Chapter IV: Part 4

Dr. Griffith Thomas, who relates this incident of the English preachers, has pointed out that “the perfecting of the saints” means literally “the adjusting of the saints.” It is as when a broken shoulder needs to be set before the blood can flow properly and the arm be used. It is this adjustment of “lop-sided Christians” which marks the great change. Those who experience the change realize that it is something different from any blessing they have received since conversion, and different from any new experience of deepening that will come in the life later.

What is this distinct change that comes in the life of the Christian?

It is clear that the Scriptures never hold before the believer two _standards_ for the Christian life. The New Testament does recognize that Christians may walk as “carnal,” whereas their true state is to be spiritual (Gal. 6:1; 1 Cor. 3:1). It recognizes that Christians may walk after the flesh or after the Spirit (Rom. 8:4; Gal. 5:16).

A Spirit-Filled Life God’s Only Standard

But this does not mean that there are two standards for Christians to choose between. On the contrary, the Word makes plain that when a Christian walks after the flesh, when he is “carnal,” he is acting as though he were not a child of God at all. “And I brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, as unto babes in Christ. I fed you with milk, not with meat; for ye were not yet able to bear it: nay, not even now are ye able; for ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you jealousy and strife, are ye not carnal, and do ye not walk after the manner of men?” These Christians, Paul says, were walking as natural men, who have not been born again, instead of living as spiritual children of God.

There is no platform below the Spirit-filled life which affords a safe resting ground for a Christian. One who calls himself by the name of Christ, but does not have the fulness of the Spirit, and yet says that he has no desire for this deeper experience, is confessing that there is no evidence he has ever been born again. For while a Christian may live below the standard Christ desires he cannot be comfortable in doing it; the Spirit of God within him is longing for the driving out of everything contrary to the life of Christ.

The heart of the Spirit-filled life is freedom from sin. A normal Christian is a man who does not sin. “We who died to sin, how shall we any longer live therein?” (Rom. 6:2). “These things write I unto you that ye may not sin” (1 John 2:1). “Whosoever is begotten of God doeth no sin” (1 John 3:9). “We know that whosoever is begotten of God sinneth not” (1 John 5:18).

Some teachers who have noted these plain statements of the Word have concluded that a Christian does not commit sin, and that so soon as a Christian does he ceases to be a Christian. If he is sinning it is a proof that he is not a Christian, and will not be reinstated as a child of God till he ceases his sinning. These teachers, however, see the difficulty that in the heart of many Christians are wrong feelings that should not be there, and which they do not want there but over which they apparently have no control. To get over this and other difficulties they explain that a Christian does not _commit_ “outward” sins, though he has these sinful impulses in his heart. Even this standard, it is to be feared, would cut down the number of Christians to a small minimum.

A Normal Christian is Free from Sin

But a more serious objection to this method of explaining these difficult verses in First John is that it contradicts the very point that the Apostle is making. If close attention is paid to the conclusion of First John 3:9 it should guard from these errors: “Whosoever is begotten of God doeth no sin, because his seed abideth in him: and _he cannot sin_, because he is begotten of God.”

That seed which is born of God is, as Dr. A. J. Ramsey has pointed out, the Child of God himself, not a seed _in_ him. While he abides he cannot sin. (As Moffatt also translates: “The offspring of God remain in Him.”) The whole argument of the Epistle of John, and particularly of this portion, is that a normal Christian is one who is free from sin. The Apostle does not mean to say that a child of God does not “deliberately” sin, or that he does not “continue in sin” as the rule of his life, or that he does not let the inward impulses of sin express themselves: he means that the Christian, while he abides in Christ, where he belongs, does not sin. He is God’s new creation, and walks in the light having fellowship with God. For “God is light, and in him is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5).

When a Christian Acts as a Child of Satan

Does John mean that a Christian does not sin, or that he ceases to be a Christian if he sins? The opposite is taught in this very Epistle. John is writing these things that Christians may not sin, but he recognizes that they may, and tells them just what to do to have the sin cleansed away in case they do sin.

When a Christian sins, _he is acting against his true nature_. That is the argument of First John and of all the Epistles. When a Christian sins, he is acting _as though he were_ a child of the devil. He as a child of God can have nothing to do with sin. But there is his free will to step out of the place of abiding, and this makes possible the tragedy of a Christian’s sinning.

James is facing this tragedy of a Christian’s acting against his true nature when he exclaims: “Doth the fountain send forth from the same opening sweet water and bitter? can a fig tree, my brethren, yield olives, or a vine figs? neither can salt water yield sweet” (James 3:10-12). All these things act according to their true nature. If a Christian acted thus there would flow always from his life and lips the fruit of the Spirit. But the Apostle shows in the passage that a Christian may pray with the same mouth that he uses to say mean things about his neighbor, and that he may have in his heart “bitter jealousy and faction.”

