.” Not a word had been said about smoking—but the pipe went.  Forgive this remark—it is true or it would not be recorded here: You will find very few fully surrendered Christians whose consciences allow them to smoke.

One word of warning: Do not allow any fear of the future to rob you of present victory. “I’ve surrendered all to Christ,” said a missionary at Keswick last summer, “And I am so happy. But I’m fearful what will happen when I get home.” Do you see, the future was not really surrendered.

Dr. A. T. Pierson in his last address at Mildmay said, “Believe me as a dying man, no one ever obtained as much as he might have obtained from God.” Why? Because God cannot give all He would until we surrender all we have -- and are. If you find any difficulty in this matter—then just surrender your surrender to the Lord Jesus.

NOW IS THE DAY OF VICTORY

The present is the time for Victory. Let your aim ever be to glorify the Lord Jesus now. So many Christians let present opportunities slip by unused, because their minds are fixed upon something they are going to do TOMORROW or next Sunday. School yourself to live in the present. How can Christ Jesus manifest forth His glory—Himself through me today—now, this very moment?

Perhaps the secret of Victory in Christ lies just here. God gives needed grace just when it is needed.

“Have you dying grace?” a lady, asked Charles Spurgeon. “No, madam, and I do not want it now—but praise God, I have living grace,” was his reply.

Surrender. Let go. Then look to Christ in faith. Let GOD ---.

Ask the Lord Jesus Christ to crucify you and to give you His Resurrection Life. In that delightful little book, The Christian’s Secret of a Happy Life”, there is a chapter on

“HOW TO ENTER IN”

The way suggested is to pray, “Lord Jesus, I believe that You are able and willing to deliver me from all the care and unrest and sin of my Christian life. You died to set me free, not only in the future, but here and now. I believe that You are stronger than sin and can keep me from yielding to it. Lord, I am going to trust You to keep me. I have tried keeping myself and have failed grievously. I am also helpless. So now I will trust You. I give myself to You. I keep nothing back. ... And now …I AM YOURS.

“I believe that YOU will accept this poor, weak, foolish heart; and that it has been taken possession of by You; and that You have at this moment begun to work in me to will and to do of Your good pleasure. I trust You utterly, I trust You now.”

But be careful to remember that surrender is not simply making a promise to God to forsake sin and always to do His will. That would be living under the Law. Surrender is just turning over to God all that we are and have, FOR HIM TO DO WITH US whatever He wishes. Surrendered Christians are often defeated, because they think they can carry out their good resolutions by God’s help. No! Just hand yourself over to God, and then trust Christ to do His part. “He is able to keep.”

It is not our surrender that gives us the victory. It is not even our faith! It is CHRIST HIMSELF—the Faithful One.

Surrender and trust, and Christ will never fail you.

CHAPTER NINE: REAL VICTORY AND FALSE—REAL VICTORY AND ITS COUNTERFEIT

The Victorious Life is simply a life fully surrendered to God, with Christ dwelling within and in complete control—a life in which the only desire is to bring glory to Jesus Christ. It is the only truly happy life, yet Christians refuse to enter in, lest their lives should be made miserable!

THE JOY OF PERFECT TRUST

But is it a life filled with “crosses”? That is the idea that many Christians have—that where there is the choice between things agreeable and disagreeable, the unpleasant one must, of course, be chosen! Can we find anything of this in the Bible?

Paul is never tired of talking about the wonderful joy in his life.  “Rejoice evermore!”  “In everything give thanks.” Yet what hardship and bitter persecution were his lot! If you love God and fully trust Him, the place in which you are is the happiest place in which you can possibly be; and the work you are doing is the very best for you.  Of course, God may move you elsewhere or give you other work. That can be left to Him. But let Him be glorified in us NOW.

Crosses? Nowhere in the Bible do we read of crosses. Yet when our plans are upset, or the weather “spoils” our day, or sickness or bereavement alters our prospects, we are apt to say sadly (or cheerfully), “Well, I suppose this is my cross for today.”  It may not be murmuring, but merely what we call “resignation.” There should be no such word as “resignation” in the vocabulary of the Christian. If God has complete control over us, nothing can happen contrary to His will. And is not His will the very best for us? Instead of resignation there should be glad acceptance. The feeling of our hearts should ever be, “I delight to do Thy will, O my God!” (Psalm 40:8). There can be no such thing as disappointment in the life of a man really living the Victorious Life. “My meat is to do the will of Him that sent me,” (John 4:34) said our Lord. Can we say the same?

When we are transformed by the renewing of our mind, we shall prove every day that God’s will is good and perfect; shall it not therefore be acceptable? (Romans 12:2.)  How eagerly, how joyfully we should embrace it!  Believers are nowhere called upon to bear crosses.

TAKING UP THE CROSS

We know, however, that Jesus Christ said: “If any man would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me” (Matthew 16:24); “Whosoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple” (Luke 14:27). It is, then, our duty to take up the cross, but not to carry crosses. There is one cross for every one and for every day.

If you had seen a man in our Lord’s day carrying a cross, you would know that it meant death to someone— probably for the man himself. The cross is always a sign of death. Before anyone can really follow Christ—really be a disciple, that is, a learner—he must be dead with Christ and risen with Him.  That is what Paul meant when he said, “I have been crucified with Christ: yet I live, yet no longer I, but Christ liveth in me” (Galatians 2:20).  Someone has said, “It is one thing to be saved from the penalty of sin; it is another thing to follow Christ.”

Dr. Griffith Thomas says that some Christians are monstrosities. They are no more like Christ twenty years after their conversion than they were when they began the Christian life. They are not “learning” of Him. They have not taken up the cross: have not been crucified with Christ. “The taking up of the cross is the end of crosses and the beginning of discipleship,” said Mr. C. G. Trumbull.

Do let us get hold of this fact: that our Lord wishes us always to be full of joy—always, everywhere, under all circumstances.

A gloomy, miserable-looking Christian stood outside a mission. “Will you come into our service tonight?” he asked of a passer-by. The stranger gave him one swift glance, and replied (as he hurried off), “No, thank you! I’ve troubles enough of my own!” Are we surprised?

A life of Victory is a life of Trust; and must be always full of Joy. Such a life glorifies Christ.

WHAT REAL VICTORY MEANS

But let us be quite clear as to what the Victorious Life is. For the devil does all he can to entice us to accept a counterfeit Victory—that is, a “victory” which we think we are getting ourselves by our own efforts.

Take the question of bad temper or irritability. Many Christians pride themselves on the fact that they exercise such self-control that their temper “never gets the better of them.” By this they mean that they never SHOW it.  Now the Victorious Life is not one which merely makes our outward actions right. It is a life, which gives victory in the inner realm of the heart, so that our very desires are right. To want to do wrongful things and to restrain from doing them is not real victory. The wonderful thing is that God takes the “want to” out of our very hearts, and we long only to do His will.

