The Lee County journal. (Leesburg, Ga.) 1904-19??, 1920-02-28

evil age" This corrects the current
notion that salvation has altogether
to do with the future. AS often said,
salvation has three lenses: the past,
present and future. Past sins are for
given through the Lord Jesus Christ
and assurance given that the believer
"shall be saved from wrath through
him."
But salvation does not stop with
these two great facts of the past and
future life of the believer; it also has
to do with his present life.
The text tells us that Christ pur-
posed in giving himself for our sins to
deliver us from this present evil age !;
so, for the believer in the Lord Jesus
Christ there is present salvation, which
was wrought out for him by Christ on
the cross.
Reckoned Dead to Sin.
In another epistle the writer of this
one tells us that when Christ was cru
Gifted upon the cross, our old man
that is, our corrupt human nature
was crucified with Christ This cru
cifiXion with Christ, Paul says, is true
of all believers in Gods reckoning and
he makes it clear that the first step in
the believers deliverance from this
present evil age is for him to reckon
himself as God does. likewise" in
the same way, he says, ''reckon We also
yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin"
(Romans GID. Deliverance is not
gained by denying the existence Of the
old nature in the believer, but by rec
Ognizing the fact of the old nature
and then dealing with it as God asks
us to, by reckoning it dead.
Reckoned Alive to God.
But the apostle goes further. He
says that we should reckon ourselves
not only to be dead indeed unto sin,
"but alive unto God through Jesus
Christ our Lord" This is the second
step in present deliverance.
Again we see that in the reckoning
of God we were in Christ when he
arose from the dead. This does not
mean that like our Lord we are now
actually on the resurrection side OF
the grave. 1t means that God counts
us as If we were there and that now
we are to reckon ourselves there
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Well may it be asked: "How can
this reckoning be done?" The answer
is: by faith" Reckoning these things
true is an act of faith.
Yield to God.
The third step in present deliverance
might be called a double one: "Yield
not" "Yield to- (Romans 6:13). The
believer is not to yield to sin. This
shows that, unlike his Lord, the be-
lever is not without sin in him; the
old corrupt nature can give way to sin,
if the believer allows it; therefore, he
is not to yield to the lust of the fiesh'
but rather to yield himself to God.
The motive power for gOdIy living Is
not the energy of the flesh but the pow
err of the Spirit. How necessary, Them
that the believer be filled with the
Spirit
Again the question arises, how shall
this be? And Paul answers: THE
life which I now live in the flesh l
live by the faith Of the Son of God"
Tn other words he says that as he
Yields to Christ-and yielding, remem-
her. is faith, not effort; it is trusting
not trying-Christ lives his own life
in him.
Thus it is, that Christ saves us from
this present evil age, making 1t posi-
BILE for us to count. ourselves dead
unto sin, but alive unto God, and to
WELD ourselves to God as those that
are alive from the dead that Christ
NAV live in and through us his own
blessed life.