Here, then, is our foundation truth that God has but one standard for the Christian life, one kind of holiness, and that is the standard of his Son, who is to be our life. And that Life, that holiness, God has given _to every Christian_.

God’s Perfect Provision for Every Christian

It was to those “carnal” Corinthians, who had jealousy and strife in their midst, that Paul by the Spirit wrote: “I thank my God always concerning you, for the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus; that in everything ye were enriched in him, in all utterance and all knowledge; even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you: so that ye come behind in no gift; waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ; who shall also confirm you unto the end, that ye may be unreprovable in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, through whom ye were called into the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord” (1 Cor. 1:4-9).

This surely is a picture of the fulness of blessing in Christ, and it is stated that this grace had been given to the Corinthians because they were Christians. Similarly in the eighth chapter of Romans the life of victory is described: “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and of death” (Rom. 8:2). This freedom belongs to every believer in the Lord Jesus. So throughout the New Testament it is made clear that when God spared not his own Son but delivered him up for us all, he freely gave with Christ all things that a Christian needs.

But while there is but one salvation, and one plan of salvation, this salvation has a two-fold aspect. God has indeed only one standard for Christians, the standard of his Son, that is complete holiness. But God’s message of salvation comes to two distinct classes of people, to lost sinners, and to saints――sinners saved by grace.

Christians Need to Be Saved

“If while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son” (Rom. 5:10). This is the message of salvation for sinners. The next words of this verse are very significant: “Much more.” The apostle has just been speaking of salvation for sinners, and now he is to tell us something “much more.” This word should prepare us for some amazing revelation of his grace. “Much more, being reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.”

Do Christians, then, need salvation? Indeed they do, and the Word of God suggests here that a good name for that salvation which reconciled Christian needs is “the much more salvation,” and this is just another way of saying “the Victorious Life.”

God has granted that life to every Christian. But not every Christian is enjoying it. For the Christian has the terrible power of choosing to walk after the flesh and not after the Spirit. God’s plan is that the Christian life should be a moment by moment miracle life, just as the new birth is a miracle. “If we live by the Spirit, by the Spirit let us also walk” (Gal. 5:25). Being born again, and “walking,” are two distinct things. When a Christian learns that God intends him to walk by faith, letting Christ do it all, just as he has believed that Christ has done it all in the matter of saving him from the penalty of his sins, then the Christian is ready to enter into the fulness of the Spirit, which is the Victorious Life.

And when he does enter by faith for the first time into this complete victory, which has been his privilege all along in Christ, there is such a marked change that it is natural for a Christian to think of it as a “second blessing.” There is that perfectly clear distinction between being born again, and “walking” or living moment by moment after the new birth has taken place. The man who has been born again is in a place to take hold of the much-more salvation for Christians as he could not do in his unregenerate state.

Testing Our “Doctrine” of Victory

There are some simple tests of our “view” of complete victory over sin which will show whether we are in danger of coming into bondage to a _doctrine_.

Any view that centers attention upon self is dangerous. The heart secret of victory is looking away from self unto Christ. If I testify, “I am holy”; if I must look into my own state, examining self to see whether this holiness still remains, I am on wrong ground.

Any view that brings into prominence my past record of victory or holiness leads to difficulties. The testimony, “I have not sinned for so many weeks or months since my new experience” may be given with sincerity, and the speaker may intend to give the glory to God. Nevertheless, it is a wrong testimony, and no encouragement is given in the Word for such a statement. For one thing, no human being has a perfect memory; none of us can have accurate knowledge of past states of consciousness. Victory is always a matter of the present moment, and if we are occupied with Christ and _his_ perfect work for us, the matter of _our_ past record is of no consequence, so far as it bears on present victory by faith.

Any view that centers attention upon feeling is on the wrong basis. Many Christians who have come into the new experience of the fulness of the Spirit have been overwhelmed with flood-tides of blessed feeling. In some cases this exalted state of feeling has continued for weeks or even months. Some have counted this the “witness of the Spirit” that a new work of grace has been wrought in their hearts. Many have been thrown into confusion and darkness by waiting for this “witness of the Spirit,” which they have been taught to believe is some wondrous consciousness in their feeling. Others who have had such a “witness” have later lost the feeling and have wondered whether their experience has gone. God often permits the feeling to go, that his child may learn to look to Christ and to the fact of his grace in the life, rather than to the feelings, which vary according to temperament and circumstances.

What is the “Witness of the Spirit”?