No doubt most of our readers have heard the story of the old Quaker lady who apparently never lost her temper.  Under the most trying circumstances she was quite unruffled. A friend once commented on this, and said to her, “I cannot for the life of me understand how you always keep so delightfully sweet.  Why, if the things happened to me which happen to you, I should just boil over with rage; but YOU never do.” The old Quaker lady quietly replied, “Perhaps I do not boil over, my dear, but thou dost not know what boiling is going on inside.” Now that is not victory. There is no victory in keeping our sinful feelings from expressing themselves. We may do that simply because we are ashamed to let others know how sinful we are. Moreover, it does not require the grace of God to enable a man to hide his temper. A shop assistant in a drapery establishment will do that all day long -- or he might lose his job. A business man will do it to get an order. A “gentleman” will do it to avoid “bad form.” A Society lady does it for social reasons. But this is not the Victorious Life.

WHEN THE MIRACLE HAPPENS

An American speaker tells the following story to illustrate real victory. A lady missionary who had surrendered all to Christ but had never looked to Him for complete victory, found her temper not improved by the Tropics. She was much distressed about her failures, and her struggles against them seemed in vain. However, a friend showed her that there was victory through simple faith in Christ, and she claimed this victory as a gift from God.  Writing to this friend some time afterwards, she told of the wonderful thing that had happened in her spiritual life. “I wanted to write to you at first, but I was afraid it would not last,” said she. “But it has lasted. Do you know that for three months not only have I not once slammed the door in the face of any of these stupid Indian servants that used to get on my nerves so, but I have not wanted to—not once.” Now that is victory.

We must recognise it as a miracle.  No good resolutions, no will power, can alter our likes and dislikes. But God can. He can take away from us all desire to do sinful things.

Bad temper is not the only sin of Christian people, and many Christians have the sweetest of dispositions. The best test of all is in the matter of love. Do we love our “enemies”—those who despitefully use us or persecute us?  Do we nevertheless love them? “If you want him to love you, you must knock him down,” said a worker to the writer, speaking about a friend. What is your first feeling when men injure you or oppose you? Is it a spontaneous outflowing of love towards them? Or do we first find it necessary to shoot up an urgent, earnest prayer that we MAY love them, and may not feel resentment? Do we eagerly welcome opposition, unkindness, rudeness, discourtesy (and suchlike) towards us, as opportunities of showing that the love of Christ is filling our hearts? It is in small matters that we are tested.

UNDER THE LOVE OF CHRIST

How often we hear earnest Christian people saying, “I cannot love the unlovable.” No; it is humanly impossible for human love to do this. We cannot make ourselves love another. Human love is kindled only by what it thinks is loveable. The love of God—Christ’s love—embraces all and sees everyone to be loveable. When Christ dwells richly in our hearts, we shall love even our enemies. There is victory when “the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts” (Romans 5:5), to the expulsion of all unlove—then and then only. There we have a definition of real victory.

FACTS THAT HELP LOVE

At first such a thing seems beyond our highest hopes. Many regard it as an impossibility. So it is to man. But with God this thing is possible. It is a miracle, and God works miracles every day. Fellow-Christian, do not give up the idea of living the Victorious Life because it seems impossible to you. Just yield yourself to Christ, and trust Him to work in you both to will and to do His good pleasure (Philippians 2:13).

Many reply that their faith is not strong enough. Why, faith the size of a grain of mustard seed is enough if you will exercise it. May we give you two FACTS to help your love and faith?

Remember that:----

1.   The Lord Jesus dearly loves all those whom we might regard as unlovable: loves them every bit as much as He loves us. Can we not see them with the eyes of Christ?

“Do not be afraid of me, mum,” said a filthy, wild-looking tramp to a lady who crossed the road to avoid meeting him. “Do not be afraid of me, mum. My mother was a woman.”  “Do not refuse to love me,” the unlovable might exclaim. “The Lord Jesus LOVES ME.”

2.   The most unlovable person—the most loathsome and repulsive creature— becomes loveable even in OUR eyes when the love of God is shed abroad in HIS heart. If you really want to love him, pray earnestly for him and try to save his soul. If he is a Christian—but “nastily saved,” as the Lancashire man put it—pray that he may get the Victorious Life; send him this book and continue in prayer. The writer has had the joy of pointing to Christ as their Saviour most revolting men and women, in whom every vestige of beauty appeared to be stamped out by drunkenness and vice.  He has met them a week after, new creatures in Christ Jesus. A miraculous transformation has taken place in an incredibly short time. Is he—she— unlovable in your eyes? Then just think what that one may become when the love of God reaches him or her.

LIBERATING THE ANGEL

Michael Angelo lingered before a rough block of marble so long that his companion remonstrated. In reply, Michael Angelo said with enthusiasm, “There’s an angel in that block and I’m going to liberate him!” Ah, what unbounding love would manifest itself in us towards the most unlovable—the most vile—if only we saw what they might become, and in our enthusiasm for souls we cried out, “There’s the image of Christ—marred, scarred, well-nigh obliterated—in that dear fellow, and I’m going to make that man conscious of it.”

A fable declares that a gallant prince kissed a serpent and it became a lovely princess. Fact shows us that when “kissed” by love, the vilest may become beautiful; the “serpent” become a saint.

“What are the outward and visible signs of the Victorious Life?” asked a young evangelist of the writer. The answer to that question would describe real victory. Briefly we would say. Everything contrary to love is expelled from the heart and life. Read the closing words of Chapter Three, and you will see what Divine LOVE can do—or rather, what LOVE DOES in scores and hundreds of lives. It drives out impatience, unkindness, jealousy, envy, boasting, self-assertion, pride, folly, selfishness, self-seeking, anger, irritability, bad temper, fretfulness, malice, uncharitable remarks, complaining, censoriousness, despair, anxiety, despondency, backbiting, repeating damaging information even if it is true. ALL THESE WE CALL RESPECTABLE SINS—or ever refuse to regard them as sins at all! God help us!  So long as any of these—even one of these—remains, there is no victory for us. When a fully surrendered Christian looks in simple faith to Christ and asks Him to fill the whole heart, HE, CHRIST, who is love, “perfect love,” banishes every one of these vile “respectable” sins, which we have been regarding as LITTLE sins, but which mar our work and hinder our usefulness. Are we willing to allow the Lord Jesus to do this for us?

CHAPTER TEN: THIS LIFE IS A GIFT

THE VICTORIOUS LIFE IS ALL A GIFT RECEIVED IN FAITH

AND IS NOT OBTAINED BY STRIVING AND STRUGGLING.

This victorious life is a GIFT and is not to be secured by any struggling or striving on our part. It is not a thing to be attained to by long and laborious effort. It is not a thing we can reach gradually by growing more and more like Christ. This must be clearly seen.

All life comes as a gift. Our physical life—we just receive it. Our spiritual life is “the gift of God” (Romans 6:23). The life “more abundant” is a gift. We cannot receive a gift GRADUALLY. There may be hesitation or delay in taking it, there may be a struggle before we are willing to receive it. But a gift is accepted not gradually, but in a moment. It is obtained not attained.

The Victorious Life, then, can be received by a definite act. There is, of course, a “growth in grace” in the man who is wholly sanctified—a going on to perfection as his capacity increases.

