A SAVIOUR FROM SIN

'Thou shalt call His name Jesus; for it is He that shall ■ave His people from their sins.'—Matt. i. 21.

'Ye know that He was manifested to take away sins; and in Him is no sin. Whosoever ahideth in Him sinneth not.'— 1 John iii. 5, 6.

IT is sin that is the cause of our misery. It is sin that provoked God, and brought His curse upon man. He hates sin with a perfect M^'i. u?i hatred, and will do everything to root it out.ⁱ Iim^erLf(i^v-^4' It is to take away sin that God gave His Son, Ei*";. a 27; t^nat Jesus gave Himself.² It belongs to God to joh?-ujI-l^{4; i} set us free, not only from punishment and curse, i p&.Tif-is! fro^m disquietude and terror, but from sin itself.⁸ &aVi' ⁱ You know that He was manifested that He might take away our sins. Let us receive the thought deep into our hearts: it is for God to take away our sins from us. The better we apprehend this, the more blessed shall our life be.

All do not receive this. They seek chiefly to be freed from the consequences of sin, from fear »cka^Erru. and darkness, and the punishment that sin brings.4 Sifittiv.!ⁱ-Just on this account they do not come to the true rest of salvation. They do not understand

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that to save is to free from sin. Let us hold it fast. Jesus saves through taking away sin. Then we shall learn two things.

The first is to come to Jesus with every sin.ⁱ »«* «i

,r Luke vil. 88,

The sin that still attacks and overmasters you, joh-_n ⁷ViiL u! after that you have given yourself over to the ^vLord, must not make you lose heart. There must also be no endeavour merely in your own strength to take away and overcome sin. Bring every sin to Jesus. He has been ordained by God to take away sin. He has already brought it to nought upon the cross, and broken its power.² It is His work, it is His desire to set* you free from it. O learn then always to come to Jesus with every sin. Sin is your deadly foe: if you confess it to Jesus, and surrender it to Him, you shall certainly overcome it.⁸ «j Learn to believe this firmly: this is the Tew!u:V * second point. Understand that Jesus, Jesus Himself, is the Saviour from sin. It is not you that must overcome sin with the help of Jesus, but Jesus Himself: Jesus in you.⁴ If you»DeuLtiiLi7.

^{J J} i8; Ps. xliv. 4,

would thus become free from sin, if you would Ij. w^u^r;

enjoy full salvation, let it be the one endeavour of *'

your life to stand always in full fellowship with

Jesus. Wait not till you enter into temptation

ere you have recourse to Jesus. But let your

life beforehand be always through Jesus. Let

His nearness be your one desire; Jesus saves

from sin; to have Jesus is salvation from sin.⁶ G^^:ot_ij^t- $i

O that we could indeed rightly understand this ! TMV^Iw.^i,i Jesus will not merely save from sin as a work that He will from time to time do in us, but He will give it as a blessing through Himself tc us iand in us.ⁱ When Jesus fills me, when Jesus

John Xv. 4, 6;'

i^BLw.ui is all for me, sin has no hold on me: 'He that abideth in Him sinneth not.'

Yes: sin is driven out and kept out only through the presence of Jesus. It is Jesus, Jesus Himself, that, through His giving Himself to me and His living in me, is salvation from sin.

Precious Lord, let Thy light stream over me, and let it become still clearer to my soul, that Thou, Thou Thyself, art my salvation. To have Thee, Thee, with me, in me—this keeps sin out. Teach me to bring every sin to Thee; let every sin drive me into a closer alliance with Thee. Then shall Thy Jesus-name become truly my salvation from sin. Amen.

1. See of what moment it is that the Christian should always grow in the knowledge of sin The sin that l do not know, l cannot bring to Jesus. The sin that l do not bring to Him is not taken out of me.

2. To know sin better there are required:

The constant prayer, 'Examine me:' make known to me my transgression and my sin (Job xiii. 23; Ps. cxxxix. 23, 24);

A tender conscience that is willing to be conoinced of sin through the Spirit, as He also uses the conscience for this end;

The oery humble surrender to the word, to think concerning sin only as God thinks.

3. The deeper knowledge of sin will be found in these results:

That we shall see to be sin things which preoiously we did not regard ln this light;

That we shall perceioe more the exceedingly sinful, the detestabl* character of sin (Rom. oil. 13);

That with the ooercoming of external tins we become all the more encouraged ooer the deep sinfulness of our nature, of the enmity of our flesh against God. Then we glue up all hope of being or of doing anything good, and we are turned wholly to lioe in faith through the Spirit.

4. 0 let us thank God oery heartily that Jesus ls a Saoiour from sin. The power that sin has had ooer us, Jesus now has. The place that sin has taken in the heart, Jesus will now take. * The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made us free from the law of sin and death,'