Feeling or emotion should not be discounted, but should be kept in its right place. Praise God for every blessed emotion that is of his Spirit, but praise him also when the emotion is entirely absent. He and his grace remain the same, while the feelings go up and down. There should be, indeed, a continuous consciousness of his presence, but consciousness is based on fact and is not to be confused with emotion.

As to the “witness of the Spirit,” there is no suggestion in the Word of God that this “witness” has any connection with a great flood-tide of feeling. “He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in him: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he hath not believed in the witness that God hath borne concerning his Son. And the witness is this, that God gave unto us eternal life, and this life is in his Son” (1 John 5:10, 11). The witness is God’s record, or God’s eternal Word to us, that he has done something, that he has given us a gift. He does not want us to _feel_ this word, or witness of his. He wants us to _believe_ it. One who does not believe it makes God a liar, and this is what Christians are in danger of doing, both in regard to salvation from the penalty of sin and salvation from the power of sin. When we believe this word, and the wonder of the gift breaks upon us more and more, we shall have feelings, of course, and they will find expression according to our different temperaments and environments.

(Dr. Griffith Thomas notes that the often abused passage on the witness of the Spirit in Romans eight does not say that the Spirit beareth witness _to_ our spirit, but _with_ our spirit, that we are children of God. That is, our spirit says “Father,” and the Holy Spirit says “Father” with us.)

John Wesley on Use of Terms

Whatever our “view,” let us guard against laying emphasis upon certain terms, and making these the test of correctness. We should remember that God has granted the same experience to Christians who have come into their experience by different paths and who therefore explain it in different ways. The important thing, after all, is to have the fruits of the experience in the life. John Wesley, who had the experience, whatever our view of his theology, has a word of wise counsel at this point:

“Beware of tempting others to separate from you. Give no offense which can possibly be avoided; see that your practice be in all things suitable to your profession, adorning the doctrine of God our Saviour. Be particularly careful in speaking of yourself; you may not indeed deny the work of God; but speak of it when you are called thereto in the most inoffensive manner possible. Avoid all magnificent, pompous words. Indeed, you need give it no general name; neither ‘perfection,’ ‘sanctification,’ ‘the second blessing,’ nor ‘the having attained.’ Rather speak of the particulars that God has wrought for you.... And answer any other plain question that is asked with modesty and simplicity.”

Was It Sin, or “Infirmity”?

Any view that leads us to lower the standard of holiness to fit our experience, or to argue with the devil or with ourselves over sin, is in error. A Christian who has had a blessed new experience notices something in the life that is not quite according to the Spirit of Christ. He begins to examine it and decides that this is not a sin but one of the “infirmities” from which he has not expected complete deliverance. Or he confesses it as a sin and is cleansed in the blood of Christ, but since he does not want to believe that he has lost his experience he explains that this was a temptation from without and was not due to any evil within. Or, not able to delude himself with these bits of human reasonings, he falls back into his old life of struggle and failure.

John Wesley has a word in season here also: “And if any of you should at any time fall from what you now are, if you should again feel pride or unbelief, or any temper from which you are now delivered, do not deny it, do not hide it, do not disguise it at all, at the peril of your soul. At all events, go to one in whom you can confide, and speak just what you feel. God will enable him to speak a word in season which shall be health to your soul. And surely the Lord will again lift up your head and cause the bones that have been broken to rejoice.”

The Bible treatment of the conquest of sin is subject to none of these distressing difficulties. It guards from dangerous errors on every side, and at the same time leaves no loopholes for tolerating sin as do the current views held by nearly all Christians.

What Terms Does the Bible Use?

God says, “Reckon ye also yourselves to be dead unto sin” (Rom. 6:11). There are two ways the devil would like us to interpret this. One is by his old lie regarding “death.” He wants us to believe that the capacity for sinning is taken away so that we shall not acknowledge sin to be sin, and shall call the works of the devil the fruit of the Spirit. But death is not annihilation, but separation. It is not that some “thing” within us has been put out of existence. All that we were as lost sinners, in our unregenerate state――the “old man”――was crucified with Christ and is buried, and a Christian is to reckon that fact true. But he is to remember that there is ever the possibility of turning our members over as instruments of sin. And whenever sin enters, when anything in thought, word or deed that is contrary to the Spirit of Christ has a place in the life, it means that self is on the throne and we are alive to sin.

But Satan’s other interpretation of this verse is his favorite one, for by it he deludes most Christians. It is only when this fails that he tries the other and drives the Christian beyond the Word of God. You are to reckon yourselves dead unto sin, Satan tells us, but of course you know very well that it is never actually true that you _are_ dead unto sin. You will keep on sinning. When you die then will come complete deliverance, but not before. In other words, God is a liar. All Satan’s wiles in the last analysis are found to be variations of this original statement of his to our first parents.

