Whether I am in victory or not at this moment is simply a question as to whether or not I am appropriating the sufficient grace of the Lord Jesus for the needs of this very moment. My glorious privilege is so to appropriate that grace, now, and to do it moment by moment without any breaks. For His Grace IS sufficient. His Grace is “more than enough.”
CONTINUING AND GROWING IN VICTORY
A wrong start is one of the chief causes of failure in the Victorious Life. The first secret of continuing in victory, so to speak, is to begin. Nothing can be continued unless it is begun. To see clearly that the Victorious Life is a miracle of grace, and is wholly the work of the Lord Jesus, is necessary to this right beginning. Many attempt to live the life without fully getting rid of the element of self-effort.
Having begun right, the next thing is to continue as we began. The act of surrender and faith by which we entered into victory becomes the continued attitude of the life. Failure can come only through a slip in surrender or in faith.
It is possible to abide in Christ for victory without a break. The Word of God says that if a Christian sins he is to do certain things; it never says when a Christian sins. It is not for us to look back over our past record to consider whether we have sinned, or to see how long we have continued without a break; but in looking into the future we must expect to be kept from sinning or we are not trusting the sufficient grace of Christ; and that means we are not at the present moment in victory.
Along with this expectation of continued victory must go the realization that at any moment we may fall into sin: “let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall,” is the warning that immediately precedes the glorious promise of First Corinthians 10:13 of God’s full provision for victory over every temptation.
Suppose, then, we should fall into sin after entering into the Victorious Life? Instant and full restoration after failure is God’s plan for the Christian who sins and thus breaks the perfect abiding in the Lord. “In the moment of defeat, shout Victory!” and claim your full privileges in Christ.
But does not this make light of sin? Any other course makes light of sin. This course sees sin to be such an abominable thing in God’s sight that nothing but the blood of the Lord Jesus poured out in expiation can avail to meet it. And if the blood of Jesus meets it, it is an insult to God to attempt to add anything else to that perfect atonement. Being sorry for sin for a period is an unconscious form of atonement by self effort.