Now that appears to be exactly our position. If we be in Christ Jesus we are already free. Our ransom has been paid, our atonement completed, and we are free. We are free from both the imputation and dominion of sin. From the imputation, because the curse is gone; and from the dominion, for we are not under the law but under grace. This part of redemption is not a future thing which we should be always seeking, and never finding; always praying for, and never enjoying; always aiming at, but never reaching. It is the present, blessed, sacred gift of every one of you that is in Christ Jesus. You are not like Israel in bondage in Egypt, nor even like Israel shut in by the rocks at Pi-hahiroth; but you are like Israel on the eastern bank of the Red Sea, with Pharaoh and his host sunk beneath the flood. The language of Scripture twice repeated is, ‘In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins.’ (Eph. i. 7; Col. i. 14.) Accept it then, and live in the joy of your new position. Rejoice in the freedom and give thanks for it. Let the past bondage be forgotten in the joy of the liberty wherewith Christ has made you free; and go forward with a thankful heart to please Him who has thus graciously broken your chain. (2.) But remember that you are not yet completely delivered. Moses was so sure that the people would be brought to the holy habitation that he praised God for it as if it was already theirs, though they had many a long mile to traverse, and many a hard battle to fight, before they reached it. So you may be perfectly sure of it, for you are ‘sealed unto the day of redemption,’ and no one can break the seal. That day of redemption is perfectly sure to come, and you cannot be disappointed. But meanwhile you have a journey, and a fight. To say nothing of all that is around you, there are two things that you still carry within, viz. death and sin. There is death, yes! that very death that was overcome when the Lord Jesus rose from the dead, still working secretly within you; and, if the day of redemption does not come first, perfectly certain to bring you to the grave. And there is sin, the deadly sin of your fallen nature, not yet removed, but ready to poison the very fountains of your soul. If you think you have done with either death or sin, you will be sorely disappointed before you have travelled far. Your final redemption is not yet completed. You are free from the curse, free from the condemnation, free from the slavery, but you have not yet reached home. You must not, therefore, lay aside your armour, nor must you be disheartened even if you meet with that which makes you groan, for we read in Rom. viii. 23, ‘Even we ourselves,’ which have the first-fruits of the Spirit, ‘groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.’