He is back on the basis of working instead of resting in the finished work of Christ. He is under the works of the law instead of the hearing of faith. He is not standing fast in the freedom wherewith Christ has set him free. There is but one thing to be done in order to get back at once under grace and the faith life,――confess the sin and take cleansing in the blood of Jesus. This is wholly of Grace; no Christian would be so foolish as to try to atone for his sin or to help the Lord Jesus do a complete work of cleansing. It is exactly the same sort of folly that leads the Christian to seek to add his own effort in the business of winning victory over the next temptation that assails him. “_If we live by the Spirit_ [if we have been born again by the Spirit], _by the Spirit let us also walk_” (by the same supernatural power let us live day by day and hour by hour, letting God do it all by the Spirit) (Gal. 5:25). God’s new spelling for “obey” is “believe.” And, as Mr. Trumbull put it to a Christian who was grieving because she did not have the faith to believe, “The faith for salvation is the faith for victory.” Faith is just believing the word of God. A Christian Under Grace Have you believed the good tidings of future salvation and glory? Believe the same good tidings for present salvation from sin. If you are under grace, sin shall not have dominion; you are walking in the Spirit. Christ is dwelling in your heart by faith. You are freed from the law with its works. Yet the law of God is in your heart and it is your nature to keep it. You are a new creation. You are walking in newness of life. You can finish the second chapter of Galatians as Paul finishes it: “For I through the law died unto the law, that I might live unto God. I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me: and that life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith which is in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself up for me. I do not make void the grace of God” (Gal. 2:19-21). WHEN TEMPTATION STRIKES There is no state of grace that can be reached on earth which will guard a man from being tempted. The Victorious Life is a life of victory over temptation, but not a life of freedom from temptation. Many a young Christian in the first flush of joy over new-found victory has somehow felt that this glorious new liberty was indeed freedom from temptation. For certain temptations have been taken completely out of the life. Perhaps it was the taste for tobacco, and the desire for smoking has been taken away. Or the questionable “border-line” amusements (questionable only to border-line Christians),――dancing and cards and the theater,――have completely lost their attractiveness and offer no temptation.