A wrong start is one of the chief causes of failure in the Victorious
Life. The first secret of continuing in victory, so to speak, is to
begin. Nothing can be continued unless it is begun. To see clearly that
the Victorious Life is a miracle of grace, and is wholly the work of
the Lord Jesus, is necessary to this right beginning. Many attempt to
live the life without fully getting rid of the element of self-effort.
Having begun right, the next thing is to continue as we began. The act
of surrender and faith by which we entered into victory becomes the
continued attitude of the life. Failure can come only through a slip in
surrender or in faith.
It is possible to abide in Christ for victory _without a break_. The
Word of God says that _if_ a Christian sins he is to do certain things;
it never says _when_ a Christian sins. It is not for us to look back
over our past record to consider whether we have sinned, or to see how
long we have continued without a break; but in looking into the future
we must expect to be kept from sinning or we are not trusting the
sufficient grace of Christ; and that means we are not at the present
moment in victory.
Along with this expectation of continued victory must go the
realization that at any moment we may fall into sin: “let him that
thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall,” is the warning that
immediately precedes the glorious promise of First Corinthians 10:13 of
God’s full provision for victory over every temptation.
Suppose, then, we should fall into sin after entering into the
Victorious Life? _Instant and full restoration after failure_ is God’s
plan for the Christian who sins and thus breaks the perfect abiding in
the Lord. “In the moment of defeat, shout Victory!” and claim your full
privileges in Christ.
But does not this make light of sin? Any other course makes light of
sin. This course sees sin to be such an abominable thing in God’s
sight that nothing but the blood of the Lord Jesus poured out in
expiation can avail to meet it. And if the blood of Jesus meets it, it
is an insult to God to attempt to add anything else to that perfect
atonement. Being sorry for sin for a period is an unconscious form of
atonement by self effort.
The Bible――A Music Box, or a Telephone?
Without constant feeding on the Word of God and continually living in
an atmosphere of prayer no one can be maintained in a life of victory.
At every cost we must set our faces like a flint to get the daily quiet
time with God over the Word and in prayer. This does not mean that
Bible study and prayer are the secret of victory. They are not, and
many are hindered from victory by supposing that their more diligent
Bible study and prayer will somehow bring them into victory. _Faith_ is
the secret of victory. But faith is impossible without the Word, and
the maintaining of faith is impossible without continually abiding in
the Word of God. An infant will not live without food and air, but we
would not say that food and air were the secret of that life which the
Creator alone could give.
The Victorious Life gives the secret of a hunger for the Bible and
prayer. The Word of God becomes literally sweeter than honey and the
honeycomb, and more to be desired than gold, yea than much fine gold.
Our Lord expects the Bible to be a telephone, as Dr. Charles R. Watson
has said, not a music box whose tunes are familiar and stale: we take
the receiver from the hook, and the Lord Jesus Christ is at the other
end of the line. It is really our privilege to have a personal message
from the living God to our own souls every day, and at every moment of
need.