God never tells us to reckon on a lie. It is eternally true that in our position before God we are dead to sin, because we have been crucified with Christ and raised together with him. This position of ours becomes a blessed reality in actual experience as we reckon by faith, and only so long as we reckon by faith. Let Satan not rob us of our heritage by telling us it is only “positionally” that we are dead to sin. God is not thus mocking us when he tells us to “reckon” on this truth of crucifixion with Christ.

When We Reckon Self Dead to Sin

This reckoning gives us no holiness of our own. It gives no cause for boasting in our own record. It gives no uneasiness as to whether we have had this or that feeling as a witness of the Spirit.

It will be seen from these Scriptures which have been considered that every true Christian has _a measure_ of victory in Christ. As Dr. Scofield has pointed out, the experience of Christians and Christian experience may be two entirely different things; for Christian experience is wholly the product of the Holy Spirit. Whatever measure of true Christian life is expressed, therefore, is the work of the Holy Spirit, and to that extent is victory by faith, even though the Christian is ignorant of the truth of the faith walk.

The Victorious Life, which is just another term for the normal “Christian Life,” is simply walking moment by moment in complete faith in His perfect work.

Whether I am in victory or not at this moment is simply a question as to whether or not I am appropriating the sufficient grace of the Lord Jesus for the needs of this very moment. My glorious privilege is so to appropriate that grace, _now_, and to do it moment by moment without any breaks. For His Grace IS sufficient. His Grace is “more than enough.”

CONTINUING AND GROWING IN VICTORY

A wrong start is one of the chief causes of failure in the Victorious Life. The first secret of continuing in victory, so to speak, is to begin. Nothing can be continued unless it is begun. To see clearly that the Victorious Life is a miracle of grace, and is wholly the work of the Lord Jesus, is necessary to this right beginning. Many attempt to live the life without fully getting rid of the element of self-effort.

Having begun right, the next thing is to continue as we began. The act of surrender and faith by which we entered into victory becomes the continued attitude of the life. Failure can come only through a slip in surrender or in faith.

It is possible to abide in Christ for victory _without a break_. The Word of God says that _if_ a Christian sins he is to do certain things; it never says _when_ a Christian sins. It is not for us to look back over our past record to consider whether we have sinned, or to see how long we have continued without a break; but in looking into the future we must expect to be kept from sinning or we are not trusting the sufficient grace of Christ; and that means we are not at the present moment in victory.

Along with this expectation of continued victory must go the realization that at any moment we may fall into sin: “let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall,” is the warning that immediately precedes the glorious promise of First Corinthians 10:13 of God’s full provision for victory over every temptation.

Suppose, then, we should fall into sin after entering into the Victorious Life? _Instant and full restoration after failure_ is God’s plan for the Christian who sins and thus breaks the perfect abiding in the Lord. “In the moment of defeat, shout Victory!” and claim your full privileges in Christ.

But does not this make light of sin? Any other course makes light of sin. This course sees sin to be such an abominable thing in God’s sight that nothing but the blood of the Lord Jesus poured out in expiation can avail to meet it. And if the blood of Jesus meets it, it is an insult to God to attempt to add anything else to that perfect atonement. Being sorry for sin for a period is an unconscious form of atonement by self effort.

The Bible――A Music Box, or a Telephone?

Without constant feeding on the Word of God and continually living in an atmosphere of prayer no one can be maintained in a life of victory. At every cost we must set our faces like a flint to get the daily quiet time with God over the Word and in prayer. This does not mean that Bible study and prayer are the secret of victory. They are not, and many are hindered from victory by supposing that their more diligent Bible study and prayer will somehow bring them into victory. _Faith_ is the secret of victory. But faith is impossible without the Word, and the maintaining of faith is impossible without continually abiding in the Word of God. An infant will not live without food and air, but we would not say that food and air were the secret of that life which the Creator alone could give.

The Victorious Life gives the secret of a hunger for the Bible and prayer. The Word of God becomes literally sweeter than honey and the honeycomb, and more to be desired than gold, yea than much fine gold. Our Lord expects the Bible to be a telephone, as Dr. Charles R. Watson has said, not a music box whose tunes are familiar and stale: we take the receiver from the hook, and the Lord Jesus Christ is at the other end of the line. It is really our privilege to have a personal message from the living God to our own souls every day, and at every moment of need.

The Victorious Life and Missions

“Is not the Victorious Life rather self-centered and is there not danger of selfishness?” was asked.

“Is Christ selfish?” was the sufficient answer given to this question.

