KING’S BUSINESS:
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sin might be rendered inoperative, not “destroyed.” The Greek word used, k-a-t-a-r-g-e-o, always means to rob of power, to render inoperative, to put out of employment, to place among the unemployed- That is why St. Paul stopped short always of erad ication, and is never content with sup pression, and that is what I mean when I say that our life is a life of continual safety. You remember, some of you, what you sing every Sunday, “Vouchsafe, 0 Lord, to keep us this day without sin.” That is the teaching of coun teraction. “Grant that this day we fall into no sin.” That is the law of coun teraction. “That we perfectly love Thee, and worthily magnify Thy holy name.” How marvelously those .old fathers knew the secret of holiness! So the Christian, while he has the principle of sin in him, need not, and ought not, to express that principle in practice; but if he does, there is a provision, “Jesus Christ the right eous,” not the loving, not the merci ful, but the righteous. Jesus Christ deals on a righteous level, and by a righteous principle with the sin of His people. He has no favorites; there are no qualifications. Sin is sin, whether in God’s people or not. The provision is there in case we should need it. It is a life of continual safety. Thirdly, the purpose of God for us is “These things have I written unto you . . . . that ye may Know.” "Know!” How wonderfully prominent that word is in the writings of St. John. 1 believe you will find it 177 times; never a noun, but always one. or other of.the two verbs for know, the one verb 99 times, and the other 78 times. Those who recall the Greek words will know what I mean. There is one A L IFE OF ABSOLUTE CERTAINTY.
struggling which will almost, inevit ably land us in defeat again and again. You remember Romans 8 begins with “No condemnation.” It closes with “No separation.” But between the two there is. “No defeat.” Suppres sion, therefore, is inadequate, miser ably inadequate, to the truth of God. The real word and the real thing is COUNTERACTION ; not eradication —that goes too fa r ; not suppression —that does not go far enough; but counteraction, which just expresses the truth. “The law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.” There are two laws, and just as gravitation can be counteracted by volition, the higher law of the will, so the lower law of sin and death is for ever counteracted by the presence of the Holy Ghost in our hearts. That is why in Romans 7 there are about thirty occasions where you find “I,” “I,” “I,” with no reference whatever to the Holy Spirit, while in Romans 8 you get some twenty references to the Holy Spirit and very little about “'I,” “I.” It is the law of counterac tion. A little girl was once asked by her teacher, so it is said, “What did St. Paul mean by the words, ‘I keep under my body’? How did he do it ?” Her answer was, “By keeping his soul on top,”—the Law of counteraction. There is a sinful principle. Do not dream it is eradicated, and do not trouble about suppressing it. Let the Holy Spirit so come into your life, and reign supreme in the throne-room of the will, that there shall be this con stant, continuous, blessed, and increas ing counteraction. That is the word, or something like it, that St. Paul had in mind when he said, “Our old man (our unregenerate self) was crucified with Him, that the body of
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