But “this life is in His Son” (1_John 5:11). When we accept the Son as the Lord of all our being, we receive (as a gift) the LIFE. It is something God does for us—IN US. There is, however, often a long struggle before surrender. Many a Christian has a terrific struggle before he is willing to yield himself wholly to Christ.

But this is before the Victorious Life begins. Victory begins only when struggling ceases. The moment you surrender yourself entirely to Christ and look to Him in faith to dwell in your entire heart, that moment He comes and takes control of you.

TAKING CHRIST AT HIS WORD

This indwelling is quite independent of any feeling on your part.  It is independent of any ideas of your own as to how He should manifest His presence. You must just take Him at His word and rest upon that—not upon any feeling. You may feel a wonderful thrill of joy. You may feel nothing unusual.  Can you trust His promise?

Every Christian has to decide whether he will be wholly consecrated to God, or whether he will remain content to live the Christian life on a low level—which is ALWAYS a powerless one, and a perilous one.

THE CRISIS AND THE PROCESS

This DECISION FOR HOLINESS is a crisis in a Christian’s life. With it comes an instantaneous revelation of God to him, that Christ can be all in all; that Christ can and does give Victory over all known sin: not gradually but INSTANTANEOUSLY. “Having therefore these promises let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of the flesh and spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord” (2nd Corinthians 7:1). The tense in the Greek shows that this is done at once as a definite and decisive act.  This is the CRISIS of sanctification.

But after this definite step of whole-hearted dedication of one’s self to God, there comes a life-long process of sanctification—a going on from strength to strength, from glory to glory. A PROCESS under which the believer becomes more and more conformed to the life and character of Christ.

WHERE MANY BLUNDER

We have dwelt long on this point because the mistake the writer made (and which many of his readers have probably made) was to try to experience the process without first experiencing the crisis of sanctification. There is little—if any—growth in grace until we have claimed by surrender and faith the “life that is Christ.” Have you experienced the crisis? Have you obeyed the command, “Sanctify in your hearts Christ as Lord”? (1_Peter 3:15.) Christ is in the heart of every believer as “JESUS”—Saviour. But is He indeed Lord? It is not a question of re-conversion, it is just a question of recognising the indwelling Christ as Master in His own house—my heart.

Remember, however, that surrender alone, that is, “decision,” is not enough. That is only our part in giving up all hindrances to blessing. If surrender sufficed, then we should make sanctification to be a mere act of the WILL. We are neither saved nor sanctified by what we give up, but by what we receive. It is “the very God of peace Who sanctifies us wholly.” After surrendering ourselves, we must look to Christ to crucify us and to raise us from the death to sin to live the resurrection life.

Let go—surrender: then “let God” do His part. But God will not allow any effort or struggle on your part to help Him. Salvation is entirely a gift of God: entirely of grace.

Now salvation is a threefold work: Past, Present and Future. Justification, sanctification and glorification.

ETERNAL LIFE A GIFT

And it is all by faith. You cannot earn, or get, any part of it by your own efforts or struggles. “For by grace have ye been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God: not of works, that no man should glory” (Ephesians 2:8-9. See Romans 11:6). Paul goes even further than this.  “Ye are severed from Christ, ye who would be justified by the law” (i.e., effort) (Galatians 5:4). When a man accepts Christ as a Saviour from the penalty of sin, he learns that Christ’s forgiveness is absolutely and entirely through faith. Sorrow for sin, good resolutions, and tears, often accompany repentance. But repentance does not save a man. We have to leave that to Christ.  Justification is entirely the work of Christ; and faith in Him secures this salvation. We can do nothing whatever to gain or merit it. We accept it as a gift.

When Christ shall come again, we shall be glorified. This is the future of salvation. In this work of glorification, we know we can do absolutely nothing. It is all of Christ.

LIFE MORE ABUNDANT—A GIFT

What about the present? That is, our sanctification (which is first a crisis and then a process). We have called this the Victorious Life. When we claim it by faith, there is the crisis. When we live it day by day, there is the process.

Our Blessed Saviour justified us, and will glorify us by His own power entirely. Does He need or demand our help in the matter of sanctification? How much will our struggling and striving or agonising avail against the devil? Absolutely nothing. He is far stronger than we are.  Does Christ, the Almighty Saviour, need my struggles to assist Him? Remember that our weakness will never be made strong.  A dear Christian lady in an address on this subject said, “IS not the Christian life a long struggle? But thank God He gives us power to struggle!” Exactly the reverse is true. While we struggle, He cannot help us as He would, we limit and restrain His power.

The Victorious Life is simply salvation in the present; and all salvation is entirely of grace— entirely of Christ—a GIFT. “As therefore ye received Christ Jesus the Lord, SO walk in Him” (Colossians 2:6).  How did we receive Him? By simple faith.  How are we to walk in Him; that is, live a Victorious Life? By simple FAITH. “If we live by the Spirit (i.e., eternal life is ours as a gift by the power of the Spirit), by the Spirit let us also walk” (Galatians 5:25). Do get hold of this truth: we may not, cannot in the smallest degree, share with Christ the work of accomplishing any part of our salvation. Yet so many of us imagine that in the matter of sanctification we must “paddle our own canoe.”

TRUST, NOT STRUGGLE

Blaze it out in letters of fire, that Christ can, and will, save us from the power of sin every day and every hour without struggling, striving and agonising. If you struggle, you do not trust.

Have not most of us learned from our own experience how useless our struggles are? Some besetting sin gets the better of us. How we struggle against it! How we agonise in prayer over it—even “standing on the promises of God” as we think. Yet we get up from our knees only to fall again and again into sin! Christ’s promises cannot give us power. Even faith cannot save us. Only Jesus Christ can do it.

Are we willing to look to Him and trust Him to conquer our sin for us? He has conquered sin and Satan. HE—the Conqueror—is willing to come and fill our hearts and be OUR LIFE. “Sin shall NOT have dominion over you,” says God’s Word (Romans 6:14). We may be “more than conquerors”—not by struggling, but entirely “through HIM that loved us” (Romans 8:37). What does it mean? Not only that the besetting sin will be conquered—but the very DESIRE to sin will be taken away.

Only Christ can do this. It is a wonderful MIRACLE. Some of us have proved this.

A well-known character in London has recently passed to the life beyond the grave. He was a notorious drunkard, but marvellously saved by Christ. For weeks after his conversion he had an intense desire to drink coming upon him with almost overwhelming power. He fought and struggled against the temptation. Although an untutored man, he felt that God had a better way than this. Kneeling in a field in North London, he cried out, “O God, can’t you make a better job of me than this?” And God at once took away all desire to drink and the craving never returned.

The saintly Bishop Moule confessed in an address to confirmation candidates that a severe and terrible temptation assailed him in the street. He added, “I stopped dead and said quickly, ‘Holy Spirit, come it.’ Then I said to myself, ‘The evil spirit, who is strong, is here. But I have the Holy Spirit, Who is Almighty, and I can leave Him to deal with the temptation.’”

Christ does not give us power apart from Himself. “All power is given unto ME” said Christ. “And Lo! I am WITH YOU all the days” (Matthew 28:18,20).