If the life of victory does not flow out in service, it is a counterfeit, and cannot be maintained. There is a reason why a passion for foreign missions will be found at the heart of all the conferences that teach the life of victory in Christ. These two are inseparable, Christ as the supply of our individual needs and Christ the sufficiency for the world’s need.

Let our testimony to the Victorious Life be far more in loving, humble, unselfish service to those about us and those in the ends of the earth, than it is in the words of our lips.

Do We Grow Into Victory?

Growing in grace is one of the secrets of maintaining the life of victory; without normal growth we shall lose our victory. We do not grow _into_ grace; we grow _in_ it. Receiving the Victorious Life is not a matter of growth.

There are, in many cases, shorter or longer periods of growth that precede the entrance into the life of victory. So far as God is concerned, the Life is a gift and not a growth, and it may be enjoyed at once by any Christian. But the Christian may gradually come to understand what are his privileges in Christ in the matter of victory over sin. Or he may not at once get to the bottom in the surrender of life to the Lord, and God will lead him on as quickly as he will go, to the place of complete surrender and complete faith. This gradual preparation before entering fully into victory must be distinguished from “growth in grace,” which goes on in a normal way only when the Christian _is_ abiding in Christ for victory.

Growth in grace, in the Word of God, never means growth out of sin. There is no suggestion in the New Testament that a Christian is to grow gradually out of sin. Sin is always dealt with through the blood of Christ, and we need the Saviour every moment to keep us cleansed from sin and its defilement. But if it is the blood that cleanses us by grace we are not to eliminate sin gradually by our growth in grace.

What is “Growth in Grace”?

Growth in grace makes us more and more to conform to the likeness of our Lord Jesus. There is no perfection in his brethren on earth that can be compared to the measure of the stature of his fulness. By faith we receive the fruit of the Spirit, which is just the character of Christ produced in us by the new life of the Spirit. Every one of the nine graces which constitute the one fruit of the Spirit,――“love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, self-control,”――belongs to the Christian who is trusting Christ for victory. But in each of these graces he is to _abound more and more_. This is true growth in grace.

One who by yielding his life to the mastery of Christ and by trusting his word, “My grace is sufficient for thee,” has received the fulness of the Spirit, may know very little about the Bible, or prayer, or Christian service. Day by day he learns more of the wondrous things out of the Word, learns better how to study it and use it in personal work; day by day he learns new secrets of prayer from the Word and by the diligent practice of prayer; and gradually he becomes a more efficient and expert laborer in the harvest. This is true growth in the knowledge of the Lord.

When Invalids Grow

Growth in grace is positive, not negative. Sin is a hindrance to true growth in the spiritual life as well as in the natural life. An invalid may, indeed, grow in body, and sick Christians do grow in grace, but the growth in both cases is retarded. When the disease germs are conquered then begins normal growth. So in the Bible figure of the race toward the goal: this race is not a struggle to overcome sin, but a race which sin may greatly retard. We are counseled to lay aside every weight and the sin that clings closely about us, and run the race, looking unto Jesus. A Christian _may_ run with the weights and the sin, and he is in the race, but it is not to be wondered that there are many stumbles and slow progress.

There are several passages in the New Testament which give a marvelously clear picture of this positive growth in grace, and show beautifully the distinction between the present purity of the believer and his future entire conformity to the Lord Jesus.

God’s present standard of purity for his children is the purity of his only Son in whom he is well pleased. He is our Life; and apart from him we have no purity. “Every one that hath this hope set on him purifieth himself, even as he is pure” (1 John 3:3). But just before this statement of God’s purpose for the present purity of his children, we read: “we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.” This is the hope set before us,――perfect conformity to the likeness of Christ. And this very hope is urged as a reason for present purity of the kind that Jesus has. Is there a contradiction here?

Tribulation as God’s Molding Chisel

In Romans 3:23 we read that “all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God.” Then grace comes, we are justified in the Beloved, and in Romans 5:2 we read: “We rejoice in hope of the glory of God.” But hope is always future, for “hope that is seen is not hope.” This hope of the glory of God, perfect conformity to his likeness, is the same hope spoken of in First John. But in Romans five we have added light on the part that growth in grace plays. “We also rejoice in our tribulations [literally, that which presses down]: knowing that tribulation worketh stedfastness, [literally, that which holds up under the load]; and stedfastness, approvedness [literally, passing the examination or the test]; and approvedness, hope [hope of the glory of God, or the character of God]. Then follows this remarkable statement: “and hope putteth not to shame.”

A future hope will always put to shame if there is no present guarantee that the hope will be realized. If I announce that a certain rich man is to give me a fortune of ten million dollars ten years hence, the hope of this wealth will put to shame if there is nothing to show that the millionaire will keep his word. My friends are likely to say, “We shall wait and see.” But if the millionaire gives me as an earnest of the expected inheritance a check for half a million dollars, my hope does not put me to shame.

