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What a godly marvel it truly is, to have a sin nature in coexistence with a sinless nature; and a marvel equally so is seeing in the believer to be free in the latter in spite of the former. It is this freedom in the Christian that glorifies God the most, for because of this freedom, the most significant issue in existence is manifested—eternal fellowship with God! Where sin exists, grace is prevalent!
NC
Death’s Freedom
There is no one who will be so conscious of indwelling sin as the believer who walks in the light. “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1 Jhn 1:8). In the verse immediately preceding, we read, “The blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.” Here, the distinction between sin in us and sin on us is fully brought out and established (this life will always find us possessing a sin nature, but not the sin nature possessing us – Rom 8:9).
To say that there is sin on the believer, in the presence of the Father, is to call into question the purging efficacy of the Blood of the Lord Jesus, and to deny the truth of the Word. If His Blood perfectly purges, then the believer’s conscience is perfectly purged. The Word of God thus puts the matter; and we must ever remember that it is from the Father Himself we are to lean what the true position of the believer is in His sight. We are more disposed to be occupied with telling the Father what we are in ourselves, than to allow Him to tell us what we are in His Son.
In other words, we are more taken up with our own self-consciousness than with our Father’s revelation of Himself. He speaks to us on the ground of what He is in Himself, and of what He has accomplished in His Son. Such is the nature and character of His revelation, of which faith takes hold, and thus fills the soul with perfect peace. My Father’s revelation is one thing; my consciousness is quite another.
But the same Word which tells us we have no sin on us, tells us, with equal force and clarity, that we have sin in us. “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” Everyone who has “truth” in him, will know that he has “sin” in him likewise; for truth reveals everything as it is. What, then, are we to do? It is our privilege so to walk in the power of the new life, that the “sin” which dwells in us may not manifest itself in the form of “sins.”
The believer’s position is one of victory and liberty. He is not only delivered from the guilt of sin, but also from sin as a ruling principle in his life. “Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be annulled, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that has died is freed from sin . . . Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof . . . For sin shall not have dominion over you, for ye are not under law but under grace” (Rom 6:6, 14).
Sin is there in all its vileness; but the believer has died to it. How? He died in the Lord Jesus on the Cross. By nature he was dead in sin; by grace, he is dead to it. What claim can anything or anyone have upon a dead man? None whatever. Christ “died unto sin once,” and the believer died in Him. “Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him.” “Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God in Jesus Christ our Lord.” Such is the believer’s unalterable position before the Father! Hence it is his holy privilege to enjoy freedom from sin as a ruler over him, though it be a dweller in him.
“For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death” (Rom 8:2).
- C H Mackintosh
Excerpt from August 3 MJS devotional:
“So many rest content with the thought that their sins are pardoned, and that they are in the path of life, but know nothing of a personal attachment to the risen Lord Jesus Christ as their life, or of faith that lives in the invisible and walks with the Father.
“With many this is the consequence of the hopelessness that came from the failure of their utmost efforts to live as they desired. They struggled in their own strength; they lost heart, they went back. The profession of faith is not cast away; religious habits are kept up; but there is nothing to show that they have entered or are seeking to enter the Holiest to dwell there.”
– A M
None But The Hungry Heart
NC
Death’s Freedom
There is no one who will be so conscious of indwelling sin as the believer who walks in the light. “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1 Jhn 1:8). In the verse immediately preceding, we read, “The blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.” Here, the distinction between sin in us and sin on us is fully brought out and established (this life will always find us possessing a sin nature, but not the sin nature possessing us – Rom 8:9).
To say that there is sin on the believer, in the presence of the Father, is to call into question the purging efficacy of the Blood of the Lord Jesus, and to deny the truth of the Word. If His Blood perfectly purges, then the believer’s conscience is perfectly purged. The Word of God thus puts the matter; and we must ever remember that it is from the Father Himself we are to lean what the true position of the believer is in His sight. We are more disposed to be occupied with telling the Father what we are in ourselves, than to allow Him to tell us what we are in His Son.
In other words, we are more taken up with our own self-consciousness than with our Father’s revelation of Himself. He speaks to us on the ground of what He is in Himself, and of what He has accomplished in His Son. Such is the nature and character of His revelation, of which faith takes hold, and thus fills the soul with perfect peace. My Father’s revelation is one thing; my consciousness is quite another.
But the same Word which tells us we have no sin on us, tells us, with equal force and clarity, that we have sin in us. “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” Everyone who has “truth” in him, will know that he has “sin” in him likewise; for truth reveals everything as it is. What, then, are we to do? It is our privilege so to walk in the power of the new life, that the “sin” which dwells in us may not manifest itself in the form of “sins.”
The believer’s position is one of victory and liberty. He is not only delivered from the guilt of sin, but also from sin as a ruling principle in his life. “Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be annulled, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that has died is freed from sin . . . Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof . . . For sin shall not have dominion over you, for ye are not under law but under grace” (Rom 6:6, 14).
Sin is there in all its vileness; but the believer has died to it. How? He died in the Lord Jesus on the Cross. By nature he was dead in sin; by grace, he is dead to it. What claim can anything or anyone have upon a dead man? None whatever. Christ “died unto sin once,” and the believer died in Him. “Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him.” “Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God in Jesus Christ our Lord.” Such is the believer’s unalterable position before the Father! Hence it is his holy privilege to enjoy freedom from sin as a ruler over him, though it be a dweller in him.
“For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death” (Rom 8:2).
- C H Mackintosh
Excerpt from August 3 MJS devotional:
“So many rest content with the thought that their sins are pardoned, and that they are in the path of life, but know nothing of a personal attachment to the risen Lord Jesus Christ as their life, or of faith that lives in the invisible and walks with the Father.
“With many this is the consequence of the hopelessness that came from the failure of their utmost efforts to live as they desired. They struggled in their own strength; they lost heart, they went back. The profession of faith is not cast away; religious habits are kept up; but there is nothing to show that they have entered or are seeking to enter the Holiest to dwell there.”
– A M
None But The Hungry Heart
