the pole, he hung on with one hand while trying to work with the other. The foreman below wisely offered, "Why don't you lean back on the strap so you can work with both hands?" This is what God wants us to do. We are to rest wholly upon Him in confidence. His grace will keep us. While we do not go off and live as we please, we come to Him in assurance and victory. You see, God has made provision not only to take away the penalty of sin but also He has giv en us the incentive by which we can live above the sin of this world, experiencing victory through Jesus Christ. ASSURANCE In climaxing the provision of assurance for our salvation we find many blessed truths in Romans 8. The first thing to remember is that wonderful assurance that Cod for gives sin (vs. 1). Think of no more condemnation or judgment. The highest authority for the knowl edge that our sin penalty is taken away comes from the very fact of our Saviour's substitutionary death (vs. 33-34). When the Supreme Court makes a ruling on something about which the lower courts have had a dis pute, theirs is the final word. So it is with the God of heaven. His is the final court of appeal. No one can argue when He passes the ver dict. What more could we ask than to hear Him say, "Your sins have been forgiven if you have placed your faith in Jesus Christ." We are automatically declared righteous. The fact that Christ rose from the grave is the guarantee for us all that the Saviour has the power to forgive us for our sins. He is now at the right hand of God making
Romans 6:3 asks, "Know ye not, that so many of us as were bap tized into Jesus Christ were bap tized into his death." There must be a proper recognition of what it means to be immersed into the death of the Saviour. He not only bore the sin penalty as He died for us, but He took the ability of sin to reign over us. The old nature has no right to exert its influence anymore. At the cross that doom was sealed. Even so, just as we were identified with Christ's death, we also rose from the grave with Him. This same power ought to be operating in our lives each day. There is no cause for defeat when one has responded properly to these aspects of our Lord's min istry. Have you ever watched a cater pillar or a bug going across the grass? You may have put your fin ger on it. Immediately it rolls up into a ball. There is no more move ment at all. It has made itself to appear dead. This is its instinctive protection. So it is with the child of Cod. We are to reckon, or to consider, ourselves dead to sin. Did you ever stop to realize what a privilege we have of yielding our lives into the hands of Cod? The word "yield" is used frequently to show that we are to commit all our members, body, mind, tongue, hands, and every part of us to Cod. The Lord wants every part of our being to be used for Him (6:13). We are to yield ourselves to obedi ence and unto righteousness (6:19). I had a friend who hired out as a telephone lineman. Since he had not had much experience his boss watched him closely as he climbed the pole. He did not have much confidence in the strap that held him up. As he fixed the wire on
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