Now notice what follows God’s statement that this hope of his glory puts not to shame: “because the love of God hath been shed abroad in our hearts through the Holy Spirit which was given unto us.” The perfect guarantee of my _future_ likeness to the Lord Jesus is the miracle of my _present_ likeness to him. The love of God shed abroad in my heart makes me like Jesus. The love of God shed abroad keeps out hatred and all other manifestations of self, so long as the Spirit is in control and can express his fruit. The Holy Spirit is the payment down of this future glory. The Holy Spirit _hath been given_ unto us, not will be; this is not a future hope. The Holy Spirit is our earnest. “In whom, having also believed, ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, which is an earnest of our inheritance” (Eph. 1:13, 14).

Make Use of Your “Earnest”!

In rejoicing in that glorious hope of what is to be brought to us at the appearing of the Lord Jesus, let us take care not to despise the present provision for victory and purity in the Holy Spirit. We long for the redemption of our bodies, that we may be clothed upon with that tabernacle which is from heaven, “that what is mortal may be swallowed up of life,” and that we may have a body like his glorious body; but meanwhile we have the firstfruits of the Spirit, and we rejoice in the tribulations and all the things this body endures because it works out in that growth which gives more and more of his own character (Rom. 8:23-26; 2 Cor. 5:1-5).

These passages in Romans and Second Corinthians just quoted make it clear that the future hope refers particularly to the redemption of our bodies, when we shall have a body like to the body of his glory. Every Christian will receive this body and be conformed to his likeness; for this, as is every part of our redemption, is all of grace. But while all Christians will share the purity and the glory, not all Christians will have the same _measure_ of glory. “There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for one star differeth from another star in glory. So also is the resurrection of the dead” (1 Cor. 15:41, 42). The enduring of tribulation, the working out of stedfastness and approvedness,――growth in grace,――will undoubtedly determine the degree of glory in that resurrection body.

The Key-Verse on Growth in Grace

Probably no better key-verse on growth in grace can be found than Second Corinthians 3:18, and in that verse is gathered up the messages of these other passages that have been considered: “But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord the Spirit.” As we look unto Jesus, and grow in his knowledge and grace, we are changed, as one scholar has translated it, “from one degree of glory to another degree of glory.”

As we get to know the Lord Jesus better and better, sin becomes more horrible to us; we see its true character. This does not mean that we become worse sinners, for we are growing from one degree of glory to another. But we appreciate more and more what sinners we were by nature, apart from grace; we see the depravity that follows sin, and we exalt the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ which has saved and is saving us from such sin and corruption.

The margin of Second Corinthians 3:18 adds a final glorious touch: instead of “beholding as in a mirror” there is the translation which many believe more accurate, “reflecting as in a mirror the glory of the Lord.” It is ours to behold and then to reflect. Do they see Jesus in us? It is “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col. 1:27). He himself is the secret of growth in grace, as of all else.

CAN MAN BE FREE FROM SIN?

“How can I be free from sin?” is the question that in one form or another is troubling the heart of many a true child of God. But before we ask “How?” the other query rises, “_Can_ I be free from sin?” and if not completely in this life, “How far may I be free?”

As is to be expected, the teaching of the Word of God on the sin question is simple, direct and unequivocal. But there are a number of misconceptions that have served to confuse the minds of many earnest seekers after the truth.

One of the best tests of the truth of our view of sin is the results in experience. It is, however, a blessed fact that one may have an experience that is infinitely better than the theory he holds regarding sin.

That sinning is inevitable for the Christian,――

That sinning is an accident, not the choice of a free moral agent,――

That sinning is an incident, not a preventable tragedy,――

That Christians may reach in this life a state in which they cannot sin, or where they are not subject to temptation,――

These are some of the contradictions of God’s revealed truth which result in keeping Christians from having complete liberty in Christ and freedom from sinning.

Back of the question, how far may we be free from sin is the further problem, “What is sin?” and it is in answering this question that we may fall into a fundamental misconception which leaves us confused when reading the plain statements of Scripture. Many a supposed difference among Christians regarding freedom from sinning rests back in a difference in their definition of “sinning.” But this is far more serious than a mere difference in the definition of a word, which might be passed over as unimportant. For, as we shall see, if our use of the word “sinning” differs from that which God means by sin, there is sure to result a confusion which will affect our experience in the matter of deliverance from sin.

