Deliverance by Faith

Qome of the chief difficulties experienced by the child of God in the daily life arise from a want of knowledge. He has not seen clearly the extent of the deliverance which has been obtained for him by Christ on the cross.

Pardon for the sin of the past, complete and free, has been seen and grasped. A present perfect acceptance in Christ before God, is known and realized. But sin as a power, and too often as an overcoming power, is keenly felt as a terrible reality nevertheless.

The believer now tries to do his best to meet this power and to set himself free from it. He has seen God’s way of forgiveness, but he has yet to learn God’s way of deliverance from the power of sin. And being ignorant of God’s way, he earnestly tries his own way of deliverance. Perhaps he seeks to obtain freedom from sin’s dominion by setting himself to do something in the Lord’s service. He tries

Deliverance by Working.

He hopes that by taking up definite and regular work, being occupied in some religious effort, he will find himself set free from the tyranny and service of sin.

For a time he fancies things are better — he persuades himself his experience is brighter and more hopeful. So he perseveres in this course — seeking deliverance from the power of sin by means of Christian work. But after a time he is convinced of his mistake. He is bitterly disappointed with the results in his actual experience. He feels more and more this is not God’s way, but he hardly knows where the mistake lies.

He reads a passage of Scripture like this — ‘’That we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve Him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before Him, all the days of our life.” This reveals to him the fact that deliverance comes not after, but before service — that it is not to be the effect, or the fruit of our service, but the essential condition of it.

Then he tries another plan. He seeks emancipation from sin’s dominion by his own efforts to overcome sin. He seeks

Luke i.

Deliverance by Fighting.

Suppose the angel had said to Peter when he came to him in the prison, “Peter, thou art free. The chains which kept thee bound have fallen from thy hands. Gird thyself and bind on thy sandals. Take this sword, and fight thy way out of the prison. There are many foes yet to be overcome. Conquer them all, and Act* xii iC’.

thou shalt be free indeed.” Deliverance for Peter would have been partly by grace, and partly by his own efforts. But we see it was all of grace. The angel brought a full and complete deliverance. It reached from the innermost part of the prison to the street of the city. Peter realized something of that freedom when he saw the chains fall off, but he did not know the extent of it until he went forth in the path of simple obedience. The angel said, “Follow me.” And Peter “went forth and followed him.” It was as he pursued the path marked out for him, step by step, that he saw how complete, how truly of grace was that deliverance which God had sent him. “When they were past the first and second ward, they came unto the iron gate that leadeth unto the city; which opened to them of his own accord.”

So it is with the believer now. Christ has purchased for us deliverance from the power, as well as from the penalty of sin.

—1

We realize something of that freedom when we first apprehend the truth — when first we see that salvation is full, present, and free. The chains instantly fall off, but how little comparatively do we yet see of the extent and completeness of the liberty wherewith Christ by His death has made us free!

Deliverance by Growth.

Once more, how many suppose that deliverance can only come by growth? It is, therefore, just a question of time. Being only young believers, they are, of course, very weak, but the evil nature is strong within them. The new nature must have time to grow and become strengthened. In the meantime, as the old nature is so strong, victory over sin cannot be expected. Failure is regarded as inevitable, and as a consequence a sad and dark experience follows.

How serious is the mistake thus made!

Rom. vi.
14, 22.

Deliverance from sin’s power does not come by working, nor by self-efforts, nor by spiritual growth.

Deliverance is the purchase of

Christ’s death, and is to be

claimed by faith,

just as we claim pardon.

The mistakes many of us made when seeking forgiveness are often repeated when we seek deliverance.

God’s way of deliverance from sin is by Christ through faith that it may be of grace. It is the Spirit alone that can communicate this knowledge to us 07 enable us to appropriate it; just as it is He alone who can reveal to us God’s way of justification. It is as we walk in the Spirit that we live above sin’s power.

We may at once by faith step into this path of freedom and by faith abide therein.

“Sin shall not have dominion over you.” “Now being made free from sin {i.e. from its power and service as the context shows). and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness and the end everlasting life.” Let us not suppose that this freedom is to be accepted gradually. It is to be claimed and received as an immediate privilege, though it can be known and enjoyed experimentally only progressively. As Professor Godet observes, on the eleventh verse of the sixth of Romans, “The believer does not get disentangled from sin gradually. He breaks with it in Christ once for all.” We are delivered by Christ’s death completely from sin’s authority. Sin has no right to lord it over us any longer. Claim your right, then, to be free. “Stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free.”

Gal. V. I.