14 - CHAPTER 12: THE PERILS OF THIS LIFE
SOME OF THE PERILS THAT BESET A LIFE OF HOLINESS AND HOW THEY MAY BE MET AND CONQUERED The Victorious Life is not something, which is obtained once for all -- a summit reached from which nothing can dislodge us. This victory is secured from moment to moment by a moment-by-moment faith. There is constant victory for the believer so long as he trusts Christ entirely-and only so long. The moment that simple faith is lost, that moment the victory over sin is broken. That is why our Lord seems to sum up "sin" in the one word "unbelief." "The Holy Spirit when He is come shall convict the world of sin... of sin, because they believe not on Me" (John 16:8). And this is why St. John says, "This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our FAITH (1 John 5:4).
Since, then, there is no such thing as a once-for-all victory, it is evident that this life is beset with perils, and we must be constantly on our guard. Or, to be strictly accurate, we must ever allow "the peace of God to guard our hearts." An earnest labouring man used to insist upon quoting that verse as "A piece of God shall guard your hearts"-and his idea was right. For it is the indwelling Christ, the Son of God, Who does this for us. THE ABIDING CHRIST
What are some of the dangers that beset a life of holiness? To be forewarned is to be forearmed. Nor need we fear to face any danger. "For in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us" (Romans 8:37).
There is, first of all
1. SELF-EFFORT. In the first flush of joy at realising the possibility of such a life of victory, there is a tendency to attempt to hug our possession-to make a continuous and conscious effort to cling to it. A feeling that if we do not strenuously concentrate our thoughts upon the indwelling Christ, we shall lose Him. Perhaps this comes from regarding the Victorious Life as a blessing-a possession we can forfeit or lose. Satan always tries to get us to regard it as such. It may slip from our grasp. No. It is a Person, not a "thing." It is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, Who comes not so much for us to possess Him, but that He may possess us. He cannot slip from our grasp. He holds us. He has promised, "I will never leave thee nor forsake thee" (Hebrews 13:5). That is why the writer likes to dwell upon the abiding Christ rather than the "fullness of the Spirit."
Once it was the blessing, Now it is the Lord;
Once it was the feeling, Now it is His Word.
Once His gifts I wanted.
Now the Giver own;
Once I sought for healing, Now Himself alone.
He keeps us-it is not we who keep Him, and "He is able to keep." Of course, we must allow the Lord Jesus to be "the home of our thoughts." But "looking unto Jesus" in faith and love does not mean strenuous effort to retain Him-a willing guest. Our "look" of faith is not with strained eyes, but with a restful gaze. IN THE PLACE OF SAFETY
"Abide in Me," says our Lord. Just rest peacefully in Him so far as your life of victory is concerned. At every alarm, at every approach of temptation, just "hide in Him," the Rock of Ages, just as the coney takes cover in his rock of defence. "Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow"-not by self-effort, toiling or striving. They just abide in the sunshine and drink in its life.
"Which of you by being anxious can add one cubit to his stature?" asks our Lord in the Sermon on the Mount. And in His mind was something more than physical stature.
It is not our faith but His faithfulness that maintains the Victorious Life. "Trust in the Lord," and then "do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land and verily thou shalt be fed" (Psalms 37:3).
We may remark in passing that even in our conflict with evil around us our trust must be entirely in Him, and not in our own power and effort. How remarkably this is brought out in our Lord’s instructions to His Apostles. "Behold, I send you forth as sheep amidst wolves," says He. Now how does He proceed? "Be ye therefore armed to the teeth?" NEVER. "Be ye therefore harmless as doves" (Matthew 10:16). Why? Because HE is our defence and our shield.
2. NO FREEDOM FROM TEMPTATION. The Victorious Life is not an untempted life. Only ONE Man has ever lived an unbroken Victorious Life, and that was our Lord Himself. And "He was tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin." The sinless angels were tempted, and some fell. Adam and Eve in their sinless state were tempted, and also fell. So let us not be surprised when the devil tempts us. He will do all in his power to drag us down, because the Victorious Life is the only one that really counts. Every child of God will be tempted, but we can "count it all joy," for we are told that the shield of faith is "able to quench ALL the fiery darts of the evil one" (Ephesians 6:16). A CONSTANT ATTITUDE OF FAITH
3. IF WE FALL.
There is always the possibility of sinning, and there is the provision for it. "’If the anointed priest shall sin so as to bring guilt on the people, then let him offer for his sin...’ (Leviticus 4:3). Doesn’t this prove that sin is inevitable?" asked an inquirer, surely not. Every ship that sails is provided with a supply of lifeboats, lest there should be a shipwreck or a collision. This does not imply that it is the captain’s intention to wreck his ship; nor does it mean that therefore every ship must be wrecked. So, then, it is possible for both priest and people to sin. The Victorious Life is secured by an act of faith: and it is only maintained by a constant attitude of faith. Suppose, then, there is a momentary failure and we fall into some sin. What then? Why, Satan immediately tries to follow up his victory by trying to persuade us that there is no such thing as the Victorious Life; or that if there is, then we never had the blessing; or if we had-well, it is gone forever: we’ve lost it. And our fellow-Christians who have never seen the only way of victory will gladly back him up in his assertions. Even devout and earnest believers will assure us that such teaching is a dangerous heresy. Do not listen either to Satan or them. We have seen that the Bible is full of Victorious Life teaching. This "dangerous heresy" was taught by Christ, and shows itself again and again in St. Paul’s Epistles and those of St. John. Remember that God gave us the Victorious Life after many, many falls. Will He then withhold it forever because of one more fall? Surely not!