There is substantial agreement that Christians should be, and may be, free from dishonesty, lying, stealing, jealousy, strife, bitterness, evil speaking, fornication, covetousness, and a thousand other sins that might be named. Also it is agreed that it is not for Christians to grow out of such sins, nor to get rid of them gradually, but to put them off as wholly inconsistent with the Christian walk. How complete is the list of such sins that a Christian may be free from just now? Or to put the question in another form, how much sin is it necessary for a Christian to have?

“But,” some one asks, “is not everything that falls short of God’s absolute standard of perfection sin?” Our purpose in this study is intensely practical, and so it is not the intention to enter into a full discussion of theological terms. It may be suggested in passing that many who use such an expression as “God’s absolute standard of perfection,” would find great difficulty in explaining just what they mean. But we may here get at the problem as it presents itself in experience. All are agreed that there is no possibility of perfection of attainment in this body, meaning by such perfection an absence of all error or mistake in everything that is done. We may go further and say that by this standard of “perfection” every act falls short, and every moment of life is compassed with infirmity. If this kind of “falling short” is sin, then there can be full agreement that there is no such thing as freedom from sinning in this body. (It would not be entirely accurate to say, “if this imperfection is sin,” for “perfection,” like all words――and everything else human――is imperfect and relative and takes its meaning from the thought in the mind of the user.)

Is such falling short sinning? Or to reduce the question to practical everyday experience, “Is every act of the Christian sinful, as well as every word and thought?”

Three Bible teachers met together on one occasion to discuss the sin question; before they began their conference one of them suggested that they have prayer, and he led in petition for their guidance and blessing. This brother, a theological professor and a Christian noted for his holy living, contended that everything a Christian did was of necessity tainted with sin because it fell short of “perfection.”

“Doctor,” one of the others asked, “is there not a difference between the sin we committed when we prayed together at the beginning of our conference and the sin I should commit if I were critical or bitter against you?”

“Yes, there is a difference,” he replied (answering according to Scripture and his common sense), “but” (answering according to his theory) “it is a very dangerous thing to make distinctions between sins.”

It is a disastrous thing _not_ to make distinction between these two things. With one stroke we would blot out the difference between light and darkness if we class together the act of a Christian who with a heart full of love pours out his petition in imperfect words for some needy one, and the act of a man who with his heart full of hate runs a dagger through the heart of that same needy one. There is the same infinity of difference between this “imperfect” prayer and the critical or unloving attitude that the praying Christian might later fall into.

Turning from men’s reasonings regarding sin to the Word of God, we find these plain statements:

“My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye may not sin” (1 John 2:1).

Something had been written, then, which revealed the secret of keeping from sin as a present, practical experience for the child of God.

“What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?” (Rom. 6:1.)

“What then? shall we sin, because we are not under law, but under grace?” (Rom. 6:15.)

God’s answer to both these questions, which is just one question put in two ways, is the same: a strong, emphatic negative――“God forbid.”

There can be little question in the minds of any that what John means by sinning in this first letter of his, and what Paul means by sinning in Romans six, is something that a Christian should not and need not do. He may be kept from sinning, in this meaning of the word.

It may well be asked, what other meaning of the word is there? If we start out with the conception of sinning that makes every act of a Christian to be tainted with sin, do not the Scriptures become a real puzzle in their positive statements about keeping from sin? This supposed difficulty has given rise to an attempted distinction between “conscious” and “unconscious” sinning. Those who use these terms do not always have the same distinction in mind, but some refer to this falling short of “perfection” as “unconscious sinning,” adding that such sin needs cleansing but involves no guilt.

But _all sin involves guilt_. God cannot do other than condemn sin, whether in the Christian or in the unbeliever. Moreover, neither in First John, nor in Romans six, nor anywhere in the New Testament is there distinction made between “conscious” and “unconscious” sinning, or “known” and “unknown” sins. These distinctions between sins are made by men with the implication that we may be kept free from one kind of sinning but not from the other. Does not this make void the word of God by our traditions? For God says, through John, “My little children, these things write I unto you, _that ye may not sin_.”

We shall avoid all such difficulties if we rid ourselves of the notion that the sinfulness or the righteousness of a man’s act is to be judged by some outside standard. God’s measure is an inside standard. Sin can never be discovered in the act, but in the motive of the heart of the man who performs the act. Two men go into a restaurant and hang up their overcoats. Two other men in the restaurant take these overcoats with them when they go out. One man has stolen an overcoat. The other man has taken it by mistake, thinking he had brought his own overcoat with him, and is much distressed when he finds he has another man’s coat. But meanwhile both men have lost their coats. Nothing can be determined as to whether sin is involved until you get to the heart of the men who took the coats. One man sinned. The other man surely came short of that perfect outward standard of action, and he should not have been so thoughtless as to take the coat. The experience will doubtless make him more careful in the future in avoiding such a mistake. But he did not sin. And if our theory makes it necessary for us to say that he sinned, then we have blotted out all moral distinctions, and there is an end of urging men to come out of darkness into light.

