CONTINUING AND GROWING IN VICTORYAwrongstart 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 victorywithout a break. The Word of God says thatifa Christian sins he is to do certain things; it never sayswhena 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 restorationafter failureis 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.Faithis 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 growintograce; we growinit. 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 thematter 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 Christianisabiding 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 “Growthin 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 toabound 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 wondrousthings 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 GrowGrowth 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 Christianmayrun 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,—perfectconformity 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 ChiselIn 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 perfectguarantee of myfuturelikeness to the Lord Jesus is the miracle of mypresentlikeness 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 Spirithath been givenunto 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 samemeasureof glory. “There is one glory of thesun, 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 GraceProbably 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.
Awrongstart 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 victorywithout a break. The Word of God says thatifa Christian sins he is to do certain things; it never sayswhena 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 restorationafter failureis 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.
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.Faithis 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.
“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.
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 growintograce; we growinit. 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 thematter 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 Christianisabiding 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.
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 toabound 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 wondrousthings 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.
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 Christianmayrun 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,—perfectconformity 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?
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 perfectguarantee of myfuturelikeness to the Lord Jesus is the miracle of mypresentlikeness 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 Spirithath been givenunto 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).
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 samemeasureof glory. “There is one glory of thesun, 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.
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.