Deliverance
"For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death." Romans 8:2
'Tis only in Thee hiding We feel ourselves secure;
Only in Thee abiding The conflict can endure:
Thine arm the victory gaineth O'er every hateful foe;
Thy love our hearts sustaineth In all their cares and woe.
(pp. 113-116, Footprints for Pilgrims)
"To will is present with me; but how to perform that which I would not, that I do." (Romans 7:18-19) If souls would be honest, many would confess that this has been their condition for years -- a condition which brings no glory to God and no happiness to themselves. What is the cause ? Simply the mistake of thinking that all depends upon their own efforts instead of accepting the truth that they are utterly without strength, and that, therefore, everything depends upon God.
You have fought with your foes again and again with undaunted courage, but you have never gained the victory. Pause, for a moment, and ask this simple question, What am I to learn by this sorrowful experiment ? ... It is that the enemy is too strong for you, that you cannot cope with his power. ... If you continue upon the present line of effort it is only to court defeat in the future as in the past. Your case is, as far as your own strength is concerned, hopeless. If, on the other hand, you ... come to the end of your own strength, it will bring rest to your soul, because ... you will understand that your help, strength and succour come from ... Christ and not from yourselves. Oh, the unspeakable blessedness of such a discovery ! Ceasing henceforward to struggle, you will know what it is to rest in Another, and be able to take up the song of David, "The Lord is my light and my salvation."
"O wretched man that I am ! who shall deliver me from the body of this death ? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord." Deliverance is found, just as salvation is found, not through self, and the labours of self, but through Christ.
"My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not." (1 John 2:1) The believer ... should never for one moment receive the thought that sin cannot be avoided. If he once admits that sin is a necessary part of his experience, he will soon lose sight of its true character, its hatefulness to God ... and in the end become the prey and sport of the evil one as to his walk through this world.
God is able to keep us from falling (Jude 24). To doubt this would not only be to disbelieve His own word, but also to forget that He is God.
The Holy Spirit is our only power for a holy walk. Of ourselves we cannot take a single step in this path. the utmost human efforts, the most resolute determination, are of no avail either to keep ourselves from evil or to follow after Christ.
If you leave out the truth of the coming of the Lord Jesus you miss a power for holiness that God has given to us. (see 1 John 3:3).
--- E.D.
