While these studies were not intended as a comprehensive treatment of the subject, it was thought well to take advantage of the call for a second edition by adding two studies, one to consider the relation of the work of the Holy Spirit to the life of victory in Christ, the other to ask what the Scriptures mean by freedom from sin.
After outlining these studies in preparation for this new edition, it was my privilege to be associated in Victorious Life Conferences throughout the country with Dr. A. J. Ramsey, who is now giving his whole time to the work of the Victorious Life Testimony. So far as may be possible in such a word as this I wish to acknowledge the great debt of gratitude I owe to Dr. Ramsey, whose masterly expositions of Romans and First John, and other Scriptures dealing with the sin question, have served to confirm and clarify the glorious truth of God’s plan of victory over sin which a direct study of his Word will disclose to every earnest seeker. With a first-hand knowledge of classical and New Testament Greek which ranks with the leading teachers of that language, with an intimate knowledge of the ramifications of all the theological systems as well as the false “faiths,” Dr. Ramsey for eighteen years has been studying the Scriptures against the back-ground of an experience of the fulness of the Holy Spirit which transformed his own life and ministry. The result is that from all over the land have come insistent calls that he should put into print some of the results of this study which has given a new Bible to scores of ministers and other Christian workers where the message has been spoken.
Accordingly, Dr. Ramsey is hoping soon to prepare leaflets that will discuss such questions as “What is Sin?” “The Body of Sin: Who has It?” “The Old Man: Who is He?” “The Law of Sin: Who Obeys It?” “The Carnal Mind: What Is It?” “Is Romans Seven Christian?” “Is First John One Eight for Christians?” Others will deal with the conflict of “flesh and Spirit,” and the question whether a Christian has two natures, and it is planned later to issue a brief exposition of Romans. The studies in this little volume necessarily deal with some of these questions but as far as possible I have sought to avoid encroaching upon the distinctive contribution that Dr. Ramsey will bring in the careful exegesis of these Scriptures, and the scientific handling of the psychology and ethics that are involved as well as the theology.
To Dr. Ramsey I am indebted for a number of the changes in phraseology, but most of all for the glad confirmation that the truths so self evident in the Scriptures, but so obscured in the writings of men, do rest upon an irrefutable theology, an exegesis of Scripture that cannot be gainsaid. It is this that has given courage to speak plainly on some vital points that need clearing up. And it is a matter for encouragement to every humble student of the Word that without the equipment of a specially gifted mind and a scientific training, it is possible to arrive at both the understanding and experience of the simple plan of salvation from sin.
Shall we also remember as these pages are read that while the Holy Spirit does use human teachers to help us to know His truth, it is our responsibility to make the truth our own by seeing it in the Word for ourselves. Let us have nothing in our experience or our understanding of salvation merely as a result of what any man has said or written regarding the Word of God: let us have a glad original experience of Christ through searching for ourselves whether these things are so.
June 19, 1920.