SATAN’S WHISPERINGS But if Satan fails in dissuading you from again attempting to live a life of victory, he will try to delay your recovery. He will whisper that after such a grievous failure you must lie low for a while; it will take a long time for you to get back again into the life of victory; there must be an arduous climb, a tedious and humbling process of recovery. What answer will you give him?
Now we have conclusively shown that no striving or struggling on our part will ever bring us victory in the first place. It must, therefore, be obvious that such effort and struggling will never reinstate us! If we fall into any sin, our Saviour wishes us at once to turn to Him in faith for forgiveness.
Instant forgiveness and instant restoration. Even in the Old Testament dispensation this was so. "I have sinned against the Lord," said the penitent king David. "The Lord also hath put away thy sin," replied the prophet Nathan immediately (2 Samuel 11:1-27; 2 Samuel 12:1-31).
"If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9). Your fall does not weaken Christ. "He is (still) able to keep." HE has not failed. Nor will He fail you. And once you are forgiven, turn your thoughts away from that sin and try never to think of it again. "One thing I do," said Paul, "forgetting the things [he might well have said "sins"] that are behind ... I press on toward the goal" (Php 3:13). A HINDRANCE TO HOLINESS This is not minimising or under-rating the sin. No one has such a horror of sin as he who is living the Victorious Life. Nor does it mean complacency under defeat. But we feel strongly that the recollection of past sins is one of the greatest hindrances to present holiness and usefulness. Such recollection weakens our confidence, prevents our usefulness, and reminds us of the "pleasures of sin": so there follow feeble witness, fruitless work, and fresh falling into sin.
Moreover, remorse, or agony of feeling, or self-condemnation, cannot do ought to heal the wound. The atoning blood of Christ is sufficient for that. In fact, so sufficient-if one may use such an expression-that after the gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost Christians are nowhere told to pray for the forgiveness of their sins. The command is simply to confess them to God, and their forgiveness is assured. The reason is obvious. When the Holy Spirit of Christ dwells in the heart, sin is abhorrent, and a longing for forgiveness always accompanies confession.
4. DO NOT PRESUME.
"The truth about the indwelling Christ, or rather the consciousness of His indwelling, gives you such wonderful confidence," said a venerable cleric to the writer, "that the danger is that you get TOO confident." We see his point. But we cannot be too confident! What this man of God meant is this: There is a danger of relying upon past victory to keep us safe in the present. We may have-and Christ desires us to have-a long period of unbroken victory. But the longer the period, the safer and stronger we are apt to FEEL ourselves to be. Paul knew the danger full well, "Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall" (1 Corinthians 10:12). We must bear in mind that OUR weakness is never made strong. "Our sufficiency is from God." We are NEVER sufficient of ourselves to account anything as from ourselves (2 Corinthians 3:5).
It is "All of Christ" and always of Christ. "It is God that worketh in you both to will and to do" (Php 2:13). As Mr. C. G. Trumbull puts it, in his Perils of the Victorious Life:
"Christ and Christ alone is our victory. Ten years of unbroken record does not add a particle to the strength of our Lord Jesus Christ; it does not increase the sufficiency of His grace, for that sufficiency is infinite. The assurance of our continuance in victory is not our good record, but the grace of our Lord. Our continued record in victory adds nothing to our assurance of victory." THE NECESSITY OF OBEDIENCE
Moreover our victory for any length of time does not weaken Satan. HE is just as powerful and active and spiteful, and just waits his opportunity. And HIS opportunity is any over-confidence or spiritual pride in us.
5. DISOBEY NOT OUR LORD’S COMMAND. A radiantly happy couple wished to speak to me after an address on the indwelling Christ. "We have known and experienced the truth of the Victorious Life for many months now," said the husband, "and it has completely revolutionised our lives. All this time we have been staying away from the Lord’s Table. We never go to the Holy Communion now. But are we right in keeping away?" "What is your REASON for absenting yourselves?" I asked. "Because Paul tells us there is no further need of the Holy Communion when once Christ has come to dwell in the heart," was the astonishing reply. With much curiosity the writer asked for the reference to such a command. And this was the answer: "Paul said, ’As oft as ye eat this bread and drink this cup ye proclaim the Lord’s death till He come’ (1 Corinthians 11:26). Well, now that he HAS come to abide IN us, we have refrained from partaking of the Holy Communion." That godly man and woman were delighted to learn that those words "Till He come" evidently refer to the Second Coming of our Lord. Paul himself was then living and preaching the Victorious Life, but he still partook of the Holy Communion. "We ALL partake of the one bread," says he (1 Corinthians 10:17). We must never disobey any command of our Lord.
Yet how gracious our Lord is! The dear people mentioned above were radiantly happy and were bringing forth "the fruit of the Spirit," although they were disobeying God. They "did it ignorantly," but not in unbelief, and the Saviour graciously blessed them and in due time showed them the "better way."
INDWELT BY THE HOLY TRINITY The writer has met advanced Churchmen of the Anglo-Catholic school -- holy and humble men of God-who have been thrilled by talks on the Victorious Life, but who have expressed a fear that such teaching would "do away with the need of the Sacrament." No such fear need ever disturb their minds. This teaching is entirely Scriptural, as we have shown. Space forbids us to enter fully into the relationship between the indwelling of Christ through the Holy Spirit and our Lord’s definite declaration, "Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, ye have not life in yourselves" (John 6:53).
Let us remind ourselves that all the Persons of the Trinity dwell in us. Christ said, "If a man love Me he will keep My word: and My Father will love him, and WE will come unto him, and make our abode with him" (John 14:23). We know that the Holy Spirit dwells in us "that He may abide with you for ever" (John 14:16).
It may be that God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit "sanctify us wholly"-soul, body and spirit. But we do believe that no victory ever admits of disobedience to any of our Lord’s commands. And when He says "Do this" we must obey. If we love Him we shall keep His commandments.