Ever remember that justification goes before sanctification, both in doctrine and experience and consciousness! The unjustified man has no claim on God for sanctifying grace. It is as being under no condemnation that we will walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. (Romans 8:1) Our entire redemption is a redemption both by price and by power. But it is as redeemed by price that we have any right and title or claim to obtain the power to resist our enemies. It is not as a criminal, either really so or consciously so, it is not as an apostate, and outcast, an alien that you can receive grace and strength from God. It can only be as a friend, a son, justified freely and adopted in the Beloved. The entire restoration of our relationship to God must precede the restoration of your heart. (Note: And a belief in and an awareness of that restoration in Christ Jesus!!!. RF)
Now this leads you into growing gratitude and praise for a free justification, a free reconciliation, a free adoption. With all the plagues of my heart-notwithstanding them all, burdened and blackened with them all-I am free as a sinner, by faith alone, without one single qualification or good thing to show, to accept Christ, to enter into Christ and stand steadfast in Him, God's righteous Servant, God's Beloved Son. Sharing this position with Him, sharing His relation to God, in Him and with Him, righteous and a son, justified and adopted, I am also counted God's righteous servant, and beloved son, with all my Holy Sovereign's approval resting on me and all my Heavenly Father's Love. It is from this position, with all its glorious securities and immunities, all its privileges, all its hopes and prospects, I am placed in circumstances now to wage a hopeful, healthful, victorious war with all my plagues, and sins, and foes. When we, by faith, abide in Christ, sharing His position and drawing on His Grace, we then act in His Authority and by His power. In a word, we then act in His name, as one with Him.
Now this leads you into growing gratitude and praise for a free justification, a free reconciliation, a free adoption. With all the plagues of my heart-notwithstanding them all, burdened and blackened with them all-I am free as a sinner, by faith alone, without one single qualification or good thing to show, to accept Christ, to enter into Christ and stand steadfast in Him, God's righteous Servant, God's Beloved Son. Sharing this position with Him, sharing His relation to God, in Him and with Him, righteous and a son, justified and adopted, I am also counted God's righteous servant, and beloved son, with all my Holy Sovereign's approval resting on me and all my Heavenly Father's Love. It is from this position, with all its glorious securities and immunities, all its privileges, all its hopes and prospects, I am placed in circumstances now to wage a hopeful, healthful, victorious war with all my plagues, and sins, and foes. When we, by faith, abide in Christ, sharing His position and drawing on His Grace, we then act in His Authority and by His power. In a word, we then act in His name, as one with Him.
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