Since sin is in the motive of the heart, it becomes clear why a man who is out of Christ is sinning all the time, in thought, word and deed. He may do many moral things and live on a high plane judged by man’s standard, but he is incapable of God’s righteousness. Only the love of God shed abroad in the heart through the Holy Spirit can make righteousness possible. A natural, unsaved man cannot please God in anything that he does. That is why he must be born again before he is capable of goodness. When he is saved he may love God with his whole heart, and then he can and does please God. And let us remember that no man can please God with sinning, whatever adjective is prefixed.

Another fruitful source of confusion in studying the Scripture teachings regarding sin is the taking of Bible statements concerning man in his natural state and applying them to the new creature in Christ Jesus.

“There is none righteous, no, not one” (Rom. 3:10).

“There is none that doeth good, no, not so much as one” (Rom. 3:12).

“All have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23).

“In thy sight no man living is righteous” (Ps. 143:2).

These statements are used in Scripture to describe the condition of all men outside of Jesus Christ the Saviour. To wrest these words from their connection and apply them to saved men to prove that they are not righteous and that they continually are coming short of the glory of God, is to take all meaning and significance out of the language of Scripture. It is because this is our natural state that we need a Saviour. When He saves us, are we left in the same state? Some have carried this strange use of the words of Scripture to the extent of believing (or thinking that they believe) that Paul considered himself still the chief of sinners after he was saved. He speaks of himself as the chief of sinners for the very purpose of showing the greatness of the grace of the Saviour which availed to save the chief of sinners, and that grace was not found vain. But what would we say of a Saviour whose grace abounded in such a way as still to leave Saul the chief of sinners? That is not Paul’s Saviour, and that is not the way Christ’s grace operates even in the lives of those true Christians who think they believe themselves still to be unrighteous sinners.

Perhaps the Scripture that has suffered most from this method of lifting it out from its environment is First John, one, eight: “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” A passage which was written for the express purpose of giving the children of God the glad tidings that they need not sin, and pointing out God’s provision for keeping them walking in the light, has somehow become for many a stumbling block which keeps them in darkness.

Now whatever John, one, eight means it must be in accord with the later word that these things he was writing that we may not sin. “And if any man sin, we have an Advocate.” “_If any sin._” That means there is a possibility of _not sinning_, as well as the admitted possibility of sinning. He does not say “_When_ a Christian sins,” which would make sin inevitable. Now if a Christian were sinning all the time, this word of assurance against sinning, and also the word of comfort and assurance for the Christian who has been overtaken in a fault would be robbed of all meaning. First John, one, eight, therefore, cannot mean that Christians are sinning continually, or if they are, the next verses urge them to get out of that condition.

The literal rendering of this verse is, “If we say that we have not sin,” or “If we say that we do not have sin.” The negative is an adverb, not an adjective. The ordinary renderings, “If we say that we have _no_ sin,” might encourage the assumption that the Apostle was speaking of degrees of sin and warning against the thought of being free from all sin. But sin is not something that can be divided; if there is sin, there is sin, and it is not here a question of more or less sin.

It will help also to remember that there is no independent First John, one, eight in the Word. This sentence is part of a closely woven argument running from the fifth verse of the first chapter to the sixth verse of the second chapter. He is talking of fellowship with God, which is an absolute thing in the sense that we either have perfect fellowship or we do not have perfect fellowship, just as a man wants perfect fellowship with his wife though the fellowship deepens and becomes richer as the days go on. There is but one thing that can break this fellowship with God, John says, and that is sin. For God is light and in Him is no darkness, and the man that has fellowship must walk in the light. Therefore man needs to be cleansed from sin so that he may walk in the light, having fellowship. There were some in his day, as in ours, who were saying that they had fellowship, though they were walking in darkness. If we say that, we lie. But if we admit that we cannot have fellowship and be in darkness, and are cleansed from sin in the blood of Christ, then we may walk in the light. If we say that we do not have sin, and therefore do not need this cleansing, we deceive ourselves. But if we are not deceived in this way and confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness, so that we may walk in the light. If we say, as they were saying in his day, that we have not sinned, we make God a liar, for he has said that all men have sinned and come short of the glory of God, and therefore need a Saviour. John is writing all of this for the purpose of keeping these Christians from sinning, not for the purpose of explaining to them that they must be sinning continually while they are walking in the light. Sin breaks the fellowship, and before a man sins he must step out of that light. This is the message of the whole of First John. He may confess and be cleansed and restored to the fellowship, walking in the light.

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