“For if while we were yet enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more being reconciled shall we BE SAVED BY HIS LIFE” (Romans 5:10) --i.e., by the living Christ living in us. He will keep us safe from the power of sin, if we will let Him. Christ can do this. He will do it. He does it in every life that trusts Him to do it.

SELF-EFFORT MEANS FAILURE

We have proved by our own experience that we cannot be good by self-effort. Stop trying to be good.  Stop struggling, and let the Saviour do the great work for you. He came “to save His people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). We can reckon on Him. “The promise is to him that worketh not, but believeth” (Romans 4:5). “It is GOD that worketh in you both to will and to do” (Philippians 2:13).

“My God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19). Dear Christian, is your most urgent NEED just deliverance from this awful sin? How you have struggled and agonised! Yet the supply is IN YOU!

“Ah,” you cry, “but you do not know how weak I am.” No—but we thank God for your weakness. “My grace is sufficient for you—for My POWER is made perfect in weakness” (2nd Corinthians 12:9). Your weakness, which has been your lament, shall be your highest glory.

“Most gladly therefore will I glory in my weakness, that the power of Christ may cover me” (2nd Corinthians 12:9). We can be kept ONLY “by the power of God through faith” (1st Peter 1:5).  “Thanks be unto God which giveth us the Victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1st Corinthians 15:57).

PRESSING TOWARDS THE GOAL

Does this mean, then, that we need do nothing but sit down and sing psalms?  Far, far from it! We have been speaking only of the matter of our own personal salvation—past, present, future. ALL of this must be accepted as a gift. But when Christ comes into the heart, He comes with power. “Ye shall be endued with power [Greek: DYNAMIS, like “dynamite” or “dynamo”] from on high” (Luke 24:49). Power is a thing which makes itself felt. “Woe is unto me if I preach not the Gospel!” (1_Corinthians 9:16) says Paul, whose teaching we have given above.

“We cannot but speak the things which we saw and heard” (Acts 4:20).  Struggling and agonising play no part in our personal salvation. They merely hinder and hamper it. But we are in the midst of a wicked generation. The devil is strongly entrenched in the lives of men and women around us. They encourage temptation and welcome it. They find their greatest enjoyment in sin. They do not want to conquer sin. So Paul, who declares that salvation is all of faith, also warns us that we have a fight to wage, a race to win, a wrestling to engage in. “The God of peace shall bruise Satan” says Paul: but it is _under_OUR_FEET_ (Romans 16:20). The enemy’s Conqueror working in you will make the struggle short and decisive. He Who made peace FOR you, works peace IN you. All our powers of body, soul and mind are to be brought to bear upon this great task. In this “race”  Paul presses on towards “the goal for the prize of the upward calling of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:14). What IS this prize? Certainly not forgiveness of sin, or power over temptation, or the gift of eternal life. The “runner” has already laid aside “every weight and sin” (Hebrews 12:1), or he would not be in the race at all. No! The “prize” is not eternal life—that is a gift. The race, the fight, the wrestling (against the rulers of the darkness of this world -- Ephesians 6:12) is what we experience when we are fellow-workers with Christ, who came to destroy the works of the devil. (See Galatians 5:19-21 for some of them.) Never forget that even in all this outward activity, it is fruitful only as Christ inspires IT and empowers US.

OUR LORD’S EXAMPLE

Our Lord Himself “strove” in this way. He it was Who resisted unto blood, striving against sin (Hebrews 12:4). But HE had not to struggle against any inward desire or any temptation to sin.  HE did not find it hard to be good.

To sum up—there may be fierce conflicts in a Christian man’s heart before he is willing to surrender himself entirely to Christ. And there IS a great conflict to be waged against the devil, in our efforts to snatch others out of his bondage. But the Victorious Life, as it concerns our own souls, in one free from all struggle. “He is able to keep.”

When the writer was a boy, he spent much time walking on stilts. He gained considerable freedom in their use. But although he “walked” it required constant effort, and sometimes struggle, to keep from falling. A little thing brought collapse. Contact with anyone usually meant a fall. That is a picture of the “walk” of many a Christian. Effort, struggle, slow progress, constant falls and new starts, and an almost total inability to help anyone else.

It is an unnatural “walk.” Claim the Victorious Life—Victory through the Indwelling Christ—and the Christian walk will be found as easy as “walking on our feet.”

Some shell-shocked soldiers with normal limbs believe that they are unable to walk—and they cannot. The skilful physician makes them BELIEVE they can walk—and they do. The power of Christ to “walk by faith” is at our disposal. Can we not trust Him?

A little girl of 13 was asked what difference the Victorious Life meant to her in times of temptation. After a little pause she replied, “Before I saw this truth, I used to argue with the tempter, and he usually got the better of me. But now, when he knocks at the door of my heart, I say, ‘Lord Jesus, will you answer the door for me?’ And when Satan sees the Lord Jesus within, he says, ‘I’m sorry; I think I’ve come to the wrong house’—and he flees.”

HOW THE VICTORY COMES

And what is true of our Victory over temptation through Christ alone is also true of the warfare we wage with the “works of the devil” around us. It is Christ—and not we ourselves—Who wins the Victory. “What do you consider the most dangerous heresy of today?” was a question asked of the Editor of the Sunday School Times. He passed by Christian Science, spiritism, higher criticism and other “isms,” and gave this answer:

“The most dangerous heresy is the emphasis that is being given by professing Christians on what we do for God, instead of on what God does for us.”

In our work for the Master let us remember that it is not we who are doing His work, but HE Who is working through us. This being so, every Christian who is living the Victorious Life will be much in prayer and in communion with God over the pages of His Holy Word.

Before we bring this chapter to a close we ought just to ask what effect the Victorious Life in us will have on others. So far, we have been dealing with ourselves. If we stopped there, we should still exclaim, “It’s worth having.” But we are saved to serve. And every one of the many letters sent to the writer asking for help has come from Christians; from men and women trying to work for Christ, yet not equipped for service.

Dr. Temple, the new Bishop of Manchester, said at his enthronement, a few weeks ago, “Remember that the converting power of the Church does not depend chiefly on the eloquence of its preachers, or the perfection of its organisation. It depends on the degree in which men see in the lives of Christians the evidence of the power of the love of Christ.” That is it. And when men see that “the love of Christ shed abroad in our hearts” has such power that it has killed those sins in us, which were so distressing to our friends, then they begin to think.

LOVE, THE CONQUEROR

No one is beyond the reach of love.  The power of Divine Love is infinite. In the days of the American war, there lived at Ephrata, a plain Baptist minister, Peter Miller, who enjoyed the friendship of Washington. There also dwelt in that town one Michael Wittman, an evil-minded man who did all in his power to abuse and oppose that minister. But Michael Wittman was involved in treason and was arrested, and sentenced to death. The old preacher started out on foot and walked the whole seventy miles to Philadelphia that he might plead for that man’s life! He was admitted into Washington’s presence and begged the life of the traitor. “No, Peter,” said Washington, “I cannot grant you the life of your friend.”  “My friend!” exclaimed the preacher, “he is the bitterest enemy I have!”  “What?” cried Washington. “You have walked seventy miles to save the life of an enemy? That puts the matter in a different light. I will grant the pardon.” And he did. And Peter Miller took Michael Wittman from the very shadow of death, back to his own home in Ephrata—but he went no longer as an enemy but as a friend. And so it came to pass that LOVE brought a reviler from the foot of the gallows to the foot of the cross.

