To believe this word is to enjoy present freedom from the law of
sin. “Every one that committeth sin is the bondservant of sin.... If
therefore the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed” (John
8:34, 35).
“If ye are led by the Spirit, ye are not under the law” (Gal. 5:18),
that is, we are under Grace. And Grace means, Jesus Christ is doing it
all for us, winning the victory for us by his indwelling power.
The Much More Salvation
These Scriptures show clearly that God’s way of victory over present
sin is by the power of the Holy Spirit. That new law, the law of the
Spirit, makes us free from the law of sin. “If, while we were enemies,
we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more,
being reconciled, shall we be saved by his life” (Rom. 5:10). This
is the “much more salvation,” present salvation by his indwelling
life. Reconciled saints need to be “saved,” and the Victorious Life is
nothing other than salvation by free grace, in present action, applied
to each temptation and problem.
God’s plan of salvation from the present power of sin, therefore, is
exactly the same plan as he has revealed for salvation from the death
penalty of sin. Both are by free grace without effort on your part.
Both are to be received and enjoyed by faith. After the remarkable
passage in the fifth chapter of Galatians, which gives the nine-fold
fruit of the Spirit, there is this statement: “If we live by the
Spirit, by the Spirit let us also walk” (Gal. 5:25). That is, since
we have been born again by the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit,
by that same supernatural Spirit, without effort on our part, let us
also live our daily lives, winning victory over sin by just letting the
fruit of the Spirit be produced, letting the rivers of living waters
flow out (John 7:38).
It follows from this that every Christian really has received the gift
of Victory from God, for it is just the indwelling Christ through the
power of the Spirit. But how few, how very few Christians are enjoying
the remarkable results of that gift, the freedom from the law of sin,
the fruit of the Spirit. Why is this? A generation ago there were very
many earnest Christians who thought it presumptuous to be sure of
their salvation. They may have been saved and been blessed with all
spiritual blessings in Christ, but they were not, and some Christians
to-day are not, _enjoying assurance of salvation_. Even so defeated
Christians, who walk now and then after the flesh and fall into sin,
are not enjoying the freedom that Christ purchased for them. They are
not living up to their privileges in the Lord. The word of freedom has
not been benefiting them, because it has not been united by faith with
them that heard. “For indeed we have had good tidings preached unto us,
even as also they: but the word of hearing did not profit them, because
it was not united by faith with them that heard” (Heb. 4:2).
The Two Simple Conditions
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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