“I do not believe what you say. I have listened to good preachers for many a day, and I never heard any of them speak like this. I feel puzzled.”
The person who spoke these words was a mild-looking woman. She unmistakably had life in Christ, but of liberty in Him she knew nothing.
“I have only to repeat,” said the Christian to whom she spoke, “that though sin is IN you, it no longer rests ON you. Now, remember these two little words for the rest of your life, IN and ON. Your own nature, the flesh, remains unchanged; in you—that is, in your flesh—dwells no good thing; but on you God’s eternal favor rests without shade or cloud; ‘for the Lord hath laid on Him (Christ) the iniquity of us all’ (Isa. 53:6), and as Christ now is, so are you in this world (1 John 4:17). No sin rests on you, for He has borne it all.”
“It makes me happy to listen to you, but if I do wrong—say, fall into some sin—I do not think I could be a saved soul at all then. I know some people that I thought were Christians, but they got into what was wrong, and now they do not seem to be Christians at all. And this I am afraid for myself.”
“My friend, you are making a great mistake. To walk here as Christ walked, is the Christian’s standard and aim. But you are confusing Christ’s work FOR you and the Holy Spirit’s work IN you. I gave you two little words to remember, and now let me ask you to keep these other two, FOR and IN, also in your heart and mind. The work of Christ for you is a finished work; with His dying lips He pronounced it so. But the Holy Spirit’s work IN you is progressive, going on in you day by day; and if you grieve the Holy Spirit, the sanctifying work will be greatly hindered.
In the first you have neither hand nor act, nor part. Christ alone was the actor in the scene; and He completely finished that work, and satisfied and glorified God by the wondrous death of the cross FOR you. But regarding the second, the Holy Spirit’s work IN you, you bear a responsible part. Your relationship, as a child, with your Father, can no more be touched or broken than your little daughter being disobedient would make her not your child because she was disobedient. These truths are not my thoughts; they would not be worth the time taken in telling, were they. They are God’s revealed mind in His Word, and you have but to accept and be happy, rejoicing in all that is yours in Christ.”