Christian worker, listen! Are you getting the success you would like to see in your work for Christ? Are you getting ANY apparent success? If not, is it not worthwhile—for your own sake, for your work’s sake, for the Saviour’s sake, for lost sinners’ sake—to enter the life of Victory?

Surrender: Faith: Taking: Praising the Giver.

CHAPTER ELEVEN: NOT SINLESS PERFECTION

HOW THE DEVIL USES THE BOGEY OF “SINLESS PERFECTION”

TO SCARE AWAY MANY SINCERE

SOULS FROM SEEKING A LIFE OF HOLINESS

Have we really grasped the fact that the Victorious Life is a gift from God? We may think of it as “the fullness of the Holy Spirit,” or we may think of it as Jesus Christ dwelling in the heart. Personally, the writer finds the greatest help from the fact of the indwelling Christ, and the consciousness of this indwelling.

After all, the Holy Spirit’s chief work is to take of the things of Christ, and show them to us.

HOW TO GET A GIFT

But however we may regard it, the Victorious Life is a gift. “If ye being evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him?”

“If thou knewest the gift of God,” said our Lord to a sinful woman, “and Who it is that saith to thee, ‘Give Me to drink,’ thou wouldest have asked of Him and He would have given thee living water” (John 4:10).

Now what must I do to secure a gift? Just take it. If a gift is offered me for the asking, will it please the giver if, instead of taking the gift, I spend long weeks, or months, or years begging and praying and agonising for it?

Would it give pleasure to a father and mother if their children sat up all night agonising in prayer for the Christmas gift they had promised to give them?

If they did such a thing, their “agonising” would have absolutely nothing to do with their receiving the gifts. One could well imagine the distressed father telling his children that if they didn’t cease their petitions and get to bed and trust him, they should get no gifts at all!

Jesus Christ is the great Christmas Day Gift. “Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift” (2nd Corinthians 9:15).  That gift is ours. Someone has said, “Our Lord wants our lives on earth to be one long Christmas Day of receiving His gift of Himself as our victory.”

We do not need to “agonise” about it; we do not need to work for it.  Provided we are wholly surrendered to God, we have simply to “receive,” “take” the Gift of Christ Himself.

But did not Jesus Christ tell His disciples “to tarry in Jerusalem until [they were] endued with power from on high”? Yes, He did. “Wait,” said He, “for the promise of the Father.”

But that was before Pentecost.

READY FOR OUR ACCEPTANCE

We never hear of the disciples after Pentecost telling believers to “wait” for this gift. In fact, we read in the 10th chapter of the Acts that the gift of the Holy Spirit fell upon “all them that heard the word,” while St. Peter was yet speaking to the household of Cornelius, although none of them was yet baptised. The Holy Spirit was given to Gentiles without delay, on simple faith in Jesus Christ. There is no need today to wait at all. If we fulfil the conditions, we can claim the gift.

The earliest disciples did not at first appreciate the value and necessity of this gift. Our Lord seems to have told “more than 500 brethren” to “tarry ye in the city, until ye be clothed with power from on high.” Yet only 120 obeyed the command, and consequently only 120 received the gifts on the day of Pentecost—the gift meant for all.

Let us today make no mistake about this. Our Lord is longing to fill every believer with His Holy Spirit. Christ is desirous of dwelling in our entire hearts by faith. Not until we have surrendered our wills to Him and have yielded our bodies to Him as well as our souls can He fill us with Himself.

This is what Paul means when he prays “that He would grant you to be strengthened by His Spirit with power penetrating to your inmost being” (Ephesians 3:16, Weymouth). “That ye may be filled unto all the fulness of God” (Eph. 3:19),  “till we all attain unto the measure... of the fullness of Christ” (4:13), “the fullness of Him that filleth all in all” (1:23).

CHRIST IN HIS FULLNESS

It is very wonderful that He should be willing to come. But it is a glorious thing that He should be willing to take absolute responsibility in our lives, because He cannot make a mistake, and He cannot fail.

It seems incredible that any believer should refuse such a gift. Again we urge you—receive Him in His fullness by faith. Do not wait for or expect any “thrill,” any “ecstasy.” You may feel one, and you may not. But take Christ at His word, and believe that He has come into your heart to be your life. Then rely upon Him to supply all your need.

“Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any man hear My voice and open the door, I will come in to him” (Revelation 3:20).

Bear in mind that Christ is already in the heart of every believer—even in the heart of one who is only following afar off. But in so many cases He is not filling the WHOLE heart. He has only partial possession; He has not complete control. There are often chambers of the heart which are shut against Him. And not only closed, but with a lodger within, and that lodger a burglar waiting his time to gain entrance to other rooms within. “If any man... open the door.”

We Christians sometimes sing:

“O Jesu, Thou art standing

Outside the fast closed door,

In lowly patience waiting

To pass the threshold o’er:

Shame on us, CHRISTIAN brothers,

His name and sign who bear:

Oh, shame—thrice shame upon us,

To keep Him standing there.”

And with the great majority of believers this is true of some part of the heart.

But it isn’t so much the “shame” as the utter folly of it. For we know that He wishes to gain access to the whole of our hearts simply to bring richest blessing.

Paul implores the Roman Christians, “Yield yourselves unto God.” He himself did so, and “heard His voice,” with no closed door between—words unutterable; he felt joy unspeakable and full of glory, and in the fullness of his heart he cries, “Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift.” 

TEMPTATION AND FAILURE

“Is it possible to lose the Victorious Life?” is a question often asked. Indeed, it is possible.  Temptation will certainly come, and failure may occur. A great Christian leader of men told the writer, a few days ago, how he had sometimes temporarily lost the victory. “But,” said he, “whenever I’ve failed, it has always been through the sin of worrying.” Yet there NEED be no failure.  We have a perfect Saviour. When we look back upon a break in this wonderful communion with Christ, we shall always have to confess that the failure need not have occurred.

SINLESS PERFECTION?

There are many saintly souls who openly declare that they never sin. They claim sinless perfection. They also claim that St. John teaches such a thing.

“We know that whosoever is begotten of God sinneth not, but He that was begotten of God (i.e., Jesus Christ) keepeth him, and the evil one toucheth him not” (1_John 5:18).  “Whosoever is begotten of God doeth no sin, because His seed (Jesus Christ ) abideth in Him, and he cannot sin, because he is begotten of God” (1_John 3:9).

These statements refer not to single acts of sin, but to habitual sin. The tense used in the Greek does not imply that he cannot commit one definite act of sin, but that he cannot continue sinning; he cannot make a practice of sinning, or frequently repeat acts of sin; it is not his habit to sin. John is here speaking of known and voluntary sins, not of sins of infirmity or the falling short of the glory of God.

