Morning By Morning #114

No, in all these things we are more than
conquerors through him who loved us.

Romans 8:37

From the pen of Charles Spurgeon:

We go to Christ for forgiveness, but then too often go to the law seeking the power to fight our sins. Paul rebukes us for this, “You foolish Gala-tians! Who has bewitched you [that ye should not obey the truth (KJV)]?…I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort?” (Gal. 3:1 – 3).

Take your sins to the cross of Christ for the old man can only be crucified there, for “our old self was crucified with him” (Rom. 6:6). The only weapon to fight sin is the spear that pierced the side of Jesus.

Allow me to illustrate this. If you desire to overcome your angry temper, how can you go about it? It is entirely possible you have never tried the only correct way—going to Jesus with it.

How did I receive salvation? I went to Jesus just as I was and trusted Him to save me. Thus, I must put my angry temper to death the same way. That is the only way to ever kill it. I must take it to the cross and say to Jesus, “Lord, I trust You to deliver me from it.” There is no other way to deliver it a deathblow.

Are you covetous? Are you entangled by “the things of the world” (1 Cor. 7:31)? You can struggle against various evils as long as you live, but if one of them persistently entangles you, you will never be delivered from it in any way whatsoever except by the blood of Jesus. Take it to Christ and say, “Lord, I have trusted You. Your name is Jesus ‘because [You] will save [Your] people from their sins’ (Matt. 1:21). Lord, this is one of my sins. Save me from it!”

The law is nothing without Christ as the means to put our sins to death. All your prayers, every time of repentance, and all of your tears—all of them combined—are worth nothing apart from Him.

No one except Jesus can do helpless sinners any good—or helpless saints either. If you desire to be a conqueror, you will be one only “through him who loved [you]” (Rom. 8:37). Your laurel crown must grow amid His olives in Gethsemane.

From the pen of Jim Reimann:

I am as foolish as the Galatians to think my works, which did not bring me salvation, can in some way maintain that salvation for me. If that were the case, my eternal salvation would be the result of my work, not the work of Christ, and His death would have been for nothing. Jesus Himself prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me” (Matt. 26:39). It was not possible—He had to “drink” the cup of suffering on the cross. There was no other way!

And if His death was only sufficient for my sins committed before He saved me—and not sufficient for my future sins—then He would need to die again and again each time I sin. Consider these words from Hebrews:

“Nor did he enter heaven to offer himself again and again, the way the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year…Then Christ would have had to suffer many times…But now he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself” (Heb. 9:25–26).