Belington progressive. [volume] (Belington, W. Va.) 1912-1927, 1924-01-03

FIN ET va fail
Have we not, after becoming Chris
tians. Ionged for deiverance from sin?
We have resolved against it and strug-
gled. but are still in bondage. Is there
any way of escapef Pam Ia the sixth
chapter of Romans tellss us there is.
Moreover. it is the method which
seemed to the slave, in most Instances,
the only sure one. Other ways have
failed, but now Panl announces that
we may die and so be freed. For he
that is dead is freed from sin" (Rom.
6:D.
The death In this instance Is, of
course, Of a spiritual sort. Paul, in the
beginning of this chapter asks, "Shall
we continue in sin that grace may
aboundY' He answers, God forbid.
How shall we, that are dead to sin, live
any longer therein?" He then goes on
to explain this strange assertion:
Know We not that so many of us as
were baptized into Jesus Christ We're
baptized into His death? Therefore we
were buried with Him by baptism into
.
up from the dead by the glory of the
Father. even SO we also should walk
in newness of life" In other words,
the faith expressed In baptism united
us with Christ, both in His death and
in His resurrection. When He died, He
died unto sin; during His lifetime He
had a certain relation of subsection to
1, +b<.h ,ar Of
peoples transgressions, but row He Is
freed from this relation and lives only
unto God. likewise" says the apos-
tie, reckon We also yourselves to be
dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto
God through Jesus Christ our Lord"
It Is to be noted that this reckoning
is not an attitude Of feeling but of
faith. Faith Is ito conclude about our
selves what God has declared about
u.s." Such a recognition OF our posi-
ton is the beginning of victory. Let
us not be deferred from recognition OF
our position as dead to sin, in Christ
because we have the painful experience
that sin is not dead to US. True, We
ere still in our mortal bodies with their
luStS. yet we may iSShoh VhioCifNe
dead unto sin and alive unto God.
An African Converts Illustration.
An African convert once expressed
the truth we are setting forth in these
words: 'Soon / win be dead and they
will bury me in my field. My flocks
will come to pasture above me. But
shall not longer hear them and ! shall
ta fuk
them and carry them with me to the
sepulchre They will be strange to me
and to them. Such is the image OF
nv life in the midst of the world since
l believed in Christ
But this reckoning of faith is only
part of the secret OF victory. We are
exhorted, "Yield yourselves unto God,
as those that are alive from the dead"
In other words. we are not hidden to
fight sin, but to surrender in faith and
obedience to our Master. We are to
occupy ourselves with God and dis
place evil by good.
A Dutch writer, N. J. Hofmeyr, says
helpfully: "What have you to do when
any sinful lust tempts you to yield to
usual sense of the word; you have not
to deal with it directly, but, looking
away to Christ, you are by faith to
reckon yourself as dead to sin, but
alive to God in Christ, and to present
yourself unto God as made alive from
the dead and your members as instru-
ments of righteousness unto God. The
master and the dead slave have no
dealings any more with each other. AS
one who in Christ has died to sin. In
the name of God, your new Master,
say no! to the solicitations of the old
master, and let Gods spirit in you
deal with him, and he shall have no
more dominion over you. Reckon your
self to be dead to sin and made alive
to God, and yield your members to
God as instruments Of Righteousness"
Confidence ia the Commander
A veteran of Waterloo used to tell
how. the night before the battle, trained
soldiers of Wellington took the raw re-
cruits and told them of the skill, the
capacity, the courage. Of their great
commander. They so inspired them
With confidence in the iron Duke that
no matter how the battle might seem
to waver they expected victory. So
may we expect it under our Com-
mander for as the verse following the
text assures us, ''Sin shall not have
dominion over you: for We are not un-
der the law, but under grace"