TENDENCY OR POSSIBILITY

Any man can sin. Any man can tell a lie. But we know what we mean when we say “An honest man cannot lie.” We do not accuse George Washington of untruth when he declared “I cannot tell a lie!”

Every sin is against a good man’s nature. We say the “wood cannot sink.” this is true. The tendency of wood is always to float. Yet there is always the possibility of its sinking. The hand of a child may submerge it; when sodden with water it will lie on the bottom.  When the child releases it, it floats again. When a man is living the victorious life—a life maintained and actually lived for him by the indwelling Christ—there is no tendency to sin.  He desires always to do those things which are pleasing to God. But there is always the awful possibility of his sinning. He may become absorbed in the “world;” he may allow temptation to gain entrance and the hand of Satan upon him may drag him down. So long, however, as a man is fully surrendered to Christ and in full communion with Him, he cannot sin. But such a life is a moment by moment victory through a moment by moment faith. At any time he can partially withdraw his surrender or break his communion.

IN THE FATHER’S HANDS

A railway coach attached to a moving locomotive cannot stop. But at any moment the coupling may break and a stoppage ensue. Let us, however, repeat the statement that no man need commit any known and voluntary sin. “He is able to keep (guard) that which I have committed unto Him.”  The marginal reading is, “He is able to guard that which He hath committed unto me” (2_Timothy 1:12).

Both statements are true—praise be to God. “He is able to keep you from stumbling” (Jude 24).

Moreover our Lord Himself says of His followers, “No man shall snatch them out of My hand” ... “And no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand” (John 10:28-29). And it is evident that our Saviour has made every provision for guarding us lest we snatch ourselves out of His hand. The victory over sin which is secured from faith in Christ is, however, a moment by moment victory, and we must ever be “looking unto Jesus, the Beginner and Finisher of our faith” (Hebrews 12:2).

But thanks be to God, it isn’t our “looking unto Jesus” that gives us the victory, but “His looking unto us.” Peter could see the Lord despitefully used, and whilst looking at Him could curse and deny that he knew Him. But when our Saviour “turned and looked upon Peter”, no further denial was possible.  Not our faith, but His faithfulness, is our safeguard.

The indwelling Christ is more than equal to all emergencies. So long as we trust Him fully and obey His smallest behest—so long shall we continue in victory. Why then should a man ever commit any voluntary sin? And why are we surprised when a fully sanctified Christian man tells us he never sins knowingly?

THE CAUSE OF FAILURE

The reason why even fully consecrated Christians are sometimes “overtaken in a fault” is because the majority of believers are not fully surrendered to the will of God. It would be safe to say that most Christians think very little of such sins as pride, anger, irritability, impatience, jealousy, self-seeking, un-love and suchlike. It is, therefore, such an easy thing for a man living the Victorious Life to fall into any of these sins; so many of his fellow-Christians do so unblushingly. And should he fall probably no one is in the least surprised at it! Moreover, no one but a wholly sanctified man can reprove such a one, or he will get the reply, “Physician, heal thyself,” or even be referred to the “beam” and the “mote.” In fact, only a “spiritual” man can help him. As St. Paul says, “If a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual restore such a one” (Galatians 6:1).

Yet how easy it is to live the life of victory when in the company of wholly sanctified men and women! Oh, that there were many more such!

Why are we surprised when a man says he has reached a state of “sinless perfection”? Well, as a rule it is perfectly obvious to anyone but himself that he has not reached such an ideal.  Sooner or later he is “overtaken in a fault.” A saintly Christian man was recently arguing this point at a big luncheon party, and he claimed “sinless perfection” for himself. A fellow guest quietly said, whether in sincerity or as a test I know not, “Forgive me for saying so, but I was thinking you were a little greedy over your food!”  “I’ve never yet been accused of greed over anything,” flashed out the reply, “nor will I allow YOU to accuse me!” The warmth with which the retort was made raised a smile on the faces of all who heard it; practice and profession so evidently disagreed. This little story proves both the statements made above. The “sinlessly perfect” man is sometimes irritable and angry, and when he is “overtaken in a fault” the average Christian is both amused and pleased!

SINS OR “INFIRMITIES”

The writer has had the privilege of meeting believers who claim “sinless perfection.” He sat at a table with one at every meal for a week. To be quite frank he must acknowledge that he saw no outward trace of any sin. But this dear child of God took the writer to task in a kindly way for not preaching sinless perfection. This led to a long chat on the subject. My critic declared that a violent temper had been completely eradicated by the Lord Jesus. But he confessed to occasional feelings of impatience, irritability, and un-love.  “These, however, I regard as INFIRMITIES and not as sins,” said he.

My experience is that when men who profess sinless perfection are tackled about it, they always maintain that “little” things which WE call sins are only infirmities. Brothers, take your infirmities to Christ, and let the “strength of Christ rest upon you” (2_Corinthians 12:9).

Sometimes, alas! great harm is done to the cause of Christ by men professing “sinless perfection,” and boasting about it, even while allowing things in their lives which give the lie to their profession.

One such came to a friend of the writer to consult him on a business question. It was such an obvious case of sharp practice, if not of downright dishonesty, that my friend said in surprise, “How does such an act fit in with your profession of sinless perfection?”  “Oh, business is business,” came the impatient reply.  “And I will have nothing to do with this piece of business, then,” answered my friend.

We have dealt at length on this point because the devil uses the bogey of “sinless perfection” to scare away many sincere souls from seeking a life of holiness.

Our position is just this: So long as a fully surrendered believer simply trusts the Lord Jesus to keep him and to conquer his temptations for him, he need not commit wilful sin. It is, therefore, quite legitimate and right and fitting that we should pray every morning, “Grant that this day we fall into no sin.”  “Vouchsafe, O Lord, to keep us this day without sin.” And Christ is able to keep us even from stumbling (Jude 24, RV). And He does keep us just so long as we trust Him to do so.

Yet at any moment we may fall into sin. It is a moment by moment victory. Many who read this will gladly confess to have experienced this freedom from known sin for five minutes, for ten minutes, for an hour, and for a much longer time. But we shall all sadly confess that at times we wilfully harbour a sinful thought and sometimes even commit knowingly some sinful act, falling under some sudden temptation. As we look back upon it, we are confident that we need not have sinned. It was “our own most grievous fault.” Moreover, we find that the majority of such slips are due to unchristian acts or words of other believers. They are more often due to the low level of spiritual life in fellow-Christians than to the opposition of the world.

Do not condemn us, but claim victory for yourself and so raise the standard around us.

Claim victory for yourself, and show us by practical demonstration what a glorious life can be lived by one who is wholly Christ’s.

CHAPTER TWELVE

THE PERILS OF THIS LIFE—SOME OF THE PERILS

THAT BESET A LIFE OF HOLINESS AND HOW

THEY MAY BE MET AND CONQUERED

The Victorious Life is not something, which is obtained once for all -- a summit reached from which nothing can dislodge us. This victory is secured from moment to moment by a moment-by-moment faith. There is constant victory for the believer so long as he trusts Christ entirely—and only so long.

