The SECURITY of the BELIEVER
By Douglas C. Hartley
Part Two
S OMETIMES earthly sons are diso bedient, but still they are sons by birth. So God’s sons by the new birth remain sons though sometimes they may fall. Their sin is under the blood, although they lose in reward. ‘‘My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not [i.e., live in wilful rebellion]. And if any man sin [Greek ‘should sin,’ a single act, not constant lawlessness and open an archy], we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for our’s only, but also for the sins of the whole world [of all who have lived, are living, and who ever shall live]” (1 John 2:1,2). Christ met the debt of all sin fully and to spare. This passage is addressed to believers. His treasury of pardon is inconceivably full. He who was rich and became poor to make us rich (2 Cor. 8 :9), will never allow us to become impoverished again. If we sin, we must confess it to Him, expressing our sorrow, and Christ the Treasurer will square our account. We will lose in joy, but not in salvation. We must not “ use liberty for an occa sion to the flesh” (Gal. 5:13), yet Paul was conscious of unwilling sin because of necessary contact with the world. “ For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do . . . I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me” (Rom. 7:19,21). This is not just a pos sibility that may affect some, but a law to which all, regardless of their high spiritual state, are subject in varying degree. “Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” he cries in verse 24, and answers in verse 25 in a burst of praise and joy, “ I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind [or understanding—Weymouth] I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh [or lower nature] the law of sin.” While Paul emphasizes that there is no sinless perfection, he also stresses that, once saved, there is no loss of sal vation. Witness the triumphant first verse of Romans 8: “ There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” “Are in Christ”—a permanent, not a spasmodic condition. The normal, everyday walk
shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation” (Heb. 9:24,25,28). To those who look to Him, and for Him, there can be no sin charged: only com plete salvation at His coming. “ Come, ye blessed of my Father, in herit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (Matt. 25:34). If some of us may not hold out, how did God know before the foundation of the world, how large to
is what counts—not occasional faults in the walk. Constantly-repeated general forgiveness for past sin belonged to the Law—a sacrifice for every transgres sion, with the priest entering the Holy Place once a year, first for himself, then for the people. “ For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands” to “ offer himself often . . . Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him
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