Whatever our “view,” let us guard against laying emphasis upon certain
terms, and making these the test of correctness. We should remember
that God has granted the same experience to Christians who have come
into their experience by different paths and who therefore explain
it in different ways. The important thing, after all, is to have
the fruits of the experience in the life. John Wesley, who had the
experience, whatever our view of his theology, has a word of wise
counsel at this point:
“Beware of tempting others to separate from you. Give no offense which
can possibly be avoided; see that your practice be in all things
suitable to your profession, adorning the doctrine of God our Saviour.
Be particularly careful in speaking of yourself; you may not indeed
deny the work of God; but speak of it when you are called thereto in
the most inoffensive manner possible. Avoid all magnificent, pompous
words. Indeed, you need give it no general name; neither ‘perfection,’
‘sanctification,’ ‘the second blessing,’ nor ‘the having attained.’
Rather speak of the particulars that God has wrought for you....
And answer any other plain question that is asked with modesty and
simplicity.”
Was It Sin, or “Infirmity”?
Any view that leads us to lower the standard of holiness to fit our
experience, or to argue with the devil or with ourselves over sin, is
in error. A Christian who has had a blessed new experience notices
something in the life that is not quite according to the Spirit of
Christ. He begins to examine it and decides that this is not a sin
but one of the “infirmities” from which he has not expected complete
deliverance. Or he confesses it as a sin and is cleansed in the blood
of Christ, but since he does not want to believe that he has lost his
experience he explains that this was a temptation from without and was
not due to any evil within. Or, not able to delude himself with these
bits of human reasonings, he falls back into his old life of struggle
and failure.
John Wesley has a word in season here also: “And if any of you should
at any time fall from what you now are, if you should again feel pride
or unbelief, or any temper from which you are now delivered, do not
deny it, do not hide it, do not disguise it at all, at the peril of
your soul. At all events, go to one in whom you can confide, and speak
just what you feel. God will enable him to speak a word in season which
shall be health to your soul. And surely the Lord will again lift up
your head and cause the bones that have been broken to rejoice.”
The Bible treatment of the conquest of sin is subject to none of these
distressing difficulties. It guards from dangerous errors on every
side, and at the same time leaves no loopholes for tolerating sin as do
the current views held by nearly all Christians.
What Terms Does the Bible Use?
God says, “Reckon ye also yourselves to be dead unto sin” (Rom. 6:11).
There are two ways the devil would like us to interpret this. One is by
his old lie regarding “death.” He wants us to believe that the capacity
for sinning is taken away so that we shall not acknowledge sin to be
sin, and shall call the works of the devil the fruit of the Spirit.
But death is not annihilation, but separation. It is not that some
“thing” within us has been put out of existence. All that we were as
lost sinners, in our unregenerate state――the “old man”――was crucified
with Christ and is buried, and a Christian is to reckon that fact true.
But he is to remember that there is ever the possibility of turning
our members over as instruments of sin. And whenever sin enters, when
anything in thought, word or deed that is contrary to the Spirit of
Christ has a place in the life, it means that self is on the throne and
we are alive to sin.
But Satan’s other interpretation of this verse is his favorite one,
for by it he deludes most Christians. It is only when this fails that
he tries the other and drives the Christian beyond the Word of God.
You are to reckon yourselves dead unto sin, Satan tells us, but of
course you know very well that it is never actually true that you _are_
dead unto sin. You will keep on sinning. When you die then will come
complete deliverance, but not before. In other words, God is a liar.
All Satan’s wiles in the last analysis are found to be variations of
this original statement of his to our first parents.
God never tells us to reckon on a lie. It is eternally true that in our
position before God we are dead to sin, because we have been crucified
with Christ and raised together with him. This position of ours becomes
a blessed reality in actual experience as we reckon by faith, and only
so long as we reckon by faith. Let Satan not rob us of our heritage
by telling us it is only “positionally” that we are dead to sin. God
is not thus mocking us when he tells us to “reckon” on this truth of
crucifixion with Christ.