The moment that simple faith is lost, that moment the victory over sin is broken. That is why our Lord seems to sum up “sin” in the one word “unbelief.” “The Holy Spirit when He is come shall convict the world of sin... of sin, because they believe not on Me” (John 16:8). And this is why St. John says, “This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our FAITH (1_John 5:4).

Since, then, there is no such thing as a once-for-all victory, it is evident that this life is beset with perils, and we must be constantly on our guard. Or, to be strictly accurate, we must ever allow “the peace of God to guard our hearts.” An earnest labouring man used to insist upon quoting that verse as “A piece of God shall guard your hearts”—and his idea was right. For it is the indwelling Christ, the Son of God, Who does this for us.

THE ABIDING CHRIST

What are some of the dangers that beset a life of holiness? To be forewarned is to be forearmed. Nor need we fear to face any danger. “For in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us” (Romans 8:37).

There is, first of all—

1.         SELF-EFFORT.

In the first flush of joy at realising the possibility of such a life of victory, there is a tendency to attempt to hug our possession—to make a continuous and conscious effort to cling to it. A feeling that if we do not strenuously concentrate our thoughts upon the indwelling Christ, we shall lose Him. Perhaps this comes from regarding the Victorious Life as a blessing—a possession we can forfeit or lose. Satan always tries to get us to regard it as such. It may slip from our grasp. No. It is a Person, not a “thing.” It is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, Who comes not so much for us to possess Him, but that He may possess us.  He cannot slip from our grasp. He holds us. He has promised, “I will never leave thee nor forsake thee” (Hebrews 13:5).  That is why the writer likes to dwell upon the abiding Christ rather than the “fullness of the Spirit.”

Once it was the blessing,

Now it is the Lord;

Once it was the feeling,

Now it is His Word.

Once His gifts I wanted.

Now the Giver own;

Once I sought for healing,

Now Himself alone.

He keeps us—it is not we who keep Him, and “He is able to keep.” Of course, we must allow the Lord Jesus to be “the home of our thoughts.” But “looking unto Jesus” in faith and love does not mean strenuous effort to retain Him—a willing guest. Our “look” of faith is not with strained eyes, but with a restful gaze.

IN THE PLACE OF SAFETY

“Abide in Me,” says our Lord. Just rest peacefully in Him so far as your life of victory is concerned. At every alarm, at every approach of temptation, just “hide in Him,” the Rock of Ages, just as the coney takes cover in his rock of defence. “Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow”—not by self-effort, toiling or striving. They just abide in the sunshine and drink in its life.

“Which of you by being anxious can add one cubit to his stature?” asks our Lord in the Sermon on the Mount. And in His mind was something more than physical stature.

It is not our faith but His faithfulness that maintains the Victorious Life. “Trust in the Lord,” and then “do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land and verily thou shalt be fed” (Psalm 37:3).

We may remark in passing that even in our conflict with evil around us our trust must be entirely in Him, and not in our own power and effort. How remarkably this is brought out in our Lord’s instructions to His Apostles.  “Behold, I send you forth as sheep amidst wolves,” says He. Now how does He proceed? “Be ye therefore armed to the teeth?” NEVER. “Be ye therefore harmless as doves” (Matthew 10:16). Why? Because HE is our defence and our shield.

2.         NO FREEDOM FROM TEMPTATION.

The Victorious Life is not an untempted life. Only ONE Man has ever lived an unbroken Victorious Life, and that was our Lord Himself. And “He was tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin.” The sinless angels were tempted, and some fell. Adam and Eve in their sinless state were tempted, and also fell. So let us not be surprised when the devil tempts us. He will do all in his power to drag us down, because the Victorious Life is the only one that really counts. Every child of God will be tempted, but we can “count it all joy,” for we are told that the shield of faith is “able to quench ALL the fiery darts of the evil one” (Ephesians 6:16).

A CONSTANT ATTITUDE OF FAITH

3.         IF WE FALL.

There is always the possibility of sinning, and there is the provision for it. “’If the anointed priest shall sin so as to bring guilt on the people, then let him offer for his sin...’ (Leviticus 4:3). Doesn’t this prove that sin is inevitable?” asked an inquirer, surely not. Every ship that sails is provided with a supply of lifeboats, lest there should be a shipwreck or a collision.

This does not imply that it is the captain’s intention to wreck his ship; nor does it mean that therefore every ship must be wrecked.

So, then, it is possible for both priest and people to sin.

The Victorious Life is secured by an act of faith: and it is only maintained by a constant attitude of faith. Suppose, then, there is a momentary failure and we fall into some sin. What then? Why, Satan immediately tries to follow up his victory by trying to persuade us that there is no such thing as the Victorious Life; or that if there is, then we never had the blessing; or if we had—well, it is gone forever: we’ve lost it. And our fellow-Christians who have never seen the only way of victory will gladly back him up in his assertions. Even devout and earnest believers will assure us that such teaching is a dangerous heresy.

Do not listen either to Satan or them. We have seen that the Bible is full of Victorious Life teaching. This “dangerous heresy” was taught by Christ, and shows itself again and again in St. Paul’s Epistles and those of St. John.

Remember that God gave us the Victorious Life after many, many falls.  Will He then withhold it forever because of one more fall? Surely not!

SATAN’S WHISPERINGS

But if Satan fails in dissuading you from again attempting to live a life of victory, he will try to delay your recovery. He will whisper that after such a grievous failure you must lie low for a while; it will take a long time for you to get back again into the life of victory; there must be an arduous climb, a tedious and humbling process of recovery. What answer will you give him?

Now we have conclusively shown that no striving or struggling on our part will ever bring us victory in the first place.

It must, therefore, be obvious that such effort and struggling will never reinstate us! If we fall into any sin, our Saviour wishes us at once to turn to Him in faith for forgiveness.

Instant forgiveness and instant restoration. Even in the Old Testament dispensation this was so. “I have sinned against the Lord,” said the penitent king David. “The Lord also hath put away thy sin,” replied the prophet Nathan immediately (2nd Samuel 11, 12).

“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness”  (1st John 1:9). Your fall does not weaken Christ. “He is (still) able to keep.” HE has not failed. Nor will He fail you. And once you are forgiven, turn your thoughts away from that sin and try never to think of it again. “One thing I do,” said Paul, “forgetting the things [he might well have said “sins”] that are behind ... I press on toward the goal” (Philippians 3:13).

A HINDRANCE TO HOLINESS

This is not minimising or under-rating the sin. No one has such a horror of sin as he who is living the Victorious Life. Nor does it mean complacency under defeat.

But we feel strongly that the recollection of past sins is one of the greatest hindrances to present holiness and usefulness. Such recollection weakens our confidence, prevents our usefulness, and reminds us of the “pleasures of sin”: so there follow feeble witness, fruitless work, and fresh falling into sin.

Moreover, remorse, or agony of feeling, or self-condemnation, cannot do ought to heal the wound. The atoning blood of Christ is sufficient for that.  In fact, so sufficient—if one may use such an expression—that after the gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost Christians are nowhere told to pray for the forgiveness of their sins. The command is simply to confess them to God, and their forgiveness is assured.

The reason is obvious. When the Holy Spirit of Christ dwells in the heart, sin is abhorrent, and a longing for forgiveness always accompanies confession.

