I LOSE, HE WINS

LETTING HIM GAIN THE VICTORY OVER MY ANTAGONISM

 "He has suffered being tempted, and now He is able to rescue." (Heb. 2:18)

"Submit thyself unto God; resist the devil, and he will flee from thee." (James 4:7)

There is a Gospel message for us in Hebrews. "He has suffered being tempted, and now He is able to rescue." (Heb. 2:18) How can He aid? I can only answer this in sentences. Given the soul that yields to Him, what are the methods by which He aids that soul in the hour of temptation?

            First, He cleanses the nature; second, He restores that soul to its true environment, and makes it conscious of God; and then—let me put it simply, I do not want anyone to miss this, as the highest thought of this article—then He, by His Spirit, takes up His abode within, and fights the battle and gets the victory. When the enemy comes in like a flood, He lifts up His standard against him. And so, when I am victorious over the assaults of spirit­ual antagonism, it is not because I am strong, but because I have given the key of the citadel into the hands of the thorn-crowned King, and He locks the door and Himself holds it; and when the enemy seeking spiritual devastation comes against me to assault my soul, and blight my life, and mar my character, it is not I that live, but Christ that lives in me; and He repeats the con­quest of the wilderness, and scatters my foes like chaff before the wind.

            Thy secret place of victory, for my soul’s understanding, is not the place where I shall assert my strength; it is the place where I shall assert the strength of my Master, and put Him as my shield for evermore to quench the fiery darts of the evil one, and make Him the Captain of my salva­tion to strike my blow for me, and get for me my victory. The whole story of victory over spiritual antagonism is clearly put in these words: "Submit thyself unto God; resist the devil, and he will flee from thee." (James 4:7) That is how I should have been doing this in the past. God’s Spirit was waiting for the day I was able to understand this. Is it your day? I sincerely hope so.