4.         DO NOT PRESUME.

 “The truth about the indwelling Christ, or rather the consciousness of His indwelling, gives you such wonderful confidence,” said a venerable cleric to the writer, “that the danger is that you get TOO confident.” We see his point. But we cannot be too confident! What this man of God meant is this: There is a danger of relying upon past victory to keep us safe in the present.  We may have—and Christ desires us to have—a long period of unbroken victory.

But the longer the period, the safer and stronger we are apt to FEEL ourselves to be. Paul knew the danger full well, “Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall” (1st Corinthians 10:12). We must bear in mind that OUR weakness is never made strong. “Our sufficiency is from God.” We are NEVER sufficient of ourselves to account anything as from ourselves (2nd Corinthians 3:5).

It is “All of Christ” and always of Christ.

“It is God that worketh in you both to will and to do” (Philippians 2:13).  As Mr. C. G. Trumbull puts it, in his Perils of the Victorious Life:

“Christ and Christ alone is our victory. Ten years of unbroken record does not add a particle to the strength of our Lord Jesus Christ; it does not increase the sufficiency of His grace, for that sufficiency is infinite. The assurance of our continuance in victory is not our good record, but the grace of our Lord. Our continued record in victory adds nothing to our assurance of victory.”

THE NECESSITY OF OBEDIENCE

Moreover our victory for any length of time does not weaken Satan. HE is just as powerful and active and spiteful, and just waits his opportunity. And HIS opportunity is any over-confidence or spiritual pride in us.

5.         DISOBEY NOT OUR LORD’S COMMAND.

A radiantly happy couple wished to speak to me after an address on the indwelling Christ. “We have known and experienced the truth of the Victorious Life for many months now,” said the husband, “and it has completely revolutionised our lives. All this time we have been staying away from the Lord’s Table. We never go to the Holy Communion now. But are we right in keeping away?”  “What is your REASON for absenting yourselves?” I asked. “Because Paul tells us there is no further need of the Holy Communion when once Christ has come to dwell in the heart,” was the astonishing reply. With much curiosity the writer asked for the reference to such a command. And this was the answer: “Paul said, ‘As oft as ye eat this bread and drink this cup ye proclaim the Lord’s death till He come’ (1st Corinthians 11:26). Well, now that he HAS come to abide IN us, we have refrained from partaking of the Holy Communion.” That godly man and woman were delighted to learn that those words “Till He come” evidently refer to the Second Coming of our Lord. Paul himself was then living and preaching the Victorious Life, but he still partook of the Holy Communion. “We ALL partake of the one bread,” says he (1st Cor.10: 17).  We must never disobey any command of our Lord.

Yet how gracious our Lord is! The dear people mentioned above were radiantly happy and were bringing forth “the fruit of the Spirit,” although they were disobeying God. They “did it ignorantly,” but not in unbelief, and the Saviour graciously blessed them and in due time showed them the “better way.”

INDWELT BY THE HOLY TRINITY

The writer has met advanced Churchmen of the Anglo-Catholic school -- holy and humble men of God—who have been thrilled by talks on the Victorious Life, but who have expressed a fear that such teaching would “do away with the need of the Sacrament.” No such fear need ever disturb their minds.

This teaching is entirely Scriptural, as we have shown. Space forbids us to enter fully into the relationship between the indwelling of Christ through the Holy Spirit and our Lord’s definite declaration, “Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, ye have not life in yourselves” (John 6:53).         

Let us remind ourselves that all the Persons of the Trinity dwell in us.  Christ said, “If a man love Me he will keep My word: and My Father will love him, and WE will come unto him, and make our abode with him” (John 14:23). We know that the Holy Spirit dwells in us “that He may abide with you for ever” (14:16).

It may be that God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit “sanctify us wholly”—soul, body and spirit.

But we do believe that no victory ever admits of disobedience to any of our Lord’s commands. And when He says “Do this” we must obey. If we love Him we shall keep His commandments.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN: OTHER PERILS

SOME MORE OF THE PERILS THAT BESET THE PATH

OF THE TRUE SEEKER AFTER HOLINESS

There are other perils in the path of holiness in addition to those already dealt with. Let us look at them.

WHERE MANY BLUNDER

6.         DO NOT ASSUME INFALLIBILITY.

We can picture many of our readers smiling at such a ridiculous counsel.  But this is a real danger! There is such a joy in unbroken communion with our Lord, and often such a consciousness of power—not our power, but that of the indwelling Christ—that there is a danger of our supposing that we always know God’s will in any matter—that we are always right.

The writer once had occasion to live with four consecrated men of God— all of them far more experienced in holy living than himself. One of them was, indeed, deeply taught of God and used to spend long hours in prayer. But in our deliberations he always quietly assumed that he had the mind of Christ, and that any proposal which conflicted with his ideas must necessarily be wrong; and this, even if four of us felt led another way to that suggested by him. Not infrequently, subsequent event showed that we were right and he was wrong. 

One morning our leader quietly and kindly remarked, “My dear----, some of us think that we also are led to God.” Do not misunderstand me. The reference here is not to an obstinate, dogmatic, self-opinionated man who wished to have his own way. Our friend in question was holy, humble, and unselfish to a degree -- but was “infallible.” He always assumed that he was absolutely guided by God in all his proposals. The best of us is not a little deaf spiritually, and we do not always catch God’s message; just as a deaf person does not always catch the right message through a telephone.  There must be a perfect “doing of God’s will” before there is a perfect “knowing of the doctrine” (John 7:17).

Let us recognise that we are fallible. We may be mistaken. This does not mean that the majority is always right. Ten men once said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we.” While only two men urged, “Let us go up at once and possess it: for we are well able to overcome it” (Numbers 13:30). The people sided with the ten and years of misery and rebellion ensued, because the two were right and had the mind of God.

THE WORLD AND ITS CLAIMS

7.         DO NOT IGNORE THIS WORLD.

A consecrated man of God lives in a house called “Torthorwold.” His neighbour’s say that is what he lives for: “T’other world.” But all who know him are aware that he leads a most strenuous life trying to make this world and its inhabitants better. We live in two worlds at the same time and have a duty to each.

“Do you think it is wrong of me to play marbles with my little boy of four?” asked a white-haired saintly father. We wonder what answer our readers would give?

How it would delight the heart of Satan if he could persuade all wholly sanctified people that all pleasures were sinful! Dear man of God, by all means play marbles—if you are not tempted to cheat!

We are living not only a spiritual life, but a bodily life, and whether we like it or not, a very large part of our time and interests is taken up with things which concern the body. Moreover, we are placed in communities. God never meant man to live alone. God made two statements about the first man, Adam, right at the beginning of his existence.

The first was that he was “very good.” The next remark was this, “it is not good that the man should be alone” (Genesis 2:18). Every man is born into a family—every man has his human relationships. Each of us is to show love to all men. All the little social amenities of life are points of contact with those around us. Love manifests itself in deeds, and we must be human as well as “divine.” We can only show our love to God by deeds of love to our fellow-men. By all means romp with